Psyborg
2009-10-25, 01:30 AM
I'm trying for the absolute maximum possible range. Have I missed anything?
(Ironically, four levels of fighter for Ranged Weapon Mastery (+20') and ten levels of Deepwood Sniper (+10'/level) turned out to be comparatively poor choices, as increased manifester level for Psychic Warrior allows for +100% per four manifester levels over first. Yay for psionics.)
Build:
Goliath (LA +1, bought off)
Psychic Warrior 15 / Deepwood Sniper 2 / Cragtop Archer 3
Feats:
1: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Greatbow)
1PW: Point-Blank Shot
2PW: Weapon Focus (Greatbow)
3: Item Familiar
5PW: Far Shot
6: Mountain Warrior
8PW: Overchannel
9: Practiced Manifester
11PW: Psicrystal Affinity
12: Talented
14PW: Fell Shot
15: Midnight Augmentation
18: Zen Archery
Stats: Start with Elite Array, 17/16/15/14/13/12
Str: 20 (+5) (16 start + 4 racial)
Dex: 11 (+0) (13 start - 2 racial)
Con: 18 (+4) (15 start + 2 racial + 1 levels)
Int: 14 (+2)
Wis: 32 (+11) (17 start + 4 levels + 5 tome + 6 item)
Cha: 12 (+1)
Manifester Level Boosters:
Practiced Manifester: Increases manifester level by 4, up to maximum of HD.
Overchannel + Talented: Increase ML by 3. Take 5d8 damage. For 3rd level or lower powers, expend focus & take no damage.
Orange Ioun Stone: (Magic/Psi transparency) Increases manifester level by 1.
Harmonic Chorus, from a wand or item, used by psicrystal: +2
TOTAL: ML 25
Midnight Augmentation, 1 essentia: Reduces augmentation cost for Extend Range from 4 to 3.
Relevant Psionic Powers:
Expansion: Level 1. Augmented Cost: 7 pp. Augmented effect: You and your equipment increase by two size increments. +4 Str, -4 Dex, -2 Attack, -2 AC. Duration 1 minute per level: 26 minutes.
Extend Range (with Midnight Augmentation, augmented 8 times): Augmented Cost: 25 pp. Augmented effect: Increase range increment of weapon touched by 900%. Duration: 10 minutes/level: 260 minutes = 4 hours 20 minutes.
Notes on Skills:
Max out Spot and Use Magic Device. Need Climb 10, Survival 5. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter. Put all skill points from level 3 on in the item Familiar. I'm not calculating the exact number of skill points, but I'll assume that we can get 10 ranks of UMD (cross-class skill, blegh) and 23 ranks of Spot with a +23 Item Familiar bonus to the latter. Choose the Observant psicrystal personality (+3 Spot), and don't forget that it also confers Alertness (+2 Spot and Search).
Final Spot modifier: +79 (11 Wis, 23 ranks, +23 item familiar, +3 Observant crystal, +2 Alertness, +2 masterwork tool, +5 Hawkeye, +10 Third Eye Aware)
Wondrous Items: Most of these are custom continuous spell items priced by DMG standard.
Headband of Continuous Hawkeye (1st-level spell, caster level 1st, duration measured in 10 minutes/level) 3,000GP (+5 Spot, range increments x1.5)
Bracers of Continuous Accuracy (1st-level spell, caster level 1st, duration measured in 10-minutes/level, use-activated, condition: touching a ranged projectile weapon) 3,000GP (double range increment of weapon touched for 10 minutes)
Amulet of Wisdom +6
Miniature Lute of Harmonic Chorus (2nd-level spell, caster level 3rd, duration measured in rounds, slotless, use-activated, condition: NOT in a bag) 72,000gp (Grants bearer +2 morale bonus to caster level, spell save DCs- transparency means this applies to manifester level too)
Weapon
Large +1 Distance Dragonbone Composite Greatbow
Now, the juicy part: Here's how we actually get range boosted to insane levels:
130' Medium Composite Greatbows start here.
x25% Large weapon (thanks, Powerful Build)
x25% Huge weapon (thanks, Expansion)
x25% Gargantuan weapon (yes, a Huge Goliath can wield a Gargantuan weapon)
254' Total so far
+20' Dragonbone bows get +20' range increment. Since this is a non-magical property of the bow, I believe that it is multiplied, unlike the bonus from Deepwood Sniper.
