Rogue/Wizard - Arcane Archer

[Zai]

I'm just wondering if what I'm doing is going to be feasible. I don't have a "build" and don't want one, I'm just going to pick things as I go, but I do have a basic concept. I want a stealthy ranged character that can throw a few spells. Mainly I want to be an archer, relying on bows for most of my damage, the spells will mostly be for buffs, debuffs, charms, summons, and maybe some AoE against weak clumps of enemies. What I do have planned, is to keep the levels mostly equal, maybe ending with 11 rogue and 9 wizard (or 10/10 depending on if I want to trade some sneak attack for another spell feat), which would give me level 5 spells like dominate and teleport. I started with 10 str, 18 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 8 wis and 8 cha (IIRC). I plan to get the elven fluidity enhancements so I don't fizzle in light armor, and I'll probably need some feats and enhancements boosting my casting ability to land spells. Obviously with the arcane archer stuff and requirements thrown in.

I'm not asking if this will be "good," just if it will work at all. Could I even land dominate person at level 20 with only 9 or 10 levels of wizard? Would I be able to do enough damage with a bow to kill things? I mostly play solo with hirelings when needed, I'm not concerned with group or raid effectiveness. I know how to kite, divert, distract, and use stealth and terrain, so I'm not concerned with the idea that both rogue and wizard are listed as being hard to solo with.

I've already found out that sneak attack only works within like 10 feet of an enemy (why? -_-), and that touch based spells can't sneak attack. Neither of those deter me from playing this character.

(Despite my join date on the left, I've really only played for a few days now. I preordered but didn't like the game way back then and haven't played again until this last week.)

[Angelus_dead]

What I do have planned, is to keep the levels mostly equal, maybe ending with 11 rogue and 9 wizard (or 10/10 depending on if I want to trade some sneak attack for another spell feat), which would give me level 5 spells like dominate and teleport. I started with 10 str, 18 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 8 wis and 8 cha (IIRC).

The biggest specific problem is that Sneak Attack is essentially a group-based ability, and it will be nearly useless in your intended solo/hireling operation. You'll get one or two hits of Sneak Attack when you first attack a monster, but that's all. The next 60 arrows against the monster will take no benefit from your rogue training. (And I'm not exaggerating the number of shots it will take to kill one)

Remember, Sneak Attack applies when either (a) the monster is aggroed to someone else, (b) the monster is unaware of any attack, or (c) the monster is debuffed and unable to react to incoming attacks. Condition (a) is by far the one that matters the most, and the primary way to cause it is to have another player with you who also attacks monsters.

But there are a few other problems:
2. Ranged attacking is nearly useless in DDO. It can be hard to tell if you're just reading over the list of feats and enhancements, but it's true once you compare the numbers for speed of movement and attacking. For example, the Elf Arcane Archer specialty is actually a trap which fools people into building ineffective characters.

2b. Ranged attacks from a non-Ranger are even more useless. The only time ranged attacking is a really good idea is if you can use Manyshot, which rangers get for free and other classes must spend several feats on. Manyshot has a 20 sec duration and 120 sec cooldown, meaning that shooting arrows can be useful for 16% of the time (or a little more, if you don't count non-combat downtime against the cooldown)

3. Higher level casters are better. Seriously, someone with level 10 casting in a level 20 quest just isn't contributing very much. It's nearly the same as a level 10 character in a level 20 quest, which is obviously a recipe for frustration.


Overall, if you really want to be a wizard attacking with arrows, you can do it as wiz20 or wiz19/ran1, with feats spend on bow-things. With time you'll discover that your spells are so powerful that holding a bow in your hands just gets in the way.

Would I be able to do enough damage with a bow to kill things?

Since the bow does average damage of above zero, and you've got an infinite number of arcane-produced arrows, you can technically kill any non-healing monster if you're willing to spend the time.

But how much time are we talking about? Well, to beat a typical level 15 quest takes around 200,000 damage. A rog/wiz with a longbow can do maybe about 5+7+2+3+3 = 19 per shot. Generously call it 20, and ignore the misses, and we'll need 10,000 shots to win. Generously assume each shot hits two mobs and it's down to 5,000 shots. It takes slightly under 1 second to shoot an arrow, so we'll need 76 minutes worth of DPSing to win the quest, or 58 minutes if Manyshot is included.

That's ignoring the time needed to do any other actions required by the quest, although that might be just 2-3 more. For comparison, regular people would finish in 6-16 minutes. And, level 15 is about where monster hps start to get higher. Go up a few levels past that and enemy hps increase by 4x-10x. (For example, I attacked a mob by myself using a barbarian who did 160 per hit, and it took me over 35 attacks to kill the single enemy)

[Monkeytoe]

Angelus_Dead makes some good points about how multiclassing will effect the DC of your spells, the limits of sneak attack, and how long it can take to arrow stuff to death even if you're good enough to never get hit yourself. I don't think he explicitly stated that Elven Arcane Archer doesn't get you manyshot, but it doesn't, or that (last I heard) Arcane Arrows are arrows only, not crossbow bolts or anything else.

One point I think AD misses as far as archery dps is that there are some places where you have to do alot of damage quickly because the mobs are healing or regenerating. You have to do more damage per second than they are healing per second. Many shot with a decent bow can sometimes do that, but if you dont have manyshot you'll be relying on spells.

As an aside, isn't it ironic that the same people who's builds must include an AC above 60 cry and whine that archers never take damage so it s only fair archery is so weak relative to either melee or casting...

The issue of caster levels and spell DC screwing you Is something that can be dealt with by using spells differently. Summons for example could really help this character out by diverting some aggro. Glitterdust might help by blinding mobs ad giving you back your sneak attack. It will always reveal hidden or invisible mobs, even it doesn't blind them. So, I think if you look at spells from that angle rather than the "I'll just FoD everything" (which of course, this character cant anyway), you might find ways to make it work.

This character will be fun to play. I think that the success of a character like this soloing, however, will be more a function of the player's ability to play it rather than of the uberness of the build.