Would letting duskblades channel through ranged attacks be too much?

[Rossebay]

I have a player that wants to be an Arcane Archer of sorts. We all know how much D&D ignores archery, so I'm trying to find some sort of build to make it functional. Mystic Ranger sort of works, but it just cuts off on scaling in a weird spot so I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I wouldn't be opposed to SotAOMR, but that doesn't have any sort of ranged channel and doesn't make efficient use of turn economy.

So I figured letting Duskblades channel through ranged, or at least setting up some sort of Elf Dusblade racial levels might not be too bad.

Would that put him a little over the edge? Are there any interactions I should watch out for? Does it interact oddly with things like Rapidshot or Multishot?

Edit: I'd probably reduce his ability to cast in armor by one, so he couldn't cast in armor until level 4 (and even then, only light).

[Zweisteine]

This depends on the rest of the party. If he's with a Rogue, a Fighter, and a Healbot, he might* be quite overpowered. If he's with a CoDzilla, an optimized Wizard, and an effective Sorcerer, he'll still be weakest.

*I really have no clue.

[Immabozo]

Offhand, I would say If it's ok for melee, its ok at ranged (of course not things like cleave and PA) because the damage difference between the two is very little, the only difference, in my eyes, is the whole ranged aspect.

Which, granted, can get pretty annoying

(that one DM... I am looking at you)

[ojayaba]

also keep in mind that some spells having a range of what ever the ranged weapon they are using could prove to be very disturbing...

[strangebloke]

Obviously a duskbow will be somewhat superior to a duskblade, but I'm not aware of anything really broken that you could do with this.

Still, you're making all of the duskblade's touch attacks be ranged touch attacks, which is basically like giving him reach metamagic for free. I'm sure that there are potential abuses there somewhere, but I'm not that familiar with the duskblade spell list.

As to the manyshot/rapidshot thing. Manyshot is used to get extra attacks in a standard action. Arcane channeling (until 13th level) only delivers the the touch attack through your weapon, so additional attacks deal normal damage. Rapidshot, in combination with full-attack arcane channeling, would allow your spell to be channeled one additional time, which is powerful but not overpowered IMO.

I'd say go for it. You may want to reserve the right to ban specific spells though. Balance aside, some of the options could get silly.

[Urpriest]

You might want to make only Ranged Touch spells be channelable in this way. It would at least give the Duskblade some use for them, since they can't be channeled through their class features.

[Big Fau]

You might want to make only Ranged Touch spells be channelable in this way. It would at least give the Duskblade some use for them, since they can't be channeled through their class features.

Full attack Disintegrate channeling!

[Rossebay]

Full attack Disintegrate channeling!

Oh dear, haha.

I don't know that I'd ever be dealing with that, though.

BUT, Duskbow doesn't sound too strong. I'd let him channel Touch and Ranged Touch.
Then when he went Arcane Archer, he'd be able to channel most of his spells, so that'd be fun for him.

I still feel like he was going for more of a fireball-wielding mage/archer than the normal duskblade "all touch all the time" style, sadly.

[Emperor Tippy]

It should be fine.

Although Factotum 8/ Decisive Strike Invisible Fist Martial Monk 2/ Targetteer Fighter 1/ Ardent 2/ Arcane Archer 2/ Rogue 1/ Exemplar 1/ Mindbender 1/ Swordsage 2 makes a surprisingly good arcane archer type character with just a bit of refluffing.

[Rossebay]

It should be fine.

Although Factotum 8/ Decisive Strike Invisible Fist Martial Monk 2/ Targetteer Fighter 1/ Ardent 2/ Arcane Archer 2/ Rogue 1/ Exemplar 1/ Mindbender 1/ Swordsage 2 makes a surprisingly good arcane archer type character with just a bit of refluffing.

That is wayyy too much information for me to put together all at once.

What's the main shtick there?

[IAmTehDave]

As to the manyshot/rapidshot thing. Manyshot is used to get extra attacks in a standard action. Arcane channeling (until 13th level) only delivers the the touch attack through your weapon, so additional attacks deal normal damage. Rapidshot, in combination with full-attack arcane channeling, would allow your spell to be channeled one additional time, which is powerful but not overpowered IMO.

Manyshot couldn't be used with Arcane Channeling, as each one is its own specific standard action.
Arcane Channeling also can't be used as part of a full attack until level 13, as it is, as stated, a Standard Action. (You attack and cast a spell as part of the standard action)

At level 13, however, you can use Rapid Shot to full attack channel, adding Vampiric Touch (A damn good HP damage spell for Duskblade, and the bread-and-butter one, AFAIK) to each shot. A Swift Hunter build at that level can do roughly the same (IIRC) as long as they take a 10-foot step (high DC Tumble check, or Travel Devotion) and also have better AC from skirmish.

