(PF) Arcane Archer Build Critique

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

Please Critique! (we waive the race reqs.)

Ranger 4/Wizard 4/Arcane Archer 8/Wizard 4

20 point buy

STR 10
DEX 14 (16)
CON 14
INT 16
WIS 12
CHA8

FEATS:
1 Point Blank Shot
1 Precise Shot
3 Deadly Aim
5 Weapon Focus: Longbow
7 Combat Reflexes
9 Manyshot
11 Snap Shot
13 Improved Precise Shot
15 Improved Snap Shot
17 Clustered Shots
19 ??

ranger feats:
2 Rapid Shot

Wizard feats:
1 Scribe Scroll
5: Quicken Spell?

traits:
magical knack

I should have a caster level of 16 (14 for spells known etc.). Is there anything that I'm missing? With this method, I should be able to survive early levels as a Ranger/Wizard, while still maintaining a decent caster level later in the game. It also doesn't delay my entry into the prestige class overly much... just a level I think, 8 instead of 7.

between the arcane archer class abilities, the wealth by level, i should have a fairly sweet bow in short order.

Again... anything I'm missing? any suggestions?

thanks!

[Larpus]

Feat-wise it looks ok, though to be honest, other than skills, I don't see the big advantage of Ranger over straight Fighter. Also, as far as I know, your CL only increases when you gain spells, so with 8 Wiz and 8 AA, you'd have a CL of 14, not 16.

Anyway, make sure you pick a favored school, since that extra spell per day is much better when your prohibited schools are actually "harder to use" schools instead.

As for Quicken...I dunno, I'd rather grab a Rod of Quicken and Craft Woundrous Item instead for some fairly easy cash/crazy custom equips.

But if you'd allow me a suggestion, take a look at the Magus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus) to use as the base for your Arcane Archer. You'll have a bigger BAB than your current build (5 points better to be specific), couple extra HP, a Caster Level of 18 and, while you won't have level 7 spells (which is as good as you'll get with Wiz "14"), there are some discounted spells on the list, the amount you have per day is also a bit lower, but greatly mitigated by the Spell Recall ability. And if I did my math right you should have one more feat than before.

Other goodies you grab is greater usability/damage when out of spells (despite the melee focus of the Magus, other than Spell Combat/Strike, his abilities do work while ranged and stack with Arcane Archer's).

[Blisstake]

But if you'd allow me a suggestion, take a look at the Magus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus) to use as the base for your Arcane Archer. You'll have a bigger BAB than your current build (5 points better to be specific), couple extra HP, a Caster Level of 18 and, while you won't have level 7 spells (which is as good as you'll get with Wiz "14"), there are some discounted spells on the list, the amount you have per day is also a bit lower, but greatly mitigated by the Spell Recall ability. And if I did my math right you should have one more feat than before.

I'm a bit confused with some of your reasoning here. The build he suggested would have 16 BAB, wouldn't it? (4+2+8+2), while a same level magus would have 15, which is 1 lower instead of 5 higher. Magi also have d8 hit dice, while the build suggested has 12 levels of d10 hit dice and 8 levels of d6 hit dice, which actually averages higher than a d8 (although you'd miss out on favored class bonuses). Also, Magi get 3 bonus feats in 20 levels. In this build, 1 bonus feat would be from ranger, and 2 would be from wizard, giving the same amount.

[Larpus]

I'm a bit confused with some of your reasoning here. The build he suggested would have 16 BAB, wouldn't it? (4+2+8+2), while a same level magus would have 15, which is 1 lower instead of 5 higher. Magi also have d8 hit dice, while the build suggested has 12 levels of d10 hit dice and 8 levels of d6 hit dice, which actually averages higher than a d8 (although you'd miss out on favored class bonuses). Also, Magi get 3 bonus feats in 20 levels. In this build, 1 bonus feat would be from ranger, and 2 would be from wizard, giving the same amount.
Oh, I didn't mean Magus 20, I meant to go Magus 12 and Arcane Archer 8 (entering AA at level 9). And yes, I forgot to consider Wizard's bonus feats, so I did do my math very wrong and you now have 1 feat less (though you do have Magus Arcana, which can be quite awesome).

And I think I was drunk or something when I made that post...hell...anyway here goes the corrected version:

BAB will be 17 (6+8+3), HP will be 12*d8+8*d10, averaging 98 (54+44), vs the average 94 (66+28) of the proposed build, not a big difference, though you do get an extra 4 levels of favored class bonuses.

Anyway, Magus have a surprisingly very nice spell list, so there shouldn't be that much to be missed spells-wise (I'm not 100% sure tho), there should be some extra options due to Magus Arcana and overall in combat it should fare better than the original build if not for anything else, for the stacked +1s from both Arcane Pool and Enhance Arrows.

So I'd say it's worth at least a look, it also should make leveling pre-AA easier as a Magus 8 is better of (IMHO) than a Ranger/Wiz 4/4.