Halfling Rogue 2, Cleric 3 - unbreak it, please.

[Jeff Wilder]

Get her a handy haversack and she can carry as many alchemist's bombs as you want.

Am I understanding you that the build is 11 skill points shy of correct, and your DM won't allow you to spend those 11 skill points? If so, that's just bad DMing.

The difference between starting with rogue and starting with cleric is 18 skill points, so it's not that. (And even if it were, forcing further gimpage on a gimped cohort would, again, be bad DMing.)

 

[aboyd]

You are correct that the build is 11 skill points short (actually 12 -- I initially calculated wrong myself). However, I don't think my DM is going to prohibit fixing that. It wasn't deliberate on his part. He follows the core books, so if I can show that the book says she gets more points, then he's OK with that (I think).

However, I do not think he'll let me fix her odd stats. I don't think he does 32 point buy for NPCs. He lets PCGen roll 'em and goes with it.

It looks like grenades (acid flask & so on) can do critical hits, can do sneak attack damage, and can take benefit from all the usual ranged weapon feats. I'm really starting to think she's going to be OK. She's going to do fair damage in combat, and she keeps her spell progression without interruption.

My only question is, is there any way to use a thrown flask in a flanking melee situation? Otherwise the only way she can get sneak attack damage is via a surprise round. That's probably OK, but I'm on the watch for feats that could help.

 

[Darklone]

We have such a cleric in our group and she rocks.

Luck domain, Luck feats (at epic levels some homemade ones), Shadowbane infiltrator and later IIRC paragnostic apostle... strong casting and some sneak attack.

Stick with the crossbow without fighter levels, all you need is Crossbow Sniper (Weapon Focus) and PBS+Rapid Shot much later when you got some feats left...

 

[Jeff Wilder]

My only question is, is there any way to use a thrown flask in a flanking melee situation? Otherwise the only way she can get sneak attack damage is via a surprise round. That's probably OK, but I'm on the watch for feats that could help.

I may be misremembering, but I think there's a Ranged Flanking feat in one of the earlier class splatbooks. No idea of the prerequisites, though.

 

[billd91]

However, I do not think he'll let me fix her odd stats. I don't think he does 32 point buy for NPCs. He lets PCGen roll 'em and goes with it.

<snip>

My only question is, is there any way to use a thrown flask in a flanking melee situation? Otherwise the only way she can get sneak attack damage is via a surprise round. That's probably OK, but I'm on the watch for feats that could help.

Yeah, don't sweat the stats. They aren't that bad, just not particularly optimal. Small potatoes.

If you want to try to find more opportunities to sneak attack from range, invisibility is your friend. Get some potions of it.

 

[Humanaut]

The spell Longstrider is your friend, that is Domain 1st level spell for Travel Domain i believe. +10 to spd...

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If you get stuck with the cleric as-is, at least statwise (feats should definitely be changed), maybe consider making a blaster cleric with that large dexterity? No where near as easy for Clerics as it is for Wizards (and even for them, evocation is a dump school), but there's options.

Here's a char op. thread for this kind of thing, it might be useful: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=605481

The Arcane Disciple is a variant cleric class from Dragon mag 311. It gives up...basically every cleric class feature besides prepared casting, uses a d6 HD, loses some of the armor proficiencies...pretty harsh trade-offs. However, what you gain is extra 2 skill points per level, UMD as class skill (very handy), bonus metamagic or item creation feats at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20; and the main feature: add a bard or sorc/wiz spell to your cleric list at each level. If your DM allows it, the versatility might afford you some new options.

You can look at it here, page 23. http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Classes-Base.pdf

 

[hornedturtle]

You use craft (alchemy) to make alchemists fire.

 

[aboyd]

Thanks everybody who followed up with more suggestions. I have indeed given her longstrider from her travel domain, and I'm working on implementing just about every other suggestion too. This is great.

Looking over the Craft (Alchemy) it seems that to be useful you need about 15 points in it. I just can't get her there. So I think I'm going to give her a token 1 pip in it as a roleplay element, and then dump all my points into the other skills that make her what she is.

I'm all over Arcane Disciple not for her, but for another build. It sounds fascinating.

She WILL be getting a haversack at some point.

I'm curious about the Quick Draw feat. It enables her to throw flasks at her full BAB rate. But I don't recall seeing anything anywhere ever saying that you couldn't throw them at your regular BAB. If I were DMing I certainly would have allowed someone with 6/1 BAB to throw at +6 and +1 per round. Where is that prohibited? Or is it only the feat itself which hints at it?

 

[Kaisoku]

Well getting a flask from your backpack would be a move action in itself, so unless you can somehow get a full attack along with a move action, you are limited to only a standard action per round.

So things like a bandolier for your flasks that grants easy access for full attacking, or the Quickdraw feat. A Handy Haversack bypasses it as well since I think it calls up whatever you needed as a free action.. in fact, I recall at least one NPC from someplace designed with this concept in mind.

Yes, the Handy Haversack is "that good". Relieves weight concerns and simultaneously gives the Quickdraw feat with regards to throwing items.

Give some acid flasks, tanglefoot bags and thunderstones for some added combat options, and you have a nice utility/damage character without even adding in the cleric levels for bonus healing, etc.