Best archer bad guy you can make

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I'd like a ridiculously good archer bad guy to snipe at an over magiced Level 13 or so party I have. What can we work up to? A 3 attack Fighter / Ranger with an Oath Bow and some magical arrows?

Is there a magic freezing arrow in game? The D8's just won't ad up to fatal damage but it will make the party use Dimension Door in an offensive manner we haven't done yet.

Any ideas who to use for the NPC or other factors to ad in?

[Phhase]

(Assuming 5E) There is a weapon called the Oversized Longbow from Dragon Heist. It's the ranged equivalent of a greatsword (2d6) and it's a Str weapon rather than a Dex one. It has a long range of 600ft. So that's a good place to start.

I ran a sniper fight at one point that was pretty fun. The sniper had a perimeter laden with weight-triggered mines that caused a wild magic effect on the triggering player. A similar perimeter of interesting traps or mines would probably work for you. if you're worried about players blinking right next to the sniper as soon as he comes into view, create a weather condition or other visibility limiter (Nighttime, for example) to make it harder for the players to target the sniper's area.

You could fire smoke bombs and then move the sniper while the players are blinded. You could create illusory snipers to mislead the players. You could fire tangler grenades to stick the players in place.

Class-wise you probly want Rogue levels. Sniper feels like one shot per round with sneak attack. Advantage won't be hard to get. Assassin, if you want that first attack to be really spicy.

[PrismCat21]

First off, what edition are you using?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

First off, what edition are you using?

Sorry, its 5e and I really thought I posted over there.

[Peelee]

Sorry, its 5e and I really thought I posted over there.

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: I don't know what you're talking about, this is the 5e subforum. :smallwink:

[Nifft]

My most memorable archer BBEG was an elf, who used Misty Step and some mobility tricks to stay out of engagement range.

Ensure you have enough mooks for the BBEG to use as blockers, and try to have the BBEG lead the PCs through several rooms of obstacles.

If you want to be really evil, give the BBEG a Shadow Monk cohort who snipes from the shadows (rarely) but doesn't join melee until a PC manages to engage the archer.

[Daithi]

I've kind of liked re-skinning Eldritch Blast as magical arrows. If you've ever seen the anime series Bleach then think of the Quicny Uryu and his magical bow and arrows. So, a couple levels of Warlock to get a couple invocations and then switch to Sorcerer. Use the Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear invocations to increase both damage and range. Take the Spell Sniper feat to increase range. Take the Distance and Quickening meta-magic features to increase range even more and to double the number of bolts you can fire. If you went Hexblade you can also add your proficiency bonus to the hexed target. The damage this character can do is insane. He can do damage from 1,200 feet away, and it's very hard to hit him in return.

[JackPhoenix]

Arbitrary attack bonus, number of attacks and per-shot damage. Add goodies as desired. Defenses as needed. Stir until you get your desired CR, using the DMG guidelines.

It's an NPC, don't limit yourself to abilities available to players.

[Man_Over_Game]

I like the idea of a Warlock that uses Mask of Many Faces in a populated area to disguise himself throughout a town as he scouts around, getting information on his target before making a powerful Eldritch Smite from Range. Once the Surprise Round is over, he uses Summon Lesser Demons to surround his mark to attack the prone target and finish them off before changing his face, dismissing SLD, and disappearing back into obscurity.

Imagine being a party hired to stop that guy. It'd be one hell of an investigative/bodyguard contract.

[Phase 1]

Rank 14 gloom stalkers are exceedingly hard to catch at night especially if you use the UA ranger.

Race wise drow or tabaxi make the most optimal options as you have either a 150 foot range on dark vision for the drow and while the tabaxi may only have 90 feet which seems skimpy in comparison the after attack move is equivalent to 80 feet without dashing (160 feet otherwise) and can potential use its move vertically.

With pass without trace and non detection it is exceedingly difficult to get to grips with him.

As for magic items goggles of night or cloak of elven kind.

It's a bit of a strange encounter, you win it by not taking it on directly or by having the tiny hut spell ready....

