Arcane archer help

[zerragon]

Greetings.

Im rather new here, and my arcane archer character is lvl 14.
Its very fun to play her, she deals very nice damage thanks to rouge levels in a party, but I seem to draw "aggro" all the time, and now the tougher opponents like giants and those mezzo things in ash mountains makes jelly pudding of me very fast.

I have lvl 13 eq on all my slots, and my dex is maximized, yet at AC 29 (34 with melee) I dont stand a chance compared to all the meeleers.

So, my question is, are arcane archers doomed to become underpowered in this world ?, would be nice to clarify before I attemt to go for level 40 with this character

/friendly greetings

[Binkyuk]

I never quite figured it out precisely, but monsters seem very attracted to low HP and/or low AC (though your AC seems fairly ok for your level). Have you been maxing your HP? If not this could explain why the monsters like you so much compared to others in your party.

Called Shot: Legs is every archer's friend to stay at range, as are expeditious retreat and haste (which as an AA you should have a class that has access to).
Unfortunately archers are at a fairly big disadvantage in NWN in general because:
1) there's never any cover.
2) after level 5 or so HP increases mean combat lasts 10 rounds at least, and in an open field you only get 1 or 2 free rounds while they're closing, which isn't nearly enough to compensate for the strength based meleers advantages.

Of course if you find a castle with walls, or a nice twisty multilevel hill area you can do better (Hint: try Sunken Isle when you're a bit higher).

[Cthulhu Drega]

monsters have a priority list of targets Casters are number one followed by Archers so they will often leave the melee toon thats on them to come after the mage or archer thats attacking them. thers not mutch you can do to avoid this the meleers can KD the target but that gives you -4 to hit. a good tatic is to run circles around the melee toons your with this will provide them withmutiple AOOs on said monster and keep you from getting pounded mostly. if your solo web is your friend ( entangle too to some degree but web is better and has a higher DC more often that entangle) working in tandum with another archer is also a good tatic as each of you can take turn luring the target while the other shoots away.

[Squikker2001]

When my monk was around lvl 14 and was wandering around on giant mountain, the monsters always seemed to chase little ol' me whenever i was in a group. Thank goodness for monk speed. I know I'm a FoN member and this might sound cowardly, but when in doubt, RUN!!! Your party members will thank you for not dying, and giving them AOO's on the enemies while they chase you.

[P. Fricebottle]

Screw arcane archers, its all in the shadowdaning ones .

[Binkyuk]

As stated above, monsters will usually attack a PC that's attacking them over one that's running away (hence the 'archer tag team' tactic), and obviously the your meleers will get AOOs when the monsters turn and chase you.
You can bring these together by standing directly behind a meleer and shooting his current target. The target will peel off and come to get you, running around your tank and giving him 1-2 free hits (while flatfoot). This is then often enough to make the enemy lose interest in you again and change target back.

when in doubt, RUN!!! Your party members will thank you for not dying

Hehe. Yeah this is good advice. The only thing more annoying than an innefectual dexer that spends the whole time dancing around tumbling is an innefectual dexer that dies lots.

And in case it didn't sink in first time, if Called Shot isn't on your feat list, put it there. The AA's forte is AB, which will give your Called Shots very respectable DCs. If someone's chasing you then legs them to stay ahead, and if they're not then arms them to reduce the amount of damage they do to your tank. I've even seen an AA stand toe to toe with a creature and pummel them with 3 or 4 Called Shot: Arms per round and just not get touched despite the AOOs.

[Myrdyr]

Basically, AAs are for party adventuring only and always have been. Until the server provides better arrows for them, I certainly don't have the patience to play one much past lvl 22 or so. In addition to the other advise here, I strongly recommend you take enough of your caster levels to get some good spells, at least Level 2 spells for your class (3 levels of sorc/wiz, or 4 levels of bard).

[Charles I]

Are Arcane Archers doomed to be underpowered? It depends on what you consider underpowered. If you mean, not being able to do more damage than a melee character, then probably yes. Until better arrows become more easily available, that's how it will be. Explosive arrows currently have most damage potential but are a rare item in drops and are expensive to purchase from planar shop. It is very easy for an archer to use up 2000 arrows on an expedition. On the flip side, is having an AB 10-15 points higher (with bow) than the melee characters in your party underpowered? As with all two-handed weapons AC is sacrificed. Is the sacrifice worth it? For you to decide. Try switching to sword and shield when you have to run. As far as tactics, what others have mentioned holds true. Don't be ashamed to run, if a monster is chasing you, it is not attacking others. Position yourself behind melee members of your party. Called shot leg, helps everyone. Let meleers KD, yes you get -4 AB but they get +4, will do more damage and anytime a monster can't attack is good. You and your party need to understand that an AA is a support troop, not a front liner. AAs are great for luring monsters to group since they usually have better spot. As far as sneak goes, most planar creatures are immune to crit and sneak so that will not be as effective later on, plan for it. Will you draw more aggro as an archer? Yes, know it will happen and be ready. I currently have a 34 and 25 AA, they are playable but not solo.

[MasterYoda]

Its called Threat range. All mmo rpgs have a sort of threat range of PCs.

I know wow uses your level. Lower level toons usually get attacked first.

Here i think it was already stated above.

One thing i have realized is if u have a good melee with u the support ( ie mages , archers ) should never have to worry about getting mobbed.

Melee should be able to pull mobs off of the support any day.

[zerragon]

Thanks for all the input , I have now adapted my strategy to a more careful approach, and it works better.

[ihuntudown]

started myselfs an AA to e few days ago, she's lvl 26atm and doing pretty fine, even for my tiny 39ac. Just try to find a balance in the AA class lvls and the other (1 or 2) filling classes. I think you took Rog/wiz/AA, why not take some Wiz lvls (maybe post lvl 20) and get nice stuff to protect your selfs like improved invisi, stoneskin, wail,bigby.... once that you've able to do this in addition with shooting +5/+7 arrows you'll noticed AA aren't to underpower like you think they are

[Kirg]

Yes, but youre using a cleric with some AA lvls. We are talking about a foremost AA build.

[-BannyD-]

dont know what there is to complain about. a well built AA can have awesome AB as well as AC and will deal consistent, medium-level damage.

[watchwood]

Have you considered a bard/AA build? Tumble, UMD, some decent bard buffs (and that song). Bards are a buff oriented caster anyways, so it seems to me like a nice, logical mix of the two abilities.

[Binkyuk]

the song is nice, but IMO the main thing you get from bard is Discipline as a class skill (wizzies can use 90% of decent magic items anyway, so UMD isn't a major plus, and you can get it from Rogue). Trouble is most don't know that you can multiclass freely in Neversummer so they think they have to go wiz to avoid a penalty.