Would the real Peerless Archer please stand up?

[Kai Lord]

If you want to be a good archer, you don't waste time on a PrC at all. A straight Cleric 20 makes the best archer.

Nah. A Cleric 20 might make a more powerful character as far as the extra benefit of 9 full levels of spells, but he won't ever do as much damage with a bow as a maxed out Deepwood Sniper or Peerless Archer. Sure Greater Magic Weapon is nice, but if there are two archers on a ridge aiming for me, one is a Cleric 20 w/Greater Magic Weapon, and one is a Deepwood Sniper with a nonmagical Mighty Composite Longbow firing keen arrows that do QUINTUPLE damage on a crit, I know which one is more intimidating. Now give that same Deepwood Sniper a +5 bow and +5 arrows. Yikes.

Then you've got Order of the Bow Initiates and Peerless Archers doing ranged sneak attacks that add 20-30 points of extra damage per hit. And the Peerless Archer gets to add an additional +20 points of damage on a Power Shot, which gets really sick if he also has Manyshot.

People mention clerics because they get to do nifty things like cast Miracle, Harm, and Resurrection in addition to firing arrows. But when it comes down to just what can be done with those arrows, the cleric is inferior to all but the Arcane Archer.

EDIT: On second thought, even the Arcane Archer can do more with a bow than a Cleric. To outshine the AA, the Cleric would have to put down his bow and use his other tricks (spells). But that isn't what this thread is about.

 

[drowdude]

If you go Epic with the Arcane Archer, you get the +1 to your arrows every two levels. Considering the DR of some of these creatures, and the sheer bonuses to hit, it makes them a strong contender for first.

My wife has been playing an arcane archer for a while now... but when she got a look at Peerless Archer she *really* wanted to trade out all but the first two levels of AA for PA... that was until she got a look at the Epic Level Handbook

 

[Mordeth]

I play a rogue/fighter/deepwoods sniper/ Order of the bow 4/4/2/3 Character and she rocks. She is an elf with Order of the bow being a guiding attitude for her. She is very zen like.

Right now she is +30/+30/+25/+20 with rapid shot and does 1d8+16 +1d6 and on a crit does (1d8+16) X 4 plus 1d6 plus 3d10. An extremely nasty, tuned for archery and being the scout/thief person. More the scout than the thief though, all rogue skills are non actual thieving type.

How did you get the +30 +30 +25 +10?

I assume at 13th level, you are using rapid shot to get the 4th attack, but how are you getting the high attack modifiers at only 13th? Thanks alot for the info, been wondering myself what would the best way to make a archer would be, and yours is what I was going to do

 

[hong]

How did you get the +30 +30 +25 +10?

I assume at 13th level, you are using rapid shot to get the 4th attack, but how are you getting the high attack modifiers at only 13th? Thanks alot for the info, been wondering myself what would the best way to make a archer would be, and yours is what I was going to do

+12 BAB
+7 Dex 24 (at a minimum: 15 base, +3 level up, +6 gloves of Dex)
+5 bow
+4 arrows (GMW'd if necessary)
+1 Weapon Focus
+1 Point-Blank Shot (within 30 ft)
+2 bracers of archery
-----
+32

-2 for Rapid Shot.

 

[Kalanyr]

Where is the Master of the Order of the Bow PrC ? I just flipped through my ELH and can't see it and I can't find it on the Wizards Site. Could someone help me out please?

 

[Crothian]

Where is the Master of the Order of the Bow PrC ? I just flipped through my ELH and can't see it and I can't find it on the Wizards Site. Could someone help me out please?

It's in one of the Dragon Magazines. Can't rember which one, but it dealt with the ELH.

 

[Kalanyr]

Ah, thanks. The one that I'm still waiting to get here.

 

[Numion]

Wow. You're right. Can't believe I missed that. Labelas Enoreth is a CG deity that has Elf and Time. Ouch.

But all the same, me applauds at your powergame!

We've had one cleric archer in our game, and it worked very well. A small nitpick though: Triple-empowered cat's grace could be useful, so that the follow-up arrows hit too. 8th level domain spell.

 

[Numion]

Goddamn I forgot Bracers of Archery! +1 to hit and +2 to hit for the cleric! Essential at 5100gp

 

[Shallown]

Hong Got it 90% correct.

Except I have a +8 to dex. 18 +2 for elf plus +2 for stat raises +6 gloves of dex. My other stat raise went to str to get a 16 so when I get a bull str I can always use the +4 mighty composite bow.
Also I get GMW on arrows and Bow at +4 from a staff of Preperation (Home designed staff using the staff creation rules, Expensive but Oh so worth it)

And Numion I didn't forget the bracers. Like I said I am way munched out for archery.

The character is in the RTToEE and the game has degenerated into just a number crunching Dungeon crawl which while sometimes not the most fun getting to munch out is a blast and the same group plays another campaign that is far from munched out and is character driven. So we get are Roll playing and our Role playing in every week.