help! I am running my first campaign and don't have time to pour over all the rules (and keep them in my head) while taking 16 college credits. One of my players (arcane archer) did almost 200 damage in one round at level 10. Is this possible and if so should it be? I haven't had a chance to look over his character (bad me) but I will soon. I know he has a +3 composite bow of icy burst with a 20 str requirement, but his str is only 16 so he has a -2 to hit. He is using feats and spells from the APG which I don't have ready access to. Sorry if this isn't enough info, I am just afraid the other players will start to feel left out or I will end up overpowering the party in an attempt to compensate.
tnx
It might be possible, depending on his spells, but you really need to take a look at his character sheet.
As a DM, if your players announce that they're doing something (such as dealing damage) and you don't understand what's happening, call a time out and ask them to clarify what's going on. Don't just shrug and accept it - it's your job to be the referee.
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That sounds about right for that level, given a dedicated archer or 2-H melee type, if every attack hits.
To make an accurate assessment though we would need a lot more info. Were there any crits involved? What feats were used? What magic items does the character possess? What is the class build for this character? What spells were used? Were there any temporary buffs used?
What is the rest of the group's composition? You can get a large combat divide between characters at any level if the other PCs in the group have taken a diverse number of combat and out-of-combat utility options (feats, spells, items, etc. i.e. not optimized for combat).
Word of advice for the future: never ever allow players to use a book you do not have access to, and always read and approve character sheets before starting your game. This will save you many, many headaches.
Unfortunately, my personal past experience tells me that players who use materials the GM does not have inevitably cheat. This may not be the case, and I really hope it isn't, but usually people who do this are trying to get away with something without you knowing.
200 damage sounds insane to me, but while my players are competent, they don't necessarily optimize. I've got a 18th level arcane archer in my campaign and I can see him pulling off 200 damage in one round with good die roll luck and a full attack and a few other things but... at 10th level sounds extremely suspicious if it is at all typical (and not a fluke of something like a full attack with three crits in a row or something).
The very first thing you absolutely need to do is get a copy of his character sheet and borrow an APG and read his sheet CAREFULLY to see how everything combines.
If something is wrong, politely say, "You have made a mistake, this is how it works."
If everything is right, you can either try to ask him to tone things down, or otherwise will have to live with allowing this character without reviewing it first. Your next step is then to make sure you mix up your combats with close quarters fights and fights where a lot of people who have concealment so he isn't always at an advantage. This does not mean NEVER let him shine, but it does mean offering the group a variety of challenges where sometimes his strengths are not going to be useful.
help! I am running my first campaign and don't have time to pour over all the rules (and keep them in my head) while taking 16 college credits. One of my players (arcane archer) did almost 200 damage in one round at level 10. Is this possible and if so should it be? I haven't had a chance to look over his character (bad me) but I will soon. I know he has a +3 composite bow of icy burst with a 20 str requirement, but his str is only 16 so he has a -2 to hit. He is using feats and spells from the APG which I don't have ready access to. Sorry if this isn't enough info, I am just afraid the other players will start to feel left out or I will end up overpowering the party in an attempt to compensate.
tnx
He should apply -2 to hit and only get to add the +3 modifier for a 16 STR, not the full +5.
It's in the small details like this that the difference lays, but I'm pretty sure that your little optimizer here has a wand or two of bull's strength that he uses liberally, being an arcane archer.
It might be possible, depending on his spells, but you really need to take a look at his character sheet.
As a DM, if your players announce that they're doing something (such as dealing damage) and you don't understand what's happening, call a time out and ask them to clarify what's going on. Don't just shrug and accept it - it's your job to be the referee.
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I find a lot of characters that seem too effective are doing so because they happen to always have their best buffs up without investing the actions to do so.
If he's using short duration buffs like Bull's Strength and Gravity Bow make sure he's wasting standard actions in combat. He can't always guess when the fights are going to happen.
If he's doing the 'I cast Gravity Bow before opening every door' punish him by having lots of empty rooms 30 minutes apart from each other.
I'd love to see his build. It would be easy enough to calculate his damage potential.
We really do need more info on the player but...
A level 10 arcane archer, would suggest his BAB is probably +9.
So he gets +9/+4, with rapid shot that's +7/+7/+2, with multi-shot his first shot does two arrows.
