Divine Sniper - FS(18),Brd(2),Clr(1),AA(9)

Introduction
The Divine Sniper is a master of the bow, using divine spells to enhance accuracy and greatly improve damage output.

The main distinction that this build has with other archers is that the Divine Sniper uses Epic Divine Might to greatly enhance damage from his bow.

From the Build Creator
This is the first build that I've submitted on NWN2 Wikia. Through writing this article, I have quickly learned the basics of the system and enjoyed it.

This article showcases a sample build that I created, based on the premise of a Divine Archer and customized it for the PW server that I play on.

During development of the Divine Sniper, the build underwent many changes and is still about 90% finalized. Having said that, much of these changes made me decide to include a variations section in this article. This section includes most of the other possibilities that I considered during the development stage and (mostly) rejected, but you the reader, might find useful for your own preferences.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to post them in the discussion section or NWN 2 forum. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this article.

--Riviet

Pros and Cons
Advantages
 * Damage output greatly increased by epic divine might.
 * With divine power, can get 30 BAB.
 * Haste and improved rapid shot give a total of 8 attacks per round, 3 at full AB.
 * Has access to level 9 divine spells and various useful buffs to boost AB/damage.
 * Plenty of buffs and healing spells to go around for the party.
 * Relatively good saves (30+ buffed) due to favored soul levels and buffs like battletide and recitation.
 * Gets weapon focus and specialization (longbow) for free due to Favored Soul levels.
 * Due to decent strength and high AB from buffs, the character is quite effective in close-quarters.

Disadvantages
 * Relatively low AC (Low 40s).
 * Relatively low hit points.
 * Lacks skill points.
 * Highly ineffective offensive casting due to poor wisdom.
 * Buffs are time consuming and expire at varying time intervals, requiring constant rebuffing.
 * Misses out on the feat, One Shot.

Character Creation

 * Wood Elf was chosen as the +2 racial modifiers for str and dex were important. Another option is Drow (for the SR?), but it's ECL +2 and will be slow to level up with a 20% experience penalty.
 * Alignment: I'm not familiar with which alignments Solonor Thelandira can be but it definitely can't be lawful as the build contains bard levels. This is not an issue if you take sorcerer instead (see variations).
 * Favored Soul was chosen instead of cleric since the relatively high charisma complimented this class' spells per day and offered more buffs. The free weapon focus/specialization feats were a nice bonus too.
 * Bard was chosen mainly for inspire courage and qualifying for AA.
 * 1 level of cleric was needed to get divine might, and also gives you two free feats from the domains.
 * AA is pretty self explanatory considering this is an archer build. The enhance arrow +5 by AA level 9 is nice.

Calculations
Equipment

Unless otherwise mentioned, and for the purposes of calculating AB, AC and damage, assume the following conditions:
 * +8 bracers of armor
 * Amulet of natural armor +5
 * Mithral full plate
 * +8 cha and dex items
 * Boots of hardiness +2
 * Duskwood longbow (+6 mighty)
 * Ordinary arrows
 * Brooch of shielding
 * Given final base str is 21, any str item is sufficient to qualify for the full mighty damage from the longbow.
 * Improved rapid shot is on.
 * Every attack hits.

Fully Buffed Attack Bonus: 30 (divine power BAB) +8 (dex 26) +5 (AA enhance arrow) +1 (bard inspiration) +1 (weapon focus) +1 (aid) +1 (bless) +1 (prayer) +3 (divine favor) +2 (battletide) +3 (recitation) +1 (haste) -- 57/57/57/52/47/42/37/32

Fully Buffed Armor Class: 10 (base) +11 (mith full plate) +8 (bracers of armor) +5 (amulet of natural armor) +5 (shield of faith) +4 (brooch of shielding) +1 (haste) +2 (boots of hardiness) -- 46 AC

Fully Buffed Damage per hit: 1-8 (longbow) +6 (mighty) +20 (epic divine might) +5 (AA enhance arrow) +1 (bard inspiration) +3 (divine favor) +2 (battletide) +2 (weapon specialization) +1 (prayer) -- 41 to 48 damage (average 44.5)

Average Damage per round: 44.5*8 = 356

Average Damage per round (1 critical) 44.5*7 + 3*44.5 = 445

Fully Buffed Attack Bonus with Manyshot: (57-8)/(52-8)/(47-8)/42/37/32 =49/44/39/42/37/32

Average Damage per round with Manyshot: (2*44.5)*3 + 44.5*3 = 400.5

Average Damage per round with Manyshot (1 critical on normal hit): (2*44.5)*3 + 44.5*2 + 3*44.5 = 489.5

Character Progression
Leveling Notes
 * Most of the FS levels were taken first as I wanted to get divine might and persisted divine favor as early as possible. Be sure to take the cleric level on a feat level on or before 18 for divine might.


 * There is not much room for variation, although your preferences may allow for some customization.

Variations
There is a bit room for variation in the Divine Sniper and this section outlines some possibilities to customize and tweak this build for your own liking.

