Cleric snipper/poisoner build? Doable?

[Pika...]

Well,

I am currently playing a cleric with the Elf domain, which gives it True Strike as a domain spell. This got me thinking of the following build idea I am trying to slap together.

1. Cleric with the Elf domain (able to cast True Strike from wands without UMD).
2. Buys a Heavy Crossbow.
3. Puts a Crossbow Bayonet for the Heavy Crossbow.
4. Put a Wand Chamber in the handle of the Heavy Crossbow.
5. Put a fully charged wand of True Strike in the Heavy Crossbow.
6. Take Rapid Reload: (Heavy Crossbow). This allows him to reload his Heavy Crossbow as a move action.
7. Has multiple crossbow bolts coated with different poisons, each marked by a separate color on tip of bolt.
8. Specialize in poisons that will always do something, even if the person saves.
9. Fill up all casting slots with Divine Favor.

I imagine his attack routine would go as follows:
Before Upcoming Battle: Cast True Strike from wand/weapon, and load Heavy Crossbow. Cast Divine Favor if able.
First Round: Fire preloaded Heavy Crossbow and move. Will almost certainly hit.
Second Round: Move action to reload Heavy Crossbow. Standard to cast True Strike from Heavy Crossbow.
Third Round +: Rinse and repeat.



So, is it a doable/effect build? Any thoughts on how to make it better?

Many Pikas in advance!

[erikun]

I'm not familiar with many poisons that deal damage even of a successful save. Poisons also tend to be expensive too, especially if you want a reasonable save DC.

You'll probably want a feat to avoid accidentally poisoning yourself. You will probably also want the Zen Archery feat, for using WIS on ranged attack rolls.

Is there any reason you are choosing a heavy crossbow rather than a light/hand crossbow, or even a longbow with a wand bracer of some sort?

Other than that, I don't see this being terribly effective. You are making one attack every other round, and all but the strongest poisons aren't going to do much more than slow an opponent down a bit before they die from melee damage - not to mention the various monster types that are outright immune to poisons of any kind. You're better than your average archer, but won't be dominating the battlefield.

I mean, you could instead be casting (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bane.htm) various (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/doom.htm) Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bestowCurse.htm) spells (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/prayer.htm) rather than dealing with poison if you want to hand out penalities. -1 to all relevant rolls is about what you'd expect from a weak poison anyways, and you could just cast the one spell and switch over to sniping afterwards.

[kharmakazy]

If you insist on poison consider going warforged for immunity. If you can swing aboleth mucus then you are golden. Any creature coming into contact or inhaling it must succeed on a DC 19 fort save or be unable to breath air for the next 3 hours.

[graeylin]

When i first saw this "Cleric Snipper", i thought "A rabbi?"

then i read what you were really after, and agree with the other posters: it's a less than optimal way to go about using your clerical powers or your ranged skills: clerics do other things better, and other things (rangers, etc.) do ranged combat better.

Your build idea certainly has flavor, but I would think a sorcerer focused on ray spells would do the same thing, with ease. many of the poison effects are done with rays too: idiocy, enfeeblement, etc..

[kharmakazy]

Oh, hey! I don't think there is a way to deliver touch spells via crossbows, but it would be pretty balanced to have your DM make it a feat. I mean.. it would actually make your spells easier to resist since they are ranged attacks and not ranged touch attacks.

[ericgrau]

The main problem is that you're firing a shot every two rounds. You'll usually get more hits if you fire twice every two rounds instead, even without true strike. The exception would be very difficult to hit targets, like big bads or things behind two forms of cover or etc. Then you could true strike. I'd only true strike in these situations. While the big bad will probably make its save, it sounds like you found a way where he'll still get debuffed a little and the big bad is a nice target for no save debuffs.

For normal fights I might get a light crossbow or some such at high levels so you can get rapid reload plus rapid shot and make multiple attacks.