I am currently playing as a level 8 Wood Elf Fighter, Battle Master with the Archery fighting style.
Str - 16 Dex - 20 Con - 14 Int - 13 Wis - 15 Cha - 9
I'm considering multiclassing into something else, but not sure what would work best or if I should just continue on down the Fighter route all the way?
Storywise, my character is now the proud owner of a library in town which is what made me consider changing it up.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with a pure ranged Battlemaster: more levels of Battlemaster get you the ability to reroll an important save (at 9), more maneuvers (at 10), larger superiority dice (at 10), attacks per Attack action (at 11), and feats (at 12 and 14). Battlemasters are good, accurate ranged Battlemasters are even better, and there's no need for you to multiclass out of Fighter.
That said? By Fighter 8, you've got the core Battlemaster tricks covered. If you want to branch out, you certainly can do so. You could:
Take some levels in Bloodhunter, to pick up another Fighting Style (see if Superior Technique is available), bonus Crimson Rite damage on all your attacks, and some misc. supernatural features like Blood Maledict and Brand of Castigation. Mutant would be a good subclass for you, because the Celerity brew can bring your Dex up to 23 for better attacks... or Profane Soul might be a good subclass, giving you some minor spellcasting features (try to avoid spells that need your spellcasting modifier to hit or save though). The Archfey patron in particular would help an Archer (enemies hit by your rite damage glow, and can't benefit from cover or being invisible), though that's probably redundant with the Sharpshooter feat you likely already have. The Undying patron (regain hit points when you kill enemies with weapon attacks) would potentially heal you up a lot, too.
Take some levels in Rogue, to pick up Cunning Action for bonus action Hiding, which is useful for a ranged attacker who has the option of ducking behind cover at the end of their turn. Mastermind (bonus action Help from 30 feet away for your allies) would also fit very well with the Battlemaster. Or, Arcane Trickster, to play into your newfound library ownership and interest in books (but again, steer clear of spells that need your Intelligence modifier to attack or force a save, focus on utility and defensive spells). Scout is also quite useful for an archer, since it lets you run away as a Reaction at the end of the turn when an enemy gets in your face, along with handing out proficiency and Expertise in Nature and Survival.
Ranger is obviously an option, and again gives another Fighting Style. Gloomstalker is popular for making you a more effective opener in every combat with an extra attack and extra damage. Being invisible against darkvision is pretty powerful as well, it basically means you have Advantage on all your attacks when in regular darkness at night or underground! Monster Slayer feels like the most "bookish" of the subclasses, it could be a good option as well.
Monk is a viable choice, actually? Being a Kensei lets you use a Bonus Action each round to make all your attacks do 1d4 more damage, making you a little better of an archer... but you also get powerful melee attack rotations when you're caught in melee without your bow. Along with better speed, wall running, arrow catching, etc etc etc... Way of Shadow would also help you be a lot more mobile in combat and give you great scouting spells that are cast with Ki, which could be very powerful for an archer. Dex+Wisdom based AC looks like it could potentially be great for you, if you don't mind bumping Wisdom with future feats like Resilient (Wis), Telekinetic, or Fey or Shadow Touched.
Story wise (but not necessarily optimized), as the owner of a library, I'd go with the following:
Warlock - Pact of the Tome ( too bad CHA is your dump stat)
Bard - College of Lore (see above re CHA)
Cleric - Knowledge Domain (best option so far, stat wise, seems like a bit of a stretch story wise, unless you're realllllly into those books)
Rogue - Inquisitive (now we're getting interesting... stat-wise and story-wise. This can work very well mechanically with your ranged attacks, as well)
Wizard - take your pick (meh. It works story-wise, but...)
Personally, I'd double down on ranged damage dealing, and go with the Rogue. You add skill versatility (make sure that you focus on Lore-related), increased damage, and all of the other Rogue abilities. Combined with your Battlemaster/Archery abilities, that's an interesting and fun character.
