Three Arrows for the King - The Archer's Guide

[HellHound]

Formerly an Ambient Inc Product
Everything you need for archery in your fantasy d20 game. Not just a fighter variant, the archer surpasses even the fighter with the bow, but lags behind in melee combat. The archer class also easily handles crossbowmen, javelineers, and even those who would prefer to fight with thrown knives.

The Archer class, The Archer-Ranger variant class, Character backgrounds, Multi-class paths, 8 Prestige Classes, 1 Legendary Class, 27 Feats, New archery equipment, Larger and smaller bows, Mightier than +4 strength composite bows, new magic items and a massive selection of magical bows and arrows

 

[johnsemlak]

It's actually surprising no one has done an archery sourcebook so far for the d20 system, particularly with the popularlity of Legalos from the film Lord of the Rings now over a year old. Despite this, the D&D game has always had trouble allowing PC archers to emulate the heroic feats performed by Robin Hood or Legelos in the movies, given the existing game mechanics. Various houserules varient classes have been proposed for all editions of D&D, few have become popular enough to become a permanent part of the D&D rules.

Basically, there are three views on how to allow PCs to become specialist archers: (1) Create a new archer core class; (2) Modify the ranger class to become more of an archer-type (harkening back to 1e days); and (3) Allow fighters and other classes to specialize using existing 3rd edition feats, skills, prestige classes, and multiclassing options.

Thankfully, Ambient's latest work, Three Arrows for the King provides players and DMs options for any one of the three above choices.

Three Arrows for the King is a 50-page PDF product (it is also available in a limited edition print run) priced at US$5.75. You get a color screen version and a b&w version for printing, and a third file that contains the covers, not included in the other two versions. While 50 pages for $5.75 may not seem like great value in the PDF market (Ambient's own Crimson Contracts was $7.50 for 129 pages by comparison), however the screen version doens't contian the covers, has a one-page introduction, one page for the OGL, and 48 pages of game material. In other words, it's nearly wall-to-wall 'crunch'. I also liked the layout. Ambient used a landscape format, so that each page fits in the screen much better. I haven't bought more than 9-10 3e PDF products, but this is definitely the most convenient to read off the screen I've seen. You don't have to constantly scroll up and down to read the columns.

The interior artwork is black and white and predictably depicts different types of archers. The artwork was good but could have been more practically useful. For example, there could have been detailed illustrations of different types of bows and arrows, particularly in the equipment section.

SUMMARY

As mentioned earlier, the work starts with a one page introduction summarizing the history of archery. I thought this chapter was a bit of a disappointment. The text goes from stating the obvious ([a crossbow] fires missiles (known as bolts, effectively shorter arrows)) to mentioning some interesting facts with no follow-up detail. I would have liked to see more discussion in to the development of bows themselves, on the different types (English longbow, Mongol/turkish bow, crossbow) and why they were effective. The chapter could have been a bit longer and contained a lot more useful information for the reader. On the other hand, at only one page it doesn't seriously affect the quality of the whole work.

The next chapter provides what will be the core interest for many readers, the new character classes. Two are provided, an archer and an archer-ranger (which he calls a ranger varient). Both have d8 hit dice and a cleric's BAB and employ a concept the author calls 'primary weapon.' The archer and archer-ranger choose a type of bow or a sling. Basically, with their chosen weapon, they end up with a +1 to hit compared with a standard fighter. Archers are also allowed to choose an extra 'archery feat' every 4 levels from a list of feats detailed in the book. As archers progress they get a few other specials abilities as well, such as automatic point-blank shot feat, an ability called 'improved point-blank shot', and an ability called 'long distance accuracy'. Also, archers may choose the weapon specialization feat for their primary weapon. All in all, archers can become pretty specialized.

Archer-rangers, in addition to what is noted above, cast spells as normal rangers. They don't get nearly as many bonus feats and abilities as archers, however. Overall the class is very much a return to the 1e ranger, with archery skills in lieu of two-weapon fighting.

Overall, the classes seem fairly balanced. I'm not sure, however, if the two classes receive fair compensation for having d8 hit dice, compared with standard fighters and rangers. However, I do like the classes and would like to introduce them into my game. Thankfully, however, the most of the remainder of this book can used without implementing either of these classes.

Chapter two is quite short and contians character 'backgrounds' and 'paths'. The seven character backgrounds hark back to the kits of second edition and provide different roles an archer or archer ranger could play, such as a tribal archer, a hunter, an outlaw, and a crossbowman. Each path has a game-rule bonus and penalty associated with it. They are a fine way for a player to further define their class archetype. The character paths are an idea from the Hero Builder's Guidebook. Two are presented. Basically, a sample multiclassing delevelpment path is presented. The first is the Urban Hunter, a rogue/archer-ranger which attains the bounty hunter prestige class, unfortunately detailed in a separate work, Librum Equitis, though the minimum information is provided here. The second is the dwarven Warren Guard, an archer/fighter/dwarven defender.

Chapter three offers the obligitary prestige classes--eight of them, plus a legendary class (basically a PrC which is very difficult to qualify for). They are:

• Bloodhunter--An archer specialist and master bowyer/fletcher who uses their own masterwork bow with deadly precision.
• Bone Archer--A sort of necomatic craftsman who manufactures bone arrows and imbues them with negative energy and magic-like powers.
• Divine Huntsman--Sort of a druid version of a paladin, which can cast divine spells.
• Elven TreeHunter--a slightly inappropriately named PrC which doen't hunt trees but cares for them, and has extrodinary abilities to fight within forests.
• Master of Intuitive Archery--a master of a martial arts school which grants archery-based ki powers.
• Military Archer--a soldier-archer designed to be attained by a non-fighter (a warrior NPC, a rogue, etc.).
• Siege Artillerist--self explanitory.
• Sniper--a guerrilla and tactical archery expert.
• Legendary SharpShooter--A 5-level high-powered PrC which gains a legendary ability each level, such as Perfect Vision (+4 Spot checks & +2/level search checks) or Incredible Range (+30 ft/level range). A legendary sharpshooter may opt to increase their dexterity or wisdom as well.

Of these, I found the bone archer and the bloodhunter to be the most interesting and original. The bone archer's Bone Fletchling ability to craft bone arrows is very intruiging and given extensive detail. I would have liked there to be prestige classes oriented around halflings, and perhaps gnomes and orcs.

Chapter four lists 27 feats as well as a new skill--trickshooting. Thankfully, all the feats are compiled on one table. Though many are meant to be chosen by archers as one of their 'archery feats', they can be taken by most classes. I'll list a few examples below:

• Friendly Fire--grants ability to shoot with no risk of hitting your allies
• Exotic Arrow Proficiency--grants proficiency with exotic arrows detailed later in the book
• Master Mounted Archer--reduces mounted archery penalties
• Reactive Shot--grants ability to attack with crossbow when surprised

This chapter certainly provides an extensive choice of archery-related feats. The good thing is you can use these feats to create quite specialized archers even if you don't opt for the two new core classes. I would have liked this chapter to give a description of the bowyer/fletcher skill.

Chapter five offers new non-magical archery equipment, mostly new weapons. Nine exotic arrows are introduced, such as a gas arrow or a whisling arrow. A few other exotic weapons are presented. I liked the dwarven axebow, a crossbow mounted on an axe. As with the chapter on PrCs, I would have liked to see some exotic weapons specific to races other than dwarves and elves.

The part of this chapter I liked the most detailed bows and crossbows of both large and small sizes. The concept was simple (range, damage, etc. are increased or decreased proportionally) but the sizes range from diminuitive to colossal (giant-sized). This is very useful game information for DMs who what their giants to wield bows.

Chapter six then moves into an archer's magical items. The 25 named magic bows (some of which are cursed) and 14 named magic arrows each have a story attached to them detialing their origin and purpose. They are great if you like your magic items to have some uniqueness to them. A few other types of magic items are detailed, including an item resurrected from 1st edition--the staff of missiles.

