Building an archer

[Pikeax]

One of my fellow players is new to Dungeons and Dragons and wants to build an Archer. He asked me for help with things like classes and feats and such. Thing is, I've never played one either (I'm a mage), so I turn to the playground for help. My DM allows any 1st party source if you can show it to him so if you reference something, please say where it is.

We have a pretty low op (read none) game and we're only level 4 ATM, but the DM will allow the player to completely rebuild his character since he's a brand new player.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Archery Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=642.0)

Probably go with a Swift Hunter build, such as Scout 4/ Ranger 16 with the feats Swift Hunter (CS) and Greater Manyshot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#greaterManyshot) asap. I'd get an Elvencraft Composite Longbow (RotW) with three Wand Chambers (CS) and take Ancestral Relic (BoED) for it. With only a single level of Ranger you can use wands of any Ranger spells, so Camouflage and similar would be useful.

[Urpriest]

There are a lot of complicated ways to make an Archer, but the simplest one that's still relatively strong involves the Swift Hunter feat from Complete Scoundrel, which allows you to stack Scout (Complete Adventurer) and Ranger levels for progression of Skirmish (sort of like Sneak Attack but triggered by moving, not flanking/denied Dex bonus). Here's a handbook for making that sort of character (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.ca/2011/09/swift-hunters-handbook.html). The basics involve taking three or four levels of Scout, then taking levels of Ranger. At higher levels you generally want a way to move and full attack in the same round, and there are a couple ways to do it based on what resources you have available. As one example, taking a single level of Cleric will let you trade the Travel Domain for the feat Travel Devotion (Complete Champion), letting you move your speed as a swift action for several rounds by expending a turn attempt. If your DM doesn't impose penalties for multiclassing then such a build might be viable.