Undead Arcane Archer

[Kantia]

I've been curious about how racial Arcane Archer works now, since the Elemental Arrows now scale with spellpower.

Has anyone got any recent experience with a pure wizard Arcane Archer/Pale Master?

Sun Elf gets to start at a higher level, but this would work as well on an Elf (or even half-elf) base. I just don't know how I'd go levelling up a wizard from level one - I'd probably play as a wizard until level 13 or so and then swap over.

• Harper gives Int to hit, Int to damage, as well as KtA and more Int.
• Elven racials give more int, and spellpower, and I haven't checked if the sunelf heal works while undead.
• PM gives a pet that will help in heroics, and self-healing and defenses from vampire with Death Aura/Negative Energy Blast. Vampire also gives +2 enchantment DC.
• EK gives an elemental die of damage which works on ranged weapons and stacks with Elemental Arrows
• Arcane Archer gives some great damage that's spellpoint-free, and works on auto-attack. Also some good crowd control options which, incidentally, give bonuses to Enchantment DCs. However, their DCs are calculated on Wis (Terror, Paralysing, Smiting, Banishing) so I'm not sure that they'll be useful.
• Seems to me that it's not really worth taking more than one element for Elemental Arrows. Pick one, and boost it as much as you can afford, with Force Arrows to switch to if you're being resisted/immune.
• Temporary Spellpoints from Moonbow or Soul Magic are great, if you have a way of spending them. That's why Inferno Shot is there. It goes well with a flame bow from TOEE, inflicting fire vulnerability, and fire elemental arrows and fire Spellsword. That way you can minimise the elemental spellpower you need to gear for.

The idea is that damage comes from auto-attack with a bow, boosted by spellpower, with Int for hit and damage.
Spellpoints are for buffs and crowd control and support spells, not for damage generally. So Heighten, Enlarge and Extend are more useful than Empower and Maximise generally.

I'd love any feedback or conversations on this one.

Vampire Archer
Wizard 20
True Neutral Morninglord


Stats
               36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength         8       +3       4: INT
Dexterity       18       +3       8: INT
Constitution    14       +3      12: INT
Intelligence    18       +3      16: INT
Wisdom           8       +3      20: INT
Charisma         8       +3      24: INT
                                 28: INT

Skills
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Concent   4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Spellcr   4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Heal      2     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     11
Spot      2        1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1  11
Jump      2     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     11
Diplo        2                                                         2
Balance   2                                                            2
         ------------------------------------------------------------
         24  6  6  4  6  4  6  4  6  4  6  4  6  4  6  4  6  4  6  4
         24  6  6  7  7  7  7  8  8  8  8  9  9  9  9  9  9  9  9 10


Feats

 1        : Point Blank Shot
 1 Wizard : Enlarge Spell
 3        : Precise Shot
 5 Wizard : Heighten Spell
 6        : Rapid Shot
 9        : Insightful Reflexes
10 Wizard : Quicken Spell
12        : Manyshot
15        : Precision
15 Wizard : Spell Focus: Enchantment
18        : Improved Critical: Ranged
20 Wizard : Extend Spell
21 Epic   : Improved Precise Shot
24 Epic   : Combat Archery
26 Destiny: Epic Mage Armor
27 Epic   : Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
28 Destiny: Doubleshot


Spells

   1. Jump, Expeditious Retreat, <Any>, <Any>, <Any>
   2. Blur, Lesser Death Aura, Web, Invisibility, Knock
   3. Displacement, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Fireball, <Any>
   4. Death Aura, Dimension Door, Negative Energy Burst, Acid Rain, Ice Storm
   5. Hold Monster, Teleport, <Any>, <Any>, <Any>
   6. Tenser's Transformation, Greater Heroism, Disintegrate, Necrotic Ray, <Any>
   7. Mass Hold Person, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Greater Teleport, Mass Protection from Elements, Summon Monster VII
   8. Black Dragon Bolt, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Mass Charm Monster, <Any>, <Any>
   9. Mass Hold Monster, Dominate Monster, Summon Monster IX, Power Word: Kill, Wail of the Banshee

Enhancements (78 of 80 AP)

Harper Agent (12 AP)
    • Agent of Good I, Intelligence
         1. Traveler's Toughness II, Strategic Combat
         2. Know the Angles III
         3. Strategic Combat

Pale Master (11 AP)
    • Dark Reaping, Zombie Form, Vampire Form
         1. Deathless Vigor I, Skeletal Knight III

Eldritch Knight (Wizard) (6 AP)
    • Eldritch Strike, Spellsword: Flame
         1. Toughness I, Battlemage III

Morninglord (15 AP)
    • Elven Accuracy, Sun Elf Intelligence
         1. Rejuvenation of Dawn I
         2. Arcanum III
         3. Arcane Archer

Elf-Arcane Archer (34 AP)
    • Arcane Archer, Morphic Arrows, Metalline Arrows
         1. Conjure Arrows, Energy of the Wild I, Flaming Arrows, Awareness III
         2. Force Arrows III, Inferno Shot II, Elemental Damage
         3. Terror Arrows, Soul Magic, Elemental Damage
         4. Paralyzing Arrows, Elemental Damage
         5. Arrow of Slaying, Elemental Damage

[Enderoc]

Elven Eldritch Archer as a pure sorcerer might work with the remainder to increase elemental spellpower in one of the savant trees... if you have a lot of healing amps and positive spell power from past lives and equipment to be able to heal adequately with cocoon in epics. (3 paladin and 3 Divine Epic Destiny past lives) You can get dex to damage with bows in the elf tree, I believe. And you want high dex for improved precise shot and combat archery. In which case I would dump Many Shot ,Insightful reflexes, and Precision, for Heighten , Maximize, and Improved Precise shot in Heroics which allows you to take overwhelming critical in epic taking in consideration you will not have a bunch of extra feats from wizard.

