Arcane Archer character (not the fighter archetype)

[Elric VIII]

What class works best for an arcane archer character? The fighter archetype really falls flat in my opinion.

My first thought is Eldritch Knight, but that's mostly a fighter with minor magic. I believe that a Valor Bard is probably the best at this with access to extra attack and the ability to pick up hunter's mark. Other than that, I was thinking about a Ranger 5/Sorcerer 15 build to combine quicken spell with an attack routine.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Lombra]

Personally I think that full ranger works well, it's not very arcane since it is more on the martial side, but the archer spells are all on it's list.

[Specter]

Eldritch Knight works fine, especially if you multiclass Sorcerer or Wizard for more spell levels and spells known. I put a sample 'Arcane Archer' build on my EK guide.

But many things can work, really. Ranger/Wizard, Valor Bard/Fighter (or Ranger), the new Warlock with the 'ranged smite' invocation... what do you need from this class to feel good?

[DivisibleByZero]

Personally I think that full ranger works well, it's not very arcane since it is more on the martial side, but the archer spells are all on it's list.

This.
Just tweak the Ranger spell list to include the staple ranger spells and the staple wizard spells. Dunzo.
Then, if you really wanted to, you could homebrew a subclass (or tack in the fighter one). Even more Dunzo.

[NecroDancer]

I'm on board with the ranger, just make their spell casting ability intelligence based and give them some wizard spells in exchange for their Druid spells.

[Iamcreative]

If youre feeling UA, a dex based mystic can do this really well.
Elf mystic, get longbows and if you pick up nomadic arrow they get some sweet damage. Plus you can easily leave int low and just pickup disciplines that dont rely on int.
I guess this isnt technically arcane though.

[Aett_Thorn]

I made one of these recently as a Lore Bard. I know that Valor Bard gets chosen for this kind of thing more often by forum-goers, but I went Lore instead. You get more of the decent Ranger archer spells, and you get them earlier in your career (Level 6 instead of 10). Yes, you lose out on extra attack, but I figure that you'll likely be using the spells more than the attacks anyways as your attacks. If you start off as an Elf, then you automatically have longbow proficiency. Otherwise, you'll probably just end up using shortbow or a light crossbow.

At level 6, you can pick up either Lightning Arrow or Conjure Barrage as well as a decent cantrip if you want, and see if your DM will let you refluff it into you shooting an elemental arrow of some sort (Fire Bolt and Ray of Frost are good choices for this). Then at 10 you can pick up Swift Quiver (for three attacks per round which isn't bad) and Conjure Volley.

[Elric VIII]

Lore bard sound good, too. I guess I was overly focused on the extra attack.

As for making an it based ranger, while it doesn't seem bad alone, it feels munchkin-y if I multiclass wizard to be SAD. I don't really like pure ranger because outside of the spells, the feel of the class is off.

[Dudewithknives]

What class works best for an arcane archer character? The fighter archetype really falls flat in my opinion.

My first thought is Eldritch Knight, but that's mostly a fighter with minor magic. I believe that a Valor Bard is probably the best at this with access to extra attack and the ability to pick up hunter's mark. Other than that, I was thinking about a Ranger 5/Sorcerer 15 build to combine quicken spell with an attack routine.

What are your thoughts on this?

Could go with a Fey Warlock who takes Moonbow.

It is not great in my opinion but it works.

[JAL_1138]

I suppose it depends on what you want out of an arcane archer that the UA archetype doesn't give.

Valor Bard with a level or two of Fighter for Archery Style and Action Surge works quite well for a character who alternates shooting and casting, or (with a limited spell selection) self-buffs to bolster shooting ability.

I'm currently playing a Fighter 1/ Valor Bard 8 with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter. Half-elf, stats are Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16. (Could've gone Vhuman to get the build going sooner, but the stats would likely be the same. A Vhuman who wanted to be a slightly better archer faster could start with 16 Dex, 14 Cha, and Crossbow Expert, take Sharpshooter at Bard 4, and bump Dex to 18 at Bard 8 and leave Cha at 14, but I wouldn't recommend leaving the casting stat that low for that long. Half-elf worked out fine). Likely taking another level of Fighter at some point to pick up Action Surge. Next ASI is going to Dex.

