Archer


Advice


I have never made a ranged DPS before and was going to go for an archer archtype of the fighter. I need to know what feats to pick up. I know the basics many shot rapid shot precise shot but what else do i want?

Shadow Lodge

Clustered Shots, and if you have room, Snap-Shot line [both in the Ultimate Combat] are good, since the first lets you all-but-ignore DR, and the other grants free situational attacks within 15ft.

The standard Fighter Weapon Focus/Spec line is also great for an archer, since you want as much extra damage as you can, and you definitely want Deadly Aim for Ranged Power Attack.

Then there is the Point-Blank Master feat for if you want to go Snap-Shot, since you can essentially walk up to an enemy, shoot it in the face 6 times, and take no AoO.

Since you are a Fighter, Iron Will is a popular choice because dominate is a B!+<#.

Of course, these are all just options and none of them [well, maybe Deadly Aim and Iron Will, but...] are mandates for an archer by any means.


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If going for the archer archetype for the fighter, which I have played before and is interesting, due to the combat manuever trick shots, I'd suggest this:

H. Point blank
1. Precise shot
1b. rapidshot
2. Weapon focus
3. Deadly aim
4. Weapon specialization
5. Combat reflexes
6. Manyshot
7. Clustered shots
8. Greater weapon focus
9. Snapshot
10. Improved snapshot
11. Improved precise shot
12. Greater weapon specialization
+ later levels give you more freedom, but at 14th I'd pick up Pin Down as my feat, so that if an enemy is next to me, I prevent him from moving away from me while I plug him full of arrows.

Get bracers of falcons aim for the extra crit range of 19-20, the +1 competence range attack bonus, and the +3 per emotion bonus.

You now can threaten out to 15' and make AoO attacks on enemies from there. With combat reflexes,myoull have plenty of AoO to utilize. Don't move a lot, get heavy armor, or medium Mithral, crank your AC high as well as your attack and damage, and your a walking ballista practically.

Gloves of dueling are a needed item and anything to help your saves is a huge help.
----
As a fighter you'll want a decent will save to help you out. Buffering cap, cap of the free thinker, jingasa of the fortunate soldier, and other items will really help you out in the long run.

Since your picking up the fighter archetype the choices you have for the trick shot ability should go as follows in my opinion:
- disarm
-sunder
-trip (at 11)

At lower levels you'll be fighting humanoids more often than not, so disarm their weapons from 30' if you can, and if it makes more sense then damage, then do so. Sunder is not too bad to use on wizard/spell caster types on their spell components/focus/divine focus.
At later levels, trip even though it's mid level still has uses, so it's not too bad. It's certainly the bat bet compared to grapple.

There are tons of items to boost CMB.


That's certainly one way to go. The other way is to play a Zen Archer Monk. Just start with 14 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 18 WIS and dump on INT and CHA (dwarf best for this). Very high saves, very high AC and CMD, lots of attacks and lots of free archery feats. It probably starts out a tad weaker than a fighter based archer, but I think it exceeds it around level 6 in my opinion.


What exactly you want from your character? A Zen Archer is certainly the easiest to build archer in the game and possibly the flat-out strongest too. But if you would rather stay with fighter it can be done effectively.

The Archer archetype is not bad, but it is not great either. Usually most people choose the weapon master archetype for a fighter archer.


Moondragon Starshadow wrote:
That's certainly one way to go. The other way is to play a Zen Archer Monk. Just start with 14 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 18 WIS and dump on INT and CHA (dwarf best for this). Very high saves, very high AC and CMD, lots of attacks and lots of free archery feats. It probably starts out a tad weaker than a fighter based archer, but I think it exceeds it around level 6 in my opinion.

In my experience, the Zen Archer monk beats the fighter archer at lower levels. You start out getting flurry (Rapid Shot) at level 1, instead of waiting for your second level feat to pick it up. Getting Point Blank Master at level 3 is huge, and you can pick up Improved Precise Shot at level 6. Not to mention you get Improve Unarmed Strike, so you always threaten.

I think the strongest combination is 6 levels of Zen Archer (maybe 7 if you want to get a Monk's Robe) then switch to Weapon Master Fighter.


so if you were going zen archer monk with a point buy of 25 what would your scores be?

i was going to go :
14
14
14
10
16
10

If i went archer fighter:
16
16
14
10
10
10

is that reasonable?


If going down the Fighter route I would not take the Archery archetype. the base fighter class is actually better. As you lose weapon training with the archetype you cannot benefit from gloves of duelling, the gloves are very specific and expert archery doesn't count. You also delay access to point blank master which is pretty much essential for going down the snap shot line.


Andreww is on the right track, but weapon master is even better. It gets weapon training at level 3, and gives up something a monk (if zen archer) or general fighter archer doesn't care about (armor training).


Hmm, not sure I would agree. The basic fighter going archer loves armour training because it allows him to apply more and more of his Dex to his AC while wearing celestial platemmail. This becomes especially important if going down the snap shot fighter tank route.

In exchange you are getting a very situational AC bonus, a small and probably unnecessary bonus to CMD and a small number of admittedly good rerolls. If they weren't so limited in number I might be tempted but otherwise I prefer an always on +4AC and no movement penalty in heavy armour.


Grizzly the Archer wrote:

If going for the archer archetype for the fighter, which I have played before and is interesting, due to the combat manuever trick shots, I'd suggest this:

H. Point blank
1. Precise shot
1b. rapidshot
2. Weapon focus
3. Deadly aim
4. Weapon specialization
5. Combat reflexes
6. Manyshot
7. Clustered shots
8. Greater weapon focus
9. Snapshot
10. Improved snapshot
11. Improved precise shot
12. Greater weapon specialization
+ later levels give you more freedom, but at 14th I'd pick up Pin Down as my feat, so that if an enemy is next to me, I prevent him from moving away from me while I plug him full of arrows.

Get bracers of falcons aim for the extra crit range of 19-20, the +1 competence range attack bonus, and the +3 per emotion bonus.

You now can threaten out to 15' and make AoO attacks on enemies from there. With combat reflexes,myoull have plenty of AoO to utilize. Don't move a lot, get heavy armor, or medium Mithral, crank your AC high as well as your attack and damage, and your a walking ballista practically.

Gloves of dueling are a needed item and anything to help your saves is a huge help.
----
As a fighter you'll want a decent will save to help you out. Buffering cap, cap of the free thinker, jingasa of the fortunate soldier, and other items will really help you out in the long run.

Since your picking up the fighter archetype the choices you have for the trick shot ability should go as follows in my opinion:
- disarm
-sunder
-trip (at 11)

At lower levels you'll be fighting humanoids more often than not, so disarm their weapons from 30' if you can, and if it makes more sense then damage, then do so. Sunder is not too bad to use on wizard/spell caster types on their spell components/focus/divine focus.
At later levels, trip even though it's mid level still has uses, so it's not too bad. It's certainly the bat bet compared to grapple.

There are tons of items to boost CMB.

what feats give you ranged threaten to 15'?

Shadow Lodge

Snapshot feat chain lets you threaten for AoO's.

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