Zen Archer Monk / Cleric Build Advice

[Private]

I am helping my wife build a character for an upcoming adventure. We'll be starting at 5th level, and we'll probably be going all the way up to 20, assuming we live that long. Most of the adventure will take place inside a dungeon so she wanted to be able to provide healing (HP, ability drain, negative levels, etc.) as well as contribute to combat. We don't have a ranged combatant either, so we decided to combine the builds.

We're looking at 3 Zen Archer Monk, for lots of bonus feats and Wisdom to ranged attacks, then finishing out with straight Cleric.

We are still considering straight Cleric, but I feel like it'd be very feat starved, especially at low levels.

Any input and help would be much appreciated!

[Xervous]

I don't really see what monk is giving you in this case.

Cleric has just as many important saves as monk does. It has the same BAB and HD. Flurry doesn't work with archery, and i don't expect you to have a considerable STR score with WIS taking the highest score with DEX drawing enough to qualify for archer feats while CON gobbles up the rest to keep you alive.

All the monk variants I remember give no feats that benefit archery.

Having a high AC early on is nice, but as an archer you are expected to stay back and let some other guy work the front line.

Now lets add up what cleric gets...

Domains, so much to choose from. each one can net you a free feat or feature and possibly amazing spells down the road.

Turn undead. Fuels DMM, which lets you drop buffs at the beginning of the day... Grant the party fast healing 1 for the day and you will only need to heal someone to prevent them from dying in combat...

Spellcasting... needs no explanation

As for being feat starved, what feats do you feel that this character would need that it wouldn't be able to take because it was a pure cleric?

[grarrrg]

I _think_ the OP is doing a Pathfinder Game, in which case Zen Archer Monk is its own Archetype, and quite solid for the Archery-ness.

Stat-wise all you _need_ is 13 DEX to pick up the odd Feat, which you may as well bump up to 14 DEX at some point.

For Monk-Feats, grab anything/everything with a High DEX requirement, the rest you can take with normal Feats.

For which feats, just look at any random Archery Guide/Thread (i.e. Ranger Guides usually have "archery" builds in them).

[Private]

Oops! Sorry I didn't specify. I definitely meant Pathfinder with the Zen Archer Monk Archetype.

Luckily our DM OK'd Zen Archery to allow her to take the Dex-based archery feats using her Wisdom to qualify.

As for the Cleric side, PF doesn't have DMM or anything cheesy to do with the Channel Energy attempts. I think losing the casting levels will hurt a little, but the ability to dish out some good ranged damage all day should make up for it.

[Xervous]

Apologies, I don't know anything PF, so could some other kind member of the playground help this gentleman out?