Archers are great!

[Sir Byronas]

I've just started BG2 with an archer and I can tell that with only a simle bow he kills everybody. He just needs one arrow to kill a goblin!
TRY THEM!

[Sir Exxon]

Yeah, I agree!
Although I like to play a meele weapon character.

[Russ]

I **really** like the archer, but I've found an issue... are there any missile weapons that actually have sufficient magic enchantment to hit the tougher creatures in the game? I've found Mazzy to have real problems this way, as her missiles simply bounce off of chapter-3-type bad guys...

[Debaser]

Russ--
that's a good point...i'm going to make an archer next time i play through, so i might think about conjuring up (CLUAConsole) some arrows +3 for him off the bat, just to save for situations like this. and i'm going to conjure up one of those ammo cases you eventually find in ToB--whether that is even cheating is debatable, just because they hadn't thought of including those in SoA and you only find em in ToB, i think an Archer, of all people, would own an ammo case from his training days even.

[Russ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Debaser:
i think an Archer, of all people, would own an ammo case from his training days even.

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I'm not comfortable using cheats, as I've found that unless I've really played the hell out of a game, I stop enjoying it once I really start messing with it: besides, a 40-arrow quiver is a big quiver. I can't see ranger types burdening themselves with more, nor having universal access to such major magics. But it strikes me as an issue. BGII is much better than BGI and a lot of the others for weapon variety, and the various enchantments on arrows and bolts are good. But if you can't hit your enemies... and also, an archer is a missile specialist, right? What about other missiles? I'd be truly shocked if anybody on this board did anything with throwing knives, for example, evne though, if I were a truly urban fighter, I'd be all over having custom arms of that type enchanted (I'm a committed martial artist IRL, and I can definitely tell you that once you get skilled, most off-the-shelf weapons don't satisfy you. Even if you find one brand really useful (I like Kimber .45, for example), you always find yourself desiring some piece of custom-made gear). Darts of biting can be found, and they're useful, but they take a full weapon slot, and there are few to no alternate missile types with serious enchantments. If there were a patch for increasing magic weapon diversity while keeping game balance, I'd be all for it.

[Russ]

On the other hand, it just occurred to me that the bow with the phantom arrows seems to be a really good workaround for it...

[Ronn_Bman]

I actually found huge amounts of magical arrows throughout the game.

[hagimihale]

I'm still in my first run-through with the game (finished SoA and currently in ToB with a 24th lvl sorcerer, Keldorn, Minsc, Imoen, Jaheira and Anomen). My next run-through or two will be to try out other NPCs like Mazzy, Valygar, etc. So I can't try out the Archer class yet.. but I am dying to.

I also found a ton of magical arrows throughout the game, but I guess if you can't hit them yourselves, you always have NPC melee characters to do that.

I've enjoyed having the ammo case in ToB. I had so many arrows and bolts that I was just dropping any +1 versions due to space limitations (would have preferred to sell them later). Sure, with Shadowkeeper you could always recreate them later, but I'm trying to play the game as is.

Question for those who have used the Archer and also used Mazzy (slight spoiler)
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Is the Archer that much more effective than Mazzy? I mean, she has grandmastery in short bow. What else, besides Called Shot, does the Archer have?

Finally... what about an Archer/Cleric combo, going for grandmastery in Slings? I think you'd have to use Shadowkeeper but that combo just popped into my mind...

[Svenman{GUARD}]

Archers are good. But like everyone else said sometimes its hard to hit some creatures. I also like to play as a barbarian because they can have dual twohanded weapons later on in the game.

[Lucre]

I have heard of people soloing with archers but they are rubbish without any tanks in front to draw fire aren't they?