Best Archer Build

MarauderX · Oct 28, 2003

I am looking to create a 7th level archer on horseback to harass PCs from afar while they deal with his peons in melee. While I was thinking elven Ranger all the way at first, a human with the extra feat and skill points might make a nastier package. Also, a fighter with maxed out feats would be a good build, but I'm not sure a fighter would be able to do as well.

Anyone have a good build or ideas out there?

Keep in mind the guy will have to use hit & run tactics with his weak melee peons, so he will need to max his Ride skill to get away, and may be shooting from horseback more often than not.

Knightcrawler · Oct 28, 2003

Note - This is using 3.0

Human
Fighter 5/Order of the Bow Initiate 2 (Sword & Fist)

Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Weapon Focus (Any Bow)
Weapon Specialization (Any Bow)
Mounted Combat
Mounted Archery

BAB +7/+2
Base Fort +4
Base Reflex +4
Base Will +4

Dex is you main ability here so get it as high as possible.
Order of the Bow Initiate gives you a Ranged Sneak Attack of +1d6 and you can still use you bow if threatened and not provole an AOO.
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Elven
Fighter 2/Ranger 3/Deepwood Sniper 2 (Masters of the Wild)

Far Shot
Point Blank Shot
Weapon Focus (Any Bow)
Mounted Combat
Mounted Archery

BAB +7/+2
Base Fort +6
Base Reflex +4
Base Will +1

Dex is you main ability here so get it as high as possible.
Deepwood Sniper 2 gives you Keen Arrows, +20 ft to all your range increments, concealment reduction of 10%, Critical Multiplier goes up by one for all projectile weapons and Magic Weapon once per day.

GiantInThePlayground · Oct 28, 2003

Those are good PC builds, but they don't really do what MarauderX asked for; especially the first one, which has levels of OotBI with sneak attack that will never come into play at long range. The second one is missing Precise Shot, which means this villain will have trouble backing up his meleeing minions.

For a long-range mounted archer, try human ranger 6/fighter 1. The ranger 6 gives him an animal companion with the first level of upgrades; make that his mount, a heavy horse with 5 HD. This will make it harder for the PCs to shoot the mount out from under him. Give him favored enemy of human +4, and another PC race +2 (assuming that he is evil and that there are humans in the party). Ranger favored enemy damage is no longer limited to 30 feet in 3.5, so it is a nice heaping helping of extra damage at ultra-long range.

Feats should be Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Precise Shot. (Endurance, Track, Rapid Shot, and Multishot will be freebies from ranger).

If you want to be extra nasty, give him a +1 humanbane bow (again, assuming you have a few humans in the party). Against humans, his arrows will inflict 1d8+2d6+5 damage plus the archer's Strength bonus.

Nifft · Oct 28, 2003

3.5e Ranger!

7th level Ranger all the way. Let's say Elf, just because that's what you fit to your concept before the Human Powergamer Bug(tm) scored a hit.

So, here we go:

Anglorn, Elf Ranger 7 (Archery Combat Style)

Skills: 6 + Int bonus, from a great list. I'll pick your first six: Spot, Listen, Survival, Hide, Move Silently, Ride.

Feats: Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Ride-By Attack

Bonus Feats: Track, Endurance, Rapid Shot, Manyshot

Class Abilities: Wild Empathy, Animal Companion, 2 Favored Enemies (+4, +2), Woodland Stride

Woodland Stride is key to running away. When he's mounted, have him cast Pass Without Trace on his mount & his companions' steeds -- he can mask up to 3 creatures total at this level, 4 creatures next level.

Spells: Rangers have a GREAT spell list! Entangle, Longstrider, Alarm, Pass w/o Trace, then at 2nd level Cat's Grace, Barkskin, Spike Growth and Wind Wall. (He gets 2nd level spells at level 8, so keep taking those Ranger levels!)

Elf Features: Low-Light Vision (snipe from outside the human's visual range), +2 Dex (yeah, baby!), -2 Con (don't get hit!)

In two more levels, he'll get Evasion, which will help him survive all those retaliatory Fireballs.

-- N

Nifft · Oct 28, 2003

3.5e Ranger!

My first double-post! Yay!

-- N

MarauderX · Oct 30, 2003

Nifft said:
In two more levels, he'll get Evasion, which will help him survive all those retaliatory Fireballs.