For Rogue and the bonus action hiding, Wood Elves love to hide. However, there are those moments when you just can't do it and you really want to get advantage on an attack. What should you do? Level 3 gives you your rogue subclass, but it also gives Steady Aim. As long as you don't move during your turn, you can use a bonus action to get advantage on your next attack. This ensures that you will be able to activate Sneak Attack when you need to do so and also helps you to land those Sharpshooter power attacks. Anything else that you want to pump into that one attack, you can do. Additionally, it plays nice with Elven Accuracy feat.
I am currently playing as a level 8 Wood Elf Fighter, Battle Master with the Archery fighting style.
Str - 16 Dex - 20 Con - 14 Int - 13 Wis - 15 Cha - 9
I'm considering multiclassing into something else, but not sure what would work best or if I should just continue on down the Fighter route all the way?
Storywise, my character is now the proud owner of a library in town which is what made me consider changing it up.
Well, for starters you can't multiclass into the CHA classes, which settles that nicely. You're also somehow S16 despite being an archer, so you should commit to finding and wearing plate armor, if you haven't already. That makes Barbarian, Druid, and Monk immediately uninteresting, and also reduces the usefulness of Rogue. That leaves... Ranger, Cleric, Wizard, and Artificer. Of those, Wizard is probably the least interesting - your S is too high and your I too low to make most builds I can think of any fun. The remaining three are where I'd send you:
*Battlemaster 11/Gloom Stalker (Ranger) 3 is the basic skeleton of, so far as I know, the strongest combat opener in the game, generating 8 attacks base (9 with Crossbow Expert, but you'll usually want your bonus action for Hunter's Mark). Gloom Stalkers are invisible to anything that needs darkvision to see them, helping to mitigate how bad you are at stealth. This is normally then mixed with Assassin 3, and you can level up any of the three classes by 1 for an ASI/feat. I believe the original build gives up one of the three feats for Gloom Stalker 5 to have L2 Ranger spells. The goal is to win combats turn 1 and then you'll generally need a short rest as all your bm dice are gone.
*Clerics get their subclasses at level 1, making them absolutely stellar for single-level dips if you have the Wisdom to be allowed to. It's fairly trivial to stick to spells that don't care about your Wisdom modifier, like Bless and Guidance, and with a little hunting you can find domains that either don't care about Wisdom modifier and class level, or care very little. For example, both the Twilight and Peace domains have L1 abilities that operate at full strength out the gate, ignoring both your number of cleric levels and your Wisdom modifier.
*Artificer's biggest draw for you is probably the Repeating Shot infusion, the only way in the game I know of to get a shield and hand crossbow pairing working properly. That'll get you +1 to hit and damage with the hand crossbow (and reloading despite carrying a shield) by level 2, along with a second infusion you'll probably spend on a bag of holding or +1 AC. Keep leveling to 3, and the biggest draw is probably the Armorer subclass; you can use it to make your full plate grant Advantage on Stealth Checks (it'll still grant Disadvantage, so you'll just roll normally), and you'll be faster in it. You'll also have a chest-mounted lightning gun which deals 1d6 damage, +1d6 1/round, meaning you can shoot with it during your attack action and then once with your hand crossbow.
I don't see how having a high strength makes Monk "uninteresting," any more than having Dex 20 makes plate a poor choice. If I had 17 AC in studded leather and was an archer, I really doubt I'd put on Plate for 18.
If I was in their shoes, I'd probably stick with Battlemaster (assuming already have Sharpshooter... taking Martial Adept at 12, Fighting Initiate-Superior Technique at 14, Resilient (Wis) or Telekinetic (Wis) at 16, and Tough or Lucky or Elven Accuracy (Int or Cha) at 19). That would lead to having 8 d12 superiority dice (which refresh on short rests), and knowing 13 12 of the 23 maneuvers.
There's really no configuration of bonus d6's from ranger or bloodhunter or rogue levels that will match the static +10 damage on hits that you get from Sharpshooter and more attacks per Attack, so having 8 dice available per short rest to nudge misses up to hits with precision attack... that's a pretty big damage boost.
