Pathfinder Archery Enchantments

[Magic Myrmidon]

Hi, everyone. I just realized my arcane duelist's arcane bond with is bow allows him to enchant it at half price next level. So I was looking for good archery enchantments to put on it. I know in 3.5 there were some amazing ones (helloooo, splitting), but in the game I'm playing, it's PF only. I didn't see anything particularly amazing, but I plan to be a machine gun arcane archer, so should I just stick flaming, frost, and get a free shocking from the class? Seeking is another tempting one, but I'm not sure how often the DM will be using concealment. Better suggestions?

[Psyren]

For the ones you can add via the class - the best are ghost touch, seeking, speed (if you don't have haste up all the time), and simply pumping up the enhancement to beat DR and save money.

For ones you have to buy: Cyclonic (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/cyclonic) is one of the more recent additions to Pathfinder, a very handy property that lets your shots ignore wind and water effects - including inclement weather or wind wall and similar spells. As written, your shots also penetrate effects like Solid Fog; combine with seeking and you should be able to pincushion any target hiding in any kind of fog as long as you can make them out.

Another good one, though pricy, is Nimble Shot (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/nimble-shot) aka Point Blank Master without feats.

Second Chance (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/second-chance) is also pricy but can help you land those latter iteratives that get smaller bonuses.

[Magic Myrmidon]

Haven't heard of cyclonic. That's a neat one. Nimble shot and second chance, though, seem overpriced for their effects, so I think I'll avoid those. I don't know how much money we'll be getting (it's Kingmaker, so sure, we can eventually just draw thousands of gold out of the kingdom, but that just feels wrong). Guess there's just nothing quite on the level of splitting or that one enchantment that auto-passes DR from ToM like in 3.5. Probably for the best, but still, I miss those.

Oh, and thanks for the guidance. Appreciate it.

[Spore]

Personally I LOVE Wounding. You get a full attack almost every turn with a well-placed archer, the iteratives pump the bleeding damage and although it is undone pretty easily (yet forces a standard action) and some creatures are outright immune to it I feel it is both flavorful and combines very well with Rapid Shot and Manyshot. Bleed 3-5 isn't insane in the first round but if the target does not undo the Bleeding instantly (which it can't if it is in melee combat) you stack up to 6-10 bleeding which is a considerable amount.

If your to-hit is buffed enough and you get enough chances to hit a dragon for example it might just bleed to death (since most standard creatures don't even have ranks in Heal).

[Psyren]

Haven't heard of cyclonic. That's a neat one. Nimble shot and second chance, though, seem overpriced for their effects, so I think I'll avoid those. I don't know how much money we'll be getting (it's Kingmaker, so sure, we can eventually just draw thousands of gold out of the kingdom, but that just feels wrong). Guess there's just nothing quite on the level of splitting or that one enchantment that auto-passes DR from ToM like in 3.5. Probably for the best, but still, I miss those.

Oh, and thanks for the guidance. Appreciate it.

Keep in mind that just having a +5 bow (child's play for an Arcane Duelist) will auto-bypass most DR since this is PF.


Personally I LOVE Wounding. You get a full attack almost every turn with a well-placed archer, the iteratives pump the bleeding damage and although it is undone pretty easily (yet forces a standard action) and some creatures are outright immune to it I feel it is both flavorful and combines very well with Rapid Shot and Manyshot. Bleed 3-5 isn't insane in the first round but if the target does not undo the Bleeding instantly (which it can't if it is in melee combat) you stack up to 6-10 bleeding which is a considerable amount.

If your to-hit is buffed enough and you get enough chances to hit a dragon for example it might just bleed to death (since most standard creatures don't even have ranks in Heal).

While wounding is indeed one of the rare examples that allows bleed to stack, it is unfortunately melee-only and thus not much use to an archer.

[stack]

Getting a high enhancement bow and keeping a quiver full of odd enchantment arrows seems like the best strategy, gets the benefit of the situational ones without paying to have them all on one weapon.

[Baroncognito]

If your DM allows creation of magical items, look into getting a quiver of Abundant Ammunition. It's a first level spell with a duration of 1 minute/level, so as a continuous item it would cost 1 (spell level)* 1(caster level) * 2000 (continuous) * 2 (minute per level) = 4,000 gp to buy (2,000 to make). As a slotless item it would cost twice that. But for not needing to worry about running out of arrows, it's nice. Especially if you buy specialty mundane arrows for that time before you have a +4 or +3 enhancement.

Another archery enhancement that can be nice to have is Seeking (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/seeking).

[AvatarVecna]

Most forms of DR can be overcome by a high enough enhancement bonus on the weapon; for everything else, there's Clustered Shot and Penetrating Strike/Greater Penetrating Strike.