Archer's call shot ability

Riolathel

Right now the archer kit is at a serious disadvantage when it comes to high levels. In BG:EE this is not an issue as the archer does not out level his ability bonuses. In BG2 SoA the ability remains useful since the character will level to 17.

Once the character gets to ToB the ability then becomes useless and the kit becomes more and more underpowered in comparison to other kits as he levels.

My suggestion. Add call shot abilities up to level 32 for BG2:EE so that the archer class can truely shine instead of becoming irrelevant and eventually a waste of time. I will not suggest what abilities are to be added because i'm sure the dev team would have a better idea based on how the game is balanced.. If for some reason suggestions are needed i would be glad to help and also if anyone has any ideas for what those abilities should be they can add them to this thread.

Right now Called shot ability gives this.

4th level: -1 to THACO of target
8th level: -1 to save vs magic of target
12th level: -1 to strength of target
16th level: +2 bonus to damage

increase to
20th level: ??
24th level: ??
28th level: ??
32nd level: ??

Please and thank you

ZanathKariashi

Called shot is fine as is. Your other crap continues to advance. And called shot is cumulative, so at 16 it's -1 thac0, -1 save, -1 str, and +2 damage. That -1 save is reason enough to use it by itself. That -1 str is also pretty nasty, depending on the enemy.

Just remember, you're out of harms way machine gunning an easy 5 shots per round, with +8 or so damage just from class levels (not counting GM, ammo or any properties the bow may have), without buffs. And once they figure out which rules they using for ranged weapons (currently none of the versions have consistent rules), you might even be getting some str bonus out of the deal.

Only the kensai can really exceed that, and they get a lot more penalties for it (and shouldn't be able to use thrown weapons, which still needs to be fixed).

JuliusBorisov

Yes. this would be great! At higher levels it can be something like -1 to dex (con) of target, -1 to save vs breath (death) etc

Riolathel

tbh after looking over all of the kits. None really get any bonuses from throne of bhaal..

Hopefully the EE will take this into consideration

beo01

I can't remember if there was paragon paths equivalent in bg2. Anyway if that's the case the archer would get specific abilities/day to pick from that would improve the class (e.g. sharpshooter, giantslayer...)

Cheesebelly

@Riolathel : I think Monks do, but it's not mentioned in their description.

ZanathKariashi

Yeah, their fist goes up to +4 at....26 or so...

Also, according to the ToB manual, Assassin's were supposed to get x8 BS at 26...but it didn't happen.

And lets not forget, most classes abilities are based on character level, so they continue to advance even into ToB.

Archers, swashys, kensai, keep getting further hit/damage as their level improved.

And mages and sorcerers continue to get spell slots.

They don't need any further abilities because they got their HLA. GWW, or hell, DB or GDB under IH are ridiculously OP for an archer.

Gnostic_Gnome

Do note that called shot penalties last for quite some time, they all take effect with each shot and they stack!
Durations are -1 to THACO of target 20 seconds, -1 to save vs magic of target 15 seconds, -1 to strength of target 10 seconds.
Combine this with tuigan bow and improved haste at high levels.
The only annoying thing I faced is that I could't use Whirlwind Attack and Called Shot in the same round .

bbear

well you can improved haste and call shot