Best Prestige Class for a ranger?

[killem2]

Specifically someone who wants to truly accel at ranged feats,but still get a little of the good ol ranger spells on the side.

[sonofzeal]

Unfortunately, archery is... kind of neglected. There's very few PrCs that improve it specifically, and IIRC none of them advance spellcasting.

Order of the Bow Initiate is the classic archery PrC, but kinda terrible once you realize their precision attack is a Standard Action and hence can't be used with... just about anything. If you were getting all that damage on every attack, it'd be good but not really overpowered. Ask your DM.

Deepwoods Sniper is 3.0 but technically legal, and a little better. You can play a Sniper without any major houserules and still be moderately effective, although there's still a lot of ways to negate archery as a combat style, and you still lose spells.

Arcane Archer is... not applicable to you. You could ask about making it Divine, but even then it's not worth it past 2nd level unless you ALSO add spellcasting advancement to it... which really should be in there anyway. This is a harder case to win than OotBI, but ask your DM anyway if they're in a permissive mood.

The last archery PrC I can think of is Soulbow, which is also not relevant for you.




Sorry I couldn't give better news. Maybe just multiclass Scout and take Swift Hunter?

[Eldariel]

Stalker of Kharesh from Book of Exalted Deeds advances Ranger-casting and gets some neat class features early (HiPS and Favored Enemy: Evil for instance). That's probably the best you can do if you want the spells.

Without the spells, there's the mentioned Deepwood Sniper. In addition, 3.0 has Peerless Archer [Silver Marches], Order of the Bow Initiate [Sword & Fist; unfortunately it's updated and thus not RAW legal anymore] and even Weapon Master [Sword & Fist] (superhard to qualify for but has some decent boons for an Archer).


Really though, in 3.5 the base classes offer the best martial archery abilities, and that's only when you go dumpster-diving for stuff. Targetteer Fighter is from Dragon Magazine; about as obscure as it gets but very strong. Other than that, Fighter gives you Ranged Weapon Mastery which is decent and that's about it. Barbarian offers Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) and that's about it, and Warblade/Swordsage offers martial maneuvers (of which few higher level Tiger Claw and Diamond Mind maneuvers are very good offensively while the rest is utility and defense).

Far as PRCs go, Justice of Weald and Woe from Champions of Ruin is...alright, but more a Rogue-variant than anything (not very useful at long ranges). Eternal Blade from Tome of Battle amusingly has some of the best kits for archers even though those classes aren't even designed with ranged attacks in mind; it gives you easy-to-use access to Knowledge Devotion and a way to get your Int to Hit and Damage few times per day for one encounter, and the ability to ignore Damage Reduction by spending an action.


Oh, and 3.5 has plenty of support for spellcasting Archers. Tons upon tons of awesome archery spells on every list from Wizard to Druid; most are on Ranger and Cleric lists tho. Unfortunately, few PRCs truly advance all those. Generally Mystic Ranger [Dragon Magazine] is the best way to gain access to the Ranger-half on a natural chassis (Archivist is a less natural, but a stronger chassis) but it's again super-obscure. So...meh.

[hex0]

No one mentioned crag top archer yet?

[TroubleBrewing]

No one mentioned crag top archer yet?

Well, it's only 5 posts in and the OP specifically mentioned casting.

[deuxhero]

3.5 also has plenty of support for Wildshape rangers as well (actually for Druids, but unlike them, your Wildshape is your main class feature, so spell loss doesn't hurt)

[killem2]

Ok so lets take the constraints off then, ranged power what then?

[deuxhero]

Soulbow is quite playable due to one key thing: Lucky mindarrows (and that isn't even cheese, Lucky is on the limited list of bonuses they can apply to them) lets you reroll EVERY attack. You can also TWF/MWF+rapid shot if you feel like showering everything with arrows or hold a weapon so you threat because it is a one handed attack (and unlike melee, that isn't a bad thing).

