Anybody play Arcane Archer?

[bc56]

So, does anyone play as Xanathar's Arcane Archer subclass? It seems rather niche, and not as generally useful, with restrictive fluff. Any thoughts?

[MaxWilson]

So, does anyone play as Xanathar's Arcane Archer subclass? It seems rather niche, and not as generally useful, with restrictive fluff. Any thoughts?

In theory, its good points are the bonus action attack on a miss, magic weapons with no concentration cost, and magic arrows with no action cost. I kind of want to play with an Arcane Archer 11/Shepherd Druid 9 Mobile Sharpshooter who conjures a bunch of meat shields and then headshots enemies from the back line. You'd have weak AC but strong offense.

Anyway, Arcane Archer is better than it looks at first glance, because at first glance you notice the magic arrows since three have so much rules text, and the magic arrows by themselves are lackluster. But that's only half the AA package.

[ImproperJustice]

As it was said above, it’s worth noting the AA is still built on the fighter chasis, which is a strong foundation.
You will still hit hard, accurately, and often.
Using action surge to unleash a volley of arrows is intense on its own.

[Laserlight]

One of the players in my most recent campaign ran an Arcane Archer; the others were a battlemaster, monk/rogue, champion and moon druid. The AA generally stayed in back, pumped out shots, and did fine on the damage front.

[PeteNutButter]

One of the players in my AL game is playing one. He uses it as a typical SS V Human, and does quite well. He saves his arrows for crits mostly or if a short rest is expected, he just spams them. It's not quite as effective as BM with precision attack, but it can hit hard if you land crit arrows. The level 7 ability is quite strong and synergizes amazingly with SS, where several fighter subclasses get a weaker feature at that level.

Overall I say it's balanced and not underpowered like people thought, although maybe a little less fun to play, since you only get 2 arrows/rest.

[Lawful Good]

I dont really like it, mostly because I feel you can accomplish the same concept with an Eldritch Knight.

[Throne12]

I dont really like it, mostly because I feel you can accomplish the same concept with an Eldritch Knight.

Have you played both they don't feel at all the same.

[Throne12]

I had a AA player and with a Mercer's gunslinger. It keep up with the gunslinger TWF with two d10 pistols. There is more to it then what you see on paper. That's why I hate these white room bull.

[Nettlekid]

Which are the best Arcane Shot options? So many of them do little to nothing on a save, and for such a limited resource you really want to make the most of it. For that reason I like the look of the Bursting Arrow, which does some solid AoE bonus damage with no option to save, and Grasping Arrow which does some easily resisted damage and then some repeated damage along with a debuff unless someone wastes their action, which sounds pretty worth it. As far as the Save-or-Suck arrows go the best one looks like the Shadow Arrow, because if it takes then you open up to an Action Surge nova of shots with advantage.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Haven't had the chance to play one yet but i imagine its pretty fun.


I like the idea of Ranger/AA or AT/AA which might help with the feeling of not lot of arcane shots.

But that might be a non issue for some. Fighter is really strong chassis and AA is at worst decent and at best amazing so it works out in play more than in theory.

I wish Blade singer was something you could add on top of it but doesn't synergize.