Archer Woes

[Fynn]

Hi All,

First time poster, long time lurker. I'm currently involved in a D&D 3.5 Homebrew game. GM is very flexible in terms of stats and classes etc and my latest character which I have been running for six months is a Lvl 11 Fighter with bow speciality. At this level he is pretty awesome with his skill Level, +17 to hit with the bow, but is starting to get outclassed by the other characters - Dwarven battlepriest, Elven Sorcerous, Half-Orc Barbarian, Dwarven Paladin, Half Tifling Multiclass (mostly assassin). GM style is very light on the magical gear so basic stats are ~very~ important. At this level we are taking on multiple fire giants and small dragons. At this stage I have not yet taken any special Archer class (I need to get my bow craft skills up to make the prerequisites) SO...

Which second class do I take to make the character more effective? Peerless Archer? Arcane Archer? Or something completely different yet still complements my skills?

Any advice is appreciated.

Fynn

 

[UltimaGabe]

Well, I've never played a seriously ranged character, but as far as hitting the enemies is concerned, you should be far above any of them (as you have the best BAB and more than enough feats to spare to make your shots more accurate). As far as damage is concerned, however, that can be a problem- the Barbarian is probably doing twice as much damage as you, and the Sorcerer three times or more. Well, if you've chosen to specialize in ranged attacks, I'm afraid that's how it's going to be- but you can definitely do some tricks that they can't.

For feats, I'd suggest taking a look at the Ranged Disarm, Ranged Pin, and other ranged feats from Complete Warrior. For Prestige Classes, I'd suggest the Order of the Bow Initiate, also from Complete Warrior. That provides lots of goodies for an archer.

 

[shilsen]

For Prestige Classes, I'd suggest the Order of the Bow Initiate, also from Complete Warrior. That provides lots of goodies for an archer.

I'll disagree about the OoBI being a useful PrC, primarily because it's main ability is based upon making a single attack in a round and doing so within a range of 30 ft, both of which run counter to an archer's primary strengths in D&D: being able to get full attacks off on a regular basis and doing so at a range where you are safe from melee opponents. Something like a 3.5-ified Deepwood Sniper (from MotW) might be better, since the more dangerous and increased chance to critical is good for someone regularly making multiple attacks per round. Peerless Archer, on the other hand, is something I haven't looked at but have heard is singularly broken, due to allowing the archer to power attack with a bow . Which might make it more attractive for you

The best thing to do is to try to get hold of a bow with elemental enchantments on it (flaming, shocking, etc). The damage from these stack up very nicely with the multiple attacks per round. Unfortunately, a game with lower than usual magic makes getting something like that more difficult.

Talk to your DM about your concerns too and see what he says.

 

[Harmon]

I have a Fighter/Ranger/DeepWoodSniper I love to play.

He does well as long as he's out of arms reach.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Three Arrows for the King has some tasty archer goodness.

 

[Brain]

I agree with Shilsen about OOtBI being counter to the best parts of 3.5 archery. My favorite archer is the Greatbow wielding Fighter/Exotic Weapon Master combo.

 

[OfRiceAndHen]

Picked up 3 Arrows for the King a few weeks ago, and i must say is well worth the money. Lots of goodies and such. If magic items are in high demand, might consider arcane archer; + to attack on all arrows aint bad, 2 good saves, and full BAB (I realize you've probably already looked at the arcane archer, but just thought i'd cover it anyway).

 

[frankthedm]

I just made this up, but your DM might allow it.

OH GODS, NOT MY BOW!
General [fighter]
BAB +6, Point blank shot, dex 15
You protect your bow at all costs

You may redirect all attacks made against your bow to yourself. You may choose to have any attempt to harm or disarm your bow become normal attacks [for their type] against yourself. This feat cannot redirect spells that only target objects like Shatter, but you could elect the ranged touch of a Disintegrate spell to strike at you rather than to risk it striking your bow.

 

[Doctor Bomb]

Archerific

There are a couple of ways to go about that. It depends on your race, mostly.

A human can multiclass into a ranger with the Archery focus, take a favored enemy you fight a lot (like giants), and do quite well in a low magic campaign.

An elf or half elf would be better served going with the Arcane Archer, as it does provide a pretty good magic ability or two.

Another tactic is to add a few levels of rogue and concentrate on being hidden, so you can make some wicked sneak attacks.

Another idea to look into, with your DM, is co-creating an entirely new/variant prestige class which better suits your needs and fits the campaign.

FRANKTHEDM: That's a kewl feat, there is one like it in the Netbook of Feats that covers all gear you carry (with my party's tendencies of commissioning +4 flaming shocking burst or equivalent weapons, they needed it).

 

[Rackhir]

If your DM would permit it, Peerless archer is awsomely powerful. Since you are a fighter and fighters depend on items more than casting classes do, if your DM isn't giving you much in the way of items, then it might not even be horribly broken like it usually is.

Main features are - No AoO when firing bow, Ranged Power Attack and I think at 10th lv gets 30' threat range. Defintely pick up combat reflexes before you hit 10th and that will really kick ass. It's in the Silver Marches FRCS. I don't know what the DR setup is in your campaign, but you might be able to argue the ranged PA as giving you a chance to overcome DR if you lack ready access to + Arrows for overcoming DR.

Definitely dump OoBI. The 3.5 version is really useless aside from the No AoO feat. Deep Woods Sniper, is much better (Masters of the Wild Splat book). A few levels of Ranger will get you pretty much all the pre-reqs for the class and let you be fairly stealthy. If you can talk the DM into it substituting a couple of fighter lvs for ranger levels would probably put your char closer to what you want than a pure fighter. Especially since 4 levels or so of Archery path Ranger will get you some of the bow feats you'd want to take anyway. It's working nicely for a char of mine so far.

The Exotic Weapons Master (Complete Warrior) 3 lv class can also get you the No AoO feat and pairs up with the Greatbow from the same book pretty nicely. You can also pick up some of the ranged pin/sunder feats.

The greatbow does have one drawback as you can't use it mounted. So it does prevent you from using one of the best Archer feat chains - Mounted Combat > Mounted Archery > Imp MA. MA will let you get a full attack at the mid point of your MOUNT'S movement. Given that its a low magic campaign, the MA feat chain might actually be extremely useful to you as you are probably doing a lot more traveling as opposed to just Tporting.

You might simply be able to talk your DM into letting you just take the No AoO ability as a fighter feat. You probably already have any reasonable pre-reqs.

Adamantite arrow tips are probably a good investment. While they are expensive (I think Roughly 60gp each) they should be recoverable, as while the ARROW may break, the heads should survive (they are adamantite after all) and should be able to be put on new shafts.