Tournament Legal Build
Well, as an alternative to all the archer builds around here that are based on the house rule that weapon proficiency and focus for longbows equate to proficiency and focus with composite longbows. I wanted to list my Living Greyhawk archer's build. Granted, I think that house rule is quite reasonable as the two weapons are nearly identical, only really differing in their construction and strength of pull. The mechanics are the same. This build requires only core books + masters of the wild + defenders of the faith.
This build is designed around the idea that you will be partied with GMW capable clerics for maximum efficiency, but still viable when not with such characters (most of my LG tables are with 2 clerics, so plenty of GMW casts). This character also incorporates some Holy Liberator levels to round out the saves and eventually get a celestial horse mount. Mounted archery (not the feat) is very, very good. Taking a full move and all your shots at no penalty, with your shots assumed to happen at the middle of your move, is so good. You can also be in melee with your horse and also shoot with no AOOs as long as your opponent doesn't have reach (since you take up the back square of the horse model). With a good dex and a rank or two of ride, the DC10 check to attack after your mount attacks is trivial. You can also tap the DC5 guide with knees roll by dex alone once you pick up a +2dex item.
So, on to the build.
Stats (28pt build)
Str 14
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 8
Human
Barbarian1/Fighter1/Barbarian2/Ranger1/Fighter2/DeepwoodSniper1/Monk1/HolyLiberator1,2. That is the first 9 levels. Taking Holy Liberator on through 5 levels to get the celestial horse mount is the goal, from there, there are several viable paths, all of which include at least one more level of DS. The monk level is rather cheesy, but it makes diplomacy a class skill to speed you on into HL one level earlier, grants evasion, allows you to threaten even with your bow out, makes tumble a class skill, and gives great saves. If the monk level is too much cheese for your taste, you can substitute a level of rogue for somewhat lesser benfits. The barbarian levels allow one rage per day to get more damage from the bow shots, faster movement, decent skill points, uncanny dodge, and big hp at first level. The ranger level allows the use of cure light wands, which I feel are essential in the tournament format (you never know who you will be playing with at conventions).
Feats are as follows:
Lvl1 - Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Lvl2 - Precise Shot
Lvl3 - Weapon Focus (Comp LB)
Lvl4 - Track, Ambidexterity*, Two-weapon fighting*
Lvl5 - Far Shot
Lvl6 - Iron Will
Lvl7 - Improved Unarmed Strike*
Lvl9 - Improved Critical (Comp LB)
Stat increases go into con at 4 and 8. HP are very important in tournament style campaigns.
My character so far is about to crack level 8. I have a +1 Mighty+4 MW Composite LB, +1 Mithril Chain Shirt, +1 Ring of Protection, +1 Greatsword, Eyes of the Eagle, HHH, Gloves of Dex +2, Cloak of Resistance +1, and 2 pearls of power(1).
You may have more or less wealth than this in a home campaign, but I get by. Bracers of Archery would be great, but they are not available to me in the campaign, although one of my regular clerics sometimes lets me wear his during games. At level 8, with no buffs, my close range attacks are at +14/+14/+9 for 1d8+4, +13/+13/+8 for 1d8+3 at 35' to 175' (Farshot+DS). I ride a heavy warhorse when outdoors, so I can move 40 (he is at medium encumberance) and still get off all 3 shots at no additional penalty. When I get my bow enchanted and arrows enchanted with +4 each (thanks bead of kharma) my attacks become +21/+21/+16 for 1d8+11 at close, and you can compute 35'-175' from that. Given the fantastic damage output from that, I never have trouble talking GMW out of the clerics I play with.
My saves are F:17 R:9 W:7 at level 8, at level 9 they will be F:18 R:9 W:8 assuming no additional items.
At level 9 I will have x3 crits on 18-20. With a second level of DS, that increases to x4 crits (probably level 11). Level 10 (HL3) brings immunity to charm and compulsion. If you spend your skill points carefully, you can qualify for contemplative at around level 14-15. Using that to pick up the celerity domain (or perhaps luck/or travel), while increasing your HL caster level, is a decent option. The thing to remember though is that even taking HL all the way up, you will top out at level 4 spells (assuming you get a +4 wisdom item or allocate the level 12 and 16 stat bumps to wis and get a +2 item), so granted powers are likely more important than domain spells.
As for other items, a bow with elemental damage is a great item to get, but I don't have access to one, unfortunately. Ditto for boots of speed.
There are better pure archer builds. However, I love the sturdiness and versatility of this character in the tournament format. I have good damage output alone and superior damage output when buffed, am very mobile, have a good spot mod, plenty of hp, great saves, and limited self healing ability.
Well, that ended up being a bit longer than I expected. I hope you find it useful.
<edit> wow, thanks everyone for not mentioning my colossal brain fart in listing my damage with d6's instead of d8s... corrected now<edit>