Warpriest Cleric of Gorum - PF2 Remaster Example Build

Introduction

We’re going to walk through a pretty simple and straightforward example that used to be challenging to do in PF2: The Dwarf Warpriest Cleric. The challenge used to be the requirement of Charisma to increase the healing font. In the remaster, the size is fixed so our Dwarven Charisma Flaw no longer inhibits our healing output. We’re also trying out some of the new options in Remaster to make a Dwarf Elf hybrid.

Introduction
Disclaimer
Warpriest of Gorum

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Warpriest of Gorum

Ancestry: Dwarf

Heritage: Aiuvarin (Versatile Heritage)

Background: Bounty Hunter

Class: Cleric

Attribute Boosts

Boosts	STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
Ancestry	+1		+1		+1	-1
Background	+1				+1
Class					+1
Details	+1	+1	+1		+1
Level 1	+3	+1	+2	+0	+4	-1
Level 5	+4	+2	+3	+0	+4.5	-1
Level 10	+4.5	+2	+4	+1	+5	-1
Level 15	+5	+3	+4.5	+1	+5.5	-1
Level 20	+5	+4	+5	+2	+6	-1

Prior to the remaster, we needed Charisma for our Divine Font ability, but now the Font is pinned at the old possible maximum values, allowing us to keep the Charisma penalty in order to have three boosts from Dwarf. A very nice power boost indeed.

Spellcasting

Unlike the before times, the Remastered Warpriest can easily keep their Wisdom high for spell DCs. Therefore, have a look at the Divine Spell breakdown and don’t neglect the fact that you’re still a full caster. Hitting things is fun but a hammer is not a wrench and you have a fully stocked toolbox.

First Level Options

This guide is of course a Warpriest, so we’re going to gain Light and Medium armor as well as Trained proficiency with Gorum’s favored weapon, the Greatsword. We also gain an Ancestry feat, which is where our Aiuvarin heritage comes into play with the feat Nimble Elf, increasing our speed to 25 from the Dwarven base speed of 20. Right now, that just puts us on par with a lot of Ancestries, but we’ll eventually take Unburdened Iron once we’re wearing Heavy Armor to be far faster than other Heavily-armored combatants.

For Skills, we get Trained in Survival from Bounty Hunter, Athletics from Gorum, Religion from Cleric, and two more of our choice. Picking up Medicine and Nature finishes off the Wisdom skills for our party.

As a full spellcaster, we don’t gain a 1st-level feat because we instead have spells. A lot of spells, but most of them are Heal: the best spell. We will have 2 slots to prepare 1st-rank divine spells, and 4 slots to just prepare Heal.

One of the reasons I chose Gorum was that he is in Player Core 1 and also grants us the Sure Strike spell, which allows us to roll twice on our next attack roll and take the higher value. If I was not sticking to options in Player Core 1, I would also consider Ragathiel who also has Sure Strike, but instead gives us the Bastard Sword for the option of switching between one-handed and two-handed fighting, as well as Haste later on instead of Gorum’s Enlarge.

Depending on your party’s setup, good options for these first level slots include Runic Weapon, Runic Body, and True Strike.

Second to Fourth Level Options

We have a few different routes we can take here with our second and fourth level feats.

If we want to be more heavily armored, then at Second level we can take the Warpriest’s Armor feat to become just as proficient in Heavy armor as Medium and Light. This pairs well with Restorative Strike at fourth level bringing a mixture of Sustain and damage.

If instead we want to have a more support-oriented style, Communal Healing or Rapid Response are good options. At fourth, Divine Infusion means our Heals will add positive damage to someone’s attacks on their next turn. For more direct damage from our own weapons, we can combine Versatile Font with Channel Smite at fourth level instead.

We also get a general feat, and Fleet is very useful to push our speed up towards 30.

Fifth to Sixth Level Options

At fifth level, we get an Ancestry feat, ability boosts, a skill increase, and 3rd-rank spells. For our feat, Unburdened Iron is a fantastic choice if we’ve taken the feat for Heavy Armor, and even if we haven’t taken Heavy, it does wonders with Tower and Fortress Shields.

