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I need to take a 5th-level Abjuration Wizard and turn her into a solid archer by the time she is 12th level. This gives me 7 levels to play with. I am only allowed to use the CRB and Unchained. Any suggestions? The wizard is an elf and has Precise Shot and Point-Blank Shot already. The 5th-level feat has not been selected yet. If possible, she should focus on killing undead.
Easiest Build: Take a level in ranger or fighter next level. Then go into Eldritch Knight
Next: Rather than take your 5th level feat request a slight retrain into VMC battle oracle. This will give you martial weapon proficiency at lv7 to go into eldritch knight with minimal caster level loss
3rd: take lv 5-6 in ranger, lv7-8 in fighter, the 9+ in arcane archer. This kills your caster level but will give you bab, feats, and skill points
Plus, the arcane archer ability "imbue arrow" is so very cool. Pity there isn't an easier way to get it.
The Eldritch Knight and Arcane Archer recently got a stealth buff with the addition of the Prestigious Spellcaster feat, which can be used to buy back dead spellcasting levels on prestige classes. You can have your cake and eat it, too!
If you can retrain into a Pact Wizard with the Strength Patron, you can get Divine Favor as a bonus spell, which is an excellent archery buff. Adding the Fate's Favored trait (if you can grab the Extra Traits feat, which is also nice for Magical Knack) to a Wizard/Eldritch Knight with Divine Favor will end up with a +4 to attack and damage on all arrows. Since Divine Favor is level 1, it's fairly easy to use as a Quickened Spell at higher levels when you can't pre-buff.
For Eldritch Knight needing a martial level, you can always take 1 level of Urban Bloodrager to gain access to a strength and/or dexterity boosting Rage plus the ability to use a Furious weapon. You would want to take Extra Rage at least once. You can take Mad Magic to cast spells while raging, though typically spells are cast first, and then rage begins after. So going with Bloodrager costs at least one feat, but it's another nice bonus to accuracy and damage. If you can stack Rage, Furious Weapon, Heroism, Quickened Divine Favor and Fate's Favored, and maybe Weapon Specialization (Eldritch Knight counts as Fighter), you can get seriously nasty arrow-storms.
Eldritch Knight counting as Fighter also has the benefit of eventually getting Point-Blank Master.
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Wizard 6 / Martial 1 / EK 2 / AA 3
I am only allowed to use the CRB and Unchained.
Just a reminder to everybody else that the OP said this
I am only allowed to use the CRB and Unchained.Just a reminder to everybody else that the OP said this
Doh. Well I'd still say at least EK 4 (or Fighter 1/EK3), because of Weapon Specialization. Arcane Archer is nice for the free elemental imbue at level 3, but otherwise I'm not that big a fan; personally I'd rather keep going EK and not lose any more spell levels, since there's always things you can do with more spellcasting power.
..into a frog.
There, I finished the statement to something that makes sense. As a wizard.
Wizard 5/Fighter 1/Eldritch Knight 7 is probably your best bet.
BAB +10, Caster Level 10. Not too shabby.
Just pick up the standard ranged combat feats, I guess.
Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus longbow, Weapon Specialization longbow, Improved Critical longbow. Maybe Far Shot or Many Shot?
Is there a particular reason why you need to be a solid archer?
EDIT:
Replace fighter with ranger and get Favored Enemy undead. It will give you an additional +2 on attacks and damage against undead, plus some skill points and better class skills, which might be useful if you decide to go Arcane Archer instead of/in addition to Eldritch Knight. Also better Reflex saving throws.
If you don't have to be a solid archer, just an OK archer, maybe just stick to wizard and use an arrow once in a while.
How does the +1 to existing spell class work? Will the Arcane Archer be able to gain new spell levels. For example, would a 5th level Wizard/3rd level Arcane Archer be able to cast 4th level Wizard spells?
Yes. Basically add all your +1 existing spell class to your wizard level to determine your spellcasting. This ONLY applies to spellcasting so any other features like bonus feats and arcane school only count your actual wizard levels. There is 1 major caveat though. The free spells you get in your spellbook each level are considered a wizard class feature so you do not get them when you advance in a prestige class(PRC). For this reason it is highly recommended you buy a Blessed Book. Also it is worth mentioning many DM's homebrew it so you do get spells so ask your dm.
"I need to be one of the best archers in the world for roleplay reasons."
Do you need to be one of the fastest, or just the most accurate? If it's the latter, cast true strike, fire the arrow, rinse and repeat :)
Why is EK so much better than AA? Is it just the fighter feats?
I need to be one of the best archers in the world for roleplay reasons.
EK is easy to get into, preserves spell levels, and grants useful bonus feats and Fighter feat access. AA is much harder to get into, meaning you need to go EK first or take several levels of a martial class to get there, meaning that you're losing a lot of casting levels overall. And the features of the AA look really interesting at first, but have major issues; Enhance Arrows is rendered mostly redundant by having a good bow, the special attacks are usually much weaker than just unleashing a full attack and don't work together, and Arrow of Death has significant DC issues and use limits for something you're only getting at uber-high level.
It mostly comes down to EK having really good 'fundamentals', while AA is shiny tricks of questionable value with weaker core features.
Edit: by the time you can use Hail of Arrows, a full bow attack will be unleashing a storm of arrows anyhow, but with chosen targets for each.
Or just hold a bow in your hand and cast magic missile. It never misses! ;-)
Or carry the bow for enemies not worth wasting a cantrip on. ;-)