Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Help/Tips/Tricks Archery as a warrior - my thoughts

Female warrior, archer proficiency

My choices for skill point distribution, ability point distribution, weapon use, magic use, etc. are personal. They may or may not work for you.
Part of the fun of any game is discovering for your self. That is why I would NOT recommend reading a walkthrough prior to starting. Go play. Discover. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Save often (real saves, not just quick-saves), so you can ‘back up’ if you don’t like your choice.
Now, having said that, I think a couple tips and guides are extremely useful to the beginning player.
Raze’s starting out and character type descriptions can help you make some very important decisions early on.
Also, there is a DON’T DO (quest busters) list.

General Tips

If you find yourself needing help, ask a question(s) in the forum. If that is not expeditious enough, consider looking at one of the walkthroughs that lists the quests alphabetically, by the name of the quest. If you use one of these, please be sure to note the exact name of your problem quest…thus eliminating or greatly reducing the chances of reading more than you wish…
The alternative (and a valid one also) is that some walkthroughs are listed in a more ‘linear’ fashion. These walkthroughs will help you more should you find yourself not stuck on a particular quest, but instead unsure of exactly which way to further proceed.
I will happily admit to utilizing the forum (as a ghost visitor where kiya and raze saved my butt !) on more than one occasion, actually printing off the DON’T DO list, reading a piece of a walkthrough for a particularly difficult part and heeding the character starting and building traits listed by raze.

In writing this, I’ve been GREATLY helped by kiya. She is simply a wealth of information and help. Thank you.
Thank you all to the members in the forum as well…though you may not have known it, you helped me a number of times when I was searching for a particular bit of help. And thanks to raze for all the answers!


Making a choice, warrior or survivor class

My choice from the beginning was to hoard skill points with the thought eventually they’d become necessary. In hindsight, this wasn’t so. I personally think only about half of the skill points you acquire are particularly important (I think I found only about 45-50 of the 105+ skill points I acquired truly useful – some of these were acquired from quests and books, most by level gain).
As was pointed out previously, I had at one point as many as 22 unused skill points.

My initial goal was to play as an archer…but immediately I was confronted with a dilemma. Which class to start out in. The survivor class ‘seems’ most suited to a bow-user, but on inspection, I chose the warrior. Female.
Here is my rationale
Firstly, we have to look again at raze’s starting guide - Raze’s starting guide

Look to the bottom third of this page. Note the vitality, mana, damage, offense and defense portions.
Being a bow user means NOT availing yourself to a shield. So, though you’re not (hopefully) in as much melee as a fighter, you’re still at risk as you simply can’t create the armor class of a hand-to-hand warrior. And so vitality (hit points) become vital. You WILL find yourself in small(ish) rooms where you’re forced to engage in close combat. Without the greater armor class, you’ll appreciate a lot of vitality!!
Note the warrior class exceeds the hit points per constitution point that a survivor class does. (+1 to starting in warrior class)
Damage per strength point is also considerably in favor of the warrior (0.4 to 0.14) (+1 warrior).
Offense and defense are dependant upon agility. For offense, the advantage is once again given to the warrior (+1 warrior)
On defense we finally see something in favor of starting the survivor class. (+1 survivor).
LESS IMPORTANT [thus ½ point per] (a skill point can’t compete with the compounded advantage of 200+ points in an attribute) -
lastly (of the characteristics), we see mana, which while not nearly as important as the above 4 traits, still important as we’re looking at splitting arrows. And that requires mana to fire. The advantage is with survivor. (+1/2)
In looking at the ‘special’ moves of the classes, I find the warrior’s ‘swirl’ attack of far greater potential benefit than the survivors ‘sneak’ (+1/2 warrior).
In determining gender, I find the 2 initial skills of the female survivor (lock pick and ID) to be of tremendous benefit (+1 female survivor). The female warrior having repair is also a needed skill (+1/2 female warrior).
In adding up the totals, I came up with this:
Male survivor – 1 1/2
Female survivor – 2 1/2
Male warrior – 3 1/2
Female warrior – 4

Thus my choice of female warrior class.

skill choices for the female warrior archer

Having played quite a number of rpg’s I felt I already had a basic understanding of this game (though I’d not even started it!).
I knew, for example, that poison and freeze, frost, cold (whatever it’s called in a game) would ‘probably’ immobilize an opponent for at least a bit. And I wouldn’t use these (spells) or items that utilized these.
I also knew that I would not use any ‘called’ beasts to help, banishments, polymorph charm, sleep, invisibility or any of the mage’s ‘powers of summoning’.
I would never resurrect an enemy simply to gain experience.
It’s just me, but I like to kill my opponents myself. And I’ve seen too many examples where these skills either provide you with too much power (freeze) or allow ‘others’ to fight your battles. (yes, yes, I realize others will have a different view – this is just mine).
Though I had a fierce sword and occasionally used lightning, I almost exclusively used the bow.
I chose not to utilize the wisdom (experience boost) skill. Just personal (again).
I used the strength potion maybe 4 times during the game also.
Though I used heal and mana both early in the game, I played the last 75%(?) utilizing restoration potions exclusive.
As an archer, I found these skills of (mostly) great value (keep in mind that you may have some of these skills as attributes on items, books or gifts for completed quests).

