Advice on building a Horse Archer

[Felnar]

trying to build a Scythian/Mongol/Hun style plains/steppes horse archer
this is for NPCs and possibly PC chars, specifically Elves and Halflings in Eberron
all at levels 1-6
looking at ranger or scout but the build seems feat intensive so maybe some fighter

can an effective horse archer be built at such low levels?
what classes/feats would you recommend?

 

[Goldmoon]

A horse archer? First, find a horse that can hold the bow.

 

[Stalker0]

Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery are really all you need to make a decent horse archer.

Now if you want to bump that up, point blank and far shot allow a terrifying open land archer. The trick is to fire and keep moving back, never allowing your opponent to get close. Focus entirely on your attacks, forget AC (you should not be getting hit often).

 

[phindar]

A horse archer? First, find a horse that can hold the bow.

No, find a bow that can fire a horse.

You're thinking about what? Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Far Shot; that sort of thing? Precise and Far aren't as big of a deal starting off, since if everybody on your team is on horses you won't have to worry about firing into melee too much, and you can ride in close and fire and then ride away so range isn't a huge deal. I like Rapid though, esp if you want your arrows to blot out the sun.

Mount is a good spell if you won't be able to take an actual horse with you all the time. I could see a Sor/Scout built around this idea. No matter what your build, two levels of Fighter is a good way to pick some cheap feats, and everything you're looking for is on the list. I personally wouldn't go higher than that, unless I was going for Wpn Spec with my bow at F4. (I tend to rarely make single-class fighters though, because I like having a diversified skill list. YMMV.)

 

[hong]

Get something to level up your horse, so it doesn't die when fireballed.

 

[TheGogmagog]

Get something to level up your horse, so it doesn't die when fireballed.

At levels 1-6 that shouldn't be a problem. Outside that I would use fighters to get the a bove mentioned feats. Possibly rangers, but I havent really looked at them since 3.5.

 

[nittanytbone]

Most NPC hordesmen will be level 1 warriors, so they'll only have one feat if demihumans. It should either be mounted combat (to prepare them for mounted archery at level 3) or Weapon Focus (to help them actually hit).

 

[Darklone]

There are some nice 3rd party feats like Born in the Saddle ...

Otherwise: Rapid Shot. You want full attack actions all the time.

 

[Rackhir]

Otherwise: Rapid Shot. You want full attack actions all the time.

The biggest advantage of mounted archery is that it lets you get a full move or better (with penalties) AND a full attack. Since your mount is doing the moving, you get to do full attacks every round.

 

[Darklone]

Yeah. Rapid Shot, Bow of Haste and every other possibility to shoot more fricking arrows!