How to Build an Arcane Archer in Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance

Seemingly out of nowhere, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance was suddenly re-released by Interplay and Black Isle Studios for modern consoles. This seems most likely to be a promotion for the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance reboot, this time mostly set in Icewind Dale instead of Baldur’s Gate. However, that game is fully being made by Tuque Games and Wizards of the Coast.

What might catch many off-guard is that Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance does not play like other games in the series, neither the first two real-time with pause classics or the newer turn-based third game currently in early access. It is instead an action dungeon crawler in the vein of Diablo or Path of Exile. This results in a limited number of classes all with fixed races, abilities, and personalities.

Vahn’s Abilities in Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance

Even though Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance is based on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 ruleset, it makes many adjustments for a very active action dungeon crawler. This means many changes to ability scores, feats, and attacks. Vahn is always a human with the class of Arcane Archer, even from level one. He has fixed first level stats that cannot be altered and function accordingly-

• Strength (17): increases melee damage, melee accuracy, and carrying capacity
• Dexterity (15): increases arranged damage, ranged accuracy, and armor class
• Constitution (14): increases max health and health regeneration
• Intelligence (11): increases max mana and mana regeneration
• Wisdom (13): grants bonus experience points in the future
• Charisma (11): lowers the price of shops and increases the gold amount when selling

Because of how ability scores now function, players may want to consider hefty investments into Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. Strength should be high enough to carry lots of arrows and loot from the adventure (or even higher if using melee weapons). Wisdom and Charisma are mostly luxury stats that are more beneficial at the start of a campaign but become worse and worse. While scores can only be increased naturally every four levels, equipment with either direct ability score bonuses or the resulting increase will be just as powerful.

Active Arcane Archer Feats

Active feats are unique attacks that Vahn can make during combat.

• Repulsion: pushback nearby enemies and deal a small amount of damage. Useful when surrounded and need to make some space.
• Ice Arrow: deal ice damage and slow the target. Mostly useful for the slow effect than as an actual attack. Hitting a slowed target again will even freeze them in place.
• Shock Arrow: deal heavy electric damage. The strongest elemental bow attack, best used on anything that isn’t completely immune to electric.
• Flame Arrow: deal fire damage and ignite the target. Deals okay damage on the initial hit, but the burning effect has to last its full duration to be worthwhile.
• Exploding Arrow: let loose a fire arrow that then explodes, damaging anything nearby. The impact radius is good for taking out groups. However, it can damage an ally or even the player if they are standing too close to the blast zone.
• Hail of Arrows: launches multiple arrows in an arc. Great for either fighting swarms of enemies or large bosses that can be hit by all five shots.

Passive Arcane Archer Feats

Vahn has both universal feat and special ones for his class. Most can be improved up to fifth rank with more and more feat points spent.

• Accuracy: improves accuracy with ranged weapons. Given for free due to being an Arcane Archer.
• Targeting: shows where the arrow will land before letting it loose. Both very handy and a free first level feat for Vahn.
• Arcane Quiver: reduces the weight of arrows. Absolutely needed if going for an archery build. Still good even if wanting to use melee weapons.
• Enchanted Arrow: increases damage of normal bow attacks. Not very useful as it doesn’t work on special attacks.
• Dodge: gives extra armor class. Very handy when playing solo or with Adrianna the Sorceress. Less useful when co-oping with Kromlech the Fighter.
• Deflect Missile: gives a slight chance to negate damage from enemy archers. Wonderful in levels with bow wielding enemies, but will be useless against melee and mages.
• Endurance: carry even more items. One of the best feats if you are going into a dungeon for loot or have tons of arrows.
• Toughness: increases total hitpoints. Best used for solo, not as required when working with a teammate that can tank hits.
• Fortitude: increases hitpoint regeneration. Like toughness, mainly used if playing solo and will wind up taking the brunt of damage. Its increase is exponential with higher Constitution.
• Willpower: increases total mana. Great when using many special bow attacks that can drain mana quickly. Less useful if using just normal ranged or melee attacks.
• Meditation: increases mana regeneration rate. A somewhat good skill for special bow attacks. However, it is typically better to raise max mana first before regeneration.
• Combat Reflexes: increases attack speed: one of the best overall feats as it will increase the rate of all damage.
• Improved Critical: raises the chance of scoring a critical hit. Also one of the best feats, especially important when using attacks that can hit multiple times.
• Death Blow: raises critical damage. Best paired with Improved Critical. After all, that extra damage won’t come if you don’t land a critical in the first place.

Arcane Archer Builds in Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance

Even though Vahn gains bonuses to archery, he is balanced enough to instead be a great melee warrior. Players should think about their build at level one with a great importance on playing solo or with a co-op partner.

Ranged Focus

Ranged attacks are the traditional focus for a class dubbed a magical marksman. This is by far the best option when teaming up with Kromlech the Fighter, who will already be thick in the frontlines. Key ability scores should be on Dexterity and Intelligence. Shock Arrow and Hail of Arrows will be the main attacks, while Ice Arrow will be much more supportive. Arcane Quiver, Willpower, and Combat Reflexes should also be important feats, mostly after upping attack power. Outside of looking for the best bow, money should also be spent on arrows, mana potions, decent armor with good offensive stats, and possibly a shield just in case.

Melee Focus

Warrior type Vahns forgo the bow for a weapon and shield or two-hander. This is a good option when playing with Adrianna the Sorceress, who needs space to safely cast spells. The only active attack used will be Repulsion, making mana unimportant. Stick to improving Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Defensive feats like Dodge, Deflect Missile, and Fortitude will be highly important. Money should be used to mostly buy better armor and health potions.

Switch Hitter

The recommended Arcane Archer for soloing is one that can alternate between ranged and melee when needed. Players should prioritize Dexterity but still get some Constitution and Intelligence. Shock Arrow should still be the main attack, but regular attacks will also be used more often. Combat Reflexes and Improved Critical are even more important as they will increase all sources of damage. Equipment should be selected on mainly secondary stats as switch hitters may be spread thin on allocated skills.

The Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance re-release is out now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X

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