Nothing I've heard of gives clerics ranged magic. Even if it was, that would be a very odd build just for that 60+ skill. Str is fine.
As for Spr vs Str, that's a big debate: more crit or more general damage. I have a SPR cleric now that I love and runnin a STR cleric now to test the difference. For now, best I can say is that both work out.
For the record, you're right about crit, which is why 'SPR clerics' stop adding to SPR after 25 (usually put into End after that). As for STR, it gives 1.2 damage per point, rounded down (so 4.8 = 4 damage). STR doesn't change after a certain point like SPR does: it's always 1.2
So 25 SPR means 5% crit while 25 STR means 30 damage.
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