Are Archery Valor Bards any Good?

[Eldariel]

Ok, lets make this concrete.
- Magic Jar is a 6th level spell, so at earliest available at level 11;
- Magic Jar requirers an expensive component, and the DM conveniently providing you with a humanoid host that has both high dex and plenty of HP, to be any use i combat and allows you to use bows;
- Even if this is succesful, the only thing you managed to do being equal to what the fighter has been doing for a few levels, that is, having a max dex in combination with SS/CBE;
- At level 11, the fighter got a third attack, with +2 to hit from fighting style. Nova for 7 attacks and 5 d10's to spend on maneuvers.
- Simulacrum willl be available at earliest at level 14. Again, expensive material component, long casting time, etc.

Again, at what point will a bard outperform the fighter archer exactly? At 14, with simulacrum shenenigans, if the DM is kind enough to provide the components, and time between adventures, and bodies for magic jar? Maybe it's just me, but that seems pretty darn far from a statement like "Bard is probably the strongest archer class available considering the whole 1-20. "

As for the tedious remarks about 'any party with a character not using concentration being suboptimal' and 'any character not casting level 9 spells being suboptimal'; yeah... in this magical fairy land where all spells do much more than what is in the book and are interpreted in the most generous ways, I'm sure they do.

On level 10, when Magical Secrets comes into play, Bard can have 2 hours of +2 / +2+2d4 with Elemental Weapon per day (and then +1 / +1+1d4 the rest of the time). So compared to Fighter, the Bard might actually be coming out ahead. Magic Jar actually pretty reliably gets some nice bodies since basically every adventure features some high powered humanoid enemies. If you manage to defeat one, just knock them unconscious and possess them at your leisure. It's not that hard.

Fighter has great nova, that's true. But over an average adventuring day, the nova evens out. With two SRs, you get maybe 3 novas per day. And based on everything I've read, even 2 SRs isn't a guarantee nearly on every day. You might just have four encounters with 1 SR in between. That's two novas and fiveish rounds without novas.

Obviously Simulacrum is the latest point where any caster pulls ahead. But even before then, there's plenty to be said about just having full party with a maximal amount of resources available; you have many more options beyond just full attacking every turn for when they are optimal. One of the big reasons to bring as many casters as possible is that generally damage isn't the thing in demand (basically everyone can do damage) and doing slightly more damage isn't really worth not having all the other options for when they are needed.