Another, which works well with the two-handed fighter archetype, is just to get the most damaging weapon you can (butchering axe, if available) and proceed down the Vital Strike path.
Belafon speaks truth. I play weekly with a two-handed fighter who fights with a big axe and Vital Strike. He is very effective. That said, for tactical reasons he sometimes prefers a reach weapon (usually a boarding pike aka longspear, since we're pirates) and finds that reach AoOs add an extra ~20% to his damage. He carries a reach weapon, takes his early AoOs when it's not his turn, then drops it and switches to his axe on his own turn.
Satio, I second Sysryke's suggestion about using reach and combat reflexes. Being a large & strong PC with a reach weapon (thus 20' reach), high DEX, and Combat Reflexes will massively increase your PCs average damage output and will ALSO reduce incoming damage. One typically sees about a ~50%+ increase in damage output, front-loaded to early in the fight when it's most important. One typically sees about a 10-15% reduction in incoming damage, because you'll sometimes slay things before they can get close enough to attack. The protection provided by reach typically exceeds the protection provided by a shield.
This combo typically provides several extra attacks per fight. While you don't NEED Combat Reflexes to get AoOs it helps a lot. The big benefit is getting an AoO even when you lose initiative. That 16 DEX also provides lots of AoOs with Combat Reflexes. The key item to understand is that your PC will inflict damage when it's NOT YOUR TURN.
No other feat will provide such a huge damage increase. Plus your PC has a larger "zone of control" and is more effective at controlling the battlefield. Here's an example of how using reach tactics works in play. This approach also protects your squishy allies, as foes who try to get close enough to attack a squishy ally must first reckon with your AoOs. This provides a protective screen around your allies.
A falcata, like most swords, is a sidearm. As a rule, sidearms are less effective than are battlefield weapons like the polearm, longbow, or long gun. Sidearms have the advantage of being attached to your body and thus always available. A sword is to a polearm as a pistol is to a rifle. Many places & situations (inns, some cities, diplomatic conferences, etc) don't allow battlefield weapons but do allow sidearms. Plus it's a BOTHER to always carry a long stick and you'll be tempted to put it down.
Perhaps carry a battlefield weapon and keep that falcata sidearm handy for when the battlefield weapon fails you. As a GM I've noticed that martials who specialize in a single weapon often build themselves a trap that reduces their effectiveness. Flexibility wins out.
I agree with Mysterious Stranger. With Combat Reflexes feat the sweet spot for DEX is 14. 12 works but, as MS points out, gives no extra AoOs when one enlarges. One rarely gets more than 2 AoOs per turn.
The primary benefit of Combat Reflexes is getting AoOs even when you lose initiative and haven't acted. Most Paizo maps are very small so foes can usually get close if they win initiative.
When you say "polearm with reach", I think "Combat Reflexes", which requires a high Dex to be worthwhile, e.g. a rogue.
See also: https://rpgbot.net/pathfinder/characters/area_control_defender/
In fact a 12 DEX is quite sufficient for Combat Reflexes. That gives two AoOs. In actual play one rarely gets more than two AoOs in a given round. DEX 14 allows two AoOs even when Large, so DEX 14 is really the upper end of what's needed. This makes the Area Control Defender approach viable for any PC who has DEX in the 12-14 range.
My last Inquisitor (played levels 1 -17) got excellent use from just a few teamwork feats. Not many feats work with Solo Tactics but some few work great. Multi-classed 1 level of Brawler which allowed changing feats at will, so I tried just about all of them.
I had best luck with combat feats. PC routinely tripped giants. Paizo adventures hardly ever give giants a reach weapon, so a simple longspear generally outreaches them when you are Large. The most consistently effective Teamwork Feats were:
* Tandem Trip - didn't bother with the Improved Trip sequence until late. Instead just out-reached foes and tripped at reach. If they can't reach you then they get no AoO, even though you 'provoke' one. Works great.
* Paired Opportunists - Huge. Works great with Solo Tactics. All your AoOs get +4 to hit and you get AoOs in a lot of situations where you otherwise would not. E.g. Foes with partial cover still provoke AoOs.
* Coordinated Maneuvers - works fine but it's only +2
* Escape Route - works great! Maybe the best teamwork feat for a frontline warrior who moves around a lot.
* Swap places. Seems small but this is huge. Save allies when they get in trouble!
