Dr. Pee-Pee's Wee Little Evil Cleric Essay

[Lunicant]

By Luorath A God's Guide to Unleashing the Powers of a God

 

 

Introduction

 

Much like their good counterparts, evil clerics are a great class to RP and PK with, for newbies and experienced players alike. They are the most celebrated and powerful priests of Thera, as their link to their Deity is their strength. The cleric in general is possibly one of the most well rounded classes, having the ability to create food and water, heal and cast protective spells, as well as some offensive ones. Evil clerics are very much like the good ones, while very different at the same time. Their skills are more offensively oriented, with spells like minister and path of deceit. Being of evil align, they have the ability to follow Deities that good clerics cannot, making for some interesting varieties of the holy hands and divine intervention spells.

 

 

Creation

 

Remember that not all clerics are designed to be played the same way, and your choice of stats should reflect this. Some will choose to beat their opponents senseless in physical combat while others will take the route of withering their enemies away with crippling spells. STR: This will determine how accurately and how hard you fit your enemies. If you are looking to beat up on your opponent with your weapon rather than your spells, boost this up. INT: Clerics live and die by their spells. A higher INT means less practices spent to learn your spells and skills. It would be extremely wise to get this stat as high as possible, as you will get more mana per rank. WIS: Again, like INT, more WIS means more mana per rank, and determines how many practices you will get per rank. This is a very important stat for clerics. DEX: Regardless of class, DEX is a very important stat to avoid damage. A higher DEX will improve your AC, and will improve your chances in avoiding physical attacks altogether. CON: A high CON translates into more hp per rank. This stat is important for clerics, but should not be as crucial to max as INT and WIS.

 

 

Races The choice of race that you choose is crucial to the type of cleric that you will be playing. While some races, for example the drow, should focus more on spells, other races such as the fire giant find their strength in their physical fighting.

 

Human: Average stats, average cleric. The perfect balance of melee and spell casting. While they will be able to wield powerful weapons that other races cannot, they do not have a tremendous amount of mana, and therefore are not designed for supremely long, mana-consuming bouts. Yet, they have no exp cost whatsoever, and will find their journey to their pinnacle to be a quick one in comparison. A prime choice for new players.

 

Drow: Undoubtedly the most popular choice for evil clerics. Below average STR and CON mean they that will not specialize in physical combat, and will have rather low hp. Yet, their heightened INT and DEX more than make up for it. They have a ridiculous amount of mana, and are quite hard to hit. And they have autosneak to boot. They have a high exp cost, however, making them a prime choice for more experienced players.

 

Duergar: Very similar to human as far as stats are concerned. Their INT is lower, and will receive less mana per rank as a result, but their CON is higher, giving them more hp in the long run. They are very highly resistant to magic, and with their ability to dig, are extremely tricky to kill.

 

Fire giant: This choice of race might be the most interesting. They are extremely stupid and not dexterous, with low INT, WIS, and DEX. As a result, their fighting prowess might not always lie within their spell. They are the strongest race in the realms, coupled with a rather high CON. With their bonus in fire-based weapons, and the innate mastery in enhanced damage, they can hit for some very nice damage. This combination is not for the faint of heart due to the lack of practices and mana, and is not always recommended for beginning players.

 

 

Skills/spells

 

Many of the evil cleric's skills and spells are fairly straight forward, and therefore I will only talk about those that some people might be unfamiliar with, or that I believe has special importance.

 

Armor/shield/stone skin: When cast, these three spells improve your AC. It is a good idea to have these up at ALL times. Stone skin does add in some protection vs. physical damage.

 

Protection: To an evil cleric, this spell will not only add a small amount to your saves vs. spells, but will also provide some protection versus good aligned mobs and characters. Therefore, keep this spell up at all times as well.

 

Protective shield: This spell is a MUST. While this spell is up, you cannot be bashed, bodyslammed, grappled, etc. If your cleric ever gets locked with these lagging skills, then you can kiss one life goodbye. This spell must be kept up at all times.

 

Detect magic: Also a very important spell to have up at all times. With it, you can see what spells your group mates might be lacking that would aid them, and also to see what spells your opponents might be keeping up when fighting you.

