bard arcane archer build

[shendelzar]

[PATHFINDER ONLY]

Hi all,
I'm working on a character concept for a friend of mine. He wants to play an Bard Archer... It gives him the options to heal and help patch people up, while still staying relevant with ranged combat.

I've read Treantmonks guide to bards and he mentions that arcane archer is a pretty powerful prestige for the archer concept. Ive also read several forums of people saying they've played Bard8/AA10 before, but no-one has shown sample builds or tips... Im hoping someone can chime in with some advice to the build I created.


Human
str 14 dex 17 con 12 int 10 wis 7 cha 14

so far what I have is Arcane Duelist Bard 8 / Arcane Archer 10
Feats:
Human: Point blank
1: precise shot
Bard Free feat at 1st: arcane strike
Bard Free feat at 2nd : combat casting
3: rapid shot
5: deadly aim
Bard Free Feat at 6th : disruptive
7: wep focus
9: manyshot
11: cluster shots
13: hammer the gap

This is as far as i've gotten really...
Im also not sure what spells synergize well with imbue arrow. Bard seems to lack AOE non buffing spells? Anyone have anything creative to imbue and shoot that doesn't already have a range of 100's of ft?

[Geddy2112]

Looks solid so far. Might want to look into the snap shot feat chain, particularly since you get disruptive as a bonus feat. Also, elf might be a good choice for longbow proficiency, or maybe retrain weapon focus from shortbow to longbow once you are in Arcane archer, so you can do more damage and have more range.

And yes, bard/AA is a very very strong build.

Imbue arrow makes AoE spells very powerful, and you can imbue any AoE, including cones and self centered spells. If you are not worried about the damage, aim for a square(AC 5) and get the AoE off. This means that shooting your bow out to max range, even with the -10, gives you more range than any medium ranged spell will have at level 20. And with an AC of 5 a target is still going to be hit on anything but a natural 1 by higher levels. Obviously long range spells won't matter.
Some good spells:
Level 1-Grease
Level 2- Blistering invective, Glitterdust, Silence, Calm Emotions, Haunting Mists
Level 3-Confusion, Fear, Slow, Vision of Hell
Level 4-Shadow Conjuration, Rainbow Pattern
Level 5-Archon's Trumpet, Greater Dispel magic, Mind Fog, Shadow Evocation
Level 6-Fool's Forbiddance, waves of ecstasy.

With shadow conjuration and evocation, you can cover a wide array of lower level anythings.

[shendelzar]

With starting with a CHA of 14 - do you think his DCs are going to be too low for some of these enchantment AoEs as well as the shadow ____ spells? would you recommend boosting CHA every 4 levels with his ability increase or boosting DEX ?

[Geddy2112]

It depends- if you want to make your build based around casting AoE spells through arrows, you should probably bump your charisma. If you just wanna shoot arrows and have the option, a 14 is not terrible. Certainly the lower level spells won't have as much zazzle at higher levels, but they are more icing on the cake to shooting an arrow AND casting a spell. It is a great option to have, and those are good spells to pair with it(many spells you might consider anyways). Also, things like blistering invective work despite a save, as the fire damage is based on an intimidation check(a skill you likely have maxed) and the save is just against catching on fire and burning further rounds.

I would put my first bump into dex to round it out to 18, then probably the remaining bumps into charisma. You can get a belt for dex and a headband for cha. If you want to use your spells a bit more, a spell focus(illusion) or spell focus(enchantment) feat is doable, but not required. Cha boosting is good should you get to level 10 in AA and get the slayers arrow, as it key's off CHA.

Treat imbue arrow as a tool in your kit, and have at least 1 spell at each level that you can use it with, but you don't need to base your build off of it.