274' Total so far
Now, multipliers. I've rephrased them all as +X% instead of xN (f'rex, x2 becomes +100%. x1.5 becomes +50%) because that way it's easier to make sense of the multiplier stacking rules.
+50% Far shot
+100% Distance enchant
+50% Hawkeye spell
+100% Accuracy spell
+900% Extend Range psionic power, augmented 8 times.
+25% Flight arrows (Dragon magazine 349, pg.22, or crystalkeep (http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Equipment.pdf))
+1225% TOTAL
274 + (12.25 * 274) = 3630'
3,630' Total range increment so far
+20' Deepwood Sniper 2 (Just that last little smidge, huh?)
3,650' Final total range increment.
Cragtop Archers can fire out to 15 range increments.
15 * 3,650' = 54,750'
That's 10.37 miles.
Or, given a playing grid with 1" squares representing 5' each, a 912'6" long grid.
A Wizard with Enlarge Spell would require caster level 675 to get his Fireball that far.
If we allow a bow version of the Gnomish Crossbow Sight (A&EG, treat all targets as if two range increments closer), then we can potentially fire out to 17 range increments, which is:
17 * 3,650 = 62,050'
Which is 11.75 miles, or a 1034'2" playing grid.
For the above-mentioned Wizard, that's not Fireball range until caster level 766.
Now, on the issue of actually seeing anything to shoot at from that far away:
The character has a +79 Spot modifier, and per the Cragtop Archer class feature, only takes a -1 per 20' to Spot checks.
At 54,750', however, the character is still making Spot checks at -2,658. So you have no chance of seeing anything at that distance without scrying magic. (Note, however, that according to RAW, Spot checks are not required to see creatures that are not Hiding, invisible, or otherwise "difficult to see". Note also that being ten miles away probably makes you difficult to see. Argue with your DM at length.)
With a +79 spot modifier, you can make Spot checks at +0 at 1,580'- not even your whole first range increment.
End conclusion?
Wow. Achievable ranges are an order of magnitude greater than I thought before I started working on this build.
Also, this is utterly useless.
Reality check:
Longest recorded and confirmed sniper kill: 2,430 meters = 7,972 feet = 1.51 miles.
Longest arrow shot: 2,028 yards = 6,084', and that was from a footbow.
(Ironically, four levels of fighter for Ranged Weapon Mastery (+20') and ten levels of Deepwood Sniper (+10'/level) turned out to be comparatively poor choices, as increased manifester level for Psychic Warrior allows for +100% per four manifester levels over first. Yay for psionics.)
Build:
Goliath (LA +1, bought off)
Psychic Warrior 15 / Deepwood Sniper 2 / Cragtop Archer 3
Feats:
1: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Greatbow)
1PW: Point-Blank Shot
2PW: Weapon Focus (Greatbow)
3: Item Familiar
5PW: Far Shot
6: Mountain Warrior
8PW: Overchannel
9: Practiced Manifester
11PW: Psicrystal Affinity
12: Talented
14PW: Fell Shot
15: Midnight Augmentation
18: Zen Archery
Stats: Start with Elite Array, 17/16/15/14/13/12
Str: 20 (+5) (16 start + 4 racial)
Dex: 11 (+0) (13 start - 2 racial)
Con: 18 (+4) (15 start + 2 racial + 1 levels)
Int: 14 (+2)
Wis: 32 (+11) (17 start + 4 levels + 5 tome + 6 item)
Cha: 12 (+1)
Manifester Level Boosters:
Practiced Manifester: Increases manifester level by 4, up to maximum of HD.
Overchannel + Talented: Increase ML by 3. Take 5d8 damage. For 3rd level or lower powers, expend focus & take no damage.
Orange Ioun Stone: (Magic/Psi transparency) Increases manifester level by 1.
Harmonic Chorus, from a wand or item, used by psicrystal: +2
TOTAL: ML 25
Midnight Augmentation, 1 essentia: Reduces augmentation cost for Extend Range from 4 to 3.
Relevant Psionic Powers:
Expansion: Level 1. Augmented Cost: 7 pp. Augmented effect: You and your equipment increase by two size increments. +4 Str, -4 Dex, -2 Attack, -2 AC. Duration 1 minute per level: 26 minutes.
Extend Range (with Midnight Augmentation, augmented 8 times): Augmented Cost: 25 pp. Augmented effect: Increase range increment of weapon touched by 900%. Duration: 10 minutes/level: 260 minutes = 4 hours 20 minutes.
