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The Mormegil
2008-04-10, 02:15 PM
Can anybody show me (or possibly link to me) a decent Cleric archer build? I know it is vastly thought Cleric is the best archer, could you guys show me why? I know you will, so thanks in advance to you all.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-04-10, 02:51 PM
I know this was the case in 3.0 due to the Elf domain granting free Point Blank Shot...I think it's less the case now. Clerics are better at melee than ranged thanks to many Strength-boosting and Size-boosting spells, but you couldn't do poorly with the following:

Zen Archery feat (Complete Warrior: Replaces Dex with Wis for ranged attacks. Means you are still single-ability dependent and can still walk around in fullplate without wasting Dex).
Divine Power spell (Sets BAB equal to your class level; what makes C-zilla so nasty in melee)
War domain and a deity with Longbow as a favored weapon (Corellon, I guess?)

From here, take usual archer feats plus metamagic. I'm sure there's more you can do, but getting Zen Archery and proficiency in a proper bow are probably the key things.

melchizedek
2008-04-10, 03:01 PM
Any elf automatically get proficiency with a longbow. The bonus to dex is nice for most archers, but makes very little difference if you take Zen Archery.

You'll be somewhat limited in feats, which is a problem for an archer build, since they are fairly dependent on having the right feats.

Most of the cleric spells are more optimized for a melee cleric or to buff other melee combatants.

It's possible to make a decent archer cleric, but there's not much that really makes the build shine.

Chosen_of_Vecna
2008-04-10, 03:05 PM
I don't know about a build:

But for starters:

DMM Persist spell, and a bunch of Nightsticks.

Take Zen Archery, and either:

Blow a feat on an exotic bow/be an elf/worship a concept with the war domain and bow as favored weapon.

Now make Wisdom your primary stat and Str your secondary. Get just enough dex to qualify for the basic bow feats and not lose them when you cast Righteous Might, including rapid shot.

Persist a bunch of buffs: Divine Power, Righteous Might, Divine Favor, Greater magic weapon on the bow (don't persist that, just extend). Look around for similar things.

Fire your composite Longbow with a full attack action using Wisdom to hit and Str to damage from your +X composite Bow with your full BAB. Things like Divine Favor are even more useful if you are full attacking.

Do the usual archer tricks of getting a +1 Splitting Composite Bow, maybe Force. Then get arrows that are cold iron/regular/silver/adamantium/+1 Fire/+1 Shock/+1 Frost, ect.

Go to town with you incredible number of attacks. (Get haste either from domain, or from wizard. If domain, persist it.)

There are so many Cleric buffs it's hard to keep track.

RTGoodman
2008-04-10, 03:05 PM
In general, the best Archer builds have some way to get some extra dice of damage. A Cleric can't do that, but I guess there are some things you can do.

A quick search brought up two threads on the same subject, here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56821) and here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68731). I bet you can scrounge through those and gets some good ideas and/or builds.

Squash Monster
2008-04-10, 03:54 PM
Domains: Time and Planning

Feats: Zen Archery, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Extra Turning, DMM Persist

Spells: Divine Power, Righteous Might, Haste (Persist Haste)

Items: Splitting composite bow with large strength requirement

Get (Full BAB + 1) * 2 bow attacks, apply your insanely high buffed strength to all of them.

Iku Rex
2008-04-10, 04:01 PM
I posted a level 11 build in the Character Builder thread that might be useful:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2697910#post2697910 .

Eldariel
2008-04-10, 04:05 PM
Note though that even when going for Zen Archery, you tend to want 13 Dex to qualify for Rapid Shot, which you generally want to pick up eventually, since an extra attack that most likely hits is just awesome. Precise Shot and Point Blank Shot are near-musts, since Precise Shot prevents you from shooting your melee allies in the back and is a prerequisite for the use of Splitting, and Point Blank Shot is a prerequisite for Precise Shot.

Also, you'll want to buy a bow with adjusting strength, since your Strength tends to vary based on what boosts you have on at any given point, and also when targeted by Dispel Magic. Hank's Bow tends to be what you want in the end, but it's not available in all gameworlds. For the record, the bow is statted here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a).


One great feature of Cleric Archers is their ability to use relics without True Believer-feat by sacrificing a spellslot. There's at least one Relic-bow that has adjusting strength (it's Corellon Larethian's, I think) and the Ehlonna's Raptor Arrows (which are great if Splitting bow isn't available; otherwise your DM might end up decreeing that the split Raptor Arrows aren't exactly fit for shooting again and don't magically mend themselves).