Oathbow, help me take advantage of this thing

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I have a Level 7 Lore Bard with an Oath Bow with decent Dex. Its a pretty nifty weapon which works against one bad guy a day. Sometimes I use it when the bad guy has immunity to some spells or annoying advantage on saves, nothing like casting Healing Word to raise a down enemy and then doing 15-20 points of damage. Sometimes the effects of spells is more useful.

My concern is as I get more slots and my character's spells get more powerful the weapon is getting or going to get marginalized.

What are my best steps to get the most out of it? Magic Initiate can give me Hex but it also gives me Eldritch Blast which competes with the Oathbow. Next time Magical Secrets are available I can take Hunters Mark, Swift Quiver, Hail of Thorns, what tree would you all bark down?


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Oathbow

Requires Attunement

When you nock an arrow on this bow, it whispers in Elvish, "Swift defeat to my enemies." When you use this weapon to make a ranged Attack, you can, as a Command phrase, say, "Swift death to you who have wronged me." The target of your Attack becomes your Sworn Enemy until it dies or until dawn seven days later. You can have only one such Sworn Enemy at a time. When your Sworn Enemy dies, you can choose a new one after the next dawn.

When you make a ranged Attack roll with this weapon against your Sworn Enemy, you have advantage on the roll. In addition, your target gains no benefit from cover, other than total cover, and you suffer no disadvantage due to long range. If the Attack hits, your Sworn Enemy takes an extra 3d6 piercing damage.

While your Sworn Enemy lives, you have disadvantage on Attack rolls with all other Weapons.

[Rukelnikov]

Tell me something more about the character, what are your stats? do you have any feats? Whats your playstyle currently? are you willing to multiclass? Whats in your party currently?

In a vacuum, Swift Quiver is likely gonna maximize your damage against a single target, but you need a somewhat decent Dex, even with Advantage, since you are commiting your concentration, action and bonus action to that strat (though you are also saving spell slots, so if you do many encounters a day, it can be seen as a way to spend 1 5th to save many more).

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Tell me something more about the character, what are your stats? do you have any feats? Whats your playstyle currently? are you willing to multiclass? Whats in your party currently?

In a vacuum, Swift Quiver is likely gonna maximize your damage against a single target, but you need a somewhat decent Dex, even with Advantage, since you are commiting your concentration, action and bonus action to that strat (though you are also saving spell slots, so if you do many encounters a day, it can be seen as a way to spend 1 5th to save many more).

Here comes a quick list. I'm on the cell now.

Party: monk, rogue, wizard, archery style fighter, our ranger just died and the player is thinking cleric for the replacement.

My character wood elf, 9str, 17dex, 11 con, 9 int, 11 wis, 18cha (rolled stats and one ASI) studded leather, luck stone, oath bow, periapath (spelling) of endurance, lore bard. At first folks sorta thought I was a ranger of some sorts because this low AC character is made for ranged combat not melee. At low levels you burn through slots soo fast anyways. I'd like to keep the woodsy elf forest person thing going but I think my charactwr is "growing" into a primary caster.

I prefer not to multiclass, we level SLOW and there is always that next Magical Secrets to shoot for anyways.

[iTreeby]

Trade it to the fighter? It seems like they might get better use out of it, and they likely have no problem building around the bow.

[RSP]

Oathbow is amazing for 1 enemy a day. Outside of that, though, it doesn’t do much other than “is magical damage.”

Two basic routes, I see, if you want to continue the “ranger, woodsy” feel to the character:

- Become a ranged, archery based character that uses a bow: to really make this work, you’ll probably want to multiclass to get the Archery fighting style and Extra Attack. Maybe pick up Elven Accuracy to balance out that Dex and take advantage of the 1/day auto-Advantage.

- continue doing your normal schtick as a Lore Bard, however you were going with this with skills and Magic Secrets selection, and just keep in mind you have a 1/day cannon to use. You Dex is fine for 1/day Archery with Advantage. Other than that, fall back to being a full caster with great skills and Curting Words.

[BobZan]

Swift Quiver will make your damage sky rocket against your daily boss. I'd get it at 10th level.

3x 1d8+3d6+dex with advantage will drain good chunks of HP from bosses.

[Helldin87]

I vote with trading it. Having the fighter owe you one might be nice for when something more in your wheelhouse drops....

