The 3 BEST Archer Builds in Dungeons & Dragons

I managed to figure out the top three archers  that you can possibly build in Dungeons and   Dragons fifth edition all thanks to this comment  prompting me to do so and you may be wondering   why a top three and not just a top one other than  the fact that YouTube likes lists well because I   set up a few criteria the first rule is that we  have to be using something with bow in the name   of the weapon all the way from level one to level  20 so yes we're going to count a crossbow because   I saw some random incarnation of the Green Arrow  use a crossbow before so if he can use one then   I'm going to count it as an Archer rule number two  you have to be consistently good throughout the   levels you can't just be waiting for something  massive to kick in way down the line so we're   going to get rid of the Valor bar that can get  Swift quiver a little earlier than a ranger and   we're also not going to be counting the fighter  Samurai because they get one more attack than   most others but that doesn't happen until super  far down the line but if you want to wait like a   level or two for something to kick in that's okay  rule number three three is that we're going to   assume that anything that you do automatically  succeeds but anything that would rely on your   enemies just setting up something perfect or  some of your allies just swooping in to boost   you up that we're not going to count so you're  not going to be raining down arrows that blot   out the sun because you're doing a massive area  of effect attack with all of your arrows because   you can't count on the fact that your enemies are  all going to be grouped up so perfectly similarly   we're not going to be counting on some Ally that  happens to be a grave cleric making your enemies   vulnerable to the first attack because if you  wind up being a little unlucky that happens to   be the one player that runs a few minutes late  to the session and you wind up starting combat   without them and the final rule is that because  we're measuring consistency I don't want to just   get the burst damage they can get in one round  we're going to go ahead and measure how good of   an Archer you are across three rounds of combat  because the average combat lasts anywhere from   two to five rounds so three seemed like a safe bet  and now before we dig in it turns out that there's   actually a statistically increased probability  that you can roll three not 20s in your next D and   D session if you happen to be subscribed to this  channel somebody actually commented about it and   I'm going to go ahead and take it as a fullon fact  but now without any further Ado let's go ahead and   dive into the very first build which we're going  to call Mr boring and for good reason it's a very   simple build this build happens to have the most  damage in the second round of combat and it's   pretty darn simple you start off as a variant  human so that way you can get the Sharpshooter   feet right away that allows you to get a minus  five to your accuracy which is pretty brutal at   first level but we are assuming that you're  going to go ahead and still succeed on your   shots but this does also give you A+ 10 to your  archery damage which is an insanely massive boost   which only gets bigger and bigger the more attacks  that you have and focusing on the idea that you're   going to get a lot of attacks we're going to go  ahead and go with a fighter and the reason this   build is called Mr boring is because of how basic  it is and you're just going to be taking fighter   from level one all the way to level 20 you'll  use a longb to start and throughout all of these   calculations I'm going to be taking the average  amount of damage that you can do not the max   just to keep it fair so at first level with that  Longbow and with your Sharpshooter active you're   going to wind up doing about 18 damage in that  first round of combat once you hit Level Two you   get action surge thanks to being a fighter which  means you do twice as much damage in that first   round of combat but you're not going to be doing  as much damage in any other round because you only   have one action surge at level two and then at  level three you're going to go ahead and pick up   Battle Master this is going to allow you to add  superiority die to your damage you only have so   many dice to play around with but you do have a  decent pool to use and it's definitely going to   boost up your damage bringing your average damage  in your first round of combat at level three all   the way up to 46 then at level four of fighter  you're going to go ahead and take another feat   instead of an ability score Improvement and that's  going to be crossbow expert this makes it so now   you're actually going to be using a hand crossbow  which is a little less damage overall but now you   can also use your your bonus action for one more  attack and that attack can also benefit from your   Sharpshooter feet getting that plus 10 meaning  that you're going to be doing one attack with   your action one attack with your bonus action and  one more with your action surge just in your first   round of combat and that goes up even further at  your fifth level of fighter because then you get   an extra attack meaning