Half-elf paragons: worth it for an archer?

[Machiavelli]

Why Half-Elf Paragon 3? You get 1 less spellcasting level, and the Diplomacy bonus is almost useless. At least with the Half-Elf 1/ Human 3 you get 2 bonus feats for 4 levels, like a fighter, and trade 2 BAB for +2 Dex/Search/Spot and a permanent class skill of your choice (probably Spot). At Half-Elf 3/ Human 3, the 2 lost BAB are made up for by the +4 to Dex, which helps with AC and Reflex, too. I honestly think it helps to make up for the weakness of a half-elf, when you're going into an elven archer build. It seems, though, that there aren't any truly good elven archer builds. *shrug*

 

[Darklone]

...
Very effective.

How many players did your group have?

Why half-elf paragon 3? You want to take the first level anyhow. The next two give you an ability increase. That's HUGE in my games... (okok, I start with rather low abilities and don't use 3d10 character creation or 32 point buy). And you don't lose BAB for these two levels.

So 6 levels paragon compared to melee classes give you -2 BAB but two ability increases +2. A lot of skill points, some extra bonus feats, nearly average hitpoints and three levels of spellcaster increase. That's not too great, but better IMHO than 4 levels of paragon with -2 BAB as well and only one ability increase.

And Persuasion is great if you have an UMD character. Or a bard. A bard with these 6 levels loses only 3 spellcasting levels (not too bad for him) but could boost his charisma by +4. A halfelven fighter might boost his strength by +4. I'd like that. Granted, for an archer, it's not that strong.

In my games, archers always needed mostly a good strength and dex. Since a 16 is a good value here, a +2 makes a huge difference and makes more than up for the lost BAB.

 

[two]

How many players did your group have?

Between 4-5, sometimes with summons but often not.

 

[Machiavelli]

Yes, if you have room for 6 levels, I would highly advocate that course, Darklone. I thought you were ditching the Human paragon levels altogether, which I don't advocate. I like those levels for the mechanics you so deftly described, but also for the flavor. After all, most of my reason for creating a Half-Elf is to play an elf without the horrible morale killer of playing an elf

So, here's my idea, probably the final word:
H-E Paragon 3/ Human Paragon 3/ Ranger 2/ Fighter 12

At start (6th level), that is as follows:
H-E Paragon 1/ Human Paragon 3/ Ranger 2
...which gives me Ranger spellcasting (woot!)

And it seems I will finally have a half-elf that doesn't play too poorly. A nice set of unusual arrows would help with that.

Also, Merry Christmas.

 

[Darklone]

Kewl. May I suggest to raise only strength

You'll hit anyhow with nearly full BAB and your dex begins pretty high, but getting more damage is difficult for archers. Not to mention it helps you in melee as well.

 

[Stalker0]

Might I suggest a straight up fighter as your archer. Take cosmopoliatan (diplomacy) as a feat to cover your social skills, you don't really need the skill points for anything else. Then the usual weapon focus/weapon spec. If you allow the phb II you can even pick up ranged weapon mastery.

Or a rogue with crossbow sniper and deadeye shot (from PHBII). Crossbow sniper turns your dex into damage, and greatly increases the range you can sneak attack. Deadeye shot will let you get in sneak attack far more often than you normally could with a bow.

 

[BRP2]

Ah, if you're open to variant Arcane Archers, may I pimp recommend this one?

http://enworld.org/showthread.php?t=67172

It's seen some play-testing, in my game and several others.

Cheers, -- N

Got to say, incredibly awesome. Any DM who wouldn't let the player use that Arcane Archer over the one in the DMG should be punched in the face.

 

[Thurbane]

Well, I'm not that great at optimisations myself, but why not go for a human or half-elf fighter/rogue: you can use the fighter feats to be a great archer, get your sneak attack on flatfooted opponents within 30 feet, and rogues get all of the "social" skills...

 

[Fifth Element]

What about playing a druid archer? IME they rock. They can shoot pretty well, cast devastating spells if more is needed and can summon hordes of monsters that block the enemies. And if you don't want to be a main caster, use the 6 paragon class levels to get the abovementioned attribute increases for bigger archery ohmpf.

But the only projectile weapon the druid is proficient with is the sling. So you'd have to multiclass, burn a feat or play an elf to get a decent projectile weapon.

Or play a halfling for the keen +2 bonus (+1 for sling, +1 for Dex), but then you have the Strength penalty.

 

[Darklone]

But the only projectile weapon the druid is proficient with is the sling. So you'd have to multiclass, burn a feat or play an elf to get a decent projectile weapon.

Or play a halfling for the keen +2 bonus (+1 for sling, +1 for Dex), but then you have the Strength penalty.

Right, elves... Or you take the weapon proficiency from the human paragon class.