Order of the Bow Initiate - quick question

[the Jester]

I think OotBI is okay. There has been one in my high-level group and there's another in my low-level group, and neither one overshadows the rest of the party or anything.

The main advantage, as others have pointed out, is the ranged precision ability (well, that and close combat shot or whatever it's called- it's good not to provoke AoOs with your bow!) I think of it as a lot like Manyshot: a chance to still deal decent damage when you also have to move in the round.

 

[Philip]

I have a OotBI PC, and I haven't use ranged precision yet. When I cannot make a full attack I always find Manyshot to be the better option.

There are two things I think are really nice about the PrC: the ability to make ranged attacks within someone's threat range without drawing an AoO and the high Will saves.

 

[atom crash]

I have a OotBI PC, and I haven't use ranged precision yet. When I cannot make a full attack I always find Manyshot to be the better option.

There are two things I think are really nice about the PrC: the ability to make ranged attacks within someone's threat range without drawing an AoO and the high Will saves.

Manyshot is going to give you better results most of the time. But when you have a finite amount of arrows, and you're running low, ranged precision allows you to conserve ammo without seriously dropping your damage potential. And you take no penalty to hit with ranged precision, so it's great for hitting those high ACs that Manyshot might miss.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Another advantage of Ranged Precision over Manyshot is in overcoming DR - Ranged Precision is a single damage source, but Manyshot is multiple damage sources.

-Hyp.

 

[Philip]

Another advantage of Ranged Precision over Manyshot is in overcoming DR - Ranged Precision is a single damage source, but Manyshot is multiple damage sources.

-Hyp.

Guess in my case I rarely ran out of proper arrows....

Typical ammo load:

+1 arrows (10 ghost touch, 10 flaming, 10 frost, 10 shocking, 20 holy cold iron, 20 holy silver, 6 dragon bane, 4 cold iron evil outsider bane, 4 silver evil outsider bane, 6 giant bane, 6 abberation bane, 6 monstrous humanoid bane, 6 magical beast bane, 6 adamantine construct bane, 6 elemental bane, 2 construct slaying, 2 undead slaying), masterworks arrows (20 adamantine, 20 cold iron, 20 silvered, 40 regular).

 

[iwatt]

Another advantage of Ranged Precision over Manyshot is in overcoming DR - Ranged Precision is a single damage source, but Manyshot is multiple damage sources.

-Hyp.

And yet another advantage is that you don't have to take Manyshot as a feat (unless you need it as a pre-requisite for something) if you have Ranged Precision.

 

[Sarellion]

How did you find the right one when you were in a hurry?

 

[Liquidsabre]

I imagine one of those extradimensional bags that allows you to retrieve what you want from the top of the container.

Easy to do.

 

[atom crash]

Color coding?

Or perhaps he has a quiver with the properties of a handy haversack.

 

[Hypersmurf]

And yet another advantage is that you don't have to take Manyshot as a feat (unless you need it as a pre-requisite for something) if you have Ranged Precision.

Yeah. My archer is taking a couple of levels of OotBI for close combat shot, and consequently, I probably won't bother with Manyshot (even though it's a prereq for Improved Rapid Shot).

Part of that is because he's also gradually becoming more melee-oriented, though.

-Hyp.