Tried a bunch of other teamwork feats, too. The ones above actually worked consistently.
I recommend stitching something together yourself. I have a lot of experience running RPGs for kids that age. I highly recommend the DMing Dad web site for this.
Hi all. That's my post that Minigiant links to. Perhaps I should write a brief updated guide to the Hangover Cleric, to replace the original obsolete Hangover Cleric Guide. This original guide, while it introduces the concept, has quite a few RAW errors. I'll do this if enough people request it.
I don't have the original PCs anymore (there were several versions) but here's a partial rebuild:
Sample Hangover Build with variations:
At 1st level:
STR 14 DEX 12 CON 13 INT 10 WIS 13 CHA 15+2
Traits: Sacred Conduit and another of your choice
Human Cleric (Animal Domain) of Variant Channel Archetype [Rulership: Negative to Harm] and Cleric (Separatist[Growth subdomain]). These archetypes are compatible.
Feats:
Selective Channeling [Human]
Versatile channeling [1st]
Boon Companion [3rd]
Paired Opportunists [5th] or or Extra Channel [7th] or Flagbearer [7th]
Quick channel [7th]
Alignment channel [9th]
Strength 14 is just sufficient for Martial Competence. Stack Bull's Strength and Enlarge Person for tough fights and Strength becomes 20.
DEX 12 is not important and can be lower. Your reach screen can usually keep off melee attackers, but you [paired] are not a primary melee fighter. Whomever hits for less damage (rider or axebeak) should attack first to trip, then the one who hits harder hits for damage. If the first trip fails then the other AoO might also try to trip.
Raise CHA WIS CON as you can.
*************************************
Variations:
* One might double down on the Hangover Channeling and give up the axebeak and martial competence. I actually played this variant and found it very vulnerable to melee opponents. Play this like a squishy wizard.
* One can change the balance between these parts: defensive melee power, hangover channeling, cleric stuff
Other fun Variant Channel Options:
* Ask your GM to allow two RAW-prohibited hangover channeling options:
A) Sun Wukong has the "Drunkenness" portfolio. By RAW this does not qualify for the Variant Channeling [negative Ale/Wine to Harm] but RAI it totally should qualify. Paizo didn't standardize the WORDING of Portfolios. Variant Channeling was not well playtested. Portfolio "Drunkenness" should totally activate Variant Channeling [Ale/Wine]. Get your GM's approval as this is not PFS legal.
* Ask your GM to allow devotees of Cayden Caylean, a Good-aligned deity, to Channel negative energy of the Ale/Wine type. It's illegal by RAW but, come on, it's TOTALLY in character.
* Variant Channeling [Negative Earth to Harm] - This is a weird and fun niche ability to create a lot of difficult terrain. Very comparable to the 2nd level Stone Call spell. The interesting big is that it's viable with a 1 level Cleric dip, no feats, and low CON. E.g. A martial PC with several levels of Fighter might dip one level of Cleric for: Growth Domain, Travel Domain, lvl 1 cleric spells, and Variant Channeling (negative to harm[EARTH]). As GM I've seen PCs voluntarily take friendly fire damage in order to set up the battlefield with Difficult Terrain. Difficult Terrain eliminates the 5' step! Travel Domain allows 5' step in difficult terrain. So this combination allows a PC to create Difficult Terrain at will and to also move freely through such terrain!
If Giantslayer were re-written today some of those silly one-handed warhammers would likely be converted to Dwarven Longhammers. The latter is obviously a superior weapon against giants. Maybe ask your GM if he wouldn't consider CHANGING some of those iconic warhammers to Dwarven Warhammer. Reach is so important for fighting giants that you're probably better off with a non-magical dwarven warhammer (with reach) than you are with a powerful magic warhammer (lacking reach).
Few early Paizo adventure authors though much about reach weapons. It wasn't on their radar. Reach weapons are optimal for giants but they never seem to carry one.
@ OP: You're looking for That Island Charm in issue #33 of the old Dungeon Magazine. I once owned a copy of that issue but it's since disintegrated with age.
@ OP: Here are some mechanical tips for building and playing an effective cleric:
While Cleric's Channel Energy ability is not very strong, it can be useful. Offensive channeling of negative energy to harm helps you melt faces, but allies appreciate healing a lot more. Consider going both ways with Versatile Chanel. Works great if you are neutrally aligned and worship Gozreh, Nature God of Wind and Sea. Probably channel Positive Energy primarily, because that's where the numbers count most.
