Creating an archer PC

[Numion]

Oh FUN! I haven't gotten to post this in a while.

A while back in one of the archer threads someone stated that a cleric archer couldn't beat a peerless archer on his very best day. Of course the example he was being put against was on a maximum damage critical on a dragon with in 30' that was flatfooted. But anyways, I took up that challenge.

Here it is. Cleric Archer build included. Though my personal favorite archers are psychic warrior/deepwood snipers.

Nice work. I wouldn't bother with extended spells, but it's a minor thing. I would, however, bother with casting paladins fourth level spell Holy Sword with a Miracle. That would almost double the damage against eeevil opponents.

 

[Jeremy]

Sorry for the outlandish example, but it gets the point across. The strategy is sound even if the rolls are not.

 

[Jeremy]

Nice work. I wouldn't bother with extended spells, but it's a minor thing. I would, however, bother with casting paladins fourth level spell Holy Sword with a Miracle. That would almost double the damage against eeevil opponents.

Problem is, Holy Weapon over rides all other enchantments on a weapon, and the Oathbow is already doubling damage.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

In that vein:

Arcane Archer is a nice class, if anything a little underpowered compared to a lot of PrC's. If you have someone willing to cast Greater Magic Weapon for you each day, then the big benefit of this class is moot.

OOBI is more powerful, and can be touchy with sneak attack dice.

Deepwoods Sniper is just over the top, and just about everyone I know thinks it's too much and broken.

Very campaign dependent IMO. GMW rocks when you have one or two encounters per day, if you are more dungeon crawl like then GMW is nice but you run out of arrows a lot. I've sen a lot of archers who shoot5-6 arrows a round(and i'm sure its possible to do more) a 5 round fight and you blew through 1/2 your GMW arrows. 2 fights and your out of GMW arrows. How amny arrow batches will that cleric buff, when he has other buff demands and other spells to cast. In less combat intensive games your point is very solid.

Also GMW/buffs are big in my game but a lot of them go away round 1 of every fight. When facing intelligent foes capable of casting spells every spellcaster opens up with dispels. so usually 1-2 dispells round one of every fight.

 

[Numion]

Very campaign dependent IMO. GMW rocks when you have one or two encounters per day, if you are more dungeon crawl like then GMW is nice but you run out of arrows a lot. I've sen a lot of archers who shoot5-6 arrows a round(and i'm sure its possible to do more) a 5 round fight and you blew through 1/2 your GMW arrows. 2 fights and your out of GMW arrows. How amny arrow batches will that cleric buff, when he has other buff demands and other spells to cast. In less combat intensive games your point is very solid.

Also GMW/buffs are big in my game but a lot of them go away round 1 of every fight. When facing intelligent foes capable of casting spells every spellcaster opens up with dispels. so usually 1-2 dispells round one of every fight.

The archer could always buy Pearls of Power for the cleric. 16.000 GP for 50 magic arrows a day.. not a bad deal, huh? And then you wouldn't run out of arrows.

If the spellcasters start with dispels, surely they target the groups spellcasters, as those might actually have something to dispel, whereas the archer has maybe one spell?

 

[Eben]

Thanks for all the advice. I wasn't looking to find a powerhouse of a PC, I just wondered if the archer concept in 3E could stand up to the rest. Apparently it can.

I was thinking about a skirmish-type character. Low or preferably no magic. Fighter with a few rogue levels. PrC are nice, but never my main concern when creating a character.
Are all the archery feats worth taking or are some of them just a waste of space on the character sheet?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Rapid Shot is a must - one extra attack is nothing compared to a -2, especially when you have a great damage output. (And if you have problems hitting your opponents, you have at least one extra try)

Precise Shot is a must - there will be friends of you fighting in melee (if there aren`t, you are probably in trouble, since nothing stops the enemy from engaging you in melee). Be aware though, that you still have to position yourself correctly, since your friends still may give cover. (And you don`t want to hit them, especially if you have a munched up Archer dealing 1d8+10+20d6 points of damage per attack - or whatever the current benchmark is )

Far Shot - if you do not only fight in tight dungeons, this can be very useful. Probably not the first one to get...

Shot on the Run - probably not as useful as Spring Attack. But in a campaign where ranged weapons are standard weapons (like in Dragonstar/Starwars and so on), this is a good way to stay in cover.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Riveneye]

I'm currently playing an archer, and she is the the best character I've ever played. I'm a 5 Ranger / 2 Sorcerer / 8 Arcane Archer / 2 Deepwood Sniper (though now that I look back on it, I should have taken fighter levels instead of Ranger levels).

I'm currently doing -

• 6 attacks per round
• +31 to hit (+29 once rapid shot kicks in, or +31 with rapid shot at point blank range)
• 1d8+11 damage per arrow (or 1d8+12 at point blank range)
• 4d8+44 crit damage on 18-20 (or 4d8+48 at point blank range)

Took me a whole year of playing to die for the first time. I hardly ever get hit. For one, I'm usually out of combat, firing my arrows from a safe distance, and even when things do try to hit me, they quite often miss (I have AC 28 and no Armour Check Penalty).

Anyway, to sum things up, I'd highly recommend archers

 

[Numion]

Thanks for all the advice. I wasn't looking to find a powerhouse of a PC, I just wondered if the archer concept in 3E could stand up to the rest. Apparently it can.

I was thinking about a skirmish-type character. Low or preferably no magic. Fighter with a few rogue levels. PrC are nice, but never my main concern when creating a character.
Are all the archery feats worth taking or are some of them just a waste of space on the character sheet?

Well, in our group Far Shot has never been needed. Most encounters happen at such a close range that it wouldn't be much use. Actually the archer usually try to get within 30ft of the target to get point blank shot bonuses.

 

[hong]

Rapid Shot is a must - one extra attack is nothing compared to a -2, especially when you have a great damage output. (And if you have problems hitting your opponents, you have at least one extra try)

Heh. I must have the only twink archer out there who _doesn't_ have Rapid Shot.

Although before the Munchkin Committee strips me of my membership card, I have to point out I'm using a custom prestige class that's essentially built around the concepts of "one shot, one kill", and "you can run, but you can't hide". So rather than making 5-6 shots per round for hideous amounts of damage, I get 1 shot per round, for nearly as hideous damage. And with a bit of effort, I can see the bad guys wherever they are.

At 14th level (7th PrC level), I've given myself the following:

- Ranged Blind-Fight (reroll miss chance due to concealment)

- Negate up to +4 of cover bonus to AC

- True strike 7 times per day (essentially)

- Called shot ability (ranged power attack). To make it not completely broken, it's limited to 1 range increment (275 feet with Far Shot and a distance bow), and requires a standard action to use (ie, no regular iterative attacks).

- Double damage on a successful called shot (!)

- Ki shot +3 (mimics the arcane archer's magic arrows, but with a slower progression).

A couple of fights ago, I was doing 100 points of damage per round to an ancient black dragon, shooting right through its darkness spells. I've toned it down a bit since then.

At 10th PrC level, I'll have given myself +4 arrows, true seeing up to 10 mins/day, true strike at will, and a Con damage attack usable 3/day (albeit only once per encounter).

It's basically what I think a Zen archer should have been, as opposed to the eminently bland order of the bow initiate in S&F. A class that's supposedly all about "seeking truth", but contains nothing to actually back up the fancy words? Feh on that, I say.

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/dnd/int_archery.htm, for anyone who's interested.