I have a +2 Hand Crossbow, which is huge for the character's ability to use Sharpshooter effectively. My default combat approach is to cast Greater Invisibility on myself and then make three Sharpshooter attacks with Advantage and +6 to hit after the -5. Greater Invisibility also improves my survivability quite a bit, since attacks against me tend to be at Disadvantage.

Before I hit Bard 10, I'm going to do some number-crunching to see whether I'd be better off continuing to use Greater Invisibility, or picking up either Elemental Weapon or Swift Quiver. Elemental Weapon adds extra damage dice with selectable damage type to target enemy vulnerabilities, but can't be used with the +2 crossbow (although it can provide a +2 to-hit bonus to a nonmagical crossbow, for the same accuracy boost). Swift Quiver grants an extra shot per round, which could add between 16 and 21 damage (with the potential to crit) for as many rounds as Greater Invisibility, but doesn't put most attackers at Disadvantage or grant me Advantage like Greater Invisibility does. Then again, I'm getting to the levels where enemies start having the ability to detect invisible characters. Sadly all three options are Concentration and can't stack.

When not self-buffing, I can control enemies with spells like Hypnotic Pattern or Hold Person, turn the party's Fighter into a T-Rex via Polymorph, or be a half-decent healer.

[Kane0]

Like this?
http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2015/06/arcane-archer.html?m=1
I'm going to be using a different version in an upcoming game but this seems okay to try.

[Zman]

Dip Warlock for Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast, then Ranger +. Fluff EB as arrow shooting.

Custom Pactkeepers Rod that looks like a bow, etc.

[McNinja]

What class works best for an arcane archer character? The fighter archetype really falls flat in my opinion.

My first thought is Eldritch Knight, but that's mostly a fighter with minor magic. I believe that a Valor Bard is probably the best at this with access to extra attack and the ability to pick up hunter's mark. Other than that, I was thinking about a Ranger 5/Sorcerer 15 build to combine quicken spell with an attack routine.

What are your thoughts on this?

Archfey Bladelock using the Moon Bow Invocation. Could go Bladelock 3/Sorc or bard 17 for some 9th level 18d8 smiting.

[Biggstick]

I suppose it depends on what you want out of an arcane archer that the UA archetype doesn't give.

Valor Bard with a level or two of Fighter for Archery Style and Action Surge works quite well for a character who alternates shooting and casting, or (with a limited spell selection) self-buffs to bolster shooting ability.

I'm currently playing a Fighter 1/ Valor Bard 8 with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter. Half-elf, stats are Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16. (Could've gone Vhuman to get the build going sooner, but the stats would likely be the same. A Vhuman who wanted to be a slightly better archer faster could start with 16 Dex, 14 Cha, and Crossbow Expert, take Sharpshooter at Bard 4, and bump Dex to 18 at Bard 8 and leave Cha at 14, but I wouldn't recommend leaving the casting stat that low for that long. Half-elf worked out fine). Likely taking another level of Fighter at some point to pick up Action Surge. Next ASI is going to Dex.

I have a +2 Hand Crossbow, which is huge for the character's ability to use Sharpshooter effectively. My default combat approach is to cast Greater Invisibility on myself and then make three Sharpshooter attacks with Advantage and +6 to hit after the -5. Greater Invisibility also improves my survivability quite a bit, since attacks against me tend to be at Disadvantage.

Before I hit Bard 10, I'm going to do some number-crunching to see whether I'd be better off continuing to use Greater Invisibility, or picking up either Elemental Weapon or Swift Quiver. Elemental Weapon adds extra damage dice with selectable damage type to target enemy vulnerabilities, but can't be used with the +2 crossbow (although it can provide a +2 to-hit bonus to a nonmagical crossbow, for the same accuracy boost). Swift Quiver grants an extra shot per round, which could add between 16 and 21 damage (with the potential to crit) for as many rounds as Greater Invisibility, but doesn't put most attackers at Disadvantage or grant me Advantage like Greater Invisibility does. Then again, I'm getting to the levels where enemies start having the ability to detect invisible characters. Sadly all three options are Concentration and can't stack.

When not self-buffing, I can control enemies with spells like Hypnotic Pattern or Hold Person, turn the party's Fighter into a T-Rex via Polymorph, or be a half-decent healer.