Some will say that Selective Channel is essential but I disagree. It's often possible to work around this issue by either A) Healing out of combat or B) Using landscape to block effects
Understand reach tactics and know that this approach is especially effective for a cleric. Do cleric stuff on your own turn and deliver melee attacks during the GM's turn. Spear works great underwater, too. Mechnically, this option gets a huge power boost from Gozreh's Plant(Growth) domain. Here's an example build. No need for your 1st level cleric to inflict 40 hp per round, but know that it's possible.
Wise Clerics always leave an open spell slot for every level of spell they can cast. Always do this. Thus, at first level your spell list might be: Open Spell Slot, Enlarge Person (Domain Spell), and Bless. That open spell slot can become whatever you need in just 15 minutes. Need to dive deep? Change your Open Spell Slot to Air Bubble! Didn't use your Open Spell Slot? Just before resting change your Open Spell Slot to Endure Elements and cast it, good for the next 24 hours.
Consider the very capable Evangelist Archetype of Cleric. First check whether your party already has a Bard. If not, be an Evangelist. Here's an Example of Play with even more cleric tips.
With those dumped physical stats, especially awful Strength, this Bard will be fish food in no time. Strength helps one swim. You'll want to be able to swim.
If you stay with the Starknife build then at least increase STR, DEX, and CON a bit. Reduce your CHA. 20 is too high at start. Way too specialized.
Here's an alternate approach that better suits your planned feats but requires ditching the not-very-good starknife-throwing approach:
Leverage that terrific Flagbearer feat into something even better. First, carry your flag in both hands on the tip of a longspear. That's traditionally how it's done (Bayeux Tapestry: lots of flagbearers armed with longspears). You can still throw starknives, or cast spells, or whatever, with no hindrance. Boost your STR to 14 so you're competent with that longspear. Advantages:
* You're not wasting one arm holding something useless. Instead, both hands hold the flag and it's also a weapon.
* Spear works well underwater and swimming. Starknife throwing does not. You'll spend lots of time in the water.
* You'll have a reach screen. This GM observes that parties with an effective reach screen are flat-out better than parties that lack a reach screen. Be effective during the GM's turn, not just during your own turn. Works especially well for Bards.
* Your buffs make your longspear attacks pretty effective. Inspire Courage plus Flagbearer gets you a flat +2 +2. At first level, with just 14 STR, you'll be +4 to hit for 1D8+5 damage. Even ignoring AoOs that's more effective than throwing starknives.
* Angle to get the magic item "Banner of the Ancient Kings". This enhances both Flagbearer and Inspire Courage! Possible around 7th level. This pumps your buffs into the stratosphere and makes your bard an instant "we win" member of the team.
Here's one way to make a mental-attribute PC viable in combat [Title: Combat Role for character with only good mental attributes and no feats?]. Hint: that approach just leverages your Animal Companion to be awesome and does nothing to make your actual PC competent in combat.
@ OP: You already have most of the feats required for Whirlwind Attack. That allows you to attack every foe within reach. Probably a bad choice in your case, as you have poor reach, but possibly worth considering. Much better on a PC with 10' or 20' reach who also hits harder. Weapon Specialization would also be pretty good if you take another level in Fighter. Your Rogue levels really limit your most effective options, though.
* At 4th level get the spell Winter's Grasp. Better than Frostfall yet serves the same purpose. Apply Rime Spell metamagic. Works great.
* Dip one level of Wizard and choose the Admixture School. Now you can make ANY damaging spell a [COLD] spell. Way better than a Sorcerer dip. My favorite is [COLD] Burning Hands, but there are lots of others. This approach drastically improves Spell Specialization, too!
I agree with Mr. Charisma. Dual Cursed Oracle perfectly fits this player request. It's a roleplay-heavy debuff with no saving throw. It's not over-powered but it's certainly effective. It's great for reducing incoming damage: tell the GM you use it by default whenever a foe rolls a Natural 20.
AVR also had a good suggestion with Rime Metamagic on a Cold spell. Here are details about how this works. It's not "powerful" but there's no save or SR so it always works.
Ive never had a good experience with building a martial cleric. It’s fine at low level, but very quickly you find yourself having better things to do with your actions than attack with a weapon.