at level five you're going  to be all the way up to 105 damage in your first   round of combat now things are going to progress  pretty steadily from here you get more powerful   superiority die because the size of the die gets  bigger and you get more die to play around with   the only big things are going to come at level 11  when you get one more extra attack on your action   which you can then double thanks to using your  action surge so now you have three attacks as   your action and three more attacks as your action  surge plus one attack on top of that is your bonus   action then things steadily increase little by  little between your ability score improvements and   the size of the superiority die and then finally  at level 20 of fighter you wind up getting one   more attack meaning that you can attack four  times as your action four times as your action   Surge and one more time as your bonus action you  can add Sharpshooter to every single one of those   meaning that you're going to wind up dealing  at level 20 being nothing but a Battle Master   fighter 213 damage in your first round of combat  just on average in your second round of combat it   does drop off pretty considerably because you  only have one action surge at least until you   get to level 17 because then at level 17 you end  up getting one more action surge to use per short   or long rest so you still get a decent amount  of damage but you have the highest damage out   of any three of these builds in the second round  of combat with a total at max level of 171 damage   on average by the time you hit your third round  of combat you're going to be out of most of your   superiority die and you're going to be all out  of action surges so you're only going to deal 95   damage in your third round of combat but that's  still pretty darn good that brings your average   damage per round across the three rounds of  combat to 159.000 points of damage now let's   go ahead and spice things up a bit because we need  to make it a little more interesting and this next   build has the highest damage in its first round  of combat and I'm affectionately calling it The   no Gadget Batman the first build I ever did on  this channel was a Batman build but I focused   very heavily on the gadgets with an artificer  but now we're going to focus more on the overall   field of Batman or at least that's just how this  build turned out the no Gadget Batman starts out   very similarly you end up taking fighter and  Battle Master all the way to level six and you   take it to level six just because Fighters wind  up getting another ability score Improvement at   that level and it's just helpful to have then  at your seventh level overall you're going to   wind up taking a multiclass and you're going to  multiclass into Rogue this is going to boost up   your damage a little bit because you get sneak  attack damage which is always helpful to have   but you can only apply that once per turn turn so  we have to be very careful with it but also when   you take that first level you do get expertise and  we're going to take expertise in stealth because   we're going to be using it then second level of  Rogue doesn't really give us anything but third   level of Rogue does give us something very crucial  a subass so we're going to take assassin remember   we're assuming that everything we do succeeds so  we're succeeding at a stealth check before combat   starts and we're going to succeed at a surprise  attack which assassins are especially good at so   there's something very important with how surprise  attacks work so in general when you play D and D   fifth edition surprise Works more as a condition  when anyone is surprised they're surprised until   the end of their first turn in combat at that  point they're no longer surprised meaning that   any attack that you're dealing against a surprise  Target even if you're doing multiple attacks all   of them are going to be considered against  a surprised Target and when you're a Rogue   assassin you get the ability assassinate this  automatically grants you advantage against any   creature that hasn't taken a turn in combat  yet and any attack against a creature that is   surprised is automatically a critical hit meaning  that any dice that you roll you get to roll twice   as many this leads to a pretty significant  boost in our damage at this level of our   previous build we were only doing 120 damage in  your first round of combat but now we can do 166   on average because we're still using crossbow  expert and we're still getting three attacks in   that first round of combat then instead of going  any further in Rogue or fighter at this point   we're going to do another multiclass and we're  going to be jumping over to Ranger so when you   jump into Ranger you wind up getting some spell  casting and you can cast Hunter's Mark so now our   first round of combat we're actually not going  to be using our bonus action to shoot another   crossbow attack instead we're going to go ahead  and use it to cast Hunter's markk this allows us   to add a d8 of damage to every single attack that  we deal and this is even more beneficial the more   rounds of combat that we wind up being able to  use it so overall it's better to use the bonus   action for that Hunter's Mark