Master of Blade & Bow - F(12), Wiz(1), AA(10), WM(7)

Fighter 12 / Wizard 1 / Weapon Master 7 / Arcane Archer 10

by Neonin 15:52, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Description
Taking the Elven love of swordplay and archery to extreme heights, the Master of Blade & Bow learns to be deadly with both the Rapier and Longbow. At it's pinnacle it is capable of firing highly damaging, even slaying, arrows at the beginning of combat before closing to finish off it's opponent with the deadly thrust ofa blade.

Despite ranged combat being mostly overlooked in NWN2 due to the low range in which characters appear, I wanted to create a build that combined both melee and ranged ability for those who just like playing such a character. The Elves seemed the natural target for such a build due to their background in the arts of swordplay and archery, and the rapier with Weapon Finesse dovetails nicely with the high dexterity needed for successful ranged combat.

Like my other build, the Dragon of Death, I doubt this one holds much of a candle to others listed on this site. Still, it's a fun little build to mess around with and should be easily sufficient for campaign play.

Advantages:


 * Capable of decent ranged and melee combat.


 * Decent AC when equipped with top-draw magic items.


 * Deadly at Epic levels with a combination of One Shot and the spell True Strike.


 * Near-full Base Attack Bonus of 29.


 * No XP penalty throughout campaign.


 * Large critical range of 15-20, which becomes 13-20 when keen edge is applied to your weapon (and a Scabbard of Keen Edges is available pretty early in the campaign so no reason not to have one!).

Disadvantages:


 * Part of the rapiers advantage lost against things immune to critical hits.


 * No social skills as built, although you can customise the skills as you like since only 4 ranks of Intimidate are required.


 * Runs the risk of being a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.


 * Low Will saving throws without magic equipment.

Character Creation
Why these races/classes?


 * Moon Elf for +2 DEX, allowing for maximum starting DEX of 20. DEX is the most important stat in this build. Any form of Elf also fits in roleplay-wise, although that's only a secondary consideration for most people.


 * 12 Fighter for bonus feats to make the build work.


 * 1 Wizard to qualify for Arcane Archer and to get hold of True Strike.


 * 7 Weapon Master for Ki Critical, Ki Damage, Increased Multiplier, Superior Weapon Focus, and yet more BAB.


 * 10 Arcane Archer for Enhance Arrow +5, Hail of Arrows, Imbue Arrow, Seeker Arrow, and definitely not forgetting Arrow of Death.

Variants
The build can be customised in a few ways:


 * Pick Drow instead of Moon Elf. This will give you an extra skill point per level and an extra bit of damage after taking Combat Insight, along with Spell Resistance 41 at level 30 and some other good things. Why didn't I use it? Because I don't like playing +ECL races!


 * When levelling up to 7, taking feats to let you qualify for Arcane Archer instead of Weapon Master first will allow you to concentrate on archery instead of melee in the early stages.


 * If you'd like to concentrate on melee, leave off getting the level of Wizard (and Arcane Archer afterwards) until after you've got all seven levels of Weapon Master.


 * Apart from 4 ranks of Intimidate necessary to qualify for Weapon Master, skill points can be put wherever you want them.


 * You could become Master of Basher & Bow if you pick feats for light mace instead of rapier. Alternatively you could go for handaxe and end up with a 17-20x4 critical (assuming you get hold of something that can grant you keen edge).