That's the purpose of a Reach Cleric: Cast spells with your Standard Action and attack with a weapon during the GM's turn. Other sorts of cleric must choose which half of the character to use each round. Reach clerics do both at once.
Support Cleric: The “Default” build. A support caster that can wade into melee with weapon and shield to dish out some beats on his own when needed.
Battle Cleric: The melee beast that at one point was a better fighter than the class by the same name.
Reach Cleric: A more effective battle cleric. Specialized in fighting multiple opponents. Mechanically superior to a 'greatsword cleric' in every way.
Archer Cleric: Part support caster, part long range threat a good balanced build that works for every situation.
The Lord of Undeath: Necromancers got some very nice upgrades in Pathfinder that makes this build worth taking into high levels.
The Bad Touch Cleric: The total opposite of the support cleric. Where he buffs, you debuff, where he remains outside of combat, you flit in and out of danger flirting with disaster and sewing chaos and discord with every step you tread.
The Pure Casting Cleric: You’re no wizard harry. But you don’t necessarily have to be. The caster cleric focuses almost entirely upon the cleric’s casting ability making him ideal for low point buy games or just badly rolled characters.
Oh I see! the OP proposes that the brace WEAPON PROPERTY, not the brace ACTION causes double damage on AoOs! I had misunderstood that! Well, that would certainly make the Brace weapon property matter, where now it matters not.
It would be used everytime a longspear user is charged by a non-reach weapon.
Would it? In several decades of playing D&D I can count on one hand successful uses of Brace Weapon against Charge. There are so many ways to nullify this readied action that it seems like a trap.
Bugbear with Longspear: I brace my spear and ready an action to stab that Barbarian if it charges me.
GM to Barbarian: The bugbear braces its spear against your charge.
Barbarian: I don't charge. Instead I move up to the bugbear and then attack it with my glaive.
GM: OK. Since you didn't charge its readied action is wasted. Roll your attack.
Bugbear: But ... [bugbear dies]
***********************************************
From experience we've learned it's better to do this:
Bugbear with Longspear: I ready an action to attack that Barbarian if comes within my reach.
GM to Barbarian: The bugbear seems ready to attack you!
Barbarian: I don't charge. Instead I move up to the bugbear and then attack it with my glaive.
GM: The bugbear was ready for you! The bugbear attacks!
@ OP: You got some misleading answers! If and only if that ettercap is able to FULL ATTACK then it gets 3 attacks. If it takes a MOVE action then it only has a Standard Action left, which means only ONE ATTACK.
CBD and MrCharisma were very clear in their answers, which match yours. They were not slightly misleading. Even VoodistMonk made it clear its 3 attacks.
They were, but not every answer was so clear. I've seen many novice and even not-so-novice GMs and players get this wrong.
@ OP: Many GMs will treat the Curse of Lycanthropy as a Curse, as it's been in all previous versions. Pathfinder diluted some of the language making it truly awful, but many GMs will still play it as awful. I certainly do. This means you can't control it, you'll change unwillingly, you lose control of your character when you're changed, and the changed version is likely to commit atrocities. After your PC has murdered some children plus done a terrible job hiding the crime it will seem like a curse.
When I GM, a PC cursed with lycanthropy either cures it quick else becomes an NPC. Once it has taken hold the player loses agency over the character. Rather like being dominated by a demon turned into a vampire. Character is DONE.
While I'd be fine with this house rule change, it's the added complexity of a house rule for a situation that hardly ever comes up. Brace is almost never worth using. I don't see that adding this house rule would cause Brace to used very much more often.
@ OP: You got some misleading answers! If and only if that ettercap is able to FULL ATTACK then it gets 3 attacks. If it takes a MOVE action then it only has a Standard Action left, which means only ONE ATTACK.
Consider taking Battlefield Control style actions to be more effective in combat. Your team totally lacks any Battlefield Control. Bards aren't great at this, but can be competent. Anything you can do help you team with Battlefield Control will be a big contribution!
Make good use of that Grease spell, it can help a lot. Consider learning to Summon Monster spells.
Sad to say it, but Archery Bard is generally a not-very-effective approach. Action efficiency is awful, because your early turns are taken up with Bard Song and Spell Casting. You'll rarely be able to get off an arrow until round 3, by which time a fight is nearly over.