-- N

I am kinda worried about the PCs being able to do this though, as they will be of similar level and fully capable of launching a few fireballs towards the mount (lower saves, less HP) before the monk and/or barbarian run him down. Having this work may rely on protection magic to get away as well as using magic to mask where the sniper went. It's a dilemma at this level as not really any character builds would be useful in getting away. If the monk and/or barbarian don't catch him before he hides, the rogue (or anyone, really) may spot him more easily. I like the spell & damage ideas, but I feel like they will need to beef it up so that he is doing more damage per encounter than the cleric can heal per day, and that's tricky.

Now combine that with a Fireball wand to be used at the same time, and zap! the sniper is roasted after the 1st shot on the second encounter. Not so good.

Legildur · Oct 30, 2003

Seems to me that you have the 2 main response tactics from the PCs worked out (following 3.5E)

1. Being chased on foot - being mounted should overcome this. Remember you can urge a mount to go faster for short periods.

2. Fireballs - the only real fix for that is either to take a class with the Evasion ability (2 levels Monk or Rogue), but this will leave your mount exposed to the attack intead as your loss of Ranger levels will hurt your AC special abilities. Or you could cast a spell of element resistance (or similar) or use a magical item (ring etc) to offset the damage from a failed save.

FCWesel · Oct 30, 2003

My player, Tracerbullet should answer...

He did 95 points of damage in one shot at night 400' from the dire boar. Killed it one 2x over.

Wish · Oct 30, 2003

Stay at range. Figure out how to work Far Shot and/or a Distance bow into the mix.

If he has, say, a +1 composite longbow with the distance power, he has a range increment of 220 ft. (Adding Far Shot would generate a range increment of 275 ft.) Fireball at 7th level only has a range of 680 ft. Plus figure that the wizard can move another 30 ft. before casting, for a total of 710 ft. So, your guy stands 800 feet off and fires away. He's -6 to hit, but basically untouchable. At 7th level, with a Dex of 20 (elf, include +2 gloves if you like, or a cat's grace potion) and that +1 bow, he starts at +13 to hit, so after accounting for Rapid Shot he'll be at +5/+5/+0 for a full attack. You could tweak it to be higher (bigger dex, better bow, weapon focus), but that's pretty good.

The build I'd use off the top of my head (28 Point Buy so the Dex is a little lower, and I fudged a little on NPC gear value - obviously it changes if you use different starting parameters):

High Elven Ranger 2/Fighter 4/Deepwood Sniper 1

Str 14; Dex 18; Con 12; Int 10; Wis 12; Cha 10

Skills: Hide (+7), Move Silently (+7), Spot (+13), Survival (+11), Ride (+16), Handle Animal (+10), Listen (+7)

Feats: Track, Rapid Shot, Endurance, Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Weapon Focus (Longbow), Precise Shot, Weapon Specialization (Longbow)

Abilities: Favored Enemy (Human) +2, Wild Empathy, Keen Arrows, Range Increment Bonus

AC: 18; hp 49; Init +4; BAB +7/+2; Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +3 (+5 vs. enchantments).

Gear: +1 composite longbow of distance (+2 strength modifier - Range Increment 300 ft. with mods, 1d8+5, 19-20/x3), arrows (lots), MW chain shirt (armor check penalty already factored into skills), light war horse, military saddle, signal horn, MW longsword, oil of magic weapon (x2), wand of CLW (1st caster level, 30 charges left), heavy wooden shield (not normally used, not factored into AC), potion of cat's grace (x2)*, wand of entangle (1st CL, 15 charges left), +1 cloak of resistance, potion of protection from good (x3).

*These potions do not improve AC, because of the max dex on the armor.

TracerBullet42 · Oct 30, 2003

FCWesel said:
My player, Tracerbullet should answer...

He did 95 points of damage in one shot at night 400' from the dire boar. Killed it one 2x over.

I feel drawn to this thread...as if something has summoned me...

Yeah, I got lucky with a double critical and did some whacked out damaged to that poor animal...

The two levels of deepwood sniper are key for some damage. Keeping it at seventh level, I'd go with 5 levels of fighter and 2 levels of DS. That keen and improved crit can be nasty. Make sure the fighter has a mighty bow and weapon specializtion. I'd build him a little something like this.

Human fighter 5/deepwood sniper 2
Feats-
1st - Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow)
2nd - Rapid Shot
3rd - Mounted Combat
4th - Weapon Specialization (longbow)
6th - Mounted Archery (you could stand to lose the rapid shot and bump stuff back in order to take Manyshot here instead, if you wanted)

The mighty bow is key...the strength bonus with the weapon specialization x4 on a critical hit with a threat range of 19-20 gets really nasty.

I believe my work is done here...I may be needed elsewhere. Farewell, good citizens.