[PF] Opinions of Arcane Trickster or Arcane Archer

[warmachine]

As my 15th level Elf Conjurer died, I'm considering replacing her with a 15th level Elven Arcane Archer or Arcane Trickster. The rest of the party is a Dwarven Paladin, Human Fighter and Human Cleric of similar level.

What is your opinion of Arcane Archer or Arcane Trickster? Lacks versatility or combat power for the level? Only really works with particular magic items? Certain class features are worthless? Fills dual roles of mage and rogue better than Bard?

[Blyte]

The trickster is weak until you hit its capstone, but at capstone it is a MONSTER

[Keneth]

Both prestige classes cripple your spellcasting ability somewhat, but if this isn't a horribly optimized high-level powerplay, it won't matter that much. Both are colorful and quite fun to play. The trickster, if your Int is decent and you multiclassed into a rogue, can also perform the tasks of both classes sufficiently well.

[Ravenica]

well you no longer need to be elven to take arcane archer so it's a little easier to optimize it

[Hendel]

Never played an Arcane Archer but one of my buddies is currently playing an elf one and he is pretty smoking! He might not always deal the damage that the fighter does, but he comes close and he is always several feet away from the action. So far so good.

Arcane Trickster is nice in Pathfinder as you have an earlier entry point becasue they dropped the required spells down to 2nd from 3rd in 3.5 and that is nice. In the end you get 10 levels of arcane casting out of it and 5d6 sneak so it is not too bad. Plus the flexability of a wizard with spells like Invisibility, Fly, etc. make it a very effective and mobile class.

Once you hit 10th level in the class and can use Suprise Spells, you can way laste to the unwashed masses, provided the are not barbarbians or rogues and such (the whole flat-footed thing!). Again, not a bad choice even in "power" games but a great choice for role play and all around flexibility.

[Deathkeeper]

The biggest knock for AT is that it takes a while to get good. Since you're right near the capstone, it would probably work pretty well. AA is also pretty good. Nothing amazing, but if you're not going for an optimized party they do their thing pretty well, with arrow damage and spells for versatility.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Like others said, AT is really painful (even more so than mystic theurge, IMO) at the early levels. But the capstone is pretty nice and you're at level 15, so just 1 more and you're there.

I would suggest using a Mindchemist Vivvisectionist Alchemist as your "rogue" side, it's much more useful than rogue levels. Also, you might want to use a prestige class for the 2nd d6 of sneak attack to save a caster level, though 3 in alchemist is fine, too.

[Dissonance]

Both are hilariously useful classes that I'm always surprised when people bash on them. here's the breakdown of each.

Arcane Trickster - The TRUE jack of all trades in pathfinder. With the extremely (and effective) rogue/wizard entry you gain everything except 4 skills as class skills. Making you the definitive skill monkey. You should also optimize INT over DEX, so you get even more skills to throw around. To make it even better, you get both the spellcasting provided by the wizard and the sneaky and dmg from the rogue. Which goes a long way to improve your effectiveness in combat.
*hint the first: bonded object should be a ring you you can get easy invis on it*
*hint the second: YOU ARE ALREADY ALLOWED TO SNEAK ATTACK WITH SPELLS. they have to be spells that say "ranged touch attack", but since it's still an attack it can be sneak attacked. (hope that made sense)*

Arcane Archer - You might get worse spell casting, but you make up for it in raw damage. Pathfinder gives a LOT of support to the archery style of combat, and this class is all about jacking up the archery to the next level. The powers can come off as lackluster (1/day) and entry is a royal pain. However you are rewarded with one of the highest damage classes in the game.
*hint the first: there exists a feat called focused shot. It adds your INT bonus to dmg with bow attacks. Consider if your are qualifying with an INT caster.*

[Ravens_cry]

The trickster is weak until you hit its capstone, but at capstone it is a MONSTER
I wouldn't call it weak, it does what it does, combining arcane and sneak attack powah, but, yes, the capstone is quite awesome.
Arcane Archer, even with the lack of having to be an elf now, is still really a dip class if you are entering as primarily arcane. Been able to fire off AoO that are usually centred on you or are close range to just about anywhere is pretty darn awesome, though you'll have to judge if it is 'worth 3 feats and a level behind' awesome.

[Psyren]

I agree with Ravrens Cry - even with the huge buffs to both AA itself and PF archery in general, I don't see the AA as being worth all 10 levels. (Doing that in most builds is pretty damn hard thanks to the high BAB requirement anyway.) You get what I consider the main ability of the class 2 levels in regardless so you're not missing much by dropping out.

Arcane Trickster is great for putting some rogue in your mage and filling both roles.