Tips for building an Archer

[Farscry]

I posted this on GameFaqs after some folks were commenting on the lack of a good archer-type class in IWD2. This isn't necessarily the end-all be-all of building an IWD2 archer, but this is a combination of my experience with the game and the pen&paper version as well.

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How to make effective archers in 3rd Edition (IWD2):

1) The best archer class is Fighter, not Ranger. Sure, I've kind of always seen rangers as fighters of the wild, particularly as hunters who focus on archery and swordsmanship rather than armor and shields. However, it's just the facts.

2) Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Improved Critical: key feats for maximizing your bow's effectiveness. (Haven't gotten far enough to test the Maximized Attacks feat; it's not in standard 3E, and I don't know if it affects ranged attacks)

3) Bow Specialization. Only fighters can put 3 "ranks" in Martial Weapon: Bow.

4) Dexterity: maximize it (that's why elves make the best archers, particularly Wild Elves. Con is more important for the archer than Int, at least in IWD2)

5) Light Armor: the more Dex you have, the lighter the armor you need to be wearing to make use of that Dex. (See #10 for more)

6) Don't ignore strength. Make you Str about 14-16, so you can use Might Composite bows to enhance your damage.

7) Improved Initiative: make those bow attacks slightly faster to pull off. This doesn't give you more per round of combat, but it DOES make your ranged attacks come earlier (also makes it easier to wait and then have your archer attack an enemy magic-user just as they start attempting to cast)

8) Bows Vs. Crossbows: The mighty composite longbow does 1d8 dmg, x3 critical. The heavy crossbow does 1d10 dmg, 19-20 x2 critical. This means that your crossbow does slightly more base damage and crits slightly more often, but the composite bow has the higher potential damage in a single attack. Heavy Crossbow max crit damage = 20, Composite Longbow max crit damage = 24. This only factors in plain arrows/bolts.

9) Consider taking a single level of cleric for your archer at some point (if fighter or cleric is a favored class) to get access to the "Heretic's Bane" feat. +1 to attack and damage against clerics and druids is a pretty nice bonus! (yes, you'd get the +1 attack against everything by taking a level of fighter instead of cleric, but not the +1 to damage.)

So, can you make an archer character in IWD2 as powerful as the Archer kit from BG2:ToB? Probably not. (Think Greater Whirlwind attack.)

However, this is my best strategy for building a good archer-type character in IWD2. I made a Drow fighter who is using this strategy for leveling up, though I think a Wild Elf archer-fighter would ultimately be more powerful (those 2 levels of fighter you lose out on by having a +2 ECL make a difference, especially early on)

10) And another note on light armor:

Let's say I have 20 Dex. My Dex bonus is +5.

Studded leather is +3 armor, max +5 dex.
Chainmail is +5 armor, max +2 dex.

My AC with Studded leather is 18, but my AC with Chainmail is 17 (remember, positive AC in 3E is a good thing).

Hence, with high Dex, light armor is typically better.

"But full-plate is a +8 armor with a max dex of +1!" you say.

Oh? Sure, then your AC with Full Plate would be 19, 1 higher than with Studded Leather. However, you're forgetting about something critical: Touch spells.

Touch spells in 3E ignore armor bonuses entirely, but not dex bonuses. So with Full Plate, your AC vs. touch spells is 11, whereas it would be 15 in Studded Leather.

Just something to think about with your armor choices for high Dexterity characters. Those of you who are not familiar with 3E may have missed that small italicized line in the game manual that talks about this particular type of attack.

[Nightowl2]

Note that Rapid Shot does not work with xbows. My Rogue with shortbow equipped
had 2 shots per round, whereas with xbow, it was only 1 shot. Pity, because we
found a very nice +6/+6 xbow only Rogues can use, but with it, she gets only 1
attack.

Nightowl2