What skills would you give to cleric?

Last time I had a cleric with developed skills of Concentration, Heal, Spellcraft and Use Item... During the game I found Concentration and Heal useful somehow, but it seems that Spellcraft and Use Items skills were never used or worth nothing to cleric.
The next time I will start the game I'm going to choose something else instead of these two skills. But it seems there is lack of useful skills for cleric, since my cleric is not a spokesman, is not a ranger or thief in specialization. So the only skills remaining are Listen+Spot - they depend on Wisdom. But I hardly can remember a fact, when these feats helped me somehow... I may like to take Gather Information for cleric to help my spokesman paladin in gathering information... But may be I lost a lot while not using skill of using items or spellcraft??? Or is it good to have two spokesmen - male and female? Are there any differences with female spokes...woman?
So what skills do you often give to clerics?

 

Im a total noob so take this with the proverbial grain of salt...

I like Heal and Concentration as well. I also think Tumble is a vital skill for clerics. When battles get really nasty and your line has collapsed and the enemy is among you, then clerics will need to avoid AoOs. Perhaps a better player than I from a tactical standpoint would disagree but my two clerics both end up needing Tumble (far too) often...

 

Your clerics should be dwarfs or shouldn't wear heavy armor. In other cases they loose tumble effect. Yes, tumble is good. I give it to my wizard and ranger... as well as to dwarf fighter, but not to cleric. And I don't want to make cleric dwarf, since I have already one and that's enough for me.
BTW... I don't know, is it possible to tumble in bone armor? I guess no, though.

 

Tumble and concentration are the way to go. Even with heavy armor the tumble comes in handy. If you really need to get somewhere fast boots of speed work.

 

Hmm? How? Doesn't heavy armor negate Tumble for non-dwarves?

 

If I have a cleric with 5 skill points I would tend to max out Concentration, Spot, Listen, Tumble and one "flex" skill. For example in a party makeup where I don't have a "nature" type I would cross-class with some ranks in survival. In a situation where my cleric is an opposite gender than my "spokesperson" they become my second "face" character in order to access the gender specific quests. If they aren't needed for any other function then I am most likely to put those points into spellcraft although I do concur that it is basically useless for more than one character to have.

FR

 

But are there any gender specific quests except that with a boy in Hommlet?
Now I try to choose between the second spokesman specialization or Spot/Listen...

But now somehow doubtful about need of Spot/Listen, since in my last walkthrough the team crushed through the temple as a heavy tank, that I can't remember if there were any need in Listening or Spotting. I even didn't use any sneak or hiding skills.

Also... Why does everybody like Tumble for clerics? Does everybody choose dwarves for cleric job? Or does everybody equip him with light armor?

 

My Clerics usually have lowish INT and DEX, high CON and WIS, and as much STR and CHA as I have points left over for. Concentration is a no-brainer, and Scribe Scroll is an excellent clerical feat, giving you almost unlimited spell casting if you invest a bit of time and forethought. Use Item is only really useful near the very end of the game for Clerics, and even then only if you have a high CHA and a feat invested in Skill Focus: Use Item. I tend to spread their skill points out among the usual suspects; maxed Concentration, then Spellcraft (role play reasons only), Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Spot, Listen, Survival, maybe Tumble.

 

But does Spellcraft have any influence on scribing scrolls? Copying scrolls may fail sometimes but I never saw failue of scribing scrolls. But yes my cleric and wizard had maxed out Spellcraft. I liked that my cleric was able to scribe scrolls. There are lot's of vital spells that are not needed always, but if they are neede suddenly, they are needed badly!
So what about Spellcraft and Scribing Scrolls? I know only that Spellcraft is useful for copying scrolls, that means it's useful for wizards only.

 

Spellcraft on Clerics is mainly there for roleplaying reasons, and because it's sometimes nice to know what you enemies are casting. It does not influence scribing.

 

As others have said, Tumble does not work in medium or heavy armor. Period. It's not that the penalties are too high, but the by the rules and in ToEE it just plain doesn't work. Last time I checked, it doesn't work for dwarves either, even though it should.

Spellcraft is in ToEE by Wizards for copying scrolls (not Scribing) and for all characters to identify spells being cast by NPCs. Granted, this isn't super-useful in ToEE because most of the spells have unique visual and auditory effects unless you plan on using Counterspells. (Does Counterspelling even work in ToEE? I've never tried it and haven't heard of anyone doing it. Heck, I've never heard of anyone doing it in PNP.)

 

My dwarf armored with Purple Elven Chain tumbles successfully. Isn't it a medium armor? Though I didn't try plate armors for my dwarf.
So it will be interesting to test if elven chain mails allow tumble for human heroes.

 

Elven chain is light armor, and humans can use tumble with it.