StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Bard would be useful as a damage dealer if you had more books. There's a TON of things to increase the Inspire Courage amount out there. And the Dragonfire Inspiration feat, to turn your +X inspire courage into +Xd6 energy damage. Which in turn would make for an effective bard archer.
You only have core though, so rogue's the best bet for 2 crossbows. In general two weapon fighting only works if you have a large bonus damage source to apply to each attack, like sneak attack. Otherwise, the base damage can't keep up with a power attacking greatsword, etc...
What level are you starting at? Two gloves of storing is 20,000 gp, and the feats you'll want are pretty daunting, too. Though you can certainly start your career only using one ranged weapon and switch to 2 crossbows once you have enough feats and the gloves to make it work.
Feats list:
Point Blank Shot - Needed for most everything else, sadly.
Rapid Shot - The reason to be an archer
Precise Shot - Melee happens very quickly
Rapid Reload (light crossbow) - Until you can dual wield them, you don't really need this feat. Especially if you dip Fighter or Ranger, use a longbow until you can do so, it's more efficient.
TWF - Similar to Rapid Reload, don't need this feat at the early levels.
Improved/Greater TWF - Useful eventually, don't worry about taking them the instant you qualify; at that moment your attack bonus with the attack these grant is so low it's unlikely to help much.
For race...play something with darkvision or at least low-light. Sneak Attack is hosed by concealment, dim lighting provides concealment, and night time environments without torches or lanterns (a situation you as a rogue may very well be in often) is at best dim lighting, at worst total darkness. If the DM limits you to PHB races, Dwarf is a solid choice, gnome is ok. If you can use the Monster Manual variants...
Wood Elf: +2 Str and Dex, -2 Int and Con is a pretty solid base for archery and you get low-light vision and Ranger as favored class.
Forrest Gnome: Possibly the best race in core (or very close to human and dwarf). Literally just plain better than standard gnomes withut any drawbacks. All the gnome goodies (small size, darkvision, and spell-like abilities, namely) plus a constant Pass without trace and racial hide bonus to help with sneaking. Only thing is, make sure you have at least 12 int to pick common as a bonus language, or spend skill points for it. It's not an automatic language for some reason. Favored class Bard means you couldn't dip Fighter or Ranger without getting an xp penalty, unfortunately.
You only have core though, so rogue's the best bet for 2 crossbows. In general two weapon fighting only works if you have a large bonus damage source to apply to each attack, like sneak attack. Otherwise, the base damage can't keep up with a power attacking greatsword, etc...
What level are you starting at? Two gloves of storing is 20,000 gp, and the feats you'll want are pretty daunting, too. Though you can certainly start your career only using one ranged weapon and switch to 2 crossbows once you have enough feats and the gloves to make it work.
Feats list:
Point Blank Shot - Needed for most everything else, sadly.
Rapid Shot - The reason to be an archer
Precise Shot - Melee happens very quickly
Rapid Reload (light crossbow) - Until you can dual wield them, you don't really need this feat. Especially if you dip Fighter or Ranger, use a longbow until you can do so, it's more efficient.
TWF - Similar to Rapid Reload, don't need this feat at the early levels.
Improved/Greater TWF - Useful eventually, don't worry about taking them the instant you qualify; at that moment your attack bonus with the attack these grant is so low it's unlikely to help much.
For race...play something with darkvision or at least low-light. Sneak Attack is hosed by concealment, dim lighting provides concealment, and night time environments without torches or lanterns (a situation you as a rogue may very well be in often) is at best dim lighting, at worst total darkness. If the DM limits you to PHB races, Dwarf is a solid choice, gnome is ok. If you can use the Monster Manual variants...
Wood Elf: +2 Str and Dex, -2 Int and Con is a pretty solid base for archery and you get low-light vision and Ranger as favored class.
Forrest Gnome: Possibly the best race in core (or very close to human and dwarf). Literally just plain better than standard gnomes withut any drawbacks. All the gnome goodies (small size, darkvision, and spell-like abilities, namely) plus a constant Pass without trace and racial hide bonus to help with sneaking. Only thing is, make sure you have at least 12 int to pick common as a bonus language, or spend skill points for it. It's not an automatic language for some reason. Favored class Bard means you couldn't dip Fighter or Ranger without getting an xp penalty, unfortunately.
Last edited:
