Description[]
Fighter 12 /Wizard 1 / Arcane archer 9 / Assassin 8
The Drow Sniperis an evil master of ranged attacks who is able hide herself in the shadows after successfully hitting her target. She has a high BAB and is able to deliver up to 7 arrows in a single round using Improved Rapid Shot. Most notably, the Assassin levels offer Hide in plain sight and Death Attack + 4D6. Essentially, she is Team HipS's sniper.
Due to the high INT, the Drow Sniper is not only able to max out Hide, Move Silently, Spellcraft, Tumble and Intimidate but also sports one other maxed-out skill.
Compared to other archer builds, the big difference is the ability to hide herself and to inflict further damage with the death attack.
Pro
- hide in plain sight
- death attack +4D6
- very good ranged fighter
- 6 maxed out skills
- high reflex save
- spell resistance 41
- more HP than the Half-Breed Archer
- decent AC due to high DEX, maxed Tumble, Uncanny dodge and Improved uncanny dodge
- no XP penalty
Con
- no buffs
- slightly lower AB than the Half-Breed Archer
- low will save
- ECL +2
Why these Race and Classes?[]
A Drow is the ideal race for an evil sniper, not only flavorwise:
- The Drow gets DEX+2, INT+2, CHA +2 bonuses, where DEX is needed for a high AB and INT is used to get a wide spectrum of skills. CHA is pretty irrelevant in this build.
- Prefered Class: Wizard. This allows for zero XP penalties with efficient class progression.
- WIS-2: Unfortunately, the Will save is the worst in this build and low Wisdom doesn't help at all with this issue.
- Spell Resistance of 11+Character Level
- high BAB progression
- high HP
- lots of feats, in particular Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Specialization and Epic Weapon Specialization which improve damage and the chance to hit
- high BAB progression
- Enhance arrow +5
- Hail of arrows
- Hide and Move Silently as class skills
- Hide in Plain Sight
- Death Attack
- Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge
- Tumble as a class skill
- Requirement for Arcane archer
- True Strike as a temporary buff
Character Creation[]
| Initial Values |
Final Values | |
| STR | 14 | 14 |
| DEX | 19 | 26 |
| CON | 12 | 12 |
| INT | 16 | 16 |
| WIS | 8 | 8 |
| CHA | 11 | 11 |
| Base attack bonus | 27 | |
| Fortitude save | 16 | |
| Reflex save | 23 | |
| Will save | 9 | |
| Spell resistance | 41 | |
| Hit Points | 364 | |
| Natural AC | 22 | |
- Race: Drow (although half-elf and any elf but Wood Elf can be used. Wood Elf could be used with Ranger replacing Fighter with worse results)
- Classes: Fighter 12 ,Wizard 1 , Arcane archer 9, Assassin 8
- Cleric Domains: -
- Build Nature: PvM
- Alignment: any evil
- Deity: any, although Lolth fits best, Lolth enables you to talk to Kristl without Elanee in your party
| Move Silently | Spellcraft | |||||||||
| Hide | Spot | |||||||||
| Intimidate | Tumble | |||||||||
| CL | Class | Feat | Bonus/Class Feats | Attributes | ||||||
| 1 | Fighter 1 | Able Learner, Weapon Focus (Longbow) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 2 | Wizard 1 | scribe scroll, summon familiar: Beetle, School: Transmutation, | 1 | 5 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | Fighter 2 | Point blank shot, Rapid Shot, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | Fighter 3 | 1 | 1 | DEX+1, | ||||||
| 5 | Fighter 4 | Weapon Specialization (Longbow), | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 6 | Fighter 5 | Toughness, | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 7 | Fighter 6 | Manyshot, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 8 | Arcane Archer 1 | Enhance arrow +1, | 1 | 6 | 3 | 1 | DEX+1, | |||
| 9 | Arcane Archer 2 | Improved Critical (Longbow), | Imbue arrow x3, | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| 10 | Arcane Archer 3 | Enhance arrow +2, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 11 | Arcane Archer 4 | Seeker arrow x1, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 12 | Arcane Archer 5 | Improved Rapid Shot, | Enhance arrow +3, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | DEX+1, | |
| 13 | Assasin 1 | Death Attack +1d6, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |||
| 14 | Assasin 2 | Poison Resistance I, Uncanny Dodge, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 15 | Assasin 3 | Stealthy, | Death Attack +2d6, Ghostly Visage x1, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| 16 | Assasin 4 | Poison Resistance II, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | DEX+1, | |
| 17 | Assasin 5 | Death Attack +3d6, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Darkness x1, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 18 | Assasin 6 | Blind-Fight, | Poison Resistance III, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| 19 | Assasin 7 | Death Attack +4d6, Invisibility x1, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 20 | Assasin 8 | Poison Resistance IV, Hide in Plain Sight, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | DEX+1, | |
| 21 | Fighter 7 | Epic Prowess, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 22 | Fighter 8 | Greater Weapon Focus(Longbow), | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 23 | Fighter 9 | Epic Weapon Focus(Longbow), | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 24 | Fighter 10 | Armor Skin, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | DEX+1, | ||
| 25 | Fighter 11 | Epic Toughness, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 26 | Fighter 12 | Greater Weapon Specialization(Longbow), | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 27 | Arcane Archer 6 | Epic Weapon Specialization(Longbow), | Seeker arrow x2, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| 28 | Arcane Archer 7 | Enhance arrow +4, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | DEX+1, | |||
| 29 | Arcane Archer 8 | Epic Toughness, | Hail of arrows x1, | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 30 | Arcane Archer 9 | Enhance arrow +5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||
Final skill values (attribute modifications not included): Intimidate(33), Hide(33), Move Silently(33), Spellcraft(30), Spot(33),Tumble(30), any(1)
Variants[]
It is possible to trade some HP for a better chance to hit and AC.
- You can drop 2* Epic Toughness and gain 2* Great Dexterity (-60 HP, +1 AB, +1 AC, +1 reflex save)
- You can start with STR 12, CHA 10 and DEX 20 and drop 1* Epic Toughness and pick 1* Great Dexterity (-30 HP,-1 damage, +1 AB, +1 AC, +1 reflex save)
- In this case, if you're aiming for DEX 28, then it is also possible to pick One Shot in level 29
- Manyshot, (Epic) Toughness, Improved Critical, Stealthy and Blind-Fight are quite useful but not neccessary. Feel free to exchange them.
References[]
Author: User:TheHappyEater, initial idea by Lavernac