This works great. Divine Spells << Arcane Spells for offensive purposes. The best Cleric spells are DC agnostic. WIS 14 is just fine for a Cleric. Summon Monster is always a terrific option for clerics.
You have CHA 14. Will you use it to channel, or is it mostly for skills?
Clerics get very few skill points. They make lousy skill monkeys. Clerics make excellent gish, able to fight and cast spells at the same time. You've chosen perfect attributes for a reach cleric. STR 20 makes you very strong at reach tactics, which leverages your STR 20 to boost defensive power for you and your allies.
Probably carry Norberger's short sword as a sidearm, all the time, and a cumbersome longspear as your primary battle weapon. Be sure to trip foes when it's appropriate.
Do you plan to channel? CHA 14 isn't quite enough to be good at it. You have no good Variant Channel options. Probably only channel recreationally, thus don't spend feats on it. It's often possible to make effective use of Negative Channel to harm even without Selective Channel, just using the geometry of your environment.
Choose a good default spell list. Vary it as needed.
Norberger gives you a poor choice of domains. Consider taking the Seperatist Archetype to choose one better domain.
Always leave one open spell slot at every level of spell you can cast.
Give lots of your humanoids and giants a reach weapon. Have them use appropriate reach tactics. This will substantially increase their effectiveness and increase the challenge to your party. Your players can counter this by adjusting tactics. Players who use the standard reckless-rush-and-attack bad tactics will find reach weapons especially painful.
I doubt that will be enough for a 6 person party. You'll need to do more than that to make things 50% more difficult.
Player choice seems to the only reasonable and consistent answer. It comes up especially often with the Plant(Growth) subdomain. Player choice here essentially leads to a pair of virtual 5' steps each time one uses the Enlarge ability. It's a plus of the Domain power.
Suggested variant: consider sometimes using non-harmful swarms. Let the players see this phenomenon.
Example: I'm an amateur bee-keeper. I've managed several hives for several years. Home-made honey is awesome.
Bees swarm when a populous hive splits in two. Half the population stays with the old queen and half the population swarms after the new queen. Bees are far less aggressive when they swarm.
I learned that beekeeping was a thing I wanted to do after capturing a bunch of swarms [photo of swarm catching process]. Neighbors would invite me to catch and domesticate swarms.
Once I dealt with a particularly large and mobile swarm. Even with protective gear (a swarm suit) it got really intense. I found myself in the center of a large flying swarm that formed a cylinder about 10 meters in diameter . The swarm was so thick the sun was blocked. It was like standing in thick smoke. Thousands of flying bees bumped into me - that's dozens or hundreds of collisions every second. I had to make a single DC 8 Will Check against fear, which succeeded. Everything was fine and I eventually caught and domesticated this swarm.
Perhaps occasionally expose your players to non-harmful swarms that don't merit extermination.
P.s. My father-in-law, Norm, was a Bee Whisperer. I once saw him do the following:
One warm and sunny Spring evening Norm sat down to dinner at the outside patio of his country home. We all noticed the flying bee swarm settle in a nearby tree. Norm got up, walked over to his hives, and prepared an empty hive to receive new bees. This took perhaps ten seconds.
Norm then walked over to the resting bee swarm. He wore shorts and a tee shirt. He did not put on his swarm suit. He carefully observed the resting swarm for a good ten seconds. Norm then slowly reached his bare left arm into the heart of the swarm. He must have closed his fingers around the queen. Norm then slowly pulled his arm out of the swarm and the mass of bees clung to his arm. His arm was hidden in the swarm up to the elbow. Norm strode over to his empty hive and flicked his left arm into the empty hive. Most of the swarm went into the empty hive and the rest soon followed. Norm covered the hive and returned to dinner.
@OP: Nifty! You asked about mounted builds that use Paired Opportunists. Here's an approach that maximizes Paired Opportunists. Even works for a PC with awful combat stats, so long as that PC threatens with a reach weapon. In short: Paired Opportunists works best with reach.
The idea is for both rider and mount to have reach and use it. This gets mount +4 on all attacks (including trips) and rider +5 on all attacks (including trips). This creates a passive hard-to-crack defensive barrier around rider-and-mount. It's an extremely effective combination that keeps you and nearby squishy allies a lot safer than does mere Armor Class.
