Once I finish with my current character, a Dwarf Warpriest, the only core race I do not have a character for is a Half-Orc. I know I don't have to make a character for each race, but I like making characters and I want to.
Even though all of my characters have a ranged weapon, none of them are really built to be archers. Therefore I would like some advice at what class to use for my half-orc to be an archer. Is there one that would be as good as a ranger? I already have a hunter character.
Archery is something you can do well with pretty much any class you like. It really depends on what you want. If you just want maximum archery power and care little for anything else, the Fighter is always a stellar pick since it offers good combat class features. The only real requirement with archery is that it's going to eat up all your feats for most of your early career, but aside from this you have the latitude to pick whatever class you like. Even casting classes can work well. Fighter/Wizard/Eldritch Knight/Arcane Archer is a solid option.
Once I finish with my current character, a Dwarf Warpriest, the only core race I do not have a character for is a Half-Orc. I know I don't have to make a character for each race, but I like making characters and I want to.
Even though all of my characters have a ranged weapon, none of them are really built to be archers. Therefore I would like some advice at what class to use for my half-orc to be an archer. Is there one that would be as good as a ranger? I already have a hunter character.
Have you tried a Bolt Ace Gunslinger? They use Crossbows instead of Guns and do it very very well. You only need 5 Levels and can branch out to any other class you like. Fighter, Ranger, Slayer, inquisitor..all make great additions.
As for a single Class Archer I recommend:
Mutagen Fighter
It has a lot of options thanks to all the shiny fighter options out there. Get wings as your Level 7 discovery and rain down arrows from the sky. Weapon Specialization and Fighter Weapon Group makes sure the damage is there and you will have a great to hit bonus. Armored Bravery will shore up your will saves alongside the Half-orc alternative race Trait of Sacred Tattoo adding a +1 to all 3 saves.
Thank you. I will take a good look at those classes.
Someone (Chess Pwn? not sure) worked out that the highest damage archers (gunslingers excluded) were Molthuni arsenal warpriests and inquisitors in that order. Fighters, zen archer monks and rangers are easier to use because they can get point blank master and never have to pick up a melee weapon again after that, but they're a slight step down. Arrowsong minstrel bards, barbarians/bloodragers, mediums using the champion spirit, and paladins are each interesting in their own way.
Pretty much any class can make a useful archer, it's a forgiving combat style, but those are IMO the better options.
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Strongly recommend the orc hornbow from Adventurer's Armory 2 for this character. If you go that way, ranger, slayer, or fighter would be my suggestions - any of the three can be excellent archers.
If you don't go for the hornbow, the Zen archer monk is arguably the best archer in the game.
Why Zen Archer without the hornbow? Can't you use it like any other bow for a Zen Archer?
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I second Zen Archer. But I wouldn't fluff him to be some monastic monk. No, he is a giant, very strong, half-orc. He shoots people, yes. But if they get to close, he punches them in the face. Catch him without his bow? He'll rip you apart with his bear hands. Catch him with his bow? You won't even get close enough for that to be a problem.
With a 20 point buy...
Qinggong Zen Archer
Str (16) Dex (14) Con (13) Int (7) Wis (17) Cha (7)
Race:
- Darkvision
- Sacred Tattoos
- Intimidating
- Weapon Familiarity
Traits:
* Deadeye Bowman (helps you hit until you get improved precise shot at lvl6)
* Fate's Favored (with sacred tattoos and all saves being good saves, you'll never have problems with your saves. This is pretty much a requirement for half-orcs)
Feats:
Lvl 1 Class: Flurry of Blows (basically rapid shot)
Lvl 1 Class: Improved Unarmed Strike
Lvl 1 Class: Perfect Strike
Lvl 1: Point Blank Shot
Lvl 1 Bonus Feat: Precise Shot
Lvl 2 Class: Weapon Focus (longbow)
Lvl 2 Bonus Feat: Dodge
Lvl 3: Toughness
Lvl 3 Class: Zen Archery (wis to hit with bows)
Lvl 3 Class: Point Blank Master
Lvl 4: +1 Wis (18)
Lvl 4 Class: Ki (spend ki points for extra attacks)
Lvl 5: Deadly Aim
Lvl 6 Class: Weapon Specialization (longbow)
Lvl 6 Bonus: Improved Precise Shot
Skills:
* Perception
* Intimidate
There you go. By lvl6 you will have every archery feat that you need, plus dodge/toughness to boot. You'll be able to fire 4 arrows per round, and with your high strength/deadly aim/weapon specialization, you'll be hitting really hard.
