Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

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Drow4d20
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Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:53 pm

Hello everyone,
I am new to the server. Firstly, I love the Underdark on this server! Such a great job and very active! Secondly I would like to apologize in advance for so much detail in the post, but I wanted to be thorough in explaining what I was after as a player and as a character, all while justifying the character's interests (and my own) in such a build.

I have been reading on the wiki page about how necromancers work. And it seems I want to put quite a few feats into necromancy spell focus. I already specialized in shortbow and took point blank shot. I'm only level 4. I would like to know if a Necromancer/Arcane Archer build is plausible and I'd love to hear some ideas on how to go about the build!

The character is a chaotic evil drow wizard (4) that loves to use a shortbow as her main weapon. And with the crafting system I was able to create a magic bow good for a wizard. She is a follower of Kiaransalee and she has spent the past 30 years wandering about the underdark in solitude and has just returned to society a few cycles ago. She is a bit odd. Insane if you will. She is obsessed with necromancy and the idea of summoning or raising her own undead. She is studying it relentlessly, trying to pull it off. She also happens to be a skilled archer. A skill she possesses is sneaking around well. It has helped her survive solitude in the Underdark for so many years. Invisibility would be relevant to her interests.

She is a nomadic, anti-social witch obsessed with raising undead, and loves her bow as if it were a wizard's staff. Though insane she is not quite feral, as she can converse with those in town, but may enjoy messing with their heads a bit too much... She carries her spellbook with her everywhere, as she is obsessed with the few necromancy spells she's learned thus far. They are worth more than gold to her. She aspires to be a great necromancer and will use archery and wizardry to do so.

Mechanically I'd like her to be the best necromancer she can be with enough arcane archery to be relevant to the strategy of ranged battle. For example, raising an army of undead and standing behind them raining arrows imbued with negative energy. She would also cast negative energy spells to heal her undead or other necromancy spells to weaken her enemies. Although life stealing (ie: vampiric touch) is something she can do, as an archer it isn't really something she finds to be useful. I would like epic undead summoning abilities and the best arcane archery set I can add to being an epic necromancer. I am pretty new to this build style as I usually play clerics or rogues.

- Drow4d20
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by rookie » Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:35 am

So you're not going to be optimal with a build like this as they don't mesh well together.

Something like a kiaran necro zen archer cleric with a bard dip would probably end up being easier to play. You still get a horde of vampires with them, can focus wisdom for both spells and attack, have most skills as class skills, and have plenty of self buffs. You could even take something like magic (for Negative Energy Burst and mage armor)/trickery (improved invis)/travel (haste)/death (empowered harms, Arelith specific buff) for domains. You might even feasibly fit some arcane archer in here but I don't think it is worth losing the cleric levels for it.

If you're dead set on wizard, a few things to remember. You'll want at least 21 levels of wizard total so you can get the best undead for Arelith, and if you have 20 RPR you may want either 3 or 15+ levels of palemaster for dracolich dragon summon. That doesn't leave a lot for arcane archer and even that leaves you open to dispelling. There are a lot of dispelling mobs in Arelith. You're also going to miss out on discipline/tumble/UMD as class skills or else further reduce your caster level with a 3rd class to get them.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Dreams » Tue Dec 12, 2017 1:40 am

Aim to have 9 AA levels and 17 PM. You can snag 2 epic spells, meaning you'll hit Epic Mage Armour and Epic Mummy Dust, have nice AC and be crit immune. PM levels are going to help your spellcasting a little bit, but this all works better on a bard.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:11 am

I'm not so much worried about having a perfect top build as I am trying to make necromancer/aa work. It's more of a RP thing. And I've never made a necromancer or aa before. From the sound of things it is within my best interest to get 21 wizard/9 aa. so that i can get epic necromancer summon and 9 levels of aa for rp more or less...