You NEED repair, 1 point (you’ve got it automatically if you chose the female warrior).
2 points in alchemy – potions are far too expensive initially. Make your own. You’re going to need them.
5 points in lock picking
5 in Know creature
2 points in restoration – you’ll need this skill early to heal. Later it becomes unimportant as you’ll restore a lot more with restoration potions, and you can now afford them (not to mention the mana restore!).
5 in bow expertise – or whatever gets you to a 1 or 0 in recuperation time.
5 in sword (example) expertise – same goal as above in recuperation time. you’ll have times you really need a melee weapon. Make it hurt.
1 or 2 in spirit – not ‘til wastelands.
2 or 3 in telekinesis
1 or 2 in survivor instinct – nice to regain hit points as you walk.
5 enchant weapon – charms!
1 or 2 reflect missiles.
2 or 3 lightning. Damage from distance when bow doesn’t work…or your alt finger is just too tired!!
Perhaps a point or two in bless. I think I threw it about 4 times during the game.
And most importantly - 5 splitting arrows!!!!!!!! These will be your best friend.
I never tried true shot, not because I knew it didn’t work (I had no idea!!), just because the skill lists 4+6 damage and at the time I dispersed my skill points my bow damage was already at a high of 229 points. 4+6 additional seemed…inconsequential.

In playing the archer you ABSOLUTELY need to understand how to run away and be clever! DON’T wade in.
utilize the ctrl button (this targets the nearest enemy to your cursor, even though you may not see it/them on the screen!)
at distance, splitting arrows is amazing! up close, you’ll get but one shot even when utilizing the splitting arrows. so…if need be, FIRE, RUN, FIRE, RUN, etc.
also (and this was HUGE!!), while not ‘always’ true, splitting arrows works far better on an EAST-WEST plane than a NORTH-SOUTH. arrange yourself accordingly!!!!

north-south - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/north-south%20archer.jpg
east-west - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/east-west%20archer.jpg

there are simply numerous times that only one of your arrows hits (note north-west pic) when firing north-south. notice also on east-west pic how multiples are connecting!!
using splitting arrows fatigues your middle finger!! (i use the alt fire mouse [right] button for casting splitting arrows).
Set your keyboard keys for skill/weapon/potion use. By default, only the ‘F’ (function) keys are to be used. This needn’t be so. I used the ‘M’ for mana, ‘H’ for health, ‘J’ for stamina and ‘N’ for restoration potions. This kept the group (of potions) together.

Trust me, you WILL find some great bows!!!
Orc water supply, level 13
http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/orc%20water%20supply%20C.jpg
abby, level 23
http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/abby%20steel%20skels.jpg
The best I found was (of course?) the bow of hilfin –
…but I didn’t come upon this until in the dark forest where I level 34 upon entering, http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/dark%20forest.jpg
and 39 upon attaining the bow. - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/bow.jpg

obviously, when doing the holy weapon quest…look to the Noble Amulet!! While it may not carry the glamour or romance of a great sword (or dagger), the skills and attributes to be gained in the amulet CANNOT be matched!! There are a ton of other great swords and daggers. Take the amulet. It will help you A LOT more in the long run.
http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/amulet.jpg

Tactics

all bad guys CAN be killed using a bow. Be smart. Hit and run. Keep distance for splitting arrows. Watch your health and mana. Fire quick. Use the ctrl button!
josie - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/josie-bow4.jpg
josie - dead - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/josie-bow-dead3.jpg
cirgon - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/cirgon.jpg
demon of lies - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/bowlies.jpg
earlier in battle…notice the damage with arrows - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/machinegunlies.jpg

charms are good! Notice the difference before utilizing my skill points and charms - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/before%20charms-skills.jpg
and only a bit later, after using them (note, there are no potions, blesses or spells cast on me at this point, and it’s only 5 levels later) - http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/character-potions.jpg
note the damage done by bow (before skills pic) is greater than with SoG (after skills and charms pic)!
But also note that I’ve gained over 1000 hit points and 350 in mana.
Or course, this is with sword and shield in hand, with bow the gain was closer to 900 hit points and 300 mana (or so).
Note also that (thanks to raze) I finally have a name!!! Yeehaw!