Divine Sniper Variations:


 * Bard 4: you get level 2 bard spells, allowing access to heroism. Remember to cast it before you put on your armor. Beware of the 40% exp penalty.


 * Cleric 2: the second cleric level allows you access to divine shield.


 * Sorceror 1: for those that are big fans of true strike. Simply replace bard with sorceror.


 * Arcane Archer 10: offers arrow of death and adds 1d6 damage to your imbue arrow. Not that great, and not recommended.


 * Combinations of the above.

Manyshot:

If you look at the damage calculations above, manyshot effectively adds an extra attack worth of damage at the cost of getting -8 AB penalty on the first three normal attack rolls. The interesting thing is that manyshot completely ignores your 2 hasted and rapid shot attacks and calculates the -8 penalty starting with your first normal attack that applies the full AB.

Fully Buffed Attack Bonus with Manyshot: 48/43/38/41/36/31

Assuming each attack hits, the first three attack rolls each do double the 44.5 average damage, while the last three attacks are as normal. So for low AC opponents, manyshot is worthwhile while for high AC opponents, you are better off using (improved) rapid shot.

Depending on where you intend to play your archer, you will either want to take manyshot or not bother. I am well aware that this may not be an easy decision. If you figure that manyshot won't be that useful for you, then you could just consider taking rapid shot and forget about 17 dex for manyshot/improved rapid shot (saving you a feat or two). The reason why I suggest this is because there is an alternative to using dex to determine AB, namely zen archery. And the next section addresses this topic.

Zen Archery:

Neglecting manyshot means that you can now focus on wisdom instead of dexterity, using zen archery to determine your AB. However, you will still need at least 13 dex for rapid shot. Unlike Favored Soul, you get FULL access to the cleric spells AND casting offensively is viable since wisdom determines the DC. Having said that, your wisdom will not be as good as a pure wisdom pumping cleric.

If you decide to go this route, I would recommend starting with a bard 2/AA 9, bard 4/AA 9, or sorc 1/AA 9 framework, then determine the number of cleric levels that you want. You don't need to know exactly how many cleric levels, but a fairly good idea will allow room for you to adjust this after deciding which fourth class you want. Here's my take on the cleric level choice:


 * Cleric 9: this seems like the lowest you should consider as divine favor is capped here and you still get access to extended divine power and all of the AB buffs. The main issue here is that your buffs will have short to moderate duration, and you won't get many casts of the AB buffs like prayer and recitation.


 * Cleric 13: a good cut-off point to take advantage of persistent divine favor as well as level 6 & 7 spells. Most of your buffs will have a pretty good duration too.


 * Cleric 13+: 15 and 17 are good cut-offs for level 8 & 9 spells respectively. Persistent prayer is nice. You get more spells for the party and for yourself, plus they last longer.

After deciding approximately how many cleric levels, you can then proceed to choosing the fourth class. There aren't any clear options that stand out for the fourth class, so I'm leaving it up to you to decide what you want. Aasimar seems like the best race for starting stats (+2 wis and cha). As you might have noticed, the zen archery route allows for a lot more variability than the favored soul route, due to the fourth class vacancy. The following are some possibilities:


 * Fighter: A solid choice for the bonus feats. Speaking of feats, the absence of FS levels means you lose the free weapon specialization/focus and need to fit in weapon focus somewhere (probably through the fighter bonus feats).


 * FS 3: for the bonus weapon focus (deity weapon) feat. Not a good choice, as fighter gets more bonus feats.


 * Divine Champion: the bonus feats and saving throws are nice and I believe Great Wisdom is on the bonus feat list if the DC levels are taken when the character is epic.


 * RDD 4: for the +2 AC and qualifying for EDM (+4 str), but this will create a bottleneck for your feats.


 * Rogue: not a bad choice if you want more skills; the sneak attack and feats in the first few levels is good icing on the cake.


 * Paladin: a possible choice for the divine grace at level 2. You will have to be sorcerer though (instead of bard) due to alignment conflicts.


 * Blackguard: similarly to the paladin, you could take 2 levels for dark blessing.


 * Warlock: probably a better choice than paladin and blackguard if you want those saving throws because you achieve the same result as these classes with only 1 level instead.


 * Warpriest: the war glory might be useful. However, you may as well take cleric (for full spell progression) instead as the BAB is already taken care of from divine power. I would not recommend it.


 * No fourth class: A solid choice for grouping purposes; buffs last a long while, and you get more spell slots than lower cleric levels. Cleric/bard or sorceror/AA looks a bit like a "cleric" version of the Divine Sniper.

Optimization for Powergamers:

I am not much of a powergamer, but I do respect the dedicated nature of these players, so here's a nice little treat for you munchkin builders. :P I expect you guys to know your stuff inside out so I'll be brief here.

Cleric 13/Bard 4/RDD 4/AA 9 (Aasimar with zen archery) looks like a good start for you to work on. RDD will make it easier to qualify for EDM, and you should be able to get EDM at level 21. This allows you to focus a little more on cha and pump up the EDM damage.

Feel free to discuss more about optimization in the discussion section of this article or on the NWN 2 forums.