Strongest single class Level 1 Character the Elven Archer?
butsam
Member Posts: 46
I just started a new game with an Elven Archer, and I am quite impressed with how powerful this kit is!
At level 1 and a composite long bow bought from the prologue inn, and just with standard arrows, my character's stats are as follows:
* THAC0: 14
* Damage per hit: 5-10 (avg: 7.5)
* Attacks per round: 5/2
* AC: 4 (could be lower, but I am wearing regular leather armor, not studded leather)
For a pure class level 1 character, that is incredible! I'm not sure how half of an attack works in AD&D2e, but let's say for sake of simplicity that she gets 2 attacks in the first round, a conservative estimate (rounded down the extra 1/2 attack). Let's also assume she is facing a character with an AC of 4, which seems reasonable at the game start as well. This means that, ignoring critical hits, she will hit 2x in the first round of combat an average of 25% of the time, and do an average of 15 damage!
I was able to take on the Ogre south of the Friendly Arm Inn with only Imoen in my party and no cheesy tactics. Silke was a piece of cake in Beregost as well, as a Level 1 with only Imoen in my party.
Could this possibly be the strongest level 1 character that is a single class?
At level 1 and a composite long bow bought from the prologue inn, and just with standard arrows, my character's stats are as follows:
* THAC0: 14
* Damage per hit: 5-10 (avg: 7.5)
* Attacks per round: 5/2
* AC: 4 (could be lower, but I am wearing regular leather armor, not studded leather)
For a pure class level 1 character, that is incredible! I'm not sure how half of an attack works in AD&D2e, but let's say for sake of simplicity that she gets 2 attacks in the first round, a conservative estimate (rounded down the extra 1/2 attack). Let's also assume she is facing a character with an AC of 4, which seems reasonable at the game start as well. This means that, ignoring critical hits, she will hit 2x in the first round of combat an average of 25% of the time, and do an average of 15 damage!
I was able to take on the Ogre south of the Friendly Arm Inn with only Imoen in my party and no cheesy tactics. Silke was a piece of cake in Beregost as well, as a Level 1 with only Imoen in my party.
Could this possibly be the strongest level 1 character that is a single class?
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Also quite powerful is a fighter/MAGE at low levels. Max melee stats plus splint mail plus Find Familiar gets you a basic fighter with a nice chunk of extra HP, which is very noticeable at level 1.
Edit: Said fighter/thief for some reason. Doh.
With a Composite Longbow +1 and ranged Thaco bracers, even at specialized you're thaco can be in the low single digits by level 8 in BG1. Add in being an archer and you could safely assume that almost every arrow or bolt is hitting, since most enemies don't go into BG2EE (or more specifically ToB) crazy armor stats to counter the crazy Thac0 of melee types.
I forgot to mention, I am also getting 13 HP per level, so HP aren't too shabby either. Since Archers use the Fighter tables for bonuses to HP from constitution, I will soon increase that to 14 HP per level once I get the tome of Constitution.
-She can use all armour, all shields
-Has only 3 less HP then the archer
-Can become IMMUNE to arrows, fire, lightning, and cold
-Lightning Bolt at level 1
-And she hasn't even touched her cleric spells yet...
My money would be on her in a duel.
That said, yes Priest of Talos is pretty awesome.
A dagger throwing half-orc berserker might be stronger as well because you get 2 attacks per round (same as bow), strength bonuses AND berserk.
Or a dual wielding half-orc barbarian. Not sure what the best Candlekeep weapon is but bastard swords sounded like a good bet. His stats while berserk: 14, 18 thac0 and 15-21 damage per hit. God damn :O
Also, I believe other kits may eventually equal or exceed the Archer, only talking about early on.
Oh, and dart-throwing blackguard. 3.5 poisoned attacks/round.
Since that is a pure cleric, are you making sure to include the reduced thac0 from only having (max) 1 point in dual wielding which applies main hand and offhand penalties?
You could achieve assassin 2/fighter 3 and grand mastery by 5250 exp. That's ridiculously strong for a point where most other classes (archer included) are only level 3. The archer only has mastery at that point as well, while you're already rocking 3 poisoned attacks/round.
Cleric of Helm? The created weapon bypasses those penalties because it ignores proficiencies (or something silly like that)
Re. abilities -- That is true, actually some of the bonuses are due to an Elven Fighter...such as -1 THAC0 with bows and high Dex bonuses, not particular to the Archer kit...but they are things you don't normally take for other Fighter-like characters. Some are also due to a ranger with 2 starting proficiencies in bows, and somewhat due to the Candlekeep cheap Composite Bow.
If not then Archer is probably the best level 1 (which really means he is th tallest midget in the circus
While its true you have a slight short term advantage in that window, lets go through the list:
IF you dual class:
20 Base
19 +1 to hit for being an assassin
17 +2 from dexterity
14 +3 for being a fighter
13 +1 to hit from Longbow/Composite Longbow
10 +3 to hit, +5 to damage (Grand Mastery)
So at 5250 xp, your Assassin 2/Fighter 3 will have 1 use of poison per day
With a composite longbow he'll have 10 Thac0, and deal 8 (Another +2 from the composite longbow)-13 damage per shot, at 3 shots per round (assuming I did my math right).
Our Archer 3:
20 Base
17 Thac0 for being a warrior type character
16 +1 bonus for being elf
13 +3 from dexterity
12 +1 bonus from longbow
9 + 3 from Mastery (and +3 damage)
8 + 1 (every 3 levels of archer gives +1 to hit, +1 damage but I'm not sure if it applies at level 1)
So our 5000xp archer
With a composite longbow he'll have a Thac0 of 8 and deal 6-11 damage per shot for 2 1/2 attacks per round
He won't have poison, but at the next level he'll start getting called shot
Overall, at level 3 there is a minor advantage to the thief in terms of damage (although not to hit), but by level 6 (where the thief gets another +1 to hit, +2 to damage from high mastery and the missile weapon passive, effectively equaling your grand mastery plus having called shot) that will equal out (sans poison, but you only get 1 use of it per day).
Furthermore, this doesn't take into account the fact that this thread discusses most powerful level 1 character. In that case we have an assassin with 17 thac0 and using shortbows (2-7 damage) versus our elven archer with 13 Thac0 at level 1, capable of dealing 5-10 damage with a composite longbow.
Level 1:
Assassin:
Thac0
20 Base
19 Assassin
17 Dexterity
Damage:
1-6 base
(2-7) +1 from assassin
Archer
Thac0:
20 Base
19 Specialization
18 Elf
15 Dexterity
14 Longbow of any sort
Damage:
1-6 Base
(3-8) +2 Specialization
(4-9) +Longbow
1/2 attack from specialization
That said the Assassin/Fighter Idea is sorta a nice idea for an evil Party
Edit: (Just made an elven archer for another thread, realized my damage bonus from composite longbows was 1 lower than it should have been and warriors only had 14 Thac0 at the start with full bonuses).
In another thread though, I talk of making a dwarven wizard slayer for funsies. Just trying to decide on a party for that, and knowing I SHOULD go evil in the end for more con...........it would after all help me kill casters even more, but I'd prolly piss off keldorn =/
Archers distinguish themselves more as they level up, because they can add additional prof points to bows and crossbows the way a fighter can, plus they get additional hit and damage bonuses every few levels in addition to the prof point bonuses.