Help Me Challenge One Of My Players

[Olaf the Stout]

I am having trouble challenging one of the players in my group at the moment.

He current character is a Elf Fighter 6/Sorcerer 1 specialising in a composite longbow. Despite the fact that he has the best BAB he tends to stay out of melee, arguing that the party is better off with him as a ranged combatant. It is hard to argue with his claim either.

He has a Dex of 21. Combine this with his BAB of +6/+1 and the boatload of feats that fighters get and he doesn't have to roll very high to hit most of the things that I throw at the party. His bow does (I think) 1d8+4 damage + 1d6 electrical damage per hit. It is not a huge amount of damage for someone of his level but he almost always seems to hit, even with rapid shot, meaning that you can just about guarantee that he will be doing 20+ points of damage each round.

His AC is rather high, thanks to a +5 Dex bonus. Because of his D10 fighter HD he has the most hit points in the 5 person party yet he has probably taken less than 30 or 40 points damage over the 15 sessions that the game has been going.

I don't want to nerf his character but I do want to be able to challenge him without killing off the rest of the party. If things keep going the way they are the player could very well get bored with yet another session of, "Yep I hit him for 19 points of damage. (yawn)" Rinse. Repeat.

Part of the reason why he has taken so little damage is because he is always at the back of the group shooting with his bow. Most enemies find that the enlarged Plate Mail Cleric with the greatsword or the crazy Barbarian with the spiked chain standing right next to them are a more current target than the archer. His high AC also means that most attacks aimed at him won't hit anyway. I could up the attack rolls of the bad guys but that would just result in the rest of the party getting smacked down more often than they are currently.

Any suggestions for what I can do to try and challenge this player?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Piratecat]

Bad guys with protection from arrows on them.
Monks who can snatch arrows from the air.
Give a party member a cursed shield of arrow attraction.
Foes who jump over other combatants to charge the archer, screaming, and close to grapple. (The charge and scream is important here. It creates a fun sense of panic as the archer tries to figure out what to do.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A BBEG who has as his main mook a monk with deflect arrows? Or a foe with Shield spells...or its psionic equivalent?

A foe who can blink or displace himself...

Skeletal Undead who don't take much damage from arrows...

The ever-popular "whole bunch of opponents"... Who cares if he drops a couple of Kobolds per round if the party is facing 200 or so?

Or even a "mirror-match" type opponent/party.

One foe specialized to fight him is sufficient- properly equipped, such an opponent will keep him occupied while letting someone else shine.

 

[Destil]

If he's away from the front line fighter types he's in prime position to get ambushed by sneaky NPCs, particuarlly given that his spot / listen should be pretty low. A pair of rogues or just an invisible monk (grapple is your best friend with an archer) should be able to put a world of hurt on him, even if they're lower level.

Will saves. Dominate him.

Wall of wind, entropic shield, protection from arrows, DR (his arrows need to overcome it, not the bow), weather in general, concealment... there's all sorts of things to hider an archer specifically that avoid the more heavy handed stuff, too.

What are his sorcerer spells, by the way? True strike?

 

[DonTadow]

If he's away from the front line fighter types he's in prime position to get ambushed by sneaky NPCs, particuarlly given that his spot / listen should be pretty low. A pair of rogues or just an invisible monk (grapple is your best friend with an archer) should be able to put a world of hurt on him, even if they're lower level.

Will saves. Dominate him.

Wall of wind, entropic shield, protection from arrows, DR (his arrows need to overcome it, not the bow), weather in general, concealment... there's all sorts of things to hider an archer specifically that avoid the more heavy handed stuff, too.

What are his sorcerer spells, by the way? True strike?

I've always noticed that ranged pcs don't stay ranged for too long . Usually the mooks of the combat get to him, especially hiding rogues, fighter/monks with deflect arrows and low level sorcerors.

 

[Just_Hal]

Rogue flanking w/backstab-nuff' said

 

[Olaf the Stout]

If he's away from the front line fighter types he's in prime position to get ambushed by sneaky NPCs, particuarlly given that his spot / listen should be pretty low. A pair of rogues or just an invisible monk (grapple is your best friend with an archer) should be able to put a world of hurt on him, even if they're lower level.

Will saves. Dominate him.

Wall of wind, entropic shield, protection from arrows, DR (his arrows need to overcome it, not the bow), weather in general, concealment... there's all sorts of things to hider an archer specifically that avoid the more heavy handed stuff, too.

What are his sorcerer spells, by the way? True strike?

An arrow fired from a +X bow is treated as a +X arrow for the purposes of overcoming DR.

His spells aren't really combat spells. Mage Armour and Light are probably the only one that he uses on a semi-regular basis. He doesn't have True Strike. He doesn't really need it as he hit most of the time anyway. Instead of casting the spell he could just shoot off another arrow for even more damage instead. He really only has the Sorcerer level as he wants to take the Arcane Archer prestige class.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I've always noticed that ranged pcs don't stay ranged for too long . Usually the mooks of the combat get to him, especially hiding rogues, fighter/monks with deflect arrows and low level sorcerors.

The enlarged greatsword-wielding Cleric and the spiked-chain wielding Barbarian/Rogue seem to be able to control a lot of the battlefield with their reach. Couple this with multiple AoO and a lot of the mooks don't really seem to have a chance to get past the front line to reach him.

There is also the fact that if anyone does get through he normally gets a couple of arrow shots in before they reach him, dropping their HP's by about 20 on average. This is enough to kill most "mooks" that a 7th-level party may face.

There is also the fact that once they do get past they have to hit an AC that is roughly in the mid-20's. Most of the baddies that have actually attacked him so far in the campaign haven't seemed to be able to do that.

Olaf the Stout

 

[shilsen]

He has a Dex of 21. Combine this with his BAB of +6/+1 and the boatload of feats that fighters get and he doesn't have to roll very high to hit most of the things that I throw at the party. His bow does (I think) 1d8+4 damage + 1d6 electrical damage per hit. It is not a huge amount of damage for someone of his level but he almost always seems to hit, even with rapid shot, meaning that you can just about guarantee that he will be doing 20+ points of damage each round.

Assuming he has W. Focus and a +1 weapon, that's still only +13/8 or +11/11/6 with Rapid Shot. Mildly optimized enemies at this level should have ACs of 25+, so that would take some hitting. And even though I'm sure he has Precise Shot, his allies will often be providing soft cover to enemies, giving them an extra +4 to AC.

Besides the suggestions made by other people, I'll just add that smart enemies who realize the archer is highly effective will look for ways to neutralize him. A spellcaster enemy would have the easiest time, either just messing up his opportunities by using things like Fog/Stinking Cloud, summoning enemies around him, targeting him with damaging or mind-affecting spells, etc. A particularly mean spellcaster, especially if there's a couple of them, could do the always fun targeted Dispel (on the bow) + Shatter combo.

But even non-spellcasters have lots of options. A tanglefoot bag or two, for example, would mess with his day. And a melee attacker who gets to him will absolutely ruin his day with sunder, disarm or grapple.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Will saves. Dominate him.

With a level of Sorcerer and Charisma 16 (+3), his Will save of +7 is actually quite decent for a character of his level.

Olaf the Stout