I need a little help.

[Sparrow]

I'm trying to create an archer for a pbp game but no matter what I look at, I can't find anything I like.

A little bit of background on my character would probably help. He lives in a small town and helps hunt when he can. I want him to be very smart and perceptive. He also is a schizophrenic if that changes anything. I was thinking Ranger, but then I remembered that the ranger class isn't very good. Then I thought fighter, with the right feats it may work, maybe.

I recently lost all my sourcebooks so I only have the srd. You guys can reference somethings from the complete books, or maybe phb2 and I may remember. Also, homebrew is allowed, so if its homebrew feel free to send a link.

Any help you can give would be great, thanks.

[Azoth]

You could always go with a cleric archer using zen archery and a bunch of buffs, ranger/scout swift hunter, or soulbow. Each have their own merits and uses. Might I suggest googling the archery handbook.

[Duboris]

See, moments like this make me think that optimizing ruins the kick of things.

In your case I would go with 2 levels in ranger, and then the rest in fighter, giving you you're hunting party bit and the bonuses against certain things.

My personal preference when playing people that are witty with not only other people, but also themselves.

I can honestly picture it now, a person getting ready to take a super-long distance shot with a longbow, all the while having a conversation with multiple personalities in his head about trajectory, wind, and that 1 guy in the back going "You're totally going to miss!"

Far shot, precise shot, etc, etc. Basically a sort of super-long range archer that fought from absolute safety and went crazy during multiple events because he got so bored shooting so far away with no one to talk to.

[BowStreetRunner]

I always thought of the Scout as having multiple-personality disorder, which a lot of people used to confuse with schizophrenia. Scouts can be great stealthy characters, then they get into combat and they start running all over the place - not being stealthy at all but taking advantage of Skirmish to do some decent damage.

Complete Adventurer, if you are interested you should track down someone with a copy to loan you.

[Azoth]

Just because a handbook or easy to look up builds are suggested, doesn't insinuate that they should be followed to the "T" just that they are places to get ideas and useful information for the builds.

Afterall, not every wizard chaingates solars, or is dropping twin/max/empowered/split ray fell drained scorching rays. Not every cleric is running DMM persist buffed to the gills. Not every fighter is an ubercharger or chain tripper. Though going through the handbooks for those classes can give you ideas for builds that are mechanically sound.

I am also not going to tell him something convoluted and barely functioning though. So unless we know the powerlevel of his group...non of my options are optimizing beyond what is necessary. Because anyone with bow profficiency is technically an archer whether they devote any feats or thought to it.

Personally, I like swift hunters and thri kreen soulbow archers.

[Sparrow]

I always thought of the Scout as having multiple-personality disorder, which a lot of people used to confuse with schizophrenia. Scouts can be great stealthy characters, then they get into combat and they start running all over the place - not being stealthy at all but taking advantage of Skirmish to do some decent damage.

Complete Adventurer, if you are interested you should track down someone with a copy to loan you.

I know the difference between multiple-personality disorder and schizophrenia. I want to major in Psychology in college so...

My character will also be paranoid, etc.etc.

But, I think, I'm just gonna use an archer class that I found half an hour after I posted this, which the DM approved. Thanks, though.

And

I can honestly picture it now, a person getting ready to take a super-long distance shot with a longbow, all the while having a conversation with multiple personalities in his head about trajectory, wind, and that 1 guy in the back going "You're totally going to miss!"

God, this made me laugh.

[Duboris]

God, this made me laugh.

I know my comic relief.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Ranger 3/ Soulknife 2/ Soulbow 4/ Horizon Walker 6/ whatever. Alternatively, use Swordsage instead of Ranger and skip Horizon Walker for more Soulbow/Swordsage.

It takes a Soulbow only one hand to fire a Mind Arrow, so you can TWF with them. Put the Lucky property on your Mind Arrows, and each one will independently gain a 1/day reroll on a failed attack, since a given Mind Arrow is only ever fired once every missed attack will get a second chance to hit.

[karkus]

You may not think that Rangers are all that cool, but just keep in mind that they get skills. Now, I think that a Fighter already gets most of the hunter-themed skills, but with the low amount of skills that they get in the first place (2+Int modifier), it would be better to be a Ranger. I would definitely say that you should compare the skills that you can get before you make a decision.