Those first 9 levels must have been tough. Not being able to shoot past 30' sounds absolutely brutal on a range focused Valor Bard. Unless you went Sharpshooter first, that's much easier to deal with, as a Longbow is much more effective imo in keeping that range.

Speaking of range, Greater Invisibility is a spell that definitely benefits from decent range. Most creatures True Sight doesn't extend past 120'. If you're using Greater Invisibility with a Longbow and using Sharpshooter from 125' away from the target, you will have advantage on the attack roll as the creature is not within the 120' necessary to see you with their true sight. Just something to ponder when making these considerations on what kind of weapon/tactic to use when doing damage.

I also noticed you have spells like Hold Person and Hypnotic Pattern. I know when I've played Valor Bard (twice now, one made it to level 9, the other to level 11. The level 11 one had a Fighter dip where as the other did not), I didn't have room to grab those spells as I went for a bit more utility on my Bard. Enhance Ability, Lesser Restoration, Silence, Dispel Magic (great for dealing with creatures casting Invisibility or Fly on themselves), Tongues, etc, all seemed to suck up the spell slots for me. Like you though, I also took Greater Invisibility and Polymorph, and absolutely loved the change in playstyle from a support-ish Bard to a pretty solid damage dealing one from 500'+ away. Have you noticed any loss of effectiveness by only having offensively focused spells?

For the OP. I would absolutely recommend Valor Bard if you're looking to play an Arcane Archer. They have full spell casting progression, get two attacks, can pick/choose spells to augment their attacks or self-buff to increase ranged effectiveness (Swift Quiver/Greater Invisibility/Fly from magical secrets), and they're pretty solid at everything else. Based on your spell selection, you can be an Arcane Archer during combat and then whatever else the party needs outside of it.

[JAL_1138]

Those first 9 levels must have been tough. Not being able to shoot past 30' sounds absolutely brutal on a range focused Valor Bard. Unless you went Sharpshooter first, that's much easier to deal with, as a Longbow is much more effective imo in keeping that range.

Speaking of range, Greater Invisibility is a spell that definitely benefits from decent range. Most creatures True Sight doesn't extend past 120'. If you're using Greater Invisibility with a Longbow and using Sharpshooter from 125' away from the target, you will have advantage on the attack roll as the creature is not within the 120' necessary to see you with their true sight. Just something to ponder when making these considerations on what kind of weapon/tactic to use when doing damage.

I also noticed you have spells like Hold Person and Hypnotic Pattern. I know when I've played Valor Bard (twice now, one made it to level 9, the other to level 11. The level 11 one had a Fighter dip where as the other did not), I didn't have room to grab those spells as I went for a bit more utility on my Bard. Enhance Ability, Lesser Restoration, Silence, Dispel Magic (great for dealing with creatures casting Invisibility or Fly on themselves), Tongues, etc, all seemed to suck up the spell slots for me. Like you though, I also took Greater Invisibility and Polymorph, and absolutely loved the change in playstyle from a support-ish Bard to a pretty solid damage dealing one from 500'+ away. Have you noticed any loss of effectiveness by only having offensively focused spells?

For the OP. I would absolutely recommend Valor Bard if you're looking to play an Arcane Archer. They have full spell casting progression, get two attacks, can pick/choose spells to augment their attacks or self-buff to increase ranged effectiveness (Swift Quiver/Greater Invisibility/Fly from magical secrets), and they're pretty solid at everything else. Based on your spell selection, you can be an Arcane Archer during combat and then whatever else the party needs outside of it.

My VB is a League character, so I haven't been able to really specialize or predict party composition (and League modules tend toward combat-heavy anyway). In the party I'm in for Storm King's Thunder, I'm the main arcane caster--if I didn't have some combat spells like Hypnotic Pattern, we'd have been flat-out thrashed by groups of giants several times now. At other tables, the party might have three arcane casters besides me, leaving me room to more readily pop Greater Invisibility and commence to shooting instead of dividing my attention between damage and battlefield control.

The relatively few spells known (11 at Bard 8) has been a tough limit, but I've managed to squeeze in some utility and healing as well.

