ranged combat help.

[Lightlawbliss]

for a potential future character I had in mind, I'm trying to find a feat/spell/magic item that gives the weapon a threatened area (preferably something involving distance). Any help would be appreciated.

This thread is not here for me to be told a bow isn't optomized.

[Splendor]

Pathfinder has Snap Shot and Improved Snap Shot,

Ranged Threat (Dragon Mag 350 pg 90) gives 15' threaten area to ranged weapon.

Peerless Archer lv 8 (silver marches) threatens 10' area.

Arrow Mind spell allows you to threaten 5' area.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Persistent Spell plus Thunderlance (SC) gives you a natural reach of 20 feet, with no dead zone like reach weapons have. Throw on Fell Drain Spell and you'll also deal a negative level per hit. Don't forget to put Greater Magic Weapon on it.

[Lightlawbliss]

Persistent Spell plus Thunderlance (SC) gives you a natural reach of 20 feet, with no dead zone like reach weapons have. Throw on Fell Drain Spell and you'll also deal a negative level per hit. Don't forget to put Greater Magic Weapon on it.

do you always have to be carrying it?

It may help to mention blatantly that the build in question is using a bow as the primary weapon.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

do you always have to be carrying it?

It may help to mention blatantly that the build in question is using a bow as the primary weapon.

You have to wield the thunderlance in at least one hand, so that may not work out for you.

For a bow user, just get an Elvencraft bow, found in Races of the Wild. That allows a longbow to function as a quarterstaff, or a shortbow to function as a club. That way you'll still threaten adjacent squares with the weapon you're holding, though your AoOs would be melee attacks as normal.

Threatening any kind of area with a ranged weapon isn't really something that's built into the game. It looks like the best range you'll get out of this is the Ranged Threat feat that Splendor mentioned. It requires Combat Reflexes, +6 BAB, and some archery feats, and you can AoO with a bow once/round but doing so means you can't make any more AoOs for the round, despite having Combat Reflexes. Not a very strong at all IMO.

[bekeleven]

Other options include sword-bows, bowstaffs, and elvencraft bows. D&D does nothing if not reinvent the wheel.

Also for ranged characters: the whip-dagger, which should have been caught up in the whip revisions from 3.0 to 3.5, but technically was not. Talk with your DM if you use it. My strategy for threatened squares was holding it in one hand with a spear in the other. D&D has no "off hand" rules, meaning you can attack with a 1 handed whip-dagger on your turn, and take AoO with your spear off your turn.

For your money, I'd recommend statting out a persistent item of Arrow Mind, which was already mentioned. It's a great spell.

[Lightlawbliss]

by raw, can elvencraft be combined with dwarf craft? I'm not sure with what i'm reading.

[Darrin]

by raw, can elvencraft be combined with dwarf craft? I'm not sure with what i'm reading.

There's nothing in the text that says "Elvencraft" bows absolutely must be made my elves. In theory, another race trained by elven bowyers could probably achieve the same results, although from a story standpoint, an elven bowyer that taught his racial crafting secrets to outsiders would likely be shunned and strongly encouraged to take up a different occupation.

Dwarvencraft is a bit more emphatic that these items are created by dwarven smiths, although again there is the possibility they could pass on their crafting secrets to another race. A doppelganger or changeling with Racial Emulation could be devious enough to get trained as either/both an elf or a dwarf weaponsmith.

However, there's an obstacle beyond just the proper racial background: "Only items crafted primarily of metal or stone are available in dwarvencraft quality." Thus, bows are not eligible to be dwarvencraft. Bows can be made if either wood or bone. Stone just won't work, and I'm not aware of any metals that a medieval-era metalsmith could use that would be flexible enough for a bow. Hmm... now, an ironwood composite bow...

[Edit: Oh, and I forgot Stoneblessed. An elf who took three levels of Stoneblessed could be considered a dwarf, and thus could make Elvencraft bows and also Dwarvencraft items. However, he'd still likely face a very large quantity of racial prejudice.]

[cerin616]

However, there's an obstacle beyond just the proper racial background: "Only items crafted primarily of metal or stone are available in dwarvencraft quality." Thus, bows are not eligible to be dwarvencraft. Bows can be made if either wood or bone. Stone just won't work, and I'm not aware of any metals that a medieval-era metalsmith could use that would be flexible enough for a bow. Hmm... now, an ironwood composite bow...

I would be surprised if there were no shenanigans to make this work.

[Darrin]

Well, apparently you can make steel bows with our current technology... throw enough dwarves at it, and they can probably figure it out. Who knows, maybe mithral has the perfect tensile strength to make longbows?