Not knowing what his DEX bonus is, I'm not going to bother with trying to figure out their attack bonus. However, you should note that even if the composite long bow has a strength of 20 requirement (+5 damage) you only get to add YOUR strength bonus to your damage rolls (page 147 of the core book)... and you take a -2 penalty to attack if you're strength is too low using the bow.
Anyway, average damage would be:
1st arrow (4.5 +3 strength +3 bow +3.5 frost) = 14 average (max:20)
2nd arrow (multi-shot, 1st attack) = 14 damage (max:20)
3rd arrow (2nd attack) = 14 damage (max:20)
4th arrow (3rd attack) = 14 damage (max:20)
on average you're looking at 56 to 80 points.
Any one crit bumps this to:
average critical hit: (4.5 +3 str +3bow)*3 = 31.5 +3.5frost = 35 damage
however you have an icy burst weapon on a bow so that +2d10 burst (average: 11 points, max 20)
So your average crit with this weapon would be 46 points of damage, max crit would be (42+6+20= 68, very unlikely but possible).
Damage goes up even MORE if the PC is using the "Deadly Aim" feat. With a BAB +9, they would take -2 attack but +4 damage.
Damage goes up MORE if they chose a fighter as part of their arcane archer build, since a 5th level fighter gets weapon training 1 (+1 attack, +1 damage) and qualifies for weapon specialization.
The problem is that we don't know what the PC's levels are for each class.
They could be Fighter 8, wizard 1, arcane archer 1 = 10th level PC.
In my example your PC would be doing:
average arrow damage 4.5 (max 8)
strength bonus damage 3
enhancement bonus damage 3
fighter weapon training 1
fighter specialization 2
deadly aim feat damage 4
Thus far we're doing damage of : 17.5 (max: 21)
Then we add frost damage average: 3.5 (max 6)
So you're average shot is 21 damage, maximum 27.
On a critical hit this turns into average: 52.5 (max: 63)
Plus the frost damage: 3.5 (max: 6)
Plus the icy burst damage: 11 (max 20)
Now we're looking at a potential critical hit of 58-to-89 damage with one arrow.
This could go up EVEN more with buffs like prayer (+1 damage) or the 10th level Bard's +2 inspire courage bonus to damage.
So can your 10th level PC do 200 points of damage in one round? Absolutely.
With just the two buffs I mentioned, your average arrow is now doing 24-30 points of damage and crits are doing 67-98 damage.
With four arrows (only three can crit since the 2nd arrow in multi-shot can't crit) we're looking at a damage potential of...
96 average damage without crits.
224 with three average crits and the extra arrow from multi-shot.
321 maximum damage if they rolled perfectly on their damage dice.
If you're HASTED you get an extra attack so in my buffed example that's another +24 damage average (+67 average crit) on top of everything else.
If you can think of another buff that adds to damage, it might stack and drive these numbers higher.
Archers are awesome!
oh, almost forgot, someone mentioned bull's strength to bump the archer's strength score, that would allow him to use the full +5 strength bonus allowed by the bow.
That's another +2 damage per hit or +6 on a crit per arrow (minus the multi-shot arrow).
Like many others said before me we would need to know the exact build of the arcane archer and the situation surrounding the combat to tell if this is possible, but my gut says with a little min/maxing and the right buffs it is definitely possible though even then it shouldn't be an every round occurrence.
Without any buffs I would say it is quite improbable bordering on impossible, but with the right build and buffs I can definitely see it happening.
A 16str, with a bow rated for a 20str tells me the player plans on using bull's str for any important fight. FTR6/WIZ1/AA3 lets him self buff with bull's str and Gravity Bow. Big damage gain right there. It also lets him self buff his arrows with flaming or shock, which should stack with his longbow's icy burst. At this point each arrow should be doing 4d6 damage plus I dunno, maybe 12? Assuming you get a crit that is what, 12d6 + 2d10 + 36 with self buffs?
He should be getting 3 attacks with rapid shot doing double damage with the first attack. Add a bard in the group to give him bard song, haste, and heroism I see no problem for min maxed arcane archer to do 200 damage in a round assuming all shots hit and he gets 1 crit.
However he shouldn't be able to do this every combat, both he and another mage have to spend 2 rounds casting spells to set something like this up. So assuming he either did nothing to start the combat while he cast buff spells, or the combat was a situation where the party knew what was going to happen and prebuffed this sound plausible.
