archery feats

[Nosta]

can someone give me and idea for some feats for a ranger/fighter gestalt feats for archery combat
pc level 9 3.5 3.0 and Drm allowed

i'd like this archer to be an expert who can rack up damage fast

[Flickerdart]

Well, the thing about archery in 3.5 is that it's really hard to add damage per arrow (compared to melee weapons where Power Attack exists) but it's really easy to get extra arrows. Unfortunately, you don't have any large per-arrow bonus so you'll have to scrounge around for options. A lot of your power will come from your weapon rather than feats - Speed and Collision are enchantments you'll want as soon as possible.

Ranger will give you Rapid Shot anyway, but you might want to consider using a light crossbow and dual-wielding them, so you get both the extra Rapid Shot attack and the extra Two-Weapon Fighting attack. However, enchanting two weapons and two sets of bolts will get expensive, never mind the feat and item cost to make reloading sensible.

Weapon Specialization/Greater Weapon Specialization is actually not a terrible idea in this case - you really need all the damage you can get.

[weckar]

From a bit of an out of the box perspective, is Fighter/Ranger really the ideal gestalt here? For Archery purposes? Seems to me that the Ranger could far better be replaced with a precision damage class, no?

[Nosta]

Well, the thing about archery in 3.5 is that it's really hard to add damage per arrow (compared to melee weapons where Power Attack exists) but it's really easy to get extra arrows. Unfortunately, you don't have any large per-arrow bonus so you'll have to scrounge around for options. A lot of your power will come from your weapon rather than feats - Speed and Collision are enchantments you'll want as soon as possible.

Ranger will give you Rapid Shot anyway, but you might want to consider using a light crossbow and dual-wielding them, so you get both the extra Rapid Shot attack and the extra Two-Weapon Fighting attack. However, enchanting two weapons and two sets of bolts will get expensive, never mind the feat and item cost to make reloading sensible.

Weapon Specialization/Greater Weapon Specialization is actually not a terrible idea in this case - you really need all the damage you can get.


well i'm asking for a friend.
he's thinking of taking champion of the wild
and he might be able to get a spliting bow

[Nosta]

From a bit of an out of the box perspective, is Fighter/Ranger really the ideal gestalt here? For Archery purposes? Seems to me that the Ranger could far better be replaced with a precision damage class, no?


not my idea. its what my friend wants to build. he just asked me to ask around for ideas

[Wacky89]

If I were you, I would do Fighter/Cleric and go DMM:Persist for your normal feats and archery feats on your fighter feats

[weckar]

The gestalt just seems to have an awkward amount of redundancy built in for very little returns. If this is to be played in a full gestalt group they will surely fall behind quick. It's more a warning than anything.

[Darrin]

well i'm asking for a friend.
he's thinking of taking champion of the wild
and he might be able to get a spliting bow

Unless you've got a really good reason to only take 4 levels of Ranger, I'd advise against the Champion of the Wild ACF. It's a good way to get Manyshot earlier than Ranger 6, but that makes getting Manyshot at Ranger 6 redundant, and the other archery-related bonus feats it offers are nearly useless. What you give up is also painful: instant of power, guided shot, sniper's shot, hunter's eye, hunter's mercy, swift haste, arrow split, darkflame arrow, etc.

To be a competent archer, you really only need 3 feats: PB Shot, Rapid Shot, and Precise Shot. After that, you need to decide if you want to go the Greater Manyshot route or the Improved Rapid Shot route (both of which require Manyshot). The latter route requires some additional movement, such as flight or Travel Devotion, so you can reliably full attack every round.

After that, some other feats to consider:

Woodland Archer (Races of the Wild): If your first shot misses, you get a +4 attack bonus on subsequent shots against the same target. Does not work with Manyshot, though.

Plunging Shot (Races of the Wild): Can you fly? Want an extra +1d6 damage? Yes, of course you do.

Dead Eye (Dragon Compendium): Adds your Dex bonus to damage if your target is within 30'. Don't confuse this with Deadeye Shot (PHBII), which is nearly useless.

Sense Weakness (Draconomicon): Requires one useless feat you don't need, and one feat you probably wanted anyway. Lets you ignore 5 points of DR.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Or use the Targeteer Fighter variant from Dragon.

Be, say, a Half-Giant (for Powerful Build) and get a large Greatbow.

Pick up Psionic Shot, merely to access Fell Shot. (Half-Giants are Psionic, so you're good.)

Snap up as many extra attacks (via feats, Targeteer abilities, haste) as you can, then use the sniper ability, to sacrifice those attacks to widen your crit range.

Use Fell Shot to turn your attack into a touch attack. If you've racked up enough of a crit range, you should now be laughing.

A LOT.

There are, of course, shenanigans to ramp up the stats on your bow, special arrows, using the stats for Hank's Energy Bow, but this should be enough of a start for mid-levels.

EDIT:


Dead Eye (Dragon Compendium): Adds your Dex bonus to damage if your target is within 30'. Don't confuse this with Deadeye Shot (PHBII), which is nearly useless.

Targeteer's Vital Aim ability adds dex to damage (instead of str) without a range limitation. Not great, but if you're dumping str, why not?

[Troacctid]

Personally, I would go Warlock//Ranger/Scout, and make my bow shoot glowing lasers of death.

See, the Warlock's Scepter is normally a +1 mace that adds its +1 to your attack rolls with Eldritch Blast while making the blast come out of the mace. But take that ability and put it on a bow instead of a mace, and your bow is now shooting Eldritch Blasts as easily as arrows, which is pretty awesome. (You could also just say the blast is coming out of your bow without getting a special magic item to that effect, but hey, if you can back it up with mechanics, why not?)

I like Warlocks as archers because they have ridiculously good accuracy due to using nothing but touch attacks and their damage scales without relying on full-round actions to get multiple attacks. Also, they can attach some great debuffs to all their blasts, and their at-will magic powers just make them a lot of fun to play in general. In gestalt, they're even better, because you can put precision damage on the other side, and then if you run up against something with spell resistance, you can pull out your regular arrows and laugh. (Just make sure you have constructs as a favored enemy for Swift Hunter.)