Archery Healer

[Sir_Wulf]

In 3.5, my wife invariably played some sort of elven archer-cleric. Most had a few levels of ranger to bring her archery up.

Unfortunately, the 4th edition cleric's powers just didn't have enough ranged "oomph" to make that concept work. The most effective builds required the cleric to wade into melee. She ended up playing rangers and multiclassing to cleric, but wished she had more ability to help the rest of the party.

What sort of build would you suggest to make her style of character? If practical, please avoid using the most recent additions to 4e: I stopped updating my character builder when WotC began to require a continuing subscription to make it work. (My home Internet service is iffy at best).

[Kurald Galain]

Is playing a warlord acceptable?

[Lord Ascapelion]

I know there's a feat or something that lets you use a bow for an implement as a cleric... I think you have to worship Sehanine. Also, there's the skirmisher Warlord, which I think is in Martial Power 2.

[Kurald Galain]

I know there's a feat or something that lets you use a bow for an implement as a cleric...

Correct, but that won't actually change the range of your powers, nor will it give you a decent ranged arrow attack.

[evirus]

In 3.5, my wife invariably played some sort of elven archer-cleric. Most had a few levels of ranger to bring her archery up.

Unfortunately, the 4th edition cleric's powers just didn't have enough ranged "oomph" to make that concept work. The most effective builds required the cleric to wade into melee. She ended up playing rangers and multiclassing to cleric, but wished she had more ability to help the rest of the party.

What sort of build would you suggest to make her style of character? If practical, please avoid using the most recent additions to 4e: I stopped updating my character builder when WotC began to require a continuing subscription to make it work. (My home Internet service is iffy at best).


She could roll a bard. There is a build of bard that uses ranged weapons and as a leader he heals. Just MC to Cleric for the added "feel"/heals.

[oxybe]

Is playing a warlord acceptable?

i'll +1 the recommendation for archery warlord. i played one a while back and i remember having quite a bit of fun with him.

[kieza]

You can use skill powers (PHB III) to play a ranger, multiclass Cleric, and pick up some heals and Religion-related utilities.

[erikun]

Oddly enough, this topic came up in the 3.5e forum. Here is a handy link for you. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/27535409/Shooting_For_The_Moon:_A_Mini_Guide_For_Bow_Cleric s) The best options seem to be:

Elf Cleric of Sehanine, Moonbow Dedicate feat, Seldarine Dedicate paragon path
Half-Elf Cleric with the Versatile Master feat to make Twin Strike an At-Will
Cleric|Ranger hybrid, specifically for Twin Strike

[Hoggmaster]

Not the best example but Half Elf Cleric ( Ranger / Bard ).... :smalleek:
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Half-Elf, Cleric, Arrow of the Moonbow
Half-Elf Power Selection Option: Dilettante

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 11, CON 14, DEX 17, INT 11, WIS 21, CHA 15

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 10, CON 11, DEX 14, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 14


AC: 26 Fort: 21 Ref: 22 Will: 26
HP: 81 Surges: 9 Surge Value: 20

TRAINED SKILLS
Diplomacy +15, Heal +16, Insight +18, Nature +18, Religion +13, Stealth +16

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +11, Arcana +9, Athletics +8, Bluff +11, Dungeoneering +14, Endurance +10, History +9, Intimidate +11, Perception +14, Streetwise +11, Thievery +11

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Cleric Feature: Divine Fortune
Cleric Feature: Healer's Mercy
Cleric Utility: Healing Word
Bard Feature: Majestic Word
Arrow of the Moonbow Feature: Break the Bonds
Ranger Attack 1: Twin Strike
Cleric Attack 1: Silvery Arrow
Cleric Attack 1: Astral Seal
Cleric Attack 1: Divine Glow
Cleric Attack 1: Astral Condemnation
Cleric Utility 2: Armor of Faith
Cleric Attack 3: Lost Love
Cleric Attack 5: Revealing Light
Cleric Utility 6: Bastion of Health
Cleric Attack 7: Zealous Sanction
Cleric Attack 9: Flame Strike
Cleric Utility 10: Mass Cure Light Wounds
Arrow of the Moonbow Attack 11: Three Moonbeams
Arrow of the Moonbow Utility 12: Moon Eye

FEATS
Level 1: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Bardic Dilettante
Level 2: Holy Dilettante
Level 4: Bardic Knowledge
Level 6: Moonbow Dedicate
Level 8: Combat Virtuoso
Level 10: Bard of All Trades
Level 11: Versatile Master
Level 12: Serene Archery

ITEMS
Ritual Book
Gentle Repose
Moonbow Shortbow +3 x1
Magic Finemail +3 x1
Elven Cloak +3 x1
Magic Spear +3
Purify Water
Brew Potion
Adventurer's Kit
====== End ======

[Epinephrine]

I'm going to suggest the ranged bard wiith songbow, possibly picking up warlord MC.

[mobdrazhar]

i would have to agree with the prescient bard with songbow.

