Archers / High level abilities.

[Jonas]

Hi everyone,

I just bought TOB and got my first high level abilities. In my group I have Mazzy, that have specialized in Short Bow. I'm having a hard time picking abilities for her though, as I can't find anywhere which (if any) of the abilities are melee only. Going by the name/description I would guess that most of the fighter abilities are melee only (e.g. whirlwind doesn't sound like something you can do with a bow). I can't find any information in the manual though.

What abilities should I pick for a fighter that have specialized in missile weapons?

[GEorGE]

Here's a good advice - use shadowkeep and transfer mazzy's bow proficency slots to some melee weapon. I think that would be a fair exchange.

[TheHellion]

All of the warrior special abilities work with ranged weapons as well. Greater Whirlwind, Critical Strike, Smite, you name it. Although logically it wouldn't seem like a whirlwin attack could be used by an archer, all that ability really does is raise your # of attacks per round to 10.

[Andrew Shih]

"Smite" was MADE for archers. It turns your bow into a bazooka, blowing away your opponents--literally! Now while you can select "smite" only once (and only after you've previously selected power attack and critical strike), you can select power attack numerous times for instance--turns your arrows into arrows of paralyzation. Between smite and power attack, you can either repel your opponents or freeze them in place, making them easy targets for your archer to fill them with arrows. As for "greater whirlwind," although an archer gets like 4 attacks already with say a shortbow, greater whirlwind is greater with something like a heavy crossbow for instance (with bolts of lightning perhaps?) Massive damage at a super-rate. (Also, did you know you can use fighter moves such as 'critical strike' and 'smite' with Energy Blades?)

--Riverwind

[Jonas]

Thanks for the advice. Thats great, so I can pick anything realy. Well, I guess I shouldn't try to read between the lines in the manual (but I would like to see what a archer looks like performing a greater whirlwind).