Just avoid the book it is from and grab it from the excerpt, and if you do find the book, rip out the parts with soulbow, practiced manifester, linked power and Ardent, then burn the rest.

[Eldariel]

Like I mentioned, Ranger/Warblade/Eternal Blade makes for a pretty damn solid Archer. Can add a level of Fighter and Barbarian for some extra funzies.

[Tvtyrant]

A Totemist using the Manticore belt can be a fantastic ranged character. You get a ranged attack equal to the number of essentia put into the belt, which is done as a standard action. At level 20 you can get up to 12 shots a standard action, and the Totemist has abilities to boost the shots' damage. The one issue is that multiclassing severally reduces the effectiveness of this at level 20, because you don't get your capstone and you don't get the increases to allowed essentia.

[reinar]

so i have a 6th level ranger about to turn 7th, archery specialty
human

if i were to do the ranger, warblade, eternal blade, possibly with rogue and or barbarian, how would you build it?

or would you recommend some other path for me, to enhance to the best of my ability?

Strength : 14 (+2)
Dexterity : 18 (+4)
Constitution : 10 (+0)
Intelligence : 10 (+0)
Wisdom : 12 (+1)
Charisma : 10 (+0)

favored enemy human and giant
animal companion winter wolf

+1 magical comp bow+2

[Tokuhara]

Soulbow is quite playable due to one key thing: Lucky mindarrows (and that isn't even cheese, Lucky is on the limited list of bonuses they can apply to them) lets you reroll EVERY attack. You can also TWF/MWF+rapid shot if you feel like showering everything with arrows or hold a weapon so you threat because it is a one handed attack (and unlike melee, that isn't a bad thing).

Just avoid the book it is from and grab it from the excerpt, and if you do find the book, rip out the parts with soulbow, practiced manifester, linked power and Ardent, then burn the rest.

I give CPsi more credit than that. Specifically, the Racial Feats, Synad, and Erudite Psions are on-par with what you mentioned.

[ArcturusV]

*shrug* I like Anointed Knight for Archer characters anyway, Rangers as spellcasters can easily qualify (It's that damned Craft: Alchemy requiring spellcasting that's annoying on an otherwise martial character). Not to mention the feat prerequisite for Anointed Knight is one of the best feats for Archery (Ancestral Relic).

[Matticussama]

By taking the Sword of the Arcane Order feat (Champions of Valor) you can qualify for Arcane Archer since it allows you to prepare Wizard spells in your normal Ranger spell slots. Thus you can qualify for Arcane Archer's 1st level Arcane spell requirements without having to dip Wizard/Sorcerer. This is good since (1) it allows you to continue your HP/BAB progression, and (2) these spells don't have arcane spell failure chance.

It isn't as good as the Pathfinder Arcane Archer (since PF Arcane Archer progresses spellcasting), but it significantly improves the 3.5 Arcane Archer since it saves you a level of a class whose primary feature (spellcasting) is never progressed.

[Blastrigon]

I know this thread is for ranger. But needed to ask this. I put 2 levels into ninja and 1 into shaman. My thought would be hey..those spells where nice..but for the life of me I can't remember what I was going for and now stuck with this level three who has precise shot, point blank shot, and rapid shot. I would be quite greatfull for some help in figuring out a good prestige class, or if possible a good substitute for what I have so far lol.

[ATHATH]

I know this thread is for ranger. But needed to ask this. I put 2 levels into ninja and 1 into shaman. My thought would be hey..those spells where nice..but for the life of me I can't remember what I was going for and now stuck with this level three who has precise shot, point blank shot, and rapid shot. I would be quite greatfull for some help in figuring out a good prestige class, or if possible a good substitute for what I have so far lol.
I recommend going into the Thread Necromancer PrC. I think you'd like it.

[animewatcha]

How would splitting enchantment and arrowsplit interact with Order of Bow Initiate's 1d8 attack?