Add to everything the people said: bow with spell storing + quicken spell + bracers of archery
An optimized archer at level 10 will average around 80ish damage (as demonstrated above). With a crit and a few buffs its definately possible to get that up to 200 in one round if every attack hits. The x3 bow crits are brutal.
As it pointed out well a archer at 10 level can easy put out that much damage. True... It Sound like the player is good Mechic/Builder so ask him/her to walk you thought the steps. this will be huge complament to thim. I my DM did the same to me when I got Buff of +17 at 3rd level.
It made me feel real good like built some special.
It like asking a car what he has under the hood and how does he have all tricked out.
If the GM is allowing 3.5 material, that Wizard feat would be Practiced Spellcaster for a CL10 caster with level 4 spells.
That feat only increases your caster level. You don't get more spells per day or access to higher spell levels.
On level 10, you get 2 attacks for BAB, plus another for Rapid Shot, and one for haste. Manyshot basically doubles the damage on your first shot (but unless I'm wrong, that extra damage isn't multiplied by a crit)
So if there are no crits involved, we're talking about 40 damage per arrow.
12 points (max) of damage for the bow's dice (with gravity bow)
6 points (max) for energy effect
3 for the bow's bonus
5 for strength (if bull's strength is used)
6 for deadly aim
3 for weapon focus and weapon training
That's 35 points per hit max.
Of course, we're talking max damage, which you won't get all the time, so on average, it's more like 28 points. There's probably a few things I missed. that could make it go higher.
So we're at 140 points on average. A crit will add about 60 points, a bit more with energy burst, so 200 does seem doable. He does need to waste two actions to get there, though (one for gravity bow and one for bull's strength), more if he uses more buffs. And he has to hit every time, and crit once.
I'd say that if he tops 200 points occasionally, that's okay. If it's every round, I'd get suspicious.
But anyway, I'd ask him to show you the sheet and look it over. He might cheat deliberately or just have made a mistake or two.
That feat only increases your caster level. You don't get more spells per day or access to higher spell levels.
Correct; note that his build in question has 5 levels of wizard and 3 levels of EK (the latter two of which are +1 caster level).
So 7th level wizard = 4th level spells.
ok he took ranger instead of fighter but he used a ranger template from the APG which let him give up some stuff for the ability to make any single target his hunter focus 3/day. This gives him a +4 to hit that target. He definately has manyshot and rapid shot. He gets hasted and bull str which brings him to a 20 str which is the str of the composite long bow (but he says the buffs are not what make him kick ass). he uses gravity bow a lot. His weapon is +3 Icy burst and he adds flaming to that via his AA class. He crits on 19-20.
He also has boots of levitation and uses a wizard teleport 5ft + 5ft step trick to move out of full attack range and still get his full attacks. I should mention there is also a 2h PA barb and a duel wield dps fighter wich do significant damage. They seem fine because they have to engage the enemies befor they start dealing damage. The main annoyance with the archer is he gets his full attacks every single round at hundereds of feet away. He can shoot through cover with feats and abilities. He can shoot flying enemies. He can basically kill everyone in the world. On top of that he tells me he has even another trick that he hasn't shown yet.
He killed my fire giant in the first round. He almost killed (forced retreat) my adult black dragon in one round. He killed a lvl 9 paly in one round (evil campaign). What should I do to balance this out. The big bosses get one round (hopefully) to do somthing before they splat. I could negate him completely (wind walls, paralyze, etc.) but that would get old (sucks to do nothing all fight).
tnx
ok he took ranger instead of fighter but he used a ranger template from the APG which let him give up some stuff for the ability to make any single target his hunter focus 3/day. This gives him a +4 to hit that target. He definately has manyshot and rapid shot. He gets hasted and bull str which brings him to a 20 str which is the str of the composite bow (but he says the buffs are not what make him kick ass). he uses gravity bow a lot. His weapon is +3 Icy burst and he adds flaming to that via his AA class. He crits on 19-20.
He killed my fire giant in the first round. He almost killed (forced retreat) my adult black dragon in one round. He killed a lvl 9 paly in one round (evil campaign). What should I do to balance this out. The big bosses get one round (hopefully) to do somthing before they splat. I could negate him completely but that would get old if I did it every encounter and the rest of the group might die w/o their main dps.
tnx
How about have a caster to dispell some of his buffs? If you take out his bulls strength he will have trouble with his own bow. Or better yet dont give him the time to get the buffs before the fight. Then he needs 2 or 3 rounds of prep before he is churning out that kind of damage, which means that your fights will last 4 or 5 rounds which is fairly normal. Make him choose between a round of arrows and getting his buff spells up.
