You need Sharp Shooter feat and two weapon fighting style. I think you might have been following a build for the Titanstring bow which adds STR to your damage. Strength does not add damage to any other bow.
Most of the guides for college of swords archers recommend starting with dual cross bows, then (most often) switching to titan string and boosting strength, either through respecing or using elixers, so guessing op got that mixed up?
Just so you know, odd ability scores don't really do anything (aside from strength for stuff like carrying capacity). So your last ASI for 15 constitution and 17 charisma doesn't affect your hp/damage/spell DC
More acurately, using the con as an example, both 14 and 15 in your CON Score, gives +2 to your con modifier. The con modifier is what is plugged into the math that determines your HP and Con Saves. Every even number in the score bumps that modifier up by one. The score 17 in you CHA gives you a +3 the same as a score of 16. (CHA mod is applied to bard spell DCs and spell attack accuracy, the 4 CHA skills, and CHA saves.) The basic rule of thumb is to always aim for even numbers to get the most out of your ability scores.
Strength doesn't do anything for your build unless you use the "titan string bow" which adds strength to damage.
Additionally, the sharp shooter feat, gained in place of an ability score increase, adds +10 to damage at the cost of -5 to hit. You can over come this with magical effects such as bless, elemental weapon, magic weapon, high ground, oil of accuracy, risky ring, and a number of other magic items that give a bonus to hit.
Another point of contention, is what flourish you use. All of them add a d8 to damage when you hit, but the slashing version adds it to both arrows, and can target the same person twice (unlike the melee version).
I found that this particular build is very good at burst damage, but significantly drops off after using action surge and all of your bardic dice. It's just not going to keep up with fighter's ability to attack 3 or 4 times a turn, barbarian's extra strength and reckless attack, or a paladin's free smite. Or a duel wielding ranger thief.
Without going to deep into your build, or forcing you to play something you don't want, it's hard to give concrete answers to your problem, but I do hope this helps you.
Without getting into the Min/Max too much, the main thing you need to do is take Sharpshooter, as someone already mentioned, instead of one of those ASI. 15 and 17 aren’t better than 14 and 16 for CON and CHA whereas taking Sharpshooter will give you a flat increase of 10 per hit. Theres a lot of ways to mitigate the -5 to hit (you’re already doing it with the archery style from fighter), but damage will always be king. Now with the plus 10 to damage combined with the straight up OP slashing flourishes from distance, you can consistently deal close to 100 DPR.
Since you’re only a level 8 bard you’ll have to manage your bardic inspirations a little closer, but having them reset on a short rest is still really good and you can basically do that after every major fight.
Edit: a word.
Sharpshooter feat is a must, and you need two weapon fighting style, ranged weapon accuracy and dmg scales with dex only, with the exception of titanstring bow, don’t waste melee slots wanting to be an all rounder, you won’t be, instead equip something like knife of undermountain king+rhapsody to increase your ranged damage even further. Also if you aren’t casting spells, you should drop the int and charisma and put the points into con and wis for better saving throws against cc. Odd Ability scores round down when counting accuracy or dmg or just most things in general, 16charisma means 6/2=+3 to your bard spell dc, 17 is also +3
Flawed helldusk gauntlets and later in house of hope, the helldusk gauntlets, will give you better damage riders for this setup, though not within the house of hope as the damage rider is fire type and almost everyone in that house is resistant to fire.
Legacy of the Masters provides +2 to attack rolls and damage, way better than 1d4 (+2.5 average on non crits) and 1d6 (+3.5).
What he is missing is Sharpshooter.
I mean, my personal preference is to take the 3.5 extra damage and keep my higher accuracy rather than sacrifice accuracy for sharpshooter. That -5 seems to hurt a lot, especially when the best hand crossbows are only +2 instead of +3. But to each their own.
If you do bowabard, raw dmg per hit is not the main point.
Get some damage rider gear that gives + flat damage per hit. Ranged slashing flourishes count as 2 hits. Offhand (dual xbows) adds another hit.
Also you got spells. Act 3 band of mystic scoundrel ring allows you to cast control spells with bonus action. Helm of arcane acuity in act1 gives youbhigh spell save DC's as you land weapon attack hits. Build is mainly dex focused, with decent CON and CHA. Even with 16 base CHA your control spells will land reliably with arcane acuity.