Notes on Skills:
Max out Spot and Use Magic Device. Need Climb 10, Survival 5. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter. Put all skill points from level 3 on in the item Familiar. I'm not calculating the exact number of skill points, but I'll assume that we can get 10 ranks of UMD (cross-class skill, blegh) and 23 ranks of Spot with a +23 Item Familiar bonus to the latter. Choose the Observant psicrystal personality (+3 Spot), and don't forget that it also confers Alertness (+2 Spot and Search).
Final Spot modifier: +79 (11 Wis, 23 ranks, +23 item familiar, +3 Observant crystal, +2 Alertness, +2 masterwork tool, +5 Hawkeye, +10 Third Eye Aware)
Wondrous Items: Most of these are custom continuous spell items priced by DMG standard.
Headband of Continuous Hawkeye (1st-level spell, caster level 1st, duration measured in 10 minutes/level) 3,000GP (+5 Spot, range increments x1.5)
Bracers of Continuous Accuracy (1st-level spell, caster level 1st, duration measured in 10-minutes/level, use-activated, condition: touching a ranged projectile weapon) 3,000GP (double range increment of weapon touched for 10 minutes)
Amulet of Wisdom +6
Miniature Lute of Harmonic Chorus (2nd-level spell, caster level 3rd, duration measured in rounds, slotless, use-activated, condition: NOT in a bag) 72,000gp (Grants bearer +2 morale bonus to caster level, spell save DCs- transparency means this applies to manifester level too)
Weapon
Large +1 Distance Dragonbone Composite Greatbow
Now, the juicy part: Here's how we actually get range boosted to insane levels:
130' Medium Composite Greatbows start here.
x25% Large weapon (thanks, Powerful Build)
x25% Huge weapon (thanks, Expansion)
x25% Gargantuan weapon (yes, a Huge Goliath can wield a Gargantuan weapon)
254' Total so far
+20' Dragonbone bows get +20' range increment. Since this is a non-magical property of the bow, I believe that it is multiplied, unlike the bonus from Deepwood Sniper.
274' Total so far
Now, multipliers. I've rephrased them all as +X% instead of xN (f'rex, x2 becomes +100%. x1.5 becomes +50%) because that way it's easier to make sense of the multiplier stacking rules.
+50% Far shot
+100% Distance enchant
+50% Hawkeye spell
+100% Accuracy spell
+900% Extend Range psionic power, augmented 8 times.
+25% Flight arrows (Dragon magazine 349, pg.22, or crystalkeep (http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Equipment.pdf))
+1225% TOTAL
274 + (12.25 * 274) = 3630'
3,630' Total range increment so far
+20' Deepwood Sniper 2 (Just that last little smidge, huh?)
3,650' Final total range increment.
Cragtop Archers can fire out to 15 range increments.
15 * 3,650' = 54,750'
That's 10.37 miles.
Or, given a playing grid with 1" squares representing 5' each, a 912'6" long grid.
A Wizard with Enlarge Spell would require caster level 675 to get his Fireball that far.
If we allow a bow version of the Gnomish Crossbow Sight (A&EG, treat all targets as if two range increments closer), then we can potentially fire out to 17 range increments, which is:
17 * 3,650 = 62,050'
Which is 11.75 miles, or a 1034'2" playing grid.
For the above-mentioned Wizard, that's not Fireball range until caster level 766.
Now, on the issue of actually seeing anything to shoot at from that far away:
The character has a +79 Spot modifier, and per the Cragtop Archer class feature, only takes a -1 per 20' to Spot checks.
At 54,750', however, the character is still making Spot checks at -2,658. So you have no chance of seeing anything at that distance without scrying magic. (Note, however, that according to RAW, Spot checks are not required to see creatures that are not Hiding, invisible, or otherwise "difficult to see". Note also that being ten miles away probably makes you difficult to see. Argue with your DM at length.)
With a +79 spot modifier, you can make Spot checks at +0 at 1,580'- not even your whole first range increment.
End conclusion?
Wow. Achievable ranges are an order of magnitude greater than I thought before I started working on this build.
Also, this is utterly useless.
Reality check:
Longest recorded and confirmed sniper kill: 2,430 meters = 7,972 feet = 1.51 miles.
Longest arrow shot: 2,028 yards = 6,084', and that was from a footbow.