skills for arcane archer (help, experts needed)

mbz · Post by **mbz** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:43 pm

I'm planing on building a arcane archer.
I took a look at the epic character build on Bioware, and found that they put 10 in tumble...
I know that with the feat: spring attack, enemies don't get opportunity of attack while you walk past them. This makes tumble rather useless, not to mention how expensive it is (2 points per rank).

I have an intellegence of 12, which gives me 3 points per level.
To survive in combat, I must max dicipline. I don't need concentration, because I'm only going to use 1-3 levels of Wizard.
What about the rest?
Are spot and listen important for an archer?

AAs don't get sneak attack, and they also can't hide in front of enemies. So how important is hide and walk silently?

Raumoheru · Post by **Raumoheru** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:43 pm

tumble also gives an AC bonus in NWN

stealth is always good so you can sneak up and make sure to hit the opponent you want to.

mbz · Post by **mbz** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:36 pm

I guess Spring attack would be useless if I pump tumble up to 20. Mobility in this sense would also be useless, because it only helps against attacks of opportunity. What about dodge? It says that it gives a dodge bonus to my current attacker. Does that mean that it raises my AC by 1?

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:34 am

[QUOTE=mbz]I guess Spring attack would be useless if I pump tumble up to 20. Mobility in this sense would also be useless, because it only helps against attacks of opportunity. What about dodge? It says that it gives a dodge bonus to my current attacker. Does that mean that it raises my AC by 1?[/QUOTE]

The Dodge feat gives a +1 dodge AC bonus against 1 attacker, whomever you happen to be focusing on at the time I believe if more than one are involved. So yes, that's true.

Why not do a rogue/wizard/AA if your really interested in sneak attack, stealth and tumble?

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:27 am

There is only one skill that is essential (Tumble) and one more that you should consider (Discipline). I generally wouldn't take the Dodge->Spring Attack tree unless it's a pre-req.

mbz · Post by **mbz** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:38 am

[QUOTE=Magrus]The Dodge feat gives a +1 dodge AC bonus against 1 attacker, whomever you happen to be focusing on at the time I believe if more than one are involved. So yes, that's true.

Why not do a rogue/wizard/AA if your really interested in sneak attack, stealth and tumble?[/QUOTE]

The thing with rogues is that they don't have as many feats as fighters. Plus, they are so weak in normal combat that I always have to use a meat-shield in front of me. I'm not sure on the number of attack per round tho. sneak attacks get better with levels...in that sense, I might be better off shrugging the entire AA class off, and focus on rogue classes.

Opalescence · Post by **Opalescence** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:34 pm

It all depends. If you're going to powergame and only get the bare minimum for getting Arcane Archer and then pumping everything else into Arcane Archer for massive amounts of power behind Enchant Arrow, then just get Tumble for the AC bonus and some Discipline. You don't need to be particularly stealthy; your arrows will cut down the opposition quickly enough. However, if you're going the rogue/AA ranged sneak-attack route, you may want to consider hide/move silently, for obvious reasons.

mbz · Post by **mbz** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:09 pm

thanks for all your suggustions. I figured that the AA route suits my taste better.
I've built a Wiz2/Fighter/10/AA28 character. With 40 in dex, 14 in str, 10 in Con, 12 in INT, and 8 in Wis and Char.
I have 43 ranks in Discipline, 20 in Tumble, 40 in spellcraft, 43 in lore, 10 in serach and 1 in spot.

I've essentially builit up a very similar character compared to the one shown on Bioware. The only thing that I still wonder is that whether Power Attacks work on bows as well. It's going to do massive damage if activated, and it seems better than using rapid shot.

JackOfClubs · Post by **JackOfClubs** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:09 pm

No, power attack does not work on ranged weapons. If you don't like Rapid Shot you might want to try Called Shot. If used against oponents arms, it effectively increases your AC by reducing their attack bonus, though personally I don't care for it. My advice would be to go for Improved Critical and its variations.