Hoping for Critiques - Cleric Archer

[YWQMD]

I'm in a group where I'm playing this melee/healer hybrid Life Oracle. Got some new additions to our group and everyone wants to be melee. So I'm thinking of making a switch to something similar, but ranged.

Heard that archer Clerics are decent where ranged damage/support is concerned. Kind of want to lay out a build sketch here, so that some generous person(s) may tell me where anything is lacking.

Going with Tengu for my race. I'm going to swap the Swordtrained Racial for Exotic Weapon Training. DM is allowing me to pick up the Daikyu and go full composite with it.

Thinking of Dangerously Curious/Reactionary for my traits.

For my stats (15 point buy), think I'll go with-

13 (14) [+1 STR at LVL4]
14 (19) [+1 DEX at LVL8, +2 DEX Belt, +2 Race]
12 (10) [-2 Race]
10
14 (18) [+2 Headband, +2 Race]
10

I would like to know if that spread is garbage for a Cleric archer. I could also go 11 STR/15 DEX, which might be slightly better.

For feats, figure I'll start with the typical. Point Blank Shot/Precise Shot/Rapid Shot/Deadly Aim/Manyshot. Any suggestions for feats past the 11th level? Lost after that point.

For my skills at LVL10, I'm thinking 10 point in UMD and 6 in Fly, but I can't figure what to do with the rest.

Also, wanting to pick up the Luck & Travel Domain. Those spells. Thank you, based Desna. I'm guessing that combination is fine? Because those powers/spells look bananas. Also wondering if anyone has experience with Travel's subdomains. Interested in the Exploration one.

With everything said, does this look like a reasonable start?
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[TarkXT]

What level will you be at when you start?

[YWQMD]

Coming in at Level 10. Which is maybe a little late to reroll, but our DM is happy to oblige. She feels swamped in melee beats.

[LordKadarian]

In one of my first pathfinder games I ran I had a player come in with an archer cleric

it worked very well
for the most part just keep on hand some self buffs like divine favor

[Zenlike]

You'll definitely want to max out Perception. You can't hit what you don't see.

I also really like the Liberation Domain and at your level it will be very helpful to the entire party.

I'm not a big fan of dumping stats so I feel yours are fine. But I'm sure someone will come along soon and say otherwise...

As for feats I think Clustered Shot might be useful.

[Breiti]

Most cleric achers use Guided Hand feat to use WIS instead of DEX for attacks with bows (e.x. Erastil).

Breiti

[Matthew Downie]

Exploration subdomain is OK but Gloves of Reconnaissance are better.

[soupturtle]

Breiti wrote:

Most cleric achers use Guided Hand feat to use WIS instead of DEX for attacks with bows (e.x. Erastil).

Breiti

I wouldn't do that. It puts you two feats behind (due to the prerequisite feat), which you'll never make up, especially as a non-human. And you don't need that much wisdom anyway.

I'd also put both your level increases to dex, instead of one to dex and one to strength. If you want (and especially if you're unlikely to play much at/beyond level 16) you could put the level 12 one to strength, but for now +1 to hit beats +1 to damage. You could also play with a bit less wisdom (or a minor dump to int or cha) to up your dex some more - you really need as much dex as you can get. Something like str 12, dex 16+2 race +2 level +2 item, con 12-2 race, int 10, wis 13 +2 race +2 item, cha 8 would work fairly well. Channel isn't so important that you really need high cha.

For your higher level feats, the next one I'd add is clustered shots, as damage reduction is pretty common. You should carry cold iron, silver blanch and adamantine blanch arrows, but sometimes you just need to punch through. Once you can get it improved precise shot is incredible, but you can't get that before level 15 if I'm not mistaken.

[Umbranus]

One of the animal and terrain domains is quite nice for an archer cleric, too, if you're not set on the domains.

eagle domain:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/archetypes/paizo---druid -archetypes/animal-and-terrain-domains/eagle-domain

I think a tengu with a bird familiar is rather cool.

[Imbicatus]

You could get the feats back from guided hand if you went Crusader Cleric. Yes, you would only get one domain and reduced spells per day, but the feats are very nice for a feat heavy archer build, and if you make wis your primary stat, you'll regain some of the spells lost as bonus spells.

[soupturtle]

Crusader clerics pick their bonus feats from a limited list. None of the archery feats are on that list.

[Imbicatus]

No, but they can get feats that are useful to a wis based archer. Weapon Focus and Heavy Armor prof is useful. Then at 10th they can also get Improved Critical and Weapon Spec. Yes, it delays archery feats, but the bonus feats do make up for it imo. I would still go human for the bonus feat though.

[Crosswind]

The OP's build looks solid to me.

Luck domain, to be honest, isn't super impressive. I'd go Liberation and Travel (Exploration), were I you

-Cross

[Kudaku]

Note that taking Guided Hand (and dumping dexterity) means that there are some really important archery feats you don't qualify for, like Manyshot and Improved Precise Shot. Both require a high dexterity, 17 and 19 respectively.

It's not unreasonable for a GM to rule that Guided Hand allows you to use your wisdom to qualify for combat feats with the appropriate weapon, but RAW it's a no-go.

As Matthew mentioned, Guided Hand also puts you a few feats behind a dexterity based archer. Since Clerics struggle to find enough feats to get archery working till the mid levels anyway, I'd consider Guided Hand a bit of a trap option.

[YWQMD]

Zenlike wrote:

Spoiler:

You'll definitely want to max out Perception. You can't hit what you don't see.

I also really like the Liberation Domain and at your level it will be very helpful to the entire party.

[soupturtle]

The blanch comes from a few items classified as 'weapon accessories', called weapon blanch. There's a silver variety, a cold iron variety, an adamantine variety and a ghost touch variety (with a different named, it's called ghost salts or something like that). These items can be used on a weapon or a batch of ammunition to allow said weapon to bypass damage reduction of the type corresponding to the kind of blanch.

For melee weapons it's a bad deal, as it only works on a weapon for one hit. But for arrows you can coat 10 arrows with them instead of just one melee weapon, which makes it a lot cheaper than buying lots of special material arrows, and very affordable right from early levels.