I did that and it was a pain. I ended up fletching through many levels for the exp and to get perfect arrows asap. So yes it's possible, but in your first 30 you may want to get a sword, shield and go bash things as fast as you can.

Actually, until they're in their late teens or early 20's, pretty much all archers are open archers since staying hidden while shooting yer bow is very unreliable until that point... though rangers are able to snipe at a slightly earlier age due to their spells.

Using archery from day one is perfectly viable, I've done it with both a ranger and a rogue... though you will have the headache of lots of arrows getting lost in the shadows/distance until you get some levels under your belt. You'll want to buy a stock of the cheap ones from the fletchers shop and use those until around level 10, that way you're not losing anything expensive if you get sick of searching them out or they get lost in the distance.

I'd also write or get ahold of a couple simple scripts early on: one to pull out an arrow, put you in stance offensive, and fire at the critter, and one to search your kills and GATHER your arrows. This will save you a LOT of typing and frustration.

Also, make sure you give yourself decent STR when you create your character, esp if your ranger is going to be a smaller race like a halfling or gnome (for those two races, I'd suggest giving them an STR of at least 85 to start, others can get away with lower). If you don't, you'll be stuck with a high firing RT. Phoen's Strength can help with that once you gain access to it, but I still wouldn't make STR so low that you have a negative bonus.

Lastly, I'd strongly recommend training at least 1x in ambush and 2x in Stalking and Hiding even if you plan on doing the majority of hunting from the open. It's always useful to be able to pop into the shadows in sticky situations or make use of 608 when something's proving difficult to kill.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

I'd recommend sword and board for your first 30 days and power-hunt. Don't get fancy and don't worry about much. Stack your str, dex and agi to be favorable for fighting and get after it. No build is really better than another at this point because it takes secondary skills to flesh out a typical "build". You just won't have the time or TP's for that now.

Basically what I'm saying is don't agonize over these decisions from lvl 1-20. Get as much exp as you can as easy as you can and fix stats before time runs out.

>If you can manage to get a regular spellup of wizard spells and throw a small statue into the mix you'll likely be fine though.

That's really all you need to do to make ranged easy at the lower levels. Your DS will be low at first, but will improve a great deal once you get 103, 613, and 618 under your belt. You'll want to use a short bow or composite bow to help with firing times. The minimum RT on ranged is 3, and you should take advantage of that. 606 helps reduce firing times by 1 second, by the way, by giving you a +10 strength bonus.

For more info on ranged, and if you haven't seen it, check out my ranged guide: http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_the_Bow_(guide)

~ Nuadjha, the Briar Fox

You inhale deeply upon your pipe, puckering your lips as you send out three rings of smoke before you, then puff out a small vine of smoke that darts right through all three which causes them to disperse in a hazy shroud!

Macros work fine. Here's how I do it.

To begin with, I keep two bundles of arrows in my quiver, one blessed, one flaring.

ALT-F = stance offensive\r --- You can combine this with your fire macro if you want. I'm just used to working this way.

ALT-D = take 1 arrow from my quiver\r fire\r

---

I set my target with the TARGET command. Fire will attack your target, or default to a random enemy.

TAB = target --- I leave a blank space and no carriage return, so I can simply hit TAB and type the critter I want to hit. Easy.

ALT-B = gather arrow\r put my arrow in my arrow in my quiver\r -- This works like magic. There is one caveat: If your ammo gets mixed up, you'll have all kinds of headaches getting it sorted out. So make sure you use only 1 type of ammo at a time. Sometimes the messaging is a little weird, but it works.

ALT-W = take other arrow from my quiver\r put my arrow in my quiver\r --- This simply swaps between my blessed arrows and flaring arrows.

ALT-H = hide\r

CTL-H = inc camouflage\r

ALT-Z = stance defensive\r

---

Why Z? I haven't the foggiest notion. I'm just used to it. :)

I have ALT-F5 through F9 mapped to aim at various body parts, for example ALT-F5 = aim right eye\r

Some of my key combinations may seem a bit baffling, but I'm used to them. My first character was (and is) a sorcerer, so ALT-D was my main attack macro (mana Disrupt) and the habit stuck. I have no idea about ALT-B...it may have been the only key left, I can't remember. :) Bottom line, map them any way you want.

And that's about it for bow mechanics. No scripts necessary. Not to say you can't put all that in a script, but I personally find it much more satisfying to hunt with macros. It's also more flexible since you can quickly adapt to a changing situation. This becomes more important as you start using your spells more often.

I should also mention I'm a rather speedy touch-typist, so my macros assume both hands are in typing position. They might be less than ideal for a hunter-and-pecker. :)

~ Heathyr and friends

TWC is plenty viable and lots of fun. Has the same DS problems as ranged at lower levels.

~ Nuadjha, the Briar Fox

You inhale deeply upon your pipe, puckering your lips as you send out three rings of smoke before you, then puff out a small vine of smoke that darts right through all three which causes them to disperse in a hazy shroud!