The Quartermaster build (Ranger, Archer Path)

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Kenji
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The Quartermaster build (Ranger, Archer Path)

Post by Kenji » Sun May 27, 2018 1:15 am

The Quartermaster Build

This build focuses on doing the following:
  • Making ammunitions of most ammunition types: Arrows, Bolts, Bullets, Shurikens, Throwing Axes, or Darts (Archer Path w/ Weapon Foci)
  • Crafting Permanent/Temporary Essences for the Templates
  • Crafting Wands
  • Crafting Repair Kits and Containers
  • Dweomercraft Tier III
  • Transmutation Foci allows Golem-craft and -teleport command at level 21
Important things to note:
  • This is a PvE Crafter build modified from a basic Ranger Archer build, and the FE/SE have been selected accordingly
  • Gift of Craftsmanship is a must
  • Dwarves are the best candidates for this build, though Humans and Elves are decent, as well
Crafting Skills Distribution for the Quartermaster:
  • Forging 20 - Ingots, Repair Kits, Jewelry Box
  • Tailoring 18 - Cloth, Leather Tanning, Repair Kits, Pouches
  • Herbalism 10 - Flask of Oil and Tanning Acid
  • Art Crafting 1 - Glass Vials
  • Alchemy 22 - Permanent Essences, Catalysts, Spell Components, Emulsified Oil
More details on the assembly templates, please see Template Crafting for Ranged Builds

Important Languages for Runed Equipments:
Elven - Plenty of pretty elves out there
Dwarven - Head to Brogendenstein and interact with the dwarves
Draconic - Head to Arcane Towers to learn from the Master Wizards

Important Links:
Favored Enemy
Trade Skill Distribution
Last edited by Kenji on Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:34 pm, edited 89 times in total.

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Baron Saturday
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Sun May 27, 2018 3:17 am

This looks really, really solid from the crafting side. Keep in mind that in combat you'll probably need to have someone -guard you or you'll end up drawing aggro that you really don't want. So you could scout, then fall back to your designated guardian when a fight starts. Soon as you're in range of them, -guard kicks in and you're golden.

Try and get your hands on bless weapon or deafening clang scrolls/wands, since those should serve to bump up the arrow damage just a bit more.

Favored and studied enemies aren't super important on this build, since 12 ranger gives only a modest (+3 damage/spot/listen/taunt) bonus, but I might as well direct you to the guide. I'd probably favor outsiders, aberrations and dragons, and study humans and undead or giants.
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Sun May 27, 2018 7:11 am

Oh, thank you, the guide/discussion is just what I was looking for.

Do you know if the Paladin's Bless weapon will give the arrows from the bundle +1 enchantment? I've tried earlier and see no indication of such in the arrows. Couldn't test and figure it out. (Maybe if I use a mundane bow and the arrow and test them on normal weapon immune creatures, that can tell me whether the blessed arrows work/stack with the bow or not?)

This is important since if I can't get my hands on Grand Longbow, I might have to buy looted Composite Longbow +2, creatures that have immunity up to +3 could be a problem, then. Arcane archers can deal with them using enchanted arrows, but this build can't by itself.

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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Sun May 27, 2018 7:56 am

Arrows can't have enhancement or attack bonuses, only damage bonuses, so no. You're gonna want that grand longbow. A carpenter shouldn't be THAT hard to find.
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Sun May 27, 2018 11:54 am

I looked around, maybe I didn't look hard enough, but...
What are your thoughts on the essence damages, as in, which ones are better? The 4d1 flat one or the 1d6 one?

I assume 1d6 would have an average of 3.5 damage over time, but it has higher damage potential than the 4d1 one

The material cost of the 4d1 is one more gem than the 1d6, so 4d1 is supposedly the better stat. From a mass production point of view, however, 1d6 would be more profitable seeing that for every 3 bottles of 4d1 crafted, 4 bottles of 1d6 can be crafted. (only considering the gems)

I'm thinking I should only bother with perma-1d6 for the arrow bundles. Any other angle at this?

To make sure I get the arrow bundle enchantment/essencing/stuffs right, here's what I should do:

Innate Arrow Bundle
Apply Permanent Essence
Apply Temporary Essence
Ask Paladin/Use Scroll to Bless Weapon on Bundle
Equip and Use Bundle Special Abilities

Would both Bless Weapon and Deafening Clang work at the same time? What about Deafening Clang's Sonic Damage, would it conflict with Sonic essences?

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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Sun May 27, 2018 3:12 pm

It would probably be better to do two 1d4 damage enchantments (or more, if possible) than use a permanent essence, since that's just going to lose you massive amounts of money. Last time I played, 1d6 and 4 essences were selling for ~20k. No way you can sell arrows in a way that would be profitable after that. In fact, you might even be able to take SF Enchantment, and use one of your ranger bonus feats for GSF Enchantment.

