20th level archer - how to boost damage?

[RigaMortus2]

My next "archer" build will be a Psychic Warrior. Using his powers to enhance attack and damage, plus Greater Psionic Shot will add +4d6 damage, and combine that with Fell Shot to make my attack a touch attack. Something to consider...

 

[Victim]

+5 distance flaming speed large composite longbow (Str 16).

How sad. +5, distance, and speed? You really meant +1 with a ring of counterspells loaded with greater dispel (cheap to add as a second property too) and then some boots of speed, right? That frees up lots of cash. In many games, Holy is pretty much a gimme property, since most of the foes are evil - +2d6 and beating DR is hard to beat.

What kind of buffs can this guy expect to receive from his teammates? Given the attack arrays of most archers, they can get alot of mileage out of bard song and the like.

Use a STR item and more mighty for a cheap +1.

 

[two]

Yeah that weapon sucks.

Bump up your strength to 20 or 22.

Make a +1 Holy Sonic Longbow or something. Have your cleric GMW it every day up to +5.

With the massive gold savings, invest in a few hundred (2-3 hundred) mixed bane arrows. Bane human. Bane undead. Bane outsider. Bane X. Use quiver of e.

Shooting at an evil thing with a bane arrow ups your damage. A LOT.

 

[Shallown]

Two's got the idea.

Upgrade a quiver of elhonna to hold a lot more arrows and go the bane route you can buy a ton of +1 bane arrows todeal with different bad guys and with holy you will do a decent amount of damage. Missile is harder to do massive damamge but you can skimp a little more on defence compared to a front line fighter.

Later

 

[Victim]

Really, the difficulty in getting good damage on arrows, plus the self sufficient GMWs, is what prompted the cleric archer build anyway. Divine Favor goes a long way, especially before its nerf.

 

[two]

hire-a-bard

I forgot to mention:

Get a bard cohort. Use a feat.

That "inspire courage" ability will boost your arrow to hit/dam by +4/+4 or more if you swing a Bard15.

With any effort at all (spells, abilities, equitment) a Bard15 could inspire courage for more than +4/+4. But, that's still OK.

So, +1 turned +4 due to GMW, shooing a sonic holy bow with a bane arrow at an evil thing (bane type) gives:

+4 gmw +2 bane bonus + 4d6 bane and holy damage +4 bard damge +1d6 sonic (nothing resists) + your other stuff.

That's 5d6 + 10.

With a str=20 it's 5d6 + 15 + specialization etc. nets another +4 or so?

5d6 + 19 is ok.

 

[Shadeus]

Also, I would recommend improved rapid shot to get rid of the -2 penalty to all attacks.

 

[Malum]

you want to hit and cause better damage
-order of the bow initiate +1d8
-psionic shot and greater psionic shot = +4d6 for 1 arrow per round
-ranged power attack? isnt there a feat?
-add poison or acid or alchemy arrows and boost damage w/ no magic
-psionic feat of ? that ingnores armor, forgot name?
-2 levels of arcane archer so you can add a little boom

or just be a Warlock / Psychic Warrior
fell shot = your ranged attack ignores all armor bonuses
wounding attack = your ranged attack additionally causes 1 point of con damage
psi shot + greater = +4d6 damage to your ranged attack.
aligned attack = your ranged attack is aligned + adds 1d6 more vs the alignment.
psionic meditation = you get your focus back w/ a move action
point blank shot, blast focus

so whats a high level Warlock cause? 10d6 damage or more and add above 5d6
and vs no armor bonus then add all those nice Warlock abilities.

Your almost gauranteed a hit every round and at about 15d6 + -1 Con + Warlock goodies per blow I would say pretty potent

Malum

 

[Al'Kelhar]

you want to hit and cause better damage
-order of the bow initiate +1d8
-psionic shot and greater psionic shot = +4d6 for 1 arrow per round
-ranged power attack? isnt there a feat?
-add poison or acid or alchemy arrows and boost damage w/ no magic
-psionic feat of ? that ingnores armor, forgot name?
-2 levels of arcane archer so you can add a little boom

or just be a Warlock / Psychic Warrior
fell shot = your ranged attack ignores all armor bonuses
wounding attack = your ranged attack additionally causes 1 point of con damage
psi shot + greater = +4d6 damage to your ranged attack.
aligned attack = your ranged attack is aligned + adds 1d6 more vs the alignment.
psionic meditation = you get your focus back w/ a move action
point blank shot, blast focus

so whats a high level Warlock cause? 10d6 damage or more and add above 5d6
and vs no armor bonus then add all those nice Warlock abilities.

Your almost gauranteed a hit every round and at about 15d6 + -1 Con + Warlock goodies per blow I would say pretty potent

Malum

I didn't think warlocks got iterative attacks with their eldritch blast. If they did, I think the class would be seriously broken (as it is, I reckon they're borderline broken).

This means a warlock 'archer' build only gets the one 15d6 attack per round, whereas your 'conventional' bow-wielding archer gets 5 or 6 attacks per round at 3d6 + 10-15. While the latter has to hit normal AC, not touch AC, except where AC is extremely high (50+) in most cases I think the latter will result in greater damage output/round. And has the ability to split the attacks against multiple targets, of course.

RW - how's the PC using a Large bow? Is he a Large PC naturally, or is he using some magic or nifty feat? Or is your DM being nice and saying a Medium character can actually use an 8-foot-long bow with a -2 penalty? You could consider using the greatbow from Complete Warrior, which is an exotic weapon doing 1d10 base damage IIRC. If you're taking plenty of levels of fighter (and to take greater specialisation, I presume you're taking at least 12 levels), the use of a feat to gain proficiency might be worth it. What other feats will the PC have?

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[ForceUser]

I'm making characters for a one-shot. The archer has a +40 attack bonus, but does only 2d6+d6 fire +11 per hit. How can I do more damage?

Let's see what I can come up with off the top of my head.

Bbn 1/Ftr 18/Rng 1

Improved Critical (greatbow)
Improved Favored Enemy (appropriate monster group)
Weapon Specialization (greatbow)
Greater Weapon Specialization (greatbow)
Rapid Shot
Improved Rapid Shot

16 Str plus +4 girdle of giant strength = 20 Str

+5 large composite holy flaming burst monster-bane mighty greatbow of strength


RANGED Awesome Megabow verses evil creatures +40/+40/+35/+30/+25 attack (2d8+14 plus 1d6 fire and 2d6 holy) or

Ranged Awesome Megabow verses favored enemy +40/+40/+35/+30/+25 attack (2d8+19 plus 1d6 fire and 2d6 holy) or

Ranged Awesome Megabow whirling frenzy verses favored enemy 38/+38/+38/+33/+28/+23 attack (2d8+19 plus 1d6 fire and 2d6 holy)

If raging and fighting his favored enemy, he deals an average 216 points of damage per round, not counting crits.

How's that?