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Last month I created my first PFS character, a cleric of Erastil named Tarius. Role-playing-wise, I have him all worked out. He's a very hands-on practitioner of his faith, going into the wilds to fight the unnatural and help the innocent, etc.
The problem is, I have decided I want him to be a ranged combatant with a little bit of support. I was thinking of having him taking levels in cleric and ranger (maybe Guide or Falconer?). I love the flavor of the ranger. I know they're not the best classes to multiclass (and I'm not new to Pathfinder; I know it's a system that already doesn't help multiclassers). Does anyone have any advice about the feats, levels in each class, skills, etc. I should consider taking?
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Two levels of ranger would be helpful for the bonus feat, considering archery is so feat-intensive.
Start off with ranger, like so:
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
Ranger 1 Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Ranger 2 Rapid Shot
Cleric 3 Weapon Focus (Longbow)
Cleric 5 Extra Channel
Cleric 7 Boon Companion
Cleric 9 Manyshot
One of your cleric domains should be animal for the companion, which you'll qualify for by the time you reach level 7. You have a competent archer that still has plenty of healing ability, and can focus most of his spells on defence and supporting his party.
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Take the same character, drop the weapon focus, go Evangalist (the loss of medium armor is irrelevant to an archer). and don't bother with multi. Pathfinder punishes multiclass terribly, and losing all of your progression on spells / abilities for 2 levels is terrible. Even with boon companion you're 2 levels behind on the animal companion above. Lose extra channeling; take Sacred Summons and standard-action drop out some beasties. It's a powerful build, I don't take the animal domain, but otherwise play this build in PFS.
I just backstoried as a child of rangers, and took a trait to get stealth as a class skill.
1 - PBS, Precise
3 - Rapid
5 - sacred summons (boon companion if animal domain)
7 - deadly aim (sacred summOns)
9 - multishot
11 - the new feat that makes all people benefiting from your bardsong deal an additional d6 sonic damage
Two levels of ranger would be helpful for the bonus feat, considering archery is so feat-intensive.
Start off with ranger, like so:
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
Ranger 1 Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Ranger 2 Rapid Shot
Cleric 3 Weapon Focus (Longbow)
Cleric 5 Extra Channel
Cleric 7 Boon Companion
Cleric 9 ManyshotOne of your cleric domains should be animal for the companion, which you'll qualify for by the time you reach level 7. You have a competent archer that still has plenty of healing ability, and can focus most of his spells on defence and supporting his party.
This build appears not to have deadly aim so damage reduction might be a major problem.
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This build appears not to have deadly aim so damage reduction might be a major problem.Two levels of ranger would be helpful for the bonus feat, considering archery is so feat-intensive.
Start off with ranger, like so:
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
Ranger 1 Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Ranger 2 Rapid Shot
Cleric 3 Weapon Focus (Longbow)
Cleric 5 Extra Channel
Cleric 7 Boon Companion
Cleric 9 ManyshotOne of your cleric domains should be animal for the companion, which you'll qualify for by the time you reach level 7. You have a competent archer that still has plenty of healing ability, and can focus most of his spells on defence and supporting his party.
You are correct, and it was my mistake. Replace Extra Channel with Deadly Aim and sell. Two channels per day is a little sucky, but there's still fine access to spells.
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Thanks everyone for the input, I've stolen some ideas from all. In five years of playing Pathfinder/3.5, I've never actually played a ranged character, so I'm not quite in my element.
However, I don't think my first post was clear enough. This is a character already made. When I made him, my intention was to make the regular cleric who might very rarely fire his bow (meaning he was built as a cleric- high Wis, not Dex). This is him. His feats are Extra Channel and Selective Channeling (once again, did not plan on him really being a ranged combatant).
I'm definitely not an optimizer, but if I sprinkle Ranger into this build am I going to be able to contribute (meaningfully) to combat at all?
Thanks again!
It depends on what you want. If you're thinking "he's the greatest archer ever, my arrows can do anything", well you're going to be disappointed.
If you're thinking "hey, I'm a cleric, AND I am useful with a bow, then I think you can get there.
Now, I am not sure you need ranger that badly. Clerics can invest in Surviival, shoot arrows, etc. Already. What does ranger do for you that you can't get without it?
Since this guy is built with high wis, if you do anything, I would go inquisitor. Tracking, spells, etc, it is all there.
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13 Dex? No, not even a little. You're much better off using your decent wisdom to be great at support. If you are getting bored because of low spells and not enough to do, pick up exotic weapon proficiency: net... it actually does a lot to aid (great debuff; no 5 foot steps, -2 to hit and AC).
You can make a meaningful ranged cleric, but you need the high-Dex variant in the first place. And it's feat intensive, so using up your first 2 feats closes it more.
Almost all characters are worse as multis; spellcasters moreso. Stay with what you do well :).
There's the wis for attack feat, and the favored weapon flurry feat, possibly could skip the pbs/precise/rapid with those and self buffs. Since your wis is good and you're willing to dip anyways, maybe the zen archer instead of ranger or just the feats.