Help a skint archer out

[Nomen luni]

Hi, I have built my character to be a strong archer, however the amount of money I'm making from each mission is barely if at all covering the cost in arrows. I would expect to be a little flush after completing each mission, but it's getting to the point where I have to fall back to a sword regularly, which my character is no good with. Also, I have had to get inventive to beat the baddies (like crushing them in a portcullis or leading them back to guards where possible). Even though I have concentrated on improving my archery and bought the best bow I can reasonably afford, it takes an age to kill anything.

This is spoiling the game for me. Any ideas?

[Randomizer]

Mercantilism skill and the Dealer's Hat to decrease the cost of arrows is your best help.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

This is Book I, Randomizer. The Dealer's Hat is Book II. In Book I it's an amulet.

Other advice--there are places where you can find some free arrows (like the barrels by the bow trainer in Border Town). Try to find opportunities to use your opponents against each other (like make sure that Goblin bomb thugs are close to other targets when you shoot them, or try to group Acid Grubs together, as oddly enough they are not resistant to acid from exploding grubs). NEVER fire in the dark without Predator Sight. It is worth it to get a few levels of Elemental Magic for Predator Sight and Air Shield. Some good spot hidden may also help you out, as there are a few places in Book I with some nice caches of gems.

I've done Book I as a pure archer (never used a melee weapon except on barrels and chests), and it takes a bit of work early on, but by mid game you can be so overstocked on arrows that you leave caches of them in barrels all over the place.

[MyGameCompany]

The Hide in Shadows skill helps too.

Also, whenever I go into a new area, I always go in at night, use predator sight, and extinguish all my light sources, so that I can stay hidden and/or strike from a distance. If I have trouble seeing, a Cats Eyes potion or spell helps.

[Painted Lady]

If you are interested, there are some long discussions in the forum about playing as a pure archer. I think it's pretty much impossible. You really do have to have some ability with a melee weapon to get through the first part of the game IMHO.

[SpottedShroom]

Also try boosting your archery skill as high as you can as soon as you can. Higher skill means better chance to hit and more damage, which means spending fewer arrows per enemy. Saving skill points at character creation can especially help with this, since you can then boost archery by 5 points per level for a while.

[Nomen luni]

Thanks again folks. Well I bit the bullet and restarted after playing the game for a whole day, and I'm glad I did. It was a lot easier with a more specialised character on the archery front. Amazing how tough it got if I didn't use most of my points on archery.

I'm glad to say, I have completed the game and really enjoyed it. Just a couple of questions regarding possible bonuses that a good search didn't turn up.....

The cog/gear thing... does that serve any purpose?

Can you do anything with the weapon fragments? I found 3 lots.

[Nomen luni]

Ah yes the widget...

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Hehehehe. J-L and his evil misinformation campaign.

[Painted Lady]

Let's just say that Jedi Learner enjoys teasing people. The answer to your question is that the widget does not do anything at all in Book I.

[Nomen luni]

Thanks, Painted Lady. I shall be reporting JL to the Jedi Council for unscrupulous use of Jedi mind tricks. Drawn to the dark side of the force is he.

[Greyparrot]

I tried making a bless fighter, where he hacked his sword with bless up all the time for +6 to hit and damage. I found a curious thing. I had a bow as backup with a measly 5 skill points and a crappy starter bow, but +6 bless makes the crappy bow amazing. You may want to rush points in maximizing your bless to level 6 and then you can really do some bow damage.