I just finished making an elven cleric (see the other character thread for details).
looking at it, you see what you have. you have a cleric, who doesn't get all the skill points in the world. and you have a guy who doesn't get alot of skills period.
so being a skill monkey is out, especially with the whole 12 int deal.
but that's half of the argument.
the other half of what you got is an elf. and what does the elf have going for him? no special armor class vs. different races. no inate spells. no extra feat. the thing that the elf has is skill bonuses.
the hard part is getting them to work out. elves get a +2 to three different things, listen, spot and search.
listen and spot are pretty important for any adventurer. (how often is your character always near the monk, ranger or rogue? sometimes he's gotta make those spot and listen checks himself, you know.) so it's kinda handy to have bonuses to those skills, unfortunately they are cross class skills.
the bonus to search is also good . . . but not as immediately.
what else does an elf, in Role play world, have going for him? he's supposed to know about nature, trees and all that junk. taking a rank or two in wilderness lore isn't going to hurt. (you'll be able to feed yourself in the forest and not have to worry about buying rations) k: nature is also fun to have, but it's really diluting your character.
@ 5th level, with the requirements you'd looking at i did this.
K: religion (8 ranks)
diplomacy (5 ranks)
heal (3 ranks)
concentration (2 ranks)
wilderness lore (1 rank)
K: arcana (1 rank)
those are all class skills for you, IIRC. i got you the skill pre-req's you needed. i have you an OK heal, because well, when someone is bleeding in the middle of no where and everyone's used up their spells it's your job to make sure gangreen doesn't happen. concentration because at some point you're going to need it (casting a spell with baddies around you). wilderness lore one rank, + the high score in wis as a cleric should keep you alive for a while. and K:arcana because, well, a cleric should know more than just mythology, but also rituals and so forth , right?
this leaves you with 4 skill points to play with.
and this is where you can just say screw you, amrynn.
i decided to go with two cross class skills.
spot (1 rank) (cc)
listen (1 rank) (cc)
eating up 4 skill points for 2 in return isn't that great. then again, both of them are wisdom skills, remember, and you're a cleric, so you'll have better than average wisdom your entire career. plus you are an elf, so you get a +2 to both of them. so really for the cost of 4 skill points you get 1 rank spot, 1 rank listen (so that's only two so far), but you also get +2 extra ranks in both of them.
for the cost of 4 you get 6. and it's in your primary stat.
not bad.
your an elf, and have good senses.
it's better than taking some of the more flashy dex based skills in some respect for most elven clerics, but you say you are an archer, so you'll also have a high dex, so it makes little difference, save for the fact that as an elf, you don't get the +2 bonus in dex based stats . . . it's in listen, search and spot.
have fun with it.