There's also really no configuration of spellcaster levels that are going to give you better battlefield control than those maneuvers can represent, since your spellcasting modifiers are never going to reach 20.
Why Plate? Getting Half Plate or studded leather with that max dex is only one AC off. You can get Medium Armor Master to make Half Plate the same AC as Plate and not have disadvantage on stealth rolls. If you are trying to do the Gloom Stalker build, it's much better since it will allow you to get the drop on the enemy easier.
The character doesn't really need more stats, though getting a +1 in intelligence and Wisdom would make those modifiers go up. As such, getting feats that increase damage with ranged weapons like Sharpshooter, increase stealth or initiative bonuses (like medium armor master if using medium armor and worried about AC, perhaps Skulker for the thematics, or Alert for the initiative bonus) would help you to get the drop on enemies and allow you to stack up damage before they even know that you are there. If feats aren't allowed in your campaign, I'd probably do the split as mentioned and then boost either Wisdom or Constitution (or Intelligence if you MC into one of those classes).
Why Plate? Getting Half Plate or studded leather with that max dex is only one AC off. You can get Medium Armor Master to make Half Plate the same AC as Plate and not have disadvantage on stealth rolls. If you are trying to do the Gloom Stalker build, it's much better since it will allow you to get the drop on the enemy easier.
The character doesn't really need more stats, though getting a +1 in intelligence and Wisdom would make those modifiers go up. As such, getting feats that increase damage with ranged weapons like Sharpshooter, increase stealth or initiative bonuses (like medium armor master if using medium armor and worried about AC, perhaps Skulker for the thematics, or Alert for the initiative bonus) would help you to get the drop on enemies and allow you to stack up damage before they even know that you are there. If feats aren't allowed in your campaign, I'd probably do the split as mentioned and then boost either Wisdom or Constitution (or Intelligence if you MC into one of those classes).
I should point out that the best single facet of Skulker, hiding in dim light, overlaps with the Wood Elf racial, which allows you to hide in natural dim light (such as almost all darkness, if you're being looked at with darkvision). Medium Armor Mastery is really expensive - spending an entire feat on AC 18/full Stealth when the character already has access to his choice of 17/full Stealth and 18/Disadvantage is kind of nuts. For the same feat, Lucky will turn the plate stealth into super-advantage 3/day, or you can use it on something else. And either way his next feat is 4 levels away at the earliest.
Meanwhile, knowing 13 of the 23 maneuvers is both impossible (the subclass learns 3-5-7-9, Martial Adept takes you to 11, Superior Technique takes you to 12) and inadvisable, since so many of the techniques are functionally redundant or not worth the price of admission. Battlemaster is good, but the technique scaling is only impressive up to L7 - the L10 upgrade is nice, but L8, L11, and L12 are the big sellers in that level range for the fighter. And there's no good reason not to wear the plate right now - without Cunning Action from Rogue, it's not generally credible for him to have the action economy to stay hidden.
You take Gloom Stalker for making 8 attacks (2 of which have +1d8, and all 8 of which have +1d6) as your opener, that's the core reason. That's 80 damage from Sharpshooter alone if every shot hits. You take Assassin for crits, which doesn't help Sharpshooter, but has excellent synergy with all of your damage dice. And that's just one build, I wasn't saying Gloom Stalker is the end-all be-all. Quite the opposite. I stand by my recommendations of Artificer and Cleric (probably Trickery or Twilight), as well. In OP's actual shoes I'd probably gun for Battlemaster 12 and then re-assess.
Oh, is Superior Technique only one maneuver? My bad, I thought it mirrored Martial Adept.
As an Archer, I would think the following maneuvers would be worth taking (not in this order). More than enough to choose from that having 12 to learn isn't overkill.
Ambush
Commander’s Strike
Commanding Presence
Disarming Attack
Distracting Strike
Evasive Footwork
Goading Attack
Maneuvering Attack
Menacing Attack
Parry
Precision Attack
Pushing Attack
Rally
Tactical Assessment
Trip Attack
And there's really no reason to multiclass ranger just for Hunter's Mark... if you want that in your rotation now and again, just take Fey Touched (+1 Wis) at 12 or 14 instead of Resilient (Wis) or Telekinetic.
