Based loosely on the D&D or Pathfinder archetype (which they never quite seem to nail, btw, but I digress).

An Arcane Archer would use bows as the primary means of dealing damage, but that would be supplemented by magic - especially enchanted arrows (which don't exist in Skyrim, do they?)

I figure there are 3 races to choose from for this:

-Bosmer (big boost in Archery, and bonuses in Sneak, Alchemy, and to a lesser extent Light Armor)

-Altmer (big boost in Illusion - a good crowd control skill for an archer - and smaller bonuses in other magic skills, all of which could be useful, plus the very nice magicka boost & Highborn ability)

-Breton (big boost in Conjuration - nice for getting bound bows quickly - smaller bonuses in other magical skills, and decent magical defense)

Right now I'm leaning more towards Bosmer or Altmer.

In terms of skills, there are a ton that *could* be helpful, but it's not exactly optimal to spread yourself over 12 different skills. Anyway, here's what I see as the good ones for the concept:


Archery - obviously

Smithing - maybe not a real necessity, but Arcane Smith is nice

Block - i.e. blocking/bashing with a bow to get away quickly. I haven't actually tried this yet, so don't know how far I'd need to work up the skill for it to get really helpful.

Sneak - not really necessary I guess, if I'm totally dependent upon bow damage, but there are some nice perks in the tree.

Light Armor - again, the goal is to avoid being hit, or to use magical defense, but there's some sweet light armor sets out there...

Alchemy - doesn't feel really "arcane", but this is the only way to effectively "enchant" arrows. The potions would probably be very handy as well.

Alteration - utility all over the place, especially in the detect life/undead spells. Could make it a habit of opening battles with an oakflesh spell to work this up until the more interesting spells.

Conjuration - not so much for summoning pets, but the bound bow. If I focus on Smithing/Enchanting, though, this is less useful. But soul trap is in this school, right?

Destruction - this is where I wish we had touch spells. As it is, I don't see this being a major component of the build, except in the very early phases when you'll need an alternative damage skill.

Illusion - very handy for crowd control and stealth. Probably a major skill for the build, but it might make things a bit OP. On the other hand, this could maybe be a substitute for the Sneak skill altogether.

Restoration - no wards with this build, but healing is always nice. If Alchemy is a focus, though, I might be able to drop this....

Enchanting - I imagine this to be a signature skill for the build. Make & Enchant your own bows.



So yeah, that's way too many skills to advance in one character. But those are the ones I could most likely consider.

Anyway, what would you consider for an arcane archer, in terms of race, skills, and general playstyle?

Bound Bow comes with Bound Arrows (around 200 IIRC), so Conjuration is a must. But I wouldn't go very heavy on magic because you need to sheath your bow to cast a spell, and that will dispel the bound bow. That could get VERY annoying if your character is magic-heavy. Conjuration and Enchanting will make your character 'arcane enough', and very viable. I wouldn't take any more crafting skills as that will completely overpower your character. So the basic framework would be:

• archery
  
• conjuration
  
• enchanting
  
• light armor

Arcane archers are elven in DnD IIRC, but Bosmers are too 'thiefy'. An Altmer is the perfect match IMO, equipped with self-enchanted elven armor.

Looks like the http://uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Witchhunter#Witchhunter build/style from previous Elder Scrolls games, which is a class I love. I'm with asgard on this one. Archery, Conjuration, Enchanting and Light Armor.

For this kind of feel I would concentrate on Alchemy.

How I'd personally handle it is I'd wait a month or two so the CK comes out and a mod that enables this style of play gets released. I don't think it would take that long.

I'd keep Alteration for the detect life/shield spells.

When do you guys thinK the CK will be released?

Yeah, the core of the Arcane Archer is casting spells on arrows then shooting them. You can kind of barely do this with Frenzy/Paralysis/Fear potions, and thats about it. Or shooting Weakness to Magic poison followed by destruction, but thats alot of switching about.

Seeker arrows/Rain of arrows are all largely covered by all the zooming/time slowing/fast shooting stuff already in the archery tree.


The best bet would be a mod that let you one hand a bow, and equip either arrows or spells in the other hand. Letting you fire regular arrows, or zapping mana to launch the spell via arrow.

Nice idea for a build.

Though I would only resort to the bound bow when running out of arrows for my physical bow. That way I won't dispel my bound bow every time I switch to spells, which just seems annoying and a waste of magica to me. I would give the physical bow some nice enchantment and use alchemy to make the arrows more useful. I'd probably even keep a small collection of bows, to have different types of enchantments on bows available depending on the situation.

My focus in skills would be in: archery, alchemy, enchanting, conjuration, alteration, illusion. In smithing i would only take the arcane blacksmith.

