Is a pure archer viable?

100% viable.

My current character is a hunter, wearing only hide armor that he makes for himself and using only a bow. I also only allow him to carry 48 arrows max and his bow is a simple hunting bow (upgraded to fine quality grade). I play on Expert difficulty with a slew of difficulty restrictions like no HUD, no crosshair, limited carry capacity, etc. So yes, you can definitely be a true bowman in this game. d;-)

Check out my character's adventures in the Nord Refugee Diary in my signature ... his adventures start on page 61 I believe ... his father's start on page 1. d;-)

It's viable but it's not very fun at all. You'll be spending most of your time fleeing from enemies until you have enough space to fire off an arrow. Every single battle would be extremely repetitive. Initiate combat, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow and repeat until your enemy is littered with arrows and finally dead. I prefer a jack-of-all trades character so I can experience a bit of everything, stops the game from getting stale too quickly.

NaseemisOP said:

It's viable but it's not very fun at all. You'll be spending most of your time fleeing from enemies until you have enough space to fire off an arrow. Every single battle would be extremely repetitive. Initiate combat, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow and repeat until your enemy is littered with arrows and finally dead. I prefer a jack-of-all trades character so I can experience a bit of everything, stops the game from getting stale too quickly.

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I don't know. I don't usually have that issue on my pure archers. I just bash them in the face with my bow and step back a couple of feet and fire an arrow in to them. Works for me! Of course, I'm usually at a distance. It only really becomes an issue with wildlife, but, since my archers are usually sneaky, I can usually catch them unaware.

I like to keep a sable of enchanted bows for 'every occasion'. I don't know if a pure archer is allowed to enchant their own, but mine do. This way I can enchant hunting bows with pretty powerful effects and shoot rapidly.

How about a pure archer with Beast Form? Sounds like fun. Just use a dagger during the initial test and hum....

NaseemisOP said:

It's viable but it's not very fun at all. You'll be spending most of your time fleeing from enemies until you have enough space to fire off an arrow. Every single battle would be extremely repetitive. Initiate combat, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow and repeat until your enemy is littered with arrows and finally dead. I prefer a jack-of-all trades character so I can experience a bit of everything, stops the game from getting stale too quickly.

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I think it's precisely the fact you have to run at times and find ways to put distance between you and your target that makes this build fun and interesting. With a swordsman you mostly just stand there and press the attack button .. still fun .. but not quite the same challenge as having to maneuver your position to stay alive.

Add in alchemy and potions and everything changes again. Potions that drain your enemy's stamina, potions that slow them, potions that make them weak to poison .. followed by poison potions, potions of paralysis, etc.

BIGwooly said:

NaseemisOP said:

It's viable but it's not very fun at all. You'll be spending most of your time fleeing from enemies until you have enough space to fire off an arrow. Every single battle would be extremely repetitive. Initiate combat, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow, run, fire arrow and repeat until your enemy is littered with arrows and finally dead. I prefer a jack-of-all trades character so I can experience a bit of everything, stops the game from getting stale too quickly.

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I think it's precisely the fact you have to run at times and find ways to put distance between you and your target that makes this build fun and interesting. With a swordsman you mostly just stand there and press the attack button .. still fun .. but not quite the same challenge as having to maneuver your position to stay alive.

Add in alchemy and potions and everything changes again. Potions that drain your enemy's stamina, potions that slow them, potions that make them weak to poison .. followed by poison potions, potions of paralysis, etc.

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Oh! And be sure to read Wooly's Nord diary! It's amazing!

Maybe on the middle difficulties. I'd have to see it to believe it on the higher difficulties though. High level archery with fast draw, ranger, a powerful bow and enchanted armour can be super powerful but I can't imagine how people get their character to that point without abusing Faendal or using other forms of attack

Technically I suppose you could just be a trader for many months (in game) doing all of your archery/armour leveling with training and spending all of your time traveling between cities making potions, enchanting, smithing and selling. I'm sure the OP wouldn't consider that a legit way to do it, but it's certainly possible (albeit dull)

I've been considering a pure ranged character myself, with a distinction being made between short-range and long-range archery.

Sneaky regular bows and close-range crossbows, anyone?

pure archer is def doable, i have two, one that did archery,alchemy, and enchanting, and then another that was PURE archer. no potion except for health and no enchanting. the second archer was a challenge, but best advise i can give you is "Kite", shoot an arrow at enemy, (make it hit if possible) and then run back to a ledge or tree and keep firing arrows. when it came to dragons, now that was a challenge, is till havent found a 100% system for it, every dragon battle is a different, and requires one to know the surroundings very well, i recomend knowing every little nook and cranny, right down to the last blade of grass or snow flake.