Hey all I'm doing a 25 point buy Kingmaker campaign. The group consists of a rogue, 2 fighters, a evil magus, possibly a monk and a ranger/rogue. I was gonna do a paladin archer or maybe a ranger archer but since we dont have a caster/healer (think the ranger/rogue is going rogue first) I'm trying to figure if there is a way to make a reasonable cleric/archer or maybe a cleric/spellcaster since melee is pretty much covered. I've looked at the cleric guide but the archer advice was a bit weak. So how would everyone advise me?
If you take the Divine Hunter Paladin archetype (Ultimate Combat) and combine it with an Oathbound Paladin that has taken the Oath of Charity to pump your healing. As you're ranged you won't feel the backlash of reduced healing on yourself as you'll be taking less damage (hopefully).
Otherwise just roll with a Deity that has a ranged weapon and get to shooting.
Hmm not a bad idea one of the things i should have mentioned is the fact we dont really have a spellcaster a issue? Thats why i was thinking about the cleric
Select a deity with the longbow favored weapon, take the Guided Hand feat (wisdom to hit with deity's favored weapon), max out wisdom and cast/shoot with the best of them.
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Well, I don’t know about everyone…
The obvious choice would be to go Human Cleric of Erastil. Take the Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Clustered Shots feat chain.
I really like the Feather sub-Domain for Erastil, but you already have a large party as is, so you may not want the extra animal companion to keep track of.
A one level dip into Fighter for the extra feat might be a good idea as well. You are not going to have many feats to do much else beyond your archery.
I would also tell one of the fighters/rogues to suck it up and play a caster, but I digress…
An archer cleric would fit quite well, as Erastil features strongly in Kingmaker. With a 25pt-buy you can afford a 17 for Dex and a 15 for Wisdom, as well as a 14 Strength, for a composite longbow.
Erastil has quite good domains, exspecially subdomains i think, on which others can advise you better. Go with the usual archer feats and divine favor as spell.
shooting in PF is very good. Almost now too powerful
In KM it is excellent
Find a trait to give you perception and you will start many combats in the 80ft-150ft range and win!!
Erastil is a most splendid choice mainly because [spoiler] lots of the bad forces are female, and Erastil really doesnt like that!![/spoilers]
I'd take the eagle domain for a ranges cleric of erastil.
You get a familiar and a nice bonus to ranged attacks some timed a day.
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My hybrid Kingmaker campaign has an archer cleric with the Animal domain.
His companion is a horse and it works really well. He is human and has some of the standard archery feats listed above plus Mounted Combat/Mounted archery. For the outdoor stuff, he's a roaming spelling bow shooting skirmisher cleric and always has something to do.
The extra bonus of this build is his mount doesn't get killed in round 1 like a lot of the pcs horses do.
Now that he's 10th level, he could probably switch to a large wolf but he's sticking with the horse for the speed (horseshoes of).
Anyway, from the DMs chair it looks like a good build, fun character, spells and attacks - the works.
Biggest issue for cleric archer is the inital feat requirements. Channeled Smite (wasted feat, pre-req unfortunately), Guided Hand, PBS, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot. For a human cleric... that's level 7 just to have all of that. If you can get the Guided weapon property (which is technically from paizo's 3E work and iirc is still debated if it can even be applied to ranged weapons) you can shave off the first two feats and have a much easier time.
The inquisitor can be a bit more martial and still toss out a fair bit of healing, especially if you can get a wand of clw.
Shame the inquisitor is a horrible archer and is unable to take the guided hand feat.
Healing's over rated, I'd just do Paladin archer and have that lay on hands + mercy for when its needed.
I would not do Divine Hunter Paladin if actually straight classing Paladin (rather than dipping it), though -- every change after level 2 is amazingly horribly bad.
I know i will probably be shot for this but what about the Hospitaler for the pally? I know healing isn't as important but until we get a wand I'm afraid to be without. I thought about the inquisitor and the gm mentioned it too but they do seem to make subpar ranged (you lose out on all the teamwork feats) What about going a wiz/sorc-cleric and head for the Mystic Theurge? or maybe the summoner/cleric. Skipping the bow and just using magic to summon/torch them? One problem i have with a cleric is I really feel getting scribe scroll is a necessity so thats another feat in the hole =/ but yeah if i go the cleric root im looking at Erastil with probably the animal/feather and good domain. So to boost my perception as high as possible get the bow and hopefully shoot/boost allies as i can..actually selective channeling seems nice too =/ Maybe my mind is stuck in the idea of a cleric being support =/ Thats said since nobody else seems to be concerned in the party maybe i should just go the ranger route grab a wand and say oops when someone drops. I like the pally but since someone is locked in the evil alignment I'm at my wit's end
Shame the inquisitor is a horrible archer and is unable to take the guided hand feat.
At level 5 they give their bow the "Bane: that thing i'm shooting" ability for a +2 to hit (that stacks with everything) and 2d6 damage per arrow.
Ok gonna make a last pitch with the gm. Gonna see if he would allow a house ruled cleric-crusader with ranged feats replacing the armor. Last resort but i think it would make sense for a cleric of Erastil
Take the preacher archetype for inquisitor, it replaces only the solo tactics and teamwork feats and gives you abilities that can be used just fine at range.