Registered Member #1064
Joined: 5:53:14 pm GMT 06/04/07
Posts: 57
Ok the problems is as far as i have been told is that the rate of fire on a bow is to do with your reflex value. So is there any thing that i can do, find , or buy that will increse this as it seems a ranger should have a good rate of fire because of the class he is
Registered Member #796
Joined: 5:25:55 pm GMT 06/12/06
Posts: 396
rate of fire isn't to do with reflex.
You can fire a box the same as you use a sword, except it uses Dexity not strength. but your number of attacks is based on your BAB...a rangers is the same as a fighter.
so you have one attack per round until level 6? (i think) then two attacks per round etc. until level 16 when you have 4 attacks per round.
you can increase your number of attacks with certain feats etc.
but rate of fire is unlikly to change much....if you want to be good with a bow the main thing to do is increase your Dex.
Registered Member #345
Joined: 2:28:49 am GMT 11/25/04
Posts: 1954
Just to clarify a bit on what's been said...
Rate of fire with a bow is determined by a character's base attack bonus (BAB) just as melee attacks per round are. Rangers benefit from a warrior's BAB (the same as fighters barbarians and paladins), so their rate of fire will be as good as any other class'.
That means you will get 1 shot per round from level 1 to 5; 2 shots per round from level 6 to 10; three from level 11 to 15, and 4 from level 16 on. Even if you played on a server that allowed PC's of 40th level, the number of attacks per round due to BAB is limited to 4.
If you see your ranger as being quicker than that with a bow, you can do as SK suggested and take the rapid shot feat. That feat will not appear as an option for your character unless you first take the 'point blank shot' feat (it's a pre-requisite). If you tkae the rapid shot feat, you will have the option to select it in combat (you can basically turn it on and off). When you are using rapid shot, you will be able to fire one additional arrow per round, but all of your attacks will be at a -2 to hit.
As a side note: Crossbows are different. Here the rate of fire I believe is 1 per round. You can take the rapid reload feat to increase this to your character's 'normal' rate of fire (determined by BAB). There are no pre-requisites for rapid reload.
Word of caution: If you are using a long or short bow and want to add the rapid shot feat, be careful not to accidentally add the rapid reload feat instead (the one for crossbows). If you have not taken the point blank shot feat, rapid shot will not appear as an option, but rapid reload will. Be sure to take the point blank shot feat first, and then you will have the option to add rapid shot.
[ Edited 11:00:15 AM 06/24/07 ]
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
akawd40 wrote ... thanks for clearing that up for me one other quick question is there a minimum level requirement for a prestige class
Most prestige classes require certain ranks in skills, certain feats, races, alignments, or a degree of spellcasting as prerequisistes.
The requirements for each are listed in your SoU or HoTU manual, depending on in which expansion they were released; and also, you can find them all listed here in the NWNwiki.
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
Vaedryan wrote ... As a side note: Crossbows are different. Here the rate of fire I believe is 1 per round. You can take the rapid reload feat to increase this to your character's 'normal' rate of fire (determined by BAB). There are no pre-requisites for rapid reload.
One caveat for Rapid Reload feat for crossbows; even though it says you should get the number of attacks per round with a crossbow that you'd get as with any other weapon, the feat's description is incorrect; Rapid Reload only gives the crossbow one extra attack.
Registered Member #636
Joined: 1:42:07 am GMT 10/26/05
Posts: 505
The only case where one can increase the number of Crossbow shots beyond 3 (1 normal, 1 with Rapid Reload, 1 with haste) is with the Clerical spell Divine Power.
Note that using Divine Power to do this is considered a exploit.
Rapid Reload only increases Crossbow # of attacks by one.
Registered Member #1029
Joined: 11:45:04 am GMT 04/18/07
Posts: 732
To the original poster, is your intention to make a ranger specifically for RP reasons or are you just after a strong archer buid? If you want to build a ranger based build for RP reasons then all well and good, though you may still want to look at the list of feats below to see what would be useful. Otherwise, I'm afraid that despite the image, the ranger class is really not that good a choice for an archer.
Mechanically, the biggest problem archers have is damage output; to get good levels of damage you are looking at damage from sneak attacks and/or damage from taking AA levels and using a mighty bow. To get the number of shots to maximum you will need to mix classes so as to get a BAB of at least 16 by level 20.
Feats I would consider important to any specialised archer would include: point blank shot, rapid shot, called shot, weapon focus(longbow) and improved critical(longbow). I'd also expect to be taking blind fight and for dex based builds, weapon finesse. A longbow is preferable to a shortbow because of damage output. If the build involves fighter levels then I would add weapon specialisation(longbow) to the list of important feats.
It is possible to build a specialised archer that is capable of soloing places like Craggen Island and the Poisonwood, and certainly able to do things like the Forgotten Halls and the Adumbral woods without risk. It is also possible to create an archer that is more party dependent and possibly more useful to a party, having a full set of rogue skills for example. It largely depends what your play style is and how easy it is to find parties during the time zone that you play.
Typical examples of the two types I've outlined above would be fighter(8), bard(2), AA(10) and rogue(10), wiz(1), AA(9), the first being strength based and the second the more traditional dex based build.
[ The Island of Thain ]
A ranger that cant shoot can any body help me out here.
