How to be "Bad to the Bow" ?!?!?

[Monster]

I am trying to be the best Archer with what I have to work with. I would like to approch "smack down level"!

Currently I am playing an elf 1st level Cleric/ 2nd level Ranger (Monty Cook style). S 14 I 12 W 13 D 14 C 12 Ch 10

Please give some pointers on the feat slections. I am looking at the Deep Woods Sniper P-Class for the future.



Thanks,

Monster

 

[Crothian]

There are not many good bow feats. Point blank and rapid shot are the two no brainers. Precise shot is good if you expect to need to shoot around your friends in combat and far shot is good for those distance shots. You'll want a mighty bow that allows +2 to use your str bonus for damage.

For cleric are you taking the elf and war domains? They seem to be the best for min maxing an archer. Why are you going monte's ranger? It's a fine class but an archer benefits from feats and fighters are still best for that. You'd need to go to other sources for more feats, but there are some cool ones out there.

 

[Bobbystopholes]

IMC, my 11th level elven cleric will be taking a cohort at 12th. This cohort will be his brother/cousin or something and, with my score, can be 11th level.

I made him Fighter 5/Wizard 1/Deepwood Sniper 2/Order of the Bow 2/Arcane Archer 1. He'll finish out his days as an arcane archer. With this, you get all the feats that you need for archery, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Far Shot, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization. That 5th level of fighter can be sacrificed for a second level of Wizard, but not much else, either one is fine.

With your strength and dex, this combo will get you to have 1d8+5x4 with a normal Mighty Composite Longbow (+2) and the +1 arrows from the Arcane Archer. It's cheaper on the arrows too Good base attack, good saves, it's all good. Take a toad as your familiar and you are set.

[edit]
Ooops, just realize I didn't do anything to help you! Please tell us the feats and domains you already have.

Thanks
[/edit]

 

[Monster]

I have:

Domains: Strength, protection

Current feats: Imp. Initiative, Point blank, rapid fire

I know the domains I have are not the bigest help, but hind site is always 20-20.

 

[purple knight]

Welcome to the boards, Monster.

 

[Numion]

Going for the Order of the Bow Initiate isn't a bad idea. Maybe three levels of rogue to get some sneaking skills and and sneak attacks. Four of fighter for spec, and you're set to go.

For items get Bracers of Archery and some way to get improved invisibility for mucho sneak attacks.

Another route is a full cleric with Elf & War domains.

 

[Gromm]

Personally I'd just go Ftr/Rge/Sniper myself (maybe a couple of levels of the Order to get the melee thing).

A player in my campaign is currently doing that and he does insane damage. Also try to get a Burst weapon of some sort. My players plan is a Flaming Burst short bow, with his current set up (Crit 18-20, x4) he would do IIRC 4d6+3d10+24 or something like that. He has the exact numbers, but its going to easily do in the 50's for damage and with 3 or more attacks a round youre bound to get a crit fairly often.

 

[Zad]

Hrm.

Well first off, it will depend on your DM. Personally I would never allow you to take twelve different prestige classes just to get a couple of the benefits from each. Neither would my DM. It also depends on how you balance your character concept verses your rules hacking. I have an arcane archer. Would a couple of the abilities from OOBI or Sniper be useful? You bet. Am I taking them? No. I'm an arcane archer. But that's just me.

Back to feats:

Obviously you need whatever you need for DwS.

Weapon focus: no brainer

Weapon specialization: nice to have that extra +2 damage but you have to be a fighter to get it. Of course fighters get bonus feats.

Far shot: Frankly I feel far shot is a waste. Composite longbows have a range increment of 110 feet. That's bigger than the map we usually use. It gets hard to run combats at long range, and even then a -2 or -4 won't bug you much

Rapid shot: VERY key. From a statistical point of view, you're better off usually with two shots each at -2 than you are with one shot, unless the AC is VERY high.

Improved Rapid shot: this feat was listed in a Dragon magazine article that dealt with custom designed feats. It was used as an example of a feat that was considered "good" and "balanced". All it does is take off the -2 penalty for using rapid shot, like a lot of the two-weapon feats. This one saves me math so I like it.

Point blank shot: must have

Precise shot: also must have


Most of the feats from the expansion books I didn't find to be very useful.

Also, don't load up on entirely offensive feats - balance is good, defense is good, and a dead archer does no damage.

 

[Neowolf]

Well first off, it will depend on your DM. Personally I would never allow you to take twelve different prestige classes just to get a couple of the benefits from each. Neither would my DM. It also depends on how you balance your character concept verses your rules hacking. I have an arcane archer. Would a couple of the abilities from OOBI or Sniper be useful? You bet. Am I taking them? No. I'm an arcane archer. But that's just me.

Amen Zad... no offense to anyone here, but am I the only one who's getting tired of seeing PrC's used as the shortcut to power instead of as the roleplaying tools they're supposed to be?

 

[kreynolds]

no offense to anyone here, but am I the only one who's getting tired of seeing PrC's used as the shortcut to power instead of as the roleplaying tools they're supposed to be?

I get a real kick outta seeing them here on the boards. Seeing those numbers that fricken high just gives me a laugh. I find it pretty damn ammusing and funny. I just don't wanna see it at my table, unless I run some kind of silly one-time hack-n-slash session.