"Eldritch Archer"- Character concept/build advice

[Phithis]

I'm wanting to build a Warlock archer that will multi-class after 5th level. I know this isn't necessarily "optimal" before anyone says that. I want it to be viable, but mainly I thought it'd be fun. So, the idea is 13 in charisma to meet the minimum for multi-classing. I won't need higher as I'm not taking spells requiring saves (caveat: unless the multi-class recommendations are for Cha based classes). I will go Hexblade with Pact of the Blade-->Improved Pact Weapon-->Thirsting Blade. This gets me to longbow and two attacks per. My highest score will be in Dex. I know I could use Cha, but I want a decent dex for AC anyway. So, that's the idea. Basically, I need advice regarding possible multi-class options and race suggestions. Thanks!

[Azgeroth]

can you give us a little more about the concept?? you said eldritch archer. what does that actually mean???

are you just planning on using a longbow, but want some of the warlock flavour? (as in, the invocations?)

what else do you picture this character being able to do?? whats the motive/even that drove this character to eldritch power, and why are they not pursuing it further??

is this a militant type character (sneaky, anti-establishment type)? arcane focused? do they hold to some ideal? seek vengeance? truth?

for me eldritch archer is otherwise a normal archer (fighter) who has some eldritch power they augment their combat prowess with.

could you not just play a ranger? and re-flavour the powers/spells as being of eldritch origin??

is there something specific about warlock your after?? would EK not fit the bill??

[djreynolds]

I'm wanting to build a Warlock archer that will multi-class after 5th level. I know this isn't necessarily "optimal" before anyone says that. I want it to be viable, but mainly I thought it'd be fun. So, the idea is 13 in charisma to meet the minimum for multi-classing. I won't need higher as I'm not taking spells requiring saves (caveat: unless the multi-class recommendations are for Cha based classes). I will go Hexblade with Pact of the Blade-->Improved Pact Weapon-->Thirsting Blade. This gets me to longbow and two attacks per. My highest score will be in Dex. I know I could use Cha, but I want a decent dex for AC anyway. So, that's the idea. Basically, I need advice regarding possible multi-class options and race suggestions. Thanks!

I might think to grab ranger or fighter for archery style, maybe even kensai

You could run a hex blade, samurai, kensai........ I'm just seeing some like demon from Japanese Myths with a nasty glowing bow.

You could do a lot. Like you have to hide your face behind a samurai helmet and face shield. You could dump kensai monk so you could wear scale mail.

I might make one myself.

But I would definitely make charisma my highest ability score with hex blade, leave dex at 16.

I might begin fighter, get archery style right off the bat

[Unoriginal]

You could also use the Arcane Archer subclass.

[BarneyBent]

You could do a Sharpshooter/Darkness/Devil’s Sight combo. Keep distance so your Darkness doesn’t impact other players and you’re out of range of the standard Darkness counterplays (Counterspell, Dispel Magic, magical light, blindsight). Play a Half-Elf, take Elven Accuracy eventually to really make those Sharpshooter hits land and get approximately 30% crit rates on your Hexblade’s Cursed enemies.

I would recommend going full CHA. You only need a 14 DEX to get the full benefit of medium armour, and it will give you more options from a spellcasting perspective.

From a multiclass perspective, Eldritch Knight and Arcane Archer both work thematically. Not much point taking more than 4 levels of Fighter though. Arcane Archer isn’t fantastic but could help land some big crits on a regular basis if combined with Elven Accuracy and Hexblade’s Curse. Same with Whispers Bard.

I’m just thinking off the top of my head, but a Charisma-based Warlock 5/Arcane Archer 4/Whispers Bard 5 would be a solid build. Assuming +5 Charisma, you’d be doing an extra 15d6 Psychic damage per short rest (more if you saved them for crits). Plus your Arcane Shots, plus Sharpshooter with near-constant advantage/Elven Accuracy. After that you could take more levels in Warlock or Bard, or even start taking Rogue for even bigger crits. Whatever works.

Some back of the napkin maths:

Assuming Sharpshooter, Elven Accuracy and the build above, and being able to get advantage through either Darkness or some other means, you’d be making 2 attacks per turn, for:

2d10 + 30 for your Sharpshooter attacks, which is about 40.

You’ve got 4d6 per short rest from Arcane Archer (plus rider effects), 15d6 per short rest from Bard. Assuming 4 rounds per combat combat, 2 combats per rest, that’s 19d6 divided by 8 to get a rough DPR, so about another 8 damage per round. In practice it will be more because you’re likely to choose to trigger that damage on a crit and double it whenever you can, and you’ll be critting often.

You also often will have a bonus action spare which means you can throw on a Branding Smite or something (it’s a rare smite that works with ranged attacks!).

Throw in your Hexblade’s Curse once per short rest and that DPR jumps again, with a +5 for each hit on that target. Or Hex when you don’t need Darkness for advantage, for an extra 2d6 for every hit.

