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Arcane Archer (v .35)

1. Introduction and Contact Information
2. What classes make up a good Arcane Archer
3. Abilities
4. Skills
5. Feats
6. Equipment
7. Tatics and Henchmen (or women)
8. Credit where credit is due
9. Version History
10. Final Words
11. Copyright Information



1. Introduction and Contact Information

Hello. I am Edward Collins, and I would like to thank you for taking the time
to read this FAQ. It is my first one, so any help would be appricated. My
e-mail address is Jedi_Master_Edward_ALA@Hotmail.com. Please label it
Neverwinter Nights Arcane Acher build (or something to that effect), or you
wont get a reply.

2. What classes make a good Arcane Archer

Before going into what classes make a good Arcane Archer, let's go over the
requirements.

Elf or Half-Elf
Base Attack Bonus of +6 or greater
Weapon Focus (Longbow) or Weapon Focus (Shortbow)
Able to cast level 1 Arcane spells

Now let's see what you get for those requirements

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, and
shields.

Level 1:
Enchant Arrow +1 - Every non-magical arrow an arcane archer nocks and lets fly
becomes enchanted gaining a +1 enhancement bonus. The arrows will only function
this way for the arcane archer.

Level 2:
Imbue Arrow - Allows the archer to fire an arrow that has the fireball spell
cast upon it three times a day.

Level 3:
Enchant Arrow +2

Level 4:
Seeker Arrow - The archer can launch an arrow once per day at a target that is
known and within range that cannot miss barring unavoidable obstacles.

Level 5:
Enchant Arrow +3

Level 6
Seeker Arrow - Able to fire 2 seeker arrows a day.

Level 7:
Enchant Arrow +4

Level 8:
Hail of Arrows - In lieu of a regular attack the archer can fire an arrow at
each and every target within range.

Level 9:
Enchant Arrow +5

Level 10:
Arrow of Death - Fire an arrow that can instantly kill an opponent.


Class Skills (skill descriptions):

Hide
Listen
Lore
Move Silently
Spot

Ok. Now that you see what you get for what you need, let's look at classes that
make up a good Arcane Archer.

Fighter/ Wizzard (or Sorceror)

This class is almost the first combo that comes to mind. And it isn't too bad a
choice either. I'd suggest running Fighter and your spellcaster up to level 4,
then add all the levels you want in Arcane Archer, then one more of Fighter and
one more Wizard. I'll tell you why in the skills section.

Wizard(1)/Ranger(1)
You will get 1 familiar, 1 animal companion and 1 dire badger from the creature
summon spell. That's 3 meat shields for your archer excluding the henchman. You
get spells like Mage Armor to increase you AC, True Strike to make your arrows
hit the target "almost" all the time and Grease to slow your enemies down... A
+3 Dex bonus on your bows, a +2 Bonus from Str if you manage to find a longbow
with mighty. (From Wind 79, Gamefaqs Message boards)

One good Arcane Archer build that gets ignored in favor of Warrior/Arcanist
builds is the Bard Archer. (From Jabbrwock, GmaeFaqs Message Boards.)

Bard Archer disadvantages:
Poor HP (d6 per level)
Late qualification for Arcane Archer (level 9 instead of level 8)
No True Strike spell
No Improved Critical until level 12

Bard Archer advantages:
Bard Song
Significant spellcasting ability
Tumble skill
Use Magic Device skill

My build was:
Str 11
Dex 19
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 13

For skills, I did Persuade, Perform, Tumble, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device.
Persuade is pretty much optional, albeit useful, and if you skip it, you can
put Int at 10 and give those 2 stat points to something else, probably Str
and/or Cha for more carrying capacity and/or more spellcasting.

For feats, I took Point Blank Shot, Rapid Fire, Weapon Focus Longbow, Lingering
Song, and Improved Critical Longbow, in that order (I think).

For my henchman, I took Xanos, and had him level only as a Barbarian. I also
used the DM console to reduce his Charisma so he wouldn't waste time casting
spells. I wish there had been good greataxes, or that he had focused and
improved critical with halberds, but he was plenty nasty even without. He made
a good tank.

