Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Bow Bond: An Eldritch Knight’s Guide to Archery
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 6707689" data-attributes="member: 1"><p><strong>Originally posted by MightyThokk:</strong></p><p></p><p>[h=4]3 Races, Feats, and Backgrounds[/h]</p><p><strong><span style="color: orange"> Variant Human</span></strong> : The clear winner. Get the feat of choice for you build, grab a skill, melt faces.</p><p><strong><span style="color: skyblue"> Wood Elf </span></strong>: Excellent choice for Stealth or nature themed concepts.</p><p><strong><span style="color: skyblue"> Lightfoot Halfling</span></strong> : Another great choice for stealthy characters or crossbow builds. </p><p><strong><span style="color: blue"> High Elf </span></strong></p><p><strong></strong>+2 Dex never wrong. Int and bonus cantrip for anyone wanting to focus more on spellcasting </p><p><span style="color: blue"></span></p><p><span style="color: blue"><strong>Half Elf </strong></span> Party Face, skill Monkey, and bonus to two off stats of choice. </p><p><strong>Stout Halfling, Forest Gnome, Human</strong>: They buff dex, and depending on your character concept are decent choices.</p><p><strong><span style="color: purple"> Pretty much everything else </span> </strong>Unless it’s a core part of your character concept, take a race that buffs dex. But if you’re set on a Dragonborn with a Bow you can make it work, just not as well.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Crossbow built Feats</strong></p><p><strong><span style="color: orange"> Crossbow Expert </span> </strong>Take this with your first possible choice.</p><p><strong><span style="color: skyblue">Sharpshooter </span></strong> I'd take this after getting Dex to 20.</p><p><span style="color: blue"></span></p><p><span style="color: blue"><strong>Shield Master</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: blue"></span> Evasion plus. Can't go wrong.</p><p><strong><span style="color: blue"> Resilience (Wisdom) </span></strong></p><p><strong></strong>Nasty effects, grab this at some point.</p><p><strong>War Caster</strong> Warcasting does a couple nice things for melee builds. This is an Archery guide. That said, for Crossbow Experts that make their living on the front lines this gives you an Oppourtunity Attack. </p><p><strong>Skulker</strong> has great synergy with Sharpshooter, but if you're spending your time in or near the melee scrum this becomes a late pick or skipable.</p><p><strong>Tough, Lucky, Mobile </strong>good later picks if you're not bumping an off stat.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Feats for Archer Builds </strong></p><p><strong><span style="color: skyblue">Sharpshooter </span></strong> Your main DPS booster, take it early.</p><p><strong><span style="color: blue">Skulker</span></strong> has great synergy with Sharpshooter. Wood-elf and Lightfoots can put this one off or skip it completely in some games. Any other stealthy-Sharpshooter build should grab this by 8th level. If you're not sneaky this becomes much less useful. </p><p><span style="color: blue"><strong> Magic Initiate </strong></span> For Hex, and a couple more cantrips. <span style="color: red"> Magic Initiate </span> if you dip rogue 2 or have other uses for your bonus action. </p><p><strong>Mobility </strong>Get out of melee without spell slots! If your DM allows re-training of feats Variant Humans should grab this at 4, swap out at 8 for Skulker. Pick this back up later. Other races can if putting off 20 Dex till 12th level doesn't bother you. </p><p><strong>Resilience (Wisdom) </strong>Nasty effects, grab this at some point.</p><p><span style="color: purple"><strong> Crossbow Expert </strong></span> WTH right? Yeah, but the whole lets you fire in melee thing works for any ranged weapon so this is one option for dealing with being in melee, but you've got better.