Arcane Archer Question

[Malfurias]

I've recently started up an Elf Ranger (28pt) and am focusing on mostly ranged.

Stats are:

14 Str
18 Dex
12 Con
8 Int
12 Wis
10 Cha

Been putting points for skills into Move Silently, Hide, Heal and Jump (probably gonna stop after I hit base of 10 and move to something else) and UMD.

I'm planning to go for the Arcane Archer Specialty as the Deepwood Archer doesn't seem too pleasing at the moment.

I guess my main question is:

Should I stick with pure ranger as an elf and use the arcanum enhancement to pick up the specialty, or splash a level of Wizard and pick up Extend Spell, get a few extra buffs, and a little more SP from the Wizard Enhancement to unlock Arcane Archer.

Any suggestions would be helpful!

[geoffhanna]

My AA has the wizard... but I don't have an 8 INT LOL

Both ideas work fine BTW... sorry, you have to decide for yourself what would be more fun.

[Malfurias]

My AA has the wizard... but I don't have an 8 INT LOL

Both ideas work fine BTW... sorry, you have to decide for yourself what would be more fun.

Well I didn't see any real reason for me to have a high INT as a ranger, so that's why I didn't put any points into Int. Also as it's a 28pt character, I didn't really have any room for dump stats, otherwise I'd look into some Int. :P

[geoffhanna]

I am not complaining, only pointing out that 8 INT is not very wizardly. For instance, you wont be able to cast the spells you pickup ... not that a one-minute buff is all that helpful but still. Although you can get a +3 INT item which will let you learn and cast spells.

Yet it all comes down to what you think would be most fun. If you go with the WIZ level, you'll get Extend (I assume you'd want Extend anyway its kind of a no-brainer for a ranger IMHO), hardly any mana (but some), and also all of the arcane wands - which is kind of cool really. That includes fun ones like Stoneskin and Fire Arrow.

If you don't go with the WIZ level you'll still qualify for whatever uberly rangerness is only available to pure-strain rangers at level 20.

[Gratch]

Remember that wiz 1 will give no base attack bonus, and hence at the current cap, a total of BAB 15 and you'll be missing the 4th arrow from manyshot (at BAB 16). If you'll take a few months in time to hit the cap and the level bump will be out by then... this probably doesn't matter.

Also remember that quivers are coming in Mod 7 which in some ways steals half the power of the unending arrows of the arcane archer.

Heh... though don't listen to me... I made my elven cleric the arcane archer... my "archer build" is going towards wfg'ed 14barb/2ranger.

[skraus1]

Well, you could go wizzie and pick up extend. You can use flame arrow wands then, which are nice at low levels and near useless at high levels. You lose 1 to hit though, and your fourth arrow on many shot at level 16.

Or you could get mental toughness and then take a fighter level to make up for the feat lost. You keep all ranger goodness, get more mana and don't lose anything else.

I would go fighter.

[Ikuryo]

I wonder if sorcerer would be a better choice of arcane to pick up.. He has the higher cha after all and I think UMD is a class skill for them. I remember they were the more physical of the arcanes but I can't remember what their BAB was like.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Remember that wiz 1 will give no base attack bonus, and hence at the current cap, a total of BAB 15 and you'll be missing the 4th arrow from manyshot (at BAB 16).

Just pickup some divine power clickies to get 16 BAB temporarily. They last a bit longer than manyshot