Pathfinder 2e Remaster: How To Build A Cleric

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• Subclass Options In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

• Anathemas And Sanctification For Clerics In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

• Attribute Boosts For A Cleric In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

• Best Domains In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

• Best Feats For A Cleric

Clerics in the remastered second edition Pathfinder are one of the most modular classes available, able to choose at first level between a martial and a spellcasting-focused playstyle. Two clerics of the same deity can have wildly different ways of engaging in combat and exploration.

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The cornucopia of options the class offers can be especially daunting compared to the simpler kits of other classes in the same book. Part of making the class work for you is understanding what you want from it and how to approach that goal when making early choices, such as your deity and domain.

Subclass Options In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

Clerics are offered two subclasses at the outset that fit into the broad archetypes of being focused toward pure spellcasters and spellcasters with a bit of martial survivability.

First is the cloistered cleric, the straightforward divine caster with no frills:

• They have no armor but their spellcasting proficiency advances faster and higher. They can reach legendary spellcasting by the time warpriests gain master-level proficiency.
• Their spells will hit more often and crit more often, but their lack of armor means they're very vulnerable without a team that can protect them.
• They gain the domain initiate feat, granting a focus spell at first level.

The warpriest dips their toes into martial skills while remaining a cleric at heart.

• You gain light and medium armor right away but won't advance in it as quickly as a dedicated fighter.
• The warpriest gains the same number of spell slots as their cloistered cousins but with a weaker proficiency bonus.
• You gain the shield block feat at first level, letting you negate or reduce damage from weak attacks.
• Warpriests also specialize in using their deity's favored weapon, gaining better proficiency, damage, and critical specialization in it.

Warpriests will want access to a skilled craftsperson who can transfer runes to their favored weapon.

Anathemas And Sanctification For Clerics In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

The remastered ruleset places a greater emphasis on anathemas. These are more optional for other classes, giving roleplaying tips such as "barbarians should be angry," but a cleric needs to follow commands from on high.

How strictly anathema will be applied is something you'll need to discuss with your GM, but without express permission, you should assume that any anathema spells are not on your list and any acts of anathema you will need to actively avoid and discourage among your party members.

Pharasma's anathema of creating undead, for example, means that their clerics should not tolerate necromancy among their traveling companions.

Coordinate with the other people in your party that the rules your cleric follows and enforces won't contradict the plans they have for their characters.

Sanctification Is The New Mechanic Replacing Alignment Restrictions And Alignment Damage

The addition of sanctification is mostly intuitive. You won't be able to take an unholy multiclass option as a holy priest, so the lich archetype is probably beyond your grasp unless you worship Zon-Kuthon.

Some deities will force you to sanctify yourself as holy, unholy, or neutral, while others give a choice between two or even all three. Whether to accept optional sanctification is broadly a personal choice. Your strikes and certain feats will interact with it by dealing extra damage against the opposite team, but you'll also take on the same weaknesses.

Divine Font Gives You Extra Healing Or Damage Depending On Your God

Your choice of divine font gives you a handful of extra spells at your highest level, which can only be used for healing or hurting, depending on the deity. The general rule is that holy deities will give healing fonts, and unholy deities give harmful fonts, although some neutral deities give a choice.

A healing font gives you enough healing to cover most of your daily needs due to the heightened casting bonuses they receive. A harmful font is more difficult to use but makes a satisfying source of damage when combined with the directed channel or channel smite feats.

Attribute Boosts For A Cleric In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

The incredible diversity of build paths for a cleric means there isn't a singular path to take when allocating your attribute boosts. The only consistent rule is to maximize your wisdom at every opportunity: it'll give your spell attack modifier and DCs a boost.

A cloistered cleric has the freedom to spread their points to match their character concept: A preacher or religious scholar might be book-smart or charismatic, and an investment in charisma or intelligence can reflect this.

For A Warpriest, consider the following attribute priorities:

Attribute

Priority

Notes

Wisdom

First

A warpriest is still a caster first and a fighter second. Your spellcasting modifier progresses more slowly than the other casters, so it is extra important you don't fall further behind.

Strength

Second

You'll need strength to attack with most weapons. If you are worshipping Calistria or Abadar, you'll instead swap this for dexterity and trade your medium armor down to light.

Constitution

Third

Clerics gain eight hitpoints a level. This is more than casters like the witch and wizard but less than dedicated combatants like the fighter.

Dexterity

Fourth

Clerics need feats to get heavy armor, meaning everything you wear will still have a usable dexterity cap.

