There are probably dozen's of ways to do the idea that the title alludes too, some of them not even using cleric levels. With the new Warpriest class this is especially true. Fact is, I really dislike the Warpriest, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. What I'm here to talk about is levels I have no experience in (7+).
Mechanically speaking, I know how to make a character up to level 6 and how they'll fair against poor odds and really dangerous monsters, but beyond that I have no game experience, and just running the number's isn't quite the same.
Here is my Johanna 'Joe' Ironheart
Mechanically she was built to be able to have the full cleric spell casting experience, while also being really bad ass when it comes too using a bow. Why? Honestly for several reasons. I'd like the message boards to check her out and give suggestions.
As a summary for my intentions, I intend to spend the attribute point at level 8 increasing her strength to 16, and then from there focusing on her wisdom. She's a follow of Erastil with Guided Hand, so not only does increasing her Wisdom give her a bonus to her spells, spell slots, etc. It also increases her attack bonus.
At this point, the only feats I have planned in the future are Clustered Shot at 9, Weapon Specialization and Point Blank Master at 13, and Greater Weapon Focus when I'm able. Otherwise, feat suggestions (anything but summoning abilities, as its a PbP game and we don't want to slow the game down) are welcome, as are magic item suggestions and spells.
Things I don't want to change, but still want the opinion about, are her current class choices, archetype choices and how well a character like this will play at higher levels. Will she continue to kick ass (if not quite as much as a full born fighter Archer) at higher levels? Will her spell casting later become her focus, but her archery will still give her something to fall back on? Or is the archer concept completely pointless?
|
archery is still one of the strongest combat styles in pathfinder but well, not being a full bab class, mean that eventually you will fall behind on the martial side. Even if you focus on archery, the problem mostly of high level is that spells are just so much stronger than anything you can do with martial especially on a full spellcaster getting to 9th spell. Yeah you could shoot a bunch of arrows at one evil outsider out of 10...or you could cast one spell that would banish every evil outsiders (Banishment) on the battlefield or even kill them (Holy Word) if they are low enough. It's just more like a basic setup of the system really.
Ah, I should probably point out that from level 4 to level 20, Joe will be full Cleric (Crusader). She'll get every spell level a cleric does, but three levels behind. She'll actually be ahead of the Warpriest in a few levels though. And with her Wisdom as high as it is, the Crusader archetype doesn't cripple her spellcasting, it just makes it a little weaker.
I recognize that spellcasting is that much better, which is why I plan to stay cleric from level 4+ with this character if I ever have to use her. Heck, she was made specifically because the group will need a full divine caster. I just wanted her to be competent at other things too, for those fights when Banishing won't work and so on, and to allow some of her spell slots to remain open (and thus available for filling up by need rather then every morning.) Not to mention I don't have the experience to play a full caster that can do nothing else, especially at higher levels, so this will let me get my toes wet.