I chose this as my main build for my second playthrough (after frustratingly stopping this game in 2018 after 150 hours without even finishing the game). So far i am having a blast with it, it is a great build especially for people who are still somewhat beginners. You will not suck in combat, you have a huge spell selection that you can change daily and you also always have a cleric, which is almost a necessity in this game.
Enjoyed your video as always. I love seeing more content on the crusader subclass as I feel it tends to be neglected for being a subpar/inferior option. It may not be an overpowered subclass for the cleric, but it definitely has a compelling class fantasy!
Im currently tinkering with a melee oriented cleric, but there's a few things I've done. I've gone Strength and Glory. They really fit the holy warrior with a good arrangement of self buffs. Instead of going all cleric, decided to mix in some fighter levels. Gives a good amount of combat related abilities that can bridge the gap cleric leaves without taking Crusdader. The other idea is to add 1 or 2 levels of Thug. Using dazzling display and cormugeon(sp?) smash and shattered defenses. I get sneak attack and accomplished sneak attack. I use an Earth Breaker for thematics. And I think it only really needs a max of level 6 spells. Many spells later in the spellbook don't really jive with a self buffed cleric. I'm around lvl 8 right now. 5 cleric 2 fighter 1 thug. So far so good.
I love the alignment drift mechanic and being able to hide the choices via settings (should really be off by default). I love paladins, but being completely handicapped because you go with what you think sounds like the best move is a bit shit
Late to the party. Now I'm trying Death Knights troop. All Death Domain Crusader build. Can't wait to reach level 8 so I can utilise channel negative energy.
I currently play by evil crusader of Asmodeus, fire domain, lawful neutral. There are 2 slightly different builds. 1) human. 14 WIS, 14 CHA, 13 INT, everything else put in STR. He needs 3 points of mobility to improve defensive combat, 13 INT he needs to get Combat Expertise. Feats: toughness, Selective Channeling, Combat Expertise, wall of shields. Everything else should be spent on shield and heavy armor. This one can't hit a shit because of defensive combat+combat expertise but very tough and has great damaging spells. 2) asimar +2WIS/+2CHA. This one has only 10 INT because there is no place for Combat Expertise, instead he has 12 DEX for dex modifier. Toughness, wall of shields and Selective Channeling are required feats, everything else put in heavy mace, heavy armor and shield. This one is not so tough as first one but does some physical damage as well as magic damage. Both builds require high CHA, phylactery of negative channeling is good item for first half of the game. Because of relatively low WIS his offensive spells work not very well so he uses heal and buff spells and occasionally converts them into damaging melee spells. Domain slots are occupied by aoe fire spells, they don't rely on high dex as single target spells do. Also summoning and healing spells do not rely on WIS so both of that builds can summon and heal allies as well.
Seems like a decent build. Angelkin Aasimar could be a good alternative to Human as you'll get +2 to both Str and Wis (you can easily drop Toughness) and a free L.Restoration per day to boot. Also, spell focus conjuration is also good for a summoner Cleric as it is prereq for summoning bolstering feats. It can also help an Eccles Cleric with a domain that grants stinking cloud.
Or go on Pinterest, Deviant art or any other site and just cheek out the awesome art and then just clip it in painter and or resize it and save it to a free placeholder portrait folder and make your own.
I was playing this build but at level 1 I just had 1 spell slot free, how do I get all the spells that you mentioned at the various levels? Will i have the additonal slots freed once I level up enough?
Not much would change about this build if you went 1H+sheild Assuming you still want to go War domain you could choose Iomedae as your diety and your favored weapon would be Longsword. You do not have to use the favored weapon, and being a Crusader cleric you can actually choose any martial weapon you want. The only other change you might want to consider would be to put a couple of points into Dex initially. I would not go higher than +2 otherwise it would be wasted since most heavy armors only allow a +1 or +2 bonus from Dex. Take the points from Str if you want to do this. This Dex bonus combined with the Shield will make you a little more tanky but of course you are not going to be doing quite as much damage because you are only using a 1H weapon.
