Creating an archer PC

[mooby]

With the buffs from cleric spells (especially cats grace, divine favor, greater magic weapon, and divine power) and the reach spell feat, the cleric archer never has to come close to combat, even to heal.

It really is a nasty design, Pete. My Character in our next game will be an Elf Cleric w/ the longbow as his primary weapon, but I'm not going through with this design (not totally anyway). It's really nasty, but I want to make sure I have the Cleric part covered first (feat-wise, ect.).

 

[The Forsaken One]

WARNING: Ultimate Munch Archer

Munchkin archer in progress...

Race: Human
Gender: Male
Fighter2/Monk(OA)2/Templar1/Paladin1/Shiba Protector1/Cleric1/Order of the Bow Initiate6/Deepwood Sniper 2
Total Levels: 16
Experience: 120000 Next Level: 136000 Exp Penalty:
Alignment: Lawful Good
---

val adj

Str: 16 (+3)

Dex: 16 (+3)

Con: 16 (+3)

Int: 10 (+0)

Wis: 16 (+3)

Cha: 20 (+5)

---
Speed Walk 30'

Save (Base)

Reflex +17 (+14)

Fortitude +23 (+20)

Willpower +22 (+19)


Feats:

Alertness,Divine Might,Divine Weapon,Endurance,Expertise,Far Shot,Iron Will,Power Attack,Precise Shot,Rapid Shot,Superior Weapon Focus (Longbow (Composite)),Weapon Specialization (Longbow (Composite)),Zen Archery(+Improved), Leadership, Improved Initiative, Multishot, Improved Crit

Domain: Elf Granted Power: Free Point Blank Shot

Domain: War Granted Power: Free Martial Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus with the deity's favored weapon.

Special Abilities:

Ki Frenzy 1/day,Evasion,Flurry of Blows,Mettle,No Thought,Spontaneous casting,Turn Undead 15/day,Ranged Sneak Attack +3d6,Close Combat Shot,Free Attack,Keen Arrows,Range Increment +20ft,Concealment Reduction 10pct,Magic Weapon,Projectile Improved Critical +1,Detect Evil,Divine Grace,Divine Health,Lay on Hands 3 hp/day

This is entirely pre-items (and stat boosts for level). They will all be made by my Maho-Tsukai/Incantrix cohort who will take full advantage of his Improved Metamagic and Maho Metamagic skills......

More to come...

Items: UseAct Bulls Str 6x Empowered w/Maho Metamag and Improved Metamag,+ Persistant (Instant Metamag)...Thus; L2 spell, free action activation, 24 hour duration +4d4+4(8-20) str.
(2*3*2000)/2 = 6,000 to make
Repeat for every other stat. Total cost: 36,000 (Altohugh Jeremy's metamagic smack is better, I will stick to my own rather than copy, in the spirit of fair competition. IN an SoS char I;d prolly make the char a Maho/Incan/Spelldan, touhgh)

UseAct Greater Mag Weapon +5, L15 caster. 5x extended with maho metamagic, free activation, 90 hour duration.
(3*15*2000)/2 = 45,000

Same as above, but with haste, so (3*5*2000)/2 = 15,000

Persistent divine favor, same exploit, (1*18*2000) /2= 18,000

...and divine power = 28,000
...and righteous might (1/day) = 10,500
...and battletide = 54,000

2 +1 spellblade bladeboots. One with greater Dispel, the other with <TBA>
Total Cost 8k

extremely mighty Oathbow: Cost 14,185

still spending....not even halfway through....

Hewards handy haversack 2k

A sh*tload of Tiger's Claw arrows

Bracers of Archery

So hmmm........I know that the char is not 100% complete, but lets see what his dmg might look like.(Assuming the stat items grant +14 ( the average)(Also note str +4 from righteous might).....

To Hit: 16 (Bab w Divine Power) +2 (Superior Weapon Focus) + 12 (Divine Weapon) +10 (Enh bonus of bows + arrows) +10(dex) +10 (OOBI Zen Archery)+6 (Divine Favor) -2 (Rapid Shot) +10 (No Thought)
Attacks: 4+1(Rapid shot) = 5
So...+74/+74/+69/+64/+59

...but wait....he has multishot and two extra partial actions (haste and battletide)

So....that adds 8 more attacks (using 2 attack rolls) @ +74


Howsabout dmg? Well, first note that in osme situations, he has ranged sneak attax and precise shot. In this situation, he will deal 24d6+8 more dmg if they all hit. Also note that his crit range is 15-20/x4 amd that 1/round he can shoot a foe that provokes an AOO from an ally.

The first 5 (and 2 from the next 8)

DMG: 2d6 (bigger with righteous might)+2 (Weapon Specialization) + 12 (Divine Weapon) +10 (Enh bonus of bows + arrows) +12(divine might) +6 (Divine Favor) +10 (No Thought) +12 str = 2d6+64 *2 (Oathbow) =4d6+128

The other 6 only do 4d6+124, because they dont get weapon spec.

