Would it be viable to take the Arcane Archer PRC and sub out for daggers instead of bows? I was thinking the pre req feats would be: weapon focus (daggers), weapon finesse, and point blank shot...
Any thoughts or additional tweaks? I was thinking that the phase and seeker arrow abilities should be subbed as well.
The character is a skirmisher bard, and I just love the idea of a dagger chucker over an archer. All suggestions welcome!
I wouldn't have any problems with it.
If anything, daggers is going to be weaker than a bow (shorter range, more expensive enchanting).
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Well, discuss it with your GM obviously. What I would watch out for is the "Enhance Arrows/Daggers" ability. The general problem with throwing weapons versus bows is the cost of enchanting several weapons, and by making this change you are going to severely mitigate the cost of enchanting. Meanwhile, Two-Weapon Fighting throwing builds get a ridiculous number of attacks very quickly. Personally, I love the concept, but as with any change to the Core rules, it's best to think through any adjustments carefully.
I wouldn't have any problems with it.
If anything, daggers is going to be weaker than a bow (shorter range, more expensive enchanting).
Blink Back Belt.
Thanks for the tips, but I have one question. Why would it cost more to go the dagger route? The enhancement doesn't cost anything. Here is the passage from the book.
"At 1st level, every nonmagical arrow an arcane archer nocks and lets fly becomes magical, gaining a +1 enhancement bonus. Unlike magic weapons created by normal means, the archer need not spend gold pieces to accomplish this task. However, an archer's magic arrows only function for him."
The idea is to have a ton of mwk daggers to bypass any kind of DR. I will be giving up some range for the ability to be close to the thick of things, and buff/heal as I go.
One other question, does the returning property, a) allow you to make several attacks per round with the same weapon at range, and b) stack with the paragraph mentioned above?
If no to the second part of the question, would returning be a good substitute property for seeker/ phase arrows?
Why weapon Finesse a pre-req? Quick draw seems more appropriate.
Why weapon Finesse a pre-req? Quick draw seems more appropriate.
Can't believe I missed something so obvious! Thanks!
Design Manager
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Thanks for the tips, but I have one question. Why would it cost more to go the dagger route? The enhancement doesn't cost anything. Here is the passage from the book.
***
He meant that doing this the normal route without Arcane Archer would normally be far more expensive than doing it with a bow. Bows pass their enchantment on to all arrows fired, whereas daggers are enchanted individually, so your net gain in cash and effectiveness as a dagger thrower vs. a dagger thrower not going this route is worth substantially more than an archer would gain from the ability compared to another archer who didn't take the PrC.
***He meant that doing this the normal route without Arcane Archer would normally be far more expensive than doing it with a bow. .
Thanks for clarifying for me. I now see the potential for unbalancing. I was going to start from scratch and make my own dagger wielding PrC, but decided to make a smaller change than a big one. Arcane Archer and Duelist were the ones I looked to for inspiration, but the Duelist almost seems like a trap in every way.
I was looking into capitalizing on the versatility of the dagger as a melee and ranged weapon, while boosting the one weakness of the weapon: it's low damage. Maybe change out phase arrow for an ability to imbue the daggers in melee for a number of rounds per day = to class lvl?
Quick Draw, TWF line, and Blink Back Belt.
Ok, so I guess I am looking at adjusting the pre reqs to: Weapon focus (dagger), Point blank shot, and Quick Draw. and making the following changes.
Lvl 1: The "enhance daggers" ability only applies to thrown daggers.
Lvl 4: Switching the "seeker arrow" ability for the "returning" property
Lvl 6: Switching the "phase arrow" ability for the ability to apply all enhancement bonuses granted from the class for use in melee for a number of rounds/ day = to class lvl.
Lvl 9: Switching the "hail of arrows" ability for the feat Weapon Spec (daggers)
How does it look?
Still wondering about how the returning property works. Do I need separate individual daggers for iterative attacks or does the thrown weapon return for each attack? I know I would need multiple daggers for TWF and rapid shot, just not certain about the iteration attacks.
Returning Weapons can be thrown but they don't return until the next turn so you can't get more than one attack per weapon.
So you would need multiple Daggers. Unless you have a Blinkback Belt.
Gotcha! Thanks for clearing that up.
you could add the blinkback feature to the prestige class.
you could add the blinkback feature to the prestige class.
Not a bad idea, just put it in instead of the returning property?
Or as an evolution of the Property.