[3.5] What is your favorite Ranged/Archery build

[liquidformat]

Whether theoretical, practical optimization, or just from a thematic perspective what is your favorite build?

Up for all builds whether ranged weapons, throwing, rays, whatever just want to hear about the builds people like!

[Biggus]

For a straightforward archer (assuming 3.0 material is allowed):

Fighter 1/ Ranger 14/ Deepwood Sniper 2/ Peerless Archer 3

Gets you 4th-level Ranger spells, all 3 Ranger archery feats, 1 Fighter bonus feat, keen arrows, x4 crit with bow, power shot (ranged Power Attack)

Feats required for prestige classes: Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus

Ranger bonus feats: Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Improved Precise Shot, Track, Endurance

Other feats: Improved Rapid Shot, Woodland Archer, Knowledge Devotion

Key spells (all from SpC except Arrowsplit from CoR): Arrow Mind (immediate action to cast, obviates the need to take Order of the Bow Initiate 2 to use bow in melee without provoking AoOs), Hunter's Mercy (next hit this round is an automatic crit, synergizes nicely with x4 crit multiplier), Find the Gap (first attack each round is a touch attack), Arrow Storm (attack up to 20 targets within 185ft as a full-round action), Arrowsplit (first attack each round splits into 1d4+1 arrows)

Bow (assuming you have someone around to cast Greater Magic Weapon): +1 Force Splitting Seeking Collision Magebane composite longbow

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the Pathfinder feat Deadly Precision (basically ranged Power Attack) is allowed:

Fighter 1/ Ranger 17/ Deepwood Sniper 2

Feats required for prestige class: Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus

Other feats: Precise Shot, Deadly Precision, Improved Rapid Shot, Woodland Archer, Knowledge Devotion

Edit:

Race: human

Human bonus feat: Education (to get the most out of Knowledge Devotion)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Damage: Bloodstorm Blade, preferably able to Persistent Wraithstrike, two-handed power attacking of course.

Long Range: Soulbow with TWF, or even a Thri-Kreen with Multiweapon Fighting, and Gloves of the Balanced Hand. Only take enough Soulknife for the prerequisites, and fill out the rest with Swordsage. Include Zen Archery for a Wis-SAD build.

NPC: A strong flying creature such as a Dragonkin with TWF, Gloves of Endless Javelins, and Brutal Throw.

Overpowered: Cleric with the Spell domain for persistent Draconic Polymorph: Arrow Demon and two Hank's Energy Bows with Splitting.

[Kaje]

This lil guy run-n-guns around the battlefield shooting two hand crossbows that he reloads with his tail.

Kobold Scout 1 / Cleric 1 / Fighter 2 / Scout 16

Feats
1 - Dragon Tail
1 - Prehensile Tail [Flaw: Noncombatant]
1 - Multiweapon Fighting [Flaw: Weak Will]
2 - Travel Devotion [Cleric]
3 - Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Hand Crossbow)
3 - Weapon Focus (Hand Crossbow) [Fighter]
4 - Point Blank Shot [Fighter]
6 - Dead Eye
7 - Rapid Reload [Scout]
9 - Crossbow Sniper
11 - Precise Shot [Scout]
12 - Extra Turning
15 - Improved Precise Shot
15 - Improved Initiative [Scout]
18 - Rapid Shot
19 - Far Shot [Scout]



For zapping people with high-powered mind arrows (also you get WIS to saves, ac, attack twice and damage twice):

Kalashtar Passive Way Monk 1 / Paladin 2 / Soulknife 2 / Soulbow 4 / Shiba Protector 1 / Kensai 10

Feats
1 - Hidden Talent
1 - Point Blank Shot [flaw]
1 - Iron Will [flaw]
1 - Improved Unarmed Strike
1 - Combat Expertise
3 - Serenity
4 - Weapon Focus (Mind Blade)
4 - Hidden Talent
6 - Zen Archery
6 - Precise Shot [Soulbow]
8 - Rapid Shot [Soulbow]
9 - Alertness
12 - Far Shot
15 - Improved Precise Shot
18 - Hidden Talent

[Eladrinblade]

Wood elf ranger x/cloistered cleric (solonor thelandira, Elf and War domains) 1/scout 3/ranger x, elf ranger substitution at 1st level for that sweet +3 bonus vs undead and a few bonus skill points
Use a greatbow, aim for Str 24, so that with reduce person you end up with 22, which is the highest listed str bonus for mighty composite greatbows.

