This is an old, but not often played cleric of mine.... he's also the only THW user in my stables. If I'm extremely careful and lucky I can take down the occasional krolvin warfarer with him if I have to (his highest kill is a level 27 warf) and I don't generally have trouble hunting with him yet.... but he'll likely end up hunting in the Karzja Jungle at some point so I'll need him at the top of his game (doubly so since he's a mutant build).

I tend to use 214 or 301 to disable before swinging a maul til they're dead.... though his AS and DS are high enough I've been able to get away with stance dancing as long as I'm not caught in a swarm (usually when mana runs out). I'll also use Disarm against some critters (has 2 ranks in it) and he's wearing cuirbouilli (not sure if I want to go to brig eventually or not).

Lastly, I know he'll never be making chrisms of any kind, but I don't want to do anything that will prevent him from raising altogether.... I am happy to leave his SMC where it is indefinitely if the TPs can better be spent elsewhere to improve his combat going forward, though.

So.... any advice other then getting his Perception up to 1x (which is my next goal atm)?

(at level 21)
Skill Name	Current Current
	Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................	96 22
Combat Maneuvers...................	96 22
Two-Handed Weapons.................	99 23
Physical Fitness...................	96 22
Harness Power......................	93 21
Spirit Mana Control................	105 25
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........	93 21
Perception.........................	35 7
Climbing...........................	70 15
Swimming...........................	15 3
First Aid..........................	142 42
Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................	15
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................	10
Spell Lists
Cleric.............................	21

Starchitin, the OG

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

I did mid 30s to low 50s THW cleric in the Rest. Unbalance and 301 rather than 214, but not a lot of difference in approach. Arbalesters may still be a problem, in the days before 319 any ranged critter was bad news for a THW cleric.

I wouldn't think about dodge on any pure till you can't train another spell. Maybe 2x cap on a THW build? Still far, far away for me in the early 70s. (and probably not going any further because undead are my preferred target in general and even more so on clerics and the game has run out of undead hunting at that point)

You are going to need those CM ranks for AS. You don't yet, but you will.

I find 309 doesn't require spell aim if you disable the critter first. If you held it with 301 or 214 or stunned it with 302, you should be able to carve it up with 309 with your current training. You should be able to fit 1x spell aim in but I don't know how well 309 works as an opener with that training. I was actually 2x spell aim and swinging a THW at your level, but once I had to start pushing up my CM towards 1x training in SA had to stop and there came a point where it was too far below 2x to have even niche use and around 35-40 I got rid of it entirely.

The sooner you stop training MjS, the sooner 214 will stop being useful and the sooner you'll need to use cleric circle disablers on the living as well as the undead. However it should last you through slavers and its mostly undead after that. I couldn't touch necromancers. Maybe 320/309 can now, but nothing I had then could do more than scratch them.

"unless you can prevent them from casting, which this character prolly won't be able to do." -- Starchitin

You Am Cleric, why are you not using Silence/210?

.

"disarming them lowers their DS by more [than] I ever would have thought" -- ibid

Bring along a friendly Bard to use VibeChant.

I routinely think, "And what's the big deal?" about... well most enemies, because when they have No Weapon and also No Shield, they're typically not dishing out a whole heck of a lot.
To the extent nowadays that I actually am more concerned when I take a creatures weapon instead of their shield, simply because Shield Maneuvers are THAT good (against characters). This is particularly true in Reim, where absolutely everything can cast or maneuver or shield maneuver, or multiple options.
Even with shields no longer working with runestaff defense, it's getting to the point where I'm thinking of re-learning a bunch of ranks with the Bard, just because, for defense.

>I learned with my warrior that disarming them lowers their DS by more then I ever would have thought, but would prolly still have to resort to 117 and/or 119 to even have a chance at crit killing them and that's awfully expensive (not to mention, even if I keep CM I prolly won't be able to aim for heads/necks). His maul has plasma flares, not fire, so attrition won't be possible... not that attrition is a good way to kill them even if you have fire to use unless you can prevent them from casting, which this character prolly won't be able to do.

Casting wasn't a problem then, I don't know if their spells changed, but I had the TD to laugh at them just like they had the TD to laugh at me.

Id stop armor at 15 for leather breastplate.
Train 1x spellaim for 309 success. Its an amazing spell for what it does and it lowers ds.
Always use 320 against every mob for a free kill sometimes. This spell is free to cast since the mana is recovered and it does frequently kill like level mobs.
Go with 1x first aid and 1x survival rather than 2x first aid.
Drop all lores and rush to get 219 and 120.
You can keep perception at .5x.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"

I capped my cleric using THWs and no dodge. Just disabled everything with spells first.

"So, what does that green line on the graph represent?"
"Oh, that's the projection of a hypothetical offspring from a union between Sauron and Cruella de Ville;
we use that as a baseline for determining character alignment."

I disagree with the "drop Mana Control by one rank, from 25 to 24", for the simple reason of "loss of Mana Spellup."

I also am a huge fan of going to "blocks of 10", because "Now With Free Mana!" every pulse, forever. (I don't understand Bards who stop at 24, either.)

When I train CM, I always stop on an odd rank--3, 25, 77, whatever--because it is one of the relatively few places where GemStone rounds (so 3 ranks == +2 AS, 77 ranks == +39 AS) rather than truncating.