Hello,
I'll be joining a RotR campaign and currently plan to play a Human Cleric of Erastil with the Eagle and Animal (Feather) domains.
Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot eventually Boon Companion at 7
Traits: Birthmark, Eyes and Ears of the City
It's a 20 pointbuy and I'm thinking something like:
STR - 10
DEX - 15
CON - 11
INT - 10
WIS - 17
CHA - 14
But I'm open to moving the 14 from CHA to STR for composite damage or dumping a stat to 8 if it could help. I'd rather avoid dumping as I'm trying to be less min-maxxy than usual.
My goals for this character is to be a backup ranged damage dealer and party buffer/healer. Stay at range and cast touch spells with the Hawk Familiar and use the bonuses to ranged attacks from the domain powers/spells.
Current party is a Lore Warden and Sorcerer with the Fire bloodline. There may be more players inbound, but that's unclear.
Any suggestions or improvements? How should I progress the build into the future? Should I pick up a variant channel?
|
First things first: I think you're a little over budget on points.
Dex 15 = 7 + Con 11 (1) = 9 + Wis 15+2 race (7) = 16 + Cha 14 (5) = 21
Not a big deal. You could solve as is by dropping Con to 10. Or if you make other changes, it'll be easy to get it under the 20 point buy limit.
Recommendation #1. Move the 14 from Cha to Str. Without a strength bonus you will be continually disappointed with your damage. Also, with only one melee character in the group so far and the need to be in touch range in order to heal, it is likely that you will sometimes end up cornered or have the sorcerer hiding behind you and you will need to whip out a mace from and hit things in melee. Strength will enable you to be helpful in those situations rather than being effectively shut down. With a 14 strength, your buff spells, and a heavy mace, you can be something of a switch hitter.
You should also consider dropping either Dex or Wis. Having two odd stats is consigning yourself to being 14 point buy for three levels and then 17 point buy for four more levels. For my part, I would drop Wisdom. As a buffing and healing cleric contributing offense via weaponry and an animal companion, you don't need great spell DCs:
Str 14 (5), Dex 16 (5 points +2 racial), Con 13 (3), Int 10, Wis 15 (7), Cha 10
If you prefer Wis to Dex or Cha to Con, you can switch those around easily.
If you are want to dump aggressively, you could have:
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 7*, Wis 16**, Cha 7
Anything in between those (depending on if/how much you want to min-max) will be very workable.
* Since you hit your minimum skill points/level at 9 Int, dumping to 7 doesn't hurt much more than dumping to 8.
**I believe that you want to prioritize Dex (slightly) above wisdom in character creation and then raise wisdom every level. The reason for this is as follows: Since you are focusing on buffs and healing at low levels and cleric attack spells really aren't all that good at low levels anyway, having low wisdom doesn't hurt much. You can get all your bonus spells until 7th level with just the 4th level stat bump as long as you start with a 15. Then you get bonus spells as long as you have a +2 Wis item (easy to do at 7th level) and will get bonus 5th level spells at 9th level with a +4 Wis item. You get bonus 6th level spells at 11th level with a +6 Wis item or 12th level even with just a +4 Wis item. On the other hand, a high dex is very advantageous at low levels when you don't have many feats, buffing spells, or a high BAB to help you hit.
Your feats are pretty much set with the choice of archer cleric and Boon Companion.
Feats:
1. Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
3. Rapid Shot
5. Weapon Focus
7. Boon Companion
9. Quicken Spell or Deadly Aim
11. Divine Interference
Traits: you should consider the Fortune's Favored trait to increase any luck bonuses you gain by +1. That works very nicely with divine favor, prayer, and divine power which are your bread and butter spells anyway.
Equipment:
An adaptive composite longbow and buckler are musts. You want the adaptive longbow so that you don't have to worry about the -2 when you get strength penalties and can take full advantage of your increased strength when you add Strength bonuses to your dex belt without selling your bow and buying a new one. The buckler is ideal because a masterwork buckler has no armor check penalty, can be used with a bow, and it will increase your AC when you are flatfooted and whenever you need to cast spells or if for some reason you need to switch to melee.
Eventually you will also want to get a mithral breastplate to enable you to take advantage of your dexterity.
This should be 20. 7 + 1 + 7 + 5 = 20
The feat and attribute suggestions make perfect sense. Thanks for the input!