Finally, chapter seven provides a short assortment of new spells appropriate for rangers and spellcasting archers.

CONCLUSION

I can't empasize enough how packed this product is with crunch. Nearly every chapter seemed to be overflowing with game information. With this product, players and DMs are given a wealth of options and flexibility in expanding the role of archery in their campaign. You are able to pretty much pick and choose what you like, though I found nearly all of it to my liking. I firmly believe this product surpasses all previously published attempts to bring archers into D&D campaigns.

What didn't I like about the book? I've mentioned about everything above, and all the points are minor and need not be repeated here. My single reservation to those considering whether or not to buy Three Arrows is that some may perfer to wait until the 3.5 editon rulebooks are released, which will revise the ranger class and, as rumors suggest, will offer rangers an archery-style option and perhaps make this product's archer-ranger class irrelavent. However, there's so much information in this product that that's a minor point, really.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing up the Target
Three Arrows for the King is a 50 page PDF supplement written by M. Jason Parent and Neal Levin with other contributing authors. Originally published by Ambient, Inc., this product is now distributed by E.N. Publishing and is available as a $5.75 download – with an option for a Print On Demand (POD) version through RPGNow.

First Blood
The legendary archer has long been a staple of both myth and historical legend, and our fantasy roleplaying games are no different. Players have long sought to emulate their favorite archer, whether Robin Hood, Legolas, or someone in between. Many products have produced a plethora of archer classes and game mechanics; Three Arrows for the King is dedicated completely to this popular archetype, providing some basic history and real-world archery information along with a wide range of game mechanics for the creation of the ultimate archer.

Three Arrows introduces a specialized core class, the archer, who is intended to be a dedicated specialist with the bow (though the same mechanics could be applied with some adaptation to a variety of missile weapons). The class uses the cleric’s Base Attack Bonus advancement and a d8 hit die to provide a less capable warrior who is proficient only with simple weapons and light and medium armor. He receives a starting +2 attack bonus with his primary weapon – some form of bow – that compensates for other weaknesses; along with the Point Blank Shot feat at 1st level this gives him an advantage over the average bow-wielding fighter. Good so far, but it goes rapidly down hill from there. At second level the archer gets the Extra Shot feat, which allows a second shot every round at no penalty, and that stacks with the Rapid Shot feat. Given that no archer in his right mind wouldn’t take Rapid Shot at first level, this means that the second-level archer can launch a volley of three arrows at a net –1 to hit after his primary weapon bonus. Later levels gain bonus archery feats, and abilities analogous to weapon specialization, an improved Point Blank Shot, and abilities that allow him to ignore cover. If you’re at all concerned about the balance between melee and ranged combat, have no fear – the archer will rule the battlefield.

In contrast to the archer, the second variant core class, the archer-ranger, tones down the archer class to provide quite a nicely tuned huntsman. With a d8 hit die, ranged weapon feats and wider skill variety, the archer-ranger provides a great ranger variant if you’ve been looking for an archery-focused version. The archer-ranger maintains the ranger’s spell-casting ability with a slightly different spell list. Oddly, though, both the archer and archer-ranger discard the d20 convention of even-numbered class skill points, giving the classes three and five skill points respectively.

Three Arrows also describes a host of class paths that can provide some variants on the archer class to fit your preferred character background – whether a hunter, a tribal warrior, a mounted archer, or an outlaw. There are also a number of multi-classed archer paths, including the quite interesting Warren Guard, a specialized archer-dwarven defender.

For the experienced archer, there are a host of archery-based prestige classes. These vary widely in flavor and power, and can cater to other missile weapons as well. The Bone Hunter, for example, is a coolly creepy necromantic archer with wicked bone arrows; the Divine Huntsman and Seige Artillerist were also classes I found intriguing. In contrast, I found the Blood Hunter’s extended sneak attack (eventually to 90 feet) to be quite frightening, and the Master of Intuitive Archery incredibly powerful, though deucedly tough to qualify for. There is also one Legendary Prestige Class – a prestige class’s prestige class, if you will, that provides a range of potential abilities tied to class level, eventually including the ability to confirm a critical hit automatically.