Charisma

Fifth

Charisma is better left to cloistered clerics.

Intelligence

Sixth

Warpriests have too many attributes to juggle to even consider intelligence. You'll lose out on languages and skills, but you'll get by.

The dwarf ancestry best fills out a warpriest: It gives boosts to constitution, wisdom, and a free pick that can go into strength. Their flaw in charisma is made up for by their ten starting hitpoints and perfect attribute distribution. The Root Leshy offers the same boosts and hitpoints with a flaw in intelligence.

Cloistered clerics can make just about any ancestry work that doesn't give a wisdom flaw. Gnomes offer a good selection of feats to a cleric, such as energized font to recast your domain spells or instinctive obfuscation to negate attacks with a coin flip.

Best Domains In Pathfinder 2e Remastered

Domains offer you focus spells. The upgrade to refocusing in the remastered book means that focus points can be reliably recharged to your maximum and focus spells can be used much more frequently as a result.

Some clerics can treat wounds at the same time as refocusing so your value during downtime is easily doubled. The domains available will be determined by your deity, but each offers four options.

Domain

Focus Spells

Notes

Air

Pushing Gust forces the target to take a fortitude save or be shoved backward and potentially prone.

Disperse into air lets you turn into an untargetable cloud and reform elsewhere when struck.

Disperse into air is as good as focus spells get. The effect only lasts a turn, so if there are multiple enemies, they will be able to attack you successively but will still need to chase you down to your new position.

Ambition

Ignite ambition influences a target's emotions, making it vulnerable to magical and social manipulation.

Competitive Edge gives sustained attack and skill bonuses, increasing when enemies land a critical.

Competitive edge works well on a warpriest, who will make more attacks per turn.

Darkness

Cloak of shadow creates an aura of reduced visibility that follows a target.

Darkened Sight bestows darkvision even against magical darkness.

Low-light vision is less common in Pathfinder than in D&D, meaning a team built around cloak of shadows is less likely to be hard countered.

Darkened Sight counters a team trying to weaponise darkness, seeing through magical shadows but only lasting a minute. It works against combat spells that create darkness, but you'll still need to pack torches when exploring.

Death

Death's Call grants temporary hitpoints when something dies near you.

Eradicate undeath deals a very effective amount of damage only against undead creatures.

When you're in a campaign that features undead heavily, eradicate undeath is an amazing tool due to the value of refocusing. A Warpriest can use death's call to extend their survivability slightly, but the effect scales to the level of the dying creature and not the player, limiting its use.

Earth

Hurtling Stone is a simple ranged attack with damage that scales to your level.

Localized Quake deals massive damage and knocks prone enemies in a circle around you.

Earth domain is perfect for warpriests. Localized quake takes two actions to knock enemies prone, putting them off guard against a strike with your third action. Hurtling stone ensures that even if your deity's weapon is melee, you always have a ranged attack that scales to your level.

Best Feats For A Cleric

A cleric's direction can be tailored using feats, especially if playing with the free archetype ruleset.

Cleric Playstyle

Feats and Archetypes

Playstyle

Notes

Harm Cleric

Harming Hands, Sap Life, Directed Channel, Selective Energy, Void Siphon, Fast Channel

Prepare additional harm spells on top of the ones provided by your divine font.

Works for both warpriests and cloistered clerics

This cleric outputs large amounts of void damage against both single targets and groups.

Armored Healer

Healing Font, Rapid Response, Selective energy, restorative channel, Armor Mastery, Warpriest's Armor or Sentinel Dedication, Channeling Block

Buy the heaviest armor and shield you can use

Raise your shield each turn to maximize your survivability

Focusing on defense via armor and shields lets you keep yourself and everyone else alive.

Multi-Caster

Druid Dedication, Basic, Expert, Master Druid Spellcasting

Throw down damage, healing, and utility spells to your heart's content:You'll have a tremendous number of spell slots, but they're all prepared slots.

A druid's primal spellcasting utilizes the same wisdom clerics should have maxed out. The buffs given to multiclass spellcasting in the remastered rules mean you won't be weaker in your second spellcasting type.

Focus Spell Specialist

Domain initiate, advanced domain, domain initiate (second domain)

Use your focus spells regularly and spend every non-combat moment refocusing until you're back at full points.

This build works for both a support and offensive focus spell. Earth is a strong choice for the latter. Taking an extra feat that gives a focus spell ensures that your cleric gains a third focus point in their supply.

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