A bummer for the Arcane Archer

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So, I'm in the process of building my Arcane Archer. I was just beginning to smell it at level 5 fighter/ 1 wizard when I finally noticed something I should've noticed much earlier. I went to the bioware forums and noticed complaints about the same thing by others.

Currently, I have a +11 attack bonus with my bow. When I fire it at something from a distance I get a +11 bonus. Activate Rapid Shot and it drops +2 just like it is supposed to to +9. The problem seems to be with Point Blank Shot. Point Blank is supposed to negate the -4 due to using a bow when you're within x number of feet of the enemy (15 I think). It is also supposed to give a +1 bonus when you are within x number of feet of an enemy. I know this worked in NWN, as described by the feats, because I had a druid who used both point blank shot and rapid fire.

Now however you get a really hefty penalty when you are within x feet of the enemy meaning point blank must not be working correctly. The rolls are showing that instead of getting a +12 point blank shot within x feet of the enemy (+11 and negate the penalty and +1 for the feat) and instead of getting a +10 rapid fire within x feet of the enemy (+12 with point blank -2 for using rapid fire) I'm dropping all of the way down to +6. So, point blank is not negating the -4 penalty.

Which really sucks for an Arcane Archer wannabe. I really hope they address this soon, it may be back to the drawing board for my archer (and my poor druid who had gone a good distance in the OC is suddenly miffed as well).

Oh, this is the exact same problem others are reporting btw.

 

I had not yet noticed this with my bard 2/fighter 1, but I just got Point Blank Range at 3rd level. I'll have to watch for it tonight.

Thanks for the update!

 

I've played around with this some more and been thinking about it. I'm at +11 normally and +9 with rapid shot on. When enemies are close I fire at +6 which is a drop of -3. How does that happen? If Point Blank isn't negating the -4 penalty then I would've expected to be at +5 and not +6. Then I remembered the +1 bonus point blank is supposed to give you when enemies are within x distance (gets rid of -4 and another +1 bonus.)

So, my theory is that you are getting the +1 bonus but you are not negating the -4 penalty. So, the sum result is a loss of 3 when enemies are within x distance. Instead of a +9 a +6.

Hopefully they'll fix this if this is indeed the problem.

EDIT - a similar thread about it at the Bioware site:
http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=225665&forum=69

[ June 21, 2003, 08:06: Message edited by: Laches ]

 

There's quite a discussion at Bioware's site, but as far as I can tell, no response from anyBiobody yet.

 

I found this interesting.

It may be they just need to fix the description.

 

Well if that's the case and the NWN PBS feat does not eliminate the -4 for firing into melee, they really need to add the Precise Shot feat into the game!

[EDIT]
There has finally been a response on Bioware's site now. They tried to add in the penalties for firing into melee, but couldn't get it quite right and decided to pull it out. They missed some of the added code and it is what is causing the problems.

They are aware of the problem and will be fixing it in the 1.31 patch. Yea!

There was no word on when 1.31 would be available. Boo! Patience...
[/EDIT]

[ June 25, 2003, 16:54: Message edited by: BigStick ]