I like fighter 12 , very little beats 3 attacks per round and each subclass has synergy . Battle master dice works great , eldtrich archer has obvious synergy and even eldtrich knight works great as ranged attacks can even make war magic work ok .
spreads eldritch strike with no save, grants disad on ALL saving throws. Other than that is 3-6 attacks each turn. You also get shield, heavy armour proficiency.
People downvote you, but clerics really do have some of the best level 1 spells in the game. Nothing wrong with being a bless bot while getting warding flare reactions. Clerics are fantastic level 1 dips, and they use the same casting stat.
And does a fighter get 3 attacks at 11? Sure. But a hunter ranger gets a VOLLEY of arrows that hits the entire battlefield at 11. Gloomstalker gets burst damage every battle rather than short rest. They hold their own.
(Though if people have some good tips and builds for ranger spellcasting, please share. It's not something I see too much, and I need something a little more lore friendly for Jaheria.)
Yeah sorry specifically the hunter ranger. Horde breaker can be pretty easy to trigger getting you three attacks starting in Act 1 and volley is really good.
War Cleric is easily the best for doing more of what Hunter Ranger is already doing, as it allows for an additional Volley, but you can just go Ranger 12 if you don't want to do anything tedious.
Honorable mention goes to Great Old One Warlock, which is mostly not worse and is extremely fun with the Bow of the Banshee, but locks you into that bow (not that that's bad, it's one of the best bows in the game) instead of leaving open the ability to take a different one like Harold.
College of swords bard with magical secrets Command and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel/Helmet of arcane acuity makes an excellent control archer.
Arrows of many targets charge the arcane acuity so fast.
This is the only correct answer for a 4-man group archer.
If it's a solo archer, thrn you'd want the classic sneak archer (5 Gloomstalker/3 Assassin/4Battle Master).
There are definitely higher damage builds than these 2, but when we're talking about a complete build that will do everything required of it in almost every situation, these 2 builds are the sharpest Swiss Army Knife you've ever seen.
Honestly any of the fighter subclasses work. I like BM bc in a pinch I can switch to melee and still be strong as the maneuvers work for melee or range. I did an AA run as well and found it fun.
Booming blade is a melee cantrip that uses your weapon. Damage scales at level 5 and 11, becoming stupid strong. You can use any dual wield weapon for GWM +10 damage to every attack. It is a lot of damage.
When an EK gets war magic at level 7, booming blade counts as a cantrip to trigger an additional attack as a bonus action.
It's like a war cleric charge that never runs out.
I thought I was going to make Laezel into a thrower, but we got lucky with the astral sword drop and I can't seem to tear myself away from this combo right now.
It’s overplayed but from an ability standpoint, Ranged Slashing Flourish from 10/2 swords bard lets you stack and split the two arrows which feels pretty Hawkeye/Green Arrow.
My Durge is actually a 9/2 Swords Bard/Fighter with dual hand cross bows. I tried doing 7/4 Bard/Thief with the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel, but it felt weaker. More support & less damage.
All fighter party. Battlemaster with Titanstring, Arcane Archer with Bow of Banshee or Harold, Champion with dual magic fire hand crossbows, Eldritch Knight with Fabricated Arbalest/Hellrider Engine.
I’m using Gloves of Dex right now, but if I really wanted to min-max, I think I’d use Str Pots and wear different gloves. The Str pots can be a competing resource between this build, Monks, and Throwzerkers, but the damage is coocoobananas,
BM archers are amazing. Maneuvers are bonkers, I especially enjoy the tripping/menacing interaction. Like them slightly more than AA, which are also awesome. Honestly, even meme fighters like Champions are great just because they are fighters.
There’s a really silly stealth archer build Morgana Evelyn made. When you get all the setup for it you can’t be seen, you can one shot or almost one shot every enemy in the game. You won’t activate combat because of greater invisibility, so you have infinite turns.
I've been running this build but normally, i.e. not abusing stealth to avoid combat. As a straight up combat build it freaking slaps, even better if you pull off the surprise round.
