Hey folks, so I am plugging along on an Arcane Archer build drawing brief inspiration from DC's Green Arrow, but I'm in need of some advice...
Here is the current build:
Human ‘Taxophile’/’Trapper’ Ranger 1/(Evocation: Admixture) Wizard 6/Eldritch Knight 2/Arcane Archer 3
Feats: Point Blank Shot [1st], Precise Shot [Human], Scribe Scroll [Wiz1], Focused Shot [3rd], Spell Focus (Evocation) [5th], Spell Specialization [7th], Weapon Focus (Longbow) [EK1], Spell Penetration [9th], & Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) [11th]
Is there a better selection or arrangement of feats to be had?
He's being built to be primarily a ranged combatant as opposed to a wizard who can fire a bow, so take that in mind.
Focused Shot won't do jack compared to drilling away with full attacks, and you can't use it with Imbue Arrow or special attacks. So I would seriously consider going the normal Rapid Shot + Manyshot route, especially if you're primarily an archer.
If you're planning to focus on using a bow and want to be able to shoot without provoking attacks of opportunity, you'll need to get Weapon Specialization and Point-Blank Master. If you go Fighter 1/ Wizard 5/ EK 3 you can get specialization by 9 and master by 11... quite late, but better than getting it even later.
If you're going with a backup melee weapon, Inspired Blade Swashbuckler for your martial level makes it easy to go Fencing Grace rapier and buckler.
Strength Patron Witch can make for an extremely deadly archer due to Divine Favor and Fate's Favored. The other great specialty of the Witch is Ill Omen, which you can eventually throw as Quickened Ill Omen, which is absurdly awesome. Witch is a somewhat different spell list though.
Eldritch Archer 8.
If you're taking trapper ranger though, the guide archetype is likely to be more useful than toxophilite. Their replacement for favored enemy is just better in the absence of the instant enemy spell.
Whats with the evocation specialisation? You have arrows to do damage with, I'd have thought that literally any other school would be more useful to you.
master_marshmallow's suggestion is very good; it's a magus archetype which does exactly what you want it to do much better than AA.
Eldritch Archer 2 is still a good dip, since you can skip the two magus arcana, and get full BAB. From there I'd recommend magus 2 (10 total, to get fighter training), then take Eldritch Knight to 8.
Magical Knack gets back CL.
Wayang Spell HunterMetamagic Master (Snowball) would be my ideal pick for the other trait.
Snowball is more or less analogous with shocking grasp on the regular builds.
While your ideas are fruitful, the build itself is locked in, so I'm wholly concerned with the feats of it.
Focused Shot won't do jack compared to drilling away with full attacks, and you can't use it with Imbue Arrow or special attacks. So I would seriously consider going the normal Rapid Shot + Manyshot route, especially if you're primarily an archer.
If you're planning to focus on using a bow and want to be able to shoot without provoking attacks of opportunity, you'll need to get Weapon Specialization and Point-Blank Master. If you go Fighter 1/ Wizard 5/ EK 3 you can get specialization by 9 and master by 11... quite late, but better than getting it even later.
With a BaB of +9, am I better off focusing on full attacks (and or a full-attack with Rapid Shot), rather than being able to move around & utilize my intelligence modifier to one single attack? Or would Rapid Shot still be a better option what with the Enhanced Arrows feature from the Arcane Archer?
If you're taking trapper ranger though, the guide archetype is likely to be more useful than toxophilite. Their replacement for favored enemy is just better in the absence of the instant enemy spell.
Whats with the evocation specialisation? You have arrows to do damage with, I'd have thought that literally any other school would be more useful to you.
Eh... This is a more theoretical build than anything, so for this character he'd be fighting humans 90% of the time, so I'm fine sticking with favored enemy.
As for evocation I wanted to focus on him adding an array of versatile & damaging spells to his arrows via Arcane Archer. Do you have a better suggestion regarding specialization?
A full attack with Rapid Shot and Many Shot is 4 arrows by BAB+6, or 5 arrows if you have a Haste type extra attack. So, 4/5 arrows vs. one arrow with a bonus... not really any question which is going to do more.
Using Imbue Arrow to fire a spell-shot might be preferable to a full attack depending on the situation, but you can't use Imbue Arrow with Focused Shot anyhow (because you're just getting a free normal attack while casting the spell).
When firing imbue arrow you're probably going to want to aim at a grid intersection rather than an enemy unless you'd hit the enemy on a 2. Any chance of wasting the spell or worse is bad.
OTOH maybe you're trying to replicate the character exactly? I only have second hand info, but I can believe that he might fire a lot of fireball arrows.
For optimisation, divination/foresight subschool is very good. Initiative bonus and a free action reroll are not to be sneezed at, and divination spells like see invisibility, find fault and named bullet may be useful to have on tap for an archer. Even true strike may have its uses for trick shots. For a variety of odd and damaging effects you might want your spell focuses in conjuration. I was serious about any school being better BTW and could make a case for any given one if you want.
