is Archer a good class? n/t

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 6:56 pm

It all depends on how you use it, and what you give it. an archer can suck without the right skills and equipment, but can be a deveastating support fighter if used properly. IMO, the Archer is an excellant class, especially in terms of support.

spork · Post by **spork** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 9:29 pm

I never had much respect for Archers but that's slowly changing. At ToB levels they can really do a lot of damage with their arrows, and get 3 attacks per round with each arrow being almost a sure hit. The problem is, shooting arrows is the only thing they do well.

A regular figher advances levels much more quickly and gets better armor, and can also do as much or more ranged damage if he uses magical hurling axes/hammers. They are also obviously much better in melee. Still, some parties like to send in one front person to draw fire and then have a five-member "firing squad" that kills monsters one-by-one from a distance. For parties like this, an Archer is great, because arrows have a much better range than axes.

If you like cheese, designate a "bait" character who always gets monsters to chase him in circles, and leave an Archer at a safe distance to pump the monsters full of arrows. It works against almost anyone.

spork

nael · Post by **nael** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 9:56 pm

i made a party of four archers and they were a lot of fun to play. key items are of course the ammo belt and any of the bows that don't require ammo.
the biggest draw back i found was fighting enemies that are immunne to piercing damage.
but no enemies were hard at all.
i laid waste to everything before they even had a chance to see what hit them.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 11:49 pm

One overlooked aspect with the Archer is that they always get their 7/2 attacks per round to count. Not only do they always hit but they don't have to waste time running after monsters. When one drops just aim at another.

Musashi Miyamoto · Post by **Musashi Miyamoto** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 4:02 pm

If you realy want to get to know the archer personaly! then play the archer solo! now you will realy learn the value of the boot of speed, its essical peroid! secondly you will have crappy armor and stuff but you will have ungody thac0 i only miss what onice every hundred roll due to an natural 1 or an very low ac but that's rare, if i got to fight golems espicaly the pierceing immunite type then i just bring out my favorite weapon flail of age, later replaced with the crom. secondly the archer can lay wase to massive hords of critters, by useing arrows of denotation, i'm not talking about high level i'm talking about your massive hords of average and lowlevel moster just get them bunchered up into a group then fire arrows of detoation after each others and boom the whole group is cooking!

its fun to play an archer and an big time challenge, but with the tob cap removal by the time i hit jonny boy i was nearing level 30, and i had multiple whirlwinds, plus other niffy high level ability, with the short bow of geshen and greater whirlwind i can lay wase to ANYTHING, even addanium golems within a round or two, i layed wase to the black dragon before he even knew what hit him, same with number one johnny boy, number two was little harder but the level 1 or is that level 2 clerc spell protect from evil rocked here so i fleeded the demons and pounded on johnny boy! and he fell fast VERY FAST AND HARD!

Lykwid · Post by **Lykwid** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 9:32 pm

I prefered the +4 firetooth crossbow to the shortbow of gesan, even though the fire rate was not as fast , it does huge damage each hit from a high lvl archer. You can also get the firetooth as soon as you get 14k together, pretty handy.

-Lykwid

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 10:18 pm

Yeah that fire tooth crossbow is pretty sick. I had Haer Dalis using it with the bracers of archery and bolts of lightning. He goes into offensive spin, so he gets "3" attacks per round (really just two though), for MAXIMUM DAMAGE! Which is something like 16 + 2 + 3 or something. With a Thaco of 1.

then later in the game I give that crossbow to a certain fighter NPC with crossbow proficiencies whose name i will not mention. Greater whirlwind, son. 10 attacks/round!!!!! With that crossbow it's magic.

Ryuwarrior · Post by **Ryuwarrior** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 10:42 pm

hm... How about the long bow?
Nobody mention it, does that mean there's no good long bow?

nael · Post by **nael** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 11:13 pm

there's really not any good longbows, in my opinion anyways.
taralash+5 is an average bow, only bonus is increased movement rate. mana bow+4 is okay, nice magic resistance.

Dalek · Post by **Dalek** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 9:29 am

two words: Arrows of Biting (oh wait that's three.)

Rob-hin · Post by **Rob-hin** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 9:58 am

I really don't see why an archer is of any use, give a fighter or wizzerd ect. a bow and they are good enough.

Archers can't do anything but shoot arrows, in a head to head fight they are super bad.

[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: Rob-hin ]

nael · Post by **nael** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 11:00 am

Originally posted by Rob-hin:
<STRONG>I really don't see why an archer is of any use, give a fighter or wizzerd ect. a bow and they are good enough.

Archers can't do anything but shoot arrows, in a head to head fight they are super bad.

[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: Rob-hin ]</STRONG>

at 18th level an archer gets +6 to hit and damage, not to mention any strength bonuses and grand mastery. if it is yoru racial enemy you get another +4 to hit. add called shot, and every hit does another +2 damage plus drops ther thac0, saves, and strength.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Wed Oct 17, 2001 10:28 am

So when the hit they miss

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 4:09 am

The called shot thing is pretty neat, though with the tougher baddies it takes a lot of arrows before the penalties really accumulate and they start missing. It works best with Improved Haste and anything else that boosts attacks per round.

If only BG2 offered an Improved Critical feat like in 3ed. With so many attacks the archer tends to do more critical hits. Oh well.

Sometimes I believe an archer is even better than a fighter. Thanks to his hit and damage bonuses which improve with levels, he can get ultra low thacos pretty fast. In my game, my archer hit 0 Thac0 whilst Minsc was still hanging around 9. So when a regular fighter keeps missing, the archer keeps hitting. You only really need to worry about those high immunity creature like demons and clay golems.