Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 warlawk Apr 30, 2008 14:47:40	Greetings, we started a new campaign last night and I decided to play an archer as I have not done so in the entirety of 3.X. The party is pretty non-optimized, so I am not looking to squeeze every ounce of optimization out of the build. It must be effective at all levels and not optimized to a 20+ end game build as it is unlikely we will go past 15ish at the most. The party consists of an Asimaar Cleric of the Morninglord, Changeling Rogue, Human Bard/Dragon Shaman (she is going for Dragon Disciple) and my Human Fighter focused on archery. Currently we are second level and as you can see, most characters chosen for flavor rather than uber-factor. Current character info (the dice gods were damned good to me and I don't have the best in the party!) Str 16 Dex 18 Con 16 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 13 Ftr 2 Ftr1 EWP Greatbow (CW, 130', 20 X3, 1D10) Point Blank Shot Rapid Shot Ftr2 Precise Shot That is where I am currently, as it stands I am looking at the following development: Ftr3 Weapon Focus Ftr4 Weapon Specialization, +1 Dex Ranger1 Track, Wild Empathy Rng2 Combat Style (I *think* I can talk our DM into giving me something minor like Far shot instead of Rapid shot since I already have it) Exotic Weapon Master1 Close Quarters Ranged Combat (this is one of the main reasons for taking an exotic bow, as the prereqs for Combat Archery suck) From there on out I am undecided. I will be picking up Ranged Combat Mastery at 9 from PHBII, other than that I am kind of at a lack for direction. Manyshot is nice of course, Shot on the Run could be useful... but I am just unsure the best way to go with this, mostly classwise I suppose. I am not willing to eat 20% multiclassing penalties, so I will be looking for options based on Prestige classes or further advancing RNG/FTR though with such a low ranger level and human for my race I could pick up another base class if needed to qualify for a prestige class. Any suggestions of the best route to go are much appreciated. Net material is fine as long as it is official, other than that we are limited to the books on hand which does cut out some nice goodies like splitting and that is fine as I am just looking for a little direction, not the end all be all optimized archer. Any class suggestions or "must have" items and feats etc would be much appreciated, thank you for your time! Books on hand: Phb/Dmg/MMI,II,III PhbII Complete Warrior, Mage, Adventurer. Tome of Battle Forgotten Realms campaign, Players guide, Races of Faerun, Magic of Faerun, Lost empires of Faerun Races of the wild, Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes Eberron, Magic of Eberron EDIT: Forgot that the old 3.0 soft books are fine if it is easy to convert, on hand are: Masters of the Wild Defenders of the Faith Tome and Blood Song and Silence
#2 warlawk May 01, 2008 11:52:11	No Love? I was considering the Deepwood Sniper from the Masters of the Wild. Keen arrows and all kinds of other little nice archer bumps. It is a 3.0 prestige class, but it looks like there is nothing there that would be hard to bump over. Thoughts?
#3 ksbsnowowl May 01, 2008 13:12:14	No Love? I was considering the Deepwood Sniper from the Masters of the Wild. Keen arrows and all kinds of other little nice archer bumps. It is a 3.0 prestige class, but it looks like there is nothing there that would be hard to bump over. Thoughts? Indeed, do this. Click on the Archer Build Thread link in my sig, and look at the Sniper Archer (the second build, but a 3.5 version follows directly). You'll be gleaning more info from the 3.0 version, however, as that is the version of Hunter's Mercy that you have access to. You deffinitely want to take at least one level of Ranger, so you can use wands of Hunter's Mercy (Magic of Faerun). Sadly, you can't pump damage easily with Power Shot, as you don't have access to Silver Marches (and the Peerless Archer PrC), but you can still rock out some decent damage with your strength and bow enhancements.