Deafening clang and bless weapon should stack, but I'm not sure about deafening clang and other sources of sonic damage. I imagine one might override the other? You might ask Xerah, who is apparently playing some sort of paladin who makes arrow bundles.

But yeah, that's what I'd do:
1d4 enchant (as many as possible/profitable)
Temp essence
Deafening clang
Bless weapon
Split bundle

Wouldn't be a bad idea to get someone to confirm that this works, though. My knowledge is 100% theoretical, I've never messed around with arrow bundles!
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Xerah » Sun May 27, 2018 3:35 pm

Def clang takes the slot of your temp essence before splitting. I’m unsure how much it costs to enchant 1d4 but maybe that’s better than permanent essence—depends on the chances. You also put bless weapon on which gives 2d6 divine to undead/outsiders/dragons (a scroll won’t do the dragons and good luck finding them).

The high level Paladin would add +5 (or more sonic damage from clang).

So,
Essence/enchant (1d4)
Bless weapons (21+ Paladin)
Def clang (+5 or more sonic)

You can temp essence the arrows as you use them.
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Opustus » Mon May 28, 2018 7:21 pm

Kewl! Looks solid to me. With WIS12 you could also craft some wicked wands of One with the land, Camouflage, and Ultravision. I'd imagine the former two be in some demand.
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Mon May 28, 2018 10:00 pm

I assume I just need to take the Craft Wand feat and go from there in Arelith? Is there any other mechanical changes in Arelith regarding crafting wands that I should be aware of?

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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Opustus » Mon May 28, 2018 10:03 pm

http://wiki.arelith.com/Feat_changes#Ma ... ting_Feats

You know, the usual. "It's a dead feat. Don't do it. Your wands are crap and nobody loves you." But I support you!
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Mon May 28, 2018 10:23 pm

It's already been made pretty clear that this character isn't going to be combat focused, so taking a feat that focuses on increasing income seems reasonable enough to me.
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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Wed May 30, 2018 7:59 am

Hey guys, I'm currently at 5 Ranger/3 Rogue/4 Fighter, I was wondering if you guys have any suggestion on what pre-epic should look like.

Maybe 12 Ranger/ 4 Rogue / 4 Fighter?

Also, with SF: Enchantment, it's around 30% chance of success to get 1d4 on it. I imagine it'll only get lower for Damask.

I've noticed that crafting perma 1d4 essences isn't that hard. Enchanting saves time, but since the amount of bundle you get is limited to the amount of time rested, self-crafting the essences for bundles might be better on the long run.

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Re: Local Village Fletcher build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Wed May 30, 2018 2:52 pm

I'd actually suggest 10 ranger/4 fighter/ 6 rogue pre-epic. You lose 1 AB, but you can use those last two ranger levels in epic to spread out your discipline dumps, rather than having to wait and dump it all at once when you take fighter 5.

I admit, I thought the enchant chances would be higher than that! Iight still take GSF Enchant, just because being able to Enchant gear with +2 skills is really useful, but at a 30% (or less) success rate, yeah, 1d4 perma might be the way to go.
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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:01 pm

So far I've taken GSF: Enchantment and Craft wand, I'm loving the build. Pure tool monkey for the group while damage output isn't half bad. There are +3/4 temporary essences out there that can be used on Damask bundles of arrows with the +4 perma essences (cheap ones such as positive/Fire Agate or sonic/topaz). Easily +7/8 damage on most enemy types. If those can't be found, this build can also easily craft 10x 1d6 tempo essences with ease. The only thing is that greater catalysts take time to craft (3 days minimum for a perma +4 essence). And finding a lvl19+ Paladin is a pain sometimes (Make good friends or have your husband/wife/gf/bf/BFF/slave play one)

I also had to find interesting ways to RP in order to express this information to other players rather than just pm-ing them about my character build.

Since I'm already taking enchantment foci, learning languages become important. I suppose Lore and Phrasebooks will be important to the build. With natural intelligence modifier of +3, I can only learn three languages unless I sacrifice crafting gift for gift of speech.

Question is: I imagine I should take lore to at least 25 or 30, and take the Elven, Dwarven, and Abyssal or Draconic (are they worth the bother?) phrasebooks. Races such as Elf, Dwarf, or Tiefling (non-lawful) will have already learned one language. Should I take skill focus feats for Lore?

Also for equipment, I've been enchanting Str/Dex equipment, since I'm not in the frontline and always looting (search skill) for the party, I'd rather have more strength than constitution. What about wisdom? Should I bother boosting wisdom, as well?

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:48 pm

I wouldn't bother with wisdom. I also wouldn't bother with lore foci - for the purposes of learning languages, you don't need to understand the language every single time it's spoken.