That way you dont completely negate him, but you do mitigate him owning the encounter all the time.
I mean really any damage optimized character with 3 or 4 good buffs on them at the start of combat is going to rip through most enemies.
you can also make fights closer in, reducing his range advantage. Its much harder to take that full ranged attack if you are getting an attack of opportunity every shot.
he cast grav bow but that's it. The other buffs come from another player. And honestly he was still doing over 100 damage per round unbuffed. He said the buffs are just icing on the cake. Bull str gives him +2 to hit and +2 dam per arrow. haste of course is extra attack.
He uses the 5ft step, 5ft teleport, full attack trick to avoid attacks of op. I will add some creatures with reach to negate that but hopfully they have ranged or are in a tight cave or he will just levitate away and keep firing.
... On top of that he tells me he has even another trick that he hasn't shown yet....
BZZZTT!!! Wrong answer. Take his sheet and audit it. If he says no, tell him to start rolling a new one. Period. It may be a bit heavy handed, but if he's NOT doing something screwy, this won't be a big deal. If he IS, then his fear will show.
Beyond that, he seems overgeared, unless ALL he has are the bow and the boots. In any case, start breaking his stuff. Arrange for fights in dark caverns, with traps, spider holes, etc. He's attacked a pretty serious dragon at this point, does the dragon not have older siblings/ hired assassins/ a worshipful tribe of cannibalistic kobolds?
he cast grav bow but that's it. The other buffs come from another player. And honestly he was still doing over 100 damage per round unbuffed. He said the buffs are just icing on the cake. Bull str gives him +2 to hit and +2 dam per arrow. haste of course is extra attack.
He uses the 5ft step, 5ft teleport, full attack trick to avoid attacks of op. I will add some creatures with reach to negate that but hopfully they have ranged or are in a tight cave or he will just levitate away and keep firing.
5ft step and 5 ft teleport- both free actions? If he is using the Level 8 conjuration specialist power, it is a STANDARD action, meaning no attack for him this round. Plus, EK Wouldn;t give him that power, since it is WIZARD level based, not CASTER level based, ire he gets Spells for his level, but not school powers.
Levitate ONLY goes straight up BTW, low ceilings (or floating traps) would toast him.
Edit- removed question already answered by op :)
200 damage on full attack with right buffs in place can happen with using a bow in the hands of an AA. It's a highly optimized build though.
I would advice you to use more creatures in an encounter.
Also did the dragon use spells?
Here is what you say: "Wow, that's quite impressive. Could you break that down for me after the session so I know how you did that?"
There might be something wrong, but deconstructing a character mid-session is poor form. Just make sure the player knows you're not out to get him when you audit the sheet. He's obviously put some work in, and so you should recognize ingenuity where you see it, instead of *just* combing for errors.
If you find errors, be sympathetic when you explain them. Nobody wants to have their character castrated or singled out, but make sure he knows that he'll still be effective, Archer builds in PF often are.
If there are no errors, and you're dealing with a really well-built character and you worry the rest will be left behind, here is a thread that might help you balance your game out a bit (though sadly it looks like it might be degenerating into bickering).
Instead, here's my advice: if the other players want to be as powerful as the archer, let them rebuild their characters with the archer player's help. That should stroke his ego and avoid confrontation, a recipe for enjoyment by all. If the other players don't want to match his power level, and they've focused on building characters for "intangible" reasons, you have to support two styles of play at your table. That is quite doable, many stories have one protagonist who is a combat god and other who are great characters nonetheless.
I'd love to have a conversation on running multiple styles-of-play at one table, but they keep getting derailed by one-stylers. Best of luck!
Eum ... just something that it might of slipped through the cracks ... he uses his dex with to hit, not strength. Just mentioning this cause you said Bull's Strength is giving him +2 to hit and +2 to damage.
Now on the other hand it is possible to do 200 damage on 10th level with a bow, without crit occurring but its highly unlikely ...