Ability Boosts will need to be Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom, but the fourth option is up to preference. Prior to the remaster we needed Charisma, too, but no longer. Instead, we just get 5 Font Slots here at level 5 when we also conveniently get 3rd-rank spells.

As a Warpriest, our 6th-level feat options are Divine Rebuttal, Divine Weapon, or Selective Energy. Divine Rebuttal is our version of Reactive Strike (formerly Attack of Opportunity) with a rather unique trigger when an enemy forces your ally to make a saving throw. It’s neat and we grant a bonus to the save if we hit. Divine Weapon gives us a small damage boost if we cast a spell and strike on the same turn, something we can take advantage of with Sure Strike.

Both of those are solid options, but I would actually push for Selective Energy. You will find that there are enough situations where your party needs a 3 action Heal, and you need to not accidentally heal your foes at the same time.

Seventh to Tenth Level Options

Level 7 brings us Expert Weapon Proficiency in Martial weapons as well as Critical Specialization in our favored weapon, the Greatsword. We also gain a General feat. Then at 9 we get another Ancestry feat. For these, Toughness at 7 and Mountain’s Stoutness at 9 combine together for a hefty chunk of extra hit points as well as a bonus to stabilization checks.

An alternative set of options we can consider as an Aiuvarin are the combination of the feat Elf Step which would allow us to Step twice for a single action and the general feat Feather Step which allows us to Step in difficult terrain.

For our 8th-level feat, Zealous Rush allows us to reposition quickly while still casting spells. Remember: this only works if the spell only affects us or our equipment. Spells like Runic Weapon or Sure Strike work well with this.

At 10th level, Replenishment of War can give us plenty of refilling temporary HP if we’re striking regularly, but I think Heroic Recovery is far stronger than the 5 to 10 temporary HP we could generate each round. It’s an emergency button to help someone stand up and get back in the fight.

With regards to our attributes, bumping Intelligence instead of Dexterity sets us up so that we won’t be stuck with half a boost hanging off somewhere at 20.

Eleventh to Fifteenth Level Options

The general feat at 11 presents a few options. I recommend the Feather Step feat so that we can still Step around in difficult terrain, but Diehard is another good option.

At level 12, Defensive Recovery is another strong Spellshape feat to have in our pocket. Giving +2 AC to someone who is taking the brunt of attacks can really protect those hit points we just put back.

For our ancestry feat at thirteen, we can either take Elf Step, allowing us to Step twice as a single Action, which works well with Feather Step, or we can take March the Mines to do some fun shenanigans to help an ally move around the battlefield on our turn. Both are good choices. Of course, if you took Feather and Elf Step at 7 and 9 then Toughness and Mountain’s Stoutness can be taken now instead.

Our class feat at 14 is a choice between Channeling Block and Fast Channel, depending on if we’re using a shield or not (this example build does not since we’re worshiping Gorum). Channeling Block lets us dump a Heal spell when we block to amplify our shield hardness, protecting both our health and the durability of the shield. Fast Channel, on the other hand, is great for getting out a 3-Action heal for only 2 actions, a major game changer. Too often will you be just out of position to use the 3-action AoE, but with Fast Channel you can Stride and still cast it.

At 15, it can be prudent to spend the general feat on the level 15 skill feat of whatever skill we take to Legendary at 15. For example, if we pushed Athletics to Legendary, we could take Cloud Jump and suddenly make 30 foot vertical High Jumps with no effort.

Sixteenth to Twentieth Level Options

At 16, Eternal Blessing is too good to pass up: A permanent 15-foot Bless aura because every +1 matters.

For our final Ancestry feat at 17, Stonewall’s ability to just negate something terribly awful once per day is a good get-out-of-dying-free card.

At 18, we have to think really hard about how we play. If we’ve been the frontlining tank, Inviolable might be the right answer, making it hurt enemies that attack and hit you, possibly triggering weaknesses. On the other hand, the damage value is small, and Echoing Channel is great for getting 50% more out of a Heal spell by adding the 1-action version onto the 2-action version.

There is more to Echoing, however. Remember that Zealous Rush only works on spells that are self-targeted. Echoing does not make the spell target two creatures, but instead has us cast a separate 1-action Heal. Either of these Heals can self target and trigger the Zealous Rush Stride. This kinda lets us get a refund on the Spellshape action to Stride and also cast the two heals, at least until we take our capstone at 20.

