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Hello!
I'm looking into creating my first Core character. I thought archery might be fun, since I've never tried an archery-based character before.
However, a lot of the gear, tricks, classes, archetypes, and enchants useful to archers don't exist in Core. (Gravity Bow, Clustered Shots, adaptive and seeking enchants, weapon blanche, etc.)
I'm going back and forth between either playing a bard or a ranger, possibly going into Arcane Archer eventually.
Any suggestions or recommendations?
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Hello!
I'm looking into creating my first Core character. I thought archery might be fun, since I've never tried an archery-based character before.
However, a lot of the gear, tricks, classes, archetypes, and enchants useful to archers don't exist in Core. (Gravity Bow, Clustered Shots, adaptive and seeking enchants, weapon blanche, etc.)
I'm going back and forth between either playing a bard or a ranger, possibly going into Arcane Archer eventually.
Any suggestions or recommendations?
Elf, for race, is one of the better Core options for archers. Basically opens up archery to every class without wasting feats.
Precise Shot is pretty much mandatory. I you don't mind being bland, the classic Ranger with Archery and a Companion Animal, remains a pretty valid build. Fighters or Rogues could also make solid archers.
You could also attempt a Wizard/Sorcerer/Cleric that used True Strike and Archery. It would be a less impressive archer build, but could remain useful in it's own right, as just a non-magic support weapon you used when not casting. Clerics can get true strike via at least one domain (Destruction, I think), but it isn't on their main list of spells, so you'd be limited in uses per day. Arcane Strike does work with ranged weapons, so some potential there.
As an aside, you could run a crossbow instead of a bow. The main advantage there is that the crossbow can dump STR and remain just as effective. It's also a Simple weapon (unless you take one of the exotic versions), so depending on your build, the crossbow may prove more practical than the composite bow. Not Arcane Archer friendly, but still useful in it's own right. The crossbow build would fit better with a rogue or magical user, as they could use sneak attack, poison, or magic to compensate for the reduced damage that a higher level Composite bow would be doing.
Oh, regarding crossbows in core. There is one interesting use there. If you cast reduce person on yourself, your dex will improve and your strength will decrease. However, projectiles are not affected by this size decrease (except in regards to your ability scores). So a crossbow user would be improved via reduce person because they'd have better dex and str doesn't affect their damage, unlike a composite bow or a thrown weapon.
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Fighters make good archers because they have a very solid to hit score with weapons. Between full BAB and weapon training they can often nail their targets and therefor can afford to use deadly aim regularly. They also can afford the feats necessary to make a good archer, including Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, the aforementioned Deadly Aim, Manyshot and Rapid Shot. The Fighter can also get Weapon Specialization (after Weapon Focus) which makes up for lost things such as gravity bow. In Core, you will need a variety of arrows of special materials to deal with damage reduction, so you'll need a handy haversack to cover all your reloads.
I also play a Diviner Wizard that follows Murdock's suggestion. His arcane bond is his bow, and the enchantments are affordable that way. With true strike he can target opponents behind arrow slits and other difficult targets, though he doesn't get a high rate of fire.
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Quite frankly. archery is such a powerful option that you really can't go wrong no matter how you build the character (within reason, of course).
Human is a very. very tempting choice since the extra feat is VERY valuable, especially early on.
The recent nerf to magic bows affects you more than non core (no clustered shots) but it is manageable with scrolls, oils and arrow choice.
But basically, go with a medium race, Str of 12 or 14, Dex of 18-20, put all your feats into archery and lots of your loot and you've got a quite competitive archer. Cleric or Ranger or Druid or Fighter or Bard or Paladin is pretty much up to you. All make quite competent archers with different strengths and weaknesses.
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As an aside, you could run a crossbow instead of a bow.
I'd strongly advise you to NOT do this, not in Core at any rate. You're adding an extra feat to the already quite feat intensive fighting style and you'll be doing substantially less damage. That extra feat is going to HURT a lot until you hit something like L9.
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I'd strongly advise you to NOT do this, not in Core at any rate. You're adding an extra feat to the already quite feat intensive fighting style and you'll be doing substantially less damage. That extra feat is going to HURT a lot until you hit something like L9.
As an aside, you could run a crossbow instead of a bow.
Which feat are you referencing? There are numerous advantages, as mentioned, to the Crossbow. I will note, though, I was directing the Crossbow approach at the Rogue/Wizard/Sorcerer/Cleric build, not the Fighter/Ranger.
