Archers and DR

[EndsBeginning]

Archers (and dual wielders for that matter) make up for less damage per hit with more attacks. With archery there are not many ways to increase this. Mighty is one, so are things like favored enemy. But unlike dual wielders archers have to use ammo. I know there's plans for adamantine arrows, but you need a miner, and wood cutter, a smith and a woodworker to make them. Lasala can shoot an entire stack of 99 arrows in 2 and a half minutes. in a level or two that will drop to 2 minutes. Every high level mage, favored soul, cleric and druid has some form of really good DR that's nearly impossible to counter as an archer. Most buffs and such don't work on bows. Even flame arrow was switched out to do something else. On top of that mages have a 2nd level spell that gives them DR 10 vs arrows and clerics have a spell that gives a 20% miss chance. I was in a party in Veritas. Lasala was the main damage dealer. we tried to kill the priest boss for 10 mins, we eventually had to run her out of spells.

Could some cheap easy way to bypass that DR so archers can stand any sort of chance in PvP or against any NPC with stone skin/stone body/greater stone skin/clairvoyance/anything I might have left out. Or a really expensive bow with unlimited adamantine arrows (and mighty preferably) so we can actually hope to kill that cleric/favored soul/druid/spirit shaman/wizard/sorcerer/EK that is laughing at us?

[Phantom Lamb]

Heavy hitters, like Power Attackers, have always had an advantage over dexterity-based folks in this area due to DR. I don't like it myself and wish there were more feats in-game to dodge hits rather than absorb the damage, as a way of compensation.

However, archers aren't in the same boat as dex melee. They definitely deal less damage, but they are at range--meaning they don't take blows from other melee fighters. Dealing less damage makese sense in light of the distance involved.

[grant]

Short of the dispelling arrows of Bloodmain, giving your AA enough mage levels to be able to cast dispel magic or greater dispel is about all you can do. Though stripping magical defences is the kind of thing your parties spell casters should be taking care of.

[richardleitch5]

see an enchanter about buffign your bow. iv seen one that was "mighty +3, +2 hit and dam as well as + fire damage" as well as this you can use holy water and such on arrows last time i shot a bow, i know it only lasts a round or two but every little helps.

[Phantom Lamb]

Bows have also been fixed by NWN so their enhancement bonus now bipasses appropriate DRs.

[GodBeastX]

I said it once and I'll say it again. Archers can add tons of damage to their bows where other classes cannot depending on class, arrow, bow, feats. I don't know if sundren has EB bows though, havn't looked yet. There's also crazy arrows like, on-hit spell casts. OH LOOK AN ARROW OF FIREBALL! 10 - 60 damage on top of arrow damage?

Also, DR is dependant on what you're fighting. It might not be a good idea to shoot something with Adamantine DR with a bow. It's not like you can't pull out a melee weapon if the time comes.

[Fezzik]

As far as I know (so don't quote me ). Only melee weapons get the EB... If someone has put EB on a missile weapon, let us know. Since the inception of the new crafting, I have told people that it isn't possible as per what the Lesser, normal and Greater versions of the incantations say (not Precision, the other one, can't remember the name at the moment)

[KimKandor]

I know it's possible mechanically, but I pretty sure the recipe hasn't been added to the enchanting system. Ariels bow, the one Richard was talking about is +2 ab, 1d4 fire, +3 mighty.

[GodBeastX]

As far as I know (so don't quote me ). Only melee weapons get the EB... If someone has put EB on a missile weapon, let us know. Since the inception of the new crafting, I have told people that it isn't possible as per what the Lesser, normal and Greater versions of the incantations say (not Precision, the other one, can't remember the name at the moment)

EB wasn't possible on bows before, but I outlined Item Properties to Obsidian which weren't working that should work. Since then they have corrected every property I listed.

[EndsBeginning]

The problem isn't really the low damage, it's that DR renders archers pretty useless. There is also no feat in NWN2 to eliminate AOs while in melee. Combine the two and you have gist of my problem.

EB wasn't possible on bows before, but I outlined Item Properties to Obsidian which weren't working that should work. Since then they have corrected every property I listed.

Can you put things like elemental damage and vs Lawful, Evil, Chaoctic and Good on them? Because that would also help with the problem.

[Zoberraz]

While I agree with the disadvantage EndsBeginning pointed out... I personally take it in stride as being one of the Cons archers have - I mean, I've managed fairly well with Maia otherwise.

Not to mention that I think I recall Lasala'ariira being an Arcane Archer. That means she must be doing far more damage than Maia could ever do per arrow... so, DR can't be that bad an issue for you, right?

[EndsBeginning]

Actually, yes. I can do OK vs a DR10 wizard, but greater air elementals, greater stone skin or a combo of protection from arrows and any other form of DR means that I get disintegrated, or smacked in the face by a favored soul/cleric/druid/fighter while I'm giving them free attacks on me. Lasala is a glass cannon, one melee getting into range of me means even if they're at 1/3 health, I die. When my damage drops to 0-6 with a 23 AC I just turn into a stain on the ground. It's really hard to get away from that without shamelessly exploiting zoning.

[TheBrogueadier]

Considering Las can take apart pretty much any non-buffed human within a couple of rounds at a massive distance while sprinting at speeds which make Usain Bolt look slow, it might be a little excessive to complain that certain classes, when given the time to buff, can kill her quickly.

It seems fairly close to complaining that your fighter can't use magic properly, your thief dies quickly in a to-to-toe fight against a greatsword weaponmaster, and your mage can't duel wield greatswords, cast spells and wear full plate (outside of some rather interesting builds anyway)

You have massive spot skills, long range, and sneakyness - you can oblitorate solo targets before they've started to cast spells (and then kill all the non-spellcasters afterwards). As with many classes the archer builds have pros and they have cons, they are brilliant against some other classes, and not so good against others.

Yup, Clerics, mages and favoured souls are hard to kill when buffed - So use some common sense, kill them when they arn't buffed, run away when they are.

Tactics - More than just a breath freshener.

Edit:
That may have come across harsher than I intended.
EB bows would be natty, and go some way towards rectifying the DR problem with ranged weapons.

[AnnyMouse]

I mean.. erm.. why can't you run, exactly? I mean archers are usually supposed to be at a disadvantage up close. You can use a spell or two to slow melee down or speed yourself up to get out of sticky situations.

[Phantom Lamb]

You suck Brog. So mean!