It seems there is a large amount of people on these forums that play Pathfinder so I think it's time we had a topic for the discussion of it. For those of you who do not know; Pathfinder is a vastly superior alternative to DnD built upon the platform of DnD v3.5 which has been a resounding success thanks to both it's own excellence and the horridness of DnD v4.0. The purpose of this topic is two-pronged: first of all it is a place to discuss characters, campaigns and stories as well as discussion of any Pathfinder related news. Secondly: it is a place for those new to or interested in becoming involved in Pathfinder to ask questions of veteran players. I will provide a link to the Paizo (the company which makes the game) website at the end of the post.

I'd like to start off with a quandary of my own: I am an avid player of Divine casters; primarily Clerics and Oracles. My table has just begun a custom campaign path created by our DM for which I am playing a Lawful Neutral Human Oracle named Atticus. As I am the 5th party member this time I was free to make whatever I wanted rather than having to fill one of the four standard rolls (Arcane Caster, Healer, Rogue, Tank) and I at first chose to make a Battle Oracle. The Battle Oracle is skilled as an off-tank/off-healer, support buffer and has an excellent CMB... it's working out great. But I digress; I'm curious if anyone has any experience as a Cleric of the Crusader archetype because I'd wanted to do that for this campaign but it hasn't worked well in the best. I'd like some advice on how to optimize the Crusader archetype because the one I made [censored] svcked miserably from 1 to 8 at which level he died. I used to play a lot of Cleric&--#62;Warpriest characters in v3.5 but it seems like it's a lot harder to make a Cleric fighty in Pathfinder.

http://paizo.com/

Mmmm cant answer ur question necause I am a neewbie whos getting rdy to dm his first game this weekend. I do have a question for u though.
I was thinking of creating a cleric from the domain of madness. He gonna be madder than a cat in a hat and uses his channel spell to heal but his arua will produce madness. My question is im looking at the deitys and I dont see one for madness. who would I have for his religion to receive the domain of madness?

Lamashtu is a Chaotic Evil deity with the madness domain; or you can be a Cleric without a deity and pick any domains you want. Main thing you lose from not having a deity is spells like commune and proficiency with your deity's weapon. Your best bet for the concept you have in mind is to either go without a deity or just quickly create your own because a Cleric of Lamashtu would not channel positive energy so healing is out. Creating a deity is easy just come up with a name, alignment, domains and weapon... maybe a bit of backstory too. As a player creating your own deity is usually discouraged but as GM it's absolutely reasonable. It's important to remember that while the rules keep things orderly it's okay to bend them a bit within reason for the sake of a better story and more fun for the players.

Ty looks like im creating my own.....i may borrow sheogarth since none of the players have played tes. Their more into baldurs gate isometrical rpgs. But ya im gonna stay away from cheese comments and such.
Hopefully u get the answer to ur question.

Sheogorath would most definitely be Chaotic Neutral.

In fact, I created this a while ago as part of another discussion:

I use DnD/Pathfinder's morality categories for the purposes of determining a given character's allegiance.

Akatosh: Lawful Good
Talos: Lawful Good
Stendarr: Neutral Good
Kynareth: Chaotic Good
Mara: Neutral Good
Arkay: Neutral
Dibella: Neutral
Julianos: Lawful Neutral
Zenithar: Lawful Neutral

Mehrunes Dagon: Chaotic Evil
Hermaeus Mora: Neutral
Azura: Chaotic Good
Sheogorath: Chaotic Neutral
Meridia: Neutral Good
Nocturnal: Chaotic Neutral
Boethiah: Chaotic Evil
Mephala: Lawful Evil
Vaermina: Chaotic Evil
Jyggalag: Lawful Neutral
Peyrite: Lawful Neutral
Hircine: Chaotic Neutral
Molag Bal: Chaotic Evil
Clavicus Vile: Lawful Evil
Malacath: Chaotic Neutral
Sanguine: Chaotic Neutral
Namira: Neutral Evil

Just hosted a game tonight because we were bored. Have a Wizard, Cleric, Barbarian, and Ranger.

Ok hosted my first game as a player on top of a dm. Op I have been reading alot about the clerics. Ur wanting a crusades type, against what exactly. also as a crusader are u wanting to shine in combat or spells or vice versa. Or is it a rp question?
Im having to play a cleric for our grp and have been hitting the books hardcoe, so im a little bit more knowledgeable. Granted still a newbie at it, but maybe I can add a fresh new look or etc.

I'm experienced with DnD, is pathfinder pretty similar? Would anyone be willing to direct me to a tutorial over how it works?

The way I've always prioritized a Crusader is Wisdom>Charisma>Strength. Best way to do it in my opinion is as a Human using the alternate racial from the Advanced Race Guide that lets you lose the +1 skill point per level and gain another +2 to any attribute. Aasimar is another solid choice, they're basically Cleric: The Race. From an RP standpoint you want to physically kill enemies of your faith whilst bolstering your allies. War Domain is a definite must.

It's 3.75. So if you know 3.5 they are more or less barring some tweaks and balance changes almost the exact same thing. Pathfinde ris pretty popular though and growing since it really makes the classes much more interesting and dynamic. No more "dead" levels, you always get something new every level.

That sounds nice, yeah thats one of the complaints I have with DnD, some levels don't gain much of anything. I'll try to find some videos on youtube and maybe I'll pick up a few books to learn the basics.

what the guy who got me into pathfinder told me to do is get the pathfinder app. Theres an app that has a [censored]load of information feom quite alot of the books in that app and its free.
And yes in pathfinder, its almost like pushing u to stay a single class because of the bonuses u get maxxing out that class.

Btw, can anyone point me to the aruas that clerics get according to their deity? It states that clerics start off with aruas but it always points me to pallys and from what I gather pallys gain aruas as they level but arent clerics supposed to be different depending on deity or alignment?

The aura just allows someone to determine how powerful you are by using detect alignment. It doesn't have any powers like a Paladin aura.

ahhh tyvm! Then I dont need to wry bout it then, one less thing to keep track of lol.

Got another question. My grp is rp heavy so they only do what their charecters would do etc etc. I know rogues get the lockpicking skill and str heavy charecters get the bash open, do physically weak casters get a spell to help with opening locks?

I see the open/close spell which they could manipulate things 30pds or less but one grp member whos brand new at pathfinder but experienced in dnd3.something I think 1, during a session he cast it to open a lock. I called him out on it but he said the spell bypasses resistences or something or other. I didnt look at the spell and let it happen, but afterwards been reading up on everyones charecters so I can help them in the future. I saw the spell and it says when somethings locked or barred, the spells fails. Now hes a sorcerer and ive been looking for a spell that opens locks but I dont see one.
Nows hes in charecter and hes a physically weak caster who prides himself on mainly relying on spells and magic. Is there a way I can tweek the spell that could open locks? Like if he cast it at the chest, it fails but if he cast it at the lock he has a chance for opening it. Like if the dc is 15 on the lock have him roll for a 15 or higher? Maybe only have it work on rusted, simple, and normal locks? If I decided when he gets up in level, what should I use to add to his roll for the higher than 20 dc locks?
Any suggestions?

There's a specific spell for opening locks; it is called Knock.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/knock.html