Improving ranged options for 3.5 cleric? level 7

[fracas]

Title says it all. My melee is solid with persistent Divine Power and some other goodies, but would be nice to have more ranged power (especially ranged power that doesn't eat my spell slots like crazy). I'm thinking a crossbow. Harpoon would be fun with Divine Power but I don't wanna blow a feat on it.

Other options any good? What spells should I be using to boost my attacks and especially my damage? 1d8 at level 7 is pretty sad.

BTW, we have a 2000gp purchase limit so no fancy items.

Side thought: Magic Circle + crossbow would mean I could sit around sniping without being vulnerable to melee. Enlarge would probably be a decent start since it'd increase my damage die on any magic weapon (they automatically resize to fit the user, don't they?) Divine Grace would give me +2 to attacks and damage, and a vicious crossbow would be an extra 2d6... (our DM doesn't require that the first +1 bonus of a magic weapon actually be a +1 enhancement)

[Thrawn183]

Well, if you use divine power all the time, you can get a bow with a strength rating.

Do you have access to the spell compendium?

[gorfnab]

Spells:
Elation - BoED
Guiding Light - SC
Bless
Divine Favor
Magic Weapon Greater

Feats:
Zen Archery - CW
Knowledge Devotion - CM

What is your current build with feats? If you can change your build it is fairly easy to make cleric based archers.

[fracas]

Thrawn: As far as I know you can't put a Str rating on a crossbow (no mighty/composite), and I don't have proficiency with short/longbows - clerics are simple proficiency only and I don't really have feats to burn; just need whatever long range hitting power I can get without disrupting my buff cleric build too much.

gorfnab: I have access to all or nearly all the official books but no Dragon mag. Also no Dragonlance or old 3.0 stuff.

Current build (level 7):
Human Cleric of Pelor 5/Morninglord 1/RSoP 1
Abilities: 16 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con (+2 item), 12 Int, 18 Wis (+2 item), 14 Cha (+4 item) - listed scores do not include item bonuses

Feats:
Domains - Sun (Greater Turning 1/day) and Planning (Extend Spell)
Human - Item Familiar (+4 turn attempts from +1 rod of defiance)
1 - Persistent Spell
3 - DMM Persist
6 - Extra Turning

I usually persist Divine Power and Freedom of Movement or Mass Lesser Vigor. Been considering Girallon's Blessing when I have the turn attempts for it but I've been unable to locate the rules (if any) for using extra arms to wield a 2H weapon. Does it just increase the Str multiplier by 0.5 per arm or what? 1H = Str, 2H = 1.5 Str, so 3H = 2.0 Str and 4H = 2.5 Str?

Possibly relevant equipment: Armor of Shard (+1 fullplate), dancing heavy shield, +1 ghost touch longsword, rod of lesser extend 3/day, wands of lesser vigor, protection from evil, and hide from undead (zombie apocalypse setting makes it really useful).

Zen Archery would net me a +4 to attack with an xbow which is nice, but I'm already short on feats. On my current list: Reach Spell, Power Attack, Spontaneous Domains, Strength Devotion.

CM = Complete Mage? I'm not seeing knowledge devotion... any chance you could humor my brainfart with a page number? :)

[Psyren]

It's easy to get longbow prof: be an elf cleric for instance, or enter a PrC that grants it for free like Ruathar.

[gorfnab]

CM = Complete Mage? I'm not seeing knowledge devotion... any chance you could humor my brainfart with a page number? :)

Oh, sorry. I meant Complete Champion.

[fracas]

gorfnab - Ahh, thanks. Much better. :)

Psyren - Brainfart. My actual levels are Cleric6/RSoP1, and Radiant Servant grants full martial proficiency. I was chasing a ghost problem.

Our primary enemies are undead with the occasional devil (just killed an Erinyes last session) and hints that we'll be hitting the underdark at some point.

Given that and my penchant for persisting mass lesser vigor, I'm thinking a vicious composite longbow is the way to go. On the other hand, a holy bow with a pack each of silver and cold iron arrows would get me past that nasty damage reduction devils and demons have. Even though I've got 20k gp in the bank, I have a 2k spending limit in place so it has to be either holy or vicious.

Maybe just get a vicious weapon and then bless it whenever we see devils/demons?

[Greenish]

Even though I've got 20k gp in the bank, I have a 2k spending limit in place so it has to be either holy or vicious.

Holy is +2. You can't get it with mere 2k.

[Edit] Edited because of poor reading comprehension.

[fracas]

Holy is +2. You can't get it with mere 2k.

