Divine Caster Strategies/Spells

Frogman

My Divine Caster is going to be a full Cleric (possibly a Priest of Helm or Lathander). My plan is to use him for melee when necessary, but for his primary responsibility to be casting divine spells. Now, I've heard people on this forum rave about the power of divine casters, but i've never really understood how to use them effectively (in IWD or BG/2) Would love some divine strategies!

(Disclosure: I understand what the spells do, I just don't have a good idea of which ones are the best choices, the best situations for using them, or spells that work great in conjunction with each other. For example, one forum-goer suggested a Sanctuary/Blade Barrier strategy that sounded pretty awesome! That post inspired this thread.)

If it's helpful I'll post my 5 man party below:
Dwarf Barbarian - 2-hand axes
Halfling Fighter/Thief - Short Swords/Hammers
Half-Orc Cleric (or cleric kit)
Half-Elf Skald
Human Sorcerer

JuliusBorisov

I can't say about IWDEE much because we must see how exactly spells are implemented there, how BGEE spells and IWD spells do correlate with each other.

In terms of BG(1 and 2)EE spells I think this thread is very useful: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30931/a-ranking-of-the-divine-spells-now-discussing-level-7-spells#latest

elminster

Anything that boosts your combat stats is always a safe bet. Obviously there is Draw Upon Holy Might, but Icewind Dale also has spells like Recitation and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful that also can be pretty handy.

Shield of Lathander/Greater Shield of Lathander can also be useful for the first few rounds of a fight if you scout out enemies beforehand.

ifupauline

If you plan to go melee with it I suggest priest of Helm because they have seeking sword +4 weapon and can deal consequent amount of damage tripling your number of attack per round x3 with tacho bonus, coupled with righteous magic and draw upon holy might. I think those are the spells you need to remember for melee damage.

Now Cleric have awesome buff such as remove fear death ward and chaotic command that allow you to deal with mages and traps easily.

I still think that cleric's kits are too "shy" to make it worth playing them as single class. On top of that they lvl up quickly and get lvl 7 spells in to time. note that their strongest spells (by that I mean useful) are lvl 4 5 6 not mentioning lvl 1 sanctuary spell that is a "poof im not here anymore" with absolute no drawback.

In bg2 a cleric/mage or cleric/fighter are destruction incarnate because of abusive items such as robe of vecna, crom faeyr, amulet of power, ring of gaxx, staff of magi...


But if you persist and really want a single class i think priest of helm is the only one relevant here coze seeking sword is really useful at some point when you need a >+3 enchantment weapon

Frogman

bengoshi said:

I can't say about IWDEE much because we must see how exactly spells are implemented there, how BGEE spells and IWD spells do correlate with each other.

In terms of BG(1 and 2)EE spells I think this thread is very useful: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30931/a-ranking-of-the-divine-spells-now-discussing-level-7-spells#latest

This thread is very helpful!