Sacred Arrow: Divine answer of the Arcane Archer


Homebrew and House Rules


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Hello, all!

I retooled the Arcane Archer prestige class as a Divine-based archer. I modified some of the abilities to make them more thematic for a divine character. So... thoughts? Please pardon the formatting of the table. Pasted from Word. The main change on table, beyond the changing of ability names, is that Good saves are Ref and Will instead or Fort and Ref.

SACRED ARROW

Elves or half-elves who seek to perfect the use of the bow in service to their deity sometimes pursue the path of the Sacred Arrow. Sacred Arrows are masters of ranged combat, as they possess the ability to strike at targets with unerring accuracy and can imbue their arrows with powerful spells. Arrows fired by Sacred Arrows smite the enemies of their faiths. At the height of their power, Sacred Arrows can also deliver the blessings of their deities via their arrows, as well.

Those who have trained as both rangers and clerics excel as Sacred Arrows, although other multiclass combinations are not unheard of. Sacred Arrows may be found wherever elves travel, but not all are allies of the elves. Many, particularly half-elven Sacred Arrows, use elven traditions solely for their own gain, or worse, against the elves whose very traditions they adhere to.

Role: Sacred Arrows deal death from afar, winnowing down opponents while their allies rush into hand-to-hand combat. With their capacity to unleash hails of arrows on the enemy, they represent the pinnacle of ranged combat.

Alignment: Sacred Arrows can be of any alignment, though as elves and half-elves tend to be free-spirited, they are rarely lawful.
Similarly, it is uncommon to find evil elves and half-elves, and the path of the Sacred Arrow is therefore more often pursued by good or neutral characters.

Hit Die: d10.

REQUIREMENTS

To qualify to become an Sacred Arrow, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Race: Elf or half-elf.
Base Attack Bonus: +6.
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow or shortbow).
Spells: Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells.

CLASS SKILLS
The Sacred Arrow's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Knowledge (Religion), Knowledge (The Planes), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

TABLE: SACRED ARROW
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special Spells per Day
1st +1 +0 +1 +1 Enhance arrows (magic)

2nd +2 +0 +1 +1 Align arrow +1 level of existing class
3rd +3 +1 +2 +2 Enhance arrows (righteousness and retribution) +1 level of existing class
4th +4 +1 +2 +2 Seeker arrow
+1 level of existing class
5th +5 +2 +3 +3 Enhance arrows (distance)

6th +6 +2 +3 +3 Disruption arrow
+1 level of existing class
7th +7 +2 +4 +4 Enhance arrows (elemental burst)
+1 level of existing class
8th +8 +3 +4 +4 Hail of arrows
+1 level of existing class
9th +9 +3 +5 +5 Enhance arrows (aligned)

10th +10 +3 +5 +5 Arrow of life
+1 level of existing class

CLASS FEATURES
All of the following are class features of the Sacred Arrow prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An Sacred Arrow is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields.

Spells per Day: At the indicated levels, an Sacred Arrow gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an divine spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming an Sacred Arrow, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Enhance Arrows (Su): At 1st level, every nonmagical arrow an Sacred Arrow 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.

In addition, the Sacred Arrow's arrows gain a number of additional qualities as he gains additional levels. The elemental, elemental burst, and aligned qualities can be changed once per day, when the Sacred Arrow prays for spells or, in the case of spontaneous spellcasters, after 8 hours of rest.

At 3rd level, every nonmagical arrow fired by an Sacred Arrow gains one of the following weapon qualities: Merciful, Ghost Touch, Undead Bane, (Aligned) Outsider Bane (chosen alignment must not be either component of patron deity’s alignment)

At 5th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by an Sacred Arrow gains the distance weapon quality.

At 7th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by an Sacred Arrow may gain one of the following elemental burst weapon qualities: flaming burst, icy burst, or shocking burst instead of one of the qualities in the Enhance Arrows (Righteousness and Retribution).

At 9th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by an Sacred Arrow gains one of the following aligned weapon qualities: anarchic, axiomatic, holy, or unholy. The Sacred Arrow cannot choose an ability that is the opposite of his alignment, or the alignment of his patron deity (for example, a lawful good Sacred Arrow could not choose anarchic or unholy as his weapon quality).

The bonuses granted by a magic bow apply as normal to arrows that have been enhanced with this ability. Only the larger enhancement bonus applies. Duplicate abilities do not stack.

Align Arrow (Sp): Every nonmagical arrow fired by a Sacred Arrow is aligned, as per the spell Align Weapon. For the purpose of overcoming damage reduction, the arrow is treated as Good/Evil/Lawful/Chaotic (only one). The Sacred Arrow may not choose an alignment opposite his own, or of his patron deity. Therefore, a Lawful Neutral Sacred Arrow of a Lawful Good deity could not choose Evil, for instance.