at least when it  comes to the overall damage output trust me I   crunch the numbers and I mean seriously I have  spreadsheets and graphs and all sorts of stuff   that I wind up doing the for this video so please  For the Love of All archers out there hit a like   on this video because I spent way too much time on  it and then when you hit Level three of Ranger you   get to choose another subass and remember this is  called a nog Gadget Batman so we already have his   background with the League of Assassins we have  his overall fighting and tactical wit with being   a Battlemaster fighter now we need the overall  theme of just being dark and shadowy and brooding   so we're going to take the subclass gloomstalker  this has some great benefits like umbrell sight so   now you have dark vision and since we decided to  to go with variant human from the beginning that's   really helpful and you're automatically invisible  to any creature that's relying on Dark Vision but   even more important than that you get a feature  called dread ambusher so now you can add your   wisdom modifier to your initiative roles which  is overall very helpful especially with how it   works very well with your Assassin Rogue because  it's very important that you go first in combat   and an additional part of that dread ambusher  feature is that you get one more attack on your   first round of combat and that attack is going  to deal an extra 1d8 of damage so at this level   overall in the last build you were only doing  163 damage in the first round of combat but now   you're going to deal 184 then once we've taken  care of our Rogue and we've taken care of our   Ranger levels we're going to go ahead and jump  back over to fighter because it's going to be   the most helpful you wind up getting more boost  thanks to your superiority die boosting up your   overall damage in your first round of combat to  226 just when you switch back over to fighter and   then you're just going to keep powering forward  with fighter once you hit Level 17 overall you   wind up getting the most damage you're going to  do with this build and you don't have to wait all   the way to level 20 to get it because level 17  overall is level 11 of fighter and that's when   you get that one more extra attack so now your  first round of combat thanks to the critting and   the extra attack that you get from your Ranger and  all the other stuff that's factored in your first   round of combat you're going to deal 302 damage  this does drop off pretty significantly because   the assassinate feature doesn't trigger in the  second round of combat and the dread ambusher   doesn't trigger either so that damage does drop  off all the way to 100 damage at second round but   it still stays there at the third round of combat  so at least it's fairly consistent so the overall   damage per round that you deal on average is 167.5  damage at least at max level but I'm not going to   feed you every single number because this video is  going to be long enough and then the last build I   want to cover is actually very different than the  other two but it has the highest third round of   combat it winds up being the most consistent and  the average damage per round is actually the most   out of all three builds despite the fact that  it has a slightly lower first round of damage   but let's go ahead and dive in to what some bleach  fans might call the Quincy but you can also call   it the eldrich sniper so instead of starting with  fighter we're actually going to start with Rogue   and the reason we need to start with Rogue is  because one we want to make sure we get that sneak   attack right away two we have to make sure we have  something that can use a bow right away and three   we want to get that to third level as fast as  possible to get that assassinate ability so we   take Rogue to third level and then we multiclass  into warlock immediately when you decide to become   a warlock you get to choose a subass and we're  going to choose a hex blade this actually allows   us to add our proficiency bonus to the damage of  any Target we use our bonus action to curse which   is a considerable boost to our damage and it's  consistent because it's not actually rolling any   Dice and there's not a massive Boost after that  until we get to third level because then we get   a packed Boon and we're going to choose pack of  the blade this allows us to choose a melee weapon   but we're going to go ahead and take an eldrich  invocation as well allowing us to choose improved   packed weapon so now our packed of the blade  doesn't have to be a blade it can be a long bow   we're automatically proficient with it and that  long bow gets a plus one and we can use it for all   of our warlock stuff that gives us a little boost  to our damage then we're going to take this to   fifth level of Warlock and this is going to give  us two eldrich invocations that are going to be   way too crucial to pass up so we're going to get  thirsting Blade allowing us to attack twice with   our packed weapon so essentially we have extra  attack finally and we also get eldrich Smite   so eldr Smite is very very powerful we can use a  warlock spell slot to boost up the overall damage   that we're going to deal with that packed weapon  we can only do it once