Also: Duskblade cannot channel ranged touch spells. So no full attack disintegrates.

With this you'd be better off sticking Duskbow and continuing your casting progression than going Arcane Archer and...er...treating your bow as a +x weapon? You're still a ranged attacker with bow-delivered magic.

[QUOTE=Emperor Tippy;16783877Although Factotum 8/ Decisive Strike Invisible Fist Martial Monk 2/ Targetteer Fighter 1/ Ardent 2/ Arcane Archer 2/ Rogue 1/ Exemplar 1/ Mindbender 1/ Swordsage 2 makes a surprisingly good arcane archer type character with just a bit of refluffing.[/QUOTE]

The main schtick there is Tippy optimization.

[Emperor Tippy]

That is wayyy too much information for me to put together all at once.

What's the main shtick there?

Factotum 8 gets all skills as class skills, Int to attack and damage, Int to all Str and Dex checks (including all linked skill checks and Initiative, Int to AC when desired, the ability to nova a single attack as an incredibly powerful sneak attack, and (most importantly) the ability to take (potentially) up to a dozen plus Standard actions in one round.

Rogue 1 at first level nets you 8 additional skill points over Factotum and picks you up always on sneak attack which unquestionably qualifies you for the feat Craven.

Invisible Fist Martial Monk gets effectively greater invisibility one round in four and two fighter bonus feats of his choice without having to meet the prerequisites for them. This means Weapon Supremacy at (potentially) level 1. It also gets you Int to AC with the feat Kung Fu Genius.

Targetteer Fighter gets to trade his bonus feat at first level for Dex to damage on ranged attack rolls.

Ardent 2 with the Magic Mantle lets you (potentially) get 9th level powers out of those two levels and, potentially, can get you all of the spells and powers in the game onto your list of Powers Known.

Arcane Archer 2 gets you Imbue Arrow. You qualify for it thanks to Magic Mantle Ardent and then get to do things like shoot antimagic fields at your enemies. Make them selective and one of your party members can enter the field without being effected by it.

Mindbender 1 gets 100 ft. telepathy and thus qualifies you for Mindsight.

Exemplar 1 gets you Skill Mastery in 1+Int mod skills and thus lets you take 10 on them forever more.

Swordsage 2 gets you Assassin's Stance for +2d6 sneak attack damage and the other nice abilities it gives but these levels can easily be replaced by pretty much whatever else is desired.

[lsfreak]

That is wayyy too much information for me to put together all at once.

What's the main shtick there?

Iirc the main thing is the Decisive Strike monk and Factotum. Go into melee, make a single attack (while invisible from Invisible Fist), then blow your load on Cunning Surge for as many extra standard actions as you can take. Use them all on double-damage Manyshots. Everything else is support on that basic theme.

[Emperor Tippy]

Iirc the main thing is the Decisive Strike monk and Factotum. Go into melee, make a single attack (while invisible from Invisible Fist), then blow your load on Cunning Surge for as many extra standard actions as you can take. Use them all on double-damage Manyshots. Everything else is support on that basic theme.

Yeah but Decisive Strike isn't actually necessary.

It's nice extra damage but you are still firing off five+ attacks that each deal +50 or so damage and are each at full AB. Oh yes, and each have a spell of one sort or another as a rider.

If you want to focus on the Arcane Archer bit actually then you dump one level of Monk and the two levels of Swordsage for three more of Factotum so that you get Cunning Breach and can do things like fire SR: No fireballs. Doing it with Energy Burst is quite fun. Metapower: Maximize and Metapower: Twin to maximize and double the damage dealt for +4 PP total. At 19 PP you are dealing 180+ SR: No damage of whatever energy type you chose in a 40 ft. radius around where your arrow hits.

Use Midnight Augmentation Bestow Power to regain all your PP outside of combat and you are golden.

[Invader]

This depends on the rest of the party. If he's with a Rogue, a Fighter, and a Healbot, he might* be quite overpowered. If he's with a CoDzilla, an optimized Wizard, and an effective Sorcerer, he'll still be weakest.

*I really have no clue.

Even if he's with a completely unoptimized cleric, wizard, and sorcerer, he'd still be the weakest, I say go for it.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You might want to make only Ranged Touch spells be channelable in this way. It would at least give the Duskblade some use for them, since they can't be channeled through their class features.
I'd do this one, yeah.