Having actually played a Battlemaster / Gloomstalker / Assassin (with a level 1 dip in Twilight Cleric) to 19th level, I have to say that the Assassin's crit on surprise special ability came up a grand total of 1 time in several years of play. It just doesn't happen when you're travelling with a party. Plenty of advantage when you go first, but don't expect to surprise anyone on a regular basis... I'd suggest a different Rogue subclass for that build... personally, I think that Inquisitive brings much more to the table, and actually synergizes nicely with Battlemaster in regular play as opposed to crunching hypothetical numbers in a white room.
What are you wanting monk to do? If the fighter has medium or light armor, getting that wisdom up to 16 gives the player better AC (18) which is precisely the same as it would be with heavy armor, at least without a magical version and while wielding a bow. The AC can top off at 20 unarmored if the player wants to push wisdom to 20. Getting a bonus action attack with fists allows the player to get three attacks in during times when they have to be in melee, at a reasonable 7.5 average damage per attack if unarmed up to 9.5 average damage for the first two attacks and the 7.5 for the bonus action attack. No need to go two weapon fighting, no need to get the fighting style for the +5 from the bonus action attack. Can be done by drawing a d6 weapon while holding the bow in the other hand. OAs are now possible with the 7.5 damage instead of the 1+3=4 damage from unarmed strikes currently, should they be triggered while the player is holding a bow.
Getting Ki would allow the archer to bonus action dodge while still attacking or the elf could bonus action disengage or dash to get out of a pickle. Getting +10 to movement gets the wood elf up to 45 speed, which is enough to help them stay at an optimal range to attack while avoiding most melee attacks, especially with the dash options available. Oh, and Flurry of Blows, I guess.
Going Kensei would allow the Archer to still hold their bow while making melee attacks at 1d4+5 that would also trigger Agile Parry for an additional +2 AC, which could be done as a quasi-disengage to then move to attack with the bow. The melee weapon damage can now be as high as d10 with versatile weapons giving as much as 10.5 twice along with the 7.5 bonus attack. This would also allow for the 9.5 damage per weapon attack while also holding the bow. Yes the fighter gave them the proficiencies to do those weapon attacks, but monk gives the dexterity usage to non finesse weapons. Monk 2 could actually give the boost to d10 versatile thanks to dedicated weapon from Tasha's. Monk 3 also gives deflect missiles for those ranged attacks. This is where the Kensei shot for the bonus action 1d4 to ranged attacks comes in. Ki fueled attack comes in through Tasha's, should you want to make an unarmed attack with a bonus action while making your attacks from your attack action with your bow, as long as you spend a ki point during that action.
Monk 4 gives Slow Fall and more Ki. You also get Quickened Healing, which combined with Second Wind, gives you some decent healing reserves should you manage to take damage before having to dip into Hit Dice.
Monk 5 isn't as useless as many martial level 5s with an MC that already provides extra attack since it adds Stunning Strike and more ki. It also boosts your Martial Arts die from a d4 to a d6 making that the new damage floor for your attacks with monk weapons and unarmed strikes. You also get Focused Aim, which gives you a nice reserve of attack roll manipulation when coupled with Superiority Dice.
Monk 6 grants Ki Empowered Strikes, making those unarmed strikes magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances, a +5 movement boost to get the wood elf to 50 speed, more ki, and One with the Blade. Now any of your non magical weapons that are Kensei weapons are considered magical for overcoming resistance and immunity. You also have Deft Strike, allowing you do spend 1 ki point to deal extra damage equal to your marital arts die once per each of your turns.
Monk 7 gives Evasion to save for zero damage on half damage save spells targeting dexterity, stillness of mind for those instances when you become frightened or someone manages to squeeze in a charm effect through your advantage on saves against those, and more ki.
