I play an archer who is currently a rgr1/wiz1/ftr4/deepwood sniper1/arcane archer 9, with plans for 1 more deepwood sniper level and 3 peerless archer levels, then all arcane archer levels going into epic levels. He kicks major ass, kills everything, and is ridiculous.
I believe that this is one of the best archer builds there is, even better than stupid cleric archers (which I think shouldn't exist), and indeed we have a cleric archer in my party who is nowhere near as awesome as Dr. Deathtron the Systematic (that my archer's name...don't ask) is. He just recently took out a whole room of people with nothing but a masterwork bow, masterwork arrows, and shot of haste from the wizard (he used up his 20 arrows in 2 rounds...hail of arrows + rapid shot them manyshot + rapid shot). The ability to have magical abilities when only mundane weapons are available is very, very nice indeed.
The one ranger level was to help qualify for deepwood sniper, but has the added bonus of allowing me to use ranger wands. Buy some wands of Hunter's Mercy, and also True Strike, Shield, Mage Armor, or any other spells from either the wizard or ranger lists, and you're ready to go. Using an oathbow is a great way to kick up the damage, and since you'll never miss because your attack will be about 10 higher than anyone else in the party, you don't have to worry much about the bow falling inert on you (just be a little careful about how you use it, but usually you should be fine, since you can do a couple hundred damage in a standard action). Use manyshot. Get a huge hide skill, using ring of chameleon power, cloak of elvenkind (these two stack), and I think theres another item that gives an unnamed hide bonus somewhere in Arms & Equipment Guide or something, but I can't find it right now. Anyway, use hide to get up close so you can haste (boots of haste or perhaps a wand)+manyshot or hail of arrows+full attack(with rapid shot of course). Adding true strike and/or hunter's mercy to this is also fun to do. The one level in deepwood sniper makes all your arrows keen, by the way, and this stacks with improved crit, if you get it, and if you get two levels in deepwood sniper your crit range is 18-20/x4...not too shabby. For extra cheese, consider an ecalypse mount (from manual of the planes...with some ranks in ride and a great dex, you'll be able to make the DC35 ride check no problem, and you can read scrolls or use wands of plane shift in order to get to the plane of shadow and find one) and ghost touch arrows. In epic levels you'll want unerring accuracy and distant shot...with phase arrow you could, conceivably, hit anyone on the plane with an arrow...how about that? And if you get the sharp-shooting feat from Sword & Fist and walk around with an animated tower shield, your opponents will be attacking you through cover, and you'll enjoy a +2 bonus to hit them, with no minuses from the cover that your shield is giving them (you can actually hit better from behind than shield than from in front of it).
You could also look into getting the Master Bowman PrC from the Quintessential Fighter, if your DM allows it. It's incredibly hard to qualify for with the number of feats you have, especially since you have to waste one on arcane schooling (be a wild (or is it wood? always mix up the two) elf, they have ranger as a favored class, and get the arcane schooling feat, and you don't have to worry about multiclass penalties for the ftr4/rgr1/wiz1, or perhaps see if the DM will let you have an elf with fighter as favored class, perhaps an elf that grew up with dwarves...very, very accepting dwarves...(this is actually suggested somewhere in the DMG or PHB or something, allowing differences in races based on character background, so you can use that as ammo if your DM is skeptical, though he seems not to mind powergaming from what you say)). Anyway, take two levels of master bowman for the threatening. Peerless archer has a similar ability but it would take 4 more levels to get (since you'll be getting 3 levels for power shot, which will make you an insane damage machine), and it would delay your epic arcane archer progression a lot, and it's also not as powerful as the master bowman's ability.
Now, the only problem is to convince your DM that the 3.5 rule that bow & arrow enhancement bonuses don't stack is stupid (which it is). Even without that, though, you should be kicking ass. Just add fun enchantments to your bow (like that spectral energy burst thing that lets you choose an energy type each time you shoot...+3d10 damage on that hunter's mercy first shot is a fun little bit of icing for the cake, and double (or is it +50% in 3.5? whatever, it's fun either way) damage if a creature has a subtype!).
edit: forgot to add that in another campaign a different player has a deepwood sniper archer. He is pretty good, and definitely shines in the party that he's in, but Deathtron is considered the gold standard for archery in our group, among the many concurrent campaigns that we play. Deepwood is nice, but the enchant arrow ability is just so key to making a great archer that I think it tips the scales towards arcane archer being better than deepwood sniper. But perhaps that's just my personal taste.
)