If you’ve been looking for that perfect archery feat, Three Arrows has 27 to choose from. If you’ve imagines it could be done with a bow or crossbow, it’s probably in here. You can Double Nock to fire two arrows at once (with a better mechanic, in my opinion, than a similar competing feat), or use Dead Shot to reduce your opponent’s cover bonus. Break out a mighty bow and Overpenetrate to hit two targets with one shot (think Cleave with a bow), or take the Threaten Zone feat to inflict ranged attacks of opportunity out to twenty feet. Rogues will like Distant Sneak attack (allowing sneak attacks at extended range) and Reactive Shot (allowing at attack even when surprised). There are even a couple of feats specifically for thrown weapons.

There is an entire collection of new archery equipment, both magical and mundane. The exotic arrow concept provides for a great mechanic to deliver arrows with different abilities, for example, and there are rules for scaling bows to fit any size character. There are a number of new magical weapon properties (I particularly like thunderstone and dimension locking ammunition, great against troublesome wizards!). The best part of the equipment section, though, is the magical bows and named arrows – an entire collection of uniquely designed magical items, each with its own detailed history. An archer shouldn’t have a mundane +1 mighty (+2) longbow when he could be carrying Dragonbane!

Finally, Three Arrows provides five new spells for the archer-ranger, and a system for hitting specific areas adapted from Mongoose’s Quintessential Fighter. This last bit is probably the closest I’ve seen yet to what I’d consider a viable called shot mechanic.

Critical Hits
Three Arrows provides a couple of interesting and useful mechanics – the Bone Hunter prestige class, exotic arrows mechanic, and named bows being my favorites in the work. The archer-ranger is also a ranger-variant that I like quite a lot, though there are already a tremendous number of alt.ranger classes out there.

Three Arrows is also a very nicely formatted PDF. In your download you’ll receive three files – the covers, a portrait-formatted file for printing, and a landscape-formatted file for on-screen viewing. This last is tremendously useful. The files are illustrated throughout with pencil-style black-and-white art of varying quality.

Critical Misses
There seem to be two schools of thought among RPG gamers – those who think the existing d20 archery mechanics are just fine, and those who think the core mechanics as they are give too great an advantage to the archer. I’m one of the former, and I really like archer characters and archery feats, but unfortunately I found Three Arrows to be pretty disappointing from a game balance and mechanics standpoint. While a specialist should gain some advantage, I find a second level character dealing out three attacks per round to be entirely too advantageous – providing Rapid Shot as a second-level ability would have been a much better balanced option, for example. I’d recommend about one-third to one-half of the prestige classes and feats in this work be used with extreme caution, because their potential for overshadowing other classes in the game isn’t sufficiently compensated by their prerequisites.

Coup de Grace
Three Arrows for the King provides all of its content as 100% Open Content. Designed for players and Games Masters alike, Three Arrows provides a number of options for the archer character. While much of its content is very similar to that found in a number of other d20 products, and has a number of game balance and other compatibility issues, it does at least provide a host of specific material on one nicely formatted, inexpensive product.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[trancejeremy]

While I don't have this, I do have Sovereign Stone, which is apparently where the core Archer class was adapted from, and I've had a couple archer characters in my game.

Yes, it's very good at ranged combat, but it sucks at melee combat. So it balances it out. It really depends on how much combat you have in your game, and how much ranged combat can be used.

If anything, I've found the class is a bit weak, because it's perhaps a bit too narrowly focused.

 

[Vanuslux]

Three Arrows for the King (TAftK) is a PDF supplement from E.N Publishing that focuses on archery and those that dedicate themselves to it. I bought this product completely on a whim when I had the compulsion to buy a bunch of PDF d20 products for little reason other reason than to beef up the far too neglected PDF reviews section.