[Gruftzwerg]

I recently made a dual double hand crossbow user based on El Mariachi, it's still fresh and I would appreciate any feedback^^.

Further I have a few builds abusing Bloodstorm Blade to make ranged uberchargers:
Hammerdin of Moradin - a hammer throwing Dwarf
ShurikeNado - Shuriken ubercharger
(see signature for the links)

Other than that I also have a ranged Arcane Channeling build: Shivering Tornado of Death (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?528541)

[Ramza00]

This is abuse and does not come on line till Level 10 or later. But a Crinti Shadow Marauder or a Telflammar Shadowlord. Combine wielding a light weapon dagger with the glove of endless javelins. Use the javelins of force to kill things in melee or as thrown / ranged weapons. As your last attack in your attack action use a spell storing dagger and stab yourself activating the stored spell Dimension Hop and repeat the process again and again till you run out daggers with Dimension Hop stored in them or other ways to teleport.

Yes your are that Naruto character, the 4th Hokage.

Edit: Elvencraft Bow does it better. For 300 GP now your bow is a quarter staff and a bow simultaneously. Now the Elvencraft Bow costs 300 GP more but also additional weapon costs if you wanted to treat it as a melee weapon. Effectively it is two separate weapons you never pick up and drop and pick up again.

[zfs]

Before the Rules Compendium nerf, the Chaingun Porcupine, no doubt. Especially potent in gestalt because one full side can be Totemist, letting you access Totem Embodiment and fling a ridiculous 14 spines all with tons of rider damage.

[Goaty14]

I don't have either on hand, but I like bow builds that optimize range (sniping people from a mile away), or crossbow builds that use a big enough crossbow that you essentially shoot people with a full ballista :smallbiggrin:

[Karl Aegis]

Elf Monk 9 with Zen Archery and Rapid Shot.

[the_tick_rules]

anything that allows you to fire in melee combat without provoking an opportunity is awesome.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Artificer wielding aurorum spell storing dye arrows (https://www.aonprd.com/EquipmentMiscDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Arrow%20(dye)) to fire buffs and healing on allies and debuffs and damage on enemies as ranged touch attacks multiple times per round. Gets better with returning on the arrows, as per raptor arrows. Adding alchemical liquids and powders to the dye arrows is a nice bonus.


I would be a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.Always wait to procrastinate.

[Esprit15]

Archivist for early access to Ranger’s archery spells. Dip a level of Cloistered Cleric for Knowledge Devotion and Turn Attempts to power Divine Metamagic if you want to get cheesy.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Some forum member posted a build here called “holy roller.” Vow of poverty wild shape ranger that turned into giants and threw boulders up to a quarter mile. Absolutely crazy build.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Isn't there a cleric build that used a ghost touch or brilliant energy bow, seeking, chain of eyes, and another spell to remove distance limitations who could sit outside the dungeon while sniping anything the party encountered no matter where they were or how many walls were in the way?

[Ramza00]

Isn't there a cleric build that used a ghost touch or brilliant energy bow, seeking, chain of eyes, and another spell to remove distance limitations who could sit outside the dungeon while sniping anything the party encountered no matter where they were or how many walls were in the way?

I recall this but I can't remember the details.

[Segev]

My favorite - not most optimal, but fun for its silliness - is to use light crossbows, dual-wielding, quick draw, and rapid shot with a specially-modified cloak or coat that has the light crossbows on 2-3 foot straps so you can draw and drop them. It's -6 to hit without some extra care taken, but you get two extra attacks over normal. In PF, there's a paladin spell (blade tutor's spirit) that, at high enough level, can negate the penalties.

[Gruftzwerg]

Isn't there a cleric build that used a ghost touch or brilliant energy bow, seeking, chain of eyes, and another spell to remove distance limitations who could sit outside the dungeon while sniping anything the party encountered no matter where they were or how many walls were in the way?

Brilliant Energy is one of those weird enhancements that can only be enchanted on melee weapons, thrown weapons and ammunition (but not on ranged weapons itself as other enchantments can work). The combo could still work out, you just have to always buy brilliant energy ammunition.

In my crossbow build I use Earth Dreamer's ability to see through walls (earth, mud or stone, but not metal) and a phasing weapon to ignore the wall (full cover by the rules). You can even hide in the earth/wall and shoot out of it with the phasing weapon.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Brilliant Energy is one of those weird enhancements that can only be enchanted on melee weapons, thrown weapons and ammunition (but not on ranged weapons itself as other enchantments can work). The combo could still work out, you just have to always buy brilliant energy ammunition.

