Blessings helps hiding success, skinning values, foraging success, resist nature strength, DS, TD, avoiding slipping on ice -- but no, not really. The benefits of Blessings lore pale in comparison to the benefits of Summoning, unless you're a non-combatant or devoted to 620.

~ Nuadjha, the Briar Fox

You inhale deeply upon your pipe, puckering your lips as you send out three rings of smoke before you, then puff out a small vine of smoke that darts right through all three which causes them to disperse in a hazy shroud!

Blessing lore has some pretty nice defensive and utilitarian benefits. If you aren't planning on being very magic heavy, it would be well worth it to pick up at least some blessing lore. I generally recommend 80 summoning/21 blessing for standard ranger builds at cap.

Droit

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Speaking to you, the ghostly voice of Kaedra asks, "Have I ever told you, I think you're crazy?"
>
The ghostly voice of Kaedra says, "That was an insane rescue."

I think it could work with the usual non-optimal build caveats: choose your battles, use superior tactics, etc. The beauty of this is that ranged is already powerful through the roof and aiming to the eye (even with the ridiculous RT of a x-bow compared to a bow) is an extremely easy way to hunt. In this case you're just going to have to spend time COCK'ing that thing in safe rooms and moving a lot for your kills/safety.

Also: don't gnomes get an RT bonus cocking?

Anyhow, sounds quite doable to me.

I have an open archer burghal gnome that uses light crossbows with master crafted normal wood bolts that have been ebladed. So far this has been a lot of fun. The main advantage vs. the hidden archer is that you have so many more training points at your disposal. My current plan is to leave them in brigandine armor and go heavy spells/lores. I hunt with full wizard and self spells at present.

Burghal gnomes get a bonus with crossbows so my cocking and firing RT is 3 seconds for each. I don't know if the same bonuses carry over to forest gnomes or not.

Currently at 18 trains with the following training:

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 120 30
Combat Maneuvers...................| 82 18
Ranged Weapons.....................| 140 40
Physical Fitness...................| 90 20
Dodging............................| 90 20
Harness Power......................| 90 20
Survival...........................| 90 20
Perception.........................| 140 40
Climbing...........................| 90 20
First Aid..........................| 90 20

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 3

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 18


I have a feeling I may be looking for additional defense down the road (post 50) given I don't plan on leaving brigandine so that I can continue to cast effectively. I haven't considered the best way to address this yet but figure there is plenty of time to figure it out. My current plan is to stop CM training for a bit, try and pick up some MOC training (up to at least 10 ranks), and as said earlier focus heavily on spells and Lore training. I pushed to have Ranger spells at level at least to 18 for the additional defense from these spells. I expect to start picking up some lore with my next training rank or two.

Regarding encumberance, I am able to carry 100 bolts in a normal 2 lb quiver without encumberance issues (current strength bonus at -1) and can usually carry a box or two before weight becomes a real issue (alternatively I could be using a floating disk if needed). I do have max lightened brigandine which helps a little.

Outside of Disarm for defensive purposes I don't see a lot of overly useful CMANs for rangers outside of Disarm and Cunning Defense (maybe feint?). Even MSTRIKE appears to only work with a bow (not a crossbow) if I am reading it correctly.

I aim for the neck, and generally get a STUN result. One shot kills aren't that common (yet) but do happen reasonably often (1 in 15?). My understanding is that I shouldn't expect to see good accuracy/results with eye shots until much later in life.

-- Robert

Much to your horror, a devastating inferno of flaming rocks ignite the entire sky and smite the area!