 

Frenzy: This is more or less like the equivalent of a warrior's berserk skill. It will give you a very nice boost to hitroll and damroll, but at a decent cost of AC. For you physical combatants, this is quite a useful spell, but perhaps less so for the spell-casters.

 

Spell turning: This is a very interesting spell. It will deflect spells cast onto you, and will even sometimes send them back to the caster. It is of course only useful versus mages or other communers. The upkeep of this spell is quite high, however, but in general it is well worth it. It does not last very long and is quite mana expensive, however, so only keep this up if you are comfortable with the amount of reserve mana available to you.

 

Sanctuary: With protective shield, the most important spell of any mage or communer, greatly reducing any damage directly inflicted onto you. Keep this spell AT ALL TIMES.

 

Create food/create spring: Pretty straight forward. These will allow you to nourish yourself, allowing you to go and venture off from cities for long periods of time. Very basic, but also very important.

 

Bless arms: This spell is used to cast a blessing on a piece of equipment. The blessing can be useful, but it costs 100 mana to use, and it lags for a very long time. Whether you want to spend practice points into this or not is your decision.

 

Cure poison/cure disease/cure blindness: These three spells are extremely important to a cleric. They cure poison, plague, and blindness respectively. Though it might not be so important to master these three outright, they absolutely must be learnt.

 

Summon: Extremely useful for summoning mobs to you for (equipment/vials/scrolls/etc) and for choosing the combat locale versus an opponent. Mobs can be summoned from anywhere; characters can only be summoned when in your area. The spell is, however, quite mana-heavy, so do not dwell incredibly on it if you're having bad luck.

 

Word of recall: When successful, this spell will send you back to your temple. On average, the lag penalty for the use of this spell is quite enormous, and could really put you in jeopardy if you are attacked in your temple directly after the recall. Only use this spell if you must, otherwise, walk. Furthermore, find ways to master this spell. I will not explain how to do that exactly, but there are methods to prevent you from returning to your temple. Mastering this is important since it will be used more often than not in a life and death situation, and failing it can mean certain death.

 

Faerie fire/faerie fog: While casting this spell on your victim does lower their AC, it is more commonly used as a method of preventing thieves and ninjas from hiding, and rangers and druids from camouflaging. Mastering these are not very paramount.

 

Dispel magic: Without a doubt one of the cleric's most important spells. Cast this on your opponents, and watch all their beneficial spells suddenly disappear before their eyes. This spell is a MUST to master, as a higher proficiency will give you a greater chance of success.

 

Curse: Casting this on your target will prevent them from recalling to their temple. Also, it will lower their hitroll, and make them more vulnerable to spells. This spell is a great way to open a fight, and it is recommended that you master it.

 

Calm: This is an area attack, and therefore will initiate you into combat with mobs or characters that you fail against. When successful, this will render your victim to a rather weakened state, lowering both hitroll and damroll. Also, it will calm any mobs aggressive towards you for a limited time. Use this spell only if you feel that you need to, and be careful not to do it in a room with other characters or mobs.

 

Isolate: With this spell, a cleric can separate a target from his pets. This spell is a terror to classes such as necromancers or rangers, who rely heavily on their pets. Get this spell as high as possible; doing so will increase your chances of success.

 

Dispel good: This is a decent spell that will inflict a good amount of damage on good aligned characters. Yet, with the ability to later cast path of deceit, dispel good becomes somewhat secondary in my view.

 

Path of deceit: This is the cornerstone offensive spell of evil clerics. It does very heavy damage to a single target, and has a chance to land a poison, plague, or blasphemy. Path of deceit is the spell that you want to be using in a pk situation. Whatever you do, master this. The damage and effects of this spell are pk based, which means that with a higher pk record, it will be more devastating. So, now you have more initiative to kill people.

 

Minister: Evil clerics are perhaps best known for this spell. When successful, your opponent will experience a very nasty lag and mana loss at the start of every hour. This will be your most important spell in the sense that this is the only way that you, as a cleric, will be able to lag your opponent in any way, shape, or form. This spell will make fighting, chasing, and fleeing much more simple. I also highly recommend mastering this as soon as possible.