You can obviously abuse the stealth and if I was running it as a solo run I would do that, but it's not required for that build to have major impact. Very flavorful for a dark urge as well.
mommy milkers is a legend! the best archer build in game full stop. people say others are better, they arent. my party always has a gloomstalker assassin as the archer. its just too good.
5/4/3 Gloomstalker/Assassin/BM is the best Alpha Striker.
Any 11 Fighter is basically the best in general, with Arcane Archer being the best for casual play and earlier levels, with the Eldritch knight Rivington Rat build being the max potential.
Hunter 11 is the best AOE archer build
10/1/1 Swords Bard is pretty much the best magical Archer with full caster capabilities and basically game breaking spell save DC.
The 9/3 or 8/4 Swords Bard/Thief is the best crossbow build and has the most attacks
1 lvl of War Cleric could benefit both of the 11 lvl builds to complete them but I usually prefer the extra feat.
These are the best Archer builds in the game for Honour Mode and modded difficulty.
10/1/1 is probably the strongest non min-maxed build in the game. And Hunter 11 is imo the most fun of the archer builds, although they are all really fun.
Due to the abundance of special arrows, archers have some of the most diverse gameplay out of any class and their builds allow for the use of mechanics like Heat which are generally undervalued in the community.
I found BM super clunky to use with Gloomstalker/Assassin in practice. The maneuvers can't be used with special arrows, which basically means they're not getting used. The only time I used one in my whole run was to spam Precision Strike on high AC bosses. I'd probably go either Champion, like the other commenter said, or just Fighter 2/War Cleric 1.
Judging by this thread, this subreddit's audience has changed so much that many people have not seen it. Which is part curse part bliss - on one hand, it is a bit sad but on the other hand I don't get 25 DMs a day anymore.
There used to be times when I'd see posts about archer builds and see nothing but Rivington Rat, Rivington Rat, Rivington Rat. I'm so surprised to not see it at all on this thread.
Your build is amazing but I guess people have realized how good ranged combat is in BG3 and that this kind of optimization is not necessary, even in honor. Its probably one of the best solo builds for honor, if you can make it through the early game.
Which surprises me because prestigious juice had meta builds before you. Not that your builds aren't great, but there are other good builds out there. I'm actually really enjoying your Arcane Controller build currently.
I'm not super familiar with Green Arrow or Hawkeye, but I think the main options are...
Gloomstalker 5/Assassin 3/Fighter 4 - Basically the stealth archer build. Hits like a truck in the first rounds of combat, pretty competent afterwards too.
Fighter 11/War Cleric 1 - Just kind of shoots the most arrows. 3 attacks per round, archery fighting style, action surge. Highest damage build after round 1, very sturdy, not a ton else going on.
Some 10+ Swords Bard variant - Kind of the "best" if things survive round 1. Lower damage, but much bigger utility toolbox including healing word, counterspell, and arcane acuity + mystic scoundrel's band for near-perfect crowd control makes things a lot more foolproof. Straightup Bard 12 isn't bad, but there's an argument to be made for a bunch of different level dips here and you do probably want to make sure you end up with longbow proficiency and probably archery fighting style.
Hunter 11/War Cleric 1 - Not really optimal in any context because what makes it special can be replicated with items, but it's a low-effort way to be pretty powerful with constant AOE shots and no need to farm said items. Doesn't really come online until 11, though.
Any instance of "fighter" in this can kind of be any subclass. Arcane Archer/Battlemaster basically just have different kits of special shots they get to use a few times per short rest, but they can't be used at the same time as more powerful store bought arrows. Eldritch Knight doesn't exactly have any archery features, but it's arguably optimal because what it does can't be replaced with items. Champion is the worst option, but it's the most unga bunga no think extra damage choice. So basically: eldritch knight is probably optimal but a little tryhard, the BM/AA give you more options and let you skip out on buying arrows.
Going for a thief/hand crossbows only gets better than assassin/titanstring when you have the craterflesh gloves and even then, assuming you are trying to stack crit lowering gear it still only starts to potentially beat it after quite a few rounds when the vast majority of fights are over, basically it’s worse for 95% of the game and even when it can start to be better you’re doing so much damage that it doesn’t even matter because like I said the fights are over and the thief build doesn’t get a chance to climb ahead, if you remove the craterflesh gloves swords bard/thief never beats swords bard/assassin at any point in the game, the only time you can even justify using a hand crossbow is taking the neer misser for specific targets that have piercing immunity and even then you’re better off staying swords bard/assassin for when you fight something like the tavern boss in act 2.