There is plenty there that can help out an archer build. It won't all be a good idea for every character concept, but I don't see anything in that package that says BM beware. You simply have to look at what you would be giving up. I do think that getting to Fighter 11 or 12 would be beneficial for the 3 attacks from the attack action and possibly another ASI, but even going all the way to monk 8 gives you the ability to go Fighter 12.
Oh, is Superior Technique only one maneuver? My bad, I thought it mirrored Martial Adept.
As an Archer, I would think the following maneuvers would be worth taking (not in this order). More than enough to choose from that having 12 to learn isn't overkill.
Ambush
Commander’s Strike
Commanding Presence
Disarming Attack
Distracting Strike
Evasive Footwork
Goading Attack
Maneuvering Attack
Menacing Attack
Parry
Precision Attack
Pushing Attack
Rally
Tactical Assessment
Trip Attack
And there's really no reason to multiclass ranger just for Hunter's Mark... if you want that in your rotation now and again, just take Fey Touched (+1 Wis) at 12 or 14 instead of Resilient (Wis) or Telekinetic.
Commanding Presence on a CHA 9 person is a terrible idea. Your dice are precious resources - better to spend them getting better at things you're already good at than to try and suck less at things you already suck at. Rally is less bad, but has the same issue. Tactical Assessment is less bad, granted, but it's still a pretty inefficient use of the dice. Ambush is very GM dependent - you'll run out of dice in nothing flat if you have the sort of GM who wants you to roll Stealth a lot when Stealthing. Ambush is much better when you're allowed to make one roll and keep it. It's always possible to learn more maneuvers, but these are the important ones for an archer:
Precision Attack: the best one in the list for an archer, learn this first.
If you have Crossbow Mastery and especially Elven Accuracy, you can also consider Feinting Attack. The 5 foot range sucks a lot, though.
Menacing Attack: also excellent, no notes, learn this.
In general, Goading Attack is Menacing Attack but worse - its use case is targets who are immune to the frightened condition, and it's on you figuring out when you're facing a target who's immune to frightened. Goading Attack is an ok backup, but it's not top priority.
Menacing Attack is also usually a better solution to extracting an ally than Maneuvering Attack, just because known maneuvers are finite. You can usually give Maneuvering Attack a miss.
Trip Attack: Radically better support for all of the melee in your party than Distracting Strike, often just a great choice for your final arrow. Depending on your situation, can be better than Menacing Attack. Phenomenal for knocking most flyers out of the sky.
Don't take Pushing Attack or Disarming Attack - far too situational, especially since your target can pick up whatever it dropped as a free action on its turn, and most melee weapon wielders (the ones who mind dropping the weapon as it nerfs their AoOs) have decent to excellent strength saves.
Commander's Strike/Distracting Strike: Drastically superior if there's a rogue in the party. Take these to offer excellent support to the party rogue.
If you have to choose between them, Commander's Strike is usually a lot better for rogues. Distracting Strike, however, can also be used to help spell attacks land. What you choose here depends heavily on party makeup.
Parry can protect you when things go south.
Don't learn Evasive Footwork unless you have too many maneuvers - Parry and Disengage are better things to plan around.
And now we've already reached Parry, which most of the time won't even come up for the Archer. Precision, Menacing, and Trip are just so good so often.
I am currently playing as a level 8 Wood Elf Fighter, Battle Master with the Archery fighting style.
Str - 16
Dex - 20
Con - 14
Int - 13
Wis - 15
Cha - 9
I'm considering multiclassing into something else, but not sure what would work best or if I should just continue on down the Fighter route all the way?
Storywise, my character is now the proud owner of a library in town which is what made me consider changing it up.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with a pure ranged Battlemaster: more levels of Battlemaster get you the ability to reroll an important save (at 9), more maneuvers (at 10), larger superiority dice (at 10), attacks per Attack action (at 11), and feats (at 12 and 14). Battlemasters are good, accurate ranged Battlemasters are even better, and there's no need for you to multiclass out of Fighter.