Here's a terrific video description of the Battlefield Control concept. This is from the original author of the God Wizard guide, Treantmonk, who codified Battlefield Control. As a GM one can easily detect parties lacking in Battlefield Control because those parties struggle so much more and take so much more damage than parties with a good Battlefield Controller.
Of course its a matter of if you have claws or something that would give you an offhand attack in addition to the one handing.
One can. Know that the end result tends to be quite a bit less effective than wielding a two handed reach weapon in both hands. This is true both in Pathfinder and in real life.
FYI: Historic warriors (e.g. Samurai) usually carried a sidearm, such as a katana, as an Everyday Carry item. When facing battle they would also carry a cumbersome Primary Battle Weapon. Nipponese warriors mostly carried the spear, or Yari, when facing actual battle. Don't make the mistake of going to battle with just a sidearm. Spear is to Sword as Rifle is to Pistol.
It was widely acknowledged that a spear is a better weapon than a katana, except that spears are inconvenient to carry. The katana was carried in case the spear broke or was lost. It's certainly possible for a swordsman to defeat a spearman, but the odds strongly favor the spearman. Traditional armed martial arts, such as Kenjutsu, recognize the superiority of Sojutsu spear fighting [Youtube].
Surprised no one already linked the definitive essay on this topic, TarkXT's Forge of Combat. This essay applies the wisdom of Sun Tzu to Pathfinder.
The Forge of Combat: Thoughts on victory and how the group achieves it. wrote:
With Pathfinder now consisting of roughly 40+ classes at the time I’m writing this it’s pretty clear that the game can produce a wide variety of groups. Even the classical heavily armored warrior, sneaky thief, divine priest, and mysterious wizard fail at encompassing an honestly effective strategy when defeating encounters as each class can easily take on multiple roles by design in order to match multiple concepts.
What has not changed is the need for a strategically balanced group to deal with a wide variety of asymmetrical encounters. While there has been some debate and conventional wisdom for years on what is required a lot of it tends to have misleading language and goes off of presumptions or ideas that really don’t exist.
Instead of trying to stick to a classic paradigm or adhere to a strict category of classes we should simply go back to the start and work our way up from that foundation when building an effective group. Let’s start with a very basic combat goal.
”TO OVERCOME THE ENCOUNTER AS EFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE”
This is a temporary problem. Were it a Wizard, rather than a Monk, the GM's problems would just be beginning. Given that it's a monk, this problem will taper off in a few levels.
The monk's player has strategically optimized all the extra out-of-standard-rules stuff he's been permitted. This result is unsurprising. This PC is super-optimized to face medium humanoids. This PC is not well equipped to handle large strong hexapeds, nor flying creatures, nor oozes, nor insubstantial undead.
It's mildly comical that a monk, one of the weaker classes, is causing this problem. I've seen Synthesist Summoners cause this same problem multiple times. Were it a Wizard then the GM's problems would be just beginning. Sounds like the other PCs are not as optimized, so the optimized monk is a standout. For now.
Suggestion: allow the monk to shine. This PC will continue to be awesome for a couple more levels, then will gradually become less useful as more and more foes are immune to trip.
Does no one use Cestus/spiked gauntlets or armor spikes anymore?
Per the devs, Cestus/Spiked gauntlets do not threaten while you hold a two handed weapon in both hands. Armor spikes work at the cost of about 15 pounds extra weight. Improved Unarmed Attack works at the cost of a feat. Those relatively feeble attacks typically inflict less than half the damage per hit of a good polearm whack.
@Dodgerkeen: Here's a link to help understand how reach weapons and AoOs work. Highly recommend you watch that entertaining video. The way you've changed that up has more than doubled your Warpriest's damage output over the greatsword.
@OP: You have a build that's easy to optimize. You're already doing pretty well. Those who mention Combat Reflexes and Power Attack are on the mark. Just those two feats, combined with a reach weapon, make for a powerful melee warrior.
You have a plan to inflict a lot of damage during your own turn. Consider what you can do to also inflict damage during the GM's turn. At low levels this can roughly double your damage output. That means learning and optimizing reach tactics. Note that this approach, which your Dwarven War hammer perfectly equips you for, can also protect and defend your squishier allies. The extreme and optimized version, which maximizes AoOs, also gets large. There's even a guide to the build you have chosen.
