Wizard Gish Archer

[Eclypticon]

What is the best viable build for this concept? CL must = 30 Damage needs to be okayish, but not needed at power build levels.

W/EK/DS?
W/EK/R/AT?
Something else?

Is it worth it?

[Kauaiian]

Ive tried Wiz 10/DS 7/EK 10/SD 3 CL 28 with xbow which was alright.
Also tried Wiz 5/EK 10/Ass 8/AT 7 with CL 25 xbower. At level 23 he put out some crazy damage with death attack.
Ive seen a wiz 15/ek 10/Ea 5 longbower build on the builder. CL 26.
Currently running a wiz 12/ek 10/EA 5/sd 3. Itll be CL 25.

Not sure how one would get CL 30 and still be good AB

[AC81]

I think sobebop ran an interesting one a while back. It was a wizard 26/fighter 4, that used extended tensers to bump AB. His worked really well. Plus, in a group you just function as a normal wizard. Very adaptable.

[Kauaiian]

The new 'Enchanted Bow' spell makes an interesting tangent in regards to the wizard archer. A reliable source of damage for those long term events or when you want to conserve spells. It is a little less than impressive though. Wish it had 'mighty' or some extra damage on it.

[Eclypticon]

So, playing an archer at CL 30 is out of the question. Using tensers is not a good long term solution because it has 100% ASF I think. I think you would need to keep the dismiss spell window open all the time to play safely. It is also not going to work before leveling up.


A gish archer needs to be less than CL 30 to be viable, is this correct?

[Kauaiian]

To be any kind of effective with a bow, I'd say it's pretty hard for a wiz to get CL 30 and have decent AB.

I'd also like to add Death attack (with an average INT mod of +5) and HIPs makes it much easier to survive as a wizard bower, though you'll end up with lower AB and CL of 25 (Wiz/Ek/Ass). Right now, Im torn between that build and a Wiz/F/EK/SD. Doesn't have Death Attack but gains evasion and more damage from fighter feats as well as 1 CL higher than the other build.

It's a tough world. Wish arcane archer provided some kind of CL progression lol

[Eclypticon]

With the dispel fix, the best you can hope for with your build is to HiPS and run away if you loose your defensive spells. I do not advise playing anything lower than 30 now (I also do not advise ever dipping below your full caster level while leveling). You can get away with it in certain areas, but that is subject to change as the devs could drop new dispel mobs at any time.

Arcane archer is for non casting bards and assassins now.