An all-cleric party - is it viable?

SharGuidesMyHand

I've been toying with the idea of running an all-cleric (single, multi, and/or dual) themed party, perhaps something along the lines of this:

half-elf ranger/cleric
half-orc fighter/cleric
dwarven priest of Tempus
elven priest of Talos
gnomish cleric/thief
gnomish cleric/illusionist

Has anyone here ever tried an all-cleric party? Should I be concerned that a situation may arise where it will be absolutely necessary for someone in my party to be able to use a non-blunt weapon?

joluv

People do solo Cleric runs. If you need to do slashing damage, you can just use Animate Dead or Conjure Animals. The Druid and Mage summons from your R/C and C/I give even more options.

FinneousPJ

I don't see why not.

Cheesebelly

Even single-class clerics would be viable to go through the whole game (or the Baldur's Gate games for that matter).
You see, the biggest fear you can have when playing these games is random super damaging traps or locks on chests, as well as instantly-killing spells. The flipside is - a cleric can easily counter all those. They got spells that can make you nearly immune to any form of elemental damage, they can protect themselves from fear, charm, hold person, chaos, level drain, finger of death, disintegrate - you name it.

Locked chests? No problem either, they can get their strength to 25 with a 12th level Cleric, or 9th level Half-orc cleric with 19 strength.

Blunt weapons shouldn't be a huge concern at all, I don't immediately recall any enemy being immune to them. Trolls could be tricky to kill at times, but there's more than enough resources around the game to take care of those buggers.

Honestly, the only issue that comes to mind could be petrification - but you got potions and scrolls for protection reasons. And if you go multi-class and have a mage, that is solved with spells.


You should be absolutely fine

T2av

Try a Cleric of helm lvl 11→Theif dual. You will not be disappointed.
Backstabbing/sneak attack with seeking sword+4 for your slashing.. A blunt for day to day stuff. Sit in full plate, with sheild.. Incredibly good AC, sanctuary, traps... He's a monster

joluv

Cheesebelly said:

Locked chests? No problem either, they can get their strength to 25 with a 12th level Cleric, or 9th level Half-orc cleric with 19 strength.

With a pure-class Cleric, there would probably be some locks you couldn't open; strength can only get you up to 80 for "Open Doors," and you wouldn't be able to use Cynicism.

Cheesebelly

@joluv oh god no, keep that thing away from me! The thing just won't shut up

joluv

@Cheesebelly: It's really handy in some runs. I only equip it long enough to cast Knock. Also, it's a little less annoying after upgrading, no?

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Nimran

I once tried a solo evil cleric playthrough, and it was fun. I only stopped because the screen started bugging out on me. I guess my cleric was too awesome for the game to handle. Some enemies, such as the Shambling Mounds in TotLM, are immune to bludgeoning damage, but they have other vulnerabilities that you can exploit, such as being vulnerable to magic damage. A smart cleric player can overcome any challenge in the game.

OlvynChuru

An all-cleric team is totally viable. You could have them all cast Protection from Lightning on themselves then launch all their Glyphs of Warding without having to worry about damaging themselves with their own glyphs, for example.

One neat trick you can do with a gnome or halfling cleric is have them wear the Helm of the Trusted Defender, so they can cast Righteous Wrath of the Faithful and Greater Restoration without getting fatigued. Unfortunately, both of those races get -1 Wisdom, but I think it's still worth trying out. A gnome cleric/illusionist could also cast Haste without getting fatigued.

semiticgoddess

@OlvynChuru: I actually played a run of the original IWD with a party of gnomish cleric/illusionists using the Helm of the Trusted Defender. Righteous Wrath of the Faithful stacked before EE, and Haste doubled your attack rate instead of adding 1, so they were effectively fighters with constant-effect Greater Whirlwind Attack.

greenbeans8

Yes, choose a domain that compliments one and a half and detriments one with a full party it will be fun cast buffer spells on status afflictions and status afflictions on buffer spells. Like wearing sunglasses into a cave... and coming out over a cloudy night before it rains and a river is there.

Nifft

Just for variety, I'd probably do a Druid + 3 multi-class Clerics (Fighter / Thief / Illusionist).

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semiticgoddess

@subtledoctor: You've got the people for an Every God Ring right there.

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Wanderon

I think a combination of druids and clerics would be an interesting run as well - a group with 5 single class druid and cleric kits and a cleric/thief to handle traps perhaps.

Nifft

Wanderon said:

I think a combination of druids and clerics would be an interesting run as well - a group with 5 single class druid and cleric kits and a cleric/thief to handle traps perhaps.

Yeah that would be a VERY solid party.

Heck, just with the core game, you could do Shapeshifter plus Berserker > (Cleric or Druid) as the front-line, then an Avenger as your main caster and a Cleric / Thief or even Swashbuckler > Cleric as your trapmonkey.