I've GMd for and played many of the iconics over the years. How the player plays the iconic can make a big difference. For example, iconic Kyra, the cleric, becomes much more formidable when played by an experienced player and able to rest, change out spell load, and acquire a 5gp longspear. Most PFS scenarios provide ZERO chance to change prepared spells or acquire a simple 5 gp weapon, but some do. E.g. The 7th level Kyra, if given rest time to change prepared spells, can load up on Summon Monster and Open Spell Slots, leading to a much more effective character.
The OP may not know what is an 'Oradin'. Here's the Oradin Guide. Short version: an Oradin is a first rate healer able to do two things at once: passively heal the party while also fighting as a front line 'tank'.
@OP: I second avr's admonishment against a pure healing / support build. Instead, be good at healing & support and also be a competent at something else.
@OP: The most effective 'healers' mitigate incoming damage to their party in a variety of ways, such that in-combat healing is seldom required. Some methods of damage mitigation:
* Summoned monsters absorb HP damage that would have otherwise gone to allies.
* A reach weapon screen increases your entire team's defensive power and mitigates incoming damage.
* Encourage your allies to avoid doing stupid stuff where they take lots of needless damage. This GM has observed that the presence of a dedicated 'healbot' sometimes makes players stupid. They know they can be stupid and not suffer consequences, because the healbot is on hand to fix their boo boos. One of the most effective ways to mitigate damage, especially for inexperienced players, is to encourage intelligent tactics from your allies.
* Buffing allies brings down foes faster, which reduces incoming damage
* Have a secondary role as beatstick, as this conserves party resources by ending encounters faster.
Huh? My point was that melee PCs with only 5' reach and no viable missile weapon have no way to counter 'icky' foes. Such foes are common. Every martial PC needs a way to deal with foes they don't want to be near.
Erastil has the Animal (feather) domain. We now know that Velociraptors were feathered beasts. There's also the axe beak, another feathered beast, which makes a far more effective mount than does the velociraptor. On our Earth velociraptors went extinct 60 million years ago, while Terror Birds lasted until 2.5 million years ago. As OP said, though, that sort of optimization is not needed.
@Pro100Andr: What's your plan against the many, many Pathfinder foes that are so icky you don't ever want to be adjacent? E.g. Skeletons that explode, barbed devils, et cetera et cetera. There are dozens and they are rather common. What's you plan against something that harms you if you are adjacent? Hint: The answer is either reach or missile weapon.
I've GMd for quite a few Archery Clerics. All suffered from similar problems with Action Economy. I became convinced that Clerics and Archery don't mix well. I rate archery cleric as one of the weakest and least effective types of cleric, barely matching the healbot cleric. Here's why.
Archers really want to use a Full Round Action to attack with arrows. This precludes spell casting and inspire courage. Typically, the archer clerics I observed had to choose between either casting a spell, starting Inspire Courage, or releasing arrows. They'd typically open with archery only against easy encounters. Against difficult opponents archery was rarely a first choice.
At low levels your archery cleric basically acts like a slightly inferior Fighter. At high levels your archery cleric ignores archery and casts spells. The two approaches have zero synchronicity.
As others have said, stay away from Guided Hand, both because you don't have the feats for it and because it's a trap feat.
Here are some suggestions:
1. Worship Erastil and play some non-divine warrior class. Concentrate on archery. You'll be an effective archer.
2. Play a melee Cleric of Erastil who also carries a bow. Here's an example of this sort of cleric of Erastil.
Erastil is terrific for melee clerics because he grants the most excellent and under-rated Plant(Growth) domain. Con: this approach is distressingly effective, some might say 'optimized'.
3. Play an archer cleric of Erastil but don't bother to invest much in archery. You'll never be very good at archery because, by the time you are, you'll have more important things to do that are not archery. Accept this, take other feats, and loose the occasional recreational arrow.
@OP: Here's a way to move 10' and keep your Full Round Action, starting at 1st level. Works especially well for Whirlwind Attack, which is a Full Round Action. My current low level cleric, Vicente, does this all the time. It's a "virtual 5' step" but that ought to be good enough for what you have in mind. Coupled with a reach weapon your PC can Full Attack a foe who starts the round 30' away. There. Done.
@OP: The Armor Expert trait allows any PC with Light Armor Proficiency to wear a Mithril Breastplate with zero penalties. This is because the ACP will be zero. This is probably much better than spending a feat on heavier armor, which you should not need.
