[MENTION=6785785]hawkeyefan[/MENTION]
Your story about the arcane archer being outdone by the barbarian who isn't even trying tends to confirm my general doubts about PF as a system. (Can you even call it a "system" for character building at that point? I guess there's still a common process - choose a class at each level gained, choose feats from the list, etc - but the contents of those elements and their interrelationships seems almost arbitrary if it allows the sort of result that you describe.)
Your story about the arcane archer being outdone by the barbarian who isn't even trying tends to confirm my general doubts about PF as a system. (Can you even call it a "system" for character building at that point? I guess there's still a common process - choose a class at each level gained, choose feats from the list, etc - but the contents of those elements and their interrelationships seems almost arbitrary if it allows the sort of result that you describe.)