Class warfare

Which is more powerful?
20th level Sorcerer
or
10th level Sorcerer/10th level Arcane Archer

Define "powerful".

Its subjective to each individuals own interpretation.

Its subjective to each individuals own interpretation.

Then your answer is a resounding YES

Cool.

Cool.

i dont mean to be an ass but its soooo open ended.

even my Monk help thread had over 1000k posts in it, the Monk is still useful if the party has the use for one

if the party doesn't need healing because potions are abundant, who needs a cleric when you can have fighters

stuff like that

Um. That doesn't work, does it? Arcane Archer requires +6 BAB, which the Sorceror doesn't get until level 12. You'd either need Sorceror 12/Arcane Archer 8 or something else in there to bump up the BAB like Fighter or Dragon Disciple.

That said I think I'll choose pure sorceror. Arcane Archer seems a little gimmicky to me.

The Aristocrats win.

IT's OVER 9000 !!!!

Which is more powerful?

20th level Sorcerer
or
10th level Sorcerer/10th level Arcane Archer

One could answer exactly only knowing the exact build, te environment and story/setting, and the players playing them ;)

The Aristocrats win.

"I order you to lose".

In a:

20th level Sorcerer
or
10th level Sorcerer/10th level Arcane Archer

matchup, my money is on the "or".

Um. That doesn't work, does it? Arcane Archer requires +6 BAB, which the Sorceror doesn't get until level 12. You'd either need Sorceror 12/Arcane Archer 8 or something else in there to bump up the BAB like Fighter or Dragon Disciple.

This.

Ergo, the 20th level Sorcerer Wins, because the Arcane Archer doesn't meet his prestige class prerequisites and therefore can't use his class abilities.

Um. That doesn't work, does it? Arcane Archer requires +6 BAB, which the Sorceror doesn't get until level 12. You'd either need Sorceror 12/Arcane Archer 8 or something else in there to bump up the BAB like Fighter or Dragon Disciple.

That said I think I'll choose pure sorceror. Arcane Archer seems a little gimmicky to me.

Looking at the Prestige classes in the core rulebook it seems that if you switch to them at 10-12 level you give up some really powerful upper level class powers...but what do you get in return? So far nothing is jumping out at me...but I havent read them all yet.

The Aristocrats win.

Not sure if your just without hope or a collaborator ;)

Um. That doesn't work, does it? Arcane Archer requires +6 BAB, which the Sorceror doesn't get until level 12. You'd either need Sorceror 12/Arcane Archer 8 or something else in there to bump up the BAB like Fighter or Dragon Disciple.

He forgot to mention that the Sorc10/AA10 is a young adult gold dragon.

The Sorc 20 is a gnoll.

Why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place. Young Gold Dragon...funny.

To the OP; Leaving aside
- The bab/legal build question
- The variance in build optimization question
then the basic question is - Are 10 Arcane Archer levels worth 10 levels of Sor Bloodline Powers/spells/etc... and access to 9th level spells? Probably not, 9th level spells are that powerful.

A more interesting question - Would 8 AA levels be worth 8 levels of Sor Bloodline stuff (a legal 12/8 build)? Now they both get some 9th level spells.

What does AA give you that a sorceror would want? Your BAB is just north of junk and none of the AA abilities let you use arrows as ranged touch attacks. Imbue Arrow should let you target squares to lay down emanations, which is a nice trick, but doesn't justify more than two levels of AA. All the other AA stuff is for bards or fighters/rangers/paladins with a one level arcanist dip.