*Facepalm. Vicious it is, unless someone else has a better idea. :p

[Greenish]

*Facepalm. Vicious it is, unless someone else has a better idea. :p

If your campaign has many enemies of a single type (and how is it a zombie apocalypse if there aren't? ), appropriate Bane becomes a good investment.

The rules for using more than two hands per weapon are in Savage Species, and it's indeed +0.5*Str for each hand, but you need a weapon specifically made for it.

An offtopic note: A +1 Longsword with Lesser Truedeath Crystal (MIC) is slightly cheaper than +1 Ghost Touch Longsword (6000 gp vs. 8000 gp), and also deals +1d6 damage when attacking undead. That reminds me, a Least Truedeath Crystal would add that +1d6 against undead to your bow attacks for 1000 gp, assuming that the 2000gp limit is just for a single item.


[Edit]: Also, only melee weapons can be Vicious. Sorry.

[Kylarra]

It's not terribly optimal, but you could just take one of the blasty reserve feats and save a slot for that.

[fracas]

Greenish - Yup, the 2k gp limit is per-item. It just represents us survivors having a low tech level. The benefit of Ghost Touch over Truedeath crystals is that as far as I know Truedeath crystals don't aid in attacking incorporeal undead. That seems worth the extra 2k to me, especially since I just stumbled onto the ghost touch longsword. No reason to sell it anyway since I've already got more money than I can spend.

Bane or a Truedeath crystal in the bow might be the best I can get if Vicious is melee-only; the catch is that I expect to be using the bow mostly against evil outsiders and aberrations since undead are typically melee at this level. My +11 Fort save should keep me safe from their debuffs (and I've got Lesser Restorations and Remove Disease if needed) and between persistent buffs and Greater Turning 3+cha per day through Radiant Servant I think I'm pretty well covered there.

What bugs me is that the Erinyes would have torn me apart with her bow if the spiked chain rogue and our NPC greatsword paladin (who luckily has a ring of flying 3/day, and who I usually run) hadn't gotten in an early flank and kept her pinned down while I blasted minions. She could have easily kited me around the room and ate my three searing rays for the day without a problem.

So, I could certainly buy different bane weapons with all the money I've got, but that seems like a silly solution. On the other hand, different devils are resistant or immune to every common element... not sure if I could get away with a sonic bow, especially since we're trying to be stealthy a lot. :p

[fracas]

Kylarra - Not a bad option except that I'm already feat-starved. On the wanted list: Knowledge Devotion, Strength Devotion, Ocular Spell, Chain Spell, Twin Spell... Spontaneous Domains and Power Attack would be nice too, but I doubt I'll find space for them.

[Greenish]

Greenish - Yup, the 2k gp limit is per-item. It just represents us survivors having a low tech level. The benefit of Ghost Touch over Truedeath crystals is that as far as I know Truedeath crystals don't aid in attacking incorporeal undead. That seems worth the extra 2k to me

Least Truedeath Crystal merely adds 1d6 vs. undead, but Lesser grants that and causes the weapon "to function as a Ghost Touch weapon".

Bane or a Truedeath crystal in the bow might be the best I can get if Vicious is melee-only; the catch is that I expect to be using the bow mostly against evil outsiders and aberrations since undead are typically melee at this level.

Buy Bane arrows.

Also, Sacred (MIC) is pretty nice, it's +1d6 against undead and +2d6 against evil outsiders, and makes your attacks Good-aligned.

[Newbieshoes]

Also don't you have to +1 a weapon before you can start throwing modifiers on it? That kicks your vicious/holy idea right square in the junk.

[Greenish]

Also don't you have to +1 a weapon before you can start throwing modifiers on it? That kicks your vicious/holy idea right square in the junk.

(our DM doesn't require that the first +1 bonus of a magic weapon actually be a +1 enhancement)

I missed that part at first too.

[fracas]

Greenish - Sacred it is! Will be suboptimal whenever we start dealing with aberrations but can't have everything I guess. Unless I can convince the DM that Vicious should be allowed to work on a bow ;)

Edit: I'll probably have a lot more luck getting aberrations into melee anyway.

[Greenish]

Greenish - Sacred it is! Will be suboptimal whenever we start dealing with aberrations but can't have everything I guess.

If you have to shoot aberrations, pack a few Aberration Bane Arrows. 2000gp gets you a set of 50.

[fracas]

Oh, right. Duh. :p

Thanks for the tips!

Edit: For 2000gp, why not just buy an aberration bane bow?