My friend wants his Archer build improved...

[Nezkrul]

[MENTION=97602]Sekhmet[/MENTION] you don't gain the extra attack from Rapid Shot nor Haste buff if you use Manyshot; both require you to use the full-attack action whereas Manyshot is a standard.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=6682154]Nezkrul[/MENTION] You use Full Attack (granting Rapid Shot and Haste), and use Many Shot as your hasted action. I apologize, in my previous example I was using a recent homebrew I played.
You'll pick up 9 attacks total (18 total arrows) so long as your DM doesn't argue that attacks and standard actions aren't interchangeable terms.
At the least, you'll still net 6 attacks (12 arrows) with Full Attack + Rapid + Haste, and that means you still get lots of Power Shot damage.

[MENTION=85123]kingius[/MENTION] Why would you use Greater Manyshot (4 arrows at +12 BAB) when you can Full Attack (5 arrows at 18, 18, 13, 8, 3)? That seems like a waste of a feat.
It could be argued that Manyshot (being a standard action) can be used after moving, while Full Attack cannot; but how often are you running around when surrounded by 300 orcs?

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Manyshot as the hasted action? Only in 3.0. In 3.5 it's different.

 

[Dandu]

Cheaper than a feat.

Sean K. Reynolds, formerly of WotC and now of Paizo, estimates one feat to be worth 25K.

Of all the things possible with the polymorph spell, spending it on an archer so as to boost his str has to be one of the worst uses ever...

Come on... Admit it!

Arrow Demon
Abilities: Str 21, Dex 19, Con 29, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 12

Close Combat Shot (Ex): An arrow demon does not incur attacks of opportunity for firing a bow while threatened. In addition, the arrow demon can shoot its bows to make attacks of opportunity as if it threatened the squares adjacent to it with its bows.

Oversized Weapons (Ex): Arrow demons can use bows of any kind that are up to one size larger than their size would allow without penalty.

Symmetrical Archery (Ex): The arrow demon has an amazing ability to wield two bows at once in unison. Any time the arrow demon could make a single attack with a bow, it can attack with both of its bows, at -2 on all its attack rolls that round. For example, when making an attack action, an arrow demon can fire one arrow from each bow at its normal attack bonus minus 2, and when making a full-attack action, it can fire one arrow from each bow for each of its normal iterative attacks (two arrows from each bow, each shaft at a -2 penalty). The statistics block above already includes these bonuses. The arrow demon takes no additional penalties for using multiple weapons as long as it is using only bows.

Before making any hasty decisions, I suggest you ask the spike first whether it can live through the impact.

We have a bow that can survive being sundered by an Orc with a Greataxe. I think the spike will be ok.

As for your Hardness and HP remark, let me clarify: It is irrelevant. You are not asked to break the rocky surface underneath your feet, you are asked to shove a spike in it.

Great! Then that should make the task easier!

...But in case someone can truly pull this off... then... what can I say... He's probably wasting his talent being an archer.

Holy moving goalposts, Batman!

To the OP:
A rereading of Bone Bow leaves me wondering if it actually auto-adjusts to your strength modifier. It is possible that it does not, in which case you should look into the Bow of the Wintermoon, a Relic from the MIC, which can be found on Pg. 48. It costs 3400 gp and starts of with a +1 enhancement bonus. (You don't necessarily have to care about the actual relic bonuses). It does have an alignment restriction though (CG/NG/CN).

You can attempt to reverse-engineer the Wintermoon Bow in order to figure out the costs for the Str-adjusting property. Let's ignore the relic bonuses, to keep things simple (since they require further expenditure of resources to activate anyway).

1) 3 400 * 10/7 = 4 857 (Take out the alignment restriction discount)
2) 4 857 - 2000 = 2 857 (Take out the +1 enhancement bonus)
3) 2 857 - 400 = 2 457 (Remove the cost for a basic masterwork composite longbow.)

Now you can round up the value to 2 500 gp, or round it down to 2 450 gp.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

I hate to ruin your fun Dandu, but Polymorph doesn't allow the becoming of an outsider unless the starting character was already one. That's admittedly fairly easy with LA buyoff and something like Tiefling.

As for using it on an archer though, there are certainly some good possibilities among the types it does allow changing into. If the archer has a solid build and can do 100's of points of damage per turn, polymorph could certainly take it higher and give new abilities to synergize with the character. I haven't done any research on it so don't ask for polymorph forms that would work for it, but I can definitely imagine SOMETHING would make it worthwhile.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=6678119]Jackinthegreen[/MENTION]

The new form may be of the same type as the subject

If you are already an Outsider, you can polymorph freely into other Outsiders, such as Arrow Demons.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

@Jackinthegreen

If you are already an Outsider, you can polymorph freely into other Outsiders, such as Arrow Demons.

I edited that info in actually after my own research, although the timestamp could of course say I changed it after you posted. I didn't notice your post until after I had refreshed.

 

[Dandu]

For a regular, Human archer, you could change into a humanoid with good strength and dexterity. Maybe a Girallon?

Hey, anyone know of any especially useful, non-outsider polymorph forms for an archer?

 

[Jimlock]

Sean K. Reynolds, formerly of WotC and now of Paizo, estimates one feat to be worth 25K.

If only I had the time to list the composite bows and other magical trinkets I could buy with 25K!!!

As for the estimate itself... I wouldn't know how to rate it. What I know is that there are feats that are priceless... in a sense that there are no items to compensate for what they do... So I honestly don't know how seriously can we take this estimate...

A rereading of Bone Bow leaves me wondering if it actually auto-adjusts to your strength modifier. It is possible that it does not.

And there's that. It's certainly badly written... I had my doubts when I first read it but after you posted it and no one argued I thought that my reading was too severe.
But as you said, It's highly likely that it simply states that it can also be a composite bow just like any other longbow... Meaning that one can get a "simple" Bone Bow and another a composite Bone Bow with the regular PHB pricing for the composites on top of the 250gp.

We have a bow that can survive being sundered by an Orc with a Greataxe.

That does't give the right to every strong character to pierce hard rock as if it was butter.

Symmetrical Archery (Ex): The arrow demon has an amazing ability to wield two bows at once in unison. Any time