3.5 Core and Complete seriesWell, I’ve finally broken and succumb to the requests to add fully-3.5-compatible Archer builds. My summer gaming group does play 3.5, and I took a look at my group members’ books this afternoon. Here is what I’ve come up with; however, this is largely from memory, so if there are a few minor errors I apologize now, and ask that you point out any errors so I may fix them. The following build works for those restricted to 3.5 Core and the Complete series.
Note, you need to worship a deity with a favored weapon of Longbow or Composite Longbow.
Human
Level Class Feats Class Abilities
1 Ranger PBShot, Precise Shot Fav En (?), Track*, Wild Empathy
2 Ranger Rapid Shot* Combat Style
3 Fighter Far Shot, WF BF
4 Fighter Imp. Init. BF
5 Ranger Endurance*
6 OotBI True Believer Precision Shot +1d8
7 OotBI Close Combat Shot
8 Pious Temp Mettle
9 Pious Temp Manyshot Smite 1/Day
10 Pious Temp Weap Spec WS, DR 1/-
11 Pious Temp Imp Prec Shot BF
12 OotBI Imp Crit Precision Shot +2d8
13 OotBI Grt Weap Foc* Greater WF
14 Pious Temp
15 Pious Temp ? Smite 2/Day
16 Pious Temp DR 2/-
17 Pious Temp ? BF
18 ? ?Those last three feats could be filled with Dodge, Mobility, and Shot on the Run, or some of the ranged feats from
Complete Warrior (Ranged-Disarm, -Pin, -Sunder, etc).
Also, remember that Pious Templar casts spells from either the Paladin or Black Guard spell lists.
I am unsure what would make a good end to this build. You could continue in OotBI, but it doesn’t get anything great in the next few levels. You could take a couple more levels of Ranger to get actual spellcasting ability, or even insert 3 Ranger levels starting at level 8, so as to get Manyshot for free, and thus opening up another feat slot. You could add one level of Ranger and two of Fighter, gaining another Fighter Bonus Feat. You could add levels of Dragonslayer from the
Draconomicon, improving your Pious Templar spell casting along the way; or take three levels of Dragonstalker from the same book, gaining the ability to ignore Natural Armor once per day.
Now, you may wonder why I chose to go with the 3.5 version of OotBI to gain Close Combat Shot, rather than taking a level of Exotic Weapon Master and using a greatbow. Well, I have a feeling that you will have a hard time finding a god with a greatbow as his favored weapon. I know some FR gods do have bows as favored weapons, and in 3.5 Ehlonna now has the longbow as her favored weapon.
Swift HunterI know, I'm late in the game when it comes to scouts. I didn't get Complete Adventurer until long after it came out, and didn't feel the need to rehash what others had done a hundred times. However, with the fairly recent addition of the Swift Hunter feat from Complete Scoundrel, it is perhaps time to bring a skirmishing archer into the thread.
For those who do not know the feat, Swift Hunter allows Scout and Ranger levels to stack for Favored Enemies and Skirmish. Here is a basic framework for a Swift Hunter archer:
Level Class Feats Special
. Human Point Blank Shot
1. Scout 1 Precise Shot [Skirmish +1d6], {Favored Enemy 1}
2. Ranger 1 Track* [Favored Enemy]
3. Ranger 2 Rapid Shot*, [i]Open Feat[/i] {Skirmish +1d6/+1 AC}
4. Scout 2 [Battle Fort +1], [uncanny dodge]
5. Scout 3 [Skirmish +1d6/+1 AC], [Trackless Step],
. [Fast Movement +10 ft.], {Skirmish
. +2d6/+1 AC}, {Favored Enemy 2}
6. Scout 4 Swift Hunter, Improved Skirmish^
7. Ranger 3 Endurance* [Skirmish +2d6/+2 AC]
8. Ranger 4 [1st level spells], [Animal Companion]
9. Ranger 5 [i]Open Feat[/i] [Skirmish +3d6/+2 AC]
10. Ranger 6 Manyshot [Favored Enemy 3]
11. Ranger 7 [Skirmish +3d6/+3 AC], [Woodland Stride]
12. Ranger 8 Greater Manyshot [2nd level spells], [Swift Tracker]
13. Ranger 9 [Skirmish +4d6/+3 AC], [Evasion]
14. Ranger 10
15. Ranger 11 Improved Pecise Shot*, [Skirmish +4d6/+4 AC], [3rd level spells],
. [i]Open Feat[/i] [Favored Enemy 4]
16. Ranger 12
17. Ranger 13 [Skirmish +5d6/+4 AC], [Camouflage]
18. Ranger 14 [i]Open Feat[/i] [4th level spells]
19. Ranger 15 [Skirmish +5d6/+5 AC]
20. Ranger 16 [Favored Enemy 5]
For additional info on Swift Hunter, check out the
Swift Hunter's Handbook. Dictum Mortuum has done a good job of organizing and explaining ways to optimize this feat.
