D&D 3E/3.5 Building an elf Cleric

[DarkMoon250]

I've been given the opportunity to try out a newbie friendly 3.5e game online, and assuming that this doesn't go down in a blaze as so many of my recent non-5e ventures have, that means I have to learn how to build my character.

I want to play an elven Cleric of Sehanine Moonbow, and I want to know if there are any nuances or niches that such a PC could tap into. Are there any domains to look out for? Does the Elf Domain allow for a decent ranged build?

I'd love to get a grasp on the options available to me, if anyone could help

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’m assuming your cleric is going to be using the longbow?
The Elf Domain gives a PC the Point Blank Shot free, which is a definite plus. True Strike as a bonus spell isn’t bad either.

But one of Sehanine Moonbow’s domains is Knowledge, which gives you bonuses to divination spells, and importantly, makes all Knowledge skills into class skills.

Why does it matter? Because the Knowledge Devotion Feat (Complete Champion) gives you a chance to add bonuses (up to +5) to your Att/Dam rolls, based on rolling against your skill with certain KS concentrations.

Knowledge Devotion – Feat – D&D Tools

Complete list of all D&D spells, rulebooks, feats, classes and more!

dndtools.net

I’ve used it in play. It‘s kind of like having a Smite or Favored Enemy for nearly every enemy you face, but variable (obviously). Caveat: you HAVE to maximize your levels in the relevant KS to get the most consistent benefit, obviously.

 

[Riley]

I've been given the opportunity to try out a newbie friendly 3.5e game online, and assuming that this doesn't go down in a blaze as so many of my recent non-5e ventures have, that means I have to learn how to build my character.

I want to play an elven Cleric of Sehanine Moonbow, and I want to know if there are any nuances or niches that such a PC could tap into. Are there any domains to look out for? Does the Elf Domain allow for a decent ranged build?

I'd love to get a grasp on the options available to me, if anyone could help

My 3.5e-fu has atrophied terribly, but there’s some good/quick discussion of 3.5e elf archery clerics from 2004 in the thread here:

D&D 3E/3.5 - Which race "got the shaft" in 3.5

A friend and I had a discussion about how humans are pretty sub-optimal. He claimed that humans seem weaker than the other races. And further, that this was somewhat reflected in the Living Grayhawk RPGA games where he saw very few human full-BAB types. Thoughts? I left out 1/2 elves as...

www.enworld.org

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another good feat I’ve used in game is the original version of the feat, Sacred Healing. It gives you an AoE healing effect- functionally the same as Fast Healing with a 60’ burst. Those in the area not only autoheal a small amount, they also autostabilize if reduced to 0HP.

Sacred Healing – Feat – D&D Tools

Complete list of all D&D spells, rulebooks, feats, classes and more!

dnd.arkalseif.info

It doesn’t sound like much, I know. But in conjunction with the Extra Turning feat, I used Sacred Healing to keep a party healed up while going through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil with a (high Cha) Geomancer with only a few levels of Cleric. Being able to heal everyone in a 60’ burst of 45hp over a few rounds is the equivalent of burning several spells.

(Obviously, NOT for use in combat. But it works just fine if done before the PCs close to melee range.)

The ONLY issue: there’s another feat with the exact same name that was published in a later D&D product. Many people took that as WotC revising and replacing the original. But I contacted them, and their response was that they simply didn’t catch the existence of the prior feat- there was no intent to replace and revise the original.