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I'm going to attept to near solo an archer, along with one mage/clerc/thief muliclass. or just go broke and solo the archer all the way. anyway i got few questions.

What should i specalize in, long, short or crossbow? there are several execellent bow in each class..

Secondly do whirlwind, greater whirlwind affects bow? or is that melee only?

thirdly what should my racial enemy be, lots of peoples says vamp for that +4 bonus with the mace of distruption?

1) I'd go for shortbow. The only bows that make their own ammo are shortbows. Additionally, the Tuigan shortbow (acquirable in Trademeet) can shoot three times as fast as a regular one, making your called shots VERY powerful. The longbow's Thac0 bonus is pointless because the archer already has huge bonuses anyway.

2) I don't know. It sounds melee-only, but it doesn't specifically say.

3) Vamps don't show up that often, but when they do it's usually at pivotal moments that stick in people's minds, so naturally people instinctively say "vampires!". The same goes for mind flayers. What you want is a racial enemy that you more frequently encounter and that causes plenty of problems for you, so as to give a bigger overall benefit. If you have ToB, I'd suggest you choose Demonic/Fell, because demons show up A LOT in ToB (esp Watcher's Keep) and they are very tough. Otherwise, maybe something like umber hulks. Or vampires, if you really want to.

To answer your questions:

1. Longbows give a greater distance from enemy and deal more damage than shortbows. You can get the quiver of plenty on 1st loor of Watcher's Keep (go immediately) for unlimited +1 arrows.

2. Yes. WW and GWW do apply to missile weapons. And may I reccomend Critical Strike?

3. It's a matter of choice here. If you ever plan on taking on dragons for their amazing loot, the answer is simple.

Good luck on your (almost?) solo adventure with your Archer. It can be done with no help. Do a search if you want to read some good tactics and adventure stories about them.

And if you get bored with him/her, DC to Cleric. Lotsa fun!! (but then you'll want to put all your prof. points in all cleric weaps. like sling and that doesn't really sound like what you want to do).

that's a good question u pose.. but yeah.. it's possible.. but might be a little tough when taking out magic-casters. So yeah.. maybe you might wanna tag a mage/thief along with you (I'm thinking Jan or Imoen?).

ER... I'd say take a Longbow...personal preference really.. and have ur racial enemy as a vampire (coz assumingly you will be attacking from a distance with ur bow.. and since u only GET level drained by touch.. u might wanna attack Vampires from a distance.. hence them being ur racial enemy. Does that make any sense?!?! haha)

@Uther Pendragon: An archer with a sling? haha.. that'd be interesting.. what would u call that? A "slinger"? hehe.. but yeah.. I'm imagining an Elf that walks into a bar telling ppl he's a reknowned Archer... and shows his sling to everybody.

Racial Enemy: Golems. IMHO, the most usefull for soloers, espicially early on.

Originally posted by Eleshar:
<STRONG>
@Uther Pendragon: An archer with a sling? haha.. that'd be interesting.. what would u call that? A "slinger"? hehe.. but yeah.. I'm imagining an Elf that walks into a bar telling ppl he's a reknowned Archer... and shows his sling to everybody. </STRONG>

Don't knock it, unless you try it. Ever hear of David and Goliath(sp)?

As Cespenar said: "You uses sling? What is you, a big sissy?!"

Yeah, but he also shares a plane with MArtha Stewert, so it's safe to say he's a little batty...

Short bow and long bow you can get it 2 in long 3 in short

If you haven't already, check out the [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=004555"]Tales of Stormreed the solo Archer[/url]. That should help you on your way more than anything else.

Originally posted by Johnny:
<STRONG>the Tuigan shortbow (acquirable in Trademeet) can shoot three times as fast as a regular one</STRONG>

[edit: damn page got suck...]

The Tuigan Bow can be picked off the corpse of the Beastmaster in the back of the Copper Coronet and gives 3 shots per round, as opposed to 2 from "normal" bows.