That said? By Fighter 8, you've got the core Battlemaster tricks covered. If you want to branch out, you certainly can do so. You could:
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Story wise (but not necessarily optimized), as the owner of a library, I'd go with the following:
Personally, I'd double down on ranged damage dealing, and go with the Rogue. You add skill versatility (make sure that you focus on Lore-related), increased damage, and all of the other Rogue abilities. Combined with your Battlemaster/Archery abilities, that's an interesting and fun character.
Thanks guys, these are a great help.
For Rogue and the bonus action hiding, Wood Elves love to hide. However, there are those moments when you just can't do it and you really want to get advantage on an attack. What should you do? Level 3 gives you your rogue subclass, but it also gives Steady Aim. As long as you don't move during your turn, you can use a bonus action to get advantage on your next attack. This ensures that you will be able to activate Sneak Attack when you need to do so and also helps you to land those Sharpshooter power attacks. Anything else that you want to pump into that one attack, you can do. Additionally, it plays nice with Elven Accuracy feat.
Well, for starters you can't multiclass into the CHA classes, which settles that nicely. You're also somehow S16 despite being an archer, so you should commit to finding and wearing plate armor, if you haven't already. That makes Barbarian, Druid, and Monk immediately uninteresting, and also reduces the usefulness of Rogue. That leaves... Ranger, Cleric, Wizard, and Artificer. Of those, Wizard is probably the least interesting - your S is too high and your I too low to make most builds I can think of any fun. The remaining three are where I'd send you:
*Battlemaster 11/Gloom Stalker (Ranger) 3 is the basic skeleton of, so far as I know, the strongest combat opener in the game, generating 8 attacks base (9 with Crossbow Expert, but you'll usually want your bonus action for Hunter's Mark). Gloom Stalkers are invisible to anything that needs darkvision to see them, helping to mitigate how bad you are at stealth. This is normally then mixed with Assassin 3, and you can level up any of the three classes by 1 for an ASI/feat. I believe the original build gives up one of the three feats for Gloom Stalker 5 to have L2 Ranger spells. The goal is to win combats turn 1 and then you'll generally need a short rest as all your bm dice are gone.
*Clerics get their subclasses at level 1, making them absolutely stellar for single-level dips if you have the Wisdom to be allowed to. It's fairly trivial to stick to spells that don't care about your Wisdom modifier, like Bless and Guidance, and with a little hunting you can find domains that either don't care about Wisdom modifier and class level, or care very little. For example, both the Twilight and Peace domains have L1 abilities that operate at full strength out the gate, ignoring both your number of cleric levels and your Wisdom modifier.
*Artificer's biggest draw for you is probably the Repeating Shot infusion, the only way in the game I know of to get a shield and hand crossbow pairing working properly. That'll get you +1 to hit and damage with the hand crossbow (and reloading despite carrying a shield) by level 2, along with a second infusion you'll probably spend on a bag of holding or +1 AC. Keep leveling to 3, and the biggest draw is probably the Armorer subclass; you can use it to make your full plate grant Advantage on Stealth Checks (it'll still grant Disadvantage, so you'll just roll normally), and you'll be faster in it. You'll also have a chest-mounted lightning gun which deals 1d6 damage, +1d6 1/round, meaning you can shoot with it during your attack action and then once with your hand crossbow.
I don't see how having a high strength makes Monk "uninteresting," any more than having Dex 20 makes plate a poor choice. If I had 17 AC in studded leather and was an archer, I really doubt I'd put on Plate for 18.
If I was in their shoes, I'd probably stick with Battlemaster (assuming already have Sharpshooter... taking Martial Adept at 12, Fighting Initiate-Superior Technique at 14, Resilient (Wis) or Telekinetic (Wis) at 16, and Tough or Lucky or Elven Accuracy (Int or Cha) at 19). That would lead to having 8 d12 superiority dice (which refresh on short rests), and knowing
1312 of the 23 maneuvers.There's really no configuration of bonus d6's from ranger or bloodhunter or rogue levels that will match the static +10 damage on hits that you get from Sharpshooter and more attacks per Attack, so having 8 dice available per short rest to nudge misses up to hits with precision attack... that's a pretty big damage boost.
