The Inquisitor: Ranger|Cleric Hybrid

[Sorcerer Blob]

I've had a character concept in mind for awhile, one that in many senses uses the fluff from the Avenger, but I've never been truly satisfied by the class' mechanics. Sure hitting twice as your Striker mechanic is nice, but putting out the big numbers is more satisfying, honestly. (Despite what the math tells me with odds and what not from rolling twice.)

The concept is of a hard-hitting holy warrior; the hammer of their god, if you will. I like the idea of a sneaky-ish character that can also heal if put in a tight spot. As a lover of Hybrid classes, though sadly not to the levels of Tegu8788 or ExemplarofAvg, I figured that a Cleric|Something was the best way to go about it.

I toyed around with a few Striker classes, including the Avenger and Rogue, but wasn't totally satisfied. Then I tried the Ranger. I built the character with high strength and wisdom, kind of leaving dexterity by the wayside, and went from there.

Currently I have a level 1 build of this bad-boy (or girl) statted up, but am unsure as to where to take it from here. I'm happy with what I have, and I love the Hybrid concept of Leader|Striker. I'm wanting to take this up to 5th or 6th level and see if the concept is sustainable and I need your help, Playground!

Below is what I have currently:
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Inquisitor Heinrich, level 1
Human, Cleric/Ranger
Hybrid Cleric Option: Healer's Lore
Hybrid Ranger Option: Hybrid Ranger Fortitude
Hybrid Talent Option: Cleric Armor Proficiency
Human Power Selection Option: Heroic Effort
Theme: Sohei

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 18, CON 10, DEX 12, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 12

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 16, CON 10, DEX 12, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 12


AC: 16 Fort: 16 Ref: 12 Will: 15
HP: 22 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 5

TRAINED SKILLS
Athletics +8, Heal +8, Insight +8, Perception +8, Stealth +5

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +0, Arcana –1, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +3, Endurance –1, History –1, Intimidate +1, Nature +3, Religion –1, Streetwise +1, Thievery +0

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Sohei Attack: Sohei Flurry
Human Racial Power: Heroic Effort
Cleric Utility: Healing Word
Hunter's Quarry Power: Hunter's Quarry
Ranger Attack 1: Twin Strike
Cleric Attack 1: Lance of Faith
Cleric Attack 1: Healing Strike
Ranger Attack 1: Jaws of the Wolf

FEATS
Level 1: Axe Expertise
Level 1: Hybrid Talent (Cleric Armor Prof.)

ITEMS
Holy Symbol
Adventurer's Kit
Chainmail x1
Battleaxe x1
Handaxe x4
====== End ======

Thanks in advance!

[allonym]

First things first, I know you said you're happy with your build, but there are a few things that stand out to me. Drop Healer's Lore for Battle Cleric's Lore (dragon 400). It will give you scale proficiency and a +2 shield bonus for free along with a bonus to your heals. It's all but mandatory for any cleric. It also saves you a feat, which I'll go into a bit below.

Now, you have chosen Human, so your Wis is 2 lower than your Str. This means that there is no real point in using wis-based attacks (other than the utterly incredible cleric level 1 daily power Moment of Glory), since you might as well attack with a strength power for more chance of success. Mixing up melee and ranged attacks may seem like a nice idea, but in practice there is almost never a time where you would want that ranged option where you couldn't just charge instead - certainly not enough to make you want to use up an at-will slot for it.

My recommendation would be either to go 18/18 wis/str (with a race that boosts both) and take a wisdom melee attack or stick with human and take a cleric strength at-will. Personally I'd take Righeous Brand for str (with optional power of skill to make it an MBA) or Brand of the Sun for wis.

Healing strike is kind of nice for a normal cleric, but you're a ranger hybrid. For you to be using a standard action Cleric encounter attack, you want it to at least be better than twin-striking with hunter's quarry, which this may not be. If you're attempting to fill in as a full-time healer, I can understand, but assuming you're not (you'll struggle in any case, at least for a few levels), I'd take Mighty Hew, which is triggered as an immediate interrupt to protect an ally, saving your standard actions for other matters.

Jaws of the Wolf is...eh, it's OK. It pumps out more damage than a twin-strike, but that's all it is. I'd take a long, long look at Moment of Glory, a Cleric daily which remains useful for 15 levels.

Now that you have Battle Cleric's Lore, you have no need to use your Hybrid Talent to get you chainmail. Consider instead taking a Ranger hybrid talent effect, or just taking another feat entirely.