In my crossbow build I use Earth Dreamer's ability to see through walls (earth, mud or stone, but not metal) and a phasing weapon to ignore the wall (full cover by the rules). You can even hide in the earth/wall and shoot out of it with the phasing weapon.If you're putting a +4 enhancement on ammo, it'd better be on a raptor arrow or one made from unbreakable riverine, or repairable shapesand or aurorum.

No sense wasting really expensive ammunition, after all.

[Menzath]

Isn't there a cleric build that used a ghost touch or brilliant energy bow, seeking, chain of eyes, and another spell to remove distance limitations who could sit outside the dungeon while sniping anything the party encountered no matter where they were or how many walls were in the way?

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?286818-Bird-of-Prey-(Tippy-s-Awesome-Flying-Sniper)

This might be close(if not exactly) what you were looking for.

I was always a fan of mindsight, and either phasing shots(soulbow) or the brilliant energy weapon(or similar) qualit(y)(ies) to hit targets from a good distance away through walls. But then you have to have something in your back pocket for those mindless creatures.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Favorite build I've actually made...

Probably Azoth, The Raven's Shadow from my sig. Rogue 1/ Monk 9/ Rogue +9/ Warblade 1. Thrown sai with sneak attack, skirmish, and iaijutsu focus all reliably activated at once, on top of a highly effective stealth/scouting build that's very difficult to actually target in combat. At higher levels, just attacking him provokes opportunity attacks that also benefit from SA and iaijutsu focus (and potentially Skirmish if it's during your turn). All practical optimization.

Second place probably goes to The Siege Tower, also in my sig. Abuses the Symbiotic Creature template to get... I think it was 22 thrown daggers per round by ECL 8? This one's more into the TO range.

I've also always wanted to do a build that uses Ballisteer with siege weapons. Flaming, phasing cannonballs/boulders aimed straight at the enemy's gunpowder reserves...

[Quertus]

Rays? Elan Crusader, get Polymorphed into a Beholder (with Assume Supernatural Ability). Good HP, great action economy, rays for almost any occasion, and the idea of being a slowly floating ball of hate whose class powers are largely based on charging, and whose 2d4 bite can be so inspiring that nearby allies who witness it in action might be healed by the experience? That's just too awesome to pass up!

Archery? Straight Psion, in a stolen body (and buffed with Cleric spells via a Ring of Spell Storing), or my friend's Druid into Arcane Archer. Good versatility to fall back on, on top of respectable archery RDPS.

Most OP? IMO, that would be the Dark Grey Elf Arcane Spellcaster into Tainted Sorcerer, who uses HiPS and plays with "-1 spot per 10'” rule. Can solo most things, just with archery, and has insane magic power (and versatile) to back it up.

Most effective I've seen at a table? Probably the pair of (Dark?) Whisper Gnome Rogues (with some tech (soul melds?) to let them hide from unusual senses).

Most fun to play? Probably the quasi-lycanthrope Arcane Spellcaster, whose spells were exclusively custom spells to augment his archery. Highly magical, totally unique, very much underperformed - pretty much the perfect recipe for one of my characters. :smallwink:

Builds I'm most looking forward to? Eh, I've always had a soft spot for Shuriken - if I can get a GM to use 3.0 rules, or refluff reusable arrows (raptor arrows) as Shuriken (and probably Sculpt Self myself as the bow), then I'll probably make something along these lines - perhaps a Naruto ninja. (EDIT: I see someone already make the 4th Hokage. Kudos!)

And I'd love to see someone take a troll, and throw their own arms.

EDIT: I completely forgot about the (refluffed) thri-kreen VoP machine gun, and my laser-rifle-wielding earth-bending… Cleric? With a familiar somehow?

[vasilidor]

To be honest, in pathfinder i made a very effective archer going straight fighter. was originally going to go into arcane archer, but changed my mind. only made it to level 12.
feat selection: point blank shot, precise shot, rapid shot, weapon focus, weapon specialization, cluster shot(damage reduction applies only once to your shots), many shot, deadly aim, far shot (halve range penalties), improved critical, greater weapon focus, greater weapon specialization.
weapon training was for Bows.
had a +5 longbow, campaign had the house rule that dexterity applied to ranged damage. this resulted in me getting a +24 to damage for each arrow and i was getting 6 attacks a round after activating a belt that cast haste as a 5th level caster. dexterity was 24 after magic items and level boost. also had bracer that increased the bonus from weapon training by 2.
against most cr 11 monsters, i only missed on a 1 and dealt an average of 171 damage a round to such targets. I threw out the power curve of the campaign, so i started to plan to take some less powerful choices so other characters could catch up. we had a cleric who played as a healbot, a forsaker, and a bard/cavalier battle herald. then he got lycanthropy.