Generally i would use it to teach players not to solve every problem with action economy and that some times running away is the right answer.

[iTreeby]

How best do you want them to be? Should we use player character creation rules? Is the correct answer to this question a solar?

[Talionis]

I've kind of liked re-skinning Eldritch Blast as magical arrows. If you've ever seen the anime series Bleach then think of the Quicny Uryu and his magical bow and arrows. So, a couple levels of Warlock to get a couple invocations and then switch to Sorcerer. Use the Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear invocations to increase both damage and range. Take the Spell Sniper feat to increase range. Take the Distance and Quickening meta-magic features to increase range even more and to double the number of bolts you can fire. If you went Hexblade you can also add your proficiency bonus to the hexed target. The damage this character can do is insane. He can do damage from 1,200 feet away, and it's very hard to hit him in return.

Add to it 6 levels of Eagle Barbarian and you can clearly see to any distance helping to pick targets and notice to spot prey.

[MrCharlie]

Arbitrary attack bonus, number of attacks and per-shot damage. Add goodies as desired. Defenses as needed. Stir until you get your desired CR, using the DMG guidelines.

It's an NPC, don't limit yourself to abilities available to players.
In fact, to build on Jacks comment, you should usually avoid abilities available to players entirely, and in particular avoid "nova" abilities if at all possible; most official monsters lack them for a reason. It's not always possible, though.

My recommendation is to instead start with an Orthon, a CR 10 fiend. You can find it in mordenkainen's tome of foes; it's currently my favorite ranged enemy. Drop it to medium and make it a humanoid, and take the brass crossbow and start messing with the settings, so to speak. A lot of these effects fit trick shot arrows, but because we want to challenge level 13 characters maybe give it two attacks with the thing, using the DMG to ensure you aren't going over your CR target (I'd aim for a hard cap of 14).

I'd remove invisibility field (or limit it more, maybe a recharge) and remove or change resistances, which should give you some defensive CR to play with; pad out hit dice to keep it at a good place, then make it more mobile with a higher movement, more DEX, and less STR. Maybe flavor it as something like a shadow monk or artificer, and give it a limited teleportation ability-either between set points or between environmental effects like deep shadows or fire, something the party can figure out as the fight continues, and which requires them to start using their own teleportation to keep up with. Create a really unique combat set piece, something like a giant corrupted tree or a deep pit, for this thing to gain a height advantage in and start sniping at them and to prevent normal movement from helping the party too much.

I can easily imagine this thing forming the basis for a really deadly artificer-assassin which uses gizmos to maintain mobility and hit its targets hard with a variety of different trick bolts, which is much more interesting than simply "do a boat load of damage with arrows".

And remember to add hunting buddies, maybe an assassin for the close range opener, maybe a blackguard and a necromancer with undead added to taste for a bit of meat on dem bones, then set these things on the party as an assassination squad, or some other ambush detail to try to whack them. Fit to your campaign, ofc.

With just the assassin, blackguard, necromancer, a few skeletons, and a base orthon you've got a deadly encounter (not a super-deadly one, the skeletons push it between hard and deadly) for 7 level 13 PCs, if they are optimized and over-magicked you make up the difference with the modifications to the star of your show. If there are less PCs (you didn't clarify party size) then start pruning parts of the encounter, like by toning down the assassin to something like a master thief and the necromancer to a drow mage (making them not a drow is appropriate), etc. Your going to need to season your monsters to taste, basically, but the Orthon reflavored as an artificer/whatever is a good basis for a really interesting ranged threat, with other sneaky bad guys to keep them from focusing him down from range too easily (also, cover rules are helpful to encourage actual teleportation).

In general, good encounters can revolve around one enemy, but the best "oh ****" fights involve several independently threatening foes which all have their own threats and powers, to prevent a single spell from ending the fight or the enemy from being too hyper-deadly by itself. I've seen DMs tear a single PC to bloody bits because their monster lacked the action economy to beat the party but boy can it punish individual players, something you fix by not relying on a single foe.