I would probably go Earth Savant, and focus on clouds and other conjuration AOE.

[Kantia]

Elven Eldritch Archer as a pure sorcerer might work with smidgets to increase elemental spellpower in one of the savant trees... if you have a lot of healing amps and positive spell power from past lives and equipment to be able to heal adequately with cocoon in epics. (3 paladin and 3 Divine Epic Destiny past lives) You can get dex to damage with bows in the elf tree, I believe. And you want high dex for improved precise shot and combat archery.

If I were doing it as a sorceror, I suppose I'd want to maximise Cha for the spellcasting component. And, as you say, Dex for the weapon component. So the Dex would be high enough for Combat Archery, but would the Cha be high enough to land crowd control spells? I'd end up with lower Spellcraft, and associated spellpower from that. I wouldn't have the undead healing from pale master.

As it happens, I don't have the past lives you mention - this would be just my fourth life, and I haven't farmed Epic past lives. (I feel like I should have done that before the boost to 30, but oh well, you deal with what you've got at the time I suppose!)

Any reason why you'd suggest Sorceror straight away, instead of Wizard?

[Enderoc]

Well Wizard is too easy to do that with I think
So maybe after a few Wizard Past lives and you want to do sorcerer...you might consider it if you have all the gear already.
I dont worry too much about DC spells when I am running casters that are probably going to do a lot of physical combat.

[Kantia]

If I were doing it as a sorceror, I suppose I'd want to maximise Cha for the spellcasting component. And, as you say, Dex for the weapon component. So the Dex would be high enough for Combat Archery, but would the Cha be high enough to land crowd control spells? I'd end up with lower Spellcraft, and associated spellpower from that. I wouldn't have the undead healing from pale master.

As it happens, I don't have the past lives you mention - this would be just my fourth life, and I haven't farmed Epic past lives. (I feel like I should have done that before the boost to 30, but oh well, you deal with what you've got at the time I suppose!)

Any reason why you'd suggest Sorceror straight away, instead of Wizard?

I'm honestly not seeing any synergy with going Sorceror. If the fire damage from Elemental Arrows counted as a Fire spell, it might be well worth it to take some of the Fire Savant options, but it doesn't trigger them. So it really doesn't seem to add anything at all.


However, back to the wizard build, I suspect it will be worth using Tenser's as often as possible, due mostly to the full BAB that it offers. The Dex might be useful, but probably not since we're running with Int to hit and damage anyway.

[Enderoc]

I'm honestly not seeing any synergy with going Sorceror. If the fire damage from Elemental Arrows counted as a Fire spell, it might be well worth it to take some of the Fire Savant options, but it doesn't trigger them. So it really doesn't seem to add anything at all

.

Icon Enhancement Flaming Arrows.png Flaming Arrows: Arcane Archer Imbue Toggle: Your arrows gain the Flaming ability, dealing 1d8 fire damage on hit, scaling with Spell Power.

[Jetrule]

I keep wanting to make a good undead pale master based build who doesn't rely on casting for his damage. the problem I keep running into is all the crit enhancements are big level investments except for swashbuckling. Swash buckling works with thrown weapons and much goodness can be had for just 4 levels.

To make a bard wizard thrower desirable the swashbuckler crit multiplier bonus to thrown weapons would have to be fixed for me to be exited about playing it. Racial AA offers another route. But I would miss the deep wood stalker benefits.

[Kantia]

I keep wanting to make a good undead pale master based build who doesn't rely on casting for his damage. the problem I keep running into is all the crit enhancements are big level investments except for swashbuckling. Swash buckling works with thrown weapons and much goodness can be had for just 4 levels.

To make a bard wizard thrower desirable the swashbuckler crit multiplier bonus to thrown weapons would have to be fixed for me to be exited about playing it. Racial AA offers another route. But I would miss the deep wood stalker benefits.

This build doesn't rely on casting for damage, but does rely on spellpower rather than crits (crits are still good, and work with effects that trigger on crits, but the main damage output would be more spellpower reliant I think. At least at heroic levels. And by not splashing to other classes to get crit bonuses, you get to be a pure wizard and all the spellcasting benefits you get from that.

I haven't tried it out yet, but I like the theory behind this build at least.

For late heroic, I also like the idea of using an Elemental Longbow of Earth and Rock Boots, take Acid as the main element for Elemental Arrows, and for Spellsword. Wear a Frozen Tunic and you have another crowd control option proccing off your arrows.

[Kantia]

Anyone got any further thoughts? Have I missed anything? Am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

[Kentpb]

Anyone got any further thoughts? Have I missed anything? Am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

Well back before the ranger pass i did a Wraith AA you can find it on page 2 of my thread "Kent's custom Character Builds" could tweak it for current game state but it will give you the way i was going. If you want me to hit me up

[Sydril]

Well back before the ranger pass i did a Wraith AA you can find it on page 2 of my thread "Kent's custom Character Builds" could tweak it for current game state but it will give you the way i was going. If you want me to hit me up

Before harper came out I tried this with an elven earth savant. It was pretty meh, but not aweful. I found earth the best route so I could dump charisma a bit and focus on dots and archery. Earth grab was a nice bonus along with power word stun and blind (with speedy sorcerer cooldowns)