Advice on Arcane Archer Needed

[Ironfang]

My first character here at HG was an AA. Can't remember the exact mix right now but he was like 20 Cleric / 1 Wiz / 19 AA. Using Zen Archery I am able to wear full plate and still have full AB from my maxed out Wisdom which also made my spell DC's decent until I started encountering creatures with crazy SR.

The cleric buff spells seemed to really help my damage output as well. He was fun to play but I traded him in for a more pure Cleric that could use a sheild for another 17+ places to AC and not have to worry so much about inventory management with arrows.

[doomsdaybringer]

gruntgruntson said:

Thanx for the replies.

It does look like AA trades in a whole buncha damage in return for hitting every time.
I'm not sure whether it is worth it - depends on what you're facing, I suppose.

I'll build up Norfina Soul-Spike, if only becuase I would like AA to work 8o)

As an alternative, I have been looking at a rogue archer, based upon the Bioware build: 4ftr/16 rg/1ftr/18rg/1ftr (used to have SD in, I chose to lose HiPS).
While the enemy are suceptible to Sneak, and the AB is enough .. lots of damage.
As soon as they are Sneak Immune, or AC high enough ... zip.
Not knowin the high levels of the module, I'm not sure whch approach will work better.

19rg/2wiz/19AA ? hmmm ... defintaely somethign to consider. Doesn't it compromise damage for AB (and vice versa)? In PnP games I have found this can sometimes lead to not enough AB to hit, and even if you do hit, not enough damage to mean anything ... Or maybe the mix is right - enoguh AB to hit most times, enough Sneak to cause significant wounds.
#gets out calculator, mashes keys for a while ...
#notices 2:30AM
#goes to bed

aa have always have low damage out put per hit. you can not change that much no matter how you build them. and as for sneak attack.... dont depends on it, there are number of monster (pawn lvl) are imm to critcal/sneak and boss is always imm...

as for your ab... if you take max your dex and using good bow 19lvl of aa should allow to hit almost everything.
i dont know if this is still true or not but i have a monk with 55+ ab at lvl 40 and she was able to hit everything and at least 2 hit per round...

[FunkySwerve]

Tis true gmw's improvements have detracted further from the archer. You can look for them to become more 'arcane' in the future.
Funky

[gruntgruntson]

Thanx for all the input, peeps.
I'm gonna keep Horatio and Norfina running round for a while, see how they do as Imortals.

Good to hear about upcoming improvements fro AA! Any chance of some hints, Funky?
More 'arcane' stuff sounds interesting!

More power to the bowmen and women out there!

[chainlink]

Looks like by using the Yukio UR subrace you could make a Bard(Wiz or Sorc) 3 levels/WM (full 7 levels)/AA 30 levels, now there's something I'd like to try out.

[Lord FlashHeart]

You cant weaponmaster bows, has to be a MELEE weapon.

[hiryuu]

Both classes have minimum BAB requirements, too.