I am now wondering if perhaps just using bow as a level 30 necromancer would work better for me... I do not wish to rebuild. Id rather go with the flow of the character while asking ooc advice for leveling further. I'm about to take my 5th level. I couldn't even take an arcane archer level til like level 13 wizard because of lack of bab. so maybe ditch AA altogether and just get archery and wizard feats?
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by rookie » Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:24 am

I'd grab something like fighter/ranger/bard levels so you can have max discipline as well. If you did something like wizard/ranger you could get discipline, hide, and move silently as class skills as well as taking GSF/ESF for your "favored enemy" feats. Fighter would give you more combat feats, bard for tumble/umd/hide/move silently. Just take 3-5 levels total for these, with a few pre-epic if you wanted to increase your attacks per round.

In general you already want to multiclass to max out discipline anyway so this isn't really hurting your wizard abilities more than what you'd already want, past maybe some more combative archery feats thrown in instead of caster oriented ones.

Mechanically your bow is really just there more to be doing something on easier fights while conserving spells for the big fights.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Astral » Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:33 am

For the necromancer part of the build, you better off with 16 pm instead of 21 wizard. Reason is you can get the same summons but with higher epic caster lvl, thus stronger summons. You also get better archery skills since you start with bard lvls and get more ab eventually, reaching 4th flat apr too. the path is 4 bard, 6 pm, 10 aa, 10 pm. it is possible to drop 1 pm lvl (preferably at 29) for bard or aa for skill/ab and give up 1 epic spell.
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Freyason » Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:39 pm

If he just started on server qualifying for PM at level 4 might be an issue.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:54 pm

It seems I am too late to make a successful pm as i already took feats required for aa. i also put 5 levels into wizard on a server where rangers can become aa without arcane spells... So really, what I'm asking (I guess lol) is what would be the best way to build a wizard (necromancer)/arcane archer? at level 5 I have weapon focus (shortbow), point blank shot, and spell focus (necromancy). I'm not looking to be the best build on the server, I'm looking to be the best necromancer/aa i can be.

How many levels should I put into each class? what levels will i need to take epic feats for each class? I want to try and get the most out of my class options. I've looked online and haven't found a build for this type. I do not want to re-roll my character or make a new one. Necromancer/AA build chart would be awesome so i can get an idea. I would do one myself, but I lost my D&D books and just don't have the interest to dig deep into the game mechanics like I used to... :P *Lazy nerd is lazy...*
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:04 am

Mainly what I'd like to know is when the best time to start taking AA levels would be? I couldn't take any until level 13. I don't believe 9th circle spells are available until level 18 (right?). So should I start taking AA levels at level 13 and risk screwing up my spellcasting or should I start taking them at wiz (21) so I can get epic wizard feats. Again I am new to both classes. I usually roll straight clerics or cleric/fighters, or rogues/assassins/sd mixtures. Trying the arcane arts for once and i enjoy the diversity of wizards while being able to focus mainly on one school of magic. Perhaps a sorcerer would have better suited the build, but i wanted the skill points and bonus wizard feats.. also just prefer wizards..
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by One Two Three Five » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:05 am

A wizard-specific arcane archer? Monk/Wizard 3-4/AA 9+, zen archery.
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:19 am

Too late for that too... I am just going to go with the flow. leveling is slow on this server so more ideas are welcome. but im trying to make a necromancer that is good at archer (so 30 wiz with some archer feats) or a wiz/aa that specializes in necromancy. it doesn't seem the classes mix well, and to be honest it seems to best aa build on this server would be ranger based. But I want to be able to cast spells well. the way i see it is an elven arcane archer is great at both arcane arts and archery, merging the two.
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by One Two Three Five » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:26 am

Eh, bard-based is most 'good' in my experience, but ranger with the free arrows path is best quality of life. You aren't, really, going to get a good wizard-heavy necromancer archer. Cleric with zen archery could maybe get close, but with complete honesty: You'll want to focus on one or the other. Necromancer that happens to carry a bow and a few stacks of true strike potions is the simplest path.
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:50 am