[daremetoidareyo]

Scruffy the Fuglimancer!!!! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=19553550&postcount=248)

[Lord Foul]

Gestalt gunslinger (glass eye gunmage)/marksman (minds eye disciple) gestalt if third party is allowed

Ranger (trapper)/alchemist (grenadier) gestalt if it isn't

[Endarire]

An Artificer or a (Cloistered) Cleric as a base. Elf Cleric20 is a simple viable archer build that's doable in core.

Sure, a Fighter-based archer can have more feats, and a Rogue-based archer can do more damage consistently - precision damage immunities aside - but Cleric means you can heal, summon, blast, and buff in addition to archery, and Artificer means you can make The Best Gear™ and buff your party with things like Bane weapons and Holy weapons in times of need. Clerics can still take craft feats if they want.

[AvatarVecna]

Swift Hunter. Simple and clean.

[SLOTHRPG95]

Standard Archer: Fighter 2/Ranger 11/Rogue 7, plenty of bonus feats and decent damage output (depending on when the Rogue levels are mixed in). Also has skill points to spare, which is something I always find myself wanting more of. I've played this build or minor variations thereof in three different low-OP campaigns (not all to 20+). It works fine, it's not complicated, and it's fun.

"Archer" Artificer: Single-classed Artificer, picking up the cost-reducing feats for Craft Wand (Exceptional Artisan, Legendary Artisan, etc.), and Wand Mastery at 9th. Basically a magical gunslinger/blaster, with the right choice of wands. Requires a moderate amount of downtime between adventures.

Silly long-range build: Chaond Ranger 1/Fighter 4/Deepwood Sniper 2/Cragtop Archer 4/+8 Deepwood Sniper, with key feats being Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy Bombard), Far Shot, Expert Siege Engineer. Uses a +X Distance Heavy Bombard (Stormwrack), and a Wand of Hawkeye, so that if taking a full-round action to aim (which given the Heavy Bombard's 9-round RoF isn't a real sacrifice), can fire up to 5700 yards (approx. 3.24 mi.) away with no range penalty, as long as there's at least 40 ft. of vertical clearance. A monster at ship-to-ship combat, and according to Stormwrack's kind of kooky ship-to-ship visibility rules, can actually see enemy vessels far enough away to take advantage of all of that extra range. Backup (i.e. anti-personnel) weapon is a +X Dragonbone Distance Composite Longbow.

[nijineko]

psychic warrior/targeteer/Athas soulknife/soulbow/illumine soul/deepwood sniper + cragtop archer if I can fit it in.

Self sufficient, versatile, and able to handle almost any situation. Especially after I pay for the research costs to convert certain archery spells to powers. Added bonus if I can convince the DM to allow the shape mind blade ability to apply to the soulbow and get a greatbow out of the deal.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

psychic warrior/targeteer/Athas soulknife/soulbow/illumine soul/deepwood sniper + cragtop archer if I can fit it in.

Self sufficient, versatile, and able to handle almost any situation. Especially after I pay for the research costs to convert certain archery spells to powers. Added bonus if I can convince the DM to allow the shape mind blade ability to apply to the soulbow and get a greatbow out of the deal.Get an elvencraft bow of the wintermoon and take strength of my enemy. Fire your mind arrows from it.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Swift Hunter. Simple and clean.
This.


If you're putting a +4 enhancement on ammo, it'd better be on a raptor arrow or one made from unbreakable riverine, or repairable shapesand or aurorum.

No sense wasting really expensive ammunition, after all.
Perhaps you can enchant a quiver of Anariel to provide brilliant energy arrows. The description doesn't outright say you can, but the prices follow the usual progression for magic weapons (though prices are doubled, and there's a 28 000 gp base price for some reason--way too expensive for plain arrows).

[MaxiDuRaritry]

This.


Perhaps you can enchant a quiver of Anariel to provide brilliant energy arrows. The description doesn't outright say you can, but the prices follow the usual progression for magic weapons (though prices are doubled, and there's a 28 000 gp base price for some reason--way too expensive for plain arrows).It'd be how many times the price of a single brilliant energy raptor arrow that can be reused ad infinitum?

