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

He guys. I was away for awhile, and now I want to re-roll my old character into an archer. But I heard there are some severe penalties included for ranged characters? Is this true? Can someone walk me through and share their experience in general? Are those builds playable now? Thanks.

https://wiki.bgtscc.net/index.php?title ... bat_system

This is probably the best source to get you started.

Yeah, even with those penalties you can make do just fine with a ranged build. The only difference is that you might want to avoid Manyshot over large distances and only use it in close range.

Thus, you just fire an arrow at a single enemy over a long distance, the singular enemy will approach, and hence you can just pepper your enemies one by one.

I got Zen Archery Ranger, Zen Archery Slinger Cleric, Brutal Throw Bard, etc... etc...

The penalties are problematic at low levels. The ranged combat penalties are under discussion.

I think those penalties apply to mob archers, which means that both of you only land hits by rolling 20 or so. Thus just turn on rapid shot for extra attack...

At close range, no penalty, I honestly had no issues.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Point Blank Shot feat is supposed to negate the attacks of opportunity granted for attacking with ranged weapon while in proximity of melee.

Best of my knowledge PBS negates the penalty for firing a ranged weapon in melee as well as giving +1 AB/Damage if firing within 15 feet of an enemy. It does not negate Attacks of Opportunity enemies get when using a ranged weapon in melee.

Honestly while I appreciate the initiative from QC and Dev team in trying to constantly better the game mechanically, I believe changes to the ranged combat were not needed, it was fine as it is. If anything, I would try to balance magic in the game.

AlfarinIcebreaker wrote:Honestly while I appreciate the initiative from QC and Dev team in trying to constantly better the game mechanically, I believe changes to the ranged combat were not needed, it was fine as it is. If anything, I would try to balance magic in the game.

Welcome back. I took a break for 4 years, and a lot has changed. There have been multiple discussions regarding attempts to re-balance magic or to make it more true to PnP. Were certainly looking for more suggestions and ideas to contribute to the discussion.

Reckeo wrote:

AlfarinIcebreaker wrote:Honestly while I appreciate the initiative from QC and Dev team in trying to constantly better the game mechanically, I believe changes to the ranged combat were not needed, it was fine as it is. If anything, I would try to balance magic in the game.

Welcome back. I took a break for 4 years, and a lot has changed. There have been multiple discussions regarding attempts to re-balance magic or to make it more true to PnP. Were certainly looking for more suggestions and ideas to contribute to the discussion.

"Try to balance magic."

Archers are ridiculously powerful and have no grounds to demand magic rebalance. I've seen level 18 Assassin/arcane archer builds dominate frost giants without a hickup.

Let's not derail another thread...

This thread is specifically about Archers and as M3ntalist said we are aware there is an issue at low levels with the ranged mechanics. That has nothing to do with what a skilled Archer player is capable of doing at higher levels as no one has stated the mechanics are not perfectly fine later on. Level 1-5 is still a thing and the goal should be for any given build to be fun early on as well. I imagine that is why there are relatively cheap staffs available, so that wizards/sorcs at low levels have some constant damage available while their spellbooks are not giving them enough casting for any benefit.

As to Archer vs. Magic, not sure how the two have anything to do with each other... Any caster can be strong in PvE and PvP if built appropriately to handle certain situations. Monks and Archers both are also very strong in PvE and for PvP can do quite well against casters. As with anything, the vast majority of cases come down to PLAYER SKILL. A skilled player may very well be able to handle the Frost Giants at 18. I have also taken a level 10 Rogue build with no HiPS to CR18 area's and done fine, because some area's are not built with consideration for wands or Feint. Does this mean Rogue's are OP? I would say no... More likely what that one player executed at Frost Giants would not be plausible for the vast majority of others who play an archer. Most likely they lack key build parameters and/or they do not have the skill to use HiPS at the most opportune moments and don't have a grasp of other key considerations for playing the Assassin/Arcane Archer build.

Erm, archer can be rendered completely useless with a single spell of Storm Avatar. Not to mention deflect arrows or Epic Deflection which also practically kills crossbowmen. The purpose of my remark was to measure relative power of such ranged combatants against the pinnacle of power on the server, which are surely casters. Therefore the logic would be to tone down power of casters first and not archers.

AlfarinIcebreaker wrote:Erm, archer can be rendered completely useless with a single spell of Storm Avatar. Not to mention deflect arrows or Epic Deflection which also practically kills crossbowmen. The purpose of my remark was to measure relative power of such ranged combatants against the pinnacle of power on the server, which are surely casters. Therefore the logic would be to tone down power of casters first and not archers.

Surely this is a separate issue than "Ranged Combat Mechanics"?


Archer builds can be very powerful, but they take a bit of time to gather steam. This is perfectly fine, of course. It's just something to consider. Ranger 21/Assassin 9 is a potent combo.

samb123 wrote:Ranger 21/Arcane Archer 9 is a potent combo.

Did you mean Ranger 21/Assassin 9? Because Ranger can't qualify for Arcane Archer, it needs 1 level of Arcane casting class. Assassin can qualify for Arcane Archer on this server, but then you wouldn't be getting 21 Ranger levels. Would more likely be something like R13/A8/AA9, for example.

chad878262 wrote:

samb123 wrote:Ranger 21/Arcane Archer 9 is a potent combo.

Did you mean Ranger 21/Assassin 9? Because Ranger can't qualify for Arcane Archer, it needs 1 level of Arcane casting class. Assassin can qualify for Arcane Archer on this server, but then you wouldn't be getting 21 Ranger levels. Would more likely be something like R13/A8/AA9, for example.

Ah, I did. My bad.

Fixed.


Of course, R13/A8/AA9 is pretty solid too.