Archery Enchantments

[BobVosh]

What are the best weapon enhancements for a bow? I was tempted to use brilliant energy as I never had before, but as always I nagged myself that it just isn't worth a +4. So what is better?

Thanks

[Boci]

Splitting, from champions of ruin.

[HunterOfJello]

Elvencraft isn't an enchantment, but is very nifty.

[BobVosh]

what is elvencraft in? Races of destiny?

[Kaiyanwang]

what is elvencraft in? Races of destiny?

races of the wild. Your Longbow is a quarterstaff too, now.

[SethFahad]

Splitting, from champions of ruin.

second that! the best there is! pricy though...

[Eldariel]

Force [MiC], Splitting [CoR], Seeking [DMG], Collision [SRD/MiC], Holy [DMG], etc. Basically, it's generally worthwhile to ignore DR, miss chances and such (those tend to crop up at range, especially), and then just focus on upping the damage, starting with Splitting which is completely sick.

[Vizzerdrix]

I'm a fan of Psychokinetic. Force damage for only a +1 cost is nice.

[taltamir]

make sure you get the right classes and PrCs... you can end up with a 3000 foot range. As you well know, long range spells are 400 feet + 40ft per CL. that means an enemy caster can only hit you if he has CL of 65 and is using a long ranged spell.
He could teleport to you, but he can't tell WHERE you are at because he can't spot you at this distance, he likely can't use magic to locate you (out of range :P) and there are tricks where your shots seem to come from different directions so they can't just "guess"...

plus, items of teleport are typically 3/day which means you can just run away a few times... they likely don't have enough uses per day of teleport to keep up.

[Eldariel]

make sure you get the right classes and PrCs... you can end up with a 3000 foot range.

I laugh at your 3000' range and one-up you with 30000'. Every size increase gives you a multiplier of 1.25 on your range increment, you get to start with 130' on a Composite Greatbow and then we get crackin'. Dragonbone up to 150', Ranged Weapon Mastery for 170', Deepwood Sniper up to 270', Far Shot to up to 405', Cragtop Archer to shoot up to 15 increments and Colossal to multiply it by 1.25 4 times for ~14831'. Hell, we could use Flight Arrows for 25' more and Distance weapon for doubling all that. So ~32400'.

[Tinydwarfman]

Splitting is +3, and is hands down the best possible enchantment. It doubles all of your arrows fired.

[Ernir]

I laugh at your 3000' range and one-up you with 30000'. Every size increase gives you a multiplier of 1.25 on your range increment, you get to start with 130' on a Composite Greatbow and then we get crackin'. Dragonbone up to 150', Ranged Weapon Mastery for 170', Deepwood Sniper up to 270', Far Shot to up to 405', Cragtop Archer to shoot up to 15 increments and Colossal to multiply it by 1.25 4 times for ~14831'. Hell, we could use Flight Arrows for 25' more and Distance weapon for doubling all that. So ~32400'.

I am so picturing a two-man-team of

1) A ballistic archer
2) A spellcaster with Scry. "Aim 2 more degrees to the south! Fire!"

[Vizzerdrix]

I'd like to as a related question: What spells that effect archery are recommended?

[senrath]

True Strike is always nice, although it only affects a single attack roll.

[The Random NPC]

I like Arrowmind from the SpC, lets you shoot arrows while in melee without provoking AoO.

[RagnaroksChosen]

im gonan have to agree with the person that mentioned collision its one of the best enchants i've found with a bow.

[jiriku]

Hunter's Mercy makes your next shot crit automatically. Since your arrows are at least x3 on a crit, that is extremely hoss in a variety of situations.

Arrow of bone needs to be made for you by a friendly arcane caster, but it basically gives you the arcane archer's capstone death arrow at a cost of a few gp. Repeatedly. Depending on interpretation, your DM might interpret arrow of bone as a weaponlike spell, since it needs to be fired at the target and requires an attack roll, which would mean that the negative energy damage a target takes on a successful save could be multiplied on a crit. This would synergize very effectively with hunter's mercy.

[arguskos]

I'd like to as a related question: What spells that effect archery are recommended?

There's a list of archery spells in Champions of Ruin (same source as Splitting) that are awesomely hilarious. My favorite is arrowsplit, which turns one shot into lots of shots. They're all swift actions too, so you can swift cast one and then just open up.

[ericgrau]

I laugh at your 3000' range and one-up you with 30000'. Every size increase gives you a multiplier of 1.25 on your range increment, you get to start with 130' on a Composite Greatbow and then we get crackin'. Dragonbone up to 150', Ranged Weapon Mastery for 170', Deepwood Sniper up to 270', Far Shot to up to 405', Cragtop Archer to shoot up to 15 increments and Colossal to multiply it by 1.25 4 times for ~14831'. Hell, we could use Flight Arrows for 25' more and Distance weapon for doubling all that. So ~32400'.

Once you hit epic you can grab a feat and hit infinity. As long as you can see it you can shoot it. Now all we need is one of those cheesy tricks to get nigh infinite damage and you can take out the moon. Combine with a spelljammer and we got deathstar.

[Sinfire Titan]

races of the wild. Your Longbow is a quarterstaff too, now.

I prefer the Yuan-Ti Serpent Bow. More obscure, more powerful on a Warblade, and doesn't have that "Elf" problem the Elvencraft Bow has.

[Kaiyanwang]

I prefer the Yuan-Ti Serpent Bow. More obscure, more powerful on a Warblade, and doesn't have that "Elf" problem the Elvencraft Bow has.

I have two players with these weapons. One took the Yuan-ti one, and I've to admit that I like ti more. Because of blades, and because of yuan-ti.

The other one is an elf, so..

Actually, he did a smart thing: he looked for Coldwood for the construction of the Bow, so without many gold you can smash the head of a demon or a fey, or a bodak (maybe).

[PinkysBrain]

Assuming you can cast hunter's mercy, prismatic burst and coup de grace.

[herbe]

Enchantments of arrow are true benefit of archery: u can get more nice abilities than a sword of same enchantment. As i know, if you fire a flaming arrow from +3 longbow they stack. OK its only one shot but you can get a bonus to your shot so archers get more variety of abilities through his weapon than a melee type even at lower levels.

Great spells:
From PH: Magic weapon and greater magic weapon, true strike,Cats grace(PH),
PH2: Blade of blood,
Complete Adventurer: Sonic Weapon ,Arrowmind, Hawkeye, Guided shot, Arrow Storm,Critical Strike
Savage Species: Weapon of energy, Girallon blessing, Fuse arms

And there are lots of spells that enchant sneak attack or add attack bonus