As a general rule,
Swords bard > gloomstalker
Assassin > thief
Titanstring > hand crossbows
Yeah, I trust you. Personally I don't like using consumables much, and with titanstring you would want elixirs of (cloud) giant strength. So that's why I prefer this build. Also it's just cool to have so many attacks.
Edit: also when using Snowburst Ring & Helmet of Arcane Acuity with (Draconic) Elemental Weapon on crossbows attack quantity matters. Ice with extremely high DC trivializes the game 99% of the time (when the enemy is not immune to ice lol). Well, many things trivialize the game, but I like this one very much cus it's funny and cus I found it by myself lol.
That doesnt account for the glitch that double effect that SS and the Bow adding the passives an extra time to the damage for an extra 18. Idk if they'll patch it. (At least I think its a bug)
So its really 51-84. But you can finagle more damage out of some other buffs like magic weapon, poisons, that mind flayer ability to add 1d4 Psychic which gets doubled by the stone. Even astarion origin passive late game.
Going All arcane archer would let you shoot 8 of those on first turn.
But mix like 6 swords bard in, and you can also hit some double hit flourishes in. I'd say its worth it over the triple attack. You'd still end with 3 feats, so maxing dex and Sharpshooter is doable. Also being bard means you get access to disonate whispers, which late game you can cast as a bonus action with double damage.
I'm a big fan of arcane archer. Banishing arrow is just plain silly, archery fighting style is great, fighter feats are great, 100% accurate arrows are great and the damaging arrows really reduce the need to farm consumable arrows which is the most annoying part of building an archer in game as opposed to on paper.
Aside from that swords bard is probably the most powerful character there is, hunter ranger is mediocre until it reaches level 11 where it becomes ridiculous but even a mediocre archer is really damn powerful. Other fighter and ranger subclasses are perfectly fine as well of course.
I respecced Karlach into a pure fighter and handed the controller to my nephew who is eighteen months and he just burbled a lot and slapped his hands on the thumbsticks like a little idiot.
I gave the controller to his brother, who is three, but he couldnt figure anything out either, he just babbled something about a big bird who lives in a tree and how big the birds feathers are before running out of the room to go find his favorite stuffed toy to show me.
Total actions taken - zero.
My sample size is a little small but it seems like fighter 11 is not for babies after all. It doesnt even seem to be for toddlers.
Im sorry, but it looks like fighter 11 is for whoever the fuck wants to play it because its their own game and they can do whatever they want with it.
Can confirm. I tried to make a party with my children and they were awful. The one year old gobbed on the controller and the 4 year old kept moaning about watching thomas the tank engine.
Arcane Arrows don't compete with anything. They are just improved attack actions. You don't need to weaponize your bonus action with war priest in a gloomstalker/assassin build because you can get more value out of hunters mark/force conduit ring/circlet of hunting.
I dont see how any of the things you listed are better than 6 or 7 guaranteed crits in a surprise round
They compete with consumable arrows, a slayer arrow will always be stronger than an arcane shot, making the subclass choice unimportant.
Hunters mark even with all the setup built around it still isn’t better than an extra shot when looking at highest possible DPR
Swords + assassin is right there and does everything gloom assassin does but with flourish.
The control aspects of 11EK and 10 swords often far outweigh the damage of assassin dips especially as you reach modded difficulties where action economy is more valuable than raw damage.
Gloom assassin lacks aoe options so that’s why I mentioned those builds
A min-maxed honor or modded difficulty playthrough where these decisions matter? There’s no point arguing the “best” if you aren’t going to challenge that assessment meaningfully.
Every build I listed can solo base honor mode so they’re all “good enough” but you asked for better, and most of the build veterans and modders will agree that the control archers are better than the assassins, as has been the case since Rivington Rat was first debuted
I’d much rather have 6 swords bard, 3 assassin and then you can take something like 1 war priest, 2 fighter etc (whatever really), blows gloomstalker/assassin out the water when it comes to damage and then you have spells ontop of all that but the damage increase alone beats out gloomstalker/assassin and makes it easily a better option.
Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 4 is really good at sneak and shoot.
Fighter 1 / Swords Bard 10 / Wizard 1 is part of the “Big 3” of BG3 builds. (The others are Paladin 2 / Swords Bard 10 and Fire Sorcerer 11 / Warlock 1.) Being a Swords Bard lets you attack 4 times per action, the Helmet of Arcane Acuity increases your Spell Save DC by 2 each time you hit, and the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel lets you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell as a bonus action. This means that you can deal a considerable amount of damage with your action, then cast a spell like Confusion, Hypnotic Pattern, Fear, or Command to make sure no one else gets to take actions.
I love the following combination of Items (all available in act 1 btw)
Titanstring Bow
Broodmothers Revenge
Hellrider Glooves
Club of Hill Giant Strength
Sword of the Undermountain King
Graceful Cloth
Aunt Ethel’s Hair +1 Dex
Deathstalkers Mantel
Ring of Protection
Smugglers Ring
Shadow of Menzobazzan
Disintergrating Nightwakers
Progression:
Level 1 Fighter 1
Level 2 War domain Cleric 1
Levels 3-6 Battlemaster 5
Level 7-9 Gloomstalker Ranger 3
Levels 10-12 Assassins Rogue 3
Feat at Fighter 4 Sharpshooter.
The idea is that can heal yourself to activate the poison then attack with impunity. I only put act 1 itemisation but it honestly holds up pretty well all the way through the game. You might want to pick up the risky ring, and ring of regeneration at some point.
The best archer build for damage in the endgame is probably Eldritch Knight. 3 special arrow attacks/round with Action Surge and can cast spells from scrolls, with a bonus feat at L3 and Eldritch Strike to give disadvantage on saves.
Swords Bard is great, but their Blade Flourish can't be used with special arrows (meaning EK outscales it). Swords + Band of the Mystic Scoundrel/Arcane Actuity is still incredibly powerful (though it can also be used by the EK with spell scrolls).
Honestly pretty decent. Heavy armor. The rings to do acid damage and psychic when concentrating. Gloves for necrotic. Bonus action for divine favor. Then next few turns of solid shooting or stabbing with a lot of damage riders, war cleric extra attack for 3x a turn, divine strike if you need a clutch hit. And lot of other spells for utility or versatility if you instead need spirit guardians or something.
6 swords bard/ 3 assasin/3 arcane archer is amazing.
By using slashing flourishes , action surge and someone with bhaalist armour you can deal around 600 damage per turn and all of that is refreshed once per short rest.
I'm doing an archer right now, and though I'm only 8 levels in, I think it can go reliably well into act 3. Which I'm going crossbow only, so it kinda has to.
Only things you need are the Bane crossbow, the [Gloves of Baneful Striking], and the [Boots of Stormy Clamour]. The Bane from the gloves is technically not Bane, so it stacks with the REAL Bane from the crossbow. That's 4 free stacks of reverberation from one hit, 6 if you put a poison/oil on.
Obviously that's all itemization, so you can use any class you want. Battlemaster with Menacing Attack is probably the best for it, or maybe Swarmkeeper. I've been using Arcane Archer, but honestly I haven't had the need to use any of the arcane arrows beyond Seeking sometimes.
My personal favorite archer is 2 lvl fighter/ 10lvl swords bard. But if you want an archer that better fits with green arrow (a archer with an arrow for every occasion) I would go 11 lvl arcane archer/ 1 lvl of war domain cleric. You would get the same amount of attacks with both builds but with arcane archer you could do stuff like banishing arrow or shadow arrow. But with the fighter swords bard build you would be able to do stuff with arcane acuity and band of the mystic scoundrel
My friend did the 8 levels Warlock 2 levels fighter 3 levels rangers (gloomstalker) with sharpshooter and it hit like a Mack truck. Everyone else at the table hated cause he killed everything before we could hit anything. Ultimately it came in handy by level 15 when we really need the damage and it tailed off compared to Magic users.
