Dragonlance elf/cleric fluff, iteratives to hit, bow or sling

[Reaver225]

Hello playgrounders!

I was wondering if you could help me out with a few questions! I'm in a prewritten dragonlance campaign, the key of Quinari, and wanted to ask with some help for my cloistered cleric elf.

Easy rules stuff first: does +X to attack spells give you iteratives if you pump them enough? I know divine power does but do not know if that applies to + to hit. If not, does it apply to each iterative?

Secondly: which would be better for a cleric with strength that's going to yoyo between low and high? A bow, or a sling? Currently my cleric has 9 Str but using spells etc it will bounce. What are good upgrade options? We're level 2 at the moment so all I have is a masterwork longbow and a sling for range (and a MW longsword and a longspear for melee).

Lastly! I'm playing a Silvanesti elven cleric of Gilean, statblock

Kyanna Starglance (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=330337)
Female Neutral Neutral Silvanesti Elf Cloistered Cleric, Level 2, Init +0, HP 5/5, Speed 30
AC 14, Touch 10, Flat-footed 14, Fort +2, Ref +0, Will +6, Base Attack Bonus 1
Longspear 0 (1d8, X3)
Masterwork Longsword 1 (1d8, X2)
Chain Shirt (+4 Armor)
Abilities Str 8, Dex 10, Con 9, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 12
Feats: invisible spell, extend spell (via planning domain), scribe spell (rune domain)

I'm planning on going into seeker of the misty isle as a prestige class but the problem is the roleplay entry to get in, and their fluff, which is in a different world. I can't go easy on the RP req either as he's adamant rp classes have been buffed in order to have an RP drawback, and that's fair enough. And so I need to find a dragonlance equivalent of elvish scoutmages.

The DM has suggested using the Kiriath fluff from another dragonlance specific prestige class but both agree it didn't really fit that well, as it's quite a martial class. I'd suggest the "seeker of the song" but that would confuse matters more as well as give away I read the backstory!

Anyone with dragonlance knowledge able to chip in?

Otherwise, any other optimization ideas? Core is ok, but anything else should mostly be in the complete books only and I have to run it by him (so zen archery is ok'd but knowledge devotion is out apparently). May or may not be able to get persistent spell in, and probably not Divine Meta magic in, anything else I can burn turn attempts on?

[Darrin]

Iteratives: No, attack bonuses do not increase your BAB, and your BAB determines your iterative attacks. There are very, very few ways to increace your BAB (mostly divine powah! and bard's inspire greatness). There are other ways to increase your number of attacks, but they tend to be expensive (speed weapons, haste, etc.).

As for the bow/sling... unless you can get your DM to houserule something for slings, Rapid Reload won't work with them, and there's no way in 3.x to reload a sling with anything other than a move action. You can preload the slings and use Quickdraw to draw them, but that makes enchanting the slings problematic. Up until recently, I thought a bone bow (Frostburn) auto-adjusted to your Strength bonus, but a strict RAW interpretation might not agree (check with your DM). If you find your Str bonus bouncing up and down a lot, I would suggest:

Elvencraft Composite Longbow (+300 GP, Races of the Wild). This makes it count as a melee weapon, and thus eligible for the Morphing weapon property (+1 enhancement, Magic Item Compendium). You can then use a standard action to switch your Mighty Elvencraft Composite Longbow (+2 Str) to a Mighty Elvencraft Composite Longbow (+4 Str).

Otherwise, ask your DM if Hank's Energy Bow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a) is available.

I can't recall the specifics on elven deities in Dragonlance... do you have access to the Elf domain (grants Point Blank Shot as the domain power)?

[Reaver225]

Thanks for the info on iteratives!

I'll run the bows and the elf domain by him... I don't really want to switch deities, though, got some decent roleplaying going on...

How would I get access to more/switch domains, assuming I can wrangle elf domain as a choice? Retraining? Domain exchange?

And what would I do with my new Point Blank Shot + spells?

Edit: Gilean is a generic knowledge god, not elven as such. I can probably say something like "also venerates some old elvish gods too" probably.

[Diarmuid]

Point Blank shot is a prereq for Precise Shot which you're definitely going to want so you're not missing everyone when firing into melee. Getting it for free is much better than having to spend a precious feat on it.

[Tokuhara]

Iteratives: No, attack bonuses do not increase your BAB, and your BAB determines your iterative attacks. There are very, very few ways to increace your BAB (mostly divine powah! and bard's inspire greatness). There are other ways to increase your number of attacks, but they tend to be expensive (speed weapons, haste, etc.).