Spellshape Channel. Now we can use all of those great Spellshape feats we took as free actions instead, keeping our third Action free for Strikes, Strides, and other actions.

Level by Level Table

Level	Feats, Features, and Skills	Notes
1	Spellcasting Healing Font Warpriest Doctrine Holy Sanctification First Doctrine Nimble Elf Shield Block Experienced Tracker Athletics (Deity) Survival (Background) Religion (Cleric) Medicine Nature	At our first level, we make our Doctrine Choice of Warpriest, giving us up to medium armor as well as our first martial weapon, the Greatsword. For skills, we’re using our background and free skill choices to acquire all the Wisdom skills. In addition, we gain Religion because we’re a Cleric and Athletics from picking Gorum as a god. Spellcasters don’t receive class feat options at 1st level, but we are granted the Shield Block feat by the Warpriest doctrine. We are unlikely to use it because of our two-handed Greatsword, but we have it anyway. Thanks to our Aiuvarin Heritage, we can take the Elven feat Nimble Elf while still being a Dwarf. This allows us to leverage the ability boosts of a Dwarf while mitigating some of the speed penalty. Lastly, we gain the Experienced Tracker feat from Bounty Hunter. This allows us to use the Track exploration action at full speed. You might wonder why this matters. A Cleric starts with Trained Perception and stays at Expert once they hit 5th level. If we’re Tracking and we keep our Survival proficiency capped, then we can roll our far superior Survival for any initiative checks we have to make. It is not always possible to Track but if you’re out adventuring and expect combat at some point, it would be unusual to find “nothing”.
2	Warpriest’s Armor Risky Surgery	With the Warpriest’s Armor feat we can upgrade to heavy armor for that additional +1 AC and lower Dex Cap. Not much to say aside from Every +1 Matters. Risky Surgery allows us to improve our Treat Wounds checks between combat by getting automatic criticals. This does work with Assurance because it’s not a numerical modifier, but instead an improvement after the Success is declared.
3	Second Doctrine Trained in all Martial Weapons Fleet Medicine (Expert)	The Second Doctrine grants us Trained in all Martial Weapons. We’re still better with our Greatsword, but this is still nice to have. Fleet makes us even faster, or more likely, counters the speed penalty from wearing Heavy Armor. Bumping Medicine to Expert rank keeps us on top of the Treat Wounds duty while setting us up for a skill feat we’ll take at fourth level.
4	Restorative Strike Continual Recovery	With Restorative Strike, we can cast the Heal spell without provoking potential Reactive Strikes while also attempting to hit the target. Even better, if we manage to hit the target, another creature can also be healed for the same total. Continual Recovery is a major game changer for Treat Wounds between combat, reducing the time between checks from 50 minutes (the 1-hour cooldown starts when the healing starts) to 10 minutes, allowing us to Treat Wounds again on the same target right away.
5	Perception Expertise Unburdened Iron Survival (Expert)	Unburdened Iron frees us from the speed penalty of Heavy Armor, which puts our speed up to 30 feet without any buffs.
6	Selective Energy Ward Medic	Selective Energy will allow us to cast 3-Action Heals without having to worry so much about accidentally healing our foes. Ward Medic exponentially improves our between combat Treat Wounds routine by allowing us to treat two people per time window. The number of patients further expands with Master and Legendary Medicine.
7	Third Doctrine Expert Weapon Proficiencies Critical Specialization with Greatsword Toughness Or Feather Step Medicine (Master) Or Survival (Master)	Our weapon proficiency is lagging behind the full martials by a few levels, but that’s the price we pay for full spellcasting. The choice between Toughness and Feather Step is about having more HP or being able to get away from a reactive strike monster in difficult terrain. Choose whichever is more important for you. Medicine vs Survival here is about the choice between potentially saving some time during Treat Wounds and getting some better initiative rolls during combat.
8	Zealous Rush Assurance (Medicine)	Zealous Rush will greatly increase mobility in the middle of combat. Just remember that it only works on self-targeted spells. Assurance in Medicine just makes the checks simpler to guarantee.