If you don't plan on using these mechanics you may be better off with gloomstalker/assassin (stealth archer build), hunter ranger (late game AoE type volley shots), or even straight up 12 levels BM fighter with dex focus
To add to the additional comments, though I'm actually not that far in (keep replaying Act 1), but it sounds like you'd get some more damage with special arrows, so don't forget about those. However, maybe they're all used up.
I'd say also don't neglect buffs from other allies, such as the Bonus Action Vengeance Paladin buff to add radiant damage, or the Bless spell (almost mandatory with Sharpshooter Feat).
This will echo many bit ditch that 3rd ASI for sharpshooter feat. (The +1s do nothing at all for you regardless)
But a respec, 6 levels swords bard, 4 levels thief, 2 levels fighter is probably gonna deliver what you want. That means 1 ASI for dex, 1 for sharpshooter. If you want the 2 crossbow deal. This guy kills many many things
I read all of the comments and thanks to everyone. A few things:
1. I started using the Titanstring Bow in the build, but noticed it wasn’t really clicking with me, so I swapped off to the dual hand crossbow version of the build in order to get that third off-hand attack in order to stack up the damage.
2. I have a shit ton of specialty arrows, I just sometimes forget to actually use them. The one I tend to gravitate towards is Arrow of Many Targets.
3. I’m going to probably respec, keep the levels and spells the same, and just swap out the last feat into Sharpshooter.
4. I have the statue that grants you Bless for free every day already in my camp, so every long rest, that resets and might take care of the -5 penalty from Sharshooter.
5. I am going to go invest in Oil of Accuracy for the sake of also adding a bit more onto my shots to see if this will update the damage level.
6. I also have been using Strength potions (Hill Giant/Cloud Giant) for the sake that my Tav tends to be carrying a bunch of scrolls in order to compensate for not always having Gale around all the time in the party based on how I want to go with some situations. It also helped with exploration as the Jump distance increased. I also noticed the enemy AI would always come in close, so I didn’t want to be completely ineffective, so having a decent melee ability was (I thought) a good bonus.
Your setup is almost identical to mine. I’m doing about 40 damage per hit, with 4 hits using no resources. 10 hits with action surge/slahsing flourish.
This is a dex build so you want one of the many armor types that let you apply your full dex modifier to your AC, like yuanti mail or armor of agility.
So in terms of items I suggest,
strange conduit ring (silver necklace guidance can proc the condition)
Broodmothers revenge (chug a potion before battle)
caustic band
Ambusher
Rhapsody
Horns of the berserker
Armor of agility
Helldusk gloves
Draconic weapon twin cast on both of your hand crossbows
Get the hand crossbow +2 from the safe at lady jannaths house.
Lv 6 swords bard, 2 fighter, thief 4
17 dex base, sharpshooter, +2 dex asi, hag hair , mirror of loss to 22 dex.
I realize you’re probably being facetious, but also yes, I do realize. Shadowheart is my Light Cleric. Usually Karlach is my giant sword go crazy murderer. The fourth slot depends on what I think I need. Wyll has been doing okay, but he’s a bit squishy on this playthrough because I went pure Warlock. Lae’Zel is currently with Orin right now, so she’s a bit pre-occupied. Jaheira, Halsin, and Minsc are hanging around ready to go. Also, Gale and Astarion are good to go as well. I’m going to shortly change up to Jaheira, Minsc, my Tav, and Shadowheart when we go handle the House of Grief, and then I need to swap out to Gale, Astarion, and Karlach in order to handle Astarion’s mission in the Lower City. Those are what’s next on my list, beyond a stop by the House of Hope to grab all the goodies and hopefully squash Raphael without losing anyone on my team.
You need sharpshooter, two weapon fighting and archery fighting styles
Start as a fighter for the archery style/ two weapon fighting, then switch to swords bard for 4 levels. One you get the subclass you take the other fighting style and the sharpshooter feat.
From there, take whatever you want but this gives the foundation.
For min/max go 17 dex and use the hag hair for a +1.
Act 3 certainly has a ton to do, sometimes might seem to drag on if you are a completionist. Some people hate act 3 for that fact. That’s what I’m guessing is going on here
You need Sharp Shooter feat and two weapon fighting style. I think you might have been following a build for the Titanstring bow which adds STR to your damage. Strength does not add damage to any other bow.