I would learn Draconic instead of Abyssal - according to the wiki, it's the next most common rune language after elven and dwarves.
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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:24 pm

I've recently gotten my hands on a draconic phrasebook (luckily), where would I go about talking to folks who know the draconic tongue?

Also, my character has hit level 20, what should be my Epic level class order?

I imagine 21 Ranger for Epic Weapon Focus, 24 Fighter for Epic Weapon Specialization, 27 Rogue for Epic Dodge, and 30 Ranger for... something? Epic Skill Focus Discipline and last discipline dump?

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Opustus » Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:35 pm

+2 AC from Armorskin is always guid. In hindsight, you could've gone Rogue8/Fighter4/Ranger8 pre-epic to take the Ranger level 10 favored enemy as an epic feat instead.
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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Wed Jun 06, 2018 5:03 pm

I've been trying to read up what the difference is. If I take 9th-12th ranger levels as epic levels, does that mean the favored enemy will become Epic Favored Enemy with +2 damage/etc bonus to selected race?

I guess that also means not having access to free damask arrows until 22nd or 23rd level compared to having it at around 17th or 18th level. For a level30 character, 8ranger/4fighter/8rogue pre-epic might be the more optimized route.

I'm also planning on taking Blinding Speed with the last (13th) level of rogue with the bonus feat. Any other feats I should be on a lookout for?

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Jagel » Wed Jun 06, 2018 5:17 pm

In epic lvls the fav. enemy feat can be used to select a feat from the ranger’s selection of bonus feats. Since the difference between +2 dmg against a fee foes or +3 against a few more isn’t a big deal, you can use it as a bonus epic feat.

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Thu Jun 07, 2018 4:30 am

I've been thinking, if I really, REALLY want to optimize this build for crafting, I'd go the following:

11 Ranger / 7 Wizard / 12 Rogue

Access to 4th level Wizard spells, 3rd level Ranger spells, lose 1 feat from lvl13 rogue, lose 2 damage from lvl12 ranger, lose about 2 BAB and 6 damage switching from fighter to wizard, have to boost wisdom to get that lvl3 ranger spell slot, how many wisdom would I need to get that ranger lvl3 spell slot from 0 to 1?

Pre-Epic 8 Ranger / 5 Wizard / 7 Rogue (Any other suggestions?)

32 Craft Armor/Weapon each on top of everything else in the original post. That extra 32 crafting points per day will come in handy since I've about 300 points + worth of craft lined up right about now. Mostly permanent essences and catalysts.

I'd still pick Human since the extra feat and skill points will help in building the character.

This is just brainstorming for my next ridiculous build, I'm already loving my current build so far.

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Jagel » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:54 am

I think you will need 16 wis to get that lvl 3 spell slot. 13 base, the remaining three can come from equipment.

I don’t know if there is an item out there with bonus spell slot lvl 3 for rangers.

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:19 am

I imagine I can just put on temporary wisdom gear to boost the wisdom for wand crafting. Although the build will be slightly harder to level, and its combat effectiveness will be reduced even further into the late game.

Going back to the intended build, so far I have 8 Ranger / 4 Fighter / 8 Rogue listed as pre-epic. But I was thinking maybe have 9 Ranger / 4 Fighter /7 Rogue pre-epic so by first epic level, ranger 10 can be taken for both access to damask arrows and immediate conversion of Favored Enemy Feat to an epic feat, does that work?

I imagine the favored enemies would then be:
Favored: Aberration (1) / Dragon (5)
Studied: Outsider (5) / Human (10)

If I don't take the favored enemy feat for ranger 10, am I still allowed to study a favored enemy?

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Baron Saturday » Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:12 am

Shifting to 9/4/7 is fine - you don't lose any AB, which is generally the main thing, and if you can save yourself an epic feat by using ranger 10 to pick up EWF, all the better! Ranger studied enemies just keys off of ranger level, so what you use the ranger bonus feat on doesn't matter. For favored/studied enemies, I suppose that you might want to focus on sneak-immune enemies - it won't help a LOT, but it won't hurt. Dragons, aberrations, outsiders and undead would be my picks.

Where do outsiders spawn, early game? I'm not up-to-date on low-level dungeons, but I feel like there's one with mephits somewhere.
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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Kenji » Fri Jun 08, 2018 7:43 am

The outsiders (mephits) can be found around the low-level areas of Skal (distant shores), my character actually had more outsider and undead kills than human kills before leaving for Arelith.

Since there is now an extra epic feat from converting the favored enemies, do you think it's wise to go for Epic SF: Enchantment? Not happening here. This can then be used for Armor Skin or Epic Skill Focus: Discipline, I guess.
Last edited by Kenji on Fri Jun 08, 2018 8:14 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Quartermaster build (Archer path)

Post by Jagel » Fri Jun 08, 2018 8:02 am

That would require the ability to cast 9th lvl spells

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