Back when I played Everquest I was a paladin and I needed a healer to follow me around (I was boxing—playing two accounts at once). So of course I chose a female cleric, and the best looking EQ females were dark elves. (What big burly paladin wouldn’t want a hot little cleric following him around 24/7?)
So now I’ve got a PF paladin and I need a drow cleric to follow him around—not as a healer (at least not like EQ does it), I am recreating beloved characters, not beloved mechanics. I do want the cleric to be able to heal and likely be the primary healer, but my take on combat is: kill the monster first and fast and then heal after (not during, like in EQ).
DM said to use a drow noble (great, I’ll take it) because of her back story. Her deity is Erastil so her favored weapon is a longbow. The only real rogue-iness the party needs is Disable Device, Disguise, Stealth, and possibly Sleight of Hand and Bluff. It'd be nice to try and work these in if possible.
In combat she will mostly stay in the background and use her bow and cleric spells. The other party members are: paladin, fighter, and wizard.
So I am looking for suggestions on pretty much anything: domains, feats, spells, traits, skills, and even fluff if you feel so inclined.
First off yes I too would like one following me. The new Race guide might have something for a Drow in it to help in the Traits in face Drow perfered class Cleric gets extra spell or castings, just skimmed it. For archery some good all around feats: Quick draw, Point-blank shot, Far shot, Shoot on the run, Rapid shot,(Top of page 116 out of Core rule book has these and more). as for healing, useing what a Cleric gets already is a good way to boost it. Take selective Channeling(choose who in the Channel whos healed or not), extra channeling, and there are more in Core Rule book also and more in Ultimate Majic. Little rusty on Rogue though, haven't played one in a while. Hope this helps some.
Drow traits, I hadn't thought of that, thanks.
Why Quick Draw?
The deity is not set in stone, I was just thinking Erastil because his favored weapon is the longbow. Is there another easy way to have clerics use a longbow (sorry, kinda new and still learning)? I don't really want to spend a feat on it if I can get it another way. Then on the other hand maybe it is worth a feat if I get a deity that has better domain choices?
Rogue-iness is optional really. But I am wondering since clerics don't get an 20th ability is taking one level of rogue worth it to get some help in the skills?
If you do decide to stick with the archery with incorporating the rogue levels, and you want your attacks to have your sneak attack damage, get a Stag's Helm.
If you do take Erastil, I'd recommend taking the Community and Animal Domains with the Family and Feather Subdomains (Fur is good too), respectively. The animal companion could become a mount and then the cleric could full attack and move. Boon Companion will beef up your animal companion a bit if you decide to use it offensively.
If you're staying in the back Reach Spell is always nice, even if it's only on a rod.
Just throwing out some ideas here, not sure how good these are.
Bracers of Archery, Greater are decent too if you have no other source of competence bonus to boost damage.
Since it's a back-line ranged/support I'd try to get enough Wis to cast spells at every level but not much more than that. Then get as much dex as possible and get stuff like Clustered Shot, Many Shot and Rapid Shot. As well as Point Blank and Precise Shot. Maybe Deadly Aim too.
If you're really into the idea of disabling magical traps then you'll have to dip into something like Rogue, or a Ranger or Bard archetype. (2 level dipping Archivist (Bard) gets you the ability and you can take Arcane Strike and use your Cleric CL.
Your GM might be nice and let you use the Guided weapon quality on your bow and apply wis instead of dex for damage/to hit.
If you do take Erastil, I'd recommend taking the Community and Animal Domains with the Family and Feather Subdomains (Fur is good too), respectively. The animal companion could become a mount and then the cleric could full attack and move. Boon Companion will beef up your animal companion a bit if you decide to use it offensively.
If you're staying in the back Reach Spell is always nice, even if it's only on a rod.
Just throwing out some ideas here, not sure how good these are.
Bracers of Archery, Greater are decent too if you have no other source of competence bonus to boost damage.
Since it's a back-line ranged/support I'd try to get enough Wis to cast spells at every level but not much more than that. Then get as much dex as possible and get stuff like Clustered Shot, Many Shot and Rapid Shot. As well as Point Blank and Precise Shot. Maybe Deadly Aim too.