Hopefully, some of this may help.
This ‘guide’ (loosely named), is only what I did. Your mileage may vary.
Get out and play. Don’t be afraid of mistakes. And most of all, have fun.
lego

PS a HUGE thank you to kiya for help immeasurable, it's appreciated! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/freak.gif" alt="" />

Thanks again Lego for your guide and for your encouragement and suggestions to me in your PMs.

You observations about splitting arrows are correct. I'd like to add a bit more detail which can lead to the application of various tactics.
1. When firing splitting arrows in an east-west orientation the arrows will tend to be parallel to one another and tightly packed. Therefore more arrows tend to hit the same target resulting in more physical damage per target struck.
2. When firing splitting arrows in a north-south orientation the arrows tend to fan out with fewer arrows striking the same target. Therefore each target struck receives less physical damage for each target struck.
Now if there's a high probability of killing a monster with only one arrow, and if there are multiple such monsters in the area, then it is more advantageous to fire splitting arrows in a north-south orientation. A good example of this type of situation would be if you are using the poisoned weapon skill fighting a large group of orcs. In this scenario the amount of physical damage done to each orc is irrelevant; it is the poison damage which kills the orcs with only one arrow apiece.
In summary if you want to hit a large number of monsters with one arrow apiece fire in a north-south orientation. If you want to direct all the physical damage at a single monster or two fire in an east-west orientation.

Cleglaw

yes.

bows are good.

but...
bows on your screenshot - bya:p

i will attach screenshot here. but later <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/idea.gif" alt="" />

http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/before%20charms-skills.jpg

hmmmmm... what a mantiss-statuette in your backpack here?

A men in archer's guild has told me something about elven bow.

Does it exists?





(and maybe some heavy crossbows in the game?) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" />
Hi Hunger
If you want to add something in your post, even several hours later, you have the Edit function.
You click on the Edit icon of your own post and you can change or add something in it.
You can do this several times if you want.
I hope it will help.

That is a Bee(tle) statuette (called bee, but turns you into a beetle), and is unique. Spoiler ~~[color:"#304154"]You can find it by killing the talking tree in the Dark Forest...[/color] ~~ [color:"#304154"]using Buad's tea from the hatch under the doctor's house in Verdistis[/color]~~ (highlight the text to read).

I believe there are bows called elven bows which can be dropped or purchased, but they are not unique or necessarily anything special.


Changing hotkeys was mentioned in the original post, but not the procedure;
Tutorial-Changing F1-F12 hotkeys to different keys

Excellent! I'm about halfway through the game with my own archer (a female survivor) and I was contemplating putting together an archer guide myself. This is very worthy of the term "guide", and will undoubtedly be used many times to refer new archers to in the future.

thanks for the VERY nice comments flix.
there IS one tiny problem in the original post. thanks to kiya, i finally got the keypoints in BOLD, but in doing so, i screwed up one of the skills...it actually should read Identify NOT 'Know Creature'. but that is, as said, minor.
raze, that invisible text rocks! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> how the hell do you know all this stuff?!?
and as far as what is written, i tried it both ways, settling upon what you'd written as it provided more gain.

I think, Raze thinks a lot, definitely not Paladin material, more of a wizard type <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

"I think, Raze thinks a lot"

Also, it is in the FAQ. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

HandEFood was the first to start using the 'color' tag for spoilers, I just changed the value to match the forum background colour (#3A495A), or be slightly darker (#304154).

alright, we'll just leave it as: raze is clever...
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

i still prefer male survivor archer

Thanks Raze for the link to THIS thread! (I read today in another topic )
I read this topic, the "guide", and I will try next time to make myself a Archer, but start as a Warrior, a man. It may be possible to survive this adventure (hardcore)

I think I play the steam version ... and let the music for what it is ... despite of the Blue Boar Inn funny music I love (it makes me happy when I hear it - so I can, if I wish, play the soundtracks on my pc with the media player - but yeah, that's for sur not the same). Or I can put on my old pc and play the soundtracks while playing DD on my other pc ... hmmm.../ maybe a nice plan

Thanks everyone for the great info !

See "lego" his guide, I understand that I have the same preferences (no summoning skills, no wisdom skill, etc ...)

Some additions:


It seems - haven't tested extensively, simply tried - that the damage from skills like splitting arrows, poison arrows etc. does not stack with your normal bow damage, but rather replaces it. This means that for a warrior, with the largest damage bonus of all classes, these skills are quite useless; relying on bow damage alone + bow skill seems much more effective, pluss Poison Weapon for extreme effect. Long sight range is a must of course as you can only concentrate on one enemy at a time.