And best of all, for fluff reasons, you still get to be an angry orc who doesn't *need* weapons to tear you a new one.
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Why Zen Archer without the hornbow? Can't you use it like any other bow for a Zen Archer?Strongly recommend the orc hornbow from Adventurer's Armory 2 for this character. If you go that way, ranger, slayer, or fighter would be my suggestions - any of the three can be excellent archers.
If you don't go for the hornbow, the Zen archer monk is arguably the best archer in the game.
Um, yes, actually you can. I should have looked it up; I was remembering that the Zen archer's class features specified longbow and shortbow explicitly, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So yeah, Zen archer with a hornbow would be fabulous.
Assuming this is not for PFS, you could make a Haunt Collector Occultist who uses the Trappings of the Warrior Panoply with a bow and a buckler. There's nothing particularly good about the Half-Orc for the Occultist, but that's a very strong archer right there.
You'll be really short on mental focus, so stay away from divination I guess.
the test that avr was talking about was some at level 10 if you're interested (I suspect at level twelve the inquisitor would win)
As it happens I think inquisitor half orcs are supposed to be the best at intimidate I t he game, so another thing to consider there.
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Strongly recommend the orc hornbow from Adventurer's Armory 2 for this character. If you go that way, ranger, slayer, or fighter would be my suggestions - any of the three can be excellent archers.
If you don't go for the hornbow, the Zen archer monk is arguably the best archer in the game.
Sohoi/EWMs are better archers than Zens.
The Bolt Ace sounds like fun, but someone would have explain to me how grit works.
Grit is a pool which starts each day with a number of points equal to your wisdom modifier. That's also its maximum value. You can spend points of grit on deeds and a few deeds just work so long as you have at least one grit. You can gain points of grit by delivering a 'killing' blow with your crossbow (actually just reduce to zero or less HP) on a creature in combat, or by scoring a critical hit with the crossbow, or when your GM says you've done something daring and dramatic.
You get most deeds by going up in level as a gunslinger/bolt ace. There are some you can get with feats, and a few 'dares' for regaining grit also via feats, but they probably aren't worth it to you.
half orc archer? if your not sold out on ace bolt maybe try this:
2 levels of Eldritch Guardian fighter archtype - grab a monkey VALET familiar : now he has all your combat feats and all your teamwork feats (need both for the following).
then go on as barbarian (might need to take chained sort to work with the feats - moral str bonus for rage)
level 1 feat - sympathetic rage - combat feat but not teamwork.
level 3 feat (when taking barbarian) - amplify rage. team work feat
go on and take archer feats (depend on gm you might also need to take a ranged weapon feat so monkey learn it if class weapon proficiencies are not feats. may as well be an exotic one)
also grabbing Community-Minded might be fun.
at start of round delay till monkey act. hes turn let him use any move action and then ready an action to rage when you do (and if gm allow to ready 2 free actions also amplify rage). now is your turn rage -monkey kick in and rage , now ur turn continue from being interrupted by readied action so u can amplify rage as well and we got two raging archers shooting arrows (he get's your bab so deadly aim can be seriously nasty with full round of manyshots and rapid shots). if he didn't aplify rage then next turn he can. in total your barbarian greater rage will never hit the 20 level mighty rage but it will suppress it .
i also recommend if you got feats to grab "Fighting Frenzy" teamwork to remove that ac penalty for rage. its like getting 2 dodge in one feat.
have fun with that.
side note. if your short on rage rounds and don't mind the weaker rage you can use the sympathetic rage feat after the 1st round for free low str rage. as in your turn ur next to a raging pal with that feat and on his turn he is next to a raging pal (you) with said feat so with one round of rage you can keep on raging eternally.
(the line "As with a barbarian’s rage, when this weaker rage ends, you are fatigued" show that this is a rage so it count for it's own requirement to be near some1 raging, and it even let you use rage power since it say :"gives you all the benefits and penalties of a barbarian’s rage")
Understood, thanks. Grit sounds fairly easy.
Can a monkey familiar use a bow?
Can a monkey familiar use a bow?
By RAW, no.
