Want suggestions for a cleric archer (3.5)

[TriForce]

Hello, ive been looking through some books i have here, when i came across zen archery (allows wis modifier instead of dex on ranged attacks) now combine that with the war domain and a god that has a bow as a favored weapon, and you have a cleric thats also a archer.

I like to ask you if you have any more suggestions to make this type of cleric playable, read PLAYABLE, i dont want him optimized, i dont want to hear a archer cleric isnt optimized, i simply want him to be fun to play, and at the least moderatly capable of shooting a arrow once in a while.

please assume the cleric has normal stats, high wisdom and moderate rest, im not against multiclassing but woud prefer to keep him as much cleric as possible ( lvl1 cleric and the rest in ranger or fighter is a no-no)

im making him lvl 16, all official 3.5 books are allowed, even most non-core, id like him to have a core race tough, im looking for good feats to take, a 2nd domain suggestion, any ideas for prestige classes, and prepared spells to have in concert with the archery. also any roleplaying suggestions would be welcome :)

so, anyone have any ideas?

[alisbin]

elf might be a good idea so you don't have to burn a feat for longbow, and get the regular bow related feats of course. theres a cleric spell that gives miss chance vs ranged attacks that could come in handy and i think its the elf domain that has truestrike as a domain spell, which you might end up needing. if your not insistant on bows, you might consider the stormlord class from complete divine, free magic enhanced and shocking javalins are pretty cool and its got a full caster level progression. get yourself a set of returning/distance javalins or throwing spears and you've got a nice ranged option.
or alternatively you could lobby your DM for a divine version of the arcane archer, exactly the same except divine requirements and theme rather then arcane, that would be pretty cool.

[DementedFellow]

Zen Archery is a must. If the Wisdom is high enough, you can almost get by without any archery feats.

[Harperfan7]

Elf Ranger 1 - ?, Track
Cleric of Solonor Thelandira (Elf, War) - PBS, Longbow Focus
Elf Ranger 2 - Precise Shot, Rapid Shot
Cleric for the rest

You'll get 6+int skill points at first, since you are an elf with good wisdom, go ahead and get listen, spot, survival maxed out. I think you get concentration and heal, so them too. If you do have good dex, get hide/move silently.

[Os1ris09]

Here are a few cleric handbooks to help you out:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...0022#338230022

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boa...hp?topic=420.0

Go with the second and for feats I would take the suggestion of zen archery point blank shot and precise shot to ingore firing penalties when shooting into melee and the +1 to hit from point blank shot is really nice since you only get decent bab. For more purposes take the holy warrior feat and the war domain if you decide not to go elf.

If and only if you go elf take the elf domain AND celerity domain to gain extra speed and I think true strike from the elf domain. Then take the Seeker of the misty Isle PrC from CD and make use of that elf blood of yours. Also if you do this route take the reach spell Metamagic feat and combine it with DMM to gain touch spells that have reach. It is not total cheese but it allows you to be somewhat useful with spells at a distance. No longer have to go to a person to cast a heal spell or Cure XXXX spell.

[Felyndiira]

Elf domain is always nice for point-blank shot, from which you can get precise shot (removes -4 penalty for shooting into melee) and rapid shot (adds one attack) - both useful feats for archer clerics. You can get the war domain, although it might be worth considering multi-classing one level of fighter for the sake of getting the proficiency and one extra archery feat, as War is a pretty poor domain.

It might be worth considering arrow mind (Divine Magician alternate feature) to threaten practically everywhere.

[Eldariel]

Human with War-domain or Elf is good. Your Domains would optimally grant you feats as the build is rather feat-starved (Elf-domain has Point Blank Shot, War-domain has Bow Proficiency, Planning-domain has Extend Spell, Undeath gives you Extra Turning) and I'd probably go for Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell to keep up your buffs at all times. Optimally, flaws would of course help with the overload of good feats you've got available.

Straight Cloistered Cleric is probably optimal. Oh, and Cloistered Cleric granting Knowledge-domain is nice; it enables Knowledge Devotion [CC] for tons of bonuses to attack and hit. You'll obviously want Rapid Shot ASAP and Precise Shot at some point.

[Vizzerdrix]

Any ideas for a non elf archer cleric?

[Eldariel]

Any ideas for a non elf archer cleric?

Human Cleric of Ehlonna with War-domain?

[Armoury99]

Any ideas for a non elf archer cleric?

Hmm, I seem to remember a description of the Japaense god Raiden in 2e Legends and Lore describing a wild deity who gleefully hurls lightning bolts, disaster, and misfortune down on the world. His clerics may well have "bow" as a favoured weapon...Could be interesting to mix 'war' with 'chaos'/'misfortune'/'disaster' type domains.

