So I'm making an educated character that is basically a former college student that becomes a monster hunter.

My current idea is to take Human Variant Skilled, Sage, Knowledge Cleric 1, then Ranger 5. From there I could go back to Cleric or maybe Rogue. I probably will let that choice be made depending on if I want to focus on magic or fighting.

So she will have a ton of skills and be a versatile character.

Thoughts?

For the ranger, are you planning on taking the Monster Slayer archetype?

Anyway, it sounds like a fun character to role play.

Go with horizon walker...  maybe you had a run in with some extra-planar unpleasantness.  Somebody summoned the wrong thing through a portal.  I would say do almost an even split between ranger and cleric.  Start with your cleric 1, take ranger to 5 for extra attack and go back to the books and study up on your clerical knowledge.  Get some sweet spells, get better at tracking down arcane knowledge.  Who knows what you might get up to.  

Maybe you were a law student and took it to heart and go with the order domain.  You could have truckloads of fun with just those two classes in conjunction.

I looked at Monster Slayer, but having to Hunters Mark and Slayers Prey both as bonus actions to get damage going wont work well. 

In my experience most creatures dont last more than 2 turns of combat.

So I would always be short damage rolling it from one "corpse" to the next soon to be corpse.

Plus Protection from Evil is a Cleric Spell.

I'll have to look at Horizon Walker again.

I feel like she could go either way.

Back to the books or into more combat.

I picture her rogue as being knowledge of Anatomy and even more studying with Expertise.

So, I play a flipped version of this: I have a ranger (Gloom Stalker 5) who recently found god (Forge Domain 2 - well, the god found her, but that's another story). I've come to realize that ranger and cleric can be a delightfully complementary multiclass, especially if you build a little melee versatility into your character. 

I chose archery fighting style, but I tend to tank in melee a lot since my AC is higher than the rest of my party's. Forge Domain spells are very utility-based, and the addition of Searing Smite for my shortswords was a nice benefit. For a ranger who was already optimized for utility and skill versatility, taking a few levels in cleric was perfect (especially since we don't have a proper healer, either). 

Going from a full-caster to a half-caster will hurt you in the spellcasting department, but if your goal is to be more martial and utility-based than a powerful spell-slinger, you won't miss it too much. Plus, the RP possibilities are a blast. 

I am in agreement with everything you posted. 

Her goal is to be super versatile and focus on ranged combat then melee. The spells as it stands, are to represent basic faith, such Protection from Evil and Bless. 

I am still kind of stuck on Hunter, but really like the title of Monster Hunter. I am just irritated that you have to use a bonus action to activate Slayer's Prey for 1d6 damage and Hunter's Mark is a bonus action as well. However, Colossus Slayer is 1d8 damage as long as the target has taken damage from any source and no action at all. Unless Slayer's Prey was not intended to be used in conjunction with Hunter's Mark.

It can be used in conjunction, but also gives you the option to use that concentration for something else, rather than hunters mark.

I went hunter (colossus slayer) 5 / war cleric 15.  I enjoy adding in a bonus attack longbow shots on beefy mobs. 

That is amazing that you made it to 20.

The highest j ever made it was 17 in 3rd ed.

In 5th I my current character is 12.

Quote from HeroZero >>

It can be used in conjunction, but also gives you the option to use that concentration for something else, rather than hunters mark.

 Bless would be an excellent choice for concentration.

That's a good point or one of the many protection spells.