If you're really into the idea of disabling magical traps then you'll have to dip into something like Rogue, or a Ranger or Bard archetype. (2 level dipping Archivist (Bard) gets you the ability and you can take Arcane Strike and use your Cleric CL.
Your GM might be nice and let you use the Guided weapon quality on your bow and apply wis instead of dex for damage/to hit.
guided weapon property is only for replacing STR for Wis. Since a bow uses Dex for attacking, the user still needs a good dex score to attak with, the damage however, with GM approval, can be swapped out from the composite bow for the wis. However, you probably still need to have the rating an wis modifier match up still. As for having the str score necessary to use it, again, GM discretion.
guided weapon property is only for replacing STR for Wis. Since a bow uses Dex for attacking, the user still needs a good dex score to attak with, the damage however, with GM approval, can be swapped out from the composite bow for the wis. However, you probably still need to have the rating an wis modifier match up still. As for having the str score necessary to use it, again, GM discretion.
Yeah, it's far more of a stretch than anything else. /shrug
There was a discussion about Guided quality and some people (possibly just one?) saying it sounded better for a ranged weapon, so I figured if other people were likely to think that the GM in question might be more lenient with this quality.But as written, it is very not RAW how I suggested using it.
If you do decide to stick with the archery with incorporating the rogue levels, and you want your attacks to have your sneak attack damage, get a Stag's Helm.
Nice suggestion, I will need to remember that.
Ok, I've been working on this character (geez, so much to learn), and after trying several different things and running into dead ends I am going to backtrack a bit a just start with the longbow.
How do you get a cleric the proficiency to use a longbow (I really want her to use a longbow)?
a) pick Erastil as deity and favored weapon is longbow
b) get Martial Weapon Proficiency as a feat
c) ??? ...is there another way?
I had an idea a posted awhile week or so ago for a cleric/zen archer monk. No one seemed to like it though, dip a level or two or three zen archer will get you prof with bows and some nice archer stuff. for first level you would pretty much have to be melee or start with zen archer either way works.
Wow that is a really good idea. I was thinking of dipping into Rogue one level, but I looked at your thread and now I am think of dipping into Zen Archer possibly 3 levels. (I don't really like Monks, no offense anyone, so I would have never thought to look there.)
How do you get a cleric the proficiency to use a longbow (I really want her to use a longbow)?
a) pick Erastil as deity and favored weapon is longbow
b) get Martial Weapon Proficiency as a feat
c) ??? ...is there another way?
Play an elf. They get longbow proficiency for free.
Wow, there's so much to take in. After going through feats, traits, and deities and domains I am worn out. Maybe others feel like they can handle it easy enough, but I am kinda overwhelmed at the amount of material/options available. I think options are good, but whew, so many.
So here's a first attempt.
Feats:
1. Point-Blank Shot
3. Precise Shot
5. Rapid Shot
7. Selective Channeling
9. Manyshot
Traits:
Reactionary- +2 Initiative
Beneficent Touch- reroll(once) any 1s on any heals
Deity: Erastil
Domains:
Community
Good
But realise that its not a lot of extra damage. The problem with taking three levels of Zen archer is that you need dex to hit for the first 2 or 3 levels. Also you nerf your spells. That's fine if you want to be more like a ranged divine magus but think carefully what sort of spells you want to use.
After sorting through everything I've done, I am kinda thinking that taking on 9 levels of spells (to think carefully about) is more than I want to do. Maybe I should just shoot from the hip and let this character develop as I go. Might be easier for me to learn that way.
atm, I am undecided about dipping at all, I'll have to think more about it later.
I would replace selective channel with deadly aim. By the time you pick it channeling becomes suboptimal. Plus by that point you will be looking at some very good buffs in blessing of fervor and divine power to make up for the loss in attack. Combined with the holy weapon you will be getting a pretty decent attack and damge going.
LAstly I'd definitely take the feather subdomain over community. Not only do you get a neat pet but you get a number of very useful spells and a level 1 domain ability that will prove invaluable over time especially once you start looking at manyshot and deadly aim making that first shot absolutely devastating.