Need help with a ranged build

[jlousivy]

The current campaign i'm in might be ending soon so we might be able to roll up new characters. As it is I'm the only player that really knows enough about spells to make what is concidered a competant or better wizard. IE: if the other players were a wizard they'd be stacked with all DD spells and fly.

That being said, I can take a 'subpar' class like fighter and still be a great asset to the party. I'm either thinking a ranged fighter (no reason to be a ranger unless.... we only fight a single monster type all campaign).

So basicly I'm asking for a good longbow based warrior build up to level 10.
I'm not wanting a Gish regaurdless of how much better they can be.

Many thanks in advance

[Matthew]

Something like this maybe?

Elf Fighter

Level 01: Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot,
Level 02: [1 Feat],
Level 03: Weapon Focus (Long Bow),
Level 04: Weapon Specialisation (Long Bow),
Level 05:
Level 06: Many Shot, Greater Many Shot,
Level 07:
Level 08: Ranged Weapon Mastery,
Level 09: [1 Feat],
Level 10: [1 Feat],

Far Shot, Shot on Run and Greater Weapon Focus (Long Bow) are your optional Feats.

[Bears With Lasers]

How about a Psychic Warrior? Is that okay?

[cupkeyk]

Uhm Matthew, Manyshot has a BAB Prereq of 6.

Race: Halfling (STR is not as important but the DEX bonus and the size bonus to attack rolls will rock)
Class: Fighter6 Exotic Weapon Master1

1 Point Blank Shot
Fighter Bonus(1) Precise Shot
Fighter Bonus(2) Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Greatbow)
3 Weapon Focus (Greatbow)
Fighter Bonus(4) Weapon Specialization (Greatbow)
6 Rapid Shot
Fighter Bonus (6) Many Shot

Consider Mad Alchemist and Grenadier(PH2) after you get Ranged Weapon Mastery. You only need Close Quarters Ranged Combat from Exotic Weapon Master so its a single level dip. Other feats will include Greater manyshot from xph and the rapid shot tree from the phb. There is also a sling in races of stone that can launch alchemical grenades. Another exotic weapon but you will never be short of feats, this lets you use the halfling bonus to slings and gives you some flexibility in combat.

[Karsh]

I know you don't want a gish, but the Justice of Weald and Woe PrC from Champions of Ruin is a great archer Prestige class that grants up to 4th level spells.

Also, look into the Cragtop Archer from Races of Stone, which lets you shoot arrows really far. I'd recommend dipping at least one level into Ranger so that you can get a wand of Hunter's Mercy for some auto-crit goodness.

EDIT:

Sample Character:
Elven Fighter 2/Ranger 4/Cragtop Archer 4
1: Point Blank Shot
Ftr1: Weapon Focus: Longbow
Ftr2: Far Shot
3: Mountain Warrior
Rng2: Combat Style: Rapid Shot
Rng3: Endurance
6: Manyshot
9: Precise Shot

This gives you the ability to shoot an arrow once per round up to fifteen range increments with no penalty. Combined with Hunter's Mercy and a Seeking, Blood-seeking Composite Longbow of Distance, you can ignore total concealment, total cover, and almost a full mile of ground between yourself and your target.

[Matthew]

Uhm Matthew, Manyshot has a BAB Prereq of 6.

Heh, that's true. I was working backwards from Greater Many Shot, which also has a Base Attack Bonus +6 requirement, according to the SRD; that Feat chain is so weird. Hmmn. I wouldn't be adverse to putting Great Bow in there at Level 2 and changing Focus and Specialisation to (Great Bow), if it wasn't such a waste of a Feat. Still, better than Far Shot.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Remember Deepwood Sniper, Order of the Bow Initiate, Peerless Archer...

The ranged Prcs go on and on and they all seem to get this crappy ranged sneak attack ability..

[jlousivy]

Great Bow--- what's this?
Hunter's Mercy--- what's this?
both of these seem awesome just by their names, where do i get them?

