how do "ray builds" work?

[irdeggman]

Also sneak attack with ranged weapons is only good up to 30 feet, so your opponent can pretty much move over to you and put a hurt on you if you don't take him down with the first attack. And since you are "ray" attacker the odds are you do not have a lot of hit points (probably mostly d4s and few d6s) versus d8 and up.

You also have to meet the requisites for getting sneak attack and can't benefit from flanking since you are not making a melee attack (without some special feats or spell that is).

Your opponent also gets bonuses to AC (or penalties to your attack roll) for being in melee and "soft cover" if there is anyone in the way.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Disrupt Undead, on the other hand, is a good ray to add sneak attack damage, if you can somehow bypass the fact you are targeting undead (who are normally immune to sneak attack)
Possibilities: Grave Strike (spell compendium) or Penetrating Strike (DungeonScape rogue alternate class ability allowing you to add half your SA against creatures who would otherwise be immune)
[/LEFT]

My group actually has a long-standing houserule that you can crit and SA with disrupt undead. It varies with who in the group is DM, but this houserule sometimes extends to any spell or effect that is harmful only to undead and is weapon-like, as well.

 

[loki8481]

Just because your character is powerful doesn't mean you can't be a roleplayer, too. Some of the best roleplayers I've played with over the decades have also been dedicated powergamers.

I just don't want to accidentally cheese out the game, you know?

maybe I'll skip split ray.

 

[fett527]

played a warmage that took full advantage of the ray feats. don't worry about overpowering things. point blank, precise shot are good things to have

 

[gwcummings]

played a warmage that took full advantage of the ray feats. don't worry about overpowering things. point blank, precise shot are good things to have

As are Goggles of Foefinding from the MIC which, for 2,500 gp, allow you to ignore anything less than total cover.

 

[Shin Okada]

Another advantage of Ray (Orb) build is that Orb spells ignore SR.

 

[Astros1331]

Just thought I'd mention that just going ray/orbs really isn't that bad power-wise. It makes you do a decent amount of damage but that's really all. A good mounted warrior or any number of others can do it as well or better. But as somebody before posted it isn't about power its about character, so if you like your concept make it as well as you can, or reduce the power to your group but don't ditch the concept due to power.

 

[Herzog]

For ranged sneak attacks I recommend the Feat 'DeadEye Shot' from PH2.
It allows you to ready an action to gain sneak attack (see feat for more details)

Also, the spell 'Sniper's Shot' from the Spell Compendium allows you to make sneak attacks for one round without range restrictions.

Getting that Persisted (NB:24h duration) costs you a 7th lvl spell slot, and might be considered powergaming, but the basic spell is there for the taking....

 

[NewJeffCT]

I just don't want to accidentally cheese out the game, you know?

maybe I'll skip split ray.

To be honest, I don't think a ray specialist would be overpowered as their damage is often limited to a single foe, or a small group of foes... it might be great when fighting a single dragon, but against a horde of goblins, ray spells are often not as good as "boom" spells like fireball that cover a large area of effect.

Plus, you always have the change of missing with your ranged touch attack. Granted, against a dragon with a touch AC of 6, you will only miss on a roll of a "1", but you still have that chance of missing whereas a fireball does not. However, if you're fighting a powerful dragon, it may likely be protected by "Ray Deflection" or "Scintillating Scales" magic and become much harder to hit with ray spells. ("Sorry, the dragon's touch AC is a 32, you miss.")

 

[Particle_Man]

Well if you want a very simple Ray build that is not at all over-powered, you can just go straight up Warlock (a class from Complete Arcane). Their eldritch blasts are ranged touch, and damage progressives about like sneak attacks, but it is a standard action so you don't get incredible damage. Also, you can use wands more easily. Later, you can make some kewl items.