1st level: Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Comprehend Languages, Healing Word
2nd level: Shatter, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration
3rd level: Hypnotic Pattern, Leomund's Tiny Hut
4th level: Greater Invisibility, Polymorph

Not ideal, but a reasonable selection of offense, healing, and utility given the limited spells known. I'd sort of like to get rid of Shatter and pick up Dispel Magic now that I can attack up to three enemies for more damage than Shatter typically deals fairly reliably, and probably will at my next Bard level. It does scale ok, and it's my only direct-damage spell, though, so I may hang onto it. Trying to pick spells known makes me miss my Cleric character...

As for range, I've never had an encounter at the kind of uber-long ranges you mention. League adventures often aren't written to even have the potential for it, but even in hardcovers a lot of DMs I've played with pretty much keep the ranges limited to what can fit on a large-ish battle-mat relatively easily. At any rate, I need to stick close enough to the party to be able to cast Hypnotic Pattern (120ft), Healing Word (60ft), or get to within 5ft of another party member in a reasonable time if I need to drop a Lesser Restoration (touch) on someone, so I likely wouldn't back off too far even if I wasn't focusing on using the hand crossbow.

[DivisibleByZero]

As for range, I've never had an encounter at the kind of uber-long ranges you mention. League adventures often aren't written to even have the potential for it, but even in hardcovers a lot of DMs I've played with pretty much keep the ranges limited to what can fit on a large-ish battle-mat relatively easily. .

Exactly. Most games have extremely few opportunities for ranges like he's talking about. It's theorycraft, white room stuff.
You might be able to take advantage of it maybe a couple of times in your entire adventuring career if you're not playing Dark Sun or something similar.

[Biggstick]

My VB is a League character, so I haven't been able to really specialize or predict party composition (and League modules tend toward combat-heavy anyway). In the party I'm in for Storm King's Thunder, I'm the main arcane caster--if I didn't have some combat spells like Hypnotic Pattern, we'd have been flat-out thrashed by groups of giants several times now. At other tables, the party might have three arcane casters besides me, leaving me room to more readily pop Greater Invisibility and commence to shooting instead of dividing my attention between damage and battlefield control.

The relatively few spells known (11 at Bard 8) has been a tough limit, but I've managed to squeeze in some utility and healing as well.

1st level: Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Comprehend Languages, Healing Word
2nd level: Shatter, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration
3rd level: Hypnotic Pattern, Leomund's Tiny Hut
4th level: Greater Invisibility, Polymorph

Not ideal, but a reasonable selection of offense, healing, and utility given the limited spells known. I'd sort of like to get rid of Shatter and pick up Dispel Magic now that I can attack up to three enemies for more damage than Shatter typically deals fairly reliably, and probably will at my next Bard level. It does scale ok, and it's my only direct-damage spell, though, so I may hang onto it. Trying to pick spells known makes me miss my Cleric character...

As for range, I've never had an encounter at the kind of uber-long ranges you mention. League adventures often aren't written to even have the potential for it, but even in hardcovers a lot of DMs I've played with pretty much keep the ranges limited to what can fit on a large-ish battle-mat relatively easily. At any rate, I need to stick close enough to the party to be able to cast Hypnotic Pattern (120ft), Healing Word (60ft), or get to within 5ft of another party member in a reasonable time if I need to drop a Lesser Restoration (touch) on someone, so I likely wouldn't back off too far even if I wasn't focusing on using the hand crossbow.

I absolutely love the Dispel Magic spell. Even if it's only used to get rid of Invisibility on something, I think it's an awesome spell to have in the arsenal.

I understand what you mean with the sticking close to the party. I spent a majority of my time as a Valor Bard anywhere from 60-150' away from most combats for a similar reason.


Exactly. Most games have extremely few opportunities for ranges like he's talking about. It's theorycraft, white room stuff.
You might be able to take advantage of it maybe a couple of times in your entire adventuring career if you're not playing Dark Sun or something similar.

Maybe most of your games don't have those opportunities, but the ones I play in do present those opportunities for both the Players and the NPC/Enemies quite often.

Rounding back to JAL, I'm unsure of what STK being ran through AL presents combat-wise. I can tell you that the way I'm running it for my friends is that you're seeing beyond 120'. In fact you're probably seeing things as far as you can see. If you think you see Stone Giants tearing down buildings, you can start firing off Longbow shots once you think you're within 600' of them.