Psychic warrior might be ok, but two of the other players are a druid and sorcerer, the druid player has only been a fighter before and.... has maybe read 5 spell descriptions.... ever. And the sorcerer has only been a bard that didn't ever use spells save glib, mage hand, and the cure series. I just don't want to step in on their spellcasting territory.

As for the ranged PrC classes, i pretty much only have the SRD, i'm willing to go out and buy a splat book but i'd rather not have to come back with a new library

[Matthew]

Great Bow is in the Complete Warrior, I think. It is not as good as it sounds, as it is an Exotic Weapon that does 1D10 Damage, so you are basically trading a Feat for +1 Average Damage Bonus. On the other hand, Fighters have Feats to spare and there are ways and means...

[oriong]

I don't know if you want to go halfling, the strength penalty is still a penalty and ranged attackers who aren't rogues tend to hurt for damage on each shot. You're trading +2 to attack (+1 from dex, +1 from size) in exchange for a -2 to damage (-1 from strength, -1 from size shrinkage), which'll hurt since archers without sneak attack or skirmish tend to have trouble getting damage into each shot.

[cupkeyk]

AND the greatbow damage doesn't actually matter, you need it for Exotic Weapon Master qualification so you can get rid of the AoO's ASAP.

Hunter's Mercy, it's a Divi spell in Complete Adventurer.

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

I'm also doing a ranged build... and I'm remembering a feat or tactical ability that allows one to essentially use Power Attack with a bow; it's called Overdraw, or something like that. Does anyone remember where this ability or feat is?

[jlousivy]

As for equipment for an archer... tell me are alright things to.... hope for
Gloves of Dex +x
Bracers of Archery(greater?)
Magic Greatbow -- speaking of which, what enchantments are worthwhile assuming that I do not have access to a Greater Magic Weapon spell?
Off the top of my head i can only see:
a. an elemental damage
b. speed
c. enhancement bonuses

Also would it be possible to create a magic quiver that gave all arrows placed in it a +x enhancement bonus? - arrows lose the enhancement bonus after 1 round of being outside of the quiver. (basicly so i can go +1 shocking speed)

Wand of Hunter's Mercy.-- on this note, can i take a 1 level dip in ranger and be able to use this without a UMD check? or must i get to lvl 4 so i techniquely have a ranger spellcaster level?

[cupkeyk]

Actually, you only need a masterwork mighty composite greatbow. Magic arrows and special arrows allow great flexibility. It lets you select which arrow best fits the situation. Quiver of Ehlohnna, and Alchemical Silver Arrows, Adamantine Arrows, Good Aligned Arrows, Corrosive Arrows, Cold Iron Arrows.

The ranged fighter's advantage over the melee fighter is flexibility.

[oriong]

Seeker isn't a bad option, ignoring concealment and miss chances can be pretty helpful.

Getting shocking would be a good idea (of the 3 basic elemental effects it's the one that is least commonly resisted), just to grab some more damage.

[cupkeyk]

Oh, Oriong is right, if you will have an enchanted bow yes, ghost touch and seeker are the best enhancements since these prevents miss chance for all your arrows.

[Karsh]

You only need 1 level in Ranger to be able to use a Wand of Hunter's Mercy because it is a Spell Trigger item, which is even easier to use than a spell completion item (scroll). It specifically states that this works even if the character cannot yet cast spells.

Hunter's Mercy only applies to your next ranged attack, which makes it useful only in a few situations, but if you take the Cragtop Archer route, you can blast people from really far away with an auto-crit once every two rounds, which makes you basically the best sniper in the game with only one second(?) level spell.

[jlousivy]

As for having special magic arrows--every 50 arrows is pretty much the cost of a bow of equal value(magic wise not base price).

corrosive arrows?

As for the seeker enhancement- doesn't improved percise shot already do it?