Seeker Arrow (Sp): At 4th level, an Sacred Arrow can launch an arrow at a target known to him within range, and the arrow travels to the target, even around corners. Only an unavoidable obstacle or the limit of the arrow's range prevents the arrow's flight. This ability negates cover and concealment modifiers, but otherwise the attack is rolled normally. Using this ability is a standard action (and shooting the arrow is part of the action). An Sacred Arrow can use this ability once per day at 4th level, and one additional time per day for every two levels beyond 4th, to a maximum of four times per day at 10th level.

Disruption Arrow (Sp): At 6th level, a Sacred Arrow can launch an arrow once per day at an undead target, granting it the disruption quality, except that the Save DC is 10 + half the Sacred Arrow’s class level + the Sacred Arrows Wisdom modifier. Using this ability is a standard action (and shooting the arrow is part of the action). An Sacred Arrow can use this ability once per day at 6th level, and one additional time per day for every two levels beyond 6th, to a maximum of three times per day at 10th level.

Hail of Arrows (Sp): In lieu of his regular attacks, once per day an Sacred Arrow of 8th level or higher can fire an arrow at each and every target within range, to a maximum of one target for every Sacred Arrow level she has earned. Each attack uses the archer's primary attack bonus, and each enemy may only be targeted by a single arrow.

Arrow of Life (Sp): At 10th level, once per day the Sacred Arrow may fire an arrow at a target as a touch attack. If it hits, the arrow does no damage but instead acts as a Heal spell cast at the Sacred Arrow’s effective caster level.

Feedback?

Randy
Growing Up Gamers


I rather like this :) i've always wanted a divine version of Arcane Archer and this seems to do it well.

The only modifications i would make would be to remove the elf requirement (the developers keep talking about removing it from AA but still have not gotten around to it) and maybe allow any projectile weapon so you can do sacred Slingers and Crossbowmen as well.


Bertious wrote:


The only modifications i would make would be to remove the elf requirement (the developers keep talking about removing it from AA but still have not gotten around to it) and maybe allow any projectile weapon so you can do sacred Slingers and Crossbowmen as well.

Agreed (on both parts). The restriction of being Elven was to reflect their Arcane past anyway, for the Arcane Archer.

Also d10 for a divine non-melee class? It's unprecedented, go for d8.

The power growth seems a little steep, but I know it's almost a direct conversion from Arcane Archer, so I'm not sure what's setting off my Spidey Sense.

Also is Arrow of Life a Standard Action? Full Round? Can it be used with Seeker Arrow? And there needs to be further information on the healing spell. Do you mean the spell Heal which is a 6th level spell, and curing probably 150 points of damage plus status ailments?

Another route you could go is converting the raw damage to healing (no DR or resistance accounted for, but include SR). Unfortunately this leaves abuse with Deadly Aim or crits. If you went this route, it's not pretty. Plus I don't think there's really any precedent on converting damage to healing, outside of positive/negative energy.

So your best bet is to just have it negate all damage and cast a Cure Mod on successful attack.


I think the powercurve is a bit too steep on this one, a divine caster is much better suited to combat in general already. Altogether this will outshine the traditional Arcane Archer by far.

A divine caster has an easier time to get into the class and keep full spell progression up to that point, there is nothing that keep a level 8 cleric from entering the class.

I would cut the caster level increases to 1 per 2 levels and add a bonus feat at lvl 3 and 7 from the ranger list.

well that was a quick scan of the class anyway, didnt go sofar as to rewrite it, but it seems a bit powerful.


Without actually whipping up a few sample characters, I can't say for sure, but I do not think this is over powered.

If I was a level 8 cleric, and had to choose between access to 5th level spells, and making my already magic arrows, uhhh...magic, staying cleric is kind of the obvious choice. Unlike arcane magic, divine magic isn't loaded with options that benefit ranged attacking. Other then a modest boost from divine power or divine favor, there is almost nothing that helps ranged attacks at all.

The only ways I could see this being overpowered is if it offered an option to add Wisdom to ranged attacks like the Zen Archer. There might also be a way to use paladin or inquisitor to create powerful options, but I'm just not seeing anything too powerful.


Thank you for the feedback!

@Bertious: Thanks! Yes, removing elf seems like a good idea. It may be worthwhile to now restrict it to bows, as well. The elf thing definitely.

@Gruuu: It's a class based on the use of a weapon, so it's using the +1/level BAB. And Paizo has married that to the d10, except in the case of the Barbarian and Stalwart Defender, both getting d12.