Wow, thanks so much. I might also ask you for advice on your other builds, so appreciate the comment. I was intersted in taking the warhammer, so will go with that. @@rangertony
I also am looking to go sword and board style. The big differences are replacing the cleave type feats with ones to benefit your fighting style. As rangertony said, putting more points in dex is good. 15 dex if you want to consider two weapon fighting with a shield bash focus. Double slice works with using shield bash. In Kingmaker (not WotR) you can use dex belts to artificially raises your dex temporarily during level up to get greater two weapon fighting too. Another option is doing 13 int to get Combat Expertise (CE), another good defensive feat--and if you do this I definitely buy the Clarity Helmet sold by one of the traders in your town (which reduces the penalty to your AB that CE gives). It's a real balance on getting the most out of your defense here and being able to hit anything, with balance in mind getting some of the focus feats of your preferred weapon is a good idea. And Power attack is good to get your damage increased, but there are so many feats you get...I'm still trying to find that perfect mix. Side note, I love the Iomedae theme, but I'm also at the midgame range where there isn't a lot of good Long Sword options. It's right before the Vanguard portion and I'm using a +2. The skeleton merchant sells a +1 Vicious Long Sword, but why would I want a sword that will also do damage to me? Ugh. Fingers crossed I get the Redeemer down the road. Edit: I got lucky and got the Crusader's Mithral Full Plate. 🤩
Yes I am aware of that. The past that always confuses me or I always forget is that some of the domain spells are normal clerical spells. Those you can get multiple times. It would have been better is ALL domain spells were not normal clerical spells, that way I would not forget
I am trying to play crusader, but I feel the class was treated unfairly. The Knights Templar where infamous for being brutal fighters, and I'd like to play that archetype here, but Fighter always outperforms. And When using Evil domain, how do you use Touch of Evil touch spell?
@@rangertony correction: How does Touch of Evil effect the enemy. When I use it, I read the tool tip, but I'm not sure what it's supposed to do. It's not a stun, damage, or confusion spell. Whats it supposed to do that is useful to me.
Tbf I'd say the knights templar were fighters being brutal using a diety as an excuse but if you wanted them to be more involved and devote to the diety I'd say inquisitor is closer than cleric.
animal domain can be taken only with Erastil (long bow) and Gozreh (trident) so you can't use two handed weapon. Plus you have to spend 1 feat for Boon Companion. So it's better to make Inquisitor with pet or regular Cleric with pet but having low STR/DEX.
I chose this as my main build for my second playthrough (after frustratingly stopping this game in 2018 after 150 hours without even finishing the game).
So far i am having a blast with it, it is a great build especially for people who are still somewhat beginners.
You will not suck in combat, you have a huge spell selection that you can change daily and you also always have a cleric, which is almost a necessity in this game.
Enjoyed your video as always. I love seeing more content on the crusader subclass as I feel it tends to be neglected for being a subpar/inferior option. It may not be an overpowered subclass for the cleric, but it definitely has a compelling class fantasy!
Thank you for this. It looks very interesting. I look forward to trying this out.
Have fun!
You have the best builds for this game! One day I hope you get to do one for Pillars.
Shelyn with the Glaive is very good as well.
Im currently tinkering with a melee oriented cleric, but there's a few things I've done.
I've gone Strength and Glory. They really fit the holy warrior with a good arrangement of self buffs.
Instead of going all cleric, decided to mix in some fighter levels. Gives a good amount of combat related abilities that can bridge the gap cleric leaves without taking Crusdader.
The other idea is to add 1 or 2 levels of Thug. Using dazzling display and cormugeon(sp?) smash and shattered defenses. I get sneak attack and accomplished sneak attack.
I use an Earth Breaker for thematics. And I think it only really needs a max of level 6 spells. Many spells later in the spellbook don't really jive with a self buffed cleric.
I'm around lvl 8 right now. 5 cleric 2 fighter 1 thug. So far so good.
I love the alignment drift mechanic and being able to hide the choices via settings (should really be off by default). I love paladins, but being completely handicapped because you go with what you think sounds like the best move is a bit shit
Late to the party. Now I'm trying Death Knights troop. All Death Domain Crusader build. Can't wait to reach level 8 so I can utilise channel negative energy.
I currently play by evil crusader of Asmodeus, fire domain, lawful neutral. There are 2 slightly different builds.
1) human. 14 WIS, 14 CHA, 13 INT, everything else put in STR. He needs 3 points of mobility to improve defensive combat, 13 INT he needs to get Combat Expertise. Feats: toughness, Selective Channeling, Combat Expertise, wall of shields. Everything else should be spent on shield and heavy armor. This one can't hit a shit because of defensive combat+combat expertise but very tough and has great damaging spells.
2) asimar +2WIS/+2CHA. This one has only 10 INT because there is no place for Combat Expertise, instead he has 12 DEX for dex modifier. Toughness, wall of shields and Selective Channeling are required feats, everything else put in heavy mace, heavy armor and shield. This one is not so tough as first one but does some physical damage as well as magic damage.
Both builds require high CHA, phylactery of negative channeling is good item for first half of the game. Because of relatively low WIS his offensive spells work not very well so he uses heal and buff spells and occasionally converts them into damaging melee spells. Domain slots are occupied by aoe fire spells, they don't rely on high dex as single target spells do. Also summoning and healing spells do not rely on WIS so both of that builds can summon and heal allies as well.