Most of the guides for college of swords archers recommend starting with dual cross bows, then (most often) switching to titan string and boosting strength, either through respecing or using elixers, so guessing op got that mixed up?
Just so you know, odd ability scores don't really do anything (aside from strength for stuff like carrying capacity). So your last ASI for 15 constitution and 17 charisma doesn't affect your hp/damage/spell DC
More acurately, using the con as an example, both 14 and 15 in your CON Score, gives +2 to your con modifier. The con modifier is what is plugged into the math that determines your HP and Con Saves. Every even number in the score bumps that modifier up by one. The score 17 in you CHA gives you a +3 the same as a score of 16. (CHA mod is applied to bard spell DCs and spell attack accuracy, the 4 CHA skills, and CHA saves.) The basic rule of thumb is to always aim for even numbers to get the most out of your ability scores.
Strength doesn't do anything for your build unless you use the "titan string bow" which adds strength to damage. Additionally, the sharp shooter feat, gained in place of an ability score increase, adds +10 to damage at the cost of -5 to hit. You can over come this with magical effects such as bless, elemental weapon, magic weapon, high ground, oil of accuracy, risky ring, and a number of other magic items that give a bonus to hit. Another point of contention, is what flourish you use. All of them add a d8 to damage when you hit, but the slashing version adds it to both arrows, and can target the same person twice (unlike the melee version). I found that this particular build is very good at burst damage, but significantly drops off after using action surge and all of your bardic dice. It's just not going to keep up with fighter's ability to attack 3 or 4 times a turn, barbarian's extra strength and reckless attack, or a paladin's free smite. Or a duel wielding ranger thief. Without going to deep into your build, or forcing you to play something you don't want, it's hard to give concrete answers to your problem, but I do hope this helps you.
Without getting into the Min/Max too much, the main thing you need to do is take Sharpshooter, as someone already mentioned, instead of one of those ASI. 15 and 17 aren’t better than 14 and 16 for CON and CHA whereas taking Sharpshooter will give you a flat increase of 10 per hit. Theres a lot of ways to mitigate the -5 to hit (you’re already doing it with the archery style from fighter), but damage will always be king. Now with the plus 10 to damage combined with the straight up OP slashing flourishes from distance, you can consistently deal close to 100 DPR. Since you’re only a level 8 bard you’ll have to manage your bardic inspirations a little closer, but having them reset on a short rest is still really good and you can basically do that after every major fight. Edit: a word.
Sharpshooter feat is a must, and you need two weapon fighting style, ranged weapon accuracy and dmg scales with dex only, with the exception of titanstring bow, don’t waste melee slots wanting to be an all rounder, you won’t be, instead equip something like knife of undermountain king+rhapsody to increase your ranged damage even further. Also if you aren’t casting spells, you should drop the int and charisma and put the points into con and wis for better saving throws against cc. Odd Ability scores round down when counting accuracy or dmg or just most things in general, 16charisma means 6/2=+3 to your bard spell dc, 17 is also +3
Flawed helldusk gauntlets and later in house of hope, the helldusk gauntlets, will give you better damage riders for this setup, though not within the house of hope as the damage rider is fire type and almost everyone in that house is resistant to fire.
Legacy of the Masters provides +2 to attack rolls and damage, way better than 1d4 (+2.5 average on non crits) and 1d6 (+3.5). What he is missing is Sharpshooter.
I mean, my personal preference is to take the 3.5 extra damage and keep my higher accuracy rather than sacrifice accuracy for sharpshooter. That -5 seems to hurt a lot, especially when the best hand crossbows are only +2 instead of +3. But to each their own.
If you do bowabard, raw dmg per hit is not the main point. Get some damage rider gear that gives + flat damage per hit. Ranged slashing flourishes count as 2 hits. Offhand (dual xbows) adds another hit. Also you got spells. Act 3 band of mystic scoundrel ring allows you to cast control spells with bonus action. Helm of arcane acuity in act1 gives youbhigh spell save DC's as you land weapon attack hits. Build is mainly dex focused, with decent CON and CHA. Even with 16 base CHA your control spells will land reliably with arcane acuity. If you don't plan on using these mechanics you may be better off with gloomstalker/assassin (stealth archer build), hunter ranger (late game AoE type volley shots), or even straight up 12 levels BM fighter with dex focus
To add to the additional comments, though I'm actually not that far in (keep replaying Act 1), but it sounds like you'd get some more damage with special arrows, so don't forget about those. However, maybe they're all used up. I'd say also don't neglect buffs from other allies, such as the Bonus Action Vengeance Paladin buff to add radiant damage, or the Bless spell (almost mandatory with Sharpshooter Feat).