per turn but that's okay   because this is going to give us 1d8 plus another  1d8 per level of the spell slot used and remember   this is automatically going to crit on that first  round of combat so that's going to be an insanely   massive amount of damage with a total of 12 d8  added overall just for that first round then   once we get that fifth level we get that Eldridge  Smite we get that x-ray attack we're going to go   ahead and take two levels of fighter this is going  to allow us to get the fighting style archery so   that way we get a little more accuracy and at that  second level of fighter we get action surge so now   we can attack four times in that first round  of combat but once we get that out of the way   we jump right back over to Warlock and we keep  this going all the way until we hit 12th level   this gives us higher and higher levels of spell  slots to use for that eldr Smite and then once   you hit 12th level of warlock you wind up getting  a great Eld invocation called life Drinker which   allows us to add our Charisma modifier to the  damage of our packed weapon and when you become   a hexplate in the first place you can already use  your charisma modifier for all of the attack and   damage roles meaning that now you only have to  rely on Charisma and you can add it to the damage   twice on top of your proficiency bonus and on top  of the plus one from the improved pack weapon and   the eldrich Smite dice that you're going to  be rolling an insane amount of so at this 12th   level of War lock and level 177 overall you're  going to deal 224 damage in your first round of   combat which I know isn't quite as much as the  other build but it still goes up a little more   because with those last three levels we're going  to take two more levels in Rogue which is going to   boost up our sneak attack damage by a little bit  and we're going to take one more level in fighter   so we're going to go ahead and take Battle Master  again just so we can add some superiority die to   our overall damage meaning that our first round  of combat we can deal up to 272 damage which I   know is a little bit of a step down from our no  Gadget Batman but in our second round of combat   we can deal 116 points of damage on average which  I know is again a little bit of a step down but   then in our third round of combat we can still  deal that 116 points of damage meaning that we   deal the most amount of damage in the third round  of combat out of any of the three builds and that   brings our average damage per round across these  three rounds to 168 points of damage on average   which is a whopping s damage better than the no  Gadget Batman I know it's not a big change but   it's definitely a very different build and it  adds a lot of different flavor so I definitely   wanted to make sure I factored it in this was a  hell of a lot of spreadsheets and graphs and all   sorts of stuff that I wound up making just to make  sure I covered everything I possibly could but I   wouldn't doubt that I probably missed something  so if there's something that I'm forgetting or   there's a entirely different build that you think  is better and consistently better let me know in   the comments down below and just because there  was tons of numbers to focus on and spreadsheets   I'll include all of the spreadsheets with all  the numbers as well as character sheets for   all three builds at different key levels all  on my patreon because my patrons are pretty   damn awesome they make it so I can actually do  these ridiculous videos and they're going to be   scrolling by the screen now they're all pretty  amazing especially my player character patrons   Johnny Dyer Kevin Shirley Dylan Meyer that  funnyman 57 Joshua mayard cgc 2014 AF storm   Alisa Martinez Panda milkshake tedz Andrew nobl  carat K z13 ml nvar Daniel galin and the dino 21   then going above and beyond that are my dungeon  master level patrons that I played D and D with   Shane Gilroy conman ZX cyber cety Talon starky  Demi urge Bron Aldridge Eric Wade Salvador Devon   happy and kilo kilo then going above and beyond  everything I possibly imagined is game steak he's   my god tier level Patron so I want to give him  a special thank you if you made it all the way   to the end of this video let me know by hitting  that like button especially if you want to play   as one of the best archers I could possibly come  up with in Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition and   hopefully you manage to roll three Nat 20s because  that would make the overall damage that much more   insane and I hope you manag to have a chance  to play one of these overly optimized archers

Channel: DnD Builds

Views: 16,943

Keywords: dnd, d&d, dungeons and dragons, dnd build, marvel dungeons and dragons, dnd character, building a dnd character, dungeons and dragons for beginners, dnd 5e builds, character builds, dungeons and dragons d&d, dungeons and dragons creating a character, dungeons & dragons, hulk, barbarian, crit, critical, critical hit, multiclass, warlock, fighter, ranger, cleric, monk, wizard, sorcerer, bard, dungeons and dragons gameplay, dnd 5e character creation, how to, dnd 5e, archer, archery

Id: ETAC2T8t85g

Length: 18min 27sec (1107 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 28 2023