[ 08-19-2001: Message edited by: Xyx ]

Thanks for the correction.

However, give Mazzy the bow and she has 4 attacks per round because of her grandmastery in it. I think it's capped at 5 however, super bow or not. And plus it's still just +1. The darkfire gives resists and lets you cast improved haste.

Just got quiver of plenty +2, and have literally filled up ammo ouch with tons of arrows. The quiver of plenty gives the tulgan bow the same unlimited ammo supply as gesen bow, making logistics really easy.

One really nasty trick, found out with mazzy, is to use arrows of biting with the gesen bow. does both poison and electrical damage. Using a arrow with the firetooth, allows you to use bolts of biting, inflicting fire and poison damage. So you geets either the gesen bow later, with SOA, and use arrows of fire, forfire electrical damage, and you get the quiver of plenty, and keep it around when you need spped to take out a lot of weaker targets.

Glad to see you read my post concerning your signature Trandecent Two.

The archer is a powerhouse of adventure and excitement wrapped up into a nice little package called fun

I've always gone for the longbow. Shortbows, in my mind, are reserved for thieves.

Greater Whirlwind was made for the archer. Getting ten shots off with his amazing THAC0 is a real show stopper. Especially if you have poison arrows and go for multiple targets. Kicks ass, to put it mildly

Mages aren't too much of a problem. If they have protections, use arrows of dispelling. Stoneskins, use arrows of Frost or Fire. They really don't pose too much of a threat if you use a little patience and care.

All in all, I loved it and found it to be quite a rush. Go for it and enjoy!

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly:
<STRONG>One really nasty trick, found out with mazzy, is to use arrows of biting with the gesen bow. does both poison and electrical damage. </STRONG>

An even nastier trick is to use arrows of detonation with the Gesen bow, esp. if the character using the bow is an assassin with poison ability activated. It's almost... cheesy.

1. I would choose short bows - there are some wicked longbows (archers can only put 5 stars into long or short bows so they are the only real choices) but the gesen bow is the only bow which has +4 enchanted arrows(and it makes it's own) that in it's self makes it almost a requirment for a solo archer.

2. they both work as has been stated - great realy great - so do most of the other abilities.

3. racial enemy - tough one , basicaly choose somthing which you forsee trouble with in hand to hand(scince when you have a bow in your hand you should hit just about anything.) Golems is a posibility as is vampires. you should not get into hand to hand with mindflayers - anything with imunity to piercing attacks makes a good candidiate.

(remember to keep a stack or 2 of normal arrows for magical golems in TOB. apart from that have fun Archers a a blast

Keep in mind that you can't even assemble the Gesen Bow until after the Underdark. Most of the game, the best short bow you can get is the Tuigan. And try to find a short bow in Irenicus' dungeon -- it takes forever! You need 18 strength to use the composite long bows that the goblins carry.

I always go for long bows ang get the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength and the Strongarm Bow from the Adventurer's Mart. It's the only one that adds a damage bonus.

Later, get a proficiency in short bows so you can use the Gesen Bow against those few enemies that require +4 weapon's to hit.

Don't forget Tansheron's Bow available in Trademeet after you take care of the Djinns. MUCH easier to acquire than Gesen's Bow (Which quite simply rocks!), and much sooner in the game too.

It creates arrows of pure force, and I /think/ it can hurt most anything. Not 100% sure on that one...but it is also a short bow that produces ammon for itself.

^_^

Originally posted by PoMR:
<STRONG>Don't forget Tansheron's Bow available in Trademeet after you take care of the Djinns. MUCH easier to acquire than Gesen's Bow (Which quite simply rocks!), and much sooner in the game too.

It creates arrows of pure force, and I /think/ it can hurt most anything. Not 100% sure on that one...but it is also a short bow that produces ammon for itself.

^_^</STRONG>

Y'know, I went out of my way to aquire that bow in my first game. I think it's even slower than non-magical bows. It may have been my imagination, though.