Most of the consensus seems to indicate that Arcane Archer is weak and a Ranger or Battlemaster would make a better Archer.
After playing with grasping arrow I would have to disagree. This ability is far, far better than any of the battlemaster maneuvers. The big negative is it is usable twice per short rest, but it is more than 3x better than the maneuvers. It is better than HM or the spells a Ranger is going to use to boost damage too. Here is why:
No saving throw. Hit an enemy with legendary actions and he is automatically effected.
The 2d6 poision damage is automatic, no save. That is ok, not great because poison is not the best damage.
-10 movement, again ok not great.
The 2d6 Magic slashing damage can affect it every single turn if it moves, not just on its turns. If your allies hit it with thorn whip or lightning lure or crusher or swarmkeeper, it takes the 2d6 damage every single time! If your party all have force movement options this could be an extra 8d6 or so per round, with no save. - Now we are talking, this is really good
It takes an action and a contested strength check to remove it and it is an action the enemy can easily fail. So it is a minimum of one lost action and potentially 2, 3 or 4. While it is being damaged every turn. Even if you dump intelligence it is still at least 1 lost action to remove it. This scales really well because when you get incredible enemies with multiattack they still use their whole action. Also since it it an ability check and not a save, throwing something like Hex will give him disadvantage on getting out of it - Awesome
So with 1 arcane shot you get good to awesome damage with no save and at least 1 entire action lost, more if he can't easily beat your DC with a strength check.
After playing with grasping arrow I would have to disagree. This ability is far, far better than any of the battlemaster maneuvers. The big negative is it is usable twice per short rest, but it is more than 3x better than the maneuvers. It is better than HM or the spells a Ranger is going to use to boost damage too. Here is why:
No saving throw. Hit an enemy with legendary actions and he is automatically effected.
The 2d6 poision damage is automatic, no save. That is ok, not great because poison is not the best damage.
-10 movement, again ok not great.
The 2d6 Magic slashing damage can affect it every single turn if it moves, not just on its turns. If your allies hit it with thorn whip or lightning lure or crusher or swarmkeeper, it takes the 2d6 damage every single time! If your party all have force movement options this could be an extra 8d6 or so per round, with no save. - Now we are talking, this is really good
It takes an action and a contested strength check to remove it and it is an action the enemy can easily fail. So it is a minimum of one lost action and potentially 2, 3 or 4. While it is being damaged every turn. Even if you dump intelligence it is still at least 1 lost action to remove it. This scales really well because when you get incredible enemies with multiattack they still use their whole action. Also since it it an ability check and not a save, throwing something like Hex will give him disadvantage on getting out of it - Awesome
So with 1 arcane shot you get good to awesome damage with no save and at least 1 entire action lost, more if he can't easily beat your DC with a strength check.
Last edited: