3.5 low levels optimized cloistered cleric crossbow

[gorgeous.george]

Hello kind people,

I've spent a long time reading this forum and I've always loved its community.
Now I come to you with an optimization question:
I'm currently playing a campaign in a 4 man party

lvl 5 crusader/binder(melee ubertank)
lvl 4 crusader(not really optimized, decent melee dps)
lvl 4 druid(melee,only core, no funny stuff, decent all-around)
...me(in need of a new character)


Seems to me that a ranged cleric fixes two of the most obvious problems of the party:1. lack of sustain 2. lack of ranged dps.

I've already played a strongheart halfling longbow cloistered cleric in another campaign(build idea based on dictum mortuum's quickstart cleric archer, sorry cannot post the link as per forum rules) and I've found it amazing.

This time I wanted things to be a bit different though, since the DM introduced this homebrew rule:

Light crossbows ignore up to 4 armour within 30ft range.
Heavy crossbows ignore 8 armour within 30ft range, ignore 4 armour in 30-60 ft range.
This applies to natural armour as well.


I don't want to discuss the validity of this rule, in my opinion things with crossbows were fine by the standard rules, and this looks a bit silly; I just want to exploit it.
My first idea was a light crossbow dual-wielding cleric, since the 2hand fighting penalties are mitigated by the homebrew rule. More over, the cloistered cleric can have good bonuses to attack and damage rolls with the knowledge devotion feat, further mitigating the penalty.
Alas, things are not so smooth: can't manage reloading crossbows with only one hand, and magic enhancements are not at our disposal at the present time.

So, two questions:

How to exploit this? (cloisteredcleric class is preferable, but not a must)
is this rule broken enough to be worth exploiting it?

My character will start at level 4, but you can discuss later levels as well.
Our DM banned the following material: BoED,BoVD, flaws.

Thanks for reading!

George

edit* added the "banned material" section.

[LentilNinja]

The "Knowledge Devotion" feat which you can get for free by swapping out your free Knowledge Domain you get from Cloistered Cleric. With maxed Knowledge skills, you can use it to get better attack rolls and damage on enemies. Combine this with the Skill Trick "Collector of Stories" for a 1/encounter +5 to this roll and it'll be easier to make the higher numbers.

"Zen Archery" is a must as it makes your ranged attack rolls based off WIS (if you were a standard Cleric I'd recommend wearing Heavy Armor at this point but I think the trade for CC is better)

Your other feats should be ways of getting more attacks like "Rapid Shot" (assuming they work with Cbows) or typical boosters like "Point Blank Shot".

What race are you thinking of playing? Strongheart Halfling as you mentioned is a good choice, but I'd suggest being a Raptoran. They can fly as early as level 5, which is always a good option for any spellcaster anyway, but also gives a bonus to attack (and maybe damage) when you attack an enemy from above.

Hope this helps!

[Darrin]

An extra pair of arms might fix the reloading problem. Would Diopsid (Dragon Compendium) be allowed? LA +1, but four arms. Even without Diopsid, you're one level away from being able to cast girallon's blessing (Spell Compendium).

Another option: take the Magic domain so you can activate spell-trigger items, add a Wand Chamber (100 GP, Dungeonscape) and wand of ghostly reload (750 GP, Races of the Dragon) to your crossbow. Or maybe a wand of unseen servant or Collar of Perpetual Attendance (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c) could reload your crossbow(s).

[gorgeous.george]

The "Knowledge Devotion" feat which you can get for free by swapping out your free Knowledge Domain you get from Cloistered Cleric. With maxed Knowledge skills, you can use it to get better attack rolls and damage on enemies. Combine this with the Skill Trick "Collector of Stories" for a 1/encounter +5 to this roll and it'll be easier to make the higher numbers.

"Zen Archery" is a must as it makes your ranged attack rolls based off WIS (if you were a standard Cleric I'd recommend wearing Heavy Armor at this point but I think the trade for CC is better)

Your other feats should be ways of getting more attacks like "Rapid Shot" (assuming they work with Cbows) or typical boosters like "Point Blank Shot".

What race are you thinking of playing? Strongheart Halfling as you mentioned is a good choice, but I'd suggest being a Raptoran. They can fly as early as level 5, which is always a good option for any spellcaster anyway, but also gives a bonus to attack (and maybe damage) when you attack an enemy from above.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for your input, everything you said is quite correct but, alas, not new to me.

[gorgeous.george]

An extra pair of arms might fix the reloading problem. Would Diopsid (Dragon Compendium) be allowed? LA +1, but four arms. Even without Diopsid, you're one level away from being able to cast girallon's blessing (Spell Compendium).

Another option: take the Magic domain so you can activate spell-trigger items, add a Wand Chamber (100 GP, Dungeonscape) and wand of ghostly reload (750 GP, Races of the Dragon) to your crossbow. Or maybe a wand of unseen servant or [/]Collar of Perpetual Attendance[/I] could reload your crossbow(s).

Now, this is the kind of thing I need. Diopsid I'm afraid is out of question, DM is really hellbent on avoiding crazy races, because in his opinion that would make life a living hell for the party (other more "standard" races would see you as a monster). The wand chamber is a really nice addition to the crossbow; now the only question is if I'll be allowed to find such a wand..we play in a pretty low magic setting :/

[daremetoidareyo]

Graft an extra hand to yourself. Use a fiend claw or a skeleton hand. The extra hands do the reloading. Then take hand crossbow focus (DotU) to get a free action reload on hand crossbows as well as a free weapon focus. Get all the grafts your party is gonna need and then retrain [XXXXX}grafter it to something better for archery.