Making the gish archer

[PanosIs]

Hello everyone,

I've been playing in a campaign with a War Domain Cleric, which has been pretty awesome. But because we're often fewer than our full party we're making an alternative character set to play when we can't play our main story.

So I feel like playing an archer, but I also have a huge amount of affection for spellcasters, so preferably some (arcane) spellcasting would be included. Also, since this is an alternative character set I am free to go as crazy as I want on weird multiclassing ideas, something that is complemented by my insane stats.

So, stats are 16-15-15-14-14-8 and I've been thinking about a bunch of stuff.

Race is probably Elf or Tabaxi as I have my backstory kinda worked out, but classes could be anything.

I am tempted to use the new Warlock for Moonbow and multiclass into Ranger or Fighter for spell slots/manuvers but I am not sure really. Valor Bard has served me well in the past although a lack of offensive spells is sad. I would love to play a gish Wizard or Sorcerer but no extra attack makes it completely suboptimal considering the SCAG cantrips don't work with that. Rogue is also valid for autocrit/sneak attack.

[tieren]

There is a class guide linked in the sticky to an interesting Eldritch Knight archer build you should check out.

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

Go for the new moonbow, It looks like fun and you will be able to put your opinion into the warlock survey. After all, they take that feedback and use it to refine the classes for publishing.

[Saggo]

Wizard works, Bladesinger has nothing specifically against ranged. Bladesong only ends when you attack, so can be used defensively. Extra Attack, Sharpshooter, and full progression Magic Weapon, Haste, or Fly. Definitely more caster than archer, but functional.

[Dudu]

Arcane Archer is solid. You could settle with 5 or 6 levels of it and then go with wizard. Mostly for thematic purposes.

[Specter]

So how effective do you want to be at archery and at casting? If you're focusing on the former, I say Eldritch Knight, and at the latter Valor Bard. If you want both, Valor Bard/Fighter 2 for archery and action surge. At level 12, you can fire six arrows in one turn.

[tieren]

I believe you need EK 13 to pick up haste, I would go with rogue 7 for the balance to get sneak attack dice on one of those hits too (along with rogue goodies like expertise, cunning action, uncanny dodge and evasion).

Bonus action disengage can be worth it alone to get away from melee types that get in your face.

Go AT with the rogue levels to get more slots for haste.

[Sir cryosin]

Fay warlock 5 levels for extra attack and moon bow and it smite ability. Then rest in lore bard with magical secrets pick up Swift quiver you get 4 attack and can smite with them way before a fighter getting his 4 attacks.

[JAL_1138]

Seconding Valor Bard, with or without a Fighter 2 dip (Archery style, Action Surge), with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter. Take Elemental Weapon at Bard 10 (but take Swift Quiver instead if you pick up a +2 or better crossbow; EW requires a nonmagical weapon). EW+Archery style almost negates the Sharpshooter to-hit penalty, Crossbow Expert allows a bonus action attack with a hand crossbow (five attacks on Action Surge rather than the six you could get via Swift Quiver, but much higher accuracy and magical in nature, plus tailoring damage type to the creature you're fighting).

You can skip the Fighter levels if you want to focus more on casting and don't want the delays in spell progression--but since you're DEX-based, you won't be using heavy armor, so when you take your Fighter levels is nearly irrelevant; you can take your Fighter levels *after* your level-10 Magical Secrets if you don't want to delay getting Elemental Weapon (or Swift Quiver, whichever you'll be taking).

The bard spell list also has some great debuffs on it. Hypnotic Pattern is an amazingly good spell in the right circumstances--if enemies aren't immune to Charm, it can wreck an encounter. Bards are also about on par with non-Life Clerics for healing ability. They cover a little bit of everything, with some okay buff spells and damage spells too.

[Coyote81]

If you take 3 levels of warlock with moon bow and then go arcane archer, you can use piercing arrow and put out some serious burst, being able to expend spell slots against every target hit.

[8wGremlin]

Do you want to be a machine gun or a sniper?


Machine gun: vhuman Ek Revised Ranger - take crossbow sniper, sharpshooter as your first 2 feats
You only use a single hand crossbow in your Off-hand, nothing in the other hand (no shields, nothing).


Natural explorer gives you Advantage on Initiative, and you get Advantage on attack rolls against anyone who hasn't acted yet.


Favoured Enemy (humanoids) gives you +2 damage on humanoid targets.


@1st, your Attack action is 1 shot doing 1d6+3 (dex of 16)+2 (if humanoid), and you get a bonus shot doing 1d6+3 (dex of 16)+2 (if humanoid) damage.


@2nd you get Archery fighting style +2 to hit


@3rd you take Deep Stalker Conclave; On your first turn during combat, you gain a +10 bonus to your speed, and if you use the Attack action, you can make one additional attack.


Damage is now Attack: 1d6+3 (dex of 16)+2 (if humanoid), extra attack on 1st turn, 1d6+3 (dex of 16)+2 (if humanoid), plus bonus action attack 1d6+3 (dex of 16)+2 (if humanoid)


@4th level, you can take a penalty with Sharpshooter to do 1d6+15 damage, for the Attack action and bonus action attacks.


@5th level, you get to attack twice per attack action.




Your first turn attack action is:


attack: 3 attacks with advantage if you won initiative
each doing: 1d6+13+2 if humanoid
bonus action: 1 more attack of 1d6+13+2


So 4 attacks each doing 18.5 average damage (74hp)


You also have ranger spells!