As I said, this is a bare-bones build, leaving several feat slots open. Possible archery feats to gain in these slots include Woodland Archer (Races of the Wild), Improved Rapid Shot (Complete Warrior), Improved Critical, as well as Martial Study: Cloak of Deception, and Martial Stance: Assassin's Stance, both from Tome of Battle.
Many of the archer feats listed above have the problem of not synergizing well with skirmish. Skirmish requires you to move 10 or more feat, while Rapid Shot requires you to move no more than 5 feet. Improved Critical works to increase your critical damage, while much of your damage cannot be enhanced by criticals. If you do take Improved Critical, it may be wise to look into the Telling Blow feat from the Player's Handbook II. Combined with Hunter's Mercy from your Ranger spellcasting, it could lead to a nice combat-opening combo.
Martial Study: Cloak of Deception, and Martial Stance: Assassin's Stance from Tome of Battle open up a few interesting options for this or any other archer. Cloak of Deception allows you to, once per encounter, make yourself invisible for your turn as a swift action. Note, this is not
Invisible, as the spell, this is the condition of being invisible. In combat it is functionally equivalent to being affected by a Greater Invisiblity spell for one turn. Thus it allows you easily activate Sneak Attack, if you have it. That is where Assassin's Stance comes in. Assassin's Stance grants you +2d6 sneak attack, so long as you remain in the stance. Since you have no other stances, you will be in that stance virtually all the time. Just a handy trick for boosting an archer's damage, especially on a full attack. For a Swift Hunter it would be a nice companion to your Greater Manyshot feat.
Of the feats listed in this build, Swift Hunter is the most important, for obvious reasons. Next is Greater Manyshot (from the XPH), which allows you to make separate attack rolls with your arrows from a Manyshot attack, aiming them at different targets, and applying precision-based damage, such as skirmish, to all arrows fired. Thus, it will be the main method for moving and getting off multiple skirmish-inflicting attacks.
Third most important is Improved Skirmish from Complete Scoundrel. If you move 20 ft, you get an additional +2d6/+2 AC skirmish on top of your normal skirmish. Along with your Woodland Stride ability, it can make you into a great guerilla fighter.
Some may not agree with my choice to take Ranger 2 so early. Others may wish to get to scout 3 and 4 as quickly as possible, so as to pick up Swift Hunter one level earlier. However, in my play experience with archers, I've noticed that in the early levels, when you don't have very many bonuses to attack, it is often more advantageous to get more opportunities to hit, than to only attack once and pray that you roll high. Thus, I chose to get Rapid Shot earlier, when it will actually make a difference in play, and thus hold off on emphasizing the bonus skirmish damage to a slightly later level, when your chances to hit with the one big shot have improved.
One possible alternate ending to the above build would be to sacrifice the last two levels of Ranger, and instead take two levels of Highland Stalker from Complete Adventurer. You would be sacrificing your 5th Favored Enemy and a bonus spell slot or two, but you would gain Skirmish +6d6/+4 AC rather than Skirmish +5d6/+5 AC. The class would require no extra expenditures on your part (BAB +5, Listen 8 ranks, Spot 8 Ranks, Survival 8 Ranks, Track, Skirmish class feature), and would actually compliment your Woodland Stride ability with Mountain Stride (like woodland stride, but functions through scree, dense rubble, and moving up steep slopes).
3.5 Core, Complete series, and Races seriesSince there is a preview of the
Cragtop Archer for me to work from, I figured I’d add in a build that incorporates it. As I do not own the book I don’t know what it has for good and bad saves (I would assume good Fort and Ref), but those of you who actually own Races of Stone can find that out for yourselves. I’m also taking into account the fact that there are several new Ranger spells in
Complete Adventurer that are pretty powerful. So, without further eloquence, here are two different takes at a fully 3.5 compatible archer build for those restricted to Core, the Complete series, and the Races series.
I will readily admit that the second build may not work, due to the fact that there probably aren't a lot of deities that have a Greatbow as a favored weapon.