The thing here is that, unless Elf, the Bow costs the Sorcerer/Wizard/Cleric, an entire feat to obtain proficency. The Rogue only gains the Shortbow, which may be good enough for your build, but I'd prefer to dump Str on my Ranged Rogue, and keep to the Crossbow. The Cleric could choose Erastil to gain the Longbow, but in doing so, loses access to True Strike (since Erastil clerics can't take Luck or Destruction Domains).
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Crossbow pretty much requires Rapid Reload.
As Paul Jackson said, just about any class can do ok with archery. But if you really want to be great at it in Core, you have to go fighter or ranger. It's just so feat intensive that the bonus feats from those two classes will get you up to speed much faster.
The main advantage of ranger is that you can take Improved Precise Strike at level 6, instead of waiting until 11. Also, they get a lot more skills than fighters, so they tend to be more fun to play outside of combat.
The main advantage of fighter is stuff like Weapon Specialization that other classes can't get, not to mention weapon training.
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Crossbow pretty much requires Rapid Reload.
For the record, there's rapid reload, or you can take Exotic weapon: Repeating Crossbow (Light or heavy). For a Fighter, this is probably a bad approach, as they have too many attacks, but for a Wizard/Cleric/Sorcerer, 5 free-action reload bolts is plenty for most combats.
Or you could just take the Light Crossbow. A move action to reload is often an action you have to spare, as a sorcerer/wizard, since most spells are standard actions.
And, in Pathfinder, you can store a Crossbow loaded...
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Core clerics get rather pigeon holed into worshipping Erastil for the proficiency and druids either need to eat an extra feat or be an elf which isn't ideal.
I don't know if it is still being given out but there is also a Con boon that gives one racial weapon training. I'd have to check but I think that is how 2 of my Core Archers (one Druid, one Cleric) actually have proficiency.
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The recent nerf to magic bows affects you more than non core (no clustered shots) but it is manageable with scrolls, oils and arrow choice.What nerf is this referring to?
There was a commonly held belief that a +3 bow would confer the +3 to it's ammunition, rather than requiring archers to purchase +3 ammunition.
It was recently clarified that the +3 still adds to attack, and makes the shot arrows count as magical, but they don't count as +3 arrows.
If you look up DR in the CRB, you'll find that DR/cold Iron and DR/silver can be bypassed by +3 weapons, in additon to those actual weapons. The "Nerf" clarifies that mundane arrows shot from a +3 bow don't automatically bypass DR/cold Iron or DR/silver.
It's a financial setback for character builds that shoot lots of ranged projectiles, and that's basically the nerf, they increased the costs required to be an effective ranged weapon user that spams ranged projectiles.
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Ugh. With no durable arrows, and no weapon blanche, that IS a lot more expensive. Thanks for the explanation!
You could still attempt to overwhelm DR with damage, rather than attempting to bypass it. Max out Str (20) and Dex (18), and you could still have an affordable archer. Fighter, or something, but you should be able to deal damage with +5 Str rating Composite bow. With a composite Longbow, that 1d6+5 base, which should still get through the DR of low level encounters. Start adding weapon training, weapon specialization, and Deadly Aim, and you start to deal respectable damage, even to creatures with high DR.
Mind you, such a build would require an array of 18, 18, 8, 7, 7, 7 - not always a welcome array. I think it would make a very fluffy archer, since with 8 con and 7 will, their desire to fight at long range makes perfect since with regard to their frail body and cowardly nature. Plus poor social skills and an inability to disinguish friend from foe at long range, yeah, the classic archer. And you'd have amazing CMD...
Not saying it would be a great build, but that is an option instead of trying for bypassing their DR with expensive arrows or substances.
Venture-Agent, Virginia—Newport News
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My experience as an archer has been that silver and cold iron arrows are cheap enough you can easily buy and carry around a set of each. As far as material DR goes, that leaves adamantine, which does get expensive.
For alignment DR, a 300GP oil of align weapon is worth carrying, and coats 50 projectiles. This is not terribly expensive by the time alignment DR becomes a nuisance.
And of course, there's the archery paladin, with the ability to turn off any DR except DR/- by smiting.
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If you buy oil of align weapon, be sure to specify the alignment type at purchase time (per PRD: "The character taking the potion doesn't get to make any decisions about the effect—the caster who brewed the potion has already done so."). I recommend oil of bless weapon for bypassing DR/Good because it only costs 50 gp and has the added benefit of automatically confirming crits.
EDIT: I just reviewed the two spells to make sure they both affected ammunition similarly and I was in error - bless weapon does not affect multiple pieces of ammunition. So unless you plan to shoot only once, oil of align weapon is better.