Then if you add Rogue levels, you add an extra d6 for every 2 levels with Sneak Attack, plus more expertise and bonus action hiding to make it almost impossible to not have advantage. Alternatively, 5 more levels of Bard gets you more spellcasting and you can start doing 5d6 psychic damage with your Bardic Inspiration die, for 25d6 per short rest. Same assumptions above, that becomes about 12 damage per round once combined with Arcane Shot. You get more straight damage from Rogue, but more utility with Bard, so whatever works.

[BobZan]

I'd go with Variant Human and Sharpshooter from the start. With Darkness + Devil's Sight and a Longbow you can profit a lot from Sharpshooter.

As a Hexblade, you can go 14 Dex with Medium Armor and full charisma, but it's your call.

If you want to go for damage, Eldritch Smite is a good way to do that.

From a Multiclass POV, 3 levels of Fighter for Archery, Action Surge and Battlemaster maneuvers is a very good road.

[Phithis]

You could also use the Arcane Archer subclass.
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I thought of this. The Arcane Archer is just very underwhelming.

[Phithis]

Seems a consensus to go with the higher charisma. So, that makes Bard a good option. What about Paladin or Sorcerer?

[Misterwhisper]

Honestly Hexblades make pretty good archers anyway.

Improved Pact Weapon invocation to make a longbow, Eldritch Smite with it as needed.
Take the normal pact of the blade invocations and shoot things with your bow and Charisma.

It works but honestly not particularly better than just using an eldritch blast.

Would your DM be ok with you using a Casting Foci that just happened to look like a bow and you flavor your eldritch blasts to look like arrows, think like the Old School DND Cartoon?

[Petrocorus]

If you want to multiclass to Fighter (and haven't started the campaign yet), i would recommand to start with a fist level in Fighter and the nmulticlass to Warlock. Better HP, better proficiencies, and Con save.

I wouldn't recommand Ranger due to MADness. And Paladin don't get Archer FS.

[PeteNutButter]

Honestly Hexblades make pretty good archers anyway.

Improved Pact Weapon invocation to make a longbow, Eldritch Smite with it as needed.
Take the normal pact of the blade invocations and shoot things with your bow and Charisma.

It works but honestly not particularly better than just using an eldritch blast.

Would your DM be ok with you using a Casting Foci that just happened to look like a bow and you flavor your eldritch blasts to look like arrows, think like the Old School DND Cartoon?

With advantage and sharpshooter, the bow is good on damage compared to EB for most levels. Once you mix in sorcerer for quicken EB things get worse for the archer.

Even so, archery has its advantages. Get a real magic bow and you’re off to a good start. Archery FS is a must. There are a lot more items, spells, class features etc that work with weapon attacks than things that boost EB.

As for where to go after warlock 5. Well you need at least 1 fighter level, up to 4 (champion, BM, AA). Other than that rogue seems a good bet. Sneak attack is more bow damage, and bonus action hide in your darkness is a fairly effective defense. Instead of getting archery from fighter you could go ranger but that’s probably too MAD. Bard isn’t bad but the big benefits from it don’t come online until you’re pretty far into it.

[Snowbluff]

I play this build.

Human Variant Hexblade Pact of the Blade Warlock/Fighter 2 (Archery Style)/Whispers Bard 13

Feats: Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert (I used a magical handcrossbow, which meant I didn't need improve pact weapon), resilient constitution (later on)

Stats: Cha > Con > Dex (14), everything else to taste ( went with 10 int)

Invocations: Devil Sight (humans don't have dark vision), Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite (save for crits)

Hide in darkness for advantage. Shoot shoot people for 3 attacks.
Whispers bard can get Holy Weapon at level 10, or a bunch of other spells with Magical Secret.

I would also suggest trying Half elf with Sharp Shooter, Elven Accuracy as well.

[Vogie]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I thought of this. The Arcane Archer is just very underwhelming.

It's very underwhelming by itself. However, it's gold for your specific concept of the "Curse Archer". Here's why:

Shadow Arrow acts as a single-target Darkness effect, saving you a spell slot when you're against a single target
Banishing Arrow allows you to knock targets off the plane for a bit at Fighter 3, far before you can cast Banishment at Warlock 7.
Neither of the above effects require concentration, so you can use in conjunction with Hex or any other concentration spell.
The other Arcane arrow effects allow you to smite without the Eldritch Smite invocation, and without spending spell slots.
The 2 shots refresh on short rest, just like your existing spell slots.
If you do go up to level 7, you very rarely miss due to Curving Arrows
This is in addition to the normal fighter benefits - fighting style, action surge, free Extra attack at 5, extra ASI at 6, and proficiencies in Con, armor, & weapons.

[Spiritchaser]

Just a comment on eldritch smite, somewhat out of context but relevant enough I think

I would generally suggest that it’s a waste, particularly on a sharpshooter build except...

Except against flying foes.

