Benefits/deficits of an AA. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Benefits/deficits of an AA. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
evilviper77
06-18-05, 05:43 PM In your opinion, what are the major advantages/disadvantages of the Arcane Archer prestige class?
Kudora Kyoji
06-18-05, 05:57 PM In my opinion the whole class is a disadvantage.
evilviper77
06-18-05, 06:11 PM Could you possibly state some reasons? I'm trying to put togethor a thread in which we discuss the pros/cons of the AA prestige class.

For example,

Pros:
Enhance arrow +5 at 9th lvl in itself is an awesome ablity. You get the equivilant of a +5 bow while still being able to put abilitys to equal a +9!

Hail of arrows is a good skill to use if in a crowd of people, a free attack at full BAB to up to 10 people all at once.

Phase arrow while not the most potent of abilitys, allows the use of many different things. You could all types of stuff on the arrow and hitting on a ranged touch is really pretty simple.

seeker arrow being around same as phase arrow, not a blow-out end of the world type ability, but very useful never the less.

Cons:
While at first it seems a very awesome ability, arrow of death i think isn't all too great, a DC 20 fortitude save isn't going to be much by the time you get lvl 10 in AA, except against casters, but then it has to do dmg to work, so it could still be negated that way.

Imbue arrow seems to be a pretty broken ability if you can't hit some1 with the arrow as it explodes and does it AoE spell.

One thing i'm not sure about is if these abilitys stack with feats like manyshot, or if they are stand alone.
Particle_Man
06-18-05, 06:37 PM In 3.0, one could do the cheese of getting a +5 bow that stacked with its +5 arrows. Now that is fixed, so one goes, as you say, for the tweaked out +1 bow of kewl powers, along with +5 arrows.

Most of the abilities are only 1x/day. This is just sad, really. And iirc, phase arrow, seeker arrow, and arrow of death apply to only one arrow. Not even one attack. One *arrow*.

Imbue arrow is ok, but there are not that many spells that benefit from this, as opposed to being cast, for instance. And I think it is a standard action to do this trick, so one can't "unload spells quickly". Plus, your spellcaster level will be very low, since you have to take a lot of AA levels and likely some warrior type levels, and that means less spellcaster levels.

So we are left with +5 arrows. Nice, but not enough to justify the class vs., say, order of the bow initiate. Or a properly feated out fighter.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
evilviper77 06-18-05, 05:43 PM	In your opinion, what are the major advantages/disadvantages of the Arcane Archer prestige class?
Kudora Kyoji 06-18-05, 05:57 PM	In my opinion the whole class is a disadvantage.
evilviper77 06-18-05, 06:11 PM	Could you possibly state some reasons? I'm trying to put togethor a thread in which we discuss the pros/cons of the AA prestige class. For example, Pros: Enhance arrow +5 at 9th lvl in itself is an awesome ablity. You get the equivilant of a +5 bow while still being able to put abilitys to equal a +9! Hail of arrows is a good skill to use if in a crowd of people, a free attack at full BAB to up to 10 people all at once. Phase arrow while not the most potent of abilitys, allows the use of many different things. You could all types of stuff on the arrow and hitting on a ranged touch is really pretty simple. seeker arrow being around same as phase arrow, not a blow-out end of the world type ability, but very useful never the less. Cons: While at first it seems a very awesome ability, arrow of death i think isn't all too great, a DC 20 fortitude save isn't going to be much by the time you get lvl 10 in AA, except against casters, but then it has to do dmg to work, so it could still be negated that way. Imbue arrow seems to be a pretty broken ability if you can't hit some1 with the arrow as it explodes and does it AoE spell. One thing i'm not sure about is if these abilitys stack with feats like manyshot, or if they are stand alone.
Particle_Man 06-18-05, 06:37 PM	In 3.0, one could do the cheese of getting a +5 bow that stacked with its +5 arrows. Now that is fixed, so one goes, as you say, for the tweaked out +1 bow of kewl powers, along with +5 arrows. Most of the abilities are only 1x/day. This is just sad, really. And iirc, phase arrow, seeker arrow, and arrow of death apply to only one arrow. Not even one attack. One arrow. Imbue arrow is ok, but there are not that many spells that benefit from this, as opposed to being cast, for instance. And I think it is a standard action to do this trick, so one can't "unload spells quickly". Plus, your spellcaster level will be very low, since you have to take a lot of AA levels and likely some warrior type levels, and that means less spellcaster levels. So we are left with +5 arrows. Nice, but not enough to justify the class vs., say, order of the bow initiate. Or a properly feated out fighter.