Which class to play with a bow ?

[Bloodonmoon]

Here is the thing : I like to play from afar, with my bow. And all my playthrough have been with ranger so far because he seemed to be the only viable class to play mainly on bow.
But I know nothing about D&D classes, so I wanted to ask you guys if there were other classes that could be bow oriented ?

Thanks ! :)

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Cirrus:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pan Darius Kairos:

Ranger, Thief, Fighter and Druid all make good archers.

What kind of route makes druid good archer? They do not have proficency from class, no second attack, no boost to that one attack…Or do they?

Wood Elf Druid. Buff yourself with Longstrider and get Crusher's Ring and then take the Mobile feat for maximum movement speed. Maybe grab the Helm of Haste and Boots of Speed too.

Then cast Spike Growth on the ground and snipe all the melee enemies who try to cross it. If any get through, Thunderwave them back. Just for fun, you can also use Thorn Whip or Thunderwave to drag enemies across Spike Growth, cheese grating their face.

The bow is also good for hitting ranged attackers who won't approach your Spike Growths.

Alternatively, you can use stealth and Moonbeam to inflict extra damage, shooting your bow on turns you don't need to move the Moonbeam.

[Starwight/ttv]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WeenerTuck813:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Starwight/ttv:

LOL yeah, I am certainly no min maxer, so I'm right there with you. I just very distinctly remember one of my particularly devilish rogues in a campaign completely destroying what was supposed to be a somewhat challenging encounter. It sticks out in my mind.

So does the bugbear monk I allowed. 10 foot reach, miltiattack with flurry of blows. Yep. That was neat.

Rogues can pop off if they get a crit on a sneak attack, because the crit doubles all their die (sneak attack die included.

So later on when you’re shooting for 1d10+5 and your sneak attack is like 5d6 suddenly you crit and it’s
2d10+5+10d6 and the monster is dead ez pz

Yep, that is exactly what made my encounter so trivial. I sort of failed to account for my rogues incredible ability to hide. Plus she was a halfling so she was able to use a larger creature as cover to hide behind.

[WeenerTuck813]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Starwight/ttv:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WeenerTuck813:

Rogues can pop off if they get a crit on a sneak attack, because the crit doubles all their die (sneak attack die included.

So later on when you’re shooting for 1d10+5 and your sneak attack is like 5d6 suddenly you crit and it’s
2d10+5+10d6 and the monster is dead ez pz

Yep, that is exactly what made my encounter so trivial. I sort of failed to account for my rogues incredible ability to hide. Plus she was a halfling so she was able to use a larger creature as cover to hide behind.

Rogues are certainly a very viable archer option. They’re just centered around maneuverability, hiding, sneaking, and a lot of strategy. If that’s your playstyle rogue is for you.

Fighters will give you the most straight forward consistent in combat damage with some utility in sup die

Hunters will be in between with spells, pets, etc etc

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WeenerTuck813:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Rusty ♥:

Oh, yeah, no doubt about that, I certainly wouldn't complain about the damage in my experience. What I meant I don't do theorycrafting to find out who's best. As long as it's good enough, it's good enough ^^

In actual 5e play, the typical “best” archer was a dex fighter. Especially when you started getting feats like sharpshooter and crossbow expert and dual wielding hand crossbows and stuff. They just get a ton of extra attacks and the feats make them really crazy IN COMBAT.

Then they came out with a Ranger subclass, I forget the name. Ghost hunter or something. It starts with a G. Those rangers do crazy damage early in a fight and then trail down later but their openers are crazy.

Rogues we’re always “good” archers in combat that were amazing IF you got a crit to double sneak attack die, but their real benefit was all the bonus actions, skills, expertise, and stealth. They did a lot of out-of-combat stuff and could use items, throw things, steal things, pick locks, etc etc

If you multiclass Rogue/Fighter and take Champion at Lv 3 Fighter and put the rest into Rogue, then you get a 15% of crit and a fighting style (Archery, duh), in addition to an Action Surge which just makes you that much more slippery. And then you take Sharpshooter and Skulker feats and just slay everything from the shadows.

[Starwight/ttv]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pan Darius Kairos:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WeenerTuck813:

In actual 5e play, the typical “best” archer was a dex fighter. Especially when you started getting feats like sharpshooter and crossbow expert and dual wielding hand crossbows and stuff. They just get a ton of extra attacks and the feats make them really crazy IN COMBAT.

