Paladin Archer?

[Skellimancer]

I notice you can take a class feat at creation for +1 longbows, but stuff like smite evil doesn't work with them. So whats the deal? Any reason to go bow?

[Matuse]

Paladins and bows don't really synergize...at all.

The closest you can get is to be a Silver Flame follower and get some selectable (not auto-grant) feats to improve bows.

In a feat starved, multi-stat dependant class in a feat intensive specialty that needs yet another stat...a very bad idea.

[Hipparan]

Unfortunately Paladins of the Silver Flame don't do as well as other faiths in DDO. The only reason I have made Silver Flame Paladins is for favor. As a side note, you could make an elf/half elf Paladin of the Silver flame and get access to the racial Arcane Archer tree, but that's about it.

[unbongwah]

Any reason to go bow?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: KotC is not really intended for ranged builds, as several abilities (like Smite Evil and Divine Sacrifice) are melee-only. Also it provides Melee Power, but not Ranged Power. An elf / half-elf paladin can use the racial Arcane Archer tree, of course, but then about all you get from KotC is the light damage from the cores (which I believe applies to ranged attacks) and Divine Might (if you have Bow Strength). Holy Sword works with any weapon (including bows), but needing paladin 14 to use it constrains your multiclassing options. And now that War domain provides Holy Sword too, I'd probably do a Warpriest archer before I did a pally archer again; at least cleric provides much better spells.

I've done ranged / melee pally hybrids before, but they've always been flavor builds and come from a time when things were a lot different.

[Skellimancer]

Thank you for the replies =)

[C-Dog]

Not "bow", but there are some pali-repeater builds that are solid.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5759360

[Selvera]

I fully intend to do a pally life with a bow sometime in the (hopefully not too distant) future. Of course it can work, but that's mostly because every class can work with a bow if you're an elf with significant investment into the racial arcane archer tree.

So why be paladin if I"m planning on not really taking any class enhancements?

1) Paladin gets good saves via charisma, good saves are nice to have on any character so you don't get stunlocked by some enemies...
2) Paladins get a selection of spells, notably including Holy Sword. Despite it's name, it works just fine on a bow and gives you the "generic" critical upgrade that you want on any melee/ranged build.
3) With a very little investment into sacred defender, you can get a lot of extra defenses. Sure archers don't need defenses as much; but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take it anyways.
4) You pick up some nice healing via lay on hands and unyielding sovereignty. Yeah, that's right, don't take silver flame on your archer, it sucks.
5) Paladin pastlife is great.

But... all those cool paladin things are melee focused, why not play melee?

1) This character has stacked up/farmed most of the good named bows in the game, from the heroic sting to the epic sting and almost everything useful in between. Also farmed out ranger pastlives which add to bow damage (but not melee).
2) Staying at range is very useful in some quests and against some enemies. It helps survivability, makes it easier to focus down high priority targets safely and makes it easier to play around sight-lines and kiting.
3) Well; flavor of course.