There's also really no configuration of spellcaster levels that are going to give you better battlefield control than those maneuvers can represent, since your spellcasting modifiers are never going to reach 20.
Battlemasters really already do it all.
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Why Plate? Getting Half Plate or studded leather with that max dex is only one AC off. You can get Medium Armor Master to make Half Plate the same AC as Plate and not have disadvantage on stealth rolls. If you are trying to do the Gloom Stalker build, it's much better since it will allow you to get the drop on the enemy easier.
The character doesn't really need more stats, though getting a +1 in intelligence and Wisdom would make those modifiers go up. As such, getting feats that increase damage with ranged weapons like Sharpshooter, increase stealth or initiative bonuses (like medium armor master if using medium armor and worried about AC, perhaps Skulker for the thematics, or Alert for the initiative bonus) would help you to get the drop on enemies and allow you to stack up damage before they even know that you are there. If feats aren't allowed in your campaign, I'd probably do the split as mentioned and then boost either Wisdom or Constitution (or Intelligence if you MC into one of those classes).
I should point out that the best single facet of Skulker, hiding in dim light, overlaps with the Wood Elf racial, which allows you to hide in natural dim light (such as almost all darkness, if you're being looked at with darkvision). Medium Armor Mastery is really expensive - spending an entire feat on AC 18/full Stealth when the character already has access to his choice of 17/full Stealth and 18/Disadvantage is kind of nuts. For the same feat, Lucky will turn the plate stealth into super-advantage 3/day, or you can use it on something else. And either way his next feat is 4 levels away at the earliest.
Meanwhile, knowing 13 of the 23 maneuvers is both impossible (the subclass learns 3-5-7-9, Martial Adept takes you to 11, Superior Technique takes you to 12) and inadvisable, since so many of the techniques are functionally redundant or not worth the price of admission. Battlemaster is good, but the technique scaling is only impressive up to L7 - the L10 upgrade is nice, but L8, L11, and L12 are the big sellers in that level range for the fighter. And there's no good reason not to wear the plate right now - without Cunning Action from Rogue, it's not generally credible for him to have the action economy to stay hidden.
You take Gloom Stalker for making 8 attacks (2 of which have +1d8, and all 8 of which have +1d6) as your opener, that's the core reason. That's 80 damage from Sharpshooter alone if every shot hits. You take Assassin for crits, which doesn't help Sharpshooter, but has excellent synergy with all of your damage dice. And that's just one build, I wasn't saying Gloom Stalker is the end-all be-all. Quite the opposite. I stand by my recommendations of Artificer and Cleric (probably Trickery or Twilight), as well. In OP's actual shoes I'd probably gun for Battlemaster 12 and then re-assess.
Oh, is Superior Technique only one maneuver? My bad, I thought it mirrored Martial Adept.
As an Archer, I would think the following maneuvers would be worth taking (not in this order). More than enough to choose from that having 12 to learn isn't overkill.
And there's really no reason to multiclass ranger just for Hunter's Mark... if you want that in your rotation now and again, just take Fey Touched (+1 Wis) at 12 or 14 instead of Resilient (Wis) or Telekinetic.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Having actually played a Battlemaster / Gloomstalker / Assassin (with a level 1 dip in Twilight Cleric) to 19th level, I have to say that the Assassin's crit on surprise special ability came up a grand total of 1 time in several years of play. It just doesn't happen when you're travelling with a party. Plenty of advantage when you go first, but don't expect to surprise anyone on a regular basis... I'd suggest a different Rogue subclass for that build... personally, I think that Inquisitive brings much more to the table, and actually synergizes nicely with Battlemaster in regular play as opposed to crunching hypothetical numbers in a white room.
Monk, even Kensei, and Ranged Fighter doesn't really mix that well. Especially if you have rather low Con.
That said, I'd probably go for Rogue (Scout or Inquisitive) or Gloom Stalker.