Quicken is out the window except if he as someone mentioned above ain't quickening dancing light. So all Buffs available to party of that level that can benefit an AA are: Haste; Inspire Courage; Good Hope;; Gravity Bow; Weapon of Awe; Bull's Strength. I will go with overpowered stats,so i will take Str of 24 (20 base, 24 with bull's str) to hit ain't important cause OP is not concerned with hitting (all through if he didn't hit on all of his attacks it would be nice to know). I will also go with most powerful combo for this specific exercise in pure damage which is fighter 6/wizard 1/AA3 (again someone already stated that he ain't able to quicken anything but dancing lights, so 1 level of wizard is enough).
Now, No. of attacks: 2 from BaB, 1 from Haste, 1 from Rapid Shot, Multishot
Damage: +2 Inspire Courage, +2 Good Hope, +7 Strength (With Bull Str), +2 Weapon of Awe, +2 Weapon Spec, +3 Weapon Training (with dueling gloves), +6 Deadeye, +3 weapon ench for a grand total of +27 on damage
So lets see can this surpass 200 damage, all through answer should be obvious by now :P
Full round of attacking(4 attacks +Manyshot): 135 (static damage from all 4 attacks + Manyshot) +55 (3,5 is average of d6, average of 3d6 is 10.5, i rounded it up to 11) for a grand total of 190. If he was fighting something vulnerable to cold would bump damage to 195 (it adds 1,5 on top of 11 meaning 12)
Meaning he could get to 200 mark and surpass it if he had all of this buffs and more on himself OR if he rolled above average on 15d6's with all of this buffs on himself.
Maybe i missed some buffs, but he probably doesn't even have this much on.
I agree with Evil Lincoln. You do need to have that conversation and look at his character sheet but do it outside of the game.
he cast grav bow but that's it. The other buffs come from another player. And honestly he was still doing over 100 damage per round unbuffed. He said the buffs are just icing on the cake. Bull str gives him +2 to hit and +2 dam per arrow. haste of course is extra attack.
He uses the 5ft step, 5ft teleport, full attack trick to avoid attacks of op. I will add some creatures with reach to negate that but hopfully they have ranged or are in a tight cave or he will just levitate away and keep firing.
So in 1 round he cast Gravity Bow, and another character cast one or two buffs on him and then he let fly.
If another player cast buffs on him, then he didn't do the 200 points of damage, they did it together. So now divide by two and that's two 10th level characters doing 100 damage over 2 rounds, still impressive but not the jaw dropping feat of a single 10th level character doing 200 points of damage in a single round.
Two garden variety 10th level fighters making full attacks for two rounds would have a very similar result.
And remember no matter how bad ass his character is, he's really only as much of challenge as you let him be. You are the GM and you have unlimited resources.
ok here we go..
elf - ranger 5, wiz 2, AA 4 (they are 11th now)
str:16 dex:21 con:14(16) int:16 wis:13(15) cha:12
feats: point blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus:longbow, deadly aim, rapid shot, many shot, stabbing shot (APG, this is the "trick" he was hiding from me).
abilities: ranger focus +4 (APG), track, wild empathy, arcane bond, scribe scroll, specialization:conjuration[teleportation school (APG)] (opposed by necromancy and enchantment), enhance arrow, imbue arrow, endurance, favored terrain:jungle, terrain bond:jungle, seeker, chameleon step, and shift ??? (can't read it)
traits: magical knack +2 wiz caster level, warrior of old +2 init
spells: 1st- grease, obscuring mist, shield, detect secret doors, mount, silent image, expeditious retreat, color spray, burning hands, alarm, gravity bow, and ??? ?trick or track? (can't read)
2nd- web, darkness, knock, summon swarm, locate object, cat's grace, bull's strength, pyrotechnics, ?arrow eruption?, create pit, protection from energy, see invisibility
3rd- spiked pit, stinking cloud, fireball
gear: boots of levitation, snipers eye (custom item gives distance, +1 hit, and increases crit range by 1), cloak of arachnidia, belt of +2 con, efficient quiver, ioun stone +2 wis, golem bane scarab, ring of protection +2, ring of force shield +2, amulet of natural armor +3, robe of blending, ring of evasion (swapping).
weapon: +3 compound long bow (str:20) of icy burst.
so a regular round of shots would go: (assume he is outside 30ft)
BA:10/5 + 5(dex) + 1(weapon focus) + 3(enhancement) - 2(composite penalty) -2(deadly aim) -2(rapid shot) + 1(sniper eye) = 14x2/14/9
damage:1d8 + 3(enhancement) + 3(composite bonus) +4(deadly aim) + 1d6(icy burst) + 1d6(additional element) = 1d8+2d6+10/arrow
and on a typical second round into combat like this:
w/ haste, bull's str, gravity bow: 16x2/16/11/16; 4d6+12/arrow
that's 4 shots, 5 arrows at 4d6+12 each without having to close distance. and x3 on a crit means gg boss.