Also, whenever coming up with a unique encounter like this, give yourself an out if you really screw over the party by overtuning it. I'd recommend taking at least most of the party alive, if you win.

[Foxhound438]

It's an NPC, don't limit yourself to abilities available to players.

^Big this

As far as existing content, there's an NPC in Dragon Heist (someone else already mentioned his bow), Ziraj the Hunter, that has a pretty cool design and lore that you could look into. I wouldn't try to use him as is for this party, as his CR isn't high enough, but none the less it might be some good inspiration...

But this does bring up an interesting thing, it seems to me that when the BBEG isn't some kind of dragon/beholder/demon king, it tends toward wizard. Even liches are just the logical extension of a necromancer. Archers and fighters would tend to be more lackeys, or at best the BBEG's "right hand". Obviously this stems from the wizard's (and other casters') ability to just do more because of spells. Magic really opens up that design space for a BBEG's abilities.

Though, the concept of an archer boss isn't dead on arrival either. A logical extension to the Ranger could give you a BBEG with a pack of supernaturally enhanced wolves and such, and you could even probably give them a druid lackey to make up some of the spellcasting gap that would exist. Or of course, just give them more and better spells than a real ranger could get. Throw in some higher level wall spells, or even homebrew something that lets you summon a hedge maze or something. You'd have to figure out a way to thwart the obvious answers to that particular idea (climb, cut through, etc) to make it interesting for a high level party, but I won't attempt to cobble that together right now.

An easy basis for a story hook on such an NPC might be something to the effect of habitat destruction making this guy attack settlements, and eventually try to snuff out settlers at the source (your choice of big city).

I hope that helps, I didn't get into any numbers since I don't know exactly how over magicked the party here is, but i guess the moral is don't let the PC classes box you in when making bad guys. WoTC certainly didn't when making the various cool NPC's in Dragon Heist.

[Eldariel]

If I were using a PC build, I'd go Swords Bard 14 or so. You get the mobility (teleport around while shooting at them from 320' away), you can have your Simulacrum concentrating on stuff for you (Haste + Tenser's is hilarious), you can easily unload 3 arrows/bolts a turn, you are great at hiding, etc. Hell, make it a Goblin for the expertised bonus action Hide. A Teleporting, Hiding Goblin shooting really painful volleys at you in the open from 300+' away takes quite a lot of thinking on their feet from the party. Hell, you could just make it a Bard 18: that would not over-CR it but it would give it access to Wish for even more stuff like Contingency, Find Greater Steed, etc. to ensure it's as elusive as possible (and Shapechange as the other spell as the ultimate buff for archery).

[Neoh]

Well, if you want the best damage possible using classes, it would probably be Battlemaster Fighter 11/Gloomstalker Ranger 3/Assassin Rogue 3.

You get 4 attacks on the first turn, 8 with Action Surge, all crits on surprise rounds.

Might be a bit too deadly though if you focus a character too much.

But for an NPC, you can just tweak some things here and there.
Want some magical arrows? Take a Ranger spell and reskin it to cold damage. That way you can limit it to spell slots per day so you don't have too much or too few of them.

[DevilMcam]

You could look at the eladrin NPCs from modekainen, they are prtty good archers. If their lore fits you add in a couple "archer" "scout" or similar mooks and you should be pretty good.

[da newt]

Why limit yourself to just one archer? Run your party up against Robin Hood and his Merry Men - provide cover, hide, kite, ambush, set traps, attack from different directions, - fight like kobolds.

Or keep it really simple and throw a couple Erinyes at them and don't ever close to melee range. The Orthon is another tough one. A party of Aarakocra w/ longbows can really cause problems too.

Maybe your arrows are poisoned with something that forces a save vs stun for a round, or the poisoned condition for DISADV, or causes blindness, or ...

[Spiritchaser]

I'd like a ridiculously good archer bad guy to snipe at an over magiced Level 13 or so party I have. What can we work up to? A 3 attack Fighter / Ranger with an Oath Bow and some magical arrows?