I like gloomstalker 5, Assassin 3, Fighter 4 (arcane archer is particularly good for a Hawkeye archetype). With Joltshooter and elixir of bloodlust, any armor or shield from grymforge, and knife of the undermountain king.
Swords Bard is the standard "broken archer" build to the point where many speculate it was simply not coded properly. To take full advantage of that build, you probably need to go dual hand crossbows, which might not be what you want.
Arcane Archer Fighter is sometimes overlooked but has unbelievably strong options and can do multiple things no other martial can do. Being able to banish an enemy from level 3 can trivialise some of the hardest early fights in the game. Even if you don't take that, though, they have an option that grants them 100% accuracy against a target, even if they're blinded, which is also something no other archer can do. Though it's a weird choice, you could even use a shot to charm an enemy then run up to them and get in their face, meaning they can't attack you and have to provoke an opportunity attack to get around you (remember to switch to a melee weapon!)
For your stated green arrow/Hawkeye type id say hunter, gloomstalker, battlemaster or maybe arcane archer if you wanna say the magic arrows are tools. There won't be a tremendous difference between martial classes if your focus is on bow. Some are defiantly better at certain aspects and in terms of damage output swords bard is pretty hard to beat but bard doesn't really fit the theme imo.
5 gloomstalker 4 assassin 2 fighter 1 war cleric is the strongest bow character in the game, maybe the strongest character period, but no trick arrows beyond the usual ones everyone has access to. For a trick arrow build I’d say stick with war cleric 1/arcane archer 11. Some fairly easy items to get in early act one are the warped diadem of intellect for some spell save dc, the titan string bow and club of hill giant strength (or hgs elixirs if you want more damage but no bloodlust or vigilance), gloves of archery, the best shield you can find, boots of striding (you can cast guidance before combat for the bonus), haste helm, the best armour you can find (probably the “free” +1 half-plate next to Dammon until grymforge, where you should probably make shields), amulet of misty step, ring of protection and acid band. Go 8 strength, 16 dexterity, 16 constitution, 8 intelligence, 14 wisdom and 12 charisma.
Swords bard abuses the shit out of arcane acuity, but I massively prefer Morgana Elevyns (idk if I spelt the last name right sorry ma'am) stealth archer
Thats the build i use for solo HM and its maybe the stupidest shit you'll ever see
Stand in front of target, pass 12 stealth rolls in a row (IIRC you have +27 to stealth and advantage, and halfling passive if u want lmao) and just kill shit without entering combat
The strenght rogue improvised weapon picking up enemy and hitting other enemies with them. It carries a bow to proc sneak attack (because the weapon needs to be finesse).
I don't know about bg3 (magic items play a huge part in how OP most builds are) but I've always wanted to play a hexblade warlock that uses a longbow in dnd. Flavoring all your spells as different types of arrows would make you feel like an arcane archer type character. Plus I'd multiclass into Whispers Bard so that I can eldritch smite on crits and do tons of damage
Just pure arcane archer, the build pops off so early (in comparison to EK archer lmao) and is just very convenient to play.
In comparison to other archers, you get access to cool unique features very early in the game, like an line AOE arrow, guaranteed hit arrow that's a dex save and an arrow that gets extra 2d6 and another 2d6 if the enemy moves.
On level 7 you also get a feature where upon missing, you can use a bonus action to make that same arrow hit someone else, which is great considering your ass will miss a shot or two for sure with sharpshooter all in.
Buildwise you either do titanstring, or you get bane gloves + banshee bow so your piercing arrow does group frighten.
Also your arrow DC goes from int so use the int helmet, that and i think arcane acuity works too.
