So i've recently just learned how to play the game and have been pondering over makin a cleric to act as a group healer, and do not much in the way of combat damage. What would you suggest as some good startin feats? why? What prestige classes should i build the char towards? ~John

If you're just learning to play, I suggest you don't aim towards any particular prestige or multiclass build, instead play your cleric straight-up for now... IMHO its the best way to become proficient in with the basic rules.

As for playing as a party healer: you've chosen a good class for it. Specifically, Pelor as a diety is particularly good for healing. You should take at the least the healing domain, and others as fitting your character's purpose and personality.

If you are playing a cleric healer, then you are in pretty good shape. You will be capable of engaging in direct combat as what some of us like to call a "secondary tank", that is a character capable of heavy melee combat but not quite as well suited for it as other characters (ie: fighter, paladin). As your party begins to take significant damage, you should move yourself out of immediate combat range (and absolutely out of melee range, as using your spells at this range will trigger attacks of opportunity against you) so you can begin to cast your various spells. The spells a cleric casts are generally what we call "utility" spells as they mostly enhance or weaken a character instead of directly manipulating them. In particular as a healer you will want to learn many varied healing spells. As you advance your spells will be able to heal more damage (Hit-points) at a time, and eventually you will gain mass healing abilities (the ability to heal multiple characters so long as they are in a certain range from each other) which are pretty darn cool.

I don't have a PHB (player's handbook) handy at the moment so I can't suggest any feats in particular, but you may want to look through the online D20 SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/). It has a pretty complete listing of most everything you'll need until you start getting into the advanced nitty-gritty stuff.

Clerics can make excellent combat characters. One main thing to remember is don't waste your prepared spells on healing. You have the option of replacing any spell you have ready with one that has "Heal" in the name, so you don't need to prep them before hand. So pick a range of spells that might be useful, and decide which to use.

I wish I had a group of friends who were interested in Dungeons and Dragons. I've never played it properly (my brothers and I had a basic version of it when we were young, but it wasn't very in depth).

Sorry to hijack the thread, but are there any sites or services that facilitate playing D&D over the internet? Such as character tracking, virtual dice, comms, and a community of people willing to play?

I've done a couple of googles, but can't come up with anything ever since the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO was released.

Once you go gurps, you'll never go back.

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
Once you go gurps, you'll never go back.

I've looked at it, I even have used copies of the books laying around here, but I've never actually gotten a group to play it. Not sure why, but it seems easier to get D&D or Whitewolf going.

There are plenty of tools online helpful for playing D&D. The d20srd site has a couple (like a dice roller) and there are a number of things like online character sheets ("profilers") available if you do a google search for them.

Quote: Original post by Talroth

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
Once you go gurps, you'll never go back.

I've looked at it, I even have used copies of the books laying around here, but I've never actually gotten a group to play it. Not sure why, but it seems easier to get D&D or Whitewolf going.

This is true, although I would guess it's just as hard to get a D&D group that has good hygiene as it is to get a gurps game going. It seems like every D&D game I've been able to find have had terrible body odor issues. The gurps games (I've only found one group to be honest) is thankfully BO free.

www.d20srd.org
srd.pbemnexus.com

These are both system reference documents (SRDs) for 3.5, containing what the license says is free and open to the public. Almost all of the Player's Handbook and the Monster Manual are in here, excluding monsters that are the intellectual property of WotC from MM and anything involving character creation or development from PHB - the section detailing how you make a character in the beginning of the PHB is gone, the section called "Description" in PHB is gone, and you won't find the experience tables, or how to calculate experience rewards based on monster CR. Very little of the DMG is online - mostly just the prestige classes it introduced. These two websites have basically the same content, it's just organized differently. There are torrent downloads of all the books, but they're not exactly legal.

www.crystalkeep.com/d20/index.php

This one is basically a list of everything and anything - base classes, spells, prestige classes, magic items, etc. But it only does brief summaries and not full-blown descriptions, because of fun legal issues. It's great for trying to find a neat magical item to throw at the party or to see all the prestige classes or variant base classes you can use for your character compiled into one place. At times I've found it's not 100% accurate, and you may want to cross-check it with the relevant book, if in fact you have the relevant book.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/charactersheets
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/tools

1: All the character sheets for 3.5. You probably want to go with the original 3.5, because that's the one that most people use. The "ATTACK" bars are secretly where you list your weapons.
2: A list of free adventure modules made by the WotC folks; my very first for-real adventure as a player was Wreck Ashore, in fact. These are great for beginning DMs, and even if you don't use them, they give you a sense of everything you'll need to think about.
3: A bunch of random tools that you may find useful - tavern generators, dice rollers, adventure hooks, all kinds of crazy stuff.

There's a ton of content on the Wizards site, as long as you look for it - but you can't really find it through the main Wizards site anymore, you have to search for it (if you search for dnd character sheet 3.5 through google, from there you can navigate through the 3.5 section).

Quote: Original post by RaiderIV
What would you suggest as some good startin feats? why?
What prestige classes should i build the char towards?

Haven't played P&P for ages, (and it was AD&D 2nd Ed back then) although I have played a fair bit of NWN, online and off.

As to your questions, it depends on your group and style of play.

If it's an RP group, the answer is easy. What would your character have? If there's a PrC that suits your character, you can work towards that, but you shouldn't have to plan it too rigorously.

If it's a powergaming group, then it's a bit harder. Developing powerbuilds is a challenge in itself, and you can create some real monsters. They do take a fair bit of planning, as you'll often have to take feats and classes in exactly the right order to qualify for other feats or classes at the right time. There's a few here although bear in mind they're designed for NWN; some of them may take advantage of the game's particular interpretation of the rules, and they're limited to the classes and prcs supported by the game. However they could give you some ideas for your own.

Clerics are a good solid class, although personally I always hated them. Rogues and Mages (and Rogue/Mages) were always much more fun.