I wouldn't wear physical armor, alteration and some enchanted clothing should provide good enough protection. If extra protection is ever needed I'd conjure bound armor.

As for the race: probably Altmer.

What do you use detect life for? I sneak into most new areas and I never get surprised. You have to go flush most of em' out anyway so how does knowing exactly where they are help much?

I have had and used the spell but just to try it out. I never used it again.

I like it for knowing the odds in another room. Depends on the terrain/layout of the place. Sure it there's only one or two, you might not need it. But for rooms with lots, it's nice to know the layout/number of baddies, if that makes sense.

I'd go with making your own bows, and only use bound bow when you want to charge soul gems or banish particularly annoying summoned pests (with the appropriate conjuration perks of course.) Since you'll have Conjuration anyway, you may want to suplement your ranged damage with some summoned pests of your own (Fire and storm Atorachs, particularly with dual casting and the "50% stronger" perks, can act as valuable distractions, not to mention harassing dragons until they hover long enough for a bolt or two.

The reason to use a physical bow is, as others have mentioned, you would have to recast it every time you sheathed it. Bound bow does decent damage, but a physical bow at least can be pulled out if you're out of mana.

I think I'll use a physical bow for the most part - or, as was suggested above, several bows with different enchantments. I plan to get Conjuration to the Bound Bow point with the plan of taking those bound weapon perks, mostly for soul trapping/reenchanting and banishing daedra.

I also think going non-sneaky will be the most fun with this kind of build... or at least, not grinding sneak. Maybe open up with a stealth shot from time to time, but not relying on it exclusively.

Probably I'll drop illusion for the reasons above, and because it seems to have the potential to become OP.

Given the fact that most spells will be cast outside of combat, or right at the beginning (oakflesh, detect life, bound bow, e.g.), I guess Magicka isn't a huge focus. Probably will go roughly 10% / 40% / 50% Magicka / Health / Stamina. Especially if I'm not sneaking, Stamina becomes very important for sprinting.

So, skills will probably look like:

Archery
Enchanting
Conjuration
Alteration

with Smithing and Light Armor as support. Haven't totally decided on Alchemy yet, but I may not need it if I keep up with Enchanting.

Given that, I may actually want to go Bosmer rather than Altmer, for that juicy Archery boost...

And it might be fun to have arcane smith, just so you can enchant your own bow. More for flavor than anything else.

Or the other way round ... so I can improve enchanted bows. I think that's how that perk works.

But yeah, I want to do some smithing... not a ton, but some.

I tried creating a birthsign in Oblivion that...

Stunted the casting of destruction spells.
Granted a lesser power that conjures arrows that do one of the three elemental damage types (you choose).
It gave you a bundle of 20 at a cost of 100 magicka.

...but I couldn't get it to work.

Archery & Conjuration = Arcane Archer.

Forget Destro.... you use archery for ranged, destro will be weak by comparison.

You might dabble in Alteration, and Illusion, but neither are must haves.

You WILL use Resto... but won't need a lot of perks. 4 minimum... novice + apprentice, Regeneration & Respite. You can go up to Adept, or even Expert if you really want, and you might consider the mana regen and auto-heal perks if you have room.

Blacksmithing is un-needed... ESPECIALLY if you do enchanting as you can enchant yourself +smithing gear to improve any items you need to legendary.

Enchanting will make you uber powerful when it gets maxed.... doesn't really do much for you until you get it at least above 60, better at 80+. You don't NEED it for the build, and if you want to have more focus on loot, and challenge, I might recommend staying away from it. It is thematic though.... and if you don't POWER level it, (ie; craft 200 daggers to enchant en masse) and only level it through normal use (including enchanting loot prior to selling to increase profit). I am leveling smithing with enchanting... but I don't enchant my leather bracers... I just sell them. I would just never get my smithing past 30 if I didn't process all those pelts from hunting... but I'm intentionally avoiding the buy up iron ingots, and make a fortune while overpowering your crafting abilities method I did with my first char (who is also now extremely boring to play)



Bound Bow is amazing... plain and simple. With Apprentice Conjuration & a few levels of magicka I can summon a fire atronach and my bound bow in successive casts (obviously always cast bow last) Once you hit Adept Conjuration.... the bow cost goes down and it's even better. When I first got my bound bow... it was all I could cast... but it didn't matter cause the bloody thing is SOOO powerful especially at that low of level.


I would back it up with Sneak to get the bonus sneak damage... I can kill entire groups of enemies before they even know wtf is going on.

Lots of good advice from RoninOni. Listen to the man! Some Illusion could be nice for Silent Casting and some CC type spells, but it depends on how sneaky you want to be. It levels up fairly fast if you are casting muffle frequently.

Well I have heard rumblings of a patch on the 28th so maybe then, but I hope before! So far all the searches I have conduct me net me a January release...