Human
Level Class Feats Class Abilities
1 Ranger PBShot, Precise Shot Fav En (?), Track*, Wild Empathy
2 Ranger Rapid Shot* Combat Style
3 Fighter Far Shot, Mountain Warrior BF
4 Fighter WF BF
5 Ranger Endurance*
6 OotBI Manyshot Precision Shot +1d8
7 OotBI Close Combat Shot
8 Crag Arch Adept Climber, Farsight
9 Crag Arch True Believer Strike From Above
10 Crag Arch Arching Shot
11 Crag Arch Horizon Shot
12 Pious Temp Imp Prec Shot Mettle
13 Pious Temp Smite 1/day
14 Pious Temp Weap Spec* WS, DR 1/-
15 Pious Temp Imp Crit, Imp Init BF
16 Ranger Animal Comp, First Level Spells
17 OotBI Precision Shot +2d8
18 OotBI Grt Weap Foc*, ? Greater Weapon FocusHuman
Level Class Feats Class Abilities
1 Ranger PBShot, Precise Shot Fav En (?), Track*, Wild Empathy
2 Ranger Rapid Shot* Combat Style
3 Fighter Far Shot, ExWeap Prof (Greatbow)BF
4 Fighter WF BF
5 Ranger Endurance*
6 Ranger Mountain Warrior Animal Comp, First Level Spells
7 ExWM Close Combat Shot Trick
8 Ranger Fav En (?)
9 Ranger Manyshot*, True Believer Improved Combat Style
10 Crag Arch Adept Climber, Farsight
11 Crag Arch Strike From Above
12 Crag Arch Imp Prec Shot Arching Shot
13 Crag Arch Horizon Shot
14 Pious Temp Mettle
15 Pious Temp Imp Crit Smite 1/day
16 Pious Temp Weap Spec* WS, DR 1/-
17 Pious Temp Imp Init BF As with the previous build, I am unsure how to finish this character off in the top levels. Many of the options listed above would be perfectly viable in either of these builds.
All 3.5 SourcesI've recently picked up both
Champions of Ruin and
Heroes of Battle, and I started fiddling in an attempt to make another fully-3.5-compliant archer build for my archer thread. Here is what I came up with, using both the Justice of the Weald and Woe and Dread Commando PrC's, though I am certainly open to suggestions. I did not choose a race for the build as of yet; making it Human would give you an additional feat.
Level Class Feats Class Abilities
1 Ranger PB Shot, Track Fav En, Wild Emp
2 Ranger Rapid Shot
3 Fighter Precise Shot, Dodge BF
4 Ranger Endurance
5 Fighter Mobility BF
6 Dread Com WF (Longbow) Sud Strk +1d6, Team Init Bonus
7 Just W&W Spells
8 Just W&W Shot on the Run BF, Woodland Stride
9 Just W&W Weap Spec (Longbow) Sneak Attack +1d6
10 Just W&W Lucky Shot, Trackless Step
11 Dread Com Armored Ease 2
12 Dread Com Manyshot Sud Strk +2d6
13 Dread Com Armored Ease 4, Stealthy Movement
14 Just W&W Poison Use
15 Just W&W Imp Crit Steady Hand
16 Just W&W Sneak Attack +2d6
17 Just W&W Far Shot BF
18 Dread Com Imp Precise Shot Sud Strk +3d6
19 Just W&W Hide in Plain Sight
20 Just W&W Death Attack, Poison Immunity
Fort +14 Ref +14 Will +5
I've thought that perhaps Scout would be a good start for this build, though it would push the PrCs' starting levels back, and you're already taking a hit to BAB with Justice of the Weald and Woe (and I don't own Complete Adventurer...) However, overall I'd say the Ranger's bonus feats and full BAB outweigh the small ammount of Skirmish damage you'd get from Scout.
Oh yes, that rule about wand use. Wands use the spell trigger activation method, and looking up spell trigger in the 3.5 SRD (or page 175 of the 3.0 DMG, and page 213 of the 3.5 DMG) we find that:
Spell Trigger: Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Emphases mine.
And here are the acronyms and abbreviations that are used throughout this post:
Ambidex: Ambidexterity
AoO: Attack of Opportunity
BF: Bonus Feat
BW:
Bless WeaponConc Reduc: Concealment Reduction
DR: Damage Reduction
DWS: Deepwood Sniper
Fav En: Favored Enemy
HM:
Hunter’s MercyImp. Crit: Improved Critical
Imp. Init: Improved Initiative
Inc: Increment
OotBI: Order of the Bow Initiate
PBS / PBShot: Point Blank Shot
Peer Arch: Peerless Archer
Proj Imp Crit: Projectile Improved Critical
RSA: Ranged Sneak Attack
Sup. Weap Foc: Superior Weapon Focus
Sup. Weap Spec: Superior Weapon Specialization
TWF: Two Weapon Fighting
WF: Weapon Focus
WS / Weap Spec: Weapon Specialization