However, the following Improved Familiars can: arbiter inevitable, brownie, hellfire ignis, homunculus, imp, limnal sprite, lyrakien azata, mephit, pooka, quasit, sprite, and tripurasura asura.
Ok.
If you are looking for something different (and if this isn't for PFS), you might take a glance at the Eldritch Archer Magus.
Boy, there are a lot of options for an archer, huh?
I'm thinking of going with Inquisitor.
Inquisitor is one of those options that makes not only a very powerful archer but also handy to have outside of combat.
They can be brilliant knowledge skill users and amazing faces (though not necessarily nice ones) with the conversion inquisition. And they have 6 levels of spells, if you can't get some use out of that then I don't know what you can. They're a great class.
I'm torn between taking the spell Magic Weapon or the spell Hedging Weapons.
You get another spell known at 2nd level, it's not critically important which you get first.
I'm torn between taking the spell Magic Weapon or the spell Hedging Weapons.
Hedging weapons will last longer than magic weapons.
Typically a player gets a +1 weapon before a ring of deflection. So magic weapon becomes dead to you by 5th level at the latest. A potion is 50gp but a scroll is 25gp...both can give you magic weapon till you get a +1 weapon or can bane your weapon
I'm torn between taking the spell Magic Weapon or the spell Hedging Weapons.Hedging weapons will last longer than magic weapons.
Typically a player gets a +1 weapon before a ring of deflection. So magic weapon becomes dead to you by 5th level at the latest. A potion is 50gp but a scroll is 25gp...both can give you magic weapon till you get a +1 weapon or can bane your weapon
While Hedging Weapons will boost my AC which will always be helpful. Especially as I level up and the boost increases.
Now I need to pick a domain or inquisition. My character's deity is CAyden Cailen, who's domains are Chaos, Charm, Good, and Strength.
And these are his subdomains: Azata, Competition, Exploration, Ferocity, Love, Lust, and Resolve.
Travel is also his domain and it's good
Subdomains work for domains the same way archetypes work for classes, right?
For example: Taking the Ferocity subdomain replaces Strength Surge with Ferocious Strike. But you still get the Strength domain spell Enlarge Person.
Right?
Unless the subdomain says it replaces the spell of that level, you use the domain spell yes.
Thanks.
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Make sure you note Ferocity calls out melee attack. Not the best for an archer.
I saw that, yes. It was just the page I was looking at when I was figuring out subdomains.
I looked at the domains and subdomains for both Cayden Cailen and Gorum and I didn't really like them. I just didn't think they would be a good fit.
They don't get the spells, but they do get the other powers.
Each domain grants a number of domain powers, depending on the level of the inquisitor. An inquisitor does not gain the bonus spells listed for each domain, nor does she gain bonus spell slots. The inquisitor uses her level as her effective cleric level when determining the power and effect of her domain powers.
I was just making sure I had the way they worked correct, not that my inquisitor would get the spells.
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Since the adventurer armory 2 came out, I have been looking at classes to take advantage of the horn bow. I ruled out inquisitor because it doesn't have martial weapons, but ravener hunter can get martial weapons with skill at arms.
Hmm, now this looks interesting.
It's probably more effective to get a different revelation than skill at arms and just spend a feat (or half-elf ancestral arms; a weird family tree) on proficiency. Revelations like weapon mastery, battlefield clarity and surprising charge are solid gold.
BTW the green faith marshal archetype does get the spells, from a druid animal or terrain domain anyway. It's compatible with sanctified slayer too. The eagle domain would be good.
I'd rather not take one that would give me an animal companion. I have 3 characters with them already, and figuring out how to fill in the sheet was surprisingly hard to do.
Sohoi/EWMs are better archers than Zens.
What do you mean by EWM?
If you are going for a half orc inquisitor I would suggest taking improved monster lore and take the half orc favored class bonus. Also take the conversion inquisition for your domain. Max out intimidate and put a single point into each of the knowledge skills that are class skills. This allows you to dump CHA and still act as the party face. At this point your intimidate skill is absurdly high and you can probably do a better job at identifying monster than the bard.
I see Monster Lore, but not Improved Monster Lore. Where's that?
I see Monster Lore, but not Improved Monster Lore. Where's that?
It's from Ultimate Magic: Improved Monster Lore
Oh, it's a feat, ok.
I'm thinking of taking the Roving Range trait. Increases the range increment to ranged weapons by 5 feet. Excludes thrown weapons. That seems pretty good for an archer.