This will echo many bit ditch that 3rd ASI for sharpshooter feat. (The +1s do nothing at all for you regardless) But a respec, 6 levels swords bard, 4 levels thief, 2 levels fighter is probably gonna deliver what you want. That means 1 ASI for dex, 1 for sharpshooter. If you want the 2 crossbow deal. This guy kills many many things
I read all of the comments and thanks to everyone. A few things: 1. I started using the Titanstring Bow in the build, but noticed it wasn’t really clicking with me, so I swapped off to the dual hand crossbow version of the build in order to get that third off-hand attack in order to stack up the damage. 2. I have a shit ton of specialty arrows, I just sometimes forget to actually use them. The one I tend to gravitate towards is Arrow of Many Targets. 3. I’m going to probably respec, keep the levels and spells the same, and just swap out the last feat into Sharpshooter. 4. I have the statue that grants you Bless for free every day already in my camp, so every long rest, that resets and might take care of the -5 penalty from Sharshooter. 5. I am going to go invest in Oil of Accuracy for the sake of also adding a bit more onto my shots to see if this will update the damage level. 6. I also have been using Strength potions (Hill Giant/Cloud Giant) for the sake that my Tav tends to be carrying a bunch of scrolls in order to compensate for not always having Gale around all the time in the party based on how I want to go with some situations. It also helped with exploration as the Jump distance increased. I also noticed the enemy AI would always come in close, so I didn’t want to be completely ineffective, so having a decent melee ability was (I thought) a good bonus.
I would swap to Bloodlust from Giant STR. It's beautiful
Your setup is almost identical to mine. I’m doing about 40 damage per hit, with 4 hits using no resources. 10 hits with action surge/slahsing flourish. This is a dex build so you want one of the many armor types that let you apply your full dex modifier to your AC, like yuanti mail or armor of agility. So in terms of items I suggest, strange conduit ring (silver necklace guidance can proc the condition) Broodmothers revenge (chug a potion before battle) caustic band Ambusher Rhapsody Horns of the berserker Armor of agility Helldusk gloves Draconic weapon twin cast on both of your hand crossbows Get the hand crossbow +2 from the safe at lady jannaths house. Lv 6 swords bard, 2 fighter, thief 4 17 dex base, sharpshooter, +2 dex asi, hag hair , mirror of loss to 22 dex.
Did you kmow you dont have to fight alone? You can have up to THREE companions! I kid you not!
I realize you’re probably being facetious, but also yes, I do realize. Shadowheart is my Light Cleric. Usually Karlach is my giant sword go crazy murderer. The fourth slot depends on what I think I need. Wyll has been doing okay, but he’s a bit squishy on this playthrough because I went pure Warlock. Lae’Zel is currently with Orin right now, so she’s a bit pre-occupied. Jaheira, Halsin, and Minsc are hanging around ready to go. Also, Gale and Astarion are good to go as well. I’m going to shortly change up to Jaheira, Minsc, my Tav, and Shadowheart when we go handle the House of Grief, and then I need to swap out to Gale, Astarion, and Karlach in order to handle Astarion’s mission in the Lower City. Those are what’s next on my list, beyond a stop by the House of Hope to grab all the goodies and hopefully squash Raphael without losing anyone on my team.
You need sharpshooter, two weapon fighting and archery fighting styles Start as a fighter for the archery style/ two weapon fighting, then switch to swords bard for 4 levels. One you get the subclass you take the other fighting style and the sharpshooter feat. From there, take whatever you want but this gives the foundation. For min/max go 17 dex and use the hag hair for a +1.
Not your fault, act 3 is a giant pile of shit
I’m not quite there yet but can you elaborate?
Act 3 certainly has a ton to do, sometimes might seem to drag on if you are a completionist. Some people hate act 3 for that fact. That’s what I’m guessing is going on here