In my hardcore games (Hard difficulty + no reloads) I found skilling the warrior as an archer a bit hard as far as survivability goes. Agility doesn't protect you enough in melee (too many enemies that can one-shot you and will do so at some point, no matter how high your defense is), so heavy Con would probably be better in the long run.

A note about looting, I haven't read tips about it, but I remember reading a long time ago that the way you killed an enemy had an influence on loot drops, and this seeems significantly true to me. Melee tends to net the worst results by far, ranged combat does better, and magic best of all; so adding archery to your warrior might improve your survivability a lot. Of course, this is far more vital in a no reload game than usually.

Thanks to make your thoughts SacretPath

I personal find Posion Weapon and Splitting Arrows NOT useless (with a Warrior type) !
And especially if you first poison you bow(s), then take Splitting Arrows as your active skill and fire arrows (poisoned!) to a group (or just one!) enemies, it's a great thing!! Even a Giant Orc going fast death and lower Orcs very fast!! After 2 or 4 shots with this combine of the two skills all Orcs are death !
But most of my bows have already a good damage value! My bow with the highest damage value has 148 damage (max) !
I do many many tradings, so I spend much time in trading to find the best equipment items and weapons. Patient is worth that time !

But I use also a melee weapon (Sword or Axe or Dagger - depending on which kind of enemy I must kill) and have some great melee weapons! For example a Sword that do Poison damage + Frost damage + more (lightning or fire, etc ... ) !

About "loot" : I don't know about any "difference" between HOW you kill an enemy and the difference between the "loot frequency" ...
I was always thinking it's just a "roll of a dice" (randomly) and so you're a "unlucky or lucky hero" to find low or great loot /// less or more loot !

Question I think about is now :
And what about killing an enemy using a Skill like Frost, but with a melee weapon that have Frost? Or a melee weapon that have Lightning or Fire ...? Is this kill a magical(?) or just a melee killing blow?

True, I forgot about poison+splitting arrows, very useful. Honestly though, poison is so powerful that you can take out all the Orcs easily without Splitting Arrows, as every Orc will survive only one or two poisoned arrows even on Hard mode, except Giant Heavy Orcs.




But that's the thing - when you use skills, the base damage doesn't count! So a puny shortbow will deliver the same damage as any other bow!




I'm definitely sure there's a difference, but try yourself: take a warrior, kill the Orcs around Aleroth with melee combat; then take a mage and kill them with magic attacks. Compare the loot on both characters; the mage should definitely have gotten more and better drops. With one mage, I managed to get 7 or 8 enchanting gems from the Orcs around Aleroth alone! I never got anywhere close to that with a melee char.



I can't really comment on that as I haven't tested it. I also must say: when I used magic to kill enemies it was mostly with a mage, while my melee chars are usually warriors. Maybe the difference in loot drops is hard coded depending on class?

I don't know ... maybe someone of the Larian Team can say more about this issue?

First time I played a Survivor (female) and I was thinking playing a archer (Survivor) give me more "bows" as a loot, but now I play a warrior, I have also "bows" by loot. Less bows, but also bows.
Maybe it is hardcoded depending on class? Yes, can be so, because I always start killing Orcs around Aleroth with using Meteorestrike ! But NO significant difference between the loot of my Survivor or Warrior by using Meteorestrike !

About the Damage Values of weapons:
IT is right: if i use Splitting Arrows the damage value isn't important !
BUT: finding a Sword that have MORE damage value AND have some handy extra's like Frost or Poison Damage for example, then the damage value make a difference !
And as long as I can use the spell Freeze, I can use close combat; but I must be carefully, because of the risk my hero can be suddenly surrounded by TOOO many Orcs ... very dangerous !!!


I didn't find it important how much "loot" enemies are dropping ! I take it like it comes (loot, quests, my lucky or unlucky moments) and I'm happy now to choose a warrior type.
For example: finding the "Shoes of the Scorpion": they were simply nothing of value for my warrior! But the "Amulet of Glory" I have luck with this equipment : Charmquality 5 + 20 to Vitality + 2 to Defense + 5 to Res. Spirit !

Note :
I don't want to use a Mage playing DD on hardcore.
He has much more Mana, but less Vitality ! In close combat the Mage can't survive easely and in some caves close combat is very close ! I don't risk this on hardcore ... !
And IF my mamapool goes empty I must only take a potion, but if my Health-bar goes empty ... DEATH and Game Over!