Dem Arrows Dō

[Raishoiken]

Hello playground. Recently, I've been looking into building a character that utilizes archery (in this case magic as well) and i was curious as to what some of your guys' favorite prestige classes, feats, abilities, etc that are centered around/can augment the way of the bow

[liquidformat]

Well to start, masters of the wild, Arms and equipment manual, and Races of the wild have a lot of great arrow choices. Also by all means you will most likely want and energy bow (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a), if you can get your dm to let that be a greatbow as the base even better. That energy bow gives you ranged power attack. Elvencraft bows are the way to go they allow you to use your bow as a bludgeoning weapon in melee, there are other ways to achieve this but by far elvencraft is the best.

Beyond that there are a couple of paths you can choose. There is swift hunter or rogue stealth both are very hard to pull off and leave you in ~30' ranger. There is divine, and there is uber distance.

I would say the best is to go mystic ranger as your base class, the ranger spell list is great for archery the fact that you can go zen archery and more or less dump dex makes this option even better. I would suggest no more than 12 levels, 10 if you don't care about improved precise shot. PRCs are rather open for this build, for the most part going with divine prcs that add domains is a decent idea.

There is also elven cleric archer with the elven domain, I haven't really looked at this one much.

For swift hunter google that for the guide, for rogue stealth check out ranged options inside a fist full of d6.

For uber distance build a lot of people suggest going straight fighter however, I think Deepwood Sniper plus Cragtop Archer optimize this build. With that said going for max range is cool in theory but really doesn't work in 90% of games which is disappointing.

Order of the bow initiative and arcane archer kind of suck, in 3.0 OoBI was cool because of zen archery abuse but that has been stripped in 3.5 making it a lot weaker. Arcane archer suffers from not progression spellcasting like other similar prcs.

[Psyren]

If you can get Pathfinder Arcane Archer, especially with Prestigious Spellcaster, you'll have a 10/10 BAB 10/10 casting archery-focused class to play with.

[Kayblis]

I agree with the above posts, and would like to comment how WBL really makes the archer. First, you can enchant both the arrows and the bow, so having arrows with different enchants for many stuations is a great idea. You can carry a couple arrows of [X]Bane for different kinds of enemies so you can abuse the +2/+2d6 bonuses(stock more on Magebane). I'm sure there's a Dispelling property for arrows somewhere.

Bow enchants are usually underrated, but some stand out as awesome choices that can very well be banned, so ask your DM. Splitting is a +3 equivalent that doubles your arrows fired each turn, as each arrow splits into two when fired. Force is a +2 equivalent that makes arrows ignore any DR and can travel through 5ft of solid blockage like wood and stone.

Any kind of flight makes you immune to most enemies while not penalizing your combat style(you also get +1 to-hit for shooting from above). Special movement modes like Climb speed and Burrow are good substitutes. Special vision is essential as you can't attack at range without line of sight. At higher levels, Freedom of Movement guarantees you'll keep constantly firing your full-attack at your enemies and at lower levels the Anklet of Translocation can save your ass in sticky situations.

[Anthrowhale]

I like the seeking (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#seeking) enchantment. For a very low +1 enchantment you ignore miss chances even those you might impose on yourself through blinking.

The merciful (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#merciful) enchantment is also good in combination with other elemental damages when it changes type to nonlethal since most enemies are vulnerable to either nonlethal or elemental damage.

[Falontani]

Artificer is an amazing archer class if your dm is okay with custom items.

[rrwoods]

The most recent optimization showcase is real spicy! Neraph ranger 2/ardent 8/slayer 10, focusing on metamorphosis into outsider forms and expanding, firing very big bows many times.

[Vizzerdrix]

Im a fan of peerless archer, myself. Ranged power attack is handy. Mystic ranger is a good bass to build off of.

[Zaq]

Im a fan of peerless archer, myself. Ranged power attack is handy. Mystic ranger is a good bass to build off of.

Would it be treble of me to riff on that a bit?

[Vizzerdrix]

Would it be treble of me to riff on that a bit?

Do as you see fit.

[The Viscount]

Would it be treble of me to riff on that a bit?

I'm in awe of that. Clearly such riffs are your forte.

I'm a fan of peerless archer as well for its ability to threaten at range, a rare thing for an archer.
Soulbow can be pretty fun, and with Zen archery allows you to be Wis SAD as a ranged character, which is a unique perk. It does require entry with Soulknife, which is less than ideal.

A smaller thing but one I've gotten lots of mileage out of: For any build that is using a physical bow that isn't Hank's energy bow, I'd shell out the 300 gp to make it an elvencraft bow. It lets you use the bow as a melee weapon without penalty and, more importantly, threaten out to 5 feat, so enemies can't just close ranks with you to mess you up like they would a normal archer.
A second equipment piece that really helps: serpentstongue arrows. They function exactly like regular arrows, but also deal slashing damage. At low levels that can make the difference against zombies and the like.

both of the above are from races of the wild

[Snowbluff]

Iaijutsu Focus is a nice skill to pick up. Arrows are specifically improvised MELEE WEAPONs, so drawing one for a ranged attack technically meets the criteria by RAW.

Hank's Energy bow is your friend in 3e.

In PF, get Deadly Aim.

Always remember to get a strength adjusted bow or one that meets your strength for bonus damage.


If you can get Pathfinder Arcane Archer, especially with Prestigious Spellcaster, you'll have a 10/10 BAB 10/10 casting archery-focused class to play with.
AA is two levels long really. Imbue arrow is where it's at.

If you're using PF and are an AA, you want to quicken area spells (even cantrips, using sacred geo) for extra shots.

If you're in 3e and are an AA, you'll want to learn Arrowsplit and get a splitting bow to multiply your arrows to cast area spells that are normally to long to cast (including glyph of warding).

You can Quicken SLA as well for more shots.