Who can be a superior archer-extraordinaire: A Ranger or Fighter?

[Al]

For a 'pure' archer build, fighter is superior to ranger, since Weapon Specialisation, Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialisation outstrip anything that the ranger can put forward, and the Combat Style feats are easily subsumed into the fighter bonus feats.

Rangers, however, will perform better against their favoured enemies.

Having said that, everyone knows that the best build is a Rgr/Ftr/Rog/Shadowdancer/OrderoftheBowInitiate with Greater Manyshot

 

[Thanee]

I don't get it

Not much to get there... I just think the higher level Ranger abilities are more advantageous. Fighter 4 will give you Weapon Specialization, which is great, but you don't need so much more in terms of bonus feats.

Bye
Thanee

 

[johnsemlak]

Wow, lots of responses; much more varied that I expected

Cleric archers, I hadn't thought of them; why are they good?

 

[Darklone]

The biggest problem of the archer is to get more damage/shot. Divine Favor helps a lot here since it stacks with strength and enhancement bonuses... as well as Righteous Might, Divine Power and other stuff.

The real bad@$$ archer build used Persistent spell extensively, plus elf domain (extra feat and nice spells).

Edit: Duh. Forgot the paladin. Divine Might is now possible with ranged weapons, that's a NICE boost to bow damage. Fear my mounted archer! And he can cast Divine Favor too.

 

[The Souljourner]

Persistent spell is now +6 levels, which is fine for those first level spells, once you hit 13th level, but until then, you have to waste a lot of time prepping, which detracts from damage you could be doing.

I don't think cleric archers are the bomb anymore, now that they've fixed stacking enhancement bonuses and persistent spell. They just don't get enough feats to spend on both archery and things like divine might and persistent spell.

I think for pure archery goodness, you can't really beat a fighter 12 with 8 levels of your preferred full BAB class (I like ranger in there).

Straight ranger probably makes a better all-round character, with a heck of a lot more interesting abilities.

-The Souljourner

 

[likuidice]

Feats

wild talent+fell shot+manyshot+psychic meditation is a good combo, and a manifester level or 3 to get a psicrystal to hold a focus for you gives a first round advantage of 4d6 damage from greater psychic shot, combined with a manyshot. all of these work well with either the ranger or fighter, though the fighter slightly beats the wilderninja in speed of feat gain.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Cleric archers, I hadn't thought of them; why are they good?

Not to mention anti-life shell to keep the plebs away from you while you shoot them to death with your arrows.

 

[TracerBullet42]

I think for pure archery goodness, you can't really beat a fighter 12 with 8 levels of your preferred full BAB class (I like ranger in there).

I totally agree. There's plenty of new archery feats in the Complete Warrior, and 12 fighter levels will get you pretty much ALL of them. Then Ranger will get you some skills and and abilities for outside of combat. A couple of favored enemies is nice, too.

 

[Len]

Cleric archers, I hadn't thought of them; why are they good?

There was specific cleric build that made a really big archer - an FRCS elf cleric with the Elf and War domains, I think. Not sure if it still works in 3.5.

(Clerics make surprisingly good fighters if built correctly. My DM was bragging about his tweaked cleric BBG with 26 str etc. when buffed. But he still ended up in the dead bad guy pile.)

I think for pure archery goodness, you can't really beat a fighter 12 with 8 levels of your preferred full BAB class (I like ranger in there).

Straight ranger probably makes a better all-round character, with a heck of a lot more interesting abilities.

That's just what I was going to say. My character in our alternate campaign is a ranger archer. I might multiclass into fighter, but I really like the ranger's skills and abilities.

Once you get into non-core PrCs there are lots of options, some so powerful my DM won't allow them without nerfing (OotBI).

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

As others said: Definitely the fighter. (Except for favoured enemy). The extra feats + specialisation/greater specialisation+focus win hands down... Although, I think the ranger may well be more interesting to play.

Off topic ramblings:

Wonder if anything can be done with a druid? An oversized animal form with oposable thumbs? Dire Ape perhaps?

I just figured - admitedly at a rather high level, Cleric with Shapechange (Animal Domain?)... being shifted into the largest possible form... (then Righteous Might) that might help with the damage?

Could work for the EK bowman as well?