</p><p><span style="color: red"></span></p><p><span style="color: red"><strong>War Caster</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: red"></span> is for melee builds. If you have a bow, you need to get out of melee.</p><p><strong>Tough, Lucky </strong>good later picks if you're not bumping an off stat.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Backgrounds</strong></p><p>For Variant Humans, Multi-classers, or don’t care about stealth skill this is a concept choice. </p><p><strong>If</strong> you have a Stealth Concept, <strong>and</strong> didn’t take Variant Human or Half-Elf, <strong>and </strong>your DM is a jerk <strong>and</strong> doesn’t allow custom Backgrounds you are stuck with either Urchin or Criminal Backgrounds to pick up Stealth. Criminal variant Spy sorta works for scout concepts. Urchin works for outdoorsy/loner concepts if you pick a Wood Elf city or similar. If you’re planning on Multi-classing Rogue you can pick up Stealth too, that also opens up all backgrounds. </p><p>If you don’t have a Stealthy character concept, or can get Stealth some other way (Race, Multi-class, custom Background) then do whatever you want here. </p><p> </p><p>Default recomendations:</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: skyblue"></span></p><p><span style="color: skyblue"><strong>Urchin</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: skyblue"></span> Two Dex based skills, two useful tool proficiencies, flexible concept that works for the standard orphan adventurer concept. No reason it wouldn't work for a outdoorsy background as well. Swap city for forest and carry on. </p><p><span style="color: blue"></span></p><p><span style="color: blue"><strong>Criminal</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: blue"></span> Hello other Stealth Background. </p><p><strong>Outlander</strong> gets you tracking from the survival skill and wilderness survival as a class feature. *poof* you're a ranger!</p><p><strong>Charlatan</strong>, <strong>Noble</strong>, or <strong>Guild Artisan</strong> if you're the party face.</p><p><span style="color: purple"><strong> Sailor, Soldier</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: purple"></span> - gets you skills you can take as a fighter and Athletics isn't likely something you'd want.</p><p><span style="color: purple"></span></p><p><span style="color: purple"><strong>Sage</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: purple"></span> Int based skills, if you're pumping Int and have a heavy spellcasting concept than <span style="color: Blue"></span></p><p><span style="color: Blue"><strong>Sage</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: Blue"></span></p><p><span style="color: purple"></span></p><p><span style="color: purple"><strong>Acolyte, Entertainer </strong></span> concept choice only.</p><p><span style="color: red"></span></p><p><span style="color: red"><strong>Hermit, Folk Hero</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: red"></span> you're better off tweaking the flavor of some other background.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Morrus, post: 6707689, member: 1"] [B]Originally posted by MightyThokk:[/B] [h=4]3 Races, Feats, and Backgrounds[/h] [B][COLOR=orange] Variant Human[/COLOR][/B] : The clear winner. Get the feat of choice for you build, grab a skill, melt faces. [B][COLOR=skyblue] Wood Elf [/COLOR][/B]: Excellent choice for Stealth or nature themed concepts. [B][COLOR=skyblue] Lightfoot Halfling[/COLOR][/B] : Another great choice for stealthy characters or crossbow builds. [B][COLOR=blue] High Elf [/COLOR] [/B]+2 Dex never wrong. Int and bonus cantrip for anyone wanting to focus more on spellcasting [COLOR=blue] [B]Half Elf [/B][/COLOR] Party Face, skill Monkey, and bonus to two off stats of choice. [B]Stout Halfling, Forest Gnome, Human[/B]: They buff dex, and depending on your character concept are decent choices. [B][COLOR=purple] Pretty much everything else [/COLOR] [/B]Unless it’s a core part of your character concept, take a race that buffs dex. But if you’re set on a Dragonborn with a