[WitchSlayer]

If she wanted more of a medic rather than a cleric I believe there's a feat that makes a heal check to make someone spend a healing surge a minor action rather than a standard.

[Epinephrine]

i would have to agree with the prescient bard with songbow.

Euphonic Bow would be a nice paragon path. And a half-elf could take Combat Virtuoso to use Charisma for both a dilettante power as well as any multiclass powers they acquired. You could have a pair of solid bard at-wills (ranged and implement) and grab a fun archery at will like the Warlord's Paint the Bull's Eye (and since it doesn't add strength to damage, you're not giving anything up), or a Seeker power to get a decent RBA.

[Gillric]

If she wanted more of a medic rather than a cleric I believe there's a feat that makes a heal check to make someone spend a healing surge a minor action rather than a standard.

the feat is Combat Medic from Heroes of Fallen Lands

[kyoryu]

i'll +1 the recommendation for archery warlord. i played one a while back and i remember having quite a bit of fun with him.

+2 on Archer Warlord. It's a Leader build specifically designed to be used with a bow. No build shenanigans required.

[Seb Wiers]

the feat is Combat Medic from Heroes of Fallen Lands

Same feat is also in Heros of the Forgoten Kingdoms, for obvious reason.
However, the minor action use doesn't apply to "First Aid" rolls (which allow the target to take a Second Wind as a free action, which isn't the same as using a healing surge- its an encounter power, for one thing).
What you get to do as a minor action is attempt to stabilize the dying- which just means they stop making saves vs death, without any change in HP.
Of course, either way you get the +2 to Heal rolls.

[Sir_Wulf]

I tried building a half-elven healing archer-warlord for her, but wasn't very pleased with my first draft. My final result seemed to be a second-rate archer who could heal someone once per encounter and gave allies free attacks.

My attempt at a build seemed dependent on several different attributes, producing a character incapable of doing anything particularly well. The Warlord powers generally demanded Strength and Intelligence, while the archery aspect demanded Dexterity, and any healing demanded Wisdom. The half-elven race boosted Constitution and Charisma.

Suggestions?

[Gillric]

The archer warlord class feature basically replaces dex with strength for your Ranged Basic Attack. Your ranged weapon at-wills also use strength. Not having a high dex score should not make a difference.

[mobdrazhar]

+2 on Archer Warlord. It's a Leader build specifically designed to be used with a bow. No build shenanigans required.

but then again so is the prescient bard. And more of the powers can be either dex or cha based where as most of the warlord powers are cha or str.

plus the bard can use a songbow for its implement powers and thus have the same items for ranged weapon and implement powers.

[Shadow_Elf]

For an Archer Warlord, you need one of the following:

Strength + Wisdom
OR
Strength + Intelligence

You do not need both, or any other statistic. Dex is useless beyond, say, a 13 to meet Heroic feat prereqs. Charisma does absolutely nothing for you, you can dump that, especially if you take Wisdom secondarily. Good races include Genasi, Minotaur and Longtooth Shifter if you want double primary boosts. If you only want Strength, there's plenty of options on top of those.

For a Prescient Bard, you need:

Charisma + Wisdom

And probably some Constitution and Dexterity to keep up your Initiative, Hitpoints, and Reflex/Fortitude defenses. Good races include Half-Elf (for dilletantism and a primary boost), Kalashtar (for double primaries) and most other CHA races will give you some nice other options.

Both of these builds heal similarly to a cleric, and use bows as their primary or sole weapon. The added benefit of being a Prescient Bard over an Archer Warlord is that you can benefit more from Half-Elf's boosts, so you can afford to take that race and pick up Combat Virtuoso and paragon feat for your Dilletante to pick up a CHA-based Twin Strike, which'll let you do some striker-ing on the side of your heals. Both are also readily open to the common two-feat-dip for a Shaman heal 1/encounter.

[Epinephrine]

For a Prescient Bard, you need:
...
And probably some Constitution and Dexterity to keep up your Initiative, Hitpoints, and Reflex/Fortitude defenses.

To be fair, you need these for the warlord, too. They have the same surges and HP. But the feat Battlewise takes care of initiative for the Cha/Wis bard and the Str/Wis warlord. As a little bonus, the bard can use a Ring of Tenacious Will to get his/her surges based on Charisma instead of Constitution.

I've tried building an archer warlord, and couldn't get one I was really happy with, while I managed fine with the ranged bard, but it may be a play-style thing. For fun, the bard I built rather non-optimally paragon multiclassed into Warlord, in part to be able to grant his Charisma bonus to the initiative of all allies via the feat Combat Commander. He was actually a Cha/Int build (not Cha/Wis), and could drop his initiative by 4 to grant his Cha to one ally and his Int to another, pretty much ensuring that not only does his side go first, but whichever specific party members he wanted to had the first actions. It was a little crazy, since he got Cha-4 to his initiative, and everyone got his Cha, and two PCs he chose got his Cha and Int on top of that. I don't think the party ever lost init.