I want to attempt another run at ToEE (and maybe properly finish it this time) and I've got some ideas of what I want my party to look like. One party member I can't decide on - the bow user. Should I pick Ranger with the Archery fighting style? Or should I pick Fighter and make use of all the bonus feats they get? What are some pros and cons of both?
So, i have personally done some testing on both a Ranger and a Fighter. And one of the stronger things i did was a Ranger/Rogue (although you can do Fighter/Rogue also) but with my Ranger/Rogue build i took humanoid and goblinoid as my favored enemies and that plus sneak attack dmg on multiple shots each round was powerful. I made sure to use glitterdust or other blinding spells to make the enemies more susceptable to sneak attacks. That being said fighters get way more feats so a straight up Fighter bow user can be quite good also.
In the base game, a fighter makes a good heavy archer due to the number of feats or if you wand an Arcane archer. A ranger is better if you want an archer who can move and be stealthy. My favorite archer build is the ranger\Rogue as both classes share a lot of the same skills and as OLLY613 pointed out, vs held/blinded/stunned/entangled/or webbed opponents can do a LOT of damage while staying out of reach
Archery fighting style for ranger gets you Rapid Shot at 2nd level, without meeting the usual criteria for the feat. That's all. Thing is, an archer build will want Dex 13+, and will want to pick up Point Blank Shot early anyway. The other ranger stuff- relatively weak spell casting, relatively weak animal companion- doesn't really contribute much to being an archer, unless you are heading towards being an Assassin (Skill requirements) and want to pick up a first Favoured Enemy. Another option is Rogue 3, Swashbuckler X, with the Daring Outlaw feat that counts Swashbuckler levels toward Sneak Attack progression with almost full BAB.
I usually use Fighter/Rangers in my parties. They get the best of both worlds, and end up with +20 BAB.
No mention of Cleric archers via greater magic weapon and likely being an elf? That's apparently another topic.
Haha thats a good point. Especially if you have higher wis than dex you can go zen archery feat. Or just dump dex and use a mace until level 3 then take that feat.
I ran a pure ranger archer and seem to remember that at a certain point, I think around lv 15 or so, there was just no benefit in continuing as ranger - nothing worth having except BAB. So at that point I switched to fighter and went down the weapon specialisation route
Ive had some success with a Barbarian or Barbarian/Rogue archer using composite longbow. A high-dex elvin Warmage also makes a decent archer at low tiers as he can use longbow with decent Thac0.
