Ranged Build for low magic campaign

[Eldebryn]

As it looks there is a pretty good chance my friends will start a campaign in low magic world. I am mentioning related parameters below:


-The world is pretty realistic/medieval, there are no gods and magic users will be extremely rare. Magic items will be almost non-existant and certainly not found in any kind of shop.
-Allowed races are Human, Dwarf, Halfling and possibly a single elf in the party.
(I am not really into dwarves or halflings though.)
-No racial templates
-No divine casters except ranger
-Only spontaneous arcane casters are allowed
-We start at level 1
-NPC trainers will need to be found when taking new classes, so e.g. multiclassing to sorcerer will be pretty difficult, but fighter access will be much easier.
-Campaign is going to take mostly place in single digit levels, and will by no means go much beyond 15+
-Access to non-srd content strictly needs DM approval so nothing really cheesy is allowed.
-32 point buy for character creation.


I would like to have your opinion on how I should build a ranged character that uses either a bow or a crossbow. I decided to go for Deepwood Sniper since my DM allowed it and I don't really want to mess with sorc multiclass and Arcane Archer.
One of the other players will be going Beguiler so I am going to stay away from sneak attacks(which I don't really like anyway) in order to maintain a more different role in the party.

I have considered going for either a composite longbow build (or maybe even greatbow?) and DEX/STR (or zen archery for wis instead of dex, dumping it at 12-13 and wearing full plate)
OR
going for light crossbow with rapid reload(Hand Crossbow focus is not allowed) and crossbow sniper.
Moreover I really like the idea of ranged weapon mastery so I would like something like Ranger1/Fighter4 before entering Deepwood Sniper.

In overall I see many ways to do about the same thing and I am not sure how the no-magic-items thing is going to affect me. It should be noted that I would rather not to min/max my starting ability scores for RP reasons. I would like for instance to have 10-12 wis as ranger even if I never get casting.

As always, thanks in advance for any suggestions you are willing to share.

[Eldariel]

How much 3.0 is allowed? Deepwood Sniper is okay; you probably do indeed want a Ranger/Fighter multiclass base so you can pick up Ranged Weapon Mastery and get all the skills and what-not. With Deepwood Sniper, C. Longbow should be plenty solid.

You'd definitely be stronger as an Eldritch Knight but Deepwood Sniper with maybe 3 levels of Peerless Archer [Silver Marches] to get Power Shot should be plenty solid, especially combined with Knowledge Devotion [Complete Champion] and Education to ramp up your To Hit. The Order of the Bow Initiate in Sword & Fist is also worth looking at; Deepwood Sniper is mostly about the 7 levels to get the improved critical and then getting critical multipliers (or you could take the "Sniper"-variant of Fighter).

Oh, and you probably want one level of Whirling Frenzy Barbarian and Extra Rage for the bad times when you just need some extra firepower.


Again though, without magic items spells get even stronger so you might be missing those. Bard/Arcane Archer/Sublime Chord/Sacred Exorcist or simple Ranger 1/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight would be decent options far as spellcasting alternatives go.

[Answerer]

I only know 3.5 with any depth, and therefore cannot help you, because there is no such thing as a "good" build for a low-magic 3.5 campaign because 3.5 is a terrible system for low-magic. It is, by default, one of the highest-magic games in existence, and that is not something that can be changed easily. It is far better for the group to find some other system that is designed for low-magic to begin with.

[nedz]

In this sort of game you could do worse that straight Ranger with Rapid Shot. OBI would be a worse choice than this.

You would also be well suited to the point role, with high stealth and perception skills.

There are two sorts of Archery: the precision based approach and the Ranger machine gun. The trouble with the precision based approach is that its all or nothing. Scout would be the best base for this, and that might work well with OBI.

If the Swift Hunter feat, from CSco, is available then you could build a Swift Hunter. This is a Scout/Ranger hybrid, for which a handbook is available.

Another option is the Ray Sorcerer approach, which also works well with Scout - though more casting would always be better. Actually the best rays are those which do status effects (eg enervation) rather than damage so YMMV with the skirmish boost. It is always fun to stack precision damage onto a cantrip though. You would also have space for some utility spells.

[Gavinfoxx]

Low magic, ranged? You definitely want to go Sorcerer... after all, you don't know if the GM will be capable of fixing the assumption that monsters have in their stats of magic capability of the party. So you will want to provide magic capability yourself. You don't have to go full Mailman, but consider that the 'ideal'...

Here's an example level 5 proto-mailman build:

http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=55048

Here's the actual thread:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868534/The_Mailman:_A_Direct_Damage_Sorcerer

After all, you don't actually KNOW if the GM will remove DR/Magic or Incorporeality from monsters like he should, or lower their AC's to 'hittable without magic items' range. So you should assume he will make the mistake of not doing that, and plan accordingly.

[Axier]

Its a shame D20 Modern: Past, isn't SRD... It would be much better for low magic settings...

As for a ranged build. If you want to go hardcore in the low-magic, and feel like the average, you could go ranger, and then ask if you can use a Martial Ranger variant... I think it was actually something I read about in the Rokugan Campagin Setting (Third Party 3.0), but the changes are easy, each level you would gain a spell level, you get a feat. Horrible trade off, but kinda fun if you don't like spellcasting. Also, if you can get him to take a bit of PF, there is a Ranger archetype that gives you some slightly magical things instead of having magical powers. Its called Skirmisher.

However, a solid build would be Rogue for SRD. The sneak attack is limited to 30ft. Though, if you are just looking for distance, Fighter or Ranger really are your best bet.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Swordsage 1/ Soulknife 2/ Swordsage 2/ Soulbow X/ Swordsage Y. You can TWF with Mind Arrows, you can put Lucky on them so each individual arrow that misses gets one reroll for another chance to hit. Take Woodland Archer (RotW) and whatever other archery feats you want.

Say his father is a Soulknife/Soulbow, so you've always got someone to teach you your next class. You could even say your father is a ghost that follows and advises you if you don't expect it to be convenient to go visit him. Ideally you want to start out Swordsage 1 and definitely take Swordsage 3 at 5th level. You could get Swordsage 2 early for the AC bonus, or get it after Soulknife 2 for a 2nd level maneuver instead of another 1st. Get at least Soulbow 4, I'd get at least 6 because you can put Bane on your arrows for whatever creatures you're expecting to find often, otherwise Seeking is probably ideal. You can take more Swordage in between Soulbow levels to have the right initiator level to poach certain maneuvers/stances.

You can even take VoP on this character if you really want to.