Help with an Archer (How many people gonna ask this? ;))

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Then there's the elf cleric archer (Elf & war or time domains), plus levels in Peerless Archer or Deepwoods Sniper.

You sacrifice Weapon Specialization (unless you add 4 fighter levels), but gain the ability to self-buff with true strike & cat's grace (elf domain), magic weapon (war domain), or haste (time domain).

Say a wood elf ftr4/clr5/PA 8 for a nice munchy combo.

wood elf: +2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, -2 Int, -2 Cha

Start with cleric at 1st level, take Time & Elf domains -- gives free Point Blank Shot and Improved Initiative; clr 5 gives you these domain spells: True Strike, cat's grace, snare, gentle repose, haste, plus cleric spells.

4 levels of fighter, take:
Precise Shot, WF (composite longbow), WS (Composite longbow)

For 1st, 3d, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th level feats, take:
Rapid Shot, Far Shot, Quick Draw, Dodge, Mobility, Shot on the Run

Peerless Archer 8 wil give you: +3d6 ranged sneak attack, sharpshooting 2 (ignores some cover/concealment), threaten, fletching +4 (create up to +4 arrows)
Edit: oh, yeah and you get power shot, too, which is ranged power attack.

Munchy, munchy, munchy. Add your favorite template for flavor. Best of all: No XP penalty!

 

[Darklone]

I would definitely go the half-celestial way... and bribe your DM about the 75% chance of feathered wings, natural flight is wayyy better than any magicks.

For archer munchkiness, check out the "Three arrows for the kings" pdf. It features an archer class... (rather similar to the Sovereign Stone class) with a horribly unbalanced ability at lvl2... an extra attack with your favorite bow.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm joining a campaign that is at 17th level and allows a free +2 template on top of it. We also chose to be brothers and Half-Celestial.

Am I misremembering... is Half-Celestial not +4?

-Hyp.

 

[Fenes 2]

In races of Faerun is, iirc, a feat that gives you wings if you have celestial or fiendish blood. No need to gamble with the %-chances that way.

 

[Darklone]

Wasting a feat because of a puny 25% miss chance? Am I a wimp or a rollplayer ?

*Swish*... Damn blur!

 

[bret]

You said that your friend is taking a Wizard, right?

You might drop a hint his way that it would be good for him to be able to create arrows via Craft skill and Fabricate spell.

As for him taking a Chain Spell feat, instead you might want to buy a lesser rod of Chaining and 'borrow it' to him each day for use with a GMW. That way, he doesn't use up a feat.

Everyone has already covered the standard builds. Here is a somewhat different one:

20th level build:
FIghter4 / Wizard 4 / Arcane Archer 4 / Spellsword 8.

At 17th level:
Fighter 4 / Wizard 4 / Arcane Archer 4/Spellsword 5
BAB +13/+8/+3
Fort +12 Reflex +7 Will +10

HD 4d10 + 4d4 + 4d8 + 5d8


This would allow you to:
1. Cast as a 6th level wizard and eventually get up to 8th level wizard (4 wizard, starting +2 Spellsword, ending +4 Spellsword)
2. Imbue arrows with something better than Flaming Hands (Imbue from Arcane Archer)
3. Ignore spell failure 20% (Spellsword) which reduces the change of Arcane Failure by that amount. At 7th level it goes to 20% and at 9th level, it goes to 30%.
4. Once a day, be able to channel a spell through your weapon (in this case, arrow). Can only do first and second level spells to start.
5. Spellsword cache. Ability to use a weapon to hold the equivilent of a potion.

Spellsword also gets good Fort and Will saves, and a bonus feat at 8th level. The down side is the d8 HD and 3/4 BAB.

The spellsword is from Tome & Blood.

Edit: Needed to bump the wizard level to qualify for Spellsword. Should have checked the rules more carefully, shame on me.

 

[Bobbystopholes]

One other thing, unless your DM has modified the Multiclassing rules, you are going to suffer an XP penalty for having Ranger 1 / Fighter 4, setup. Elves have Wizard as favored class not Ranger or Fighter.

Sorry about that one, I remembered as soon as I turned my computer off. I'm used to playing humans

Am I misremembering... is Half-Celestial not +4?

Hypersmurf, what book are you looking at? I'm using the DMG and checked the Errata. It says +1. If it is +4 in another book or so, then we'll be Celestial Moon Elves. At our Level, it will be a +2 ECL... unless they pumped that one too!

Man, all of you guys are giving me great suggestions and all of them are ideas I've had. I was really thinking a 17th level cleric of Labelas Eloreth using all my feats on the bow except 2 to get Persistant Spell for the Divine Favors and Divine Power. Also, Time Stop is on that list. May even try to talk the DM into allowing the Celerity domain for Labelas and take Contemplative for some major cheese +17 on initiative rolls = Sweeeeeeet.

The Bracers of Archery, Gloves of Dex, Amulet of Health, Belt of Strength, huge bow, Haversack, and heavy fort armor are all givens to me. He'll definitely have those. Also, boots of flying if I can't be Half-Celestial

Thanks!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hypersmurf, what book are you looking at? I'm using the DMG and checked the Errata. It says +1. If it is +4 in another book or so, then we'll be Celestial Moon Elves. At our Level, it will be a +2 ECL... unless they pumped that one too!

I was under the impression Savage Species had declared them +4...

I think +4 is very harsh at low levels, but at high levels, it's cheap. I built a half-celestial Paladin-16 as a 20th level character recently, and the 4 levels were well worth it. It's a bigger hit for a caster, obviously, but when you look at the benefits the template gives at that many Hit Dice...

-Hyp.