Do you mean Arcane Archer 2 is still a good dip? As in 8 levels of Eldritch Archer, then 2 levels of Arcane Archer, then another 2 levels of Eldritch Archer, then 8 levels of Eldritch Knight?master_marshmallow's suggestion is very good; it's a magus archetype which does exactly what you want it to do much better than AA.Eldritch Archer 2 is still a good dip, since you can skip the two magus arcana, and get full BAB. From there I'd recommend magus 2 (10 total, to get fighter training), then take Eldritch Knight to 8.
Yes, because Imbue Arrow does the same thing as those two magus arcana (reach spellstrike and something else I think) and gives full BAB.
Two more levels of magus give you another magus arcana, another level of spellcasting, and fighter training to qualify for fighter feats later on (weapon focus and greater weapon focus help a lot on this build).Eldritch Knight offers full fighter progression, maths out at the same number of bonus feats, but you end up with a 17 BAB. Doing Rapid Shot/Manyshot/Spell Combat stacks on a lot of negatives so you'll want as high of an attack bonus as possible.
Eldritch Knight is hardly worth it. The extra bab is offset by losing Arcane Pool progression and an attack at bab-15 is hardly worth losing all your class features over.Do you mean Arcane Archer 2 is still a good dip? As in 8 levels of Eldritch Archer, then 2 levels of Arcane Archer, then another 2 levels of Eldritch Archer, then 8 levels of Eldritch Knight?master_marshmallow's suggestion is very good; it's a magus archetype which does exactly what you want it to do much better than AA.Eldritch Archer 2 is still a good dip, since you can skip the two magus arcana, and get full BAB. From there I'd recommend magus 2 (10 total, to get fighter training), then take Eldritch Knight to 8.
Extra damage on Deadly Aim and the added bonus from BAB essentially mitigates the penalty from Spell Combat. You're still firing what, 5 arrows at full BAB? I'm not that concerned with the bottom iterative.
A full attack with Rapid Shot and Many Shot is 4 arrows by BAB+6, or 5 arrows if you have a Haste type extra attack. So, 4/5 arrows vs. one arrow with a bonus... not really any question which is going to do more.
Using Imbue Arrow to fire a spell-shot might be preferable to a full attack depending on the situation, but you can't use Imbue Arrow with Focused Shot anyhow (because you're just getting a free normal attack while casting the spell).
Thanks for the advice, I'll shift some stuff around in the build.
When firing imbue arrow you're probably going to want to aim at a grid intersection rather than an enemy unless you'd hit the enemy on a 2. Any chance of wasting the spell or worse is bad.
OTOH maybe you're trying to replicate the character exactly? I only have second hand info, but I can believe that he might fire a lot of fireball arrows.
For optimisation, divination/foresight subschool is very good. Initiative bonus and a free action reroll are not to be sneezed at, and divination spells like see invisibility, find fault and named bullet may be useful to have on tap for an archer. Even true strike may have its uses for trick shots. For a variety of odd and damaging effects you might want your spell focuses in conjuration. I was serious about any school being better BTW and could make a case for any given one if you want.
I've been thinking on this and I think the bulk of my spells are conjuration as this guy's main-stick at this point in the creation process is dropping battlefield effects via his arrows. Create Pit, Obscuring Mist, Grease, ect...
Regarding feats, this was the old roll-out:
Feats Point Blank Shot [1st], Precise Shot [Human], Scribe Scroll [Wiz1], Focused Shot [3rd], Spell Focus (Evocation) [5th], Craft Magic Arms & Armor [Wiz5], Spell Specialization [7th], Weapon Focus (Longbow) [EK1], Spell Penetration [9th], & Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) [11th]
Maybe this would be better?
Feats Point Blank Shot [1st], Precise Shot [Human], Scribe Scroll [Wiz1], Rapid Shot [3rd], Spell Focus (Conjuration) [5th], _____ [Wiz5], Spell Penetration [7th], Weapon Focus (Longbow) [EK1], Many Shot [9th], & Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration) [11th]
For the Wizard's 5th-level none of the Arcane Discoveries jumped out at me (beyond maybe Fast Study), so if I was going to select a metamagic feat, these are the ones I'm eyeing:
Empower Spell
Intensified Spell
Maximize Spell
Thoughts? I should be noted that this build would never exceed twelve-level.
Maybe Persistent Spell? It would suck if you hit something with a really cool spell, but then it saves.
But that might work better as a metamagic rod....or will your hands be too full of bow and arrows to use a metamagic rod?
Empower or Persistent would be the normal metamagic feats to go for (first for power, second for reliability). One other such to consider though if you might have other people around who have difficulty organising themselves around your battlefield control - Fleeting Spell.