9	Resolute Faith Will Saves to Master Success to Critical on Will Saves Mountain’s Stoutness Or Elf Step Survival (Master) Or Medicine (Master)	Master in Will Saves as well as Critical Success upgrades are very strong. A lot of Will Saves still have annoying effects on a normal Success. Mountain’s Stoutness is identical to Toughness, except as an Ancestry feat. It also explicitly stacks with Toughness. Elf Step, on the other hand, is a single Action that allows us to Step twice. Like at 7th level, this is a choice between hit points and mobility.
10	Heroic Recovery Planar Survival Society (Trained)	Heroic Recovery is so strong just because it stands people back up from Prone (a new addition in the Remaster). The other bonuses are nice, but this is great for situations where the target is unconscious as well as if the target was just tripped. Planar Survival is just a bit of a filler skill feat because your Survival is Master by now. Useful on the wrong plane, though. Our Intelligence went up, so we get a free Trained skill. Society is useful sometimes.
11	Fourth Doctrine Spell DC to Expert Reflex Expertise Feather Step Or Toughness Religion (Expert)	Spell DCs to Expert is later than other full casters because we’re a Warpriest. Sacrifices for the sake of being a fun hybrid style. Reflex will remain a weak point in our defenses even after the Expert bump. Take whichever of the General Feats you didn’t take at level 7.
12	Defensive Recovery Student of the Canon	Defensive Recovery is great when you know someone will be stuck in a risky position. It can potentially mitigate some of the incoming damage that wants to undo our healing. Student of the Canon makes us a little better at Religion checks to Recall Knowledge.
13	Divine Defense Armor to Expert Weapon Specialization Elf Step Or Mountain’s Stoutness Religion (Master)	Expert in Armor at 13 is on schedule for all the full casters, we just happen to wear Heavy Armor. Weapon Specialization is a small bump and nice to have. Take whichever of the Ancestry Feats you didn’t take at 9.
14	Fast Channel Sacred Defense	Fast Channel gives a powerful flexibility to heal (and Harm, too) which allows us to cast the emanation for only 2 actions. Sacred Defense is a 1-Action Religion check that can grant us some Temporary Hit Points. Just a nice option to have available.
15	Fifth Doctrine Fortitude Save to Master Success to Critical on Fortitude Saves Legendary Survivalist Survival (Legendary)	Master Fortitude and success upgrade. Like when we got the bonus to Will saves at 9, this is great because there are some Fortitude effects that still mess you up on a normal save. Survival to Legendary before our other skills is for practical reasons. We’ve taken the general feats we want already, and Survival has two Legendary skill feats, so we’ll be taking one of those here at 15. Legendary Survivalist makes us immune to starving, dehydration, and the worst forms of hot or cold.
16	Eternal Blessing Legendary Guide	Eternal Blessing is the Bless spell with a permanent duration. It’s good. Legendary Guide is the other Legendary Survival skill feat. It makes overland travel in exploration mode faster and safer.
17	Stonewall Medicine (Legendary)	Stonewall is a once per day Reaction to just ignore the effects of an attack or a failed Fortitude save. Like a Critical Failure against the Slow spell, for example. Legendary Medicine for better treating wounds.
18	Echoing Channel Legendary Medic	Echoing Channel is pretty much a 50% boost to 2-action Heal.
19	Final Doctrine Master with Greatsword Master with Spell DC Miraculous Spell Tenth Rank Spell Canny Acumen (Reflex) Religion (Legendary)	Master with Greatsword. Much later than martials, but still good. Master with Spells is nice, too. 10th-Rank Spells are great for all sorts of things. Canny Acumen will boost our Reflex from Expert to Master. We can leave our Perception alone as we’ll still be using Track so that we can roll Legendary Survival on Initiative checks.
20	Spellshape Channel Divine Guidance Occultism (Trained)	Spellshape Channel is our strong capstone, having collected all of those Spellshape feats. This allows us to freely add any one spellshape to a Heal or Harm spell. Divine Guidance is the Legendary Religion skill feat. Read scripture for ten minutes and ask the GM for a hint about the plot. It’s alright. Intelligence went up one more time. Occultism is cool. Pick what you like.

Warpriest Cleric of Gorum – PF2 Remaster Example Build