Appearances - Three files came in the zip. Two of those files are the main 50 pages of the book, one with color and one without. The third file is the front and back cover in full color. This should be the standard for PDF publishing. However, this product does one thing that I dread becoming commonplace. Landscaped layout. I loathe it and if I had been paying enough attention to notice that I was warned of this before I bought it, then I would have skipped right over it. I despise anything that is meant to be read being landscaped, but I was warned and thus I'm not going to count it against the book in this review beyond griping about it here. I do admit that it makes for better reading on a monitor...but anything I'm going to read in depth or use at my gaming table is going to be printed, hole-punched, and put in a binder.

Anyway, now that I am done with that, I will go on to say that the interior art in this product is top notch. A lot of d20 publishers seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to artwork, especially for PDFs, but that's not the case at all here.

Content -

Introduction: Not so much an introduction to the book as it is an introduction to the history of archery. History is not a strong point of mine, so I don't know if what's said here is accurate, but it's certainly more interesting and informative that most the introductions of most books.

Chapter 1 - Core Classes: Here we get the Archer and the Archer-Ranger core classes. Conceptually reasonable enough. I would allow well designed core classes along those lines in my games. The question here, however, is are the classes presented in this book well designed enough to make the cut? Well, the Archer is pretty formidable at range, what with all of its class abilities being centered on archery like Extra Shot and Pinpoint Accuracy, and could end up being the top dog of an open battlefield...at least for the first few rounds before the enemy closes the distance. Of course, that's the point of taking this class and the Archer doesn't have a lot going for it outside of its specialty. The Archer might dominate a certain type of battle, but can only be considered unbalanced if that type of battle is unusually common. So yes, I would allow it in my games.

The Archer-Ranger, however, I don't think I would. A crude summary is that it's a way to multi-class the Archer and the Ranger without losing the Ranger's spell progression. Spells and a few wilderness related abilities and class skills swapped in to replace some sacrificed Archer abilities are really all there is to differentiate the two classes. Balance isn't the problem here. It's concept. The differences at low levels are very minor and by the time there's much difference an Archer with wilderness oriented prestige class is likely to end up on the better end of the stick. The only way I could see myself embracing this class is if I didn't use the Archer or the Ranger. Still, as Ranger variants go...this one is pretty good if you consider archery as an integral part of being a Ranger.

Chapter 2 - Archer Character Backgrounds and Class Paths: This chapter is pretty basic in that it presents some character backgrounds which give advantages and disadvantages, and some examples of multi-classing possibilities. The character backgrounds are pretty uninteresting and are really just ways to twink a character that extra little bit since they're mostly minor sacrifices for modest rewards. The class paths are at least interesting, but don't really add much in terms of real gaming value. They are well described, but not particularly original or inspiring.

Chapter 3 - The Prestige Archer: There of course had to be some prestige classes geared towards archers in here. Unlike some people who would say that while rolling their eyes as if it were some kind of annoyance that a product would make use of a valuable aspect of the d20 system, I will always appreciate well designed, conceptually interesting (or at least reasonable) prestige classes. It's not the fault of the concept that so many products just don't get prestige classes and thus frequently include horrid mockeries that are either exceedingly generic or mechanically flawed to a digusting degree. Anyway, before I go off on a rant on that subject I'll get back on course by getting to the classes themselves.

Bloodhunter: This assassin type is made interesting by his Crimson Ties class ability and exceptionally potent by Sneak Attack damage that can be done at astonishing range (up to 90 feet at 5th level). This class would have been better served being fleshed out to a full ten levels instead of five so that he'd be making those 90' Sneak Attacks at a more reasonable level. At least the requirements for entry are appropriately stiff, but I think this decent class is denied greatness by the apparent necessity of some designers to give potent class abilities at every level.

Bone Archer: These archers make enchanted arrows that do all sorts of neat things out of bones. This 10 level class has flavor, reasonable requirements, and is well-balanced. Definitely my favorite prestige class in this product.

