Ok so I've been playing my first ever pathfinder game for about half a year now. Since then I've been lurking here for fun every now and then to learn something interesting about the game. And now I think it's time for me to step in here. (Sorry if this post is in the wrong section.)
So I'm playing a level 6 Ranger Archer archetype and plan on making him an arcane archer after he is taught how to do arcane magic. In the meantime, I'm able to do the ranger spells. This leads me to my first question:
How many spells does a ranger know for every level he gets after 4th? Note that I'm not asking how much he can cast per day. The rules are very specific on that front, given that there's a whole chart dedicated to it! But it's not very clear to me on how much spells that a ranger knows how to do for every level above 4. The only thing I can get out of the rules is this:
"A ranger may prepare and cast any spell on the ranger spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation."
Does this mean that at level 4 a ranger could potentially cast any level one ranger spell on the list if he prepares it? (If he has the wis to do it?) Cause it does seem like that, but I can't think that's what it means. Cause that's a whole lot of spells for a martial class right when he hits that level. If not, then how much?
Now my second question has to do with when my guy does class into an arcane archer. I'm thinking that I will take one level into wizard before the arcane archer because of the magic prerequisite. One spell I definitely want is animate rope, because I have a few cool attack combination ideas I can't wait to use here!
Picture this. As an arcane archer I could attach one arrow to the end of a rope. Let's say I got our party's alchemist to put copper all over this rope also. I then fire the arrow and as it hits someone, I use the spell animate rope to make it tie the poor sap up. Now let's say I had the arrow be a lightning arrow for this attack. So in this instance, not only would he be getting an extra D6 damage by the magic, he'd be tied up by the rope and would have a tough time getting out of it.
Also, I could attach two arrows to a copper rope, one on each side. Using the rapid fire feat, I could fire them both in two directions in front of me. The electrocuted rope could then hit up to a total of ten guys if they were standing in a line! This would do 1D6 damage to all of those dudes and 1D8 + 1D6 for the two guys on the ends of the line who got shot by the arrows. Now sure there won't be a lot of times when there are that many enemies clustered up so close, but the potential is there.
Crazy stuff like this could be done in addition to just plain firing away at one dude for a full round attack. I talked to my gm about this idea a couple times and he says he'd be ok with it. But it would be a full round action for sure. I was wondering if you guys would agree with him on these rope attacks being full round attacks or not. Cause I think since the arcane archer gets imbue arrow at second level, doing the animate rope spell while firing is arguably something like a swift or free action or something. I say this cause it would be nice to move afterwards.
Again, sorry if this is in the wrong place. I'm a noob here after all. Also as a first character, you guys think I'm doing ok?
As a divine class, the Ranger has full access to its entire spell list. When you prepare spells as a 4th level Ranger, you can freely pick any spells on the 1st level Ranger spells list.
Most of the rest of what you want to do is up to DM call.
Cool thanks!