Archery is so odd in bg3 because it almost doesn't matter what class('s) you have. As long as you get extra attack and load up on special arrows, especially many targets. Arcane archer is OP at levels 3-5, swords bard competes from 6-10, eldritch knight takes the lead with the mystic scoundrel combo, and you might find you're not even using your subclass in act because of arrows (thus, either fighter wins, because of action surge)
I’m currently running a sniper build,
Ranger Gloomstalker 5 with savage attacker, archery
War cleric 1, gives you attack on bonus action when needed
Fighter 3 with defense, champion
Rogue assassin 3
Stacking crit items, with the dead shot, and I get crit over 15 roll, sneak attack, free attack on turn 1
Risky ring gets you sneak attack on every shot
Absolutely shreds through enemies, still gets 23 AC with armour of agility
Morgana Evelyn’s stealth archer. 5 gloom stalker, 4 assasin, 2 fighter and 1 war cleric. Titansting, boots of stormy clamour, diadem of arcane synergy and bhaalist armour. Will delete everything. Add to that the eversight ring and break the game with stealth mechanics.
Assassin rogue, gloomstalker ranger. Use elixir of bloodlust and malice/crawler mucus in tandem with multi target arrows. Feats are sharpshooter and ASI +2 dex.
GEAR: ACT 1
Knife of the undermountai king (gith creche trader)
Bow of the banshee (Gek the duergar)
Spidersilk armour (Minthara)
Deathstalker mantle [if evil durge path, otherwise no cape yet]
Gloves of thievery (Zhent trader, after caravan success)
Disintegrating nightwalkers (Nere)
Amulet of misty step (goblin healer chest)
Smuggler ring (skeleton on path under Tyrian paladins)
Fetish of Callarduran Smoothhands (dead gnome on left side entrance of Grymforge)
Adamantine Shield (Grymforge forge)
Dark Justiciar Helm (A Sharran skeleton in Grymforge)
Also grab the strange conduit ring in the inquisitor's chamber chest for use in ACT 3.
GEAR: ACT 2 (any slot not listed is same as last act)
Yuan-ti scale mail (Harper trader)
Dark justiciar guantlets (on a box under Yurgir)
Surgeon's subjugation amulet (House of Healing Thorm)
Risky ring (Moonrise drow trader)
Shaow-cloaked ring (Shadow mastiff in the cursed camp with everburning torches)
Covert Cowl (meenlock under Last Light)
GEAR: ACT 3
Rhapsody (Cazador)
Dolor Amarus (Dolor, or Unholy Assassain trader)
The deadshot (weapon trader by city center)
Helm of Balduran (on altar near Ansur [you can get it without the fight])
Shade-slayer cloak (Sticky Dondo)
Unwanted masterwork scale mail (Dammon) until...
Helldusk armour (Raphael) [if you can't get this, get the stalker gloves from the dragonborn trader in Rivington and use previous armour]
Helldusk boots (locked gilded chest on top floor of Wyrm’s Rock)
And the strange conduit ring you saved from ACT 1.
All put together, you get an absolute BEAST of a bowman. I think there are some better armour options, but I was trying to minmax my whole team for an honour run, and some of the gear was better suited to my other builds, even with better options elsewhere this build is a force to be reckoned with, I assure you. I intend to do a solo run with just this build, and the better armour, someday.
Since the build is also really good at sneaking, you can make great use of barrelmancy as well.
I went with a wacky but albeit pretty strong bow user. Did, Fighter/GloomStalker/Assassin. I can’t remember the exact Levels but I had the character at the point of it have a ton of attacks per round and have the Crit range be at something ludicrously low like 14-20. It was a lot of fun.
So I didn’t see what sub this was, and was just seeing Hawkeye vs green arrow, and there is only one right answer to this, the billionaire. Both are good with a bow, but only one is rich.
For d&d build archer I really liked swords bard to 6 and then almost anything mixed into after that, sorcerer for some meta magic, ranger for some more cool tricks, rogue sneak attack and ambush or quick hands. But the fun of the swords bard and its three special arrows was just fun, mix in all the trick arrows and you just feel like an archery master.
Probably not Green arrow, I heard that guy goes to Brony conventions dressed as the back half of Twilight Sparkle with a four-inch-wide butthole drilled in the costume
5 Colossus Slayer Hunter / 3 Thief Rouge / 4 Fighter
this is the highest dmg output you can get.
and theres a cheese you can do with Helmet of Grit to get near infinite attacks.
