Elf Cleric/Ranger

[Thanee]

Also looking at the Cleric/Ranger the other way around... Ranger/Cleric (or Warlord). But I don't think that looks better... the Cleric is surely the more useful base class.

BTW, the rest of the party will consist of (Dragonborn Wizard, Halfling Rogue, Half-Elf Warlord, Human Fighter), so a Cleric would be a great addition.


I think I'll just go the Cleric/Ranger route, since I really like the concept, and if it turns out I don't really like it, I can always use Retraining to get on another way eventually.

Bye
Thanee

 

[DonAdam]

I ran into exactly the same thing--building a cleric, wanted perception.

The bow is useful simply because of range. The ranged cleric powers only have a range of 5. The longbow is 20. And hopefully the Warlord will be able to give you a few ranged basic attack actions.

Even with a crappy str, I'm still inclined to give a cleric only one of the ranged at-wills, simply because the two of them are so similar.

Now if only you could get Hank's bow for the radiant damage.

 

[Thanee]

Later on, the Ranger's Twin Strike power seems almost worth it to give up the Paragon path for it, doubling your attacks for the rounds where you do not use any of the higher grade abilities.

Ok, in another thread I found out, that I actually missed the lack of ability bonus to the attacks with Twin Strike, so it really looks a lot less useful then... especially at 11th level.

So, it's clearly some Paragon Path to be followed later on (possibly Battlefield Archer, if the DM allows it; technically it is not possible, since you have to be an Archery-Ranger, which only base Rangers can be).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rystil Arden]

Even with a crappy str, I'm still inclined to give a cleric only one of the ranged at-wills, simply because the two of them are so similar.

It's a trap! One that's easy to make, but unofortunately, this is an incredible act of folly. Like it or not, it is useless for a Wis-based Cleric to take the Str at wills. The other two are very similar, true, but the Str ones are unusable. There are enough situations where the two are discriminated to make it worth it compared to the 0 times in your character's career that you would ever use a Str at-will.

 

[ascendance]

There's a lot of synergy between Cleric and Ranger powers, particularly for a Laser cleric. You just have to look in the right place. Remember, as a Cleric/Ranger, and acquiring powers through feats, you're only going to get an Encounter, a Utility, and maybe a Daily.

The most useful Utilities for a Cleric are the ones that greatly improve a Cleric's mobility, or uses Wisdom as a bonus or penalty. Stuff like Open the Range is awesome for a laser cleric, as it lets you dance out of the way as a monster runs up to you and tries to hit you. Skilled Companion is just all-round useful for a Cleric - add Wisdom to a single skilled check for an encounter. If you get to Epic levels, Master of the Hunt is amazing - add Wisdom bonus to damage rolls. That's ALL damage rolls. I mean, giving everyone Fly 8, or teleporting someone and healing someone up to max is nice too, but sometimes, you just want to do MORE DAMAGE. At high levels, that's easily +6 or +7 damage to each attack. Combo that with AOE burst powers, and that's a LOT of extra damage.

There's also great Encounter powers, like Disruptive Strike or Blade Ward, which hits someone as an interrupt, and takes a penalty to attack equal to Wis, or Hawk's Talon, which gives a bonus to-hit equal to your Wis.

 

[Thanee]

Could you please stop calling them "Laser Clerics". That sounds horribly stupid.

I know the folks on the Wizards Gleemax boards are using funny terms like that, but really, it's almost as bad as "Gish".

Thanks!



As for the synergy... yep, looking for Wisdom-based powers is probably the best idea (I meant this mostly in the light of Cleric powers not working together with bow attacks).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Zurai]

Also looking at the Cleric/Ranger the other way around... Ranger/Cleric (or Warlord). But I don't think that looks better... the Cleric is surely the more useful base class.

Ranger/Cleric is actually pretty good. There's a level 5 daily power that's incredible for an archery Ranger: Weapon of the Gods. Enchants the touched weapon with +1d6 radiant damage per hit AND a -2 AC effect on the target. Then you can also pick up stuff like (Mass) Cure Light Wounds and one of the Wisdom-based encounter powers.

 

[ascendance]

Could you please stop calling them "Laser Clerics". That sounds horribly stupid.

I prefer to call them "pew pew" clerics, as opposed to "smash smash" clerics. However, I'm just using the common parlance.

 

[azarias]

Thanee: why is it that you say that Cleric powers 'don't work together with bow attacks'?

Do you mean that you can't use the longbow's [w] as the base damage for a ranged prayer? If so, yes, that's true - but then it would be fearsomely overpowered if they did (Cascade of Light using bow damage? Yikes), and would lead to confusion over range

Or, do you mean that an Elven ranged Cleric can't use ranged prayers with his (two-handed) longbow in hands? If so, that's off - a Cleric doesn't need anything to use his prayers; the powers are invested in him, and a symbol is entirely optional.

As you go up in levels you'll want to have a symbol on your person, but there's never anything to stop you having a longbow (or a two-handed melee weapon, or shield and sword) in your hands.

 

[Mistwell]

Thanks, quite interesting and very similar to what I thought myself.

Unfortunately, it seems like it's true, that the synergy effects are simply not enough and thus using the bow is simply not a viable choice at some point forward.

Bye
Thanee

That's not the impression I got from that thread, for heroic levels at least. Are we looking at the same thread?

"He is an entirely different beast from those ancestors: not broken, not clunky, not requiring any combat preparation. He's fantastically fast, pleasantly resilient, and when he takes centre stage you know it. When it is his turn in the limelight, he has an array of options I've never experienced in a d&d Cleric: hard-hitting single attacks, heal-and-harm area attacks, mobile bowshots from the fringes, and skill points to back him up in a variety of out-of-combat situations. Did I forget to mention healing?"

He even stats it all out to make it clear how well the synergies work and how useful the bow is for this build, through all heroic levels.

Or are you just focused on mid to high level play, and feel that if it's not the best tactic for high level play then it simply doesn't work? Because he discusses what the plan is for mid to high levels, and it sure seems to work from what I can tell...