Bow you can make it work, just not as well. [B]Crossbow built Feats[/B] [B][COLOR=orange] Crossbow Expert [/COLOR] [/B]Take this with your first possible choice. [B][COLOR=skyblue]Sharpshooter [/COLOR][/B] I'd take this after getting Dex to 20. [COLOR=blue] [B]Shield Master[/B] [/COLOR] Evasion plus. Can't go wrong. [B][COLOR=blue] Resilience (Wisdom) [/COLOR] [/B]Nasty effects, grab this at some point. [B]War Caster[/B] Warcasting does a couple nice things for melee builds. This is an Archery guide. That said, for Crossbow Experts that make their living on the front lines this gives you an Oppourtunity Attack. [B]Skulker[/B] has great synergy with Sharpshooter, but if you're spending your time in or near the melee scrum this becomes a late pick or skipable. [B]Tough, Lucky, Mobile [/B]good later picks if you're not bumping an off stat. [B]Feats for Archer Builds [/B] [B][COLOR=skyblue]Sharpshooter [/COLOR][/B] Your main DPS booster, take it early. [B][COLOR=blue]Skulker[/COLOR][/B] has great synergy with Sharpshooter. Wood-elf and Lightfoots can put this one off or skip it completely in some games. Any other stealthy-Sharpshooter build should grab this by 8th level. If you're not sneaky this becomes much less useful. [COLOR=blue][B] Magic Initiate [/B][/COLOR] For Hex, and a couple more cantrips. [COLOR=red] Magic Initiate [/COLOR] if you dip rogue 2 or have other uses for your bonus action. [B]Mobility [/B]Get out of melee without spell slots! If your DM allows re-training of feats Variant Humans should grab this at 4, swap out at 8 for Skulker. Pick this back up later. Other races can if putting off 20 Dex till 12th level doesn't bother you. [B]Resilience (Wisdom) [/B]Nasty effects, grab this at some point. [COLOR=purple][B] Crossbow Expert [/B][/COLOR] WTH right? Yeah, but the whole lets you fire in melee thing works for any ranged weapon so this is one option for dealing with being in melee, but you've got better. [COLOR=red] [B]War Caster[/B] [/COLOR] is for melee builds. If you have a bow, you need to get out of melee. [B]Tough, Lucky [/B]good later picks if you're not bumping an off stat. [B]Backgrounds[/B] For Variant Humans, Multi-classers, or don’t care about stealth skill this is a concept choice. [B]If[/B] you have a Stealth Concept, [B]and[/B] didn’t take Variant Human or Half-Elf, [B]and [/B]your DM is a jerk [B]and[/B] doesn’t allow custom Backgrounds you are stuck with either Urchin or Criminal Backgrounds to pick up Stealth. Criminal variant Spy sorta works for scout concepts. Urchin works for outdoorsy/loner concepts if you pick a Wood Elf city or similar. If you’re planning on Multi-classing Rogue you can pick up Stealth too, that also opens up all backgrounds. If you don’t have a Stealthy character concept, or can get Stealth some other way (Race, Multi-class, custom Background) then do whatever you want here. Default recomendations: [COLOR=skyblue] [B]Urchin[/B] [/COLOR] Two Dex based skills, two useful tool proficiencies, flexible concept that works for the standard orphan adventurer concept. No reason it wouldn't work for a outdoorsy background as well. Swap city for forest and carry on. [COLOR=blue] [B]Criminal[/B] [/COLOR] Hello other Stealth Background. [B]Outlander[/B] gets you tracking from the survival skill and wilderness survival as a class feature. *poof* you're a ranger! [B]Charlatan[/B], [B]Noble[/B], or [B]Guild Artisan[/B] if you're the party face. [COLOR=purple][B] Sailor, Soldier[/B] [/COLOR] - gets you skills you can take as a fighter and Athletics isn't likely something you'd want. [COLOR=purple] [B]Sage[/B] [/COLOR] Int based skills, if you're pumping Int and have a heavy spellcasting concept than [COLOR=Blue] [B]Sage[/B] [/COLOR] [COLOR=purple] [B]Acolyte, Entertainer [/B][/COLOR] concept choice only. [COLOR=red] [B]Hermit, Folk Hero[/B] [/COLOR] you're better off tweaking the flavor of some other background. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Bow Bond: An Eldritch Knight’s Guide to Archery
Top