takh clerics and their aspect

[xafelar]

   Takhisis, Queen of Darkness 
   Lawful Evil
   Colours: black and iridescent black

   Not even fools or children speak the name Takhisis lightly. Her name
   summons darkness, destruction, and death. Swathed in shadow and hatred,
   she desires only the domination and destruction of Krynn and its folk.



Takh clerics used to be(and still are) super boring/slow pure support class which had no special set of empowers which made them unique RP-wise or gameplay-wise. The only cool thing about followers of Dragon Queen(God of darkness, destruction, domination and death) is... ability to cast sanc on others ? Sounds really comical. Also, their goodie counterparts(mishacal and majere) have much more to offer in terms of support and a lot of specific/unique skills and empowers.

To fix the deal they got a new empower to demand(not steal, since they are not Hiddukels!) powers of other Gods. And the idea is really great and makes them somewhat unique(also intresting and tempting) in terms of gameplay. BUT... the empower was made very limited and hardly makes a gamechanger or gives any field for maneur. There is no single clerical empower that would turn sanc machine into something intresting and possibly unique, because all other clerics have a set of *multiple* empowers to represent their God and form a niche/unique gameplay.

Basically, there are two problems with the aspect:
1) Only one possible empower to gain.
2) Cleric has to die to change/reset their choice.

Solutions:
1) Having up to 3 possible empowers to gain would make Takh clerics really intresting to play. Takhisis doesn't grant any special powers(aside of dragonfire and few resist spells) to her followers. They definately could use some more empowers to play with. It could be raw number or level based or something else. Though less than 3 possible empower gains wouldn't make much sense and pretty much ruin the whole idea.
2) A way(may be an empower) to reset their choice in a less painful way. May be just another empower with long CD (a hour, a few hours, may be a whole day?!) so they dont change their skillset on fly.

P.S. Feel free to say that I know nothing, because I didn't try to play and test this one It is true. I can't force myself to level up Takh cleric just to figure out that they are still weak and boring on their own. I've done it in past and refuse to do it again, hah! Thus my observations are purely theoretical and based on helpfiles. Though I REALLY like the idea, but not the way it currently implemented. I would be definately keen to try this cleric out with improved empower as suggested above.

[Sirri]

You're at it again. You can't assume your memory from 2002 is anywhere close to reality in 2026. Takhisis are currently pretty much the strongest dark clerics.

[zondra]

They are beast with witherfist.

[xafelar]

Could you guys explain your points more detailed, please? Your posts make me feel like I am missing something very important about Takh clerics. What does mean 'strongest dark cleric' and 'beast'?

I dont deny that targetted sanc makes them very valuable for any dark group. Does this fact alone makes them 'strongest'? It could be the case since abjurers lost sanc, but it is not obvious.
My point is that outside of a group(which is very common situation with low pbase) they lack any strong points you could work around(no edam, no high end heals/protections, no pets, no forms etc). On their own they hardly qualify to fit their domination role and thei deity.
Do you mean they are strongest CLERIC(i.e. support in common sense) and not supposed to perform well alone? Is their high value for group balanced by their weakness at times of solitude? I could accept it if thats the point.

Again, I could be missing important knowledge or something. I've played Takh cleric like 10 years ago(whenever Solace was up), so dont judge me too harsh

[zondra]

Witherfist is insanely strong. So with this empower plus res to acid and shroud other and many good maces that flare and skills

[Sirri]

No harsh judgement (yet) but the main point you seem to be missing is that SPELLS (both 95% of debuffs and damage) ACTUALLY WORK AGAINST MOBS nowadays.

[Haston]

Witherfist is a pretty nasty debuff not only does it reduce strength on said mob it also places soften maybe something else as well on it as well the utility of a the cleric is pretty awesome. And I agree that there should be something in place to be able to swap out the empowers without a death involved. But over all I think they are in a pretty good place as of now.