Reincarnating need some advice. (AAPM)

[ladykiama]

OK so this is my first toon, and, well, she just sucks. The best thing to do is reincarnate to fix her. The problem is I really have my heart set on being a "Good" Arcane Archer Pale Master. My question is, is a decent AAPM build possible, I've looked around and haven't been able to find any success stories or more than theoretical builds. Would really appreciate advice but really do not need anyone being nasty.

[gloopygloop]

In all seriousness, the best Arcane Archer Pale Master build that you could make would be to pretend that the Necro bolt and Necro blast are arrows and run around bolting/blasting everything that you don't slaughter with Necromancy spells.

I strongly suggest that you farm out some gear before reincarnating, though. A Torc and a few Crystal Cove items of various levels as well as one or two Shroud items will make the leveling process *much* easier in your second life.

[voodoogroves]

So ... how far along are you?

I'm not going to say "OMG UR CRAZY THAT WILL SUCK" ... I'm going to assume a PM AA is what you want and you're willing to do what it takes to make that work.

As a PM AA you need to be Elf or Half Elf

Half-Elf advantages
- studier, no CON hit + racial toughness
- dilettante - fighter or barb or rogue

Elf pros/cons
- Ability to push spell pen w/ Racial Enhancements
- Higher dex, racial dex
- hit to CON


PM Feats
- Toughness
- SF Necro
- GSF Necro
- Possibly Mental Toughness

General Wizard feats most PMs want
- Quicken
- Empower
- Maximize
- Heighten
- Possibly Spell Pen / Greater Spell Pen
- Possibly second SF / GSF
- Extend ... though you could get away w/o this in a pinch

AA feats you want
- Point Blank Shot
- Weapon Focus (ranged)
- Bow Strength
- Many Shot
- Rapid Shot
- Precise Shot
- Improved Precise Shot (req dex 19)
- Improved Crit - Ranged

Attributes

If you want to be a solid Wizard, you need an 18 INT, that's 16 points. With 6 in CON and maybe 10 in DEX, you're tapped out on first life.

So ... to me that means you abandon "real" wizarding life and avoid the 18/2 and instead look at a 12 wizard / 6 ranger / 2 fighter or monk using PM for Wraith Form to improve your defenses and provide you with aura-based self healing.

Half Elf - Ranger 6 / Wizard 12 / Fighter 2

Ranger 6 gives: Bow Strength, Rapid Shot, Many Shot, Die Hard, TWF, ITWF
Fighter 2 gives (2): Point Blank Shot, Improved Crit Ranged
Wizard 12 gives (3): Quicken, Maximize, Empower
Normal feats (7): Precise Shot, Improved Precise Shot, SF Necromancy, GSF Necromancy, Toughness, Mental Toughness, Extend

STR 10 points = 16 + four levels here
DEX 10 points = 16 + 2 tome + 1 level up = enough for Improved Precise Shot
INT 6 points = 14 + 2 tome + 6 item = enough to cast everything you care to cast
CON 6 points = 14

Dilettante ... Barbarian (+1 CON, DR, hit points) or Rogue (sneak attack damage)

[Solmage]

The problem is that you're trying to mix a bear with an owl. The mix won't fly, and will in every single conceivable way be weaker than the bear alone.

Now, depending on how much owl you mix, that is what will determine just how much weaker the mixture will be: Will you spend all your feats on archery? It will be very very weak. Will you only spend 1 or 2 token feats? It will only be somewhat weaker. Same with build points, any points you spend to make the AA more viable makes you overall weaker as a character.

It is entirely possible to gimp yourself to the point were your wizard/pale master spells won't be of any use, and you won't have the hitpoints to take a single searing light to the face without dying. And your reward will be ... to be able to shoot arrows, for free, which are weaker than your free mana-less spells, and 20 seconds out of 2 minutes to do about as much DPS as if you had bothered to use your DPS spells.

[testing1234]

int Vs dex no synergy
AP archer VS AP wizard no synergy
feats archer Vs feats wizard no synergy
anyting you invest in archer takes away something from wizard and the otherway around

on the whole i know close to nothing about arcane archer so this is only my gut feeling not even close to sure on this but when breaking it down its obvious
now it might be possible to find a golden ratio somewere but cant help thinking even if you manage to find the perfect split the end result wont be as powerful as either archer or palemaster pure since the whole is not bigger then the parts in this mix