According to the core rules an epic fight is a APL+3 CR. I've been sending top end epic battles at them for a while. Should I go beyond that? What if something unforeseen shuts him down and the rest of the party is left with a APL+4 or 5 CR. I don't want them all to die. :P
I read that the parties items can add to the CR but it was kind of vague. Is the CR system crap or am I just a bad gm because they destroy epic CR so fast? I've tried lots of stuff like acidic terrain, ambush holes, confinement near deadly drops, pouring rain with spider climbing casters, ambush in the dark, grappling orcish vampire spawn, range behind cover, overwhelming numbers, invisibility, and flyby attacks but nothing seems to hold up. Do other gms typically pass epic CR's on a regular basis to keep up with their players?
tnx Bazzdar
One other thing that helps keep the 10 arrows a round archer build under control is remembering to check the DR and resistances of your monsters. By CR 10 or 11 a ton of monsters are going to have these traits.
For example, the first entry on the d20pfsrd site for a CR 11 monster is the Elder Air Elemental.
For one, its got 15 foot reach, which his little 5 foot teleport/5 foot step maneuver won't let him get away from in order to avoid AoOs. [I also think you need to check this ability: I think the player has misread the rules about the teleport ability.] Its got 28 AC, so with his buffed +16 to hit he should only be landing about half his arrows on target. And its got DR 10/- so all of those arrows are dealing 10 less damage. On top of all that, its immune to critical hits! (As are Swarms, Oozes, and anyone who is Incorporeal. I forget that ALL the time, and it can really make a difference when you have PCs with big critical hit damage spikes.) Oh, and it flies at 100 ft/Perfect, so if it gets surprise on the party, it can drop right in to melee range before the archer gets off a bow shot.
CR 14 Demons and devils (epic fight CR creatures for an 11th level party) are going to have a flat DR, some elemental resistances, AND immunities that will eliminate some of his bonus damage dice. All it takes is resist 10 Cold/Fire/Electricity and his weapon enchant + AA feature no longer help him do any damage to these top end opponents.
EDIT: Fixed my link.
gear: boots of levitation, snipers eye (custom item gives distance, +1 hit, and increases crit range by 1), cloak of arachnidia, belt of +2 con, efficient quiver, ioun stone +2 wis, golem bane scarab, ring of protection +2, ring of force shield +2, amulet of natural armor +3, robe of blending, ring of evasion (swapping).
weapon: +3 compound long bow (str:20) of icy burst.
The character also has well over double the standard wealth by level (62k at level 10). The bow alone is 50k.
So unless you are playing a very high magic campaign, and all characters are equally well provided for, you may want to somehow reduce his magical gear. Though how you do that mid-campaign is a whole new bag of worms :)
[I also think you need to check this ability: I think the player has misread the rules about the teleport ability.]
This ability really is about as awesome as it sounds -- but the distance is short.
It's supernatural teleport 3+Int Mod times per day with a range of 5 foot per 2 wizard levels as a swift action, requires line of sight but doesn't end your action like D.Door does.
I really don't understand why he isn't having to deal with Wind Wall, Protection from Arrows, etc.
Those are standard, common, low level spells.
Pretty much any low level Archer NPC can throw out Rapid Shot, Multi-Shot Full Attacks non stop, i.e. a pretty effective schtick for DPR, so why wouldn't ANY NPC Caster have some scrolls to deal with that situation?
That's just one option amongst many, but it seems very wierd to NOT every use it. If NPCs have Caster/UMD scroll support, they should have a good chance of having that resourse. When they don't, are you using Invisible or Stealth opponents? As said, 15' reach prevents his 10' step trick (it should be pointed out that Full Fighter APG variant Archers can shoot while threatened but he can[t pull that off). Have enemies Summon such creatures directly over the PC while they are still hidden... or have Pouce creatures with large reach get up his face... etc.
Besides some other good suggestions, also think of what you can do to the Archer PC. HP damage is just healed, and you act at 100% capacity until you're staggered. Why not some status effects limiting him 1 Standard Action, Poisons/Ability damage, etc. His Fort Save is probably pretty low between multiclassing and having to heavily focus on DEX and STR and INT. His CMD is probably pretty low as well. Target it.