Wikipedia also suggests Artemis-Diana, Rudra, Ullr, and the leader of the Wild Hunt as good 'I shoot things' gods.

Sounds like converting Arcane Archer to Divine Bow might be good for you, if you're into prestige classes.

[Optimystik]

War Domain gives you MWP, letting you use longbows (thus, no need for Rapid Reload etc.)

If what you really want is "Wis-based Archer" rather than "Cleric Archer," go with Soulbow - Wis to attack and damage is nothing to sneeze at.

[HCL]

Go Aasimar, get DMM: Quicken or DMM: Persist. Elf domain and probably undeath. Cloistered cleric ACF

[Darrin]

Any ideas for a non elf archer cleric?

Phaulkon is a good pick for a human archer cleric. Has the War domain and favored weapon: longbow. Mayaheine could also work. Check the Living Greyhawk Deities 2.0 for details.

Another trick you can use is if you found a deity you really like but it doesn't have the War domain, use the Planar Touchstone feat at ECL 6 to pick up the War domain power from the Catalogues of Enlightenment. You get two feats for the price of one, and there are no requirements with the Catalogues that you worship a particular deity or that your deity must have the domain in its portfolio.

If you're just dipping cleric or are going to be using Divine Powah! to make up for lost BAB, consider Cloistered Cleric with the Knowledge devotion, which is a good way to buff ranged damage.

Mystic Ranger (Dragon #336, check Crystalkeep 3.5 base classes for details) also makes a darned fine archer with Zen Archery, either as a dip or a full build, particularly with all those juicy archery-related spells in the Spell Compendium. You can also put together a full BAB skirmish build with Ranger 6/Ronin 1/Highland Stalker 4/Ranger +9 with Swift Hunter.

[Pluto]

Your idea's actually pretty popular and pretty easy to do well once you can find a way to deal with feat-starvedness.

Here's a quick writeup of the options I'd consider making a characer like this

Feats you cannot be without:
Rapid Shot
Zen Archery
Quicken Spell
I don't think there's much to say on these. Take them. If you need to drop a level into Fighter or Ordained Champion or something, so be it. You want them.

If DMM (Persist) is allowed, add all the necessary components to this list.

---

Alternative ways to get feats you probably want:

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Longbow Proficiency: It's pretty clear why you would want this.

Ways to get it:
--Lesser Bracers of Archery only cost 5k gp. It might not be the best plan to rely so completely on one CL 8 magic item, but it's cheaper than a level or feat.
--Radiant Servant (CD) grants all weapon proficiencies, regardless of deity.
--Take the War Domain with a deity with a bow as a favored weapon. Phaulkon is the only deity I know with the appropriate favored enemy and the War domain. This may mean you have to adapt Complete Champion's Ordained Champion (CC) to fit your deity. If that is an option, I highly recommend it.
--Be an Elf. This is a clever choice because it lets you take the Elf domain without wallowing in discordant fluff.
--Be an Outsider. With the Trickery domain to permanently Polymorph into an Arrow Demon, this can be a very powerful option. Even without buyoff, Aasimar or Tiefling might make this worthwhile.
--Dip into another class. This is probably the last resort, seeing how close you're starting to level 9 spells.

Precise Shot: -4 is a pretty significant penalty to your attack rolls.

Ways to get it:
--Precise Enhancement from the MIC. Feats are going to be tight for you and throwing money at this sort of problem is usually easier than dealing with it.
--Blow a feat on it. You may have to do this.
--Or just don't shoot enemies who are in melee. This can be problematic because it makes focusing fire more difficult, but if you have other archers/blasters in the group, it can work out.

Knowledge Devotion: This provides a pretty significant insight bonus to attack and damage with no actions required. You need to have ranks in the Knowledge skill appropriate to the target to use it, though.

Ways to get it:
--Church Inquisitor (CD) grants Inquisition Domain at level 1, which can be exchanged for the Knowledge Devotion feat. It's easy to qualify for as a LN/LG Cleric.
--Divine Oracle (CD) grants Oracle Domain at level 1, which can also be swapped for this feat. DO requires a skill focus that I believe can be replaced by a few thousand gold and a visit to one of Complete Scoundrel's special locations. I have neither book with me, so I can't check the details at the moment.
--Cloistered Cleric (UA): Knowledge in Arcana, Religion and the Planes covers most of the scariest monsters (and Clerics have those skills before taking the Knowledge domain). The other knowledge skills are much less important (and you can still pick one to count as a class skill by merit of the feat itself)
--Blow a feat on it. Don't do this. There are cheaper ways.