[Quertus]

Standard Archer: Fighter 2/Ranger 11/Rogue 7, plenty of bonus feats and decent damage output (depending on when the Rogue levels are mixed in). Also has skill points to spare, which is something I always find myself wanting more of. I've played this build or minor variations thereof in three different low-OP campaigns (not all to 20+). It works fine, it's not complicated, and it's fun.

I take it you don't play with XP penalties?

[nijineko]

Get an elvencraft bow of the wintermoon and take strength of my enemy. Fire your mind arrows from it.

I'm not sure that works, since mindarrows come from the hands. But it's a great idea, and I think that mind arrows should be able to be fired from a bow in addition to independently....

[ExLibrisMortis]

It'd be how many times the price of a single brilliant energy raptor arrow that can be reused ad infinitum?
That depends on how many arrows you fire per round. A quiver that provides infinite +4 arrows costs 92 000 gp. A raptor arrow costs 6006 gp, of which 46 gp for the enchantment (1/50th of 300 gp masterwork cost + 2000 gp enchantment cost). Adding brilliant energy would take that cost up to to 6606 gp. So if you fire 14 arrows per round, the quiver of Anariel is cheaper.

[Soranar]

A warlock is probably my favorite ranged build. Unlike a ranger the damage is always ok and almost always hits (touch attacks). It doesn't need a workaround for DR or sneak immune creatures (which is a far too common combination in DnD monsters)

And you have abilities to help outside combat. With the right race and/or template + magic items you can be a fairly versatile character without spending all of your abilities on ranged damage

Finally you don't need a high STR and DEX to make it work and being small doesn't change your damage output (which also provides a bonus to hit and bonus AC.)



In the same vein , a factotum makes a surprisingly decent archer because manyshot + cunning insight + cunning surge

Obviously knowledge devotion has a lot of synergy in this too

cunning insight can give you +INT to hit and/or damage (affects every arrow in a manyshot as it's not precision damage and it only counts as 1 attack)

cunning breach also lets you ignore DR but that only comes on at level 11

and none of it relies on cheese of any kind and ignores precision damage (so crit immune creatures still get your full damage anyway)


finaly a swift ranger build is definitely a decent option if you pick the right creatures to bypass precision damage

[Buufreak]

Before the Rules Compendium nerf, the Chaingun Porcupine, no doubt. Especially potent in gestalt because one full side can be Totemist, letting you access Totem Embodiment and fling a ridiculous 14 spines all with tons of rider damage.

Help me out, which nerf in particular?


Swift Hunter. Simple and clean.

Yea. I love how simple ranger 1/scout 19 can be. If I wanted to get tricky with it, I think I did ranger 4/scout 5/bard 2 to get into foluchan lyrist, but that is less archer and more jack of all.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Help me out, which nerf in particular?Volley rules (https://rpgbot.net/dnd35/characters/classes/scout/volley.html), probably.

Because martial characters need more nerfing. :smallsigh:

[SLOTHRPG95]

I take it you don't play with XP penalties?

Not for a while, now. Also, although XP penalties leave a bad taste in the mouth, it's not actually that big a difference for a three-way split if one of the three is a favored class. Between casters probably spending a moderate chunk on crafting (esp. at higher levels), and slightly faster XP gain when a level behind, you're at worst a level behind and even then only for like 10-20% of the time. But I digress. If I were playing that build in a campaign with XP penalties, I'd probably just drop the two initial Fighter levels. So then Ranger 12/Rogue 8, since I don't want to lose a third point of BAB.

[bean illus]

I've been doing A LOT of archery builds lately. Here's one that goes Chameleon, for Craft Wand and Extraordinary Artisan, turning him into a utility and buff machine, and giving access to Greater Magic Weapon, Haste, Magic Vestment, Ranger Spells, Greater invisibility, etc, etc, etc.

R 4/ F 4/ CC 1, OCh 2/ DwS 2/ Cham 8

ABLE LEARNER
R 1 Arcanist, PS
R 2 RS
R 3 PBS

R4 FS
F 1 Arrow Swarm
6 F 2 MS, IRS

CC War = WF, XX = TD
F 3
F 4 WSp, WA

OCh XX = RWM, XX = Dead Eye
DwS 1 Keen, range +10/lvl
12 DwS 2 Magic weapon, imp range crit, IPS

Cham
Cham 2 Holy Warrior/ Extraordinary Artisan
15 Cham 3 Craft Wand

Cham 4 Ability Boon +2
Cham 5
18 Cham 6 Master Wand

Cham 7 Ability Boon +4, Double Aptitude
Cham 8 Rapid Refocus


Ranger Champion of the Wild
Fighter Targeteer
Cloistered Cleric
Ordained Champion