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The vote for trading it keeps coming up. I'll start talking it up to the fighter and see what drops so to say.
Not sure what my character would value more but if it inspires me I won't be too shy.
If I still have it at 10 or 11 when the next Magical Secrets comes around I'll think about Bigby's vs Animate Objects vs Swift Quiver.

[Rukelnikov]

Here comes a quick list. I'm on the cell now.

Party: monk, rogue, wizard, archery style fighter, our ranger just died and the player is thinking cleric for the replacement.

My character wood elf, 9str, 17dex, 11 con, 9 int, 11 wis, 18cha (rolled stats and one ASI) studded leather, luck stone, oath bow, periapath (spelling) of endurance, lore bard. At first folks sorta thought I was a ranger of some sorts because this low AC character is made for ranged combat not melee. At low levels you burn through slots soo fast anyways. I'd like to keep the woodsy elf forest person thing going but I think my charactwr is "growing" into a primary caster.

I prefer not to multiclass, we level SLOW and there is always that next Magical Secrets to shoot for anyways.

You've got decent Dex, so you can make use of it, thing is Swift quiver is a major commitment, its a selfish buff and it takes 1 of your precious magical secrets, tbh it will be awesome for that 1 fight when dice are nice and your investment pays off. However... unless you get the would be cleric to bless you for the "boss" fights, you likely won't do THAT much damage during fights.

IMO, if you wanna have your "one fight per day I go from full caster to ranged DPS", and Io it acceptably good, you should get Elven Accuracy, raising your Dex to 18, and making better use of the guaranteed advantage of the bow.

Here are some nombers so you get an idea of what you can expect from the bow:

Target AC---------AvgDam/Att (+7)--------AvgDam/Att(EA)(+8)------------Ftr(SS(sub)/SS(feat)/Dex20/+2 Bow)(+8)

----16-------------------16.58-------------------------20.32-----------------------------------------18.75
----17-------------------15.82-------------------------19.92-----------------------------------------17.33
----18-------------------14.96-------------------------19.41-----------------------------------------15.9
----19-------------------14.02-------------------------18.76-----------------------------------------14.48
----20-------------------12.98-------------------------17.98-----------------------------------------13.18 (no SS)
----21-------------------11.86-------------------------17.04-----------------------------------------12.26 (no SS)

Consider that fighter doesn't have advantage, his numbers will keep improving(steady aim, +3 bow), and he has Action Surge.

Overall even without EA, swift quiver will still make you comparable to a standard archery focused fighter at lvl 11, ofc the bow will make him a beast, but only for 1 enemy per day, depending on how many attunements he already has, he may not even be interested in it.

Hope this info can help you decide :D

EDIT: "table" format

[MarkVIIIMarc]

You've got decent Dex, so you can make use of it, thing is Swift quiver is a major commitment, its a selfish buff and it takes 1 of your precious magical secrets, tbh it will be awesome for that 1 fight when dice are nice and your investment pays off. However... unless you get the would be cleric to bless you for the "boss" fights, you likely won't do THAT much damage during fights.

IMO, if you wanna have your "one fight per day I go from full caster to ranged DPS", and Io it acceptably good, you should get Elven Accuracy, raising your Dex to 18, and making better use of the guaranteed advantage of the bow.

Here are some nombers so you get an idea of what you can expect from the bow:

Target AC---------AvgDam/Att (+7)--------AvgDam/Att(EA)(+8)------------Ftr(SS(sub)/SS(feat)/Dex20/+2 Bow)(+8)

----16-------------------16.58-------------------------20.32-----------------------------------------18.75
----17-------------------15.82-------------------------19.92-----------------------------------------17.33
----18-------------------14.96-------------------------19.41-----------------------------------------15.9
----19-------------------14.02-------------------------18.76-----------------------------------------14.48
----20-------------------12.98-------------------------17.98-----------------------------------------13.18 (no SS)
----21-------------------11.86-------------------------17.04-----------------------------------------12.26 (no SS)

Consider that fighter doesn't have advantage, his numbers will keep improving(steady aim, +3 bow), and he has Action Surge.

Overall even without EA, swift quiver will still make you comparable to a standard archery focused fighter at lvl 11, ofc the bow will make him a beast, but only for 1 enemy per day, depending on how many attunements he already has, he may not even be interested in it.

Hope this info can help you decide :D

EDIT: "table" format

Thanks for taking the time to put that chart together.

[Rukelnikov]

Thanks for taking the time to put that chart together.

No prob, it was fun to do :)