Archivist at ranged combat?

[Salbazier]

It is viable? I don't need to be excellent at it. Just need some ways to deal decent damage without cluttering the frontline.

For fighting undeads with bow/ranged weapons, what kind of arrows/weapons is good?

[Glimbur]

Archivists are good at archery for a sneaky reason: they can get Ranger spells. Check the Spell Compendium for some real gems: Arrowmind comes to mind.

You can also use Divine Power for BAB, Divine Agility(Spell Compendium?) for Dex, and so on. Spells are good stuff. Dark Knowledge(class feature) is nice, consider taking Knowledge Devotion(Complete Champion) to really leverage those skills for bonuses to damage.

Undead are a little tricky because skeletons have DR/Bludgeoning and zombies have DR/Slashing. There are arrows that do such things in Races of the Wild due to elves. Holy can be nice if you fight a lot of undead and Evil things, Splitting from Champions of Ruin doubles your arrows, Collision from... the SRD, psionic section? is flat bonus damage which is nice to avoid energy resistances.

[Salbazier]

Cool, thanks. Looks like I really can built some sort of Van Hellsing :smallbiggrin:

[tuesdayscoming]

See also Champions of Ruin for some outstanding archery-focused ranger spells.

edit: also, if you can figure out a way to be an outsider (such as the Otherworldly feat), you can always polymorph into an Arrow Demon.

[Zaq]

Archivists are arguably some of the best archers in the game, really. Zen Archery goes a long way, naturally, but between Cleric spells, Ranger spells, and more obscure stuff (like the aforementioned Justice of Weald and Woe spells in Champions of Ruin), you can do some really scary things with a bow.

Bonus points if you can snag a way to turn yourself into an Arrow Demon, but even that's not strictly necessary. Archervists are scary enough on their own.

[Divide by Zero]

Cleric archers are pretty solid, and an archivist archer is basically a cleric archer minus divine feats plus ranger spells (and other assorted goodies) plus Int-based casting for Knowledge Devotion. So yeah, it'd be good.

[holywhippet]

That assumes you can actually get hold of ranger spells. Not every ranger is going to have the scribe spell feat (honestly, I'd be surprised if any of them take that feat) - not sure about ways around that though.

You also need to find a high enough level ranger willing to make scrolls for you.

[Salbazier]

Well, that depends on the DM but people can made magic items together isn't? (haven't read the actual rules but I've heard it) One provide the feat, the other the spell. Or just ask an artificer.

[Jack_Simth]

That assumes you can actually get hold of ranger spells. Not every ranger is going to have the scribe spell feat (honestly, I'd be surprised if any of them take that feat) - not sure about ways around that though.If you can find the ranger that can cast the spell you want, they don't need to (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#prerequisites). The Archivist gets it as a bonus feat, and:

It is possible for more than one character to cooperate in the creation of an item, with each participant providing one or more of the prerequisites. In some cases, cooperation may even be necessary.

If two or more characters cooperate to create an item, they must agree among themselves who will be considered the creator for the purpose of determinations where the creator’s level must be known. The character designated as the creator pays the XP required to make the item.

Oh yes, and as a consequence of how scrolls are either arcane or divine based on what types of spells the creator casts, and the way the Archivist's learns new spells, this also means that the archivist can get *any* spell if the archivist can meet a few requirements:
1) Have the XP to spend on crafting.
2) Have the GP to spend on crafting and scribing.
3) Have the time to spend on crafting and scribing.
4) Can find someone who can cast the spell and who is willing to cooperate in the creation of the scroll.

[veven]

My google foo is weak at the moment but I seem to remember seeing an archivist build that used Hunter's Eye and some other tricks to do a pretty obscene amount of damage (although a load of it was sneak attack so it's pretty easily resistible). Perhaps someone else will know what i'm talking about and post it.