For most of the game, I wore Adventurer Robes, and then Greater Adventurer
Robes. At the very end, I wore Chain of Speed, which was pretty nice. I made
good use of all the charged items I got with Use Magic Device, completely
discharging J'Nah's Staff of Power, as well as numerous wands. The Rod of Dawn
I reluctantly ignored, as my UMD was not reliably high enough to use it, I had
to get lucky with +5 from Eagle's Splendor.

Imbue Arrows were really key for me, since I'd used up both the Staff of Power
and the Necklace of Missiles right about the time when I got them. +2 Enchant
Arrows would have saved me money, except that by the time I got them, I was
already close to the end and never went back to sell stuff one last time, so
the money was useless.

I guess that's all there is to say about this character and my experience with
it. Most of the game's challenge was created by Xanos being an idiot, and
really went away when I got him to stop casting spells.

Fredrik Derefeldt refutes the late qualification for Arcane Archer (level 9
instead of level 8) build

This is not true. See below.

A Bard have 1st level Arcane spell abilites on level 2 (if high Charisma) or on
level 3.
This is late, thats true, because both Wizard and Sorcerer have this access on
level 1.

But, all this classes have on level 1 +0 Base Attack Bonus (BAB), this means
you must have 7 levels (one with +0 BAB and six with +1 BAB on each level, = 7
level at least before you can take Arcane Archer on level 8)

Look at Bard (Brd), Sorcerer (Sor) and Wizard (Wiz) on both level 2 and level 3.

Base Attack Bonus on Level (Total)
Level Brd Sor Wiz
1 +0 (+0) +0 (+0) +0 (+0)
2 +1 (+1) +1 (+1) +1 (+1)
3 +1 (+2) +0 (+1) +0 (+1)
4 +1 (+3) +1 (+2) +1 (+2)
5 +0 (+3) +0 (+2) +0 (+2)

You can make an Arcane Archer on level 8 with this four follow variants to be
an Arcane Archer on level 8:

Fighter* 6/Wizard# 1
Fighter* 5/Wizard# 2
Fighter* 5/Bard 2
Fighter* 4/Bard 3

* You can change this to Ranger/Barbarian or Paladin
# You can change this to Sorcerer

Races:
My Recomended:
With Wizard Arcane spell user class: Elf (because +Dex and favored class:
Wizard)
With Sorcerer Arcane spell user class: Half-Elf (because favored class: Any)
With Bard Arcane spell user class: Both, Half-Elf if you later think to take
only one class
of Fighter or Bard (because favored class: Any), with Elf, you must take
Fighter and Bard on
this: First Fighter, Second Bard, Third Fighter etc.

Here's an arcane archer build I really like; it ends up being a 9/1/10
Bard/Shadowdancer/Arcane Archer. Since all three classes get hide/move
silently as a class skill, this character has excellent potential to
be an assassin-type character.

First level, Elven Bard
Str 12
Dex 18
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 8
Cha 14

You can probably ditch 2 points of Cha and put it in Str or Int
instead. If you do this you won't be able to cast level 3 Bard spells
without a Charisma-buffing item. I actually don't really like any of
the lv. 3 Bard spells, so I put an additional 2 points in Int. You
could also try taking some points off of other stats to get Dex to 19.

First three feats should be Dodge, Mobility, and Point Blank Shot, in
any order.

Skills: Tumble, Hide, Move Silently are required. You only need 5
ranks of tumble; if you'd like the additional +1 to Dodge AC go ahead
and bring tumble up to 10 too. No sense in putting more than 10 points
here though. Always max out hide and move silently at every level,
this build depends on them. Might want to take a few levels of
Perform to make good use of your bardsong. Keep in mind your bard
level won't hit 11 so there's no point in raising Perform past 15. Use
any additional skill points for whatever skills you like (I personally
like Heal and Lore, though I know other players find them useless...)

At level 8, take a level of Shadowdancer, you'll now get the insanely
useful "Hide in Plain Sight" skill.

At level 9, take another level of Bard or Shadowdancer. I chose
Shadowdancer but you don't really get any decent abilities at level 2
so Bard might be a better choice. Now you can finally take the Weapon
Focus Shortbow or Weapon Focus Longbow feat...

At level 10, you can take your first level of Arcane Archer. From here
take your 10 levels of Archer and then another level of Bard or
Shadowdancer.

Recommended additional feats:

Lv. 12: Rapid Shot