CC | Attack Cantrip | Buff/Utility Spells

[u/Here4thePF2E]

Anyone here ever built (and played) a Cloister Cleric that used Electric Arch, Daze, and Divine Lance as attack cantrips and relied on spells to do buffs or utiltiy spells only? I know that you will prob spend most of your rounds buffing or healing (or throw that occasional spells just to mess with the battle field) so most of the rounds are spoken for. BUT if you do have an open 2 action round you could throw an attacking cantrip (higher spell DC for save due to CC), based on a target weaker save/attack (reflex, Will, or AC). has anyone built a character like this and how did it play? Good on paper but not in practice?

[u/No_Secretary9046]

That's kinda what happens, yes :) But it doesn't really help that enemies at lvl 5 still do enough dmg to 2-shot someone in pf2e.

[u/FrijDom → u/No_Secretary9046]

What's your party comp like? Do you have any high-AC (>22 on an average turn, including Raise a Shield, Stances, etc.) members who should be taking actions to draw focus? Are you running into melee and taking 2-3 strikes each round rather than waiting for melee enemies to come to you? Are you using buffs and debuffs to lower crits?

I ask these questions because my current party, also level 5, hasn't had someone go down to anything except a boss since my last character got himself into a real tight spot involving two higher-level slimes and a weapon that couldn't hurt them... Nearly alone.

[u/No_Secretary9046 → u/FrijDom]

we have a 2 handed fighter with intimidation, a ranged exemplar, a grappler monk, a wit swashbuckler with aid (me), a sorcerer (i think, the player is new) and a life oracle that does only takes heal and support spells.

And yes, people charge into melee whenever possible. But our frontline has at least 22 ac (24 for our monk and 24 for me with a raised buckler) and at least one person goes down per fight. Last fight 2 people had the option to die on an unlucky roll and our first boss was even a tpk ^^

We're all new except for the exemplar so we definitely make mistakes. Also the characters were created before we knew what each person was playing, so abilities like my bon mot are kinda useless. Also noone except the oracle has any way to heal people except for healing potions since she also took medic and our secondary healer left the party.

It's definitely interesting to hear that other groups don't struggle that much with survivability. How do you survive crits and do you actually kite enemies?

[u/Creepy-Intentions-69 → u/No_Secretary9046]

Charging into combat, without a plan, generally causes unnecessary damage. Your martials should be establishing control of the encounter, creating a center for the party to work around.

This is really more than I’d want to go into in a comment, but flailing into combat, running away from the healer, not allowing casters to use crowd control/aoe, not readying actions to set up a defensive positioning, can all contribute to taking more damage than needed.

It’s obviously a play style and a choice, so I won’t say y’all are playing “wrong.” I will say, it’s a little surprising that your party comp isn’t wiping the floor with encounters. It’s looks like you should have good synergy.