And yes, Arrow of Life is a Standard Action, and it is the 6th-level spell Heal. I'm a little cautious on doing more in the way of healing, such as you suggested. That ability is once per day, and, IMHO, much less powerful than the Arcane Archer's Arrow of Death. Someone with divine casting ability is already going to capable of healing (unless they are a sponaneous one who has avoiding all cure spells). I wasn't going for a super-ranged healer... just a divine version of the Arcane Archer, focused primarily on bow combat. I especially don't want to convert damage to healing, since I have seen optimizers pump damage incredibly high and I definitely want to avoid cheesiness.

@Remco Sommeling: Really? Too steep? First, it's nearly a direct conversion of the AA. A full cleric would likely avoid the class, as they would need to spend three of their feats (four if not an elf) to qualify for the class (or make a dip in another class) to qualify for a prestige class that does not offer full caster level progression. A cleric who multiclassed would not be able to complete this class and also be able to cast 9th level spells at 20th level.

Okay... further thoughts?

Randy
Growing Up Gamers


Fergie wrote:
The only ways I could see this being overpowered is if it offered an option to add Wisdom to ranged attacks like the Zen Archer. There might also be a way to use paladin or inquisitor to create powerful options, but I'm just not seeing anything too powerful.

Hi! Definitely avoiding that one. That is definitely a specialized thing for the Zen Archer.

Thanks for the feedback!

Randy
Growing Up Gamers


I didn't mean that you needed MORE healing, I meant you needed to flesh out the rules a bit more, like using "as per the Heal Spell"

I was actually suggesting that it might be a bit much. A ranged touch attack 150 point heal plus removing all those status ailments is, much like Ron Burgandy, kind of a big deal.

Also, if it's like the Heal spell, does it act as a Harm against undead?

I definitely see this as an option for Paladins, Inquisitors (if Crossbows are added), maybe Druids. Not so much with Oracle or Cleric (not that I'd look at someone funny for doing it).


Gruuuu wrote:

I didn't mean that you needed MORE healing, I meant you needed to flesh out the rules a bit more, like using "as per the Heal Spell"

I was actually suggesting that it might be a bit much. A ranged touch attack 150 point heal plus removing all those status ailments is, much like Ron Burgandy, kind of a big deal.

Also, if it's like the Heal spell, does it act as a Harm against undead?

I definitely see this as an option for Paladins, Inquisitors (if Crossbows are added), maybe Druids. Not so much with Oracle or Cleric (not that I'd look at someone funny for doing it).

Okay, a few points. It is the capstone ability of a 10 level prestige class, and it is an attack roll. Any attack roll has a chance of missing. By the time you qualify for that, you will absolutely have to be character level 16. To clarify, are you saying that it is game-breaking to have a 16th level divine caster deliver a Heal spell once per day, at range, with at least a 5% chance of failing, as a standard action?

Also, I didn't clarify about the whether or not it could be effectively a Harm spell against an undead. I'm going to say no on that.

Randy
Growing Up Gamers


Randall Newnham wrote:

Okay, a few points. It is the capstone ability of a 10 level prestige class, and it is an attack roll. Any attack roll has a chance of missing. By the time you qualify for that, you will absolutely have to be character level 16. To clarify, are you saying that it is game-breaking to have a 16th level divine caster deliver a Heal spell once per day, at range, with at least a 5% chance of failing, as a standard action?

Also, I didn't clarify about the whether or not it could be effectively a Harm spell against and undead. I'm going to say no on that.

Randy
Growing Up Gamers

I haven't done any testing on it, so I can't say. Probably not, it just was my first reaction to it. I suppose the majority of my reaction was due to the scarcity of rulings on the ability, so that's my fault.

But I never said anything about game-breaking.


Growing Up Gamers

I haven't done any testing on it, so I can't say. Probably not, it just was my first reaction to it. I suppose the majority of my reaction was due to the scarcity of rulings on the ability, so that's my fault.

But I never said anything about game-breaking.

Understandable. I posted the class in from a Word document, and it stripped my formatting, and thus italics to denote it meant the spell.

Randy
Growing Up Gamers


Seems col, just remove the racial limitations.

Prestige Class Racial limitations = bad leftovers from 3.5


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I concur, get rid of the racial restriction.

And a nitpick: Rewrite all of the "An Sacred Arrow"s. They upset my grammar gland. :B


For a 1/day capstone power - when almost all of the capstone powers are 1/day per target or at will (1/rd) - heal is decidedly not "game breaking", whether targeting an undead or otherwise. Sure, it can hurt, but the general undead one runs into at 16th+ level can certainly take the 75 damage (after it probably succeeds on the Will save). Now, if you've attracted the undivided attention of a CR 16+ undead - let us hope that your allies can keep it from nomming on your face. After all, that critter does not necessarily know that you can't keep shooting it like that on subsequent rounds ...

EDIT: Unless your sunblade swinging paladin buddy has its attention. But that's another matter. :)


+1 for removal of elf requirement. I like it!


Bump... has anyone tried this yet?

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