Are cleric's offensive spells worth using?

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Okay, I'm playing with a pure cleric (Viconia) for the first time, and I was wondering if a clerics offensive spells are worth it. The healing and curing spells are great, but I use Aerie for that.
I'm keeping Viconia mainly because I need some offensive spells, but I need to know if they are worth it. Should I dump her and get Cernd, with his driuid versions of ovensive spells?

 

I never really used clerical offensive spells, at least not untill the higher levels. Now druids do have more offensive spells, and sometimes better ones such as Nature's Beauty, but clerics do get much better spells in, say, TOB such as [snip]. BTW, if you want a druid, Jaheira is probably a better choice. Just my opinion. Anyway, have fun.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't realize this was SoA.

[Well, you should have cleaned up then, not waited for me to remove your ToB spoilers.] -Tal

[ January 04, 2003, 09:57: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Here's the main offensive cleric spells I use:

Animate Dead - especially at high levels when you summon Skeletal Warriors
Slay Living - guaranteed to do damage, with extra chance of slaying. Add Doom for better luck.
Blade Barrier - walk up nice and close...
False Dawn / Sunray - wreaks havoc on undead.
Summon Earth/Fire elemental - big bodyguard.

Honorable mention goes to Poison, Harm, Fire Storm and Finger of Death.
Poison and Harm are all or nothing effects. (Harm depends on cleric's THAC0, so it's risky)
Finger of Death is a ranged version of Slay Living. Since you can only memorize a limited number of level 7 spells, I went for Sunray instead.
IIRC Fire Storm is the only cleric ranged mass damage spell. Use it if you don't have a mage.

 

Offensive clerical spell's are definately worth it, especially when you want to open or end a fight with a huge barrage of magic with the mages . Firestorm is a personal favourite of mine, specially as there's a couple of wands of it to be found. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because their spell's are mostly defensive/enhancing their offensive spell's should be overlooked.

Any summons they can use help make shields for your party, their damaging spell's are just as good as mages around that level and the undead specific sunray can cut through any vampires pretty quickly. That one's especially useful when you know you're about to go after the leeches .

 

Eh, if clerics* concerned it's better to concentrate on spell power-ups for physical combat. Champion's strength + righteous magic + draw upon holy might = better thac0 and AC than tanks and loads of hit points.

*edited. I didn't mean druids

[ January 04, 2003, 21:45: Message edited by: chevalier des Trois-Tours ]

 

I cannot stress how valuable a Druid's Insect Plague is. Panics, does continous damage, and utterly prevents spellcasting. Turns Priests and Mages, and just about most people into pure duds. It's very useful.

On the top of my head, I can't think of too many useful offensive Druid spells. Summon Swarm is a watered-down Insect Plague which affects only one person, and he may save vs. spell to avoid it. Druids also have Flame Strike and Earthquake, which are nice, but aren't up to par with what the Cleric has.

A Cleric's Holy Smite is very cool. It's like a Fireball that doesn't affect (most of) your party members. Plus Viconia can cast it anyways, even though she's evil. Gate is also a very useful spell; rips just about most enemies to shreds - and the Fear effect it emnates is very useful. Just make sure you have Protection 10' Radius with you.

All in all, a Cleric does a better job in smiting. He/she has stuff like Holy Smite and Flase Dawn. Not to mention other spells to make him/her a pretty decent front-line fighter. The only thing you'll be missing out on is a few nice spells like Insect Plague and Nature's Beauty.

 

Flame Blade is good for killing trolls if you have no other source of fire. Not sure, but the fire damage may hit through stoneskin too.

Silence 15' radius is ok. When it works, most mages counter with Vocalize. So instead, cast it on summons or yourself, and then stand next to the mage. The 15' radius part of the spell silences them too, and they won't use Vocalize.

And why would anyone memorize the level 7 spell Confusion?

 

My favourite tactics involved clerics. It was so funny to kill mind flayers with blade barrier and sanctuary. 40 damage and nearly no response.

 

Now blade barrier and sanctuary is what nitpicks would call cheesy. Anyway, clerics are a very effective class in BG-2. I used blade barrier, smithe evil (great), poison, dolorous decay, flame strike for example.
Also very effective is the cleric's combat support magic, like defensive harmony, draw upon holy might and the like.

The cleric's summoning spells are very powerful too, I just donm't use them because *I* want to do the job myself. I'm a little old fashioned there.

As for druid spells, creeping death and insect plague clearly are outstanding spells.

[ January 09, 2003, 02:12: Message edited by: Ragusa ]