Fighter with 1 Bard level?

[Catholicon]

I was wondering if an Elf with 1 level of Bard (for Energy of the Music enhancement and Cure1 spell) and Mental Toughness, with the rest of the levels as a Fighter would be able to take advantage of the Arcane Archer Prestige Enhancements at level 9?

I've already got 3 levels of Fighter with Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot and Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons.

Will this end up being a viable build for a Bow user?

[hydra_ex]

I was wondering if an Elf with 1 level of Bard (for Energy of the Music enhancement and Cure1 spell) and Mental Toughness, with the rest of the levels as a Fighter would be able to take advantage of the Arcane Archer Prestige Enhancements at level 9?

I've already got 3 levels of Fighter with Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot and Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons.

Will this end up being a viable build for a Bow user?

The better quest is a bow user a viable build.

The answer is no.

If you have mental toughness, you do not need the bard level.

[Soulken]

The better quest is a bow user a viable build.

The answer is no.

If you have mental toughness, you do not need the bard level.

a pure fighter cant take mental toughness.

[hydra_ex]

a pure fighter cant take mental toughness.

Then the whole fighter is useless. The only sensible thing is 20 ranger for the capstone.

[Soulken]

Then the whole fighter is useless. The only sensible thing is 20 ranger for the capstone.

Yep but his bard idea would work but not be a very viable end game character, ranged is sadly lacking in this game.

[WillStone]

The straight answer to your quest is yes 1 level of bard will allo arcane archer. In order to take mental toughness
you must first be able to cast spellls, so by taking a bard level u can take mental toughness or energy of music to qualify for the PrE. U could also take 4 levels of ranger or paladin, or 1 level of wizard or sorcerer to be quialified as well.

Is it a viable build, well that depends, if your basically a fighter probably yes if you accept the fact that ranging should probably consist of maybe 20% of your total dps. Pick up the 2 weapon fighting chain and if your an elf u can also grab the displacement dragonmark. U will not be top end dps if u specialise in range.

[Catholicon]

How about, instead of one level of Bard & Mental Toughness, I took one level of Favoured Soul of the Silver Flame & Mental Toughness for the +1 to hit with Longbows?

[Soulken]

How about, instead of one level of Bard & Mental Toughness, I took one level of Favoured Soul of the Silver Flame & Mental Toughness for the +1 to hit with Longbows?

I think you would be disapointed, the best ranged character will most likely be a lv 20 ranger and even then they would be better off fighting melee.

[moorewr]

A pure fighter can be as good as a pure ranger, thanks to the alacrity from the fighter capstone, but he can't take Arcane Archer.

In general, there are some good arguments for a 19f/1bard build - Skills, maximum possible UMD, use of (low spell level) bard wands and scrolls... but any ranged build will be weak.

I guess the question is what would be left over to make that build a deent TWF or THF melee after mental toughness, multishot, point blank shot, Improved Crit: Ranged, etc etc.

[Visty]

10% attack speed from the capstone is way better then those 1d6 damage you get from the force arrows

[rezo]

Go 1 lvl of Bard and 1 lvl of ranger then all fighter ( 18 ), This will give you your Arcane Archer and bow str. If you want then you can take Kensei Mastery 3 long bow with the elf's enhancements line.

Remember this is just a game and if you have fun with this build and type of fighting style then go for it.

[moorewr]

Real answer: check back after they announce the rest of Arcane Archer's tiers. If you're getting an endless supply of +3 1d6 force arrows, it will never be worth it. If they add slayer arrows, other spell imbuements like fireball, then that's a different ball game.

[Catholicon]

Remember this is just a game and if you have fun with this build and type of fighting style then go for it.

Thanks. :-) That's good advice.

I've decided to try out a FSoul1/Ranger3/Fighter16 and see how I like it. Y'know, because I'm playing for fun and stuff.