Then they came out with a Ranger subclass, I forget the name. Ghost hunter or something. It starts with a G. Those rangers do crazy damage early in a fight and then trail down later but their openers are crazy.

Rogues we’re always “good” archers in combat that were amazing IF you got a crit to double sneak attack die, but their real benefit was all the bonus actions, skills, expertise, and stealth. They did a lot of out-of-combat stuff and could use items, throw things, steal things, pick locks, etc etc

If you multiclass Rogue/Fighter and take Champion at Lv 3 Fighter and put the rest into Rogue, then you get a 15% of crit and a fighting style (Archery, duh), in addition to an Action Surge which just makes you that much more slippery. And then you take Sharpshooter and Skulker feats and just slay everything from the shadows.

If I didn't know any better I'd swear I played at a virtual table with you at some point lmao

[Heu, Iterum Id Feci]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pan Darius Kairos:

If you multiclass Rogue/Fighter and take Champion at Lv 3 Fighter and put the rest into Rogue, then you get a 15% of crit and a fighting style (Archery, duh), in addition to an Action Surge which just makes you that much more slippery. And then you take Sharpshooter and Skulker feats and just slay everything from the shadows.

I still dislike multiclassing and most likely will not use it, but yeah getting fighter for action surge alone is a quite common combination.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WeenerTuck813:

Rogues we’re always “good” archers in combat that were amazing IF you got a crit to double sneak attack die, but their real benefit was all the bonus actions, skills, expertise, and stealth. They did a lot of out-of-combat stuff and could use items, throw things, steal things, pick locks, etc etc

And that's exactly what I like. I don't like just being a good fighter. I want tons of other stuff, too...
That's also why I very often end up as the "face" in the group...that is...if I occasionally get to play myself and don't have to dm....^^

[WeenerTuck813]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pan Darius Kairos:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WeenerTuck813:

In actual 5e play, the typical “best” archer was a dex fighter. Especially when you started getting feats like sharpshooter and crossbow expert and dual wielding hand crossbows and stuff. They just get a ton of extra attacks and the feats make them really crazy IN COMBAT.

Then they came out with a Ranger subclass, I forget the name. Ghost hunter or something. It starts with a G. Those rangers do crazy damage early in a fight and then trail down later but their openers are crazy.

Rogues we’re always “good” archers in combat that were amazing IF you got a crit to double sneak attack die, but their real benefit was all the bonus actions, skills, expertise, and stealth. They did a lot of out-of-combat stuff and could use items, throw things, steal things, pick locks, etc etc

If you multiclass Rogue/Fighter and take Champion at Lv 3 Fighter and put the rest into Rogue, then you get a 15% of crit and a fighting style (Archery, duh), in addition to an Action Surge which just makes you that much more slippery. And then you take Sharpshooter and Skulker feats and just slay everything from the shadows.

Yah that’s a fire build.

There’s a lot of multi class options.

My favorite table top archer I ever played was a full fighter, not multi classed. I built him with a backstory of him being a type of “witch hunter“ kinda like van helsing style, so he wore the cool duster jacket and pointy top hat and hid his face and he used a hand crossbow with the crossbow expert feet and just peppered enemies like a machine gun. My DM allowed me to reskin his hand crossbow into a handgun. Sharpshooter, archery fighting style, and he could just pump enemies with multiple attacks. They were only 1d6 per attack, but it was so much more than sneak attack die because each hit added all of my dex, bonus, damage, bonus, magic, weapon, bonus, and each hit allowed me to use another superiority die.

Like sure sneak attack might be 6d6 compared to my 4d6 3 attacks+Bonus action attack… but my 4 attacks got a Sharpshooter +10 and each attack got +5 from dex and +1 from a +1 weapon and 4 opportunities to add 1d8 from superiority die, and I could disarm x4, Frighten x4 etc etc

[Mosey]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pan Darius Kairos:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Cirrus:

What kind of route makes druid good archer? They do not have proficency from class, no second attack, no boost to that one attack…Or do they?

Wood Elf Druid. Buff yourself with Longstrider and get Crusher's Ring and then take the Mobile feat for maximum movement speed. Maybe grab the Helm of Haste and Boots of Speed too.

Don't listen to this guy, they don't know what they're talking about.