Dark Jezter said:
Although I've never heard of a cleric archer being a particularly powerful build, even with the Zen archery feat. The most effective clerics I've seen usually go for melee attacks along with their spells. Cleric archer seems to be a build that elf clerics would make up to validate their existance.
Wow; and you've been around these boards this long?
With Zen Archery, a cleric archer is absolutely terrifying, since they need one (count it, ONE) stat to be terrifically effective. More to the point, it's not that a cleric archer is a better
archer (read: better at actually-firing-arrows-that-do-damage) than a fighter/archer PrC, but rather that the cleric's buff spell combos + ability to cast other nasty spells + advantages of a ranged attack in allowing the cleric to heal and cast spells without having to worry about being whacked in melee make up a powerful character. Here's
one example , but there are numerous others.
Also, don't overstate the importance of
cat's grace. In 3.5, it doesn't stack with
gloves of Dex, which are de rigeur in 3.5 due to the crappy duration of the CG spell. Clerics certainly do get
cat's grace, just as a domain spell; they can get feats like PBS as domain abilities (Elf, the same one that gives
cat's grace) too. Moreover, keep in mind that the key to an archer is damage, not attack. Archers can't Power Attack, so they need ways to max out damage.
Finally,
divine favor gives much greater bonuses to attack than the fighter can hope to muster even with a high Dex. The key issue here is: Do you think clerics are better at melee than ranged combat? My answer, based on the existence of cleric archers IMC in 2e and 3e, is that ranged combat is a far superior option for the cleric, since he can fight AND cast spells without fear of immediate reprisal. He can also avoid tripping, sundering, disarming, and grappling, all of which are difficult for any cleric without
righteous might. Also, clerics have a clear advantage over fighters in being able to make their arrows overcome magic and material DR through the right spells.
And I'll go with Druid 20 as the most powerful archetype, although a cleric/divine disciple with Divine Metamagic, Persistent Spell, and the Initiate of Mystra feat makes for a deadly archer too, due to the combination of
polymorph (planetar form), persistent divine favor, divine power, and righteous might, the ability to cast GMW and adamantine/silver weapon on his arrows, and terrifying things like
holy star, which is wonderful for a ranged combatant (+10 cover bonus to AC?).