ABLE LEARNER
R 1 Favored Enemy Arcanist, Precise Shot
R 2 Rapid Shot
R 3 Point Blank Shot

R4 Far Shot
F 1 Exotic Weapon (Elvencraft Bowstaff), Arrow Swarm
6 F 2 Many Shot, Improved Rapid Shot

CC War = Weapon Focus, XX = Travel Devo
F 3
F 4 W Specialization (bowstaff) Woodland Archer

OCh XX = Ranged Weapon Mastery, XX = Dead Eye
DwS 1 Keen, range +10/lvl
12 DwS 2 Magic weapon, imp range crit, Improved Precise Shot

Cham
Cham 2 Holy Warrior+ Extraordinary Artisan
15 Cham 3 Mimic class feature 1/day (TU), Craft Wand

Cham 4 Ability Boon +2
Cham 5
18 Cham 6 Mimic class feature 2/day(TU), Master Wand

Cham 7 Ability Boon +4, Double Aptitude
Cham 8 Rapid Refocus


It's quite possible to start Chameleon 3 as early as 6th (7th is much better), for wand making at 9th level, and 4th level wands at 11th. In fact that's probably better.

At that point one might as well drop the fighter levels, and treasure hunt that juicy chameleon spell access.


Ranger Champion of the Wild
Fighter Targeteer
Cloistered Cleric
Ordained Champion

ABLE LEARNER
R 1 Favored Enemy Arcanist, Precise Shot
R 2 Rapid Shot
R 3 Point Blank Shot

R4 Far Shot
F 1 Exotic Weapon (Elvencraft Bowstaff), Arrow Swarm
6 F 2 Many Shot, Improved Rapid Shot

Cham
Cham 2 Woodland Archer, Holy Warrior, Extraordinary Artisan
Cham 3 Mimic class feature 1/day (TU), Craft Wand

CC War = Weapon Focus, XX = Travel Devo
Cham 4 Ability Boon +2
12 Cham 5 Create Wand 4th level, Woodland Archer

DwS 1 Keen, range +10/lvl
DwS 2 Magic weapon, imp range crit,
Cham 6 Mimic class feature 2/day(TU), Improved Precise Shot

Cham 7 Ability Boon +4, Double Aptitude
OCh XX = Ranged Weapon Mastery, XX = Dead Eye
18 Cham 8 Master Wand

Cham 9 Mimic class feature 3/day
Cham 10 Ability boon +6, aptitude focus 3/day (+4)

[Him]

Well, I will mention 3 builds, high-lighting one. The first build was when I was running a game and threw in an "NPC" to make up some numbers. Archer bard , no real fancy stuff but at the low levels we were playing, suprisingly useful. But my pc bard is a diff build. Second was a build made someone else that was aimed at being a survivor/kiter involving theif acrobat prestige class. He made the character to piss me off, he was a doosch, but must admit, the character was effective.(at both ranged combat AND pissing me off, or was that just cause he had mental spasms at the sight of me*shrug*)

But the fave ranged character I want to play? Cleric, war(longbow obviously) and air domains, could switch air for fire, but I wanted chain lighting. Custom magic items? 2 rings one of constant Produce Fire ( spend the cash to up caster level to 5, maximize and enhance). The other ring (or whatever) constant Divine Power, for the extra BAB. I think i ended giving this build to someone else to use as a henchman because I wasn't really interested in playing a cleric. Feats and stats, you have to make some hard choices, namely will you be taking this character epic? My answer was well, let's build this character like he would go epic, so archery feats at epic need a high dex, so don,t need Zen archery. The normal archery feats with spell focus:conjuration and augment summoning. The produce fire ring is op until around 15th level due to it being a ranged touch attack, when fire didn't work, enchant arrows with a spell and use them. There may have been a 2 level splash of fighter just for extra feats, I forget. But that was the general idea using just the core rule books. Fire chucker/archer/healer/summoner with a few offensive spells. As a healer/summoner don't need a high wis, but again check those epic feats as I remember there were some requirements for some awesome feats.

Honarable mention: A mad scientist friend(And fiend) of mine played a eldritch knight archer. Twas cool, but the power gamer in me yearned for the pure mage fire power. How I miss the days of 2nd ed fighter mages.

P.s. the DM let me gradually increase to ring of produce fire enchantment from 1st level caster spell effect up to what I described. And no, I didn't give you my exact build break down as I thought you wanted to play your own. Smell the inspiration *brvvvvp*.