[West Marches] Ranger/Cleric Optimization

[Audious]

So I'm playing in a West Marches game, and have been reading into Dogs in the Vineyard, which made me want to play a LG Ranger/Cleric of St. Cuthbert.

Now I know this isn't really an optimized build, but it fits the character fluff, he's gonna be starting out at level 2, what can I do to optimize this guy as I level, but keep him within the fluff?

For those who aren't familiar with Dogs in the Vineyard, I'm going for, effectively, a wandering priest-sheriff, given authority by his church to go around to fringe towns and uphold the laws of man and the church.

[gallagher]

i am not familiar with west marches, but since st cuthbert is a god, and the classes look the same, i assume it is similar to dnd 3.5? or at least close?

if so, maximize your levels in cleric, as those spells will be your bread and butter. if you can get divine strength (and ideally, righteous might) then you dont need any levels in ranger, because with DS your BAB becomes your HD (full BAB) and righteous might gives you a size increase, and both spells stack, giving your like 16 STR bonus

[Audious]

It is 3.5, West Marches is just a campaign. Also, again, I'd like to stay Cleric/Ranger, I realize it's not going to be 100% optimal, I'd just like to know how I can make it functional.

[gallagher]

It is 3.5, West Marches is just a campaign. Also, again, I'd like to stay Cleric/Ranger, I realize it's not going to be 100% optimal, I'd just like to know how I can make it functional.

what level are you starting at? you will probably be going at least ranger 2. you will want to go cloistered cleric and get knowledge devotion, travel devotion, and then pick your favorite domain other than those two. i suggest either war or strength to make you better at fighting

pump wisdom, because your spells will make you a better fighting class, get a good dex, have two light weapons if you are TWF and finesse them. you dont need that much strength, but you could always use some. you will need a good CON and you cant dump CHA.

you will have WIS>DEX>CON>STR=CHA>INT

and i doubt you will have room for persisting and other DMM feats, so you wont need that much CHA.

[gallagher]

what level are you starting at? you will probably be going at least ranger 2. you will want to go cloistered cleric and get knowledge devotion, travel devotion, and then pick your favorite domain other than those two. i suggest either war or strength to make you better at fighting

just looked at Cuthberts portfolio, i would suggest going with strength and destruction as your domains then, and find a way to get pounce

[Rannil]

Consider 4 Cleric/Prestige Ranger Variant (from the Unearthed Arcana)

It would suck compared to 20 cleric, but atleast prestige ranger builds on cleric. Unlike cleric/ranger who don't have any synchronization.

An other options is building a cleric with rangers thraits. You could get survival as class skill, an animal companion, you could build an archery cleric.

[Willfor]

West Marches.

Note to the people trying to optimize: usual optimizations are WORTHLESS. It's a high lethality game where every point of HP, save, and other things that are usually eschewed in favour of later levels do matter. 99% of characters will not make it past level 3, no matter how optimized they are. Only characters that have a high level of generalised ability, and talent at surviving fights rather than simply trying to win them will succeed.

There is no WBL, there are no CR appropriate encounters, and there are no set number of encounters per day. Think 1e using 3e's rules. It's an entirely different beast.

And I love it so much.

[Rannil]

Sounds awesome.

But then builds don't matter. I would still stand with my point, a flowing char instead multiclass with sync is easier. And cleric/prestige ranger is barely optimized, just a way to bring the classes together.

But if you won't survive so long, then do whatever you want and try again?

[balistafreak]

Clerics can become SAD archers through Zen Archery. Since you'll be pumping your Wisdom sky high anyways for your spells, and your (presumed) fullplate is going to be a drag on your Dexterity anyways, it's extremely helpful.

Note that you're still going to need Strength for damage anyways, which is why Intuitive Attack/lone Weapon Finesse is bad and Zen Archery is actually worth something. You still maintain the same priority on Strength as does a Dexterity archer. (Of course, this means you're still somewhat MAD anyways, which is why archery has always been subpar in D&D.)

Personally, I think that straight Cleric20 (NOT cloistered) is best. You'll need a way to pick up Martial Weapon Proficiency for the bow, though, such as War domain (which now isn't such a bad choice since you're getting not one but two feats) or being an Elf (one of the few times it's even remotely worth it) - please don't use a feat, you're already starved as it is.

Really, mixing Ranger and Cleric levels can end in nothing but tears. I'd say a single Ranger level to pick up the Track bonus feat and MWP (no one cares about Wild Empathy), and then Cleric with Travel and (whatever) Domains. (War Domain's probably not worth it anymore if you've already MWP.) Yes, the dip hurts, but it's better than straight levels.

[nedz]

Ranger gives you good wilderness/stealth skills and reasonable combat.
Cleric gives you spells and the ability to do rather impressive buffing.

You have several options really
1) Mainly Ranger with just a few levels of Cleric
2) Mainly Cleric with just a few levels of Ranger
3) Half and Half

Ranger is designed to specialise in TWF or Archery, both are sub-par.
There are other ranger styles which were published in Dragon Magazine, I don't know if these are available.

It would be useful to know which of these options you are interested in ?

BTW you probably ought to consider Mystic Ranger, in any event Druid often works better withthan ranger; so more options ?