Archer Duskblade?

[ReD_Exorcist]

Hey there starting a campaign with a friend. I wanted to do some kind of archer vigilante. I was originally going with the idea of playing a fighter for all the juicy bonus feats. Then I was looking at the duskblade and I thought to myself, how cool would it be if I played a archer duskblade vigilante. Only problem is that I can't channel my spells into my arrows. Does anyone know of a feat that I could take to make this possible?

[gorfnab]

Here is a build you might be able to use: Susan the Duskblade Arcane Archer (3rd post down, by carnivore) (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=525.20)

[JohnDaBarr]

See if you can houserule it, this won't break the game and you'll get what you want.

If someone argues that allowing touch spells to be delivers from distance is to much OP remind them that such class already exists and does not need a bow to operate. (Spellwarp Sniper)

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've fiddle with that one once or twice. The really tempting thing is the combination of full BAB and all Knowledge skills-- Knowledge Devotion is real nice on an archer, even without any other tricks, and Arcane Channeling lets you pitch-hit melee effectively without any wasted resources. I came up with two approaches to the build:

Technique 1: Fake Wizard
At first level, take Magical Training (PGtF) and Versatile Spellcasting. Magical Training gets you a spellbook, and the ability to use it for first level spells. Versatile Spellcaster lets you sacrifice your own spell slots to power higher-level spells from the spellbook. It costs lots of slots, but if there's one thing Duskblades are good at, it's having more spells/day than they know what to do with. Use your spellbook to pick up standard gish-y and archery-focused buffs, take Knowledge Devotion at 3rd and go to town.


Variant: Ancestral Relic Runstaff
I've seen this one tossed around the forums once or twice before as a trick for spontaneous casters. Runestaffs, from the Magic Item Compendium, let you convert your own slots into certain pre-programmed spells a few times per day. Ancestral Relic gives you a magic item that you can power up by sacrificing wealth to it. Grab a Runestaff with some spells in it with the feat. Now pray and sacrifice to change them to different spells of the same (or lower) level. The price is the same (or lower) so you don't need to actually take time or use up wealth. Presto, you just changed your spells known!


Technique 2: Dipping
Use standard spells-known expanding options like Sandshaper and Mage of the Arcane Order to get access to more useful spells. Ideally you'll want classes that don't need much investment, since you don't want to lose too much BAB.

For both options, you might consider taking a few levels of Abjurant Champion. You qualify pretty much effortlessly, and while you don't have much in the way of abjurations, you've got tons of spell slots to dump into Arcane Boost. ("Why yes, I would like to give up one of my ten second level spells for +4 damage on all six of my ranged attacks this round, thank you very much")

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Get an Elvencraft Composite Longbow, in Races of the Wild, which counts as both a quarterstaff and a longbow. You'll need to get masterwork three times for it, but you can also put three wand chambers from Dungeonscape in it. You can make it an Ancestral Relic Runestaff (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?267805-Sorcerer-Handbook#4), and use that to upgrade the bow portion as well to something like an Energy Bow (archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a). Consider investing in UMD or get a Sorcerer dip and put a Wand of Wings of Cover in one of those wand chambers, it's still an immediate action to activate that per the Rules Compendium.

[Petrocorus]

Hey there starting a campaign with a friend. I wanted to do some kind of archer vigilante. I was originally going with the idea of playing a fighter for all the juicy bonus feats. Then I was looking at the duskblade and I thought to myself, how cool would it be if I played a archer duskblade vigilante. Only problem is that I can't channel my spells into my arrows. Does anyone know of a feat that I could take to make this possible?

What level do you start at?
What level do you expect to reach?
What books are allowed? What notable books are forbidden?

And are fixed on the Duskblade class? Because as good as it seems at first look, it has been spoiled (in the bad way) by its very poor spells list.
My advice would rather be: (Arcane Hunter) Ranger 1 / Fighter 2 / (fighting (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard)) Wizard 2 / Spellsword 1 / Abjurant Champion 1 / Arcane Archer 2 /

The Arcane Archer's Imbue Arrow ability is the only one i know that allows to channel spell with a ranged weapon.


Get an Elvencraft Composite Longbow, in Races of the Wild, which counts as both a quarterstaff and a longbow. You'll need to get masterwork three times for it, but you can also put three wand chambers from Dungeonscape in it.

Why do you need to get masterwork three time for it?

[DrMotives]

Point out that touch spells can be delivered with the Spectral Hand spell from the PH. Allowing duskblades to do so with arrows isn't a huge stretch.

[WeaselGuy]

Why do you need to get masterwork three time for it?

A wand chamber can only be added to a masterwork weapon.
Each portion of a Composite Elvencraft Longbow can be enchanted separately, once each for each end of the quarterstaff and once for the bow (3 total). This includes the Masterwork "property".

also,

Here is a build you might be able to use: Susan the Duskblade Arcane Archer (3rd post down, by carnivore) (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=525.20)

I like that build, and maybe someone else got all nitpicky with it in the 12 other pages of discussion, but how exactly does a Duskblade 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Arcane Archer 10 get CL20? as far as I can tell, it only has 10 levels of caster progression...

Still a fun build, though.

[Deox]

but how exactly does a Duskblade 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Arcane Archer 10 get CL20? as far as I can tell, it only has 10 levels of caster progression...

Abjurant Champion 5 sets your caster level equal to your base attack bonus. Since your BAB is 20 (at 20th), your CL is set to 20.

[WeaselGuy]

Abjurant Champion 5 sets your caster level equal to your base attack bonus. Since your BAB is 20 (at 20th), your CL is set to 20.

derp. Thanks.

[ReD_Exorcist]

I am starting at level 3, we are planning to reach level 15 at most, The miniatures handbook, psionic and Librium Mortes are the only books that I can think of that are banned.