Ranger vs Fighter for an archer

[Eckoh]

im leaning ranger but i am hearing that ranger damage falls off in later levels.. is this true or just BS or unkown

[Sraalok]

You could play with multi classing later in the game, but until then it's generally a role playing option.

[[Heretic]Rivga]

Originally posted by jwinslow003:

im leaning ranger but i am hearing that ranger damage falls off in later levels.. is this true or just BS or unkown

Larian has change Ranger from the TT version, but until we see what they have done with later levels it is hard to say.

[BlueBawlz]

gloom stalk with assassin. or gloom stalk and champion. depends if you want crits or sneak attacks i think champion will be better because it give more feats and the increased crits give better long term sustain over opening burst and the extra attack, heal, surge. also you could gloom stalk and war clearic for ranged divine spells like a stealthily arcane archer with huge damage (examples spirt weapons, guardian ect) lots of damage and utility plus heavy armor

[DeportedFetus]

Gloomstalker sword college bard

[sevensided]

Battlemaster 11/ War Domain Cleric 1 with Sharpshooter feat using a longbow is going to be your highest consistent damage archer in BG3. Take archery fighting style, use bless, and keep sharpshooter on, and that's 4d8 +40 damage + whatever superiority dice you decide to use each turn (and the effects of your battle maneuvers), or 7d8 + 70 and sup dice if you action surge. (Limited by your wisdom bonus per long rest- its 3d8 +30 otherwise)

This assumes Larian hews close to the books for War Domain. This is what I will probably do with Lazael if you can rejigger their stats.

Gloomstalker + Assassin will trump it in the first round (and in a big way), but if anything survives that first round, you won't do nearly as much as the Battlemaster/Cleric.

[Zangetsu]

Ranger doesnt really have a lvl 11 dpr powerspike. They get decent single target target with hunters mark and sometimes subclass features and lvl 5 extra attack. But they dont have action surge. I would say 3 attacks at lvl 11 fighter is better then most subclass features for ranger at lvl 11. But we dont know how exactly BG3 will handle it there is a lot of homebrew.

In short rangers are pretty frontloaded and fall off yes

[Zangetsu]

Originally posted by sevensided:

Battlemaster 11/ War Domain Cleric 1 with Sharpshooter feat using a longbow is going to be your highest consistent damage archer in BG3. Take archery fighting style, use bless, and keep sharpshooter on, and that's 4d8 +40 damage + whatever superiority dice you decide to use each turn (and the effects of your battle maneuvers), or 7d8 + 70 and sup dice if you action surge. (Limited by your wisdom bonus per long rest- its 3d8 +30 otherwise)

This assumes Larian hews close to the books for War Domain. This is what I will probably do with Lazael if you can rejigger their stats.

Gloomstalker + Assassin will trump it in the first round (and in a big way), but if anything survives that first round, you won't do nearly as much as the Battlemaster/Cleric.

What do you get from cleric 1? Bless? Thats an action and just have shadowfart do it

[Beavor]

Originally posted by Zangetsu:

Originally posted by sevensided:

Battlemaster 11/ War Domain Cleric 1 with Sharpshooter feat using a longbow is going to be your highest consistent damage archer in BG3. Take archery fighting style, use bless, and keep sharpshooter on, and that's 4d8 +40 damage + whatever superiority dice you decide to use each turn (and the effects of your battle maneuvers), or 7d8 + 70 and sup dice if you action surge. (Limited by your wisdom bonus per long rest- its 3d8 +30 otherwise)

This assumes Larian hews close to the books for War Domain. This is what I will probably do with Lazael if you can rejigger their stats.

Gloomstalker + Assassin will trump it in the first round (and in a big way), but if anything survives that first round, you won't do nearly as much as the Battlemaster/Cleric.

What do you get from cleric 1? Bless? Thats an action and just have shadowfart do it

War domain clerics can make an attack using their bonus action. That's where the 4th (7th if action surging) attack comes from.

[sevensided]

Originally posted by Zangetsu:

Originally posted by sevensided:

Battlemaster 11/ War Domain Cleric 1 with Sharpshooter feat using a longbow is going to be your highest consistent damage archer in BG3. Take archery fighting style, use bless, and keep sharpshooter on, and that's 4d8 +40 damage + whatever superiority dice you decide to use each turn (and the effects of your battle maneuvers), or 7d8 + 70 and sup dice if you action surge. (Limited by your wisdom bonus per long rest- its 3d8 +30 otherwise)

This assumes Larian hews close to the books for War Domain. This is what I will probably do with Lazael if you can rejigger their stats.

Gloomstalker + Assassin will trump it in the first round (and in a big way), but if anything survives that first round, you won't do nearly as much as the Battlemaster/Cleric.

What do you get from cleric 1? Bless? Thats an action and just have shadowfart do it

War domain clerics let you take a bonus action attack whenever you use the attack action (a number of times equal to your wisdom bonus per long rest). As this isn't limited to light weapons, ie, you can be using a long bow or two handed sword, and that level 11 fighter instead of making just 3 attacks with either can make 4, and still apply the bonus damage from Sharpshooter or GWM. Bless is honestly just icing, and if you have another character use it, you can use divine favor for an extra 1d4 per attack of damage.

[Edstyles]

Why not combine all 3 haha. Go the Hunter route for colusus slayer plus action surge plus cleric

Action surge is only 2 levels

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Depends on how you build your rangers, but ranger has something fighter doesnt and that is the ability to offer support with their spells on top of being a ranger, as they have sub classes that offer different kinds of output, you could have a pet which offers not only a potential meat shield and wasted enemy turns but skills that make them valuable in many situations, you can also get some nifty ways to handle or deal extra damage to nearby foes after attacking like the hordge slayer perk? triat? whatever its called the ranger gets it, or it can focus on single targets if you have that covered in your party.

The fighter overall is a fighter and yes will do more damage as it is a fighter, but it will lack some versatility the ranger has but its hard to beat the extra damage alone that superiority dice offer on top of their effects. fighter is a pure fighter, ranger is a half caster so fighter will always output more raw damage.

[sevensided]

Originally posted by Edstiles:

Why not combine all 3 haha. Go the Hunter route for colusus slayer plus action surge plus cleric

Action surge is only 2 levels

You lose an attack if you add anything else to the fighter + 1 level of war domain cleric, and that plus superiority dice from battle Master is better than anything from hunter.


Outside of gloom + assassin, you go ranger not for pure damage, but to have the utility of ranger spells and features ( or a honking strong pet)

[Eckoh]

lol i just remembered all the OTHER stuff rangers get... like all the skills, they are a very effective skill monkey as i have not been running a rogue. So that alone kinda kills the fighter outside of combat. Still a Drow Archer ranger just fits.