 

Holy hands/divine intervention: Both of these spells depend on your chosen religion. They will not be discussed here, as it is your responsibility to figure them out.

 

 

What to wear: 

 

This really depends on what kind of cleric you're playing. Let's take the drow and the fire giant for argument's sake. A fire giant will rely almost entirely on its physical prowess, and their mastery at enhanced damage as well as their bonus at fire weapons will give that to them for certain. I say that in such a case, treat your cleric like you would treat a warrior. Equip yourself with nothing but hitroll and damroll gear. You want to get the job done quickly and efficiently, any less would be unacceptable. A drow however will rely on their enormous mana pool. I would recommend focusing on your AC and saves, especially to protect yourself vs. maledictive (blasphemy). Drow are in for a much longer fight than fire giants, so many more bad things can happen to you. Avoid it with that kind of gear. As a human or duergar, the choice is really up to you. You could try going all-out damage, or instead go for protection, or somewhere down the middle. It's up to you, really.

 

 

How to PK with an evil cleric

 

Well, you have all your skills and spells, and it's time to put them to use. Remember that a cleric is a very tough opponent to kill, with all its protection, healing, and escape spells, while also having very nasty afflictive, maledictive, and mental powers.

 

Items that you should have in your inventory: - several gyvel potions (at least 4) - 2 flight scrolls - 1 potion of recall - 1 teleport pill (try not to use this if not necessary) - a few vials of sanctuary - a sack with tons of gyvels, flight scrolls, potions of recall, etc.

 

Spells that you should have up: - protective shield - sanctuary - protection - stone skin - detect invis - invisibility - shield - armor - bless - detect magic - frenzy - spell turning - pass door (optional) - divine intervention (optional) - holy hands (optional) Have these up? Good.

 

Now for battle tactics. In my experience with a cleric, I have found it to my advantage to fight over water. This way, you have eliminated the chance of being dirt kicked. A blinded cleric can cause you problems at times. If you are fortunate enough, try to summon your opponent over water. If you are having trouble doing so, don't bother too much. Summon is very mana draining, and a cleric without mana isn't a cleric at all. Open the fight with a curse spell, unless your opponent has pets. In such a case, isolate them, and then curse them. By cursing them, they can no longer recall from battle, and the chances of landing your following spells increase.

 

Once you have landed the curse, hit them with a minister. Most people will flee from battle at this point for certain, yet without the ability to recall, and with the heavy lag at the top of every hour, they aren't going anywhere fast. If they are still hitting you for more damage than you're comfortable with, hit them with the calm spell: that should make them much weaker. When all of these spells have landed, it is time to bring on the path of deceit. This will usually hit them for heavy damage, and could land either a poison, plague, or blasphemy. With nowhere to recall, getting lagged by your minister, and being poisoned or plagued, they are practically at your mercy. Do not get frustrated if it does not work as easily as it is made out to be. Landing these spells properly takes a good amount of quick reaction time and patience, which will only be acquired through experience.

 

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. If at any moment you are hit with a poison, plague, or blindness (especially plague and blindness), flee out of your opponent's scan range (7 squares), and cure that ailment. Plague will drain your mana and movement, and that is something that a cleric does not want. Clerics do not have blind fighting, therefore being blinded can be deadly. In the case that you are dispelled of all your spells, run away.

 

A cleric must have its spells up in order to function properly, and without them you are extremely vulnerable. The most important spells to recast in such a scenario are protective shield and sanctuary. If you have the time, cast the others. Finally, your worst enemy: blasphemy. If a shaman or cleric hits you with this, run. Run far away. You will not be able to commune any longer, hence bye-bye cleric. Boost yourself with maledictive saves to avoid this spell from ever landing. Your link to your Deity is your lifeblood, do not risk losing it.

 

 

End notes

 

Well that about covers the basics of the evil cleric. Of course, this is not the be-all and end-all of how an evil cleric can or should be played, so try different strategies if they work for you. Clerics are tons of fun, and very hard to kill. Go ahead and roll one then. What are you waiting for?