archers?

pipinho

anyone here have an archer? I know its sort of a boring class but was wondering if anyone was playing one. If so, share your strategies.

moopy

It is an awesome kit.

Patch 2012 kind of screwed over ranged APR, so I'd wait for the patch to fix that.

The strategy is to use a longbow, put all your points into longbows, get awesome arrows, and just shoot everything in the face and they die horribly.

(Crossbow or Shortbow would also work, I just prefer Longbow)

TJ_Hooker

Composite Longbow+1 + Acid Arrows + Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise + high mastery x 3 attacks per round (at level 7, once they fix ranged APR) = dead people

moopy

End up with the Dead Shot +2 (+3 THAC0, +2 Damage)

Wilbur

moopy said:

The strategy is to use a longbow, put all your points into longbows, get awesome arrows, and just shoot everything in the face and they die horribly.

This seems to be working for me

Also you should have a pip in atleast one melee weapon for the rare occasions you have to engage in melee.

TheCoffeeGod

Wilbur said:

Also you should have a pip in atleast one melee weapon for the rare occasions you have to engage in melee.

The easiest way is to pick those when you start the character, since you can only be proficient in them and you can only put 2 pips in the bow of your choice to start with.

moopy said:

End up with the Dead Shot +2 (+3 THAC0, +2 Damage)

Composite Longbow+1 & Dead Shot are on even ground, it really depends on whether you want a +1 to THACO or +1 to damage.

I usually go for maximizing damage, so I always go with the Composite Longbow+1.

Wilbur

TheCoffeeGod said:

Composite Longbow+1 & Dead Shot are on even ground, it really depends on whether you want a +1 to THACO or +1 to damage.

I usually go for maximizing damage, so I always go with the Composite Longbow+1.

At least with an elven archer with 19 dex and a longbow you should have more use for damage than thac0 IMO.

IkMarc

Best class in the game. I don't see how it is any more boring than a standard melee tank. And it's not like you're playing with only one character (right?).

Oh strategy, one hit kill spellcasters first, then shoot the rest.

moopy

Wilbur said:

Also you should have a pip in atleast one melee weapon for the rare occasions you have to engage in melee.

I personally take 1 pip in a one handed melee weapon and one pip in single weapon fighting (for more AC if you get caught in melee)

TheCoffeeGod said:

I usually go for maximizing damage, so I always go with the Composite Longbow+1.

This is better advice, as you are probably already going to already have enough THAC0. I normally try to maximize to hit as I figure one hit that would have otherwise be missed makes up for a lot of hits at +1 damage, but that may not be the best strategy.

ScytheKnight

Used an Archer in my good aligned Black Pits party... dude was pretty insane with -5 THAC0 firing +2 arrows from a +2 composite longbow.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

SharGuidesMyHand

Archer is the ideal kit for BG1 IMO. Their arrows will foil almost any spellcaster - especially if they're poisoned.

Be warned that archers will experience a rude awakening in BG2, where magic is often too powerful for arrows alone to foil.

Fardragon

Archers can wear the ankheg plate now too, so the armour penalty is nulified.

PawnSlayer

I adore Archers. They can actually solo right through to the end of TOB.

I find by the second game though one needs points in Crossbow to use the Firetooth Crossbow +4 (later +5) effectively - otherwise anything that needs +3 to hit you'll struggle with, and +4 you simply cannot touch (+3 arrows are rare, better than that are non-existant).

First game, my archer got something like 80% of kills. Second game, my mages and Keldorn did more damage as the archer had to hit less magically immune enemies.

Lemernis

Isn't it tough to kill the highest level enemies in ToB witb arrows, though? That said, I've only just had my first go with an Archer in the Black Pits. No idea how one plays in ToB.

Lord_Tansheron

Sadly, in ToB Archers diminish in value rapidly. Everyone will have some sort of speed-boost pretty much all the time and kiting will be all but non-existant, pretty much eliminating melee's problems of getting in to strike. Add to that the fact that the highest level melee weapons completely blow anything ranged out of the water, and Archers are relegated to a minor support role.

If you want to play ranged in ToB I'd suggest Wizard Slayer 13 -> Thief, using Tuigan Bow. Three seconds into the fight, no mage will be able to get off anything, it's quite amusing to watch

I do agree though that Archers are very, very good in BG1.

TJ_Hooker

Lord_Tansheron said:

If you want to play ranged in ToB I'd suggest Wizard Slayer 13 -> Thief, using Tuigan Bow. Three seconds into the fight, no mage will be able to get off anything, it's quite amusing to watch

Unfortunately this only works if you have the fixpack installed (or maybe it was the tweakpack). In vanilla a Wizard Slayer's ability to apply Miscast Magic on hit only works in melee.

hammernanvil

I beat BG1 as an archer, was pretty untouchable, that said, I prefer the stalker, your a well rounded and valuable in any situation class.. If your looking for the best ranged class, archer is the class, If you want more than a 1 trick pony, I would go for a fighter or a different ranger kit.

Kortok

Strategy? No class requires less than an archer.

Lord_Tansheron

TJ_Hooker said:

Unfortunately this only works if you have the fixpack installed (or maybe it was the tweakpack). In vanilla a Wizard Slayer's ability to apply Miscast Magic on hit only works in melee.

True that! Then again, you shouldn't play without the fixpack anyway, for a whole bunch of reasons... >_>

moopy

I was under the impression the wizard slayer ability wasn't suppose to work with ranged weapons.

If it was, wouldn't that have been easily fixed and thus fixed in EE?

Edit:

Yeah, EE description says "Each successful melee hit..."

PawnSlayer

Kortok said:

Strategy? No class requires less than an archer.

Completely false. Different enemies require different arrow types (Piercing for enemies with high A/C, acid for raw damage, Biting for interrupting mages, Fire/Ice for elemental weaknesses, etc) and, later on, you need to out-maneuver your enemies.

Early on, I agree, little strategy needed. Later on? Different story. Anyone can snipe, but sniping well requires at least a bit of strategy.

TJ_Hooker

moopy said:

I was under the impression the wizard slayer ability wasn't suppose to work with ranged weapons.

If it was, wouldn't that have been easily fixed and thus fixed in EE?

Edit:

Yeah, EE description says "Each successful melee hit..."

This is a situation where the description was changed for BG:EE to match how the ability actually functioned. Originally, the description was: "For each successful hit on an opponent, 10% cumulative spell failure penalty is applied".

moopy

@TJ_Hooker

I know, but they could have just changed how it works. For whatever reason Overhaul decided that it was only suppose to work with melee hits, and that the description was wrong. Not the other way around.

Like it wasn't a bug that Swashbucklers didn't get extra APR for 2 pips, they weren't suppose to, it was the description that was wrong.