Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Heya guys,

I was kind of inspired by the melee ranger build discussion and was wondering what would be the strongest ranged build possible?

I'd guess it would be something ranger based and would love to hear from you which possibilities there are.

I don't really have a character concept in my head because I like K'yon and will very likely be solely playing him for a long time but I am just very curious of a Ranger build.

I like the idea of favored enemies but if there is something else that requires less levels in ranger I would love wo know about it.

Also if you could explain the mechanics behind the high damage of a ranged build I'd love to hear it.

I once ventured with a ranged character and she just ripped through stuff with extremely high damage even in mid tier levels and I am just really curious XD.

Cheers K'yon

wood elf ranger7/fighter8/OOBI10/EA5. end dex 28 or 30 as +4 dex items are available. will have great AB/Dmg/AC but will save will be your weakness. carry a couple bows and several different arrows to counter DR. get UMD so you can boost defense and there are items that have spell immunity dispell magic and mobs wont dispell you. dont need to sneak as you will have nearly everything dead before it reaches you solo at all levels. its not the easiest to 30 but totally viable. easier and more viable at all levels than AA or Sin archers. this toon can loot run fast. be awesome in groups and fun in events.

There are lots of combinations for ranged builds that work well.

If Epic levels are off the table, such as someone who levels slowly with the story a crossbow build is very powerful. They fall off a bit in epics, but I would venture to guess that up to near epic levels they might be the strongest.

If we are talking Longbow Archers here are a few build ideas to get you started:

Ranger 30 - Has lots of neat spells that help with Archery, 2 uses of One Shot (one free, one costs taking the feat), Bane of Enemies and 7 Favored Enemies.
R26/F4 - All of the above -1 FE, but can get WF, WS and Ranged Mastery.
F6/A9/AA10/EA5 - BGtSCC allows for Assassin to qualify as Arcane Archer. (note requires elf/half-elf). Could also go F12/A9/AA9 or F12/A8/AA10, for example.

There are also various combinations with OotBI, which some say still doesn't work properly and other say it does. Bard's can make strong archers as well. Ranged builds are not something I have spent a lot of time playing though. The main thing is you either use Assassin/HiPS or you get your AB as high as possible and use Manyshot. As an Archer you can usually focus a bit less on AC in favor of attempting to get sky high AB and damage.

Fighter or Ranger with Arcane Archer and Elemental Archer is pretty good.

Something like this: Bow build

Another option would be OOBI. But I think it is still bugged.

Wisdom Ranger 30 with all animal companion skills or Dexterity Ranger 26/4 Fighter. I played with my brother couple of years before, he played melee Ranger while I was archer. Worked great.

chad878262 wrote:F6/A9/AA10/EA5 - BGtSCC allows for Assassin to qualify as Arcane Archer.

Fighter8/ea5/assassin8/arcane archer9 is the classic cheese archer.
http://nwn2db.com/build/?156903
Bit sad to have that kind of reflex save and no evasion, though! And it isn't a ranger!

But for rangers, someone already suggested ranger26/fighter4, I think? That's a good one. Ranger22/fighter8 probably works too.

Ranger21/assassin9 is brutal. Especially with a crossbow. Just ask Truthiness (who plays Fenix).

If you don't want to be a peasant, though, this is my suggestion:
http://nwn2db.com/build/?175218
Ranger13/assassin8/fighter4/arcane archer5. Must be wood elf or half elf not to get xp penalty. But ranger13/assassin8/arcane archer9 is almost as good and can be used on any elf.

If you don't want to go elf, ranger13/assassin8/fighter4/elemental archer5 is almost the as good.

Okay while thinking about all this my first reaction was that I don't really like the Assassin in this, then I thought about a background and a concept and an idea approached from the dark corners in my head...

There is little light there XD.
I think I fell in love with the UD and if I ever create another character he will once more be a drow and the concept I had was a kind of Assassin for drow houses to aquire to hunt down other drows they want to have killed...

Spoiler alert this would basically mean the character would need to be very strong in PvP.

Now as you might already have figured out, I have little to no idea of PvP as of basically anything .

Are there stone/paper/scissors elements involved in PvP, is there an especially strong single class that thrives in it, is there a way to utilize the Assassin PrC which would make for a strong PvP character?

Sorry to high jack my own thread but yea sometimes my thoughts are just racing

Cheers K'yon

If im not mistake ... there is a halfling sling build that reaches like 65 ab or something. Ill see if i can find it later somewhere. At work now so can't do it.

K'yon Oblodra wrote:Spoiler alert this would basically mean the character would need to be very strong in PvP.

The issue is that most archers are not casters, thus they are not going to be top tier in PvP... Good luck taking out one of the school of mages, even with your max level Assassin Archer build. Archers are strong in PvP against other non caster builds, mainly because they can escape and use their death attack fairly often, but any caster can basically make themselves all but immune to anything your archer can do.

Unless it is a 'true' assassination with DM oversight where you can be patient and follow your prey until they are unwarded/resting/what-have-you so you can strike with quick flurry of bow shots to try and kill them before they can ward/go ethereal. A LOT of things would need to go right for this to work out and the opportunities would be few and far between so my opinion is that such a concept is really cool, but the nature of the server would make it quite unrewarding.

I don't mind stepping away from the ranged theme on this... Could one hope to have a chance against casters with something like say scrolls of mordekainen's?

Or would I require to be a caster myself to be a successful Assassin/PvPer?

HiPS mage? Maybe with Blood Mage for quickened scars? Probably won't shine as much as other builds in PvE though.

AC81 wrote:HiPS mage? Maybe with Blood Mage for quickened scars? Probably won't shine as much as other builds in PvE though.

Spelllike abilities are cast faster right? I don't think the scars can contain meta-magicked spells... Can they?

But the spelllike abilities could give an advantage in terms of speed right?

Would one be able to cast a follow-up spell faster after a SLA?

Only way to cast more than 1 spell / round is with quickened spell. Scars, Spell like abilities and wands will have spells fire faster than casting the same spell would, but you are still limited to one per round.

You have two choices.

30 ranger all str

or

21 ranger (25 dex) for that dirty nasty double One Shot.

Deathgrowl wrote:Ranger21/assassin9 is brutal. Especially with a crossbow. Just ask Truthiness (who plays Fenix).

From experience with both a longbow and crossbow on this build, the longbow version is far more effective in pvp (if you choose player races as favored enemies). The double one shot (100~ damage each) and hitting for 90~ x3 on manyshots is better than what crossbows provide (Crossbow sniper damage currently doesn't even work with one shot, making one shot pretty useless.)

Despite this, crossbows are far more stylish.

Selande wrote:21 ranger (25 dex) for that dirty nasty double One Shot.

One shot requires 27 dex.