I think the problem Zero here is pointing out happens more often in smaller cramped dungeon type areas. While I agree your standard dungeon or cave might not have the size needed to fully take advantage of the range on Sharpshooter, there are plenty of other places that you will be able to take advantage of the range.

[tieren]

I had a character I loved based on ranger 5/rogue 7/druid 8.

Used druid summons to keep an ally in melee to get SA damage on one of his arrows every round. All Dex/Wis based so not too MAD for a triple class build. Some of the high level ranger stuff (like uncanny dodge or evasion) are low level rogue stuff (like uncanny dodge AND evasion).

Druid levels were grasslands circle so he had haste and invisibility to boot.

[xroads]

Another possibility might be some combinations of Ranger/Cleric (Nature). The nature domain allows you to apply elemental damage to your weapon attacks.

More of a divine archer then an arcane one, but you could probably refluff it to more closely resemble an arcane one.

[Talionis]

Archfey Bladelock using the Moon Bow Invocation. Could go Bladelock 3/Sorc or bard 17 for some 9th level 18d8 smiting.

I'd do Fey Bladelock 5/ Lore Bard 15. If I'm playing all the way through. If I'm playing a high level game Fey Bladelock 3/ Valor Bard 17. Getting a second attack earlier is really helpful and recurring third level spells is nice. But if starting high level eventually getting ninth level spells like Wish is too good.

[Specter]

Whatever happens, you need Fighter or Ranger levels (Archery fighting style) and the Sharpshooter feat, otherwise you're a poor man's archer, arcane or not.

[Zene]

Warlock 2 / Sorcerer X. Take mask of many faces (at-will disguise self) as one of your warlock invocations. Use it to always make your arcane focus staff look like a bow, and the rest of you to look as archer-y and/or as arcane-y as you like. Your eldritch blasts, freezing rays, fireballs, disintegrates, etc all are played like different magic arrows in your quivver. This will give you the most flexibility, most dpr, and most utility compared to any actual archer build.
If you want to go slightly less optimized, you can go warlock 2 / wizard x for more options; or if you can pick up a hat of disguise you can do this with any straight-classed blaster (wizard/warlock/sorcerer/sun monk), no need to multiclass.

[djreynolds]

If you do not mind a 13 in strength and charisma, paladin could be a good archer as they get magic weapon, divine favor and elemental weapon. 9 levels of paladin would give you access to elemental weapon its very good.

So IMO 9 paladin, with some fighter and rogue tossed in.

I'm surprised no one else gets that spell

[JAL_1138]

If you do not mind a 13 in strength and charisma, paladin could be a good archer as they get magic weapon, divine favor and elemental weapon. 9 levels of paladin would give you access to elemental weapon its very good.

So IMO 9 paladin, with some fighter and rogue tossed in.

I'm surprised no one else gets that spell

Valor Bards can pick up Elemental Weapon at 10 (I mentioned it in an earlier post) and get full caster progression, instead of half-caster progression and features that don't work with ranged attacks (Divine Smite only works in melee, and there are only a couple of the bonus-action, concentration-required Smite spells that work with ranged attacks--which only apply to one hit, and often aren't worth the cost unless they're being stacked onto a Divine Smite for a nova round).

A 10th-level Valor Bard taking Elemental Weapon as a Magical Secret can cast it at 5th level as soon as they get it for +2 to hit and +2d4 to damage, whereas a 9th-level Paladin will only be able to cast it at 3rd level for +1 to hit and +1d4 damage. The extra d4 from a 5th-level slot isn't really that important, although it's certainly good--the main thing is using it to offset the accuracy penalty for Sharpshooter, and the extra point of the bonus from the 5th-level casting is pretty significant for that application.

Needing the 13 in Strength to multiclass also adds a bit of extra MADness to a character concept that's already got to juggle Dex, Con, and a casting stat, and typically dumps Strength.

Paladin is a great class, don't get me wrong, but they're really meant for melee.

EDIT: One of the nice things about 5th is that a suboptimal character build can still function somewhat effectively. A paladin that mainly goes ranged won't be totally useless. They've still got some solid spells, healing, and the always-awesome aura features. They just won't be as effective from range as they could be from melee, and won't be as good at the spellcasting side of things as a fullcaster.