So in 13 attacks, he does....52d6+1640...for a rough calculation with crits, I can multiply the dmg of the 7 crit-eligible shots time 6/20 and multiply by 4.....It should thus add 1.2x that dmg, so about 35d6+1075 more.

Thus, not counting sneak attax or use of free shot, he should do 87d6+2715 in a round. That averages over 3,000.

 

[Sarellion]

@Forsaken One

That is really sick. What is your DM throwing at you?

 

[Jeremy]

Few problems, sneak attack only works within 30' and since you can't flank, against foes denied their dex bonus.

Battletide has been clarified so it does not stack with haste, and as it must be cast on a foe, (you feed off them for more actions), it is not very applicable if you are hasted.

Multishot only allows sneak attack on the first arrow, same with specialization, et al.

But very nice!

 

[Tulaz]

multishot?

I take it Multishot is Manyshot from ELH?

 

[Apok]

Re: a possible option

I think the Scout class from AEG's Mercenaries book
makes for a nice archer

Yes, they do.

With Fighter BAB, a Rogue's Sneak Attack progression and a decent number of bonus feats coupled with some nifty abilities make them pretty nasty, especially if mixed with a few levels of Deepwood Sniper.

 

[Skullfyre]

Re: a possible option

I think the Scout class from AEG's Mercenaries book
makes for a nice archer

Also in the Evil book from AEG is a Blood Archer PRC

 

[mooby]

RE: The Forsaken One (Ultimate munchy archer...)

How's a Human come by getting access to the Elf domain?

 

[magnas_veritas]

Re: RE: The Forsaken One (Ultimate munchy archer...)

How's a Human come by getting access to the Elf domain?

He's an elf-poser. I miss Shadowrun.

Brad (who's giving serious thought to try and munch out an archer-type for his next PC)

 

[Gaiden]

Eben,

If you are going primarily for a skirmisher type with little or no magic, I would recommend the following classes/PrC's:

Fighter
Ranger
Rogue

Deepwood Sniper
Peerless Archer
Order of the Bow Initiate

The Ranger is probably the best skirmisher type and is definitely the most well rounded. If you look, you will find long posts arguing whether or not the ranger class is balanced and/or sux or not. I am one of those people who likes the class as is and thinks its really fun to play (so I may be a bit biased).

The Ranger makes for an ideal skirmisher in my opinion because of access to skills like wilderness lore, hide, move silently, spot, listen, free feats of track, ambidexterity, and two weapon fighting.

For a skirmishing archer, I envision the feats you would be most interested in would be Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Sharp shooter, Rapid Shot, and Many Shot in that order. By 9th level a human ranger could have all of those feats. Also, if you multiclass in two levels of fighter you could have all of them by 4th level (Ranger 2/Fighter2). Far shot may be of interest to you but challenges my perception of a skirmisher. A few levels of rogue are also extremely useful because of evasion, however, a ranger does a better job of giving you the right skills and buffing your combat prowess with a bow than does a rogue. This is due to the fact that you can't flank with missle weapons, so after the first round, unless your hide is obscene, the opponents will know that you are there and where you are. If you were going for the sniping type rogue, then as Drawmack initally stated, by all means go rogue.

With regards to PrC's, they are very useful for enhancing your prowess with a bow (especially if you are trying to go magic-light). The Deepwood sniper my be up your ally but focuses a bit more on longer ranges, so I am not sure. The Peerless Archer, gives the Archer the most powerful ability of all - ranged power attack. This is ridiculous because of the obscenely high BAB's of an archer, not to mention all of the other powers of the class. OotBI, focuses on SA'ing so keep that in mind if you are going for that class - it requires frontloading encounters.

I want to note a slight disagreement with an archer's relative power at different levels. At early levels, the archer is probably the most powerful class in the game.

With access to PBS, WF, WS, RS, a mighty mw bow, mw arrows, and a combatant's BAB at 4th level you are looking at ~ +10 to hit (translating to virtually never missing at that level) with damage @ 2d8+10. All else being equal, no other combatant can boast such high BAB and DMG output. Not to mention you have the option of having a great AC and great HP's.

NO OTHER COMBATANT CAN BOAST THAT!

At mid levels is where everyone else starts catching up because they can now out damage you and with magic get their BAB's to match your own.

At high levels you again take over because of the iterive attacks - your lowest iterive attacks will probably almost always hit while everyone's else's miss and now you have access to magical bows and arrows which enhancement bonuses and energy damage bonuses stack.

At smackdown levels you are a standalone force. With healing arrows you are better than the cleric at healing (better range, more healing spells per round), with magic and specialty arrows you are hitting more often and doing more damage than melee combatants, and you should be at distances greater than most medium range spells so can outperform even magic users. The drawback is your significant weaknesses which are (at those levels) lower AC's than your partners, weakness of a bow to sundering, lack of threatening an area, provoking attacks of opportunity when firing while in a threatened area.

To answer your question, yes, archers are most definitely playable at low levels.