While looking at Words of Power, I realized all these blasty area spells should do great combined with an Arcane Archer's Imbue Arrow ability...?
So I started building around this idea and would like some input from the community. :-)
Race: Azata-Blooded Aasimar (Musetouched)
Starting Class: Sound Striker Magician (Bard) 8 (could replace with Myrmidarch Magus)
Prestige Class: Arcane Archer (obviously)
Sound Striker: because I almost never use inspire competence (when I would need it, I need the sneakiness more) and have never found any useful situation for suggestion yet. And Sound Striker gives me some more blasty stuff.
Magician: I get to add a single arcane spell from another list to my spells known at levels 2,6,10,14,20. This means access to some nice sorcerer word spells: Burning Flash, Fog Bank, Lock Ward, Corrosive Bolt, Lightning Blast+Fire Blast, Acid Wave+Ice Blast. Also free Arcane Bond and counterspelling stuff are always nice.
Both of these word spells are area effects and should work with Imbue Arrow:
- Lightning Blast (3rd lvl word) + Fire Blast (3rd lvl word) = [b]5th[b] lvl word for 10d6 electric damage + 10d6 fire damage when cast at level 20.
- Acid Wave (4th lvl word) + Ice Blast (4th lvl word) = [b]6th[b] lvl word for 10d6 acid damage + 10d6 cold damage and entangled & sickened for 1d4 rounds when cast at level 20
(caster level 20: Bard 12 & Arcane Archer 8 +Magic Knack trait to make up for the 2 lost spellcaster levels)
A possible idea with "Fog Bank" is to take Eldritch Heritage or replace Bard with Sorcerer with the Boreal Bloodline for Snow Shroud (9th lvl): you ignore concealment and Perception penalties in natural or magical snow, ice, fog, and similar weather conditions.
"Cold Steel" (from Boreal lvl 1) gives me the "icy burst" property for my bow, so the only "wasted" feat would be skill focus (survival), if I get this through the Eldritch Heritage feat chain.
Other feats I plan to get:
Point Blank, Precise Shot, Arcane Strike, Weapon Focus, Deadly Aim, Improved Precise Shot