Important Stats for Archer Build
nexiros
Member Posts: 5
I just rolled a 96 for my Archer and was wondering apart from Strength 18/31, Dexterity 19 and Constitution 17, how should I distribute the other stats? I so far have it set to Intelligence 8, Wisdom 17, Charisma 18.
How would each of those (particularly Int and Wis) affect an Archer? Do I need Char 18 or am I better using another party member as my spokesman (if that's all Char is good for).
Thanks in advance.
How would each of those (particularly Int and Wis) affect an Archer? Do I need Char 18 or am I better using another party member as my spokesman (if that's all Char is good for).
Thanks in advance.
0
Comments
Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma all don't matter too much to an archer. Since you have so many attribute points, I'd go ahead and keep the 18 Charisma. Wisdom doesn't seem to have any impact on conversations or interactions from what I've seen, and it has no impact on a ranger's spell casting ability, so I'd drop it to the minimum (13, right?), then put the rest of the points into Intelligence. Int has the occasional impact on conversations, and provides defense against a Mind Flayer's attacks in BG2 as well as allowing you to read spell scrolls.
Ditto for intelligence, except having a high INT does come in handy when fighting mindflayers, if you're going to import to BG2.
It's good to have at least one party member with high charisma so you can use them as a party leader. But for the most part you're going to want to have your ranged characters near the back of your party, so having high charisma for your archer isn't all that necessary.
Past that, it's whatever feels good to you.
Any suggestions for another class to roll alongside this one which would be useful in this game as well as when I import it to BG2:EE?
Also, thank you for all of your comments. It's helped me make a better decision.
Charisma will be useful to you numerous times throughout the game in the form of dialogue and quest rewards, so it's worth putting points in it if you don't have other priorities.
Something else to consider: in BG2 there are certain...enemies...that will damage your Intelligence score, and if it reaches 0, you die. So the higher your Intelligence, the better you'll fare against them; but there are other ways to protect yourself, so don't let that make your decision for you.
Sorcerers are pretty weak in early BG1 since they don't get level 2 spells until character level 4, but by the end of the game they should be perfectly fine. And they're an absolute blast in BG2. But on the other hand, they probably benefit the least out of any class in terms of stat boosting, so playing through one in BG1 for the sake of importing doesn't hold as much of a tangible game advantage.
Con and int aren't very important, unless you have stats to spare. Only ranged enemies are a threat to an archer, with completely defangs the brainguzzlers, and the majority of enemies. While archers are somewhat prevalent, most are so weak they'll die in a single hit, so it's easy to simply kill them before they can kill you, aside from a handful of named or rare enemy types.
During BG1, you can easily rely on your bows, though yes a blunt melee is an excellent weapon choice. Nothing is immune to blunt damage in the whole saga, nor is anything specifically resistant vs it (only general physical resistance) also most armors are either weak vs it or no bonus (except splint mail which has a +2 ac bonus vs it, though it is an extremely rare type of armor, so not a huge deal), meaning it's much easier to hit most targets vs using piercing or slashing.
Once you get to BG2....ranged suffers...A LOT (all the crazy powerful arrows that exist in BG1/EE are either gone completely, or heavily nerfed), as the attack advantage vs melee is largely lost due to increased base attacks and the fact only 4 weapons the archer's bonus applies to have strength bonuses (Dart, Dart+1, Sling of Seeking, Sling of Everard) (Technically dart and dart +1 are the best archer weapons in the game, but they can't hit enemies requiring magical or +2 or higher weapons, respectively). Even with your bonuses, in most cases, you're better off throwing on 2 blunt melee weapons and smashing the enemy's face in, vs shooting at them. Though you'll kill mind flayers and beholders pretty easily if you use a ranged weapon, since being in melee or getting close enough TO melee is extremely suicidal/difficult with those enemies. There are a few bows that can perform well, but it's just not worth it, to be honest. They are simply lacking in punch and other perks vs the plethora of awesome melee weapons. Missile (piercing) is also THE most commonly resisted damage type in the game, as well as the most common damage immunity.
Str 18 whatever
Dex 19
con 17
Wis use whatever you want
Int at least 11or 16 because of mind flayers if you don't care for that one thing whatever you want
cha if you care for better rewards which will make a difference of maybe 5000 gold in a game where you probably have 50k or more left at the end 18 else don't care
STR - 18/31 (Give yourself the Strength Tomb if you want and it'll bump you to 19)
DEX - 19
Con - 17
INT - 17 (Due to Mind Flayers and a stat penalty you can't get out of which will make you deduct a stat in BG2, keeping you at Int 16 for surving at least three hits from Mindflayers!)
WIS - 7 (It's completely useless to you in every way anyway)
CHA - 18 (Might as well, then you can give yourself the Charisma Tome and always have people love you / keep morale high)
Int is useless for archers (only useful in that regard for non-hit/fade front line tanks). They can kill mindflayers easily at ranged and should never be involved in melee with them at all. And if you're stunned, it doesn't matter how int you have since you'll be dead WAY before it runs out. I'm fine with 10 is fine if you can spare it (11 after the manual), since that allows 2 hits, in unlikely case something goes wrong and they do manage to land a blow.
To those who say Int is useless other than for fighting mind flayers: an Int of at least 9 is needed to use certain scrolls or magical items.
Archer's where very weak in BG2, however, I am hoping that they keep the changes they have made to ranged weapons and ammo in BGEE for BG2EE, and of course correct the extra attacks bug, the changes will not bring Archers up to the level of the melee characters, but I think it will make them viable enough to be played without feeling like it was a waste.