Halfling Cleric - ranged Zen slinger vs. Dex melee?

[TheBlueWizard]

So, looking for some advice and help with redoing my current character... who, as it stands is a steaming mess of nonsense.

Currently he's a 4 Rogue/ 18 Cleric, and I do believe I was aiming for some mix of like ... 25 Cleric to 5 Rogue (don't ask me why, I made him months and months ago, only just getting a chance to start playing again). He's alright, but I was attempting to design him as some great master locksmith/thing, but that seems like a stupid idea after doing some actual research.

I'm very crap at coming up with builds in general, especially on Arelith with it's unique items/magic setting. So would appreciate any help on which is the more viable and or fun set to play.

The only kind of requirements that need to be met for him are;

- needs to be CN to match his god's alignment (Brandobaris), so no Monk levels
- needs to dip into Rogue to get some measure of Rogue skills (again, to match with his god and the concept of a Hand of Misadventure Cleric/Rogue build)

So far from my own nonsense and research, I'm weighing up between;

a) 3 Ranger/ 24 Cleric (possibly Healer)/ 3 Rogue - Going for a slinger with zen archery. Maxing out Wisdom for more spells/AB, etc...

b) 26 Cleric/ 4 Rogue - hitting the necessary Wisdom needed for spells, but otherwise a Dex build aiming for a Dale Sword.

I think for both builds the only key feats I'd earmarked were GSF: Conjuration (for ease of levelling) and EDK eventually. But feel free to tell me that they're not needed and to go for something else. I'm not too sure what I'm doing at this point.
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I've looked at like the cookie cutter builds and stuff, but most of them focus on Human race characters, and all aim for Divine Shield, etc. With Halfling's innate crappy Str, I'm not sure if I'd be able to manage to get any meaningful use for it. Especially if I'm attempting to have some measure of decent Int stat so I can get enough skill points for some kind of Rogue skill dump.

I've tried making my own attempts on the PGCC server, but I'm not too sure what I'm doing.

Anyone got any tips/suggestions? Which is better? Dex Melee or some kind of Slinger? Doesn't impact RP too much either way, just goes for his combat ability.

[Dr. B]

A. B gets no discipline and so would be a very compromised melee fighter, and is also multi-stat dependent.

[a shrouded figure]

Also I would comment that the dale sword doesn’t get you much that a Cleric can’t do as any race via weapon buffs.

[Gouge Away]

If you're not going "master lockpick" (ie going for 100+ to get into quarters) then you don't even need the rogue levels. A few points in the skills plus gear and trickery domain power will open any chest. I'd take 27/3 or 26/3* cleric/ranger (archer path). Zen archery and sling focus are all you really need, dump all you can into wisdom and it's a great character. You can even do healer path- in fact you should do healer path.

*27/3 is if you can stand to wait until late epics to dip archer, it's better as you have higher CL and get the free ranger spell focus feat in epics. 26/4 if you're impatient.. it's a better quality of life when leveling to take ranger around level 18 after you get 9th level spells.

If you are going for "master" you pretty much need 27/3 cleric/rogue and that's all the character is built for. You can still summon and you're still a cleric so you'll do okay leveling but it's not a great build for PVP or high end PVE and if you don't know the game well I wouldn't do it. It's also a really lonely existence as you'll be a pariah quickly if the character is known for stealing from quarters... People here do NOT have a sense of humor about things like that. Save it for when you've been playing a while and need a challenge.