Divine Huntsman: Divine spellcasters devoted to a deity whose portfolio includes hunting. At the expense of some spellcasting progression, the this class gets what essentially amounts to a lot of bonus feats stretched out across 10 levels and the ability to greatly reduce penalties for shooting an opponent who is behind cover. Not terribly inspiring, but otherwise a pretty well made class.

Elven Treehunter: This 5-level class is one of those prestige classes which plays to a racial archetype. Its perks are divided between abilities that improve movement through trees incredibly and modest archery-related combat abilities. It probably could have been made much more interesting if fleshed out to a full 10 levels, but as it is I find little flaw in it.

Master of Intuitive Archery: A ten-level archer monk class. Somewhat bland and just a little too good at what they do. Especially at 10th level. Unless I'm reading something very wrong, someone who gets that far gets a +20 insight bonus on one attack per round with their bow, on top of the +4 enchantment bonus to attack and damage they get from Ki Shot ability, subtracting -4 from any cover bonuses, with unlimited uses per day. We won't even go into the further bonuses to attack and damage from using Pinpoint Accuracy and Penetrating Shot and constitution damage done by Soul Strike.

Military Archer: *yaaawwwwn* We finally get to a class that is truly generic. Nothing interesting here. Except for the mystery of the missing Extreme Range ability. What's sad is this class gets 10 levels while the Bloodhunter and Elven Treehunter only get 5.

Siege Artillerist: *Zzzzzzzz...* Another generic prestige class, though at least this one does fill something of a gap. However, it suffers from editting that can't make up its mind what the name of the class is and leaves out class abilities.

Sniper: Another generic 5-level prestige class. I'm sure someone will use it...but in my opinion it is both boring and horribly unbalanced by sneak attack damage out to five range increments.

Legendary Sharpshooer: The only thing special about this 5-level prestige class is that it is a "legendary class" which basically means it is a prestige class with requirements that keep it out of reach until a level much higher than a standard prestige class. Fair enough. Aside from the ability score bonuses, however, this class doesn't really get much to warrant its legendary status. The Sniper prestige class is a more powerful

Overall, this chapter starts strong then fizzles into dullness.

Chapter 4 - Astounding Feats and Precise Skill: Here we get a new perform subskill, trickshooting, and 27 new feats. That's a pretty impressive number of feats for such a narrow focus, and surprisingly enough most of them are good. I'd allow just about any of them into my game, though I'll probably rename Overpenetrate (an archer's version of Cleave) to reduce the rolls of laughter sure to ensue from my group.

Chapter 5 - The Well Equipped Archer: Here we get a pretty nice batch of archery related equipment and weapons, including spiffy types of arrows like the whistling arrow, nifty contraptions like the dwarven axebow, and accessories like the stabilizer. All in all good stuff.

Chapter 6 - Bows & Arrows of Magic and Legend: While the previous chapter dealt with mundane equipment, this chapter gets into the fun stuff...magic weapons (and some other magical odds and ends). Well, not as fun as you might imagine. Nothing really grabbed me out of this batch. Nothing made me feel anxious to put it in the hands of an NPC.

Chapter 7 - Spells and Magicks: Five new spells. Not bad, not great, but they only take up one page anyway. Just a decent little touch of spice.

Appendix - Specific Shooting: This single page of rules for targeting specifit areas of the body is quite handy. While not perfect, these rules serve this function better than any d20 rules I've seen yet.

In Conclusion: If I force myself to forgive the landscaped format, I can say that this supplement is worth having. The Archer core class, some of the prestige classes, the feats, the equipment, and the specific shooting all add up to quite a bit of material that I'll end up using. If they had made the archer-ranger more distinguished, put more imagination into the prestige classes, and hadn't made the magic items so dull I would be tempted to give this product a 5-star rating. As it is, I'm rounding up the 3.9 stars I wish I could give it and calling it a 4-star effort. If I had to do over again, however, I still wouldn't buy it based on its landscaped formatting.

Did I mention I hate the landscaped formatting?

I hate it. A lot. Seriously.