Other helpful feats:

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• Craft Magic Arms and Armor: Archers hemorrage wealth. It's just the way they work. Damage is easy to ramp up with seperate bow and arrow enhancements and defenses are easy to avoid with quivers of differently enhanced arrows. The problem is that few games in my experience feature vendors to hawk this sort of stuff door-to-door. You'll save a lot of cash making your own arrows. You'll probably also have higher flexibility than if you were wholly dependant on the DM for this. (If you can make your own Bane Arrows, you're probably in a good position..)
• Holy Warrior (CC): If you have the War domain, this is an extra +8 damage tacked onto each of your attacks. You're probably making 5+ attacks per round. This adds up fast.
• Improved Precise Shot: Basic avoidance of high-level defenses.
• Law/Chaos Devotion (CC): Both provide large bonuses to AC or Attack (at your level, +7 and +1d10, respectively). Law Devotion gives bigger numbers and leaves the choice of where to allocate the bonus to the player; Chaos Devotion leaves it up to chance. Law Devotion is almost strictly superior, but which is available depends on a character's deity. Each is usable once per day, with more daily uses if a character permanently sacrifices a few Turn Undead attempts.
• Prerequisite feats: Yup.

Prestige Classes:

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• Divine-Adapted Abjurant Champion (CM): If you put much stock in the Adaption of class entries, this is an incredible option: 5/5 BA, 5/5 casting, quickened low-level abjurations and an Arcane Strike-like ability that applies to ranged attacks. If you can take this, do.
• Shadowbane Stalker (CAd): Add some sneak attack to your arrows. This works very nicely as a skillmonkey with Cloistered Cleric/Rogues, even though it loses a couple caster levels.
• Ruby Knight Vindicator (ToB): This makes for a funky sort of archer. To fill the role, focus heavily on White Raven and Shadow Hand boosts and counters. Maximize uses of Swift Actions for best results (things like Divine Abjurant Champion, Quickened Spells, Domain feats, etc).

Dips:

• Church Inquisitor (CD): 4+Int skill points, Knowledge Devotion at level 1, some defenses against Mind Effects. 3/4 BA is no worse than you'd get with most classes. Requires LN/LG.
• Divine Oracle (CD): Knowledge Devotion at level 1. Its flavor of Evasion is nice for high-ish Dex characters in heavy armor. It could be worth a dip.
• Ordained Champion (CC): One level gains a domain, lets you trade Domain abilities into Fighter feats. the next two levels will raise BA, CL and add some nice, though not especially breathtaking, abilities to your repetoire.
• Prestige Ranger (UA): Add Ranger spells to your class list. If you have access to Spell Compendium and Champions of Ruin, those spells become very worthwhile. A dip here loses one caster level and requires both Animal Domain and the Track feat, so it's not a clear choice, given how close you are to level 9 spells.
• Contemplative (CD): One level gets you a domain. 6 levels gets you another. 10/10 casting with easy prerequisites means it's hard to make this class go wrong. Beside levels 1 and 6, the class features are kind of ho-hum. Nothing terrible, but nothing really earthshaking, either.
• Arcane Archer: 2 levels here can make for some interesting characters. If you're optimizing, you should probably avoid it. If you want to do things like slapping a Holy Word or Antimagic Field on an enemy from 500 feet out, this can do the trick.
• Human Paragon (UA): If you go human, this will get you a feat, longbow proficiency, a few extra skills and +2 to any ability. Normally, this wouldn't be worthwhile, but if you're really hurting for feats, it might beat a Fighter dip (the feat doesn't have to be on the Fighter list; permanently adding skills like Tumble or UMD to your class list can make things easier).
• Seeker of the Misty Isle (CD): If you want to make the RAW case against the clear intent of this class's spell progression, it's pretty fantastic for your purposes: 6+Int skills, 3/4 BA, 10/10 levels casting advancement (even without ridiculous Text-trumps-Table arguments, I think it still advances spellcasting for its first 3 or 4 levels and gives Travel Domain access).
• Ruathar (RotW): There's no real mechanical motivation to take this, but it does provide the same BA and slightly more skills than normal Cleric. It's on the list because it provides a stronger fluff background for a non-Elf with the Elf Domain than straight Cleric levels would.

[Optimator]

I was about to write several suggestions but Pluto brought up all four already. I have a cleric archer character and I feel Holy Warrior is a surprisingly good investment. I took the War and Elf domains already so it was a great investment.

[JaronK]

My suggestions would be to use DMM:Persist and PrC Ranger. Getting some of those neat Ranger only buffs up all day long (like Swift Haste and Guided Shot) would be awfully nice.

JaronK

[Thurbane]

If you get UMD as a class skill (Apprentice [Spellcaster] feat, DMG II), you could chew through Wands of Heroics to pump up your archery feats...UMD could also be handy for wands of spells like Arrow Mind.