Arcane Archer?

I got NwN2 and is playing a Ranger that Im thinking of leveling to a Arcane Archer…

But I need the 1st level in Arcane Magic to be able to level as an Arcane Archer.
What class sould I level up to get Arcane Magic?
Bard maybe? Wizard?

Sorc is usually a good choice!!

I guess it depends on which Attribute is higher Intelligence Mage and Charisma Bard or Sorc.
As a Mage you can llearn any spell in your level by inscribing it as a scroll, with Sorc or Bard your are very limited in your choices if that matters to you.

You'll need 11 in the attribute used for casting as a minimum, so that might affect your choice. Also as a bard you'll need more than one level to be able to cast lvl 1 spells.

Won't you get some sort of penalty for uneven multi-classing?

That depends on the Race… you don't get a penalty for taking Levels in a Prestige-Class, but if your Core-Classes differ more than one Level you get a XP-Penalty when one of the Classes isn't the preferred Class of your Race. I think it's a small price to pay for your "Dream-Character", especially since you hit the Level-Cap pretty early if you da a lot of Side-Quests - at least that's what I've read at the Web.

I see. But some races have "any" as their preferred race, so to them this penalty does not apply?

Exactly… Half-Elven Arcane Archers ftw

Originally Posted by Fenris
(…) you hit the Level-Cap pretty early if you da a lot of Side-Quests - at least that's what I've read at the Web.

I thought I'd hit the level cap way early in the beginning of the game (I tried to do everything), but in the end I hit the cap rather close to the end. IIRC, there's less combat in Act II, so leveling slows down quite a bit there.

I played a Wood Elf Ranger -> Bard -> Arcane Archer and every quest I could find and didn't hit the level cap until near the very end. I felt that it worked well as I could pick opponents off at range and also if needed I could melee reasonably well.

Just a quick story from one of our encounters.

My friend (assassin) and I (arcane archer) were fighting against Nabo.. Nuba.. something with N, huge, scary demon. Pretty tough fight, as soon as we killed his minions, he'd summon a new one. So basically, everything that could go wrong in this fight went wrong. Zhjaeve was supposed to cast a level 9 healing spell but was interrupted, the others were overwhelmed by summons. I could get off one buff at the beginning of the fight and was spending the rest of the time charmed.

So, after almost everyone was killed, the charm wore off and I could finally move again. Besides me the only ones left standing were Casavir and Khelgar.. Khelgar died while I was trying to get some distance. Then Casavir bit the dust and the demon was walking towards me. He still had like 90% health. I had 100%, but was down to 75% after one hit from his big mean sword, because I was only wearing cloth and have low constitution.

"Ah, what the heck," I thought, "I'm gonna try Arrow of Death." You know, the one that never works anyway… By the time I pressed the right button, I was already down to 50%…
Shoot! … And the demon dropped dead.

And we were dying from laughter!

Odds on that ever happening are at Las Vegas levels! I guess the Obsidian Casino let you win one there to "sweeten the deal."