Another Arcane Archer Question

[Target]

Hello,

A quick question, can a BArd become an Arcane Archer? And what are the requirements?
Cheers

[robertthebard]

Yes, they can, and in fact, it is my fav way to build them. Must be elf or 1/2 elf, be able to cast arcane spells, weapon focus in either bow, and point blank shot. Think you need a base attack of 6 as well. AA comes available at around 7th lvl. Which gives you plenty of buffing spells, and mob slowing spells, such as cloud of bewilderment, great spell, when it works. The base charisma needs to end up at 17, and I'd pump the rest of my stat points in dex, use light armor, monk robes are really good, and take a focus in a tiny/small melee weapon, and weapon finesse. Could also take rapier if you wanted.

[ZFR]

yes

reqs:
elf or half-elf
weapon focus longbow or weapon focus shortbow
point blank shot
BAB +6

(i think you need to have at least 2 levels in bard to be able to cast level 1 spells)

edit: eh i see robert beat me to it.

[ 08-07-2005, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

[Target]

Thanks.
I thought I had all of those, must be the +6 I am missing. I'll check again.

[Target]

Has anyone got any good builds for a bard AA? I am going to try the full XP (100) mode for the OC. And I'd like a great build.
Cheers

[Zink Whistlefly]

Robert's build is a good one (although I'm not sure about the 17 CHA - don't bard spells cap out at level 6?) which gives a nice balance between fighting and buffing abilities.

You could take a build less focused on the bard, but with a strong fighting presence instead. This would involve taking fighter levels until you have all the feats you need/want, then take a level of bard, then go AA for 10 levels. This will give you negligible bardic abilities so it's almost like a wasted level just to open up the AA class, but it does allow you to use a basic bard song as well as use all the scrolls/musical instruments you can find. It does however give you the strongest combat prowess. The only problem with this build is that you're pretty much restricted to be half-elven, unless you don't mind a 20% XP penalty. The other logical course is to substitute the level of bard with Wizard (which give you other benefits such as familiar summoning) which lets you be elven/half elven and have no penalty.

Once you've hit you 10 levels of AA, you could then take fighter levels again until you become epic, after which you should go AA all the way.

If you do want the stronger arcane presence, Robert's build is logical.

EDIT: Spelling = shocking.

[ 08-08-2005, 05:34 AM: Message edited by: Zink Whistlefly ]

[T-D-C]

Also if you go 4 levels of Bard, 6 of fighter (getting all the weapon SPEC feats) and 29 Levels of AA you will get a SUPER high AB with your Bow.

[robertthebard]

Or, you can go with the RDD, gain a few useful resistances along the way, plus some really nice stat bonuses...On the Cha for bards, yes the spells top out at lvl 6, but I have seen a bug where you can't cast spells of a certain lvl unless your cha is higher than the lvl of spell. I don't know what is up with that, but there is a thread about it somewhere on this forum. Better safe than sorry...Max out Perform/Spell craft while in Bard lvls, and if your going RDD the lore must be at least 8. I'm currently building a bard/aa, with no other class planned, and I'm going to cut bard off at 15, I think, and go the rest of the way in AA. Her bard song buffs currently fill the top of the screen, along with the haste thing. That is another thing, there are a couple of bows available with unlimited ammo, Forever comes immediately to mind, and if you can get your hands on one of those, take rapid shot. It drops your attacks by like 2 I think, but adds an additional attack. Pump dex every time on lvl ups, I can't stress that enough. She's really good at range right now, and has no penalties for point blank shooting, but sometimes it just looks better to switch to a melee weapon when enemies live long enough to close, so you'll want weapon finesse, and a focus in a finesseable weapon.