What are you wanting monk to do? If the fighter has medium or light armor, getting that wisdom up to 16 gives the player better AC (18) which is precisely the same as it would be with heavy armor, at least without a magical version and while wielding a bow. The AC can top off at 20 unarmored if the player wants to push wisdom to 20. Getting a bonus action attack with fists allows the player to get three attacks in during times when they have to be in melee, at a reasonable 7.5 average damage per attack if unarmed up to 9.5 average damage for the first two attacks and the 7.5 for the bonus action attack. No need to go two weapon fighting, no need to get the fighting style for the +5 from the bonus action attack. Can be done by drawing a d6 weapon while holding the bow in the other hand. OAs are now possible with the 7.5 damage instead of the 1+3=4 damage from unarmed strikes currently, should they be triggered while the player is holding a bow.
Getting Ki would allow the archer to bonus action dodge while still attacking or the elf could bonus action disengage or dash to get out of a pickle. Getting +10 to movement gets the wood elf up to 45 speed, which is enough to help them stay at an optimal range to attack while avoiding most melee attacks, especially with the dash options available. Oh, and Flurry of Blows, I guess.
Going Kensei would allow the Archer to still hold their bow while making melee attacks at 1d4+5 that would also trigger Agile Parry for an additional +2 AC, which could be done as a quasi-disengage to then move to attack with the bow. The melee weapon damage can now be as high as d10 with versatile weapons giving as much as 10.5 twice along with the 7.5 bonus attack. This would also allow for the 9.5 damage per weapon attack while also holding the bow. Yes the fighter gave them the proficiencies to do those weapon attacks, but monk gives the dexterity usage to non finesse weapons. Monk 2 could actually give the boost to d10 versatile thanks to dedicated weapon from Tasha's. Monk 3 also gives deflect missiles for those ranged attacks. This is where the Kensei shot for the bonus action 1d4 to ranged attacks comes in. Ki fueled attack comes in through Tasha's, should you want to make an unarmed attack with a bonus action while making your attacks from your attack action with your bow, as long as you spend a ki point during that action.
Monk 4 gives Slow Fall and more Ki. You also get Quickened Healing, which combined with Second Wind, gives you some decent healing reserves should you manage to take damage before having to dip into Hit Dice.
Monk 5 isn't as useless as many martial level 5s with an MC that already provides extra attack since it adds Stunning Strike and more ki. It also boosts your Martial Arts die from a d4 to a d6 making that the new damage floor for your attacks with monk weapons and unarmed strikes. You also get Focused Aim, which gives you a nice reserve of attack roll manipulation when coupled with Superiority Dice.
Monk 6 grants Ki Empowered Strikes, making those unarmed strikes magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances, a +5 movement boost to get the wood elf to 50 speed, more ki, and One with the Blade. Now any of your non magical weapons that are Kensei weapons are considered magical for overcoming resistance and immunity. You also have Deft Strike, allowing you do spend 1 ki point to deal extra damage equal to your marital arts die once per each of your turns.
Monk 7 gives Evasion to save for zero damage on half damage save spells targeting dexterity, stillness of mind for those instances when you become frightened or someone manages to squeeze in a charm effect through your advantage on saves against those, and more ki.
There is plenty there that can help out an archer build. It won't all be a good idea for every character concept, but I don't see anything in that package that says BM beware. You simply have to look at what you would be giving up. I do think that getting to Fighter 11 or 12 would be beneficial for the 3 attacks from the attack action and possibly another ASI, but even going all the way to monk 8 gives you the ability to go Fighter 12.
Commanding Presence on a CHA 9 person is a terrible idea. Your dice are precious resources - better to spend them getting better at things you're already good at than to try and suck less at things you already suck at. Rally is less bad, but has the same issue. Tactical Assessment is less bad, granted, but it's still a pretty inefficient use of the dice. Ambush is very GM dependent - you'll run out of dice in nothing flat if you have the sort of GM who wants you to roll Stealth a lot when Stealthing. Ambush is much better when you're allowed to make one roll and keep it. It's always possible to learn more maneuvers, but these are the important ones for an archer:
And now we've already reached Parry, which most of the time won't even come up for the Archer. Precision, Menacing, and Trip are just so good so often.