Ranged Cleric

[Aximili]

I was just curious. Is there any way to make a Ranged Cleric that doesn't boop?

Besides the obvious zen archery. What other feats, spells, domains, magic items, and stats distribution would be best to optimize such a build?

[Innis Cabal]

well...if you count Favored Soul then take a good with a bow as favored weapon and go from there. When you get wings things just get better

[Bears With Lasers]

Don't go Favored Soul.

The best is an elven cleric. Take the Elf domain (Point Blank Shot) and use the other one for a good spell list and/or power, i.e. Travel, Magic, Spell, Time, etc.

1: PBS (free), Precise Shot
3: Rapid Shot or Zen Archery, depending on how much higher your WIS is than your DEX.
6: Zen Archery or Rapid Shot
9: Quicken Spell.

Go from there as you please, straight-up cleric.

[Talya]

And if you're really hung up on Favored Soul's wings, still follow BWL's advice and go all cleric, but for your elf race pick Averiel. You'll need to take longbow proficiency though, but for that you get +4 dex, -2 con, +2 int, +2 wis, Flight 50' (average), Favored Class-cleric, +3 level adjustment.

Alternately, you could use bolas, which they are proficient in.

[Matthew]

You could go Human and take War Domain (find a Deity that favours the Great Bow, if possible (the problem is that the Weapon Proficiency is supposed to be Martial), otherwise the Long Bow).
Use your Human and Level 1 Feats to take Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot. Take Zen Archery at Level 3, if you need it.

[Aximili]

Ok, thanks for the tips.
Now, thinking of the Elf wih elf domain option: Are there any spell that might synergise well with the concept?

[Bears With Lasers]

-Divine Agility (SpC) gives a +10 enhancement bonus to Dex for rounds/level.
-Divine Power gives you full BAB as always.
-(Quickened) Divine Favor is a staple AB/damage booster.
-Haste (Time domain's got it, so should the party wizard) gets you an extra attack.
-Flying is obviously good.
-Antilife Shell and Repulsion will keep you from getting into melee.

[Necromas]

Zen archery is good, because you still get to run around in fullplate without hampering your casting or archery.

[Ikkitosen]

Zen archery is good, because you still get to run around in fullplate without hampering your casting or archery.

Armour doesn't penalise your archery or casting, but it will limit your dex bonus to AC, and if you're an archer you may have a decent dex and thus need some mithral armour to take full advantage.

Max dex bonuses for armour apply only to AC modifiers.

[Bears With Lasers]

Fullplate-wearing archers.

Because D&D is totally a realistic simulation.

[Necromas]

Armour doesn't penalise your archery or casting, but it will limit your dex bonus to AC, and if you're an archer you may have a decent dex and thus need some mithral armour to take full advantage.

Max dex bonuses for armour apply only to AC modifiers.

It doesn't penalize archery, but most archer builds rely enough on dexterity that light armor is more advantageous.

[Matthew]

Fullplate-wearing archers.

Because D&D is totally a realistic simulation.

Hmmn. D&D is not a realistic simulation, but I don't really see why this example matters?

[Bears With Lasers]

Because wearing fullplate would make shooting a bow very, very much harder?

[Matthew]

Not from what I understand, but even so, should that be related to Dexterity?

[Ikkitosen]

It doesn't penalize archery, but most archer builds rely enough on dexterity that light armor is more advantageous.

Not many armours can add up to the +9 AB + max dex of full plate. As a cleric you already suck at most skills with ACP so until you can afford that Celestial Armour full plate may be best.

I'll admit I have a soft spot for low ACP even on characters that don't use those skills, but mechanically full plate is probably better.

Plus, as a cleric your dex will unlikely be more that about 22, so you're not failing to use that much in mithral full plate.

[Khoran]

Plus, as a cleric your dex will unlikely be more that about 22, so you're not failing to use that much in mithral full plate.

Wait? I'm confused by something here? Mithril Fullplate has a max dex of +3. With 22 Dex, you'd be losing a whole 'nother +3. Or does that Celestial Armor thing you mentioned have any effect of Dexterity bonus too? I'm not familiar with it, so pardon me, just trying to figure out what you're talking about.

[Ikkitosen]

For massive dex builds Celestial Armour (which is chainmail, and is in the SRD) wins since it has the greatest AB + Max Dex of any armour I know of - it's max dex is +8 though, so you need a massive dex for it to be that good.

From the "normal" magical armours, nothing has a better AB + max dex than mithral full plate (+11 total), so no matter your dex you're better off with it than anything else*. Losing out on +3 for dex is ok if you gain an extra 5 or whatever from the armour itself ;)





* There are things like thistledown padding and whathaveyou that may help, but ask someone else or look them up ;)

[Annarrkkii]

From the Spell Compendium, useful ranging cleric spells include:

At low levels, Guiding Light grants +2 on ranged attacks against enemies in a target area, and Weapon of Energy grants additional energy damage to your bow.

You might want to consider the purchase of a few potions of some Ranger-only Spell Compendium spells—like Hawkeye, Arrow Mind, and Hunter's Mercy.

[Talya]

I don't remember if Averiel can fly in full plate....I'm thinking no.

[Talya]

For massive dex builds Celestial Armour (which is chainmail, and is in the SRD) wins since it has the greatest AB + Max Dex of any armour I know of - it's max dex is +8 though, so you need a massive dex for it to be that good.

From the "normal" magical armours, nothing has a better AB + max dex than mithral full plate (+11 total), so no matter your dex you're better off with it than anything else*. Losing out on +3 for dex is ok if you gain an extra 5 or whatever from the armour itself ;)

Not that your dex is gonna get this high, but nightscale leather (Underdark) is 2 AC, +10 max dex. Celestial armor is 4ac +8...so they're the same if your dex is high enough. nightscale allows a better touch AC, celestial a better flatfooted AC.

[Theodoxus]

Bah, elves... go Halfling, take a sling with Magic Stone. Wear full plate - I don't think even BWL would bat an eye at someone in full plate using a sling - conceptually, at any rate. All the rest of the spells mentioned above will help too. Course, you're only doing 1d3 instead of 1d8, but hey - you didn't say you wanted to do mass damage, just not boop. :)

Theo

[Ulzgoroth]

You can't do iterative attacks with a sling, because it takes a two-handed AoO provoking move action to load. This seems likely to make it very much boop at higher levels.

[Ikkitosen]

Not that your dex is gonna get this high, but nightscale leather (Underdark) is 2 AC, +10 max dex. Celestial armor is 4ac +8...so they're the same if your dex is high enough. nightscale allows a better touch AC, celestial a better flatfooted AC.

Your splatbook knowledge is [Vader] Impressive [/Vader]

Is nightscale a specific magic armour, a nonmagic armour, a special material or an enchantment?

[Bears With Lasers]

Not that your dex is gonna get this high, but nightscale leather (Underdark) is 2 AC, +10 max dex. Celestial armor is 4ac +8...so they're the same if your dex is high enough. nightscale allows a better touch AC, celestial a better flatfooted AC.

Celestial Armor is 8 AC +8. It's +3 Chainmail armor-wise, so you can Magic Vestment that up to 10 AC +8.

[Human Paragon 3]

A level of Fighter thrown in for the Bonus Feet and BAB increase can't hurt you either.

[Bears With Lasers]

A level of Fighter thrown in for the Bonus Feet and BAB increase can't hurt you either.

El Wrong-O!