Is there a magic freezing arrow in game? The D8's just won't ad up to fatal damage but it will make the party use Dimension Door in an offensive manner we haven't done yet.

Any ideas who to use for the NPC or other factors to ad in?

I’ve done this with a high durability foe who commands dangerous minions at range. Base the build on a monk (I based mine on Fighter 1 Kensai 14 or 15 (I forget)) with sharpshooter and a long bow. Use a flying race or let them use a magic item or potion that grants flight. They’ll be tough to hurt with arrows, save vs. nearly everything and rain down modest damage with near impunity while the forces they command do the real damage. Give them a whip for stunning strikes if the situation demands it. Make the minions less than brilliant such that cutting off communication is useful, and make sure the boss has room to manoeuvre. Their real weapons are their lackeys so spend a little time having them bark out orders.

[DrKerosene]

I would use a Beholder and swap some of the eye abilities to more magical ray effects. I’d say they have those Winged Boots to describe the floating and an amulet of anti-magic strapped to their chest (or back). Both “items” would immolate on death.

And I’d pretend the various beholder eye rays are magical arrows from a nightmare archer.

[Kobold_paladin?]

i ran an archer villain once, and it was pretty cool.
for the race i just made him just some dude, not bothering for racial bonuses. he had a pair of daggers of venom and a +2 longbow using random arrows of slaying when convenient (e.g. human slaying, kobold slaying, elf slaying).
he'd shadow jaunt behind people attacking with both daggers and then jaunting away, he'd fire arrows form a distance otherwise. Armour Class: 15 (studded) Hit Points: 64 (i think) shadow jaunt, archer's eye, blah blah.
STR 12
DEX 16
CON 13
INT 14
WIS 16
CHA 12
oh and the dagger of venom's are on page 161 in the DMG.

[AugustNights]

Hear me out.

20 Strength "Arcane Archer" who *throws* arrows.
How? Tavern Brawler.
Arrows are now improvised weapons you can throw.
Heavy Armor Master for that sweet DPR.
Sharpshooter for that +10 damage fun.

RAW Legal, technically no, an Arcane Archer must make an attack with an arrow from a shortbow or longbow.
Badass and memorable villain that makes absurd ranged attacks and grapples melee folks who get too close?
Absolutely.

[Rerem115]

I had some fun running a pseudo-Beastmaster that drove the party nuts without actually being broken. The actual numbers are of course subject to be tweaked, but the core would look something like this:

13 HD Kobold Skirmisher--Build for hit-and-run; Dash/Disengage/Hide as a bonus action, high movement speed, and expertise in Stealth + Perception. If necessary, a minor magic item to negate Sunlight Sensitivity can make for a fun reward as well as a more challenging boss fight. Pack Tactics, stealth, and an arbitrary bonus to hit make for a scarily accurate enemy, as well as one spellcasters have a hard time dealing with due to LoS restrictions. Damage can be scaled to match party level, but there are two primary paths; either give them a bunch of attacks, or you could stack 'Sneak Attack' and/or poison. If you lean towards poison, that allows several fun gimmicks w/regards to different disabling effects, ongoing damage, status conditions, etc. If you want even more options, consider illusion spells or Ranger/Druid spells for a more 'magic archer' feel.

13 HD Wolf--The bruiser of the build, but still highly mobile. I statted it like an appropriately leveled Revised Beastmaster companion, which gave it some impressive resilience; decent AC, and phenomenal saves while it was working in tandem with its master. Either run it as a dangerous mount if you want a 'horse' archer (best if the Skirmisher has CBE), or have it work as an independent unit, using Mobile, Storm of Claw and Fang, wolf prone-on-hit, and possibly a DM Fiat Bonus Action Dash to keep it one step ahead of the party. I also had it share spells with its master when I ran it, which made it even more slippery.

As for the rest of the encounter, add minions (Possibly even more bonded units!), traps, and terrain variables/hazards until satisfied.