Ok, so, with advancing your character, it depends on how much you want to be able to heal. At level 3, you want a ranger encounter power. Since you're emphasising Wisdom almost as much as Strength, grab Disruptive Strike. It's a little better for a ranged ranger than melee, but with a little forethought you can use it to great effect. As a bonus, and similar to Mighty Hew, it prevents damage to yourself or an ally - prevention is better than cure, afterall, so you're still doing a leader's job.
At level 5, if you ended up taking Moment of Glory, there are several choices for a Ranger daily. Wounded Beast is nice, being another immediate action, and enabling you to heal yourself. Frenzied Skirmish is also a great choice, for its ability to lock an enemy down.
If you stick with Jaws of the Wolf (which is fine), at level 5 STILL consider taking Moment of Glory. It's just that good. Weapon of Astral Flame (also a level 1 daily) helps you get more striking done, essentially giving you Sohei Flurry every turn, so that's a great choice for you.

For your utilities - if you are being the main healer for your party, you should consider Bastion of Health at level 6. It's not great, since your Cha-mod is low, but it's a surge heal, it triggers your Battle Cleric's Lore, and one healing word an encounter won't cut it. If not, there's a lot of options. For extra healing, you can grab Blackened Soul at level 2 or Stream of Life or Spirit of Healing at level 6 (all daily powers). For your ranger utility, you'd need a damn good reason not to take Invigorating Stride with a wisdom modifier as high as yours, but Begin the Hunt is lovely too.

[Sorcerer Blob]

Wow..

All fantastic suggestions! I'm going to build it up and see what it looks like. For some reason I just spaced over Battle Cleric's Lore, which would solve the Hybrid Talent problem.

As far as being the main healer goes, that was never the intent for this build. Definitely a "5th man" design.

Thanks again, allonym. I'll post back after building and tweaking a little with your suggestions.

[Tegu8788]

Allonym got most of what I was going to say, and I fully support just about everything he said, but I'll add in a few things he missed. Moment of Glory and Invigorating Stride are gold this character.

Ranger +1 Reflex will go a lot farther than Fortitude, and the Battle Lore shield bonus is only to AC, so you'll need that Reflex boosted.

If you do get that Wisdom up, consider Fell Strike because it's a charge-able attack. If not Invigorating Assault and Priest's Shield are also good.

For the Ranger, with those levels of Str and Wis, Marauder's Rush will also be very strong, and can also be charged.

[allonym]

My first thought at a Cleric|Ranger build was a bow cleric, I'll be honest. Which is itself an interesting build, but it essentially pigeonholes you into worshipping Sehanine and you can't get cleric riders worth a damn because you're Wis/Dex dual stat.

However, your build should be fine. You probably won't be significantly less of a striker than a straight ranger, with both Ranger and Cleric having some nice off-action attacks and all. I second marauder's rush, especially at early levels, where twin strike isn't doing much damage - at level 1, your twin strike will be doing 1d10+1d6 damage, whereas marauder's rush will be doing 1d10+7 (+1 if you wield your battleaxe two-handed), assuming everything hits of course. The additional reliability of Twin Strike which improves chances of triggering your Quarry, and the flexibility it gives you (If your first hit is a kill, attack someone else, etc) mean it shouldn't necessarily be entirely discounted. Whether you want to trade in Heroic Effort for having both is up to you, but Marauder's Rush will have a shelf-life whereas Heroic Effort won't.

[Sol]

The ranger|cleric has been very popular lately on charOp, and for good reason!

It's pretty easy to keep on twin-striking while picking up cleric immediates and using your minors for minor action attacks or utilities.

Battle Cleric Lore gives you stellar AC, and the ability to toss out at least one good heal per encounter makes you a good addition to the team, or at least in combination with invigorating stride makes you very self sufficient.

The optimal route is to only pick powers that maximize multiattacking, but optimization isn't as important as fun :)

[ocelot77]

Ahoy,

I too have been dabbling in a Ranger/Cleric MC with my wide eyes on Battle Cleric's Lore.

While there is quite a lot of contention out there on whether MC or Hybrids can swap their Healer's Lore from Divine Healer for Battle Cleric's Lore, I'm wondering if WoTC hasn't made their decision in that the Online DDI Character Builder only allows the swap for true cleric builds.

While this saddens me, I suppose the swap can still be houseruled by adding Armor Proficiency: Scale and manually adding the +2 AC after the fact.

[Kurald Galain]

I'm wondering if WoTC hasn't made their decision in that the Online DDI Character Builder only allows the swap for true cleric builds.
I'd give you 50-50 odds between this being an official decision they haven't told us about, and this being one of many bugs in the character builder.

That said, personally I ban BCL entirely because it's frankly ridiculous. You can improve numerous classes by just hybrid'ing to cleric, which nets you a substantial armor boost and a free buff-and-heal once per encounter, even if you never use the rest of the class otherwise.