I you think you are going to be facing a lot of fliers, or perhaps you can fly yourself and want protection from others...

Eldritch smite can be hilariously good

[Phithis]

Thanks for the advice guys! I'm going to try out a couple builds and see which I like most.

[djreynolds]

Samurai archer.... action surge, BA, advantage on all attacks. 3 times day, so basically every short rest do this

The thing with warlocks is with thirsting blade, you want to hit... so sharpshooter may not be worth it always

Whereas an 11th level fighter is exploiting sharpshooter

[Mortis_Elrod]

Hexblade makes a great Archer. If you’re going for high Dex I’d recommend Arcane Archer(pumping Int for higher saves ) or Battlemaster.

Arcane Archer is yes underwhelming but not so much wen. You have spells backing it. And every short rest is a full reset. 2 special shots and 2 spells/smites is pretty good when you add curse, action surge and a few utility cantrips it ain’t bad at all.


Course if you want a lot of spells you can just go charisma focus and pick up Whispers Bard or Shadow Sorcerer. Whispers get you Psychic blades which is like a psychic sneaky attack it’s psychic and uses bardic inspiration. Plus you get some fun social utility, and all the other usefulness Bard gives you.

Then theres Shadow Sorcerer. Not much here besides standard Sorcerer compared to Whispers Bard it doesn’t do much. But hound of Ill omen is pretty great. As long as you have the Sorcerery points you can spam them out, which is great if you need a fun summon or need to keep track of someone and can’t E-Smite for no save proning. It’s also good for surviving and a bit of darkness use saving you the invocation if you wanted that combo.

[Talionis]

I play this build.

Human Variant Hexblade Pact of the Blade Warlock/Fighter 2 (Archery Style)/Whispers Bard 13

Feats: Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert (I used a magical handcrossbow, which meant I didn't need improve pact weapon), resilient constitution (later on)

Stats: Cha > Con > Dex (14), everything else to taste ( went with 10 int)

Invocations: Devil Sight (humans don't have dark vision), Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite (save for crits)

Hide in darkness for advantage. Shoot shoot people for 3 attacks.
Whispers bard can get Holy Weapon at level 10, or a bunch of other spells with Magical Secret.

I would also suggest trying Half elf with Sharp Shooter, Elven Accuracy as well.

I had someone play very close to this and it was a powerful combo. Hexblade 3/ Assassin 3/ Whisper Bard 14. Hexblade putting Branding Smite on your spell list, which can be up cast and cast on Ranged Attacks. Whisper can spend inspiration to sneak attack. Assassin’s give a little more sneak attack and auto crit on surprise round attacks. Stacking the sneak attack with the upcast Branding Smites were gross. Used a Rapier as his melee weapon and used Magic Stones and a sling as his ranged weapons.

[Snowbluff]

I had someone play very close to this and it was a powerful combo. Hexblade 3/ Assassin 3/ Whisper Bard 14. Hexblade putting Branding Smite on your spell list, which can be up cast and cast on Ranged Attacks. Whisper can spend inspiration to sneak attack. Assassin’s give a little more sneak attack and auto crit on surprise round attacks. Stacking the sneak attack with the upcast Branding Smites were gross. Used a Rapier as his melee weapon and used Magic Stones and a sling as his ranged weapons.

Hm... this is super interesting. Using a 7th level branding smite on an initial crit does make 14d6 of damage, which is hefty. I would suggest grabbing Lightning Arrow with Bard's Magical Secret. This would make 16d8 on the initial crit, and then 8d8 of splash...

Hmm... to wit:
Tempest Cleric6/ValorBard11/Assassin3
Fire Lightning Arrow
It will crit
Maximize with Channel Divinity
240 damage.

I would still go ahead and take one level of fighter. +2 is still nice.

[Talionis]

Hm... this is super interesting. Using a 7th level branding smite on an initial crit does make 14d6 of damage, which is hefty. I would suggest grabbing Lightning Arrow with Bard's Magical Secret. This would make 16d8 on the initial crit, and then 8d8 of splash...

Hmm... to wit:
Tempest Cleric6/ValorBard11/Assassin3
Fire Lightning Arrow
It will crit
Maximize with Channel Divinity
240 damage.

I would still go ahead and take one level of fighter. +2 is still nice.

I’m curious how many spells you can have to buff damage, are any non concentration? Flame Arrows is concentration, I checked.

[Snowbluff]

I’m curious how many spells you can have to buff damage, are any non concentration? Flame Arrows is concentration, I checked.
Most of them are concentration. Lightning Arrow and Branding Smite are. Flame Arrows can be cast by a familiar with a ring of spell storing though.

I did come up with a +40 attack for one attack though.

[Daghoulish]

Hide in darkness for advantage. Shoot shoot people for 3 attacks.
Whispers bard can get Holy Weapon at level 10, or a bunch of other spells with Magical Secret.

Rescinded, missed that you were using Crossbow expert and a hand crossbow.