As mentioned, there's plenty of stuff at CRs appropriate to their level that has reach, big AC, and DR which will not be a roll over for him. I honestly think he has been given a pass by you up to this point, but that simply facing CR appropriate monsters will find his ability's 'wow factor' tapering off. At that level, any NPCs with Armor will likely have some Fortification as well.
Sorry Black tentacles isn't nearly as bad as all that -- the fighter is going to have a CMD of 32 minimum with haste and bull's strength (provided he gets them up), freeing himself is as easy as a supernatural swift action after which the tentacles have to re-establish their grapple.
Archers are actually pretty good on their CMD usually due to the need for both strength and dex -- which gives them a nice bonus on CMD as well.
He's decent on Con and with those wizard levels adding in his will save while not the best isn't horrible either (+3 wizard +1 AA + 1 Ranger + 2 Wisdom = +7... it could stand to be better though).
Fort save is +6 (ranger) + 2 (AA) + 3 (con) = +11 which isn't bad and his reflex save is much the same +13 after Dex.
His caster level isn't much but he has two lists of spells to pull from for wands and the like (ranger and wizard) so that's not bad.
AC is one of his weakest points at 21 honestly.
The wealth by level might not be as bad off as suggested depending on what his arcane bond is -- if it's only counted at half value that's 25k gp instead of 50k -- now granted this isn't how it should be counted but we don't know the circumstances and it's not unreasonable for him to have counted it that way (should have checked with the GM first though if he didn't).
Honestly he looks alright over all to me, but there are still plenty of things that can be done to limit his effectiveness to some degree.
The lowly entropic shield spell is a nice one for example, wind wall has aplication here, warp wood on his bow? That's a bit mean though.
******
Ending thoughts:
I don't think this is a case of cheating, or munchkinism actually -- he's more vesatile than over powered because he brings his own buffs, and he's not left huge gaps in his defenses but he's not overly covered them either. I think it's the fact he's bringing something different to the table that the GM isn't use to and therefore the GM has some new tricks to learn himself to bring things back into balance.
tnx for the input!
I am going to try some elder air elemetals. Does that whirlwind form have any physical immunities? Also thinking about throwing a group of scrubbs with a hidden glabrezu amoungst them. SUPRISE!!
Also I forgot to add his +4 to all attack and damage rolls against a single target from his ranger archtype (APG) into the equation:
that brings him to 18x2/18/13 unbuffed and 20x2/20/15/20 at 4d6+16/arrow fully buffed.. brutal.
I was wondering if ranger focus only increases per his ranger level and not his class level. It just says level so I'm sure he would argue with me over it. If it IS ranger level can someone point to where that is made clear? I havn't found it.
Bazzdar
tnx for the input!
I am going to try some elder air elemetals. Does that whirlwind form have any physical immunities? Also thinking about throwing a group of scrubbs with a hidden glabrezu amoungst them. SUPRISE!!
Also I forgot to add his +4 to all attack and damage rolls against a single target from his ranger archtype (APG) into the equation:
that brings him to 18x2/18/13 unbuffed and 20x2/20/15/20 at 4d6+16/arrow fully buffed.. brutal.I was wondering if ranger focus only increases per his ranger level and not his class level. It just says level so I'm sure he would argue with me over it. If it IS ranger level can someone point to where that is made clear? I havn't found it.
Bazzdar
It is most assuredly ranger level. That IS his class level. If he is arguing it should go with Character level thats nonsense, wizard and arcane archer have nothing to do with ranger focus (or favored enemy). So untill he goes back to ranger it should never go up.
I dont have the APG in front of me but i believe it says it goes up as favored enemy does. That is a class feature, if you dont take the class you dont get the features. There isnt anything to be made clear about.
Edit,
Just remember his focus only applies to 1 single target, not a type of target, so the more enemies in your fight the better. If you have 4 cr 6 monsters instead of 1 CR 10 it will be a much different fight with this guy.
Doh! That little bugger. I thought I had him for second. Ranger focus gives +2 plus an additional +2 at 5th 10th and so on. He is 5th lvl ranger so his +4 to hit and damage is legit.
Does anyone know where I can find the rules for fireing arrows under water? mwaahahaha!
edit: found it. -2 per 5 feet of water.. excellent >:)