As for the bow/sling... unless you can get your DM to houserule something for slings, Rapid Reload won't work with them, and there's no way in 3.x to reload a sling with anything other than a move action. You can preload the slings and use Quickdraw to draw them, but that makes enchanting the slings problematic. Up until recently, I thought a bone bow (Frostburn) auto-adjusted to your Strength bonus, but a strict RAW interpretation might not agree (check with your DM). If you find your Str bonus bouncing up and down a lot, I would suggest:

Elvencraft Composite Longbow (+300 GP, Races of the Wild). This makes it count as a melee weapon, and thus eligible for the Morphing weapon property (+1 enhancement, Magic Item Compendium). You can then use a standard action to switch your Mighty Elvencraft Composite Longbow (+2 Str) to a Mighty Elvencraft Composite Longbow (+4 Str).

Otherwise, ask your DM if Hank's Energy Bow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a) is available.

I can't recall the specifics on elven deities in Dragonlance... do you have access to the Elf domain (grants Point Blank Shot as the domain power)?

Second the Energy Bow, perhaps w/ Mighty & Elvencraft? Or maybe fluff the bow to look like this: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/bleach/en/images/b/b9/UryuNewBow.jpg

[Reaver225]

Point Blank shot is a prereq for Precise Shot which you're definitely going to want so you're not missing everyone when firing into melee. Getting it for free is much better than having to spend a precious feat on it.

Ah, right, precise shot. Is there any more feats I should take for my archery (though I guess it helps with ranged touch spells just as much), or should I take any metamagic if I assume DMM and Persist are out?

I'm guessing quicken at 9 would be fine, after Zen Archery at 3 and Precise Shot at 6. What else might be useful?

[Gavinfoxx]

Have you read this?

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10961.0

[Diarmuid]

Ah, right, precise shot. Is there any more feats I should take for my archery (though I guess it helps with ranged touch spells just as much), or should I take any metamagic if I assume DMM and Persist are out?

I'm guessing quicken at 9 would be fine, after Zen Archery at 3 and Precise Shot at 6. What else might be useful?

Quicken at 9 is going to be pretty useless as Quicken is +6 spell levels and you'll only have 0-5th level spells at that point.

It really depends how much you want to focus on your archery.

[Gavinfoxx]

Quicken spell is very useful at level 1!

You just need: Extra Turning, decent Charisma, Quicken Spell, and Divine Metamagic: Quicken Spell.

[Reaver225]

Yeah, whoops, probably should have checked the spell level list first. Yeah, will grab either persist or quicken at 12 then.

Any help with domain swapping or the dragonlance fluff?

[Gavinfoxx]

So what is the Dragonlance equivalent to Ehlonna/Meilikki/Arawai/Habakkuk? IE, an entity that would have Raptor Arrows? Did you look at the quickstart cleric archer for ideas?

The quickstart cleric archer ends up with Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Extra Turning, Knowledge Devotion, Zen Archery, DMM: Persistent Spell...

[Reaver225]

I did, thank you, but as mentioned due to the twitchy DM persistent metamagic is probably out, and divine metamagic is almost certainly right out.

Rapid shot, I lack the dex for, Knowledge Devotion is out too due to DM.

Turning without DMM is not useful, and I will be taking Zen Archery.

Any other generic helpful cleric feats?

[Gavinfoxx]

Quicken spell WILL still be useful, eventually. Without Knowledge Devotion or DMM, you might want to consider being a normal cleric. Is ANY of Complete Champion in play?

[Reaver225]

I'm having to run each individual thing past my DM separately, so go nuts suggesting stuff. I'm throwing stuff past him and seeing what sticks.

We've already started play and changing out of Cloistered Cleric would be difficult to pull off due to already being more roleplay heavy than the other characters, as well as coming up with most of the ideas for avoiding/helping combat (like using an unseen servant holding wisp-like rags and a bottle of oil or two and some bad voice throwing to scare off a horde of goblins (PYTHANFAROUS THE EVERBURNING COMMANDS YOU TO LEAVE THIS PLACE, OR BURN) and stuff. She's fun, but not that useful in combat due to weak physical scores right now. Hopefully she'll be able to pull her weight better later.

[Gavinfoxx]

Oh wait, Duh. Habakkuk IS the Ehlonna / Mielikki equivalent. Duh Duh.... So He is the one which would have Raptor Arrows... dang.

[Reaver225]

Looking at Habbakkuk he doesn't have much to do with elves. In fact the only dragonlance god I can see with even a direct mention is Branchala who is all about the music? So not that helpful.

Is there a way to switch domains easily without changing gods?

EDIT: Oh, Google helped, substitute domain from CC works. If I can get it past my DM.