Aa/wiz/ek/ranger

[Jaredh5432]

Hey I'm starting a new character from level one and I want him to be a arcan archer, ranger, wizard , Eldridge knight :p any advice?

[Forrestfire]

What sources do you have access to, and do you require all four of those classes to be used? What about a character who hits the important parts of that combination?

[Urpriest]

Yeah, there are good ways to build with Arcane Archer, and there are good Wizard gish builds (gish is a term for melee arcane casters), but you won't necessarily use all of those classes together in a typical build.

[Flickerdart]

Minimize the amount of Ranger and Arcane Archer levels. The Arcane Archer's only useful ability is gained at level 2, and the Ranger gives you nothing at all except proficiencies, so your build will probably look something like one of two things.

The most BAB build: Ranger 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 3/Arcane Archer 2/Eldritch Knight 7/full casting class 2 (more wizard, Loremaster, Archmage, whatever you feel like). This lets you get into your PrCs as soon as possible, finishing you off with +16 BAB and thus four iterative attacks, but only 16th level wizard casting (so no 9th level spells).

The most spells build: Wizard 12/Arcane Archer 2/Eldritch Knight 6. This gives you 17th level wizard casting (9th level spells are so worth it) but only +14 BAB, so you miss out on the final iterative attack. To make up for it, cast shapechange and turn into a choker, which gives you an extra standard action per round. This lets you make a full attack and use Imbue Arrow in the same round, every round.

[Jaredh5432]

What sources do you have access to, and do you require all four of those classes to be used? What about a character who hits the important parts of that combination?

All sources.. Shoot your ideas!

[Tar Palantir]

The first thing I would ask yourself is what you want your character to do. Arcane Archer in particular doesn't make you any better at spellcasting despite being a wizard prestige class, and Eldritch Knight requires at least 5 levls of wizard to enter. If you want to be a wizard who uses a bow, I'd ditch AA entirely, probably doing something like Ranger2/Wizard5/EldritchKnight10/+Wizard3 (The first 7 levels can be mix-and-matched as preferred, but the Ranger first gets you Rapid Shot so you can start grabbing archery feats earlier). If you don't care about casting so much, save EK for the end and do something more like Wizard 1/Ranger6/AA10/EK3. The first build is most likely stronger, just because magic makes the world go 'round in 3.5, but the second is simpler to play and more archer-y. Your preference.

[Flickerdart]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284283) would probably be a useful thread for you to check out if you're flexible about the sort of magic archer you want.

[gorfnab]

Bard 8/ Arcane Archer 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Ruathar 3