How do you use a Cleric/Illusionist effectively?

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I've always played tanks, but I'm trying something a little bit different this time around. I need some tactical advice on using a Cleric/Illusionist.

TIA

 

First off, I'm assuming you're soloing. If you aren't, just use others as your meatshie*cough* I mean tanks.

The illusionist is probably the best specialist mage to solo as. You loose necromancy, but necromany has few if any unique spells that you should be using. Your cleric abilities should make up for the loss of hold and control undead, you should have plenty of AoE spells to make up for skull trap and Horrid Wilting, and you shouldn't really be relying on ghost armor or spirit armor for protection.

One tactic is to use summoned monsters as tanks. These will be basically anything you can summon, more powerful prefered, but you'll probably want all you can get since you can only summon a few at a time and most of them aren't that powerful in pairs. The downsides of this are that you loose spell slots you could be using for more protection/attack spells and you have to be more carefull of your AoE spells or your allies will turn into enemies.

The second tactic is to rely on your protective spells to let you survive in melee. The first and formost of these will be stoneskin, you will come to love stoneskin if you don't already. Other useful ones are armor of faith, whirling blades, protection from whatever type of weapon you're facing at the time, shield (against magic missle), and any spell protections. The up side of this is that you don't have to be so careful about your AoE spells since you'll probably be protected and you want to kill everything else. The down side is you need to pay careful attention to all of your protections and mage/melee combos can be troublesome. Mages and the like will dispel your protections fast, so you'll need some kind of shield against that, there are plenty, but that means fewer spells for combat.

On the up side, your clerical spells give you some nice choices, healing yourself, magic weapons, lower enemy saving throws, some powerful summons and protections, protection from status effects, and of course the wonderful sequencer/contingency combos that can be made between mage and cleric spells.

All in all, I'd say melee is going to be your bigest problem, so focus on that. You should have good saving throws against most spells, but your poor armor class will need to be guarded.

[EDIT]
Oh, and I almost forgot one more spell that you may find useful from time to time. Tenser's Transformation! When you cast this spell, your HP doubles (damage comes first from extra), AC drops by 4 (max of -10), and all attacks are made as if you were a fighter of your wizard's level, +2 to combat and damage. Unfortunately, you can't cast any more spells until this one's worn off or been dispelled, not that you'd really want to, but this means any extra boost you want (spell protections, extra armor, status protections, whirling blades, summonings, etc) have to be cast beforehand. I don't remember if your weapon is replaced by a +2 weapon (thus the +2 THAC0 and damage) or if these bonuses are on top of anything your weapon gives you, so some kind of enchanted weapon spell beforehand may not be a bad idea, either.

[ September 16, 2006, 18:44: Message edited by: NOG (No Other Gods) ]

 

Sanctuary+Blade barrier is evil. Mirror Image and Mislead provide neat protection. Holy Smite is very effective. Use sequencers for evil things such as Greater Malison+Doom and something evil like Chaos or slow.

Time stop plus harm means one dead enemy for granted. That is too wicked. Your PI also can cast TS from scrolls, but he can not use Harm as they can not attack. It matters not, just empty your spell book and priest scroll on mobs and have fun!

 

It's better than that because the Illusionist does get ghost armor. It's conjuration, not necromancy. Still not the most useful spell.

I agree with everything else here. Always carry a good set of armour around. Usually you won't want to wear it, but in a lot of situations you'll know that you won't be using your mage spells and can put it on.
[edit] And you can use wands and sequencers when you're wearing armor.[/edit]

Get a selection of shields that provide a variety of immunities.

Animate dead skeletons may seem like weak summons, but they have two huge advantages
1) They are almost immune to piecing damage. When you're up against a archer with a short sword these guys will eat him for lunch
2) If they do go hostile you can blow them up by turing them.
But agree that you want lots of summons.

The beauty of Tenser's is that you will have better hp and THAC0 than a normal mage and can wear armor after you've cast the spell. If you do "Holy Power", "Righteous Magic", and "Tenser's Transforamtion", you'll become a melee beast once you throw your armour on. Add in Draw Upon Holy Might from your Bhaal Powers for extra death and destrcution. All three of these can go in a spell trigger so that you can go into butt kicking mode instantly.

Three Holy Smites in a sequencer is a thing of beauty.

Finally, one of your most useful spells is sanctuary. Because you can buff and heal yourself while under sanctuary it's better than invisiblity. As you may know you can also open and close doors and chests without revealing yourself. Stick one of these in a minor sequencer whenever you think you might be in combat. It's a get out of jail free card (until your enemies start casting true sight )

 

Cleric lvl 6 Aerial Servant is the BEST summon you will get till lvl 15 at which point your Skeleton Knights will take over.

Always have summons active. They are your first line of defense when playing a Cleric/Mage. Atleast, until you get your shiny new SotM.

At lower levels, summon, cast buffs like Haste, Defensive Harmony, Champion's Strength (on your Aerial servant) etc and watch them go to town! While they do that, cast spells intelligently to harm your enemies without turning your summons against you.

Frankly speaking, Illusionist/Clerics get really overpowered once they hit lvl 6 spells. When you get Mislead, all you do is go invisible, cast Spell Immunity Divination and nuke everything to hell!

 

Skeleton knights? What are those? never heard of them.

Oh and whats an SotM?

 

Skeleton Knights are the bigger ones yeah? But I didn't know you could summon them at that level ...

SotM = Staff of the Magi, a VERY useful weapon for mages.

Btw, why is the aerial servant such a high level!?! He always last soOoOo long in combat and does huge damage!!!

 

You may also consider playing a non-human and multiclassing cleric/mage. You don't get the extra spell slot for your mage spells, but it allows 'infinite' progression, as opposed to dual-classing out of illusionist at an appropriate level (10-15). This means mage AND cleric HLAs, more high level mage spells, etc.

As for Skeletal Knights, I think summon skeletons has a chance of summoning those dependant on your level, so the higher level you are, the more likely it will summon a few of those. I'm not sure, though.

 

You get guaranteed Skelly Knights after caster lvl 15, irrespective of Mage or Cleric.

And when you said Illusionist/Cleric, I assumed you were multiclassing out of Gnome race.

Are you dual-classing? Wow...you're going to have a tough time then.

 

I agree. I can't imagine that Klorox was planning an illusionist to cleric dual rather than the multiclass. As a solo dual it has almost nothing to recommend it.

Anyway the gnome multi is (IMHO) definitely better than the half elf multi. I'll take +5 saving throw against spells and wands over necromancy spells any day of the week.

 

Thanks for the help guys, sorry I haven't responded in a while.

I'm playing a multiclassed Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, and I plan on using a full party.