Quick Cleric Dip...Advisable?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Heyo, I don't play 3.5 much, but I'm in a fairly low-OP game, playing a Level 6 Ranger, though I think we may be mixing 3.0 and 3.5 books. It's no big, we're not playing it super-rulesy.

My main question is--I'm looking at dipping into a level of Cleric, just to pick up some low-level spells. Worth it? I don't intend to unleash any sort of CoDzilla, just to spice things up a bit.

[Ravens_cry]

Well, some of the best parts, being able to use CLW wands as a cheap source of out of combat curing, you can already do. There is some other things, but they probably aren't terribly suited for a low-op game.

[Gigas Breaker]

You could look at the domain powers to help you decide whether it is worth it. You'd also be able to use cleric wands without Use Magic Device. Magic domain gets you wizard wands.

[Vaz]

There's an entire handbook dedicated to it; the main strength is Domains; a Cloistered Cleric gets 3; Knowledge and two others of choice; that allows you to get things like 1/day Freedom of Movement, and altogether nice little boosts that aren't particularly game breaking. If you get to use a Buckler and pick up Improved Buckler Defence, you can use a Buckler, and still attack, and then taking Divine Shield gives you 3+Cha Mod times a day Cha bonus to the Shield AC. Of course Charisma isn't too useful for a Ranger based character.

But yes, Cleric (particularly a Cloistered one) is the better of the options.

[Ravens_cry]

You could look at the domain powers to help you decide whether it is worth it. You'd also be able to use cleric wands without Use Magic Device. Magic domain gets you wizard wands.
He's a ranger, CLW-CSW is on his spell list.

[eggynack]

Nice. I finally get to advise the use of this handbook due to this specific question being asked. The guide to dipping cleric 1 (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2773) in the flesh. Use it in good faith.

[Gigas Breaker]

He's a ranger, CLW-CSW is on his spell list.

There are other decent cleric wands of up to 4th level spells.

[Mnemnosyne]

I couldn't say for sure without knowing more about your build, but probably yes.

The Dipping Cleric 1 (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2773.0) handbook might be of use to you. Note that the stuff on BrilliantGameologists is going down relatively soon, so if you find the handbook useful, save it for your use.

If you're an archer type ranger, you can get some decent things from dipping cleric. Same is probably true for a melee ranger. In particular, look at domain abilities. You also get turn undead, which can be used to power divine metamagic (which can be used on your ranger spells, if you choose) or to power devotion feats (travel devotion, for instance, is always an awesome pick).

I would definitely dip Cloistered Cleric, since you get more out of that than the straight Cleric dip. The heavy armor proficiency from Cleric doesn't help you, because you still need to wear medium or light armor for ranger, for instance. Cloistered Cleric gives you the Knowledge domain for free, so you get three domains instead of two. Toss in a 1-level Contemplative dip once you have the 13 ranks of Knowledge (Religion) and you can bump that up to 4 domains. Note that you can apply Contemplative's caster level boost to your Ranger spellcasting if you'll get more out of it. If you happen to be an elf or half-elf, a one-level Seeker of the Misty Isle dip gets you a free travel domain, and again, you can apply the spellcasting to Ranger or Cleric, as you prefer.

[Tr011]

If you get some cool domain stuff... why not...
But in my experience, it mostly looks like optimized but really isn't. So you might get the disadvantages from both.

Here's some fun fact: If you like grappling, get the Domain with +1 to opposed checks, but loose a +1 bonus from bab

[Keltaris]

Knowledge Devotion can prove very useful.

You can get it without expending a feat by trading the Knowledge domain you get with a Cloistered Cleric dip.

[ericgrau]

If you are an archer I would pick up a wand of shield other. Get it with 25 charges if allowed. You have a good amount of ranger hp, so it could redirect some of the damage from the front line to you. It lasts 3 hours so cast it at the entrance of any dungeon. If you face a lot of wilderness fights it's less useful though, since you don't want to waste round 1 casting it.

You are losing a point of BAB which is very significant at low optimization. The number of attacks that hit goes down by 5%, but your number of hits that still hit and therefore your damage output goes down by 7-10%. More once you get your 3rd attack at a -10. And it applies to the main thing you do every single round, rather than once in a while like whatever the benefit does. That doesn't mean the dip is a bad idea, but you need to make sure you exploit it well.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Good stuff to know! It's an archer ranger build, pretty straightforward, I've mostly been skirmishing (Point Blank Shot). And yeah, I've been keeping CLW around to help.

That handbook looks helpful.