Yeah I think I'm just going to do 30 wizard. I already took point blank shot and weapon focus shortbow. how many feats does a 30 drow wizard get? i forget how many extra wiz feats they get and this server has house rules. I wanna know if I can get the epic necromancy stuff i want and afford to put a couple more feats into shortbow (rapid fire and massive crit or whatever it's called would be cool. I am new to server and havent played in years. rusty :D
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Wytchee » Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:04 am

Drow4d20 wrote:Yeah I think I'm just going to do 30 wizard. I already took point blank shot and weapon focus shortbow. how many feats does a 30 drow wizard get? i forget how many extra wiz feats they get and this server has house rules. I wanna know if I can get the epic necromancy stuff i want and afford to put a couple more feats into shortbow (rapid fire and massive crit or whatever it's called would be cool. I am new to server and havent played in years. rusty :D
Wizards get a bonus feat at levels 5, 10, 15 and 20
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Maladus » Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:24 am

My advice would be as following (I'm not a build expert so someone would probably have to check this to make sure I'm not steering you wrong):

Get your base INT to the level required for level 9 spells (19 I'm pretty sure).
Make sure to pick up Maximize Spell as a bonus Wizard feat (for buffing yourself).
Take the rest of your stat points in DEX and enchant/find gear with DEX on it (to try and get the highest AB for your bow).

If you really want AA I would just go 20/10 and I would take your first 3 AA levels at 18, 19, 20. This way you can choose use your level 20 Wizard feat in epics to get an epic feat (taking either Epic Mage Armor or Epic Spell Focus: Necromancy). So your leveling spread would be: Wizard to 17 > AA to 3 > Wizard to 20 > AA to 10.

This will not be ideal, but since you've already said that you aren't really worried about that then this should be fine. You could always take the first 3 AA levels sooner than that but it would delay when you would be able to cast level 9 spells. If you are ok with that then by all means go for it.

The obvious downside to going 20/10 is that you wouldn't get an Epic spell and would miss out on Mummy Dust. If that is something you really want then you can go for 23/7, using the bonus epic feat at 23 to take Mummy Dust. The rest of the build would stay as I said above, but you would have fewer toys to play around with from AA.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Lorkas » Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:31 am

What makes you suggest 20 wiz / 10 AA over the earlier-suggested 21 wiz / 9 AA? To me it looks like you're trading away the epic undead from Mummy Dust for the AA's decidedly underwhelming Arrow of Death.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Freyason » Wed Dec 13, 2017 5:36 am

If you were doing this (yikes) you'd want AA levels before 20 to maximize BAB.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Wed Dec 13, 2017 6:57 am

From the sound of things I think I would prefer 30 wizard with a few feats put towards bow skills. She has 18 dex and 19 int so far. gear brought up int to 22. I buff dex. I appreciate all the help guys :)
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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Maladus » Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:26 am

Lorkas wrote:What makes you suggest 20 wiz / 10 AA over the earlier-suggested 21 wiz / 9 AA? To me it looks like you're trading away the epic undead from Mummy Dust for the AA's decidedly underwhelming Arrow of Death.
Yeah, I thought about that which is why I went back at the end of the post and mentioned taking more Wizard levels. Can you take Mummy Dust at 21? Their bonus Epic Feat is at 23.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Lorkas » Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:54 am

As long as you take that 21st wizard level on a level when you get a general feat (21, 24, 27, 30), you can take it.

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Maladus » Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:32 am

Well then, good thing I don’t normally dabble in builds lol

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Re: Drow Necromancer/Arcane Archer - Help please :)

Post by Drow4d20 » Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:12 am

This is all useful info for me :D I honestly know nothing of wizard builds outside of table top. This is a bit different, but i did see they make wizards start using reagents which is cool. Just like the manuals. I'm going to get epic necromancer focus, spell pen, comb cast (eventually), extend, and possibly try to get epic enchanting too.
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