I would like some advice please

[ghostfreak24]

Hi, I am new to the world of D&D and I would love the assistance of those who have been playing this game longer than I have. I would like some advice on what Prestiege classes would be a great idea to dip in for a ranger following the archer path. My DM has us playing a drow game in the under dark and I felt it would be a good idea to take up archery as we already have more than enough close quarter combat types in our great. I've looked at Order of the Bow and Arcane Archer and I can't help but feel a bit of disappointment at what is presented. Please help, I would really like to be a benefit for my team rather than a liability.


Thanks again and much appreciated.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Do you know what books are allowed/banned?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Order of the Bow Initiate in CW is terrible, because you only get the bonus damage when you use a standard action to make an attack, which only gets you one attack for the round. You have to spend a full attack action to make multiple attacks and to use rapid shot, and a full-round action cannot be coupled with a standard or move action (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#fullRoundActions). So you're stuck either gaining that extra damage, or making multiple attacks, and in most cases you would be better off making multiple attacks. It can't even be combined with another attack that takes a standard action, such as Multishot, because you have to pay a separate standard action for each of those.

Your best course of action would be to take three or four levels of the Scout base class in Complete Adventurer, and take the feats Swift Hunter from Complete Scoundrel and Greater Manyshot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#greaterManyshot) from the Expanded Psionics Handbook. After your three or four Scout levels, just keep taking more Ranger levels. You should also try to either acquire or have someone craft the Energy Bow (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a) for you.

[ghostfreak24]

I will be sure to ask my DM what books are and are not allowed. He gave me a list earlier, but it did not save properly on my phone so I am going to get it from him or a friend today. So I will be sure to post it up as quickly as possible.


Now in regards to you Furiou, you make a very convincing argument and the reason why I asked for assistance is because due to events in game. A male player who was playing a female drow made a very foolish mistake which caused the death of four people, me and two others were only able to survive because we were given a choice. Die or be sold into slavery, we took the latter deal. Other events happened, which I can't really bring up accurately sadly is because I was dealing with school. But when I finally did join back in, I was surprised that we assassinated our owner's youngest sister, destroyed a shop owner's business and retrieve some rare flower I cannot remember the name of. I'll have to ask my friends to recount it for me again.


But long to cut a long story short, on one of those adventures I missed one of my friends freed some ancient evil that was bound by five greater gods. An the lord of this creature came to each us in different forms and promised us power beyond our wildest dreams, all we had to do was sign over our souls. I watched 3 people take the deal and were given eight levels and a boon of their choice. We were level 7 at the time. One got a copy of Nerull's scythe with some really sick perks on top of it, basically making him similar to Hidan from Naruto. The others also got cool stuff, but I can't remember at the moment what it was they got. I later found out the person we sold our souls to was Asmodeus, I honestly have no idea what I should get from him as my boon and our DM is lenient so I have time to think on it. I hope that was able to paint a vivid picture of what we're dealing with at the moment. Theres more to add, but my main worry was what should I prestige to in order to be useful and unique in my party, because I have looked into alot of other classes and again I was disappointed. Also what do you honestly believe would be a good enough boon?

[Tiri]

Selling your soul is not a good idea.

[jiriku]

Honestly, when your DM is throwing you eight levels and an artifact as a plot reward, DM candy is a far, far, far more important contributor to your effectiveness than any prestige class available to you. Ask for an solar's bow (the solar is the big angel in MM1), but enchanted up to +5 with the splitting power and automatic bane against all creature types, plus maybe the ability to strike accurately regardless of winds or weather. Grab yourself that feat from PH2 that lets your arrows blow a hole through enemies so they turn into line attacks, and you'll be hitting probably 6-10 targets per round, dealing a crapton of bonus damage to all of them, and forcing them all to save or just die outright (but the save DC is low enough that boss monsters are still tough fights for you). I'm pretty sure that bow will keep you relevant and interesting regardless of what class you choose.

I'll second Biff's recommendation on the ranger/scout with Swift Hunter. Maybe enchant your bow as a magic staff, too (it's a stick, after all, that's shaped kinda like a staff), with 50 charges and the ability to throw a variety of the swift-action ranger spells that are useful in combat. Higher-level ranger spells actually give you some pretty cool tricks like sneak attack dice, automatic critical hits, and free attacks against every enemy near you. Check out Spell Compendium to see the best ranger spells. Honestly, a game like you're describing is mostly run by Rule of Cool, so don't worry about the details much. Just have fun!