Medievia- Do You Dare Enter?

Help for Clerics

The cleric is the mainstay of many adventures, a spellcaster who generally is robust enough to survive the tougher fights. A cleric's spells are based around the premise of healing and protection, although a wide array of utility spells as well as a reasonable number of offensive spells are enough to combine to make a very effective class.

Equipment

A cleric should be on the lookout for equipment that increases Mana, Hit Points and Armor Class initially. When a cleric gets to about level 20 or so, some saving spell equipment should be sought, for though the natural saving spell of a cleric is only surpassed by a mage extra is always useful. Hitroll and Damageroll equipment is essentially not important, as it is with a mage, so ignore it for the main part and even consider wearing equipment that reduces these for a major boost on the other statistics.

The standard clerical role is to sit in a formation in the rear ranks and heal the people doing most of the fighting. Sometimes, however, you will have to make your own way, and for that reason you will be best advised to carry a selection of equipment.

For your main work in the rear of a formation you can ignore AC equipment to a certain degree. Keep a reasonable armor up, but use the equipment slots to try and increase your mana as much as possible for longer fights and for emergencies. Your AC will be of little use if you are at the rear of a formation as few strikes will contact that far back. Of course, if it's a small formation with the cleric in the middle ranks, AC is more important - tailor your equipment to the circumstances.

Stats

As with a Mage, your spells cost you Mana to cast. Initially the casting cost is high but this drops as you achieve more levels, eventually down to the level quoted in the HELP SPELLS file. With every level you gain you will have more spells available and most combat spell will do more damage. Each spell you practice will cost practice points, but to reduce the risk of fumbling a spell cast you need to practice a spell until it is perfect. Having a higher Intelligence reduces this risk even further.

Spells

As with a mage you will live by the spells you use, but there are substantial differences in the spell types. Cleric have a lesser amount of offensive spells compared to mage, but have a lot more defensive spell. Not every spell is as useful as others are, but we have a small guide to some of the more notable ones here. For more information or a complete list you can refer to the help file while you are in the game.

Combat/Offensive Spells

Cause Critical - this is the first offensive spells available to you.
Call Lightning - This spell cause a considerable amount of damage, but can only be used outdoor when there is a rain or lightning storm.
Flamestrike - This is probably the best single target offensive spell a cleric can have especially at lower level for all around use.
Harm - The general purpose damage causing offensive spell for most occasions for you. Do NOT use it on undead mobs however, as it will heal them.
Dispel Evil - This spell requires the caster to be good aligned, and the opponent evil aligned. A cheap way to inflict about 100 damage easily when your opponent is the same level or lower lever than you.
Demonfire - an evil cleric's most powerful spell.
Hammer of Faith - another alignment dependent spell. The damage you inflict is based on the the difference between you and your opponent. The greater your difference is, the greater the damage.
Tremor - the all-purpose combat room spell for most damage. This spell might also cause your opponent to fall to the room below (if you're fighting in a room with a down exit) causing extra damage.
Firestorm - An attack of flame that will strike all the targets in the room, costing more mana per extra target. This is a very powerful offensive spell, that will cause more damage as your level goes up.

Defensive Spells

Armor - improves your armor class by 30.
Bless - improves your saving spell by 1 and additional 5 hitroll.
Protection from Good and Protection from Evil - this spell is cast based on your alignment, and reduces attacks from those of the opposite alignment.
Fire Protection, Ice Protection, Lightning Protection - increases protection against fire, ice, and lightning attacks based on the caster's level.
Sanctuary - a white aura of short term protection that reduces all incoming damage by half.
Cure Critical - can be very useful when you are running out of mana in an intensive fight situation.
Heal - the most powerful curing spell. The amount of hitpoints restored is dependent on the caster level. The spell is twice more powerful when cast on another player.
Resurrection - the spell that enables you to bring a player back to life. Requires a focus item to cast.
Benediction - similar to resurrection, this revives and greatly heals a dead player. Requires a focus item to cast.
Fireshield - this spell will make you take a damage in full, but reflects half of the damage you take back to your opponent.
Phantasmal Image - a very useful spell for delaying the onset of incoming damage in a fight and essential when expecting a backstab. It can be countered, however, and it does come with a goodly amount of lag when cast - so if you want to flee and cast it then try going a few extra rooms away for additional security.
Bloodbath - when there is enough blood in a room, a cleric can cast this spell drawing upon the blood that has been shed - all players in the room will be fully healed.
Shared Life - this spell when cast will cause hit points of all members of a form to be redistributed in a ratio depending upon the maximum hitpoints of the party members.

Auxiliary Spells

Blind - An effective way to disarm an opponent, Blind will stop them from hitting effectively as well as making them easier to hit. Very useful against your fellow player.
Muffle - silences the victim for two ticks. This includes speaking, shouting, emoting, casting spells, and just about any other form of communication. There is no cure for this status effect.
Faerie Fire - worsens the victim's armor class by a formula of (Current Level)/2.
Levitate & Mass Levitation - not often an issue, but when it is it really matters. Some areas are designated as being water areas and you need this spell to go into those rooms. You could always use a raft in your inventory to mimic the effect, but these spells weigh nothing.
Refresh & Mass Refresh - invaluable for trade runs, but can also be used to assist a friendly warrior or thief if they are relying on meditation to recover their Hit Points.

Utility Spells

Identify - an unglamorous spell, but one that the average adventurer will be stuck without. Similar pieces of equipment can have wildly varying statistics, so it is essential to find out if the piece of equipment you have just looted is better than what you already have.
Attune - Use of this spell and a focus item allows you to store a charge of travel, as long as the destination is within range and in the wilderness.
Hands of Wind - this spell is useful to remove a target from their formation, allowing you to attack formed opponents and fight them one at a time. If this spell is cast on the formation leader, the entire formation will be unformed.
Sandstorm - a useful spell during trade run. A cleric can cast this spell and create a wave of energy that could be strong enough can remove an opponent from the area.
Attune - Use of this spell and a focus item allows you to store a destination, as long as it is within your phasing range and is in the wilderness.
Detect Invisibility & Sense Life - these will help you see invisible mobs, players as well as objects, and sense hidden mobs. You might want to keep these spells on all the time, you never know when you're going to find an invisible dc in a corpse.
Detect Good & Detect Evil - very useful to have these spells on when you are trying to get your alignment straightened up.
Forge of Conviction - creates a temporary weapon for immediate use. This spell requires certain items in order to channel the powers drawn forth by the caster.

Strategy

The prime duty of a cleric in a formation is to protect, heal and cure the other members of the form. Casting healing spells on other people is often more important than using attacking spells to wound the opponent - unless your form leader gives the word to attack, use your mana mostly for healing. As an important note here, a healing spell cast on another player will perform more healing than if cast on yourself. Protective spells should be cast on people before fights and renewed when necessary, preferably shortly before they run out.

One of the most common tactics in a formation is for clerics to be told to heal in columns. Basically, every cleric is assigned at the back of a column and their task is to use FR (short for form report) to check the health of the people in front of them, and heal them and them only.

When acting without other players, a cleric has a number of options. The usual method of dispatching a foe is to use offensive spells until you sustain a moderate amount of damage, and then to use healing spells on yourself to keep yourself moderately healthy and use offensive spells when you have sufficient Hit Points.

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