Also! is there anyway to fire an arrow through something such as windwall, OR a way to make it so that the arrow fired is large enough that windwall doesn't affect it (assume a base of medium sized person)

edit: as for cragtop archer..... how can i see a mile away to make the attack? / is there a way to give me great-distance vision (like a scope or something) not a spell preferably

[Douglas]

I do not know of any RAW way to get an arrow to ignore Wind Wall. If you can get your size up to Colossal you might be able to talk your DM into giving your arrows the "massive" label, but I can't imagine a way to do that without access to very high level spellcasting that isn't cheesy.

If your DM doesn't take one look and ban it as broken, the Splitting special ability from Champions of Ruin is a must-have. It doubles your attacks with a bow or crossbow for a +3 cost. Yes, you read that right, for the same cost as Speed you get double your normal number of attacks, and the ability stacks with everything else that gives you extra attacks - it even doubles the extras. The description is that it splits every arrow you shoot into two, so you're not actually attacking more times, you're just shooting two arrows each time with no penalty (aside from the ability's cost). Despite this, each of the two arrows gets a separate attack roll and both of them benefit from precision damage such as sneak attack. Your best bet for convincing a doubting DM to allow it is probably to point out how much harder it is to get decent damage with ranged weapons than melee (particularly the lack of power attack and the separation of attack and damage bonuses to two different ability scores) and argue that ranged weaponry needs the boost.

[Karsh]

For being able to see that far... the way I did it was with a Third Eye Sense, which will run you 24,000 gp. The Cragtop Archer gets an ability at first level which halves the distance penalties to Spot.

If you don't get the Distance enchantment on your bow, your max range is 2475 feet, which is still well beyond that which you can see.

Really, the Cragtop Archer build relies heavily on the sniping ability, so maxing out your spot check or just plain getting an item that lets you use Clairvoyance infinitely increases the effectiveness of your build. The character that I made with it was for a Fate/Stay Night game involving PvP within a city, so he had a really high potential for effectiveness.

[cupkeyk]

Depending on whether your DM will let it fly, I already suggested Ghost touch. Windwall cannot block incorporeal creatures and essentially their weapons. Your ghost touched arrows is incorporeal or corporeal whichever is most beneficent. It is of course most beneficial to have it incorporeal while passing that windwall.

[Douglas]

RAW, Ghost Touch is a melee-only ability - it's not on the table of ranged weapon special abilities. I have no clue why that is so and would readily permit ranged Ghost Touch weapons in any campaign I ran, but that's the RAW. Aside from that, it seems Ghost Touch would indeed allow bypassing a Wind Wall if it worked on ranged weapons. Ask your DM if he'll let you ignore that particular restriction.

[oriong]

Although if that's allowed then legally speaking a ghost touch weapon could fire through walls, and ignore cover.

[Bears With Lasers]

Er, no... ghost touch weapons are still physical, they just don't affect the incorporeal.
I'd suggest that Brilliant Energy arrows should be able to go through a Wind Wall, though.

[oriong]

If you interpret 'can be treated as corporeal or incorporeal' as something that can ignore wind wall then there's no reason it wouldn't also ignore any wall. In fact, ghost touch melee weapons can go through walls (since they can follow their ghostly weilders through them).

Of course I'm not saying that they should, just that the wording of the ability would allow it.

[Roderick_BR]

If you play a halfling, a greatbow can get you a better average damage, as long you can get an average final strenght score.
You can get human for the extra feat or elf for the Dex bonus.
Fill in as much ranged feats as you can. Get quickdraw so you can switch your bow for a sword if someone reachs you.

Ghost Touch weapons, as Bears said, are corporeal, they just ignore the 50% miss chance you usually gets when fighting incorporeal enemies. Brilliant Energy, whoever, ignores all non-living matter. I believe it could cross any physical wall. If an incorporeal creature can cross Windwall without problem, then it can too.
Or you can carry some throwing weapons. Get some Javelin of Lightning for emergencies.
For defense, get the best armor you can, since you probably wont use a bracer of defense nor shields. Maybe a buckler. Boots of speed or Boots of Spring and Running(or whatever it's called) to run away from enemies that get too close.