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The tag has a quite wrong tag description at the time of this post:

The Arcane Archer is a fighter subclass in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition (published in Xanathar's Guide to everything), and has the ability to use a number of arcane shots in battle that augment the use of ranged weapons.

However, Arcane Archer predates D&D 5E by years: it had been a prestige class back in the Neverwinter Nights games (which used the 3.5 SRD - where it IS too) and a Pathfinder 1e prestige class from the core book, dating its inception back to about 3rd to 3.5th edition of D&D.

The tidbit about Xanathar's Guide as the first publication of the class is plain wrong; it is not only a subclass, but used to be an independent class in earlier editions... and atop that, the tag is not system-agnostic as it should be, because the term is used across multiple RPG systems.
However, the best I could do is make a different game-centric tag, that focuses on the old prestige class version. So I call for help. (Remember ? That was a mess we sorted out together.)

What formulation can fix the tag description best, and not be confused with the similar-but-distinct ?

As far as I understand them, the arcane archer is basically either a wizard/sorcerer that picked up archery or an archer (ranger, warrior) that picked up arcane magic.

Note

We have 14 questions mentioning the Pathfinder Arcane Archer, and 9 questions mentioning the D&D 3.5e Arcane Archer.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Not sure how much merit the NWN appearance has here. Isn't that a cRPG (albeit based on some ed of D&D)? \$\endgroup\$
    – Someone_Evil Mod
    Jun 11, 2021 at 19:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Someone_Evil it took only existing classes from books, but I can't find the one that had it.... it's in the SRD though d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/arcaneArcher.htm \$\endgroup\$
    – Trish
    Jun 11, 2021 at 19:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ Also, especially seeing as the tag was created today, is there anything hindering you from just suggesting a better description? I'm wondering if there's some additional concern here I'm not seeing \$\endgroup\$
    – Someone_Evil Mod
    Jun 11, 2021 at 19:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Someone_Evil I didn't know that, but if anything, we need a good description and I am not good at that... \$\endgroup\$
    – Trish
    Jun 11, 2021 at 20:01

1 Answer 1

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I went ahead and changed the tag info to the following:

For questions about Arcane Archers, a character archetype which combines magic or spells with archery or similar ranged weapons. See in particular the character option with the same name for several editions of D&D and Pathfinder.

And included some bullets with those specific character options in the wiki. If slightly more details are warranted, I welcome anyone with those to add them.

This change should clarify that it's referring to the character archetype, while still pointing to the specific implementations we have questions about.

(I'll also welcome any correction, but I looked at the 4e questions and by the looks of those there's not a character option for it in that edition. Whether those questions deserve the tag I'll leave open for the moment.)


And for what it's worth, the excerpt has already been revised to read:

For questions about Arcane Archers, a character archetype which uses specially enchanted ammunition (typically arrows). See in particular the character options with the same name for several editions of D&D and Pathfinder.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Maybe something to the effect of "Not be confused with Rangers", because your description describes the 5e ranger. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 11, 2021 at 20:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ Maybe something along the lines of "that enchants their ammunition" rather than "combines spells and archery" since that describes literally 3 5e classes at a minimum (battle mage fighter, ranger, pally), maybe 4 if you want to count spellthief rogues. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 11, 2021 at 20:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ possibly put the point on arcane magic, different from divine magic as rangers used it in 3.5? \$\endgroup\$
    – Trish
    Jun 11, 2021 at 20:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've made some (relatively) minor tweaks to the wording. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Jun 12, 2021 at 4:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ It might be too D&D-specific, but the “arcane archer” has a strong sense of being “arcane,” that is, associated with mages rather than priests. Rangers get “divine” magic, that is, their spells are blessings and miracles they receive in response to prayers to Nature and/or some nature deity. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Jun 14, 2021 at 15:48

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