artillery advice

[Thevoidlingcat]

Hello forum, im looking into becoming artillery for my group. My current idea has been to take a greatbow, explosive arrows, and as much vision as I can get. Any ideas?

[Crimson Wolf]

I would suggest then feats to help improve accuracy and damage at range or increasing your range. Possibly look into extra damaging arrows with multiple effects as well and if your DM allows it, getting said arrows enchanted even to further their powers. Races of the wild has a few good arrows that add nifty effects. Any and everything though that can add to your bows damage and power would be a great investment item wise as well.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Battle Sorcerer/Arcane Archer/Craigtop Sniper

Shoot from 15 range increments, with no range penalty, using imbue arrow to drop fireballs on groups from over a half-mile away.

Alternatively, ask your DM is Psionic reflavoring of the first two classes are allowed. There's a lot more flexibility in AoE powers in Psionics.

[gomipile]

Craigtop Sniper


It's that like Master Blaster but with an archer riding a half-ogre named Craig?

[nedz]

Warmage or Sorcerer

[KingSmitty]

Warmage or Sorcerer

precisely this, or get skilled at tossing alchemical grenades

[Thevoidlingcat]

I said artillery not grenadier, the better archery possible the better

[DeAnno]

If 2x Range Long (half a mile at 20th level) is sufficient, you are probably best off with a Sorc or similar using Enlarge Spell in some situations. Bow Archery is likely to have similar extreme ranges with lower damage and consistency but without the problem of expending spell slots, if you need to be firing all day.

Boreal Wind (Frostburn) is the quintessential artillery spell, good for clearing out a ton of chafe at extreme range but inefficient for peer opponents.

[Lightlawbliss]

Enchant a colossal balista to self load and fire (assuming your dm considers siege weapons to be sized and not only medium). Sure it's expensive but how scared would you be of 13d8 (not sure I did the size increases correctly: 3d8 medium, 4d8 large, 6d8 huge [2d8x2 becomes 3d8x2], 9d8 gargantuan [2d8x3 becomes 3d8x3], 13d8 colossal [2d8x3+3d8 becomes 3d8x3+4d8])

[backwaterj]

Assuming the concept is mundane, weapon-based artillery, the greatbow is a good start, though I'd consider substituting a longbow to save the feat since the damage/range differences are fairly negligible. Make it composite to match your Strength bonus and enchant the crap out of it. Collision (EPH) gives a flat untyped +5 to damage and any of the "x/x burst" qualities are a good damage booster which scales nicely with multiple attacks.

Point Blank/Precise Shot/Rapid Shot/Manyshot will help any archery build (and rangers get the latter two for free). For longer range, Far Shot and, as you mentioned, good senses. I'd consider Dragonborn with the Mind aspect (RoD) for eventual 120' darkvision and low-light out to four times what a human would have.

If you expect to be in close-range combat, Order of the Bow Initiate (CW) is worth a look, as is Deadeye Shot (PHBII, assuming a sneak attack progression and allies in melee).

[nedz]

Do you want an archer or actual artillery ?

For mundane Archery build a swift hunter: Scout 3-4/Ranger 16-17 with the Swift Hunter feat.
Ignore Order of the Bow Initiate — straight Ranger is better.

Cleric with Zen Archery is also surprisingly good — you trade skills for spells, which is usually a good deal.

If you are not wedded to mundane projectiles then magic will do this better.

A Warlock is an option, probably heading for Eldritch Theurge to add blasts to blasts.

[Thevoidlingcat]

The point would be to "sit" at one spot and continuously rain hell down upon my enemies. Being able to see everything and hit everything from just about any distance is a huge component.