What are your thoughts on the new Arcane Archer from Arcana Unleashed?

I would add the following:

"You learn the Augmented Shot option, and two other Arcane Shot options of your choice."

"Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can replace one option you know with a different one."

"Augmented Shot. You augment your ammunition with a small amount of magical energy. The creature you hit takes extra Force damage equal to one roll of your Arcane Shot Die. Using this option does not expend a use of Arcane Shot."

These changes fix the fact that when you run out of Arcane Shot uses, you basically have no subclass, and gives you the versatility it sorely lacks.

>and gives you the versatility it sorely lacks.

Adding damage to attacks with no resource cost, has nothing to do with adding versatility.

You do have subclass features that don't rely on a resource, such as Curving Shot and Masterful Shots.

I don't think your change would break the game, but also I don't think it needs the buff. There's lots of subclasses that heavily rely on resources that can run out.

I think it's about as good as it could realistically get. Probably a top 5 Fighter sub for me now.

I still don't think it wows me though.

I think it's fine as-is. Resource management is part of the game. It's no different from how a variety of classes and subclasses with key short-rest resources work.

It is painfully meh to me. The feature seem cool, but they are so few and so limited. It feels even worse when comparing it to what the prestige class used to be.

Main problem of Arcane Archer is lack of high level Arcane Shot options and random ass 15 and 18 level features that have close to nothing to do with subclass theme.

The versatility comes in the ability to change your arcane shots on a long rest. It sucks to have no subclass after 3 shots though.

3 shots per Short Rest, plus Magical Ammunition and Curving Shot, and by level 10 you get a shot back every time a fight starts.

Changing on a long rest seems fine—I agree that being able to change one every 3-4 levels is needlessly restrained.

The Arcane Archer archetype is still better fulfilled by a warlock flavoring their Eldeitch Blast as a bow, and their Pact Magic slots as special arrows.

It's okay; we knew this would be the case.

It's better than nothing.

Adding damage to attacks with no resource cost, has nothing to do with adding versatility

There's like 6 fighter subclasses in 2024 with the 6th place being pure ass so i think it's not that great of an achievement

I agree with being able to swap out Arcane Shots each day.

A better solution to having no subclass would be for each Arcane Shot choice to come with a damage type and attack rider themed to the Shot's school of magic. If you attack with a weapon you have learned via the Weapon Mastery feature, once per turn you can substitute that weapon's normal damage type and mastery property for the damage type and attack rider from one of your known Arcane Shots.

For example, if you knew Explosive Shot and had mastered the longbow, once per turn you could change a longbow attack so it dealt force damage and had a Cleave-like effect on hit to mimic a mini-explosion.

Pros:

* In combats with few creatures Banishing Shot is a powerful control effect.
* In combats with many creatures Piercing Shot is an incredible source of AOE DPR and can easily net the equivalent of 2 additional attacks in a turn, and also scales well with your Arcane Shot die.
* Arcane shot adds reliable DPR on every turn it's used.
* Ranged combat grants greater effective mobility, providing tactical flexibility to attack creatures across the battlefield.

Cons:

* You're probably going to have an Int of no more than 16 for most of your campaign meaning your DC's and uses per short rest won't scale very well.
* Unlike melee martials you can't take Great Weapon master, which is a substantial source of DPR for them.
* Unlike melee martials you don't have a built in mechanism to weaponize your reaction i.e. no standard opportunity attacks, sentinel, riposte, zhentarim tactics etc.
* You don't get a way to weaponize your bonus action until 7th level.

You'll probably be decently effective in a campaign, but there are definitely better options for DPR including ranged DPR. D&D 5.5 advantages melee martials, but if you want to build a ranged martial your best bet is probably a thrown weapon paladin or barbarian build.

Well, I don't think it's comparable. The Warlock not a Arcane ARCHER, its a fancy caster