prestige, Arcane Archer vs Soulbow

[Eman Resu]

this thread is not about having these 2 classes fight eachother rather a players choice between the two. There are 3 players involved, 1 is picking a archer / ranged style and the other two are advising. IMO Soulbow is superior but then agian they dont attach area spells to their arrows.

I thought the Soulbow looked great, new concept, a archer with NO BOW. - dont have to buy arrows or bows ever, awesomeness! This frees up money for "other" A feat every other level, bonuses to hit and damage, really a solid archer build. -
Q- how does psychic strike apply to his mind arrows?

Now onto the Arcane Archer, Im sure you all have touched on the subject before, but I am of the opinion that this class sucks! Its "expensive" to get into, and once there, if you dont have the ability to cast big boomer area spells its kinda pointless to have the ability to attach area spells on your arrows....which I dont get, arent area spells already ranged?

 

[xigbar]

this thread is not about having these 2 classes fight eachother rather a players choice between the two. There are 3 players involved, 1 is picking a archer / ranged style and the other two are advising. IMO Soulbow is superior but then agian they dont attach area spells to their arrows.

I thought the Soulbow looked great, new concept, a archer with NO BOW. - dont have to buy arrows or bows ever, awesomeness! This frees up money for "other" A feat every other level, bonuses to hit and damage, really a solid archer build. -
Q- how does psychic strike apply to his mind arrows?

Now onto the Arcane Archer, Im sure you all have touched on the subject before, but I am of the opinion that this class sucks! Its "expensive" to get into, and once there, if you dont have the ability to cast big boomer area spells its kinda pointless to have the ability to attach area spells on your arrows....which I dont get, arent area spells already ranged?

The general concensus that I find and agree with is that Arcane Archer blows, and that Suolbow significantly improves the lackluster entry class.

 

[kitcik]

The general concensus that I find and agree with is that Arcane Archer blows, and that Suolbow significantly improves the lackluster entry class.

I am in agreement with this, although I have seen the occassional decent build with a 2 level Arcane Archer dip for imbue arrow.

 

[Eman Resu]

The general concensus that I find and agree with is that Arcane Archer blows, and that Suolbow significantly improves the lackluster entry class.

would you, given the choice of "archer" build, start a 10th level campaign as...

A) 10th level fighter w/ 6 archer based feats...can be a respectable
B) 3 Soul Knife / 7th Soulbow...unique, bonus powers & +2 attack & dam, +3 feats and more, but I think one of the best class features is not having to purchase a magical bow and magical arrows, this $ can go elsewhere, the ability to "appear" unarmed...I dont know if inferior or superior to base fighter but def seems cool!
C) Order of Bow initiate? dont know the entry prereqs, but I remember correctly, players were not impressed for whatever reasons?
D) Ranger or Ranger / Fighter multiclass?
E) other
F) 5th Wizard / 2nd fighter / 2nd Ranger / 1 Arcane Archer (or ? combo I was just thinking the 3rd level area spells would at least help this build function.

 

[xigbar]

I for one enjoy a build I made based on mid-range machine gunning with dual hand-crossbows. Getting a lot of output is costly, which is one of Soulbows advantages, as mentioned. It really depends on what kind archery we're talking. This goes on in more detail and insight. The Archery Handbook

 

[Eman Resu]

3.5 not 4E

no action points

 

[xigbar]

3.5 not 4E

no action points

The guide I linked you IS 3.5.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Another vote for Soulbow. Arcane Archer DOES blow.

Also, you can trade your psychic strike for a bonus feat. Same article has an option to get Hidden Talent instead of Wild Talent, which every Soulknife should do.

EDIT: Your Soulknife 3 / Soulbow 7 build doesn't work, you need 8 ranks in Autohypnosis to enter, so you need 5 levels elsewhere before you can get in. I'd do 2-4 (you need at least 2) levels of Soulknife and take the other levels elsewhere. Fighter for more feats, or something with wisdom synergy like druid, cleric, or monk. Maybe swordsage.

 

[PureGoldx58]

For pure power Arcane archer does blow...but for flavor (which I usually don't care about, but one of my friends plays one and loves it) it is quite interesting. Especially since he is a bard/Arcane Archer mass suggestion at a range of insane is kinda nice.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Or he could just be a regular bard and fascinate / mass suggestion them without using a spell slot?

I disagree. Even on flavor, it's hard to top a dude that summons barrages of arrows with his mind and hurls them like freaking Zeus.

And I say this being a player really likes archers and really likes elves (possibly because i was into Warhammer before starting D&D and always loved the Wood Elves) who played an arcane archer as one of his first ever characters and tried everything I could to make it work. Hell, I say this as someone whose favorite anime character's surekill attack is the exact mental image Imbue Arrow makes me think of.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP9_EghKggE[/ame]