Hello friends! its me again. Sorry for the incoveniences, but could you help me with my battlemaster archer character. On our 2nd main campaign, our new DM make new magic weapons called "Templar Swords" so this would be given to our characters in the start of the campaign, our characters were 1st lvl. And these weapons have great powers, but if not unlocked first, the bearer of the weapon would suffer collateral damage after use power more greater than the unlocked one. Because of my naiveness i didn't pay attention of the clues my dm gave me when i sent him the whole information of my character. So I'm the responsible one of the mistakes i made. We build our characters using standard array. So i choose to be a battlemaster fighter and choose the base points like this:
Str: 15
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis:12
Char: 8
With Variant Human Race, because i misunderstand templar sword meaning and I made the mistake of not asking my DM what templar sword means i thought it literally means sword. A little context here: i named my character Kaus, like the brightiest star of the Sagittarius constellation, and in the list of the magical weapons my DM invented he made a magical bow named Sagittarius. So he told me, excited because of the name, and reasons behind it, of my character, that he have a weapon suited for the theme of the name of my character. Our DMs are very kind and always hear our questions and help us with everything, so thats why i insist, that this mistakes are my responsability for not taking time to ask my DM friend if sword literally mean sword in the generic name of the magical weapons. So i decided to use the AbS of Variant Human race in Str and Dex, and take the Heavy Armor Master feat. So the final Ability Scores are like follows:
Str: 17
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 0
Wis: 12
Char: 8
Feat: Heavy Armor Master (another mistake, it would be better Crossbow Expert or Sharpshooter)
Skill Prof with Ver. Human: Perception
Languages: Common, Sylvan
Background: Soldier
Skill Prof with Background: Athletics and Intimidation
Class: Fighter Subclass (when we reached level 3): Battlemaster)
Skills Prof choosen with Class: Acrobatics and Insight.
Fighting Style: Defense (another mistake i made, it would be better Archery)
When i reached level 3 i choose Battle Master Subclass and chose this maneuvers:
Precision Attack.
Disarmig Strike.
Riposte.
Because when we were given our magical weapons at 1st lvl, i started to concentrate in fix my mistakes so when i reached 4th level i took Crossbow Expert, there are many times that in our encounters enemies approach us very fast, i have a battle with a druid, transformed in a big toad, at 5 ft, that toad followed me trought all the battle with the boss.
Powers in my Bow:
1st lvl True Strike Unlocked
2nd Flame Arrowa Locked
3rd Lightning Arrow Locked
4th Conjure Volley Locked
All the locked ones can be accesible and be used but after it, the character would suffer collateral and maybe permanent damage. I use the full power of this weapon, because of an emergency and my character got blinded about 10 days. Thanks to a magical doctor, it was reduced to 3 days.
So from here on, how could i optimize my character and be a good archer. Please Help. What do you suggest?
Have you tried asking your DM if you can re-build your character? Explain you didn't understand about the weapons and realize you made some bad choices, and see if he'll let you go for that.
If he does, rebuild with DEX your highest score. Sharpshooter is good. Is the weapon a longbow or a crossbow? If it is a longbow, I'd just be hesitant to take crossbow expert since only one of its features is useful if you're using a longbow (It's nice, but there are higher priorities). Your dex will be high enough that you might be just as well off wearing light armor, so ditch Heavy Armor Master. Battlemasters actually make fantastic archers, so you're good there. As as you've noticed, you'd be much better off with the archery style. Riposte isn't really doing you much, since it requires a melee weapon, so swap that out for something else, depending on your playstyle. Distracting strike can be great to help the melee types in your party, or better yet the party rogue, get advantage. Goading strike can be really cool for archers, especially when you use it against an enemy far away. Same with trip. Really, any of the battlemaster stuff that doesn't specifically call for a melee attack is great for an archer.
If he doesn't let you rebuild, and you have to continue on from where you are. I'd say just start putting your feats into DEX, at least the next two feats (level 6 and 8, it seems like), that's going to do you the most good. At level 7, when you gain a new maneuver, swap riposte for something that doesn't specify a melee weapon. At 12, then maybe go sharpshooter. At that point, you should have a good enough attack bonus that the -5 won't hurt you if and when you choose to take it. Or take more dex and save sharpshooter for 14. As an archer, you can never go wrong with dex. Around level 12, also, you may find that Heavy Armor Master doesn't do you much good anymore, since a lot (not all, but a lot) of enemies will either have magical attacks or do elemental damage. At that point, with a nice, high dex, you could look at switching to light armor, but that will depend a lot on what kinds of gear you have at that time.
Thank you, well, i decided not to cause any troubles for our DM, its possible that he may help in let me rebuild, but we are like six players, and i may put him in an awkard situation. So i decided to bear the consequences of my decisions and fix the issues with the developing of my character. Good point, im goint to take goading and menacing maneuver, at this point i have 6 ASIs, so 3 is going to be max lvl dex, and the other three for feats. Sharpshooter is a must and that leaves me with two ASIs. What do you suggest to take, magic initiate, sentinel, Great weapon, Pole Arm, Alert, or Prodigy?
By the way. Its posible to combine Flame Arrows and Conjure Volley, or Lightning Arrows with Conjure Volley?I have Action Surge. The first one have more probability to be aproved. I always launch my arrow with the magical bow, So if i take the arrow from the twelve ammo affected by the spell and launch it with the bow to do conjure volley. Lightning Arrow i think, its more complicated, because requires an attack roll. I read a comment from Jeremy Crowd that if one use Lightning Arrow with Conjure Volley, only one arrow would be the one with the lightning effect. And I think if its launched from the bow, but if it is saving throw, then lightning damage would be subjected to the saving throw succesion or failure. What do you think? I like the bow. The bow is a combination of a shortbow and a Longbow, it has the magical piercing damage of a shortbow (1d6) and the range of the longbow. I think Flame Arrows has more probability to be used with conjure volley. And the later if good but with the process Jeremy Crow explained.
For the feats you listed, great weapon, sentinel and polearm do nothing for you. You couldn’t use them while you have a bow equipped. With your stats, if you take magic initiate I’d pick one that gives spells to buff yourself or other utility spells. Your modifier will be low, so your spell attack rolls and save DCs would be poor. Alert and prodigy are decent all-purpose choices. Lucky is another one that can be fun.
For your questions about the bow, it seems like a homebrew thing your DM made up, (it might not be, it might just be something I’m unfamiliar with) so I’m not really sure how it works. You should check with you DM for questions and clarifications.
Just to add some flavour to the Battle Master Archer Fighter. Make the Race Owlin. CONTROL THE SKYS PEOPLE!!!!!!! Think about it. Enchant your Light Crossbow with Directional Wind (this doubles the distance of the weapon) You can already see at 120’ at night, you are now the perfect ‘silent’ sniper. Or during the day you can strafe your enemies from beyond their firing range. Plus your Arrows or Bolts can be boosted to deliver a payload of your choice.
Any way on a more sane note I’m having difficulty trying figure out how to apply superiority dice in the attack sequence. Sorry but 5e rules are turning my 1e brain upside down till I catch-up.
Hello friends! its me again. Sorry for the incoveniences, but could you help me with my battlemaster archer character. On our 2nd main campaign, our new DM make new magic weapons called "Templar Swords" so this would be given to our characters in the start of the campaign, our characters were 1st lvl. And these weapons have great powers, but if not unlocked first, the bearer of the weapon would suffer collateral damage after use power more greater than the unlocked one. Because of my naiveness i didn't pay attention of the clues my dm gave me when i sent him the whole information of my character. So I'm the responsible one of the mistakes i made. We build our characters using standard array. So i choose to be a battlemaster fighter and choose the base points like this:
Str: 15
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis:12
Char: 8
With Variant Human Race, because i misunderstand templar sword meaning and I made the mistake of not asking my DM what templar sword means i thought it literally means sword. A little context here: i named my character Kaus, like the brightiest star of the Sagittarius constellation, and in the list of the magical weapons my DM invented he made a magical bow named Sagittarius. So he told me, excited because of the name, and reasons behind it, of my character, that he have a weapon suited for the theme of the name of my character. Our DMs are very kind and always hear our questions and help us with everything, so thats why i insist, that this mistakes are my responsability for not taking time to ask my DM friend if sword literally mean sword in the generic name of the magical weapons. So i decided to use the AbS of Variant Human race in Str and Dex, and take the Heavy Armor Master feat. So the final Ability Scores are like follows:
Str: 17
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 0
Wis: 12
Char: 8
Feat: Heavy Armor Master (another mistake, it would be better Crossbow Expert or Sharpshooter)
Skill Prof with Ver. Human: Perception
Languages: Common, Sylvan
Background: Soldier
Skill Prof with Background: Athletics and Intimidation
Class: Fighter Subclass (when we reached level 3): Battlemaster)
Skills Prof choosen with Class: Acrobatics and Insight.
Fighting Style: Defense (another mistake i made, it would be better Archery)
When i reached level 3 i choose Battle Master Subclass and chose this maneuvers:
Precision Attack.
Disarmig Strike.
Riposte.
Because when we were given our magical weapons at 1st lvl, i started to concentrate in fix my mistakes so when i reached 4th level i took Crossbow Expert, there are many times that in our encounters enemies approach us very fast, i have a battle with a druid, transformed in a big toad, at 5 ft, that toad followed me trought all the battle with the boss.
Powers in my Bow:
1st lvl True Strike Unlocked
2nd Flame Arrowa Locked
3rd Lightning Arrow Locked
4th Conjure Volley Locked
All the locked ones can be accesible and be used but after it, the character would suffer collateral and maybe permanent damage. I use the full power of this weapon, because of an emergency and my character got blinded about 10 days. Thanks to a magical doctor, it was reduced to 3 days.
So from here on, how could i optimize my character and be a good archer. Please Help. What do you suggest?
Have you tried asking your DM if you can re-build your character? Explain you didn't understand about the weapons and realize you made some bad choices, and see if he'll let you go for that.
If he does, rebuild with DEX your highest score. Sharpshooter is good. Is the weapon a longbow or a crossbow? If it is a longbow, I'd just be hesitant to take crossbow expert since only one of its features is useful if you're using a longbow (It's nice, but there are higher priorities). Your dex will be high enough that you might be just as well off wearing light armor, so ditch Heavy Armor Master. Battlemasters actually make fantastic archers, so you're good there. As as you've noticed, you'd be much better off with the archery style. Riposte isn't really doing you much, since it requires a melee weapon, so swap that out for something else, depending on your playstyle. Distracting strike can be great to help the melee types in your party, or better yet the party rogue, get advantage. Goading strike can be really cool for archers, especially when you use it against an enemy far away. Same with trip. Really, any of the battlemaster stuff that doesn't specifically call for a melee attack is great for an archer.
If he doesn't let you rebuild, and you have to continue on from where you are. I'd say just start putting your feats into DEX, at least the next two feats (level 6 and 8, it seems like), that's going to do you the most good. At level 7, when you gain a new maneuver, swap riposte for something that doesn't specify a melee weapon. At 12, then maybe go sharpshooter. At that point, you should have a good enough attack bonus that the -5 won't hurt you if and when you choose to take it. Or take more dex and save sharpshooter for 14. As an archer, you can never go wrong with dex. Around level 12, also, you may find that Heavy Armor Master doesn't do you much good anymore, since a lot (not all, but a lot) of enemies will either have magical attacks or do elemental damage. At that point, with a nice, high dex, you could look at switching to light armor, but that will depend a lot on what kinds of gear you have at that time.
Thank you, well, i decided not to cause any troubles for our DM, its possible that he may help in let me rebuild, but we are like six players, and i may put him in an awkard situation. So i decided to bear the consequences of my decisions and fix the issues with the developing of my character. Good point, im goint to take goading and menacing maneuver, at this point i have 6 ASIs, so 3 is going to be max lvl dex, and the other three for feats. Sharpshooter is a must and that leaves me with two ASIs. What do you suggest to take, magic initiate, sentinel, Great weapon, Pole Arm, Alert, or Prodigy?
By the way. Its posible to combine Flame Arrows and Conjure Volley, or Lightning Arrows with Conjure Volley?I have Action Surge. The first one have more probability to be aproved. I always launch my arrow with the magical bow, So if i take the arrow from the twelve ammo affected by the spell and launch it with the bow to do conjure volley. Lightning Arrow i think, its more complicated, because requires an attack roll. I read a comment from Jeremy Crowd that if one use Lightning Arrow with Conjure Volley, only one arrow would be the one with the lightning effect. And I think if its launched from the bow, but if it is saving throw, then lightning damage would be subjected to the saving throw succesion or failure. What do you think? I like the bow. The bow is a combination of a shortbow and a Longbow, it has the magical piercing damage of a shortbow (1d6) and the range of the longbow. I think Flame Arrows has more probability to be used with conjure volley. And the later if good but with the process Jeremy Crow explained.
For the feats you listed, great weapon, sentinel and polearm do nothing for you. You couldn’t use them while you have a bow equipped.
With your stats, if you take magic initiate I’d pick one that gives spells to buff yourself or other utility spells. Your modifier will be low, so your spell attack rolls and save DCs would be poor.
Alert and prodigy are decent all-purpose choices. Lucky is another one that can be fun.
For your questions about the bow, it seems like a homebrew thing your DM made up, (it might not be, it might just be something I’m unfamiliar with) so I’m not really sure how it works. You should check with you DM for questions and clarifications.
Thanks.
Just to add some flavour to the Battle Master Archer Fighter. Make the Race Owlin. CONTROL THE SKYS PEOPLE!!!!!!! Think about it. Enchant your Light Crossbow with Directional Wind (this doubles the distance of the weapon) You can already see at 120’ at night, you are now the perfect ‘silent’ sniper. Or during the day you can strafe your enemies from beyond their firing range. Plus your Arrows or Bolts can be boosted to deliver a payload of your choice.
Any way on a more sane note I’m having difficulty trying figure out how to apply superiority dice in the attack sequence. Sorry but 5e rules are turning my 1e brain upside down till I catch-up.