Strengths / Weaknesses / Okays of the Class
Skill Ranks: 2+Int
Alignment: 1) Your alignment has to be within one step of your Deities alignment. 2) A Warpriest who grossly violates the code of conduct required by his god loses all spells and class features, except for his armor, shield, weapon proficiencies, and bonus feats. He cannot thereafter gain levels as a Warpriest of that god until he atones for his deeds. 3) As explained in Sacred Weapon ability, only a good Warpriest can add holy to his weapon.
Weapon/Armor Proficiency – A Warpriest is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as the favored weapon of his deity, and with all armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (except tower shields). If the Warpriest worships a deity with unarmed strike as its favored weapon, the Warpriest gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.
Saves: Strong Will and Fortitude; Weak Reflex. Given that Reflex is the least important save, I rank Saves mostly blue.
Class Skills: Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Engineering, Religion), Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Survival and Swim. Decent selection, though none of you skills naturally interact with class abilities. Some good Wisdom for a Wisdom-based class.
Aura: Whatever
Blessing: It is a Wisdom-based ability of a Wisdom spellcasting class. You get it at first level, as well. Some are better than others. If you choose correctly, I think that some of these are good enough to make blessing blue. Here are the ones that I like the most: Air Blessing (for archers), Animal Blessing (for a natural weapon / unarmed fighter), Community (if someone in your group utilizes “aid another”), Liberation, Protection, Travel and Trickery.
- Note 1 – Remember this is a guide for build through 13th level. Therefore the major blessings that don’t kick in until 10th level are not heavily weighed for the purposes of this guide.
- Note 2 – Remember that you are your own ally. So blessing that effect allies can be used on yourself as well.
Focused Weapon – Free Weapon Focus at 1st level.
Sacred Weapon – Starting at 4th level, as a swift action you can add enhancements (+1 at 4th, +2 at 8th, +3 at 12th) to any weapon for which you have taken the Weapon Focus feat and for your Deities favorite weapon. The enhancements stack with the existing enhancements already on the weapon. You can also add special abilities to the weapon. However, you can only use the ability 1 round per Warpriest level per day. Further, only a Good Warpriest can add holy to his weapon (which is good if your good, but bad if you are evil) You also have a modest minimum damage amount for your sacred weapons that can be substituted, which is great when you are large size and approaching 13th level.
Fervor – Allows the Warpriest to heal 1d6 (2nd level), 2d6 (5th level), 3d6 (8th level), 4d6 (11th level) as a standard action for others and as a swift action for the Warpriest. He can do this a number of times per day equal to his Wisdom + ½ Warpriest level. Fervor can also be used to harm undead as a standard action.
Bonus Feats – The Warpriest gets bonus feats at levels 3, 6, 9, and 12 that can be selected from combat feats. He meets the prerequisites using his Warpriest levels for the fighter levels and base attack bonus required for the feats.
Channel Energy – Starting at 4th level, the Warpriest can expend to uses of Fervor to channel energy.
Sacred Armor – Starting at 7th level, as a swift action the Warpriest can add enhancements (+1at 7th, +2 at 10th, +3 at 13th) to his armor. The enhancements stack with the existing enhancements. You can also add special abilities to the armor. He can use the ability 1 minute per Warpriest level per day in 1-minute increments. When activating this ability you can activate Sacred Weapon as a free action by expending 1 use of Fervor.
Build Advice
Multiclassing: I really don’t see the need to multiclass. That said, I have seen and made enough builds to know to never say never. Just know what you are doing if you go a dipping into other classes when making a Warpriest.
Race: The race you choose will depend on the build. With that said, just about any race that does not add a -2 to Wisdom or to your primary combat stat is doable.
Fighting Style: Given the 4 bonus feats, any fighting style is optimally achievable by 13th level – maybe even without dipping. It is worth noting, however, that a dexterous fighting style can make up for the weak reflex save, along with the other benefits that come along with high dexterity.
Stats (20 pt. build): The following are my suggestions for the typical Warpriest build:
- For a Strength build, Str (16), Dex (12), Con (14), Int (12), Wis (14), Chr (7), assuming you choose a race that gives you a +2 to Wis and Strength.
- For a Dexterity build, switch Str and Dex, assuming you choose a race that gives you a +2 to Wisdom and Dexterity.
- If you select a race that give you a bonus to just one of you major fighting stats then I would say go with Str (16), Dex (12), Con (14), Int (10), Wis (15), Chr (7). Switch Str and Dex if it is a Dexterity build.
Spell Selection: The spells meant for a battle cleric (which is what a Warpriest is) are obvious, so select them and be good at what you are meant to do.
Skill Selection: The ones that I would pick are as follows: Handle Animal & Ride (Optibuilds Skill PDF Part I), Perception and Sense Motive. A single skill point in Swim and Climb does not hurt.
Did you forget the part were they use fervor to cast spells on themselves as a swift?
This is a really poor guide. For example, you say ‘just choose good cleric combat spells, you know the ones’. Well, not necessarily. I mean, people tend to go to a guide BECAUSE they don’t know. And even if they were familiar with Cleric spells, some originally kinda meh spells become awesome when you can self-cast them as a Swift Action.
There’s no talk of Feat selection, which is just awful. Feats are a big part of how a character functions. I don’t expect you to rate every single feat in existence, but maybe you should go over some of the major good choices, as well as some of the traps that seem good but maybe aren’t?
When discussing Sacred Weapon, you mention that it’s a huge drawback for non-Good Warpriests that they cannot add Holy. You then completely miss the fact that Lawful, Chaotic, and Evil WP’s all have different abilities that are also able to be added. The only way you get screwed on this is by being True Neutral.
You should have rated all the skills with colors.
I also disagree with the idea of any amount of heal is ever ‘just okay’, but that’s a personal opinion.
Overall, you need to do better research and elaborate more on your ratings.
Hello Nolan. The purpose was to make a quick read guide to get the reader on his way to making a warpriest. That said, your concerns above are with the information concerning Spells, Feats, Sacred Weapon (Holy Weapon) and Skills. Let take them one at a time.
Spells – I stand by the fact that Cleric Spells are already spoken about in other cleric guides. No reason to reinvent the wheel. Go read those guides and you should be okay. If you know of some spells that are better when you can cast them on yourself as a swift, please mention them. The guides comment section is not just foe criticism, but a chance for you to offer your insights to others. In fact that is how all pathfinder guides are made great – originator info + visitor insights = great information for all. That said, there will soon be a Warpriest PDF Guide that covers great spells for specific types of Warpriest builds.
Feats: Given all the different types of builds that can be made: archer, trippers, grapplers, big weapon meleers, dirty fighters, bull rushers, healers, skill monkeys, etc..; it would be insurmoutable to cover all the feats for every type of build. That said, there will soon be a Warpriest Guide PDF does cover in depth how to build specific types of Warpriest. Feel free to download and make some awesome characters.
Sacred Weapon Holy: The simple fact is that a Holy Weapon is far better than Chaotic, Law, etc… because 9 times out of 10 you are fighting evil creatures.
Skills: Every skill is great if you know how to use that particular skill correctly in a build (See the Skills PDF for proof of this). So the real issue is do the skills that the class has natural mesh with the class. The Wisdom skills natural mesh with the Warpriest and the guide says as much.
Well this was no help at all. It didn’t do much more than tell me a few snippets of what’s in the book.
I will be revamping this guide to add some additional helpful hints and adding a Warpriest PDF soon. Stay tuned.
Worst. Guide. Ever.
Where is the PDF located?
no sense guide, you don’t understand the class
Aura – what ever??? free detect evil always!