Elf Cleric/Ranger

[azarias]

Thanee -

Astral Fire gives +1 damage with radiant and fire powers. Prereqs are 13 Dex and Cha.

It's one of the few +/+ damage feats which is worth taking, and only if you're a ranged Cleric - since so many of your prayers do radiant damage (with a bit of fire thrown in)

 

[Lord Sessadore]

But at the risk of repeating myself - if you put the classes in order of melee potency, where does the Str/Wis Cleric appear?

Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Warlord
(here, maybe?)
Rogue
(or here?)
...with, perhaps, only the Wizard and Warlock coming in lower.

There's a lot to be said for making a ranged 4E Cleric

Well ... depends what you mean by potency. If you mean durability, I think you're close. If you mean damage potential, Ranger and Rogue need to be at the top. If you mean average of the two ... I dunno. That's a really tough one to gauge.

Fighters and Paladins are both incredibly tough (duh, they're the defenders), and do a fair bit of damage. (Melee) Clerics and Warlords are both lesser in both damage and defenses, as far as I know. Ranger and Rogue are both at the top of the list for melee damage, Ranger possibly coming out on top with some power combos, but I'd say they're fairly tied for the most part (unless Rogue can't get CA). The Warlock is an interesting case - an infernal pact warlock can be very durable up close, moreso than the Rogue and Ranger both. And high Con opens up some armor training feats, so it's not unreasonable to have an infernal Warlock up close and personal in chain or scale or even plate, making them easily most durable of the strikers. Wizards obviously come last in the melee list.

That was incredibly off-topic, and I apologize.

 

[Thanee]

Astral Fire gives +1 damage with radiant and fire powers. Prereqs are 13 Dex and Cha.

Thanks!

That's definitely not a reason to think about swapping Str and Int, though.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Cadfan]

The str/wis cleric is fun. He does ok in melee, and can toss down area of effect attacks using his wisdom. He also plays well with the rogue and the warlord, and can tank a bit when the party needs a backup defender. Its a perfectly viable build.

What really ends up happening when you make a Str/Wis cleric is that you cannibalize charisma for points to spend on strength and wisdom. This isn't that big of a deal, because you'll just end up skipping over powers that use charisma.

 

[Otterscrubber]

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

Have to agree, that ranger/cleric build might not be s useful, but I'm giong to give it a go in my campaign. There are still a lot of synergies there, espcially with having extra healing available. My ranger is a TWF ranger and having some holy anti-undeadness in him goes well with his story and there are a ton of Str based cleric powers that would go well in any situation.

 

[Soopervilin]

You could always try a houserule feat to make some of your melee based attack powers ranged. I presented this to our DM and he had no problem with it.

I posted in another thread, but I'm not sure how to link to a specific post. So here's the feat again.

Lead from the Rear
Prerequisites: Cleric or Warlord
All of your Cleric or Warlord encounter attack powers with the Weapon keyword become ranged and use the appropriate ability score modifier for attack and damage rolls. Effects that take place on a hit still occur, but with the target’s square as the origin. Effects that take place regardless of a hit still occur as normal.

The idea is that a healer (and military leader warlords) shouldn't have to be up on the front line to be effective. I can see a warlord standing behind his soldiers chucking spears or whatnot over their heads, and having the party's primary healer on the front line just seems really silly to me.

Also note that this is just for a few encounter powers, but if applied properly it could make clerics more versatile. I'm using it on my elf cleric/ranger, and I'll finally get to see it in action on Friday.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Thread necromancy from june last year is not cool ... the character is probably retired by now.

Besides, clerics do just fine at range. Laser cleric builds have no strength to speak of, and simply zap from range.

What's more, I've seen several 18 dex/18 wis elven clerics in play, and they get good mileage from using a swiftshot crossbow.
Since holy symbols need not be held, and the swiftshot crossbow offers a minor action RBA every encounter, it's just an extra attack.

 

[DracoSuave]

Well, if we're raising the dead...

What is it that you want from a cleric? If it's the buffs and healing, then go that. If you're looking for the more rough-and-tumble skirmisher, then for a Divine/Ranger, Avenger/Ranger might be -far more- interesting... Elves are Dex/Wis, Avengers have a Dex/Wis build. Not to mention, Censure of Persuit works well when you want to go mobile.

 

[Lojaan]

hey Thanee have you considered an avenger?

If you're attracted to the divine/priestly element of the cleric (as opposed to the leader role), then an avenger could be just as easily be an ordained instrument of god/holy man as a cleric.

And you get the benefit that elves make awesome avengers.

And if you wanted to be a bit more clericy, you could always MC cleric for a bit of extra leader.

Bows aren't optimal for avengers either so if it was the bow aspect you were mostly attracted to then this may not be your thing, but hey, just putting it out there.

 

[Lojaan]

Heh. Oops. I like how you think DracoSuave.