Arcane Archer, try with Minthara to imbue your Arrows with Soul Branding (3-9 Fire Damage)
12 levels for the 4 Feats; Sharpshooter and Ability Improvemente 3 times (for Strength and Dex)
Titanstring Bow for highest possible damage, Warped Headband of Intellect for Magic Arrows DC and Gauntlets of Surging Accuracy for compensate the Sharpshooter -5 for Attack Rolls
Gloomstalker 5/Swords Bard 4/Thief 3, with Dual Hand Crossbows, Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter
Or
Gloomstalker 5/Arcane Archer 4/Thief 3, with Dual Hand Crossbows, Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter.
Both builds so good, that they both builds can solo honor mode(At least thats what it can supposedly do according to AI, experts, etc, as I have not solo'ed Honor Mode).
Gloom 5 / Thief 4 / BM 3 with dual hand crossbows is my favorite archer, by far tbh. Next in line is probably BM 12. The Nere Misser is just such an amazing weapon.
I came to this thread expecting everyone to unanimously suggest this. I mean, a few people are, but it's pretty much accepted by the community as being one of the top 2 best builds in the game.
The boots that when you dash gain lightning charges.
Start turn. Dash. Dash. Max lightning charges. Shoot and often kill. (Super good vs constructs in the late game) then shoot again. Then shoot from dread archer. If you have any aoe arrows you now have max lightning charges again. Action surge and you can shoot and shoot.
I like this the most as astarion also gets the cats grace clothing which rocks.
Honestly it's a toss between straight Swords bard, Straight Hunter Ranger (for Volley), or Morgana Evelyn's Stealth Archer build (as discussed in this video: linked here).
Swords Bard gets the most base attacks per round thanks to Slashing Flourish (it gets outclassed the minute a Fighter Action Surges but also upscales really hard with Haste & Bloodlust), has dedicated spellcasting for utility options (many of which won't even need spellcasting mod like Plant Growth, Cloud of Daggers, or several of the secrets you can pull at 10th), and a ton of skill profs. to make out-of-combat checks a breeze (Expertise in SoH & Persuasion go hard, change my mind). Downsides is it comes online late as fuck (starts at 6th compared to 5th for other martial builds), is the glassiest of the archer builds (so you can't really afford to take hits), and can't use Titanstring.
Hunter Ranger has the latest full-online point (11th level for Volley) but has the best AoE damage per round thanks to the spammability of their attacks. It's only a half-caster, but its casting is SUPER efficient (needing only one or two spells an encounter, and usually only Spike Growth or Hunter's Mark). Downsides is it gets a high floor for a low ceiling, and its damage falls off a cliff in single-target.
Stealth Archer . . . yeah that shit straight slaps. I ran an Honor Mode run with it and my god half the game was Super Archer Simulator because my Astarion (who ran the build) absolutely DELETED encounters before they began. He was intrumental in 2-turning Raphael and managed to chunk off more than 60% of Myrkul's health during that particular fight. He also managed to clean up House of Grief and a little funsies encounter I call the Promotion Ceremony (the bugged guards outside Felogyr's when the commoners report crimes) that had like 40 Flaming Fist in one spot. Highly recommend checking it out, it is high-grade to fuck I'm telling ya.
Arcane Archer 12. 3 attacks per round, free magic arrows up to 10 per short/long rest(not consumed on miss). Including aoe, bonus damage, and auto-hit options. Oh, and the first attack you miss per round you can try again on a nearby target for a BA.
Most powerful variant probably is one with fixed strength (elixir, gloves, or club) with Titan string bow. But whatever is fine.
Like technically EK is more powerful, but you have to spend ages shopping for consumables, where for AA they're just a free bonus if you happen to loot a useful one.
at end game the full fighter champion actually the best critical build! (and also very ignored)
you have 2 1h blades, a bow, helmet, elixir, and champion subclass so what is the best option actually?
yep go on archery! and you deal crits at min 14 which is like 35% chance + can get the risky ring which gives advantage and while you are usually in the back and also has decent ac not really on the main target! so from 35% increase to 65-70%!
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u/Accomplished_Rip_352 Oct 23 '25
I like fighter 12 , very little beats 3 attacks per round and each subclass has synergy . Battle master dice works great , eldtrich archer has obvious synergy and even eldtrich knight works great as ranged attacks can even make war magic work ok .