Seems like a decent build. Angelkin Aasimar could be a good alternative to Human as you'll get +2 to both Str and Wis (you can easily drop Toughness) and a free L.Restoration per day to boot.
Also, spell focus conjuration is also good for a summoner Cleric as it is prereq for summoning bolstering feats. It can also help an Eccles Cleric with a domain that grants stinking cloud.
Nope, it gives +2 in Str and Cha
Shelyn + Air Domain + Glaive would be great :)
Also where do you get more portrets?
I downloaded a mod pack that contains more portraits
Or go on Pinterest, Deviant art or any other site and just cheek out the awesome art and then just clip it in painter and or resize it and save it to a free placeholder portrait folder and make your own.
I was playing this build but at level 1 I just had 1 spell slot free, how do I get all the spells that you mentioned at the various levels? Will i have the additonal slots freed once I level up enough?
Yes you will get new spell slots when you level up
How would this build change if I had a 1H weapon with a shield?
Not much would change about this build if you went 1H+sheild
Assuming you still want to go War domain you could choose Iomedae as your diety and your favored weapon would be Longsword. You do not have to use the favored weapon, and being a Crusader cleric you can actually choose any martial weapon you want.
The only other change you might want to consider would be to put a couple of points into Dex initially. I would not go higher than +2 otherwise it would be wasted since most heavy armors only allow a +1 or +2 bonus from Dex. Take the points from Str if you want to do this.
This Dex bonus combined with the Shield will make you a little more tanky but of course you are not going to be doing quite as much damage because you are only using a 1H weapon.
Wow, thanks so much. I might also ask you for advice on your other builds, so appreciate the comment. I was intersted in taking the warhammer, so will go with that. @@rangertony
I also am looking to go sword and board style. The big differences are replacing the cleave type feats with ones to benefit your fighting style. As rangertony said, putting more points in dex is good. 15 dex if you want to consider two weapon fighting with a shield bash focus. Double slice works with using shield bash. In Kingmaker (not WotR) you can use dex belts to artificially raises your dex temporarily during level up to get greater two weapon fighting too. Another option is doing 13 int to get Combat Expertise (CE), another good defensive feat--and if you do this I definitely buy the Clarity Helmet sold by one of the traders in your town (which reduces the penalty to your AB that CE gives). It's a real balance on getting the most out of your defense here and being able to hit anything, with balance in mind getting some of the focus feats of your preferred weapon is a good idea. And Power attack is good to get your damage increased, but there are so many feats you get...I'm still trying to find that perfect mix.
Side note, I love the Iomedae theme, but I'm also at the midgame range where there isn't a lot of good Long Sword options. It's right before the Vanguard portion and I'm using a +2. The skeleton merchant sells a +1 Vicious Long Sword, but why would I want a sword that will also do damage to me? Ugh. Fingers crossed I get the Redeemer down the road.
Edit: I got lucky and got the Crusader's Mithral Full Plate. 🤩
You only get one cast of your domain spells because you ONLY get these from your domain, not the cleric spell list.
Yes I am aware of that. The past that always confuses me or I always forget is that some of the domain spells are normal clerical spells. Those you can get multiple times. It would have been better is ALL domain spells were not normal clerical spells, that way I would not forget
I am trying to play crusader, but I feel the class was treated unfairly. The Knights Templar where infamous for being brutal fighters, and I'd like to play that archetype here, but Fighter always outperforms.
And
When using Evil domain, how do you use Touch of Evil touch spell?
I am not sure what problem you are having with the Touch of Evil spell, but you will need to be in melee range to make it work as it is a touch spell
@@rangertony correction: How does Touch of Evil effect the enemy. When I use it, I read the tool tip, but I'm not sure what it's supposed to do. It's not a stun, damage, or confusion spell. Whats it supposed to do that is useful to me.
Tbf I'd say the knights templar were fighters being brutal using a diety as an excuse but if you wanted them to be more involved and devote to the diety I'd say inquisitor is closer than cleric.
@@neilmowles3135 I'll give it a try for sure!
Isn't animal domain a better choice for crusader? To have a pet to support you?
animal domain can be taken only with Erastil (long bow) and Gozreh (trident) so you can't use two handed weapon. Plus you have to spend 1 feat for Boon Companion. So it's better to make Inquisitor with pet or regular Cleric with pet but having low STR/DEX.
Keep am eye out for my up coming Ranged Animal Domain Herald Caller Evocation Summoner build
Interesting, thank you for the replies. I will wait for your Herald Caller build, RangerTony.
He is more a RP guy. If you wanna power gaming, always take an animal companion lol.