GameBanshee Forums

How would you build an Arcane Archer?

Ranger feels like a good choise martialwise, with the Point Blank feat at second level and Toughness at third. The Animal Companion at forth is nice, as are the spells Cat's Grace and Barkskin.

But should you take levels as Wizard, Sorceror or Bard? And how many? A Sorceror gets many spells early, for example 5 first level spells at third level. On the other hand, a specialist Wizard would have 3 first level spells and 2 second level spells at the same level. The first level spell True Strike is a handy spell, but so are the second level spells Ghostly Visage and Web...

Well, I'd say it depends on how much arcane you want to go and how much archer you want to go.
Personally, I prefer fighters as a base class due to more bonus feats (weapon specialization etc not disregarding), plus I dislike the rangers armor penalties; and I'd likely select the Wizard (being elf favored class) so I can multiclass between the classes more freely.

True, I hadn't though about the XP penalties. Wizard seems to be the best choise then.

Any spells you definately shouldn't miss out on, or would you go for only one Wiz level?

I made a powerful AA with bard and fighter levels on a NWN PW awhile ago but you must be a half-elf and well, half-elves are severely underpowered compared to elves. It was a great build for that PW since you can buff the tanks (and yourself!) like crazy and fire missiles of death from a safe distance. You can also wear armor and still cast your spells and inspirations and songs of course. It would be great for the OC as well if you plan on taking your full compliment of henchmen.

Ultimately it all depends on your play style and sorc or wiz would be good as well. I just found the superior buffing combined with armor (in NWN2) to be a nice combination. I can post my build if yer interested.

Cyrinn wrote:I made a powerful AA with bard and fighter levels on a NWN PW awhile ago but you must be a half-elf and well, half-elves are severely underpowered compared to elves. It was a great build for that PW since you can buff the tanks (and yourself!) like crazy and fire missiles of death from a safe distance. You can also wear armor and still cast your spells and inspirations and songs of course. It would be great for the OC as well if you plan on taking your full compliment of henchmen.

Ultimately it all depends on your play style and sorc or wiz would be good as well. I just found the superior buffing combined with armor (in NWN2) to be a nice combination. I can post my build if yer interested.

Yeah, why did they make half-elves so lame? They used to be my favorite...

I always play with the maximal number of companions. In my book, they are what makes this game so great. Almost like BG2 or PT, but not quite.

I plan to use light or no armor. With an elf and the Belt of Agility +8, there is no need for anything heavier IMO.

If you are going to play an elf, you have no choice but to go wizard as your arcane class. Unless you took ranger level instead of fighter, then you could go wood elf which is even better yet because they are waaaaay better than regular elves and half-elves and you could take bard levels instead of wizard (obviously I am a fan of this )

I forgot about the other elven races in this game, with that in mind (now) wood elf is the best race for any AA build, it just limits you to ranger.

BoA +8??? Are you going to start the game with this? If so, then yeah, might as well use little or no armor.

I'm building one based on Sun Elf Ranger/Wizard, but I am not sure when will I actually become an Arcane Archer? So far I'm R(2)/W(1). Do the classes have to be kept equal to get AA?

Not at all, you just have to meet the reqs: http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwintern ... archer.php

Awsome, I am on the right track

Cyrinn wrote:If you are going to play an elf, you have no choice but to go wizard as your arcane class. Unless you took ranger level instead of fighter, then you could go wood elf which is even better yet because they are waaaaay better than regular elves and half-elves and you could take bard levels instead of wizard (obviously I am a fan of this )

I forgot about the other elven races in this game, with that in mind (now) wood elf is the best race for any AA build, it just limits you to ranger.

BoA +8??? Are you going to start the game with this? If so, then yeah, might as well use little or no armor.

I don't care much for the Str bonus of the wood elf as I'll use Dex for attacks anyway (Point Blank feat for close combat). I think I'd rather have extra skill points due to higher Int (the wood elf is penalized here).

You need to be level 8 to create BoA +8. And you need a Beljuril, of course. But you can have the BoA for the major part of the game and there are other Dex enhancing items as well.

Yeah that's true with any build, there's always going to be tradeoffs. If you prefer to have more skill points (not that many more), then go with the INT build (wiz/aa). Likewise, you must have high STR if you want to do more damage with that bow (and have a mighty weapon of course).

I would prefer to do more damage since Rangers and AA's don't get many class skills, so 6 skill points would be ample for me.
You can start with:
STR 16
DEX 18
CON 12
INT 10
WIS 11
CHA 11 (+1 @ lvl 4)

If you are going to focus on AA (that's taking all 10 lvls), that leaves you with 10 lvls to split between your arcane class and ranger. Ideally, you'd pick mostly ranger for the high BAB and leave the arcane class at minimum. Now, if you took bard, they get a medium BAB (and more skill and hit points), and wiz/sorc only gets a low BAB etc.

I found through experience that bard makes for a more powerful build, and most people that ask about AA builds seem to forget that they count for arcane casting, I just wanted to point this out.

Good points, thanks!

Glad to help

If I were to go the aa/wiz route, I would take fewer levels in my martial class and more in wizard and be more of a spellcaster to take full advantage of the wizard spells. I you take 10 levels of AA, 1-2 fighter, and 8-9 wiz you will get up to 4/5 lvl spells and can dish out more damage with fire/electric/acid balls, ice storm, and acid arrow, or with area effect holding spells: web, grease, slow then knock them out with arrows. Plus, you can get some nice protections at lvl 4 or 5.

The only problem with this, is you won't make the BAB req. until lvl 10, I believe, for AA. So, those first 10 lvls of the game you will pretty much just be a wizard.

I used the Elf as my AA. For martial I took the Ranger with the Archer ability at 2nd lvl. Give you a few extra feats regardless of the prereq's (Rapid shot at lvl2, and Many Shot at lvl6) and Wizard. If you do it right, you will be an AA by the time your 8th lvl. Meaning 6 as a Ranger, 1 as a Wizard, and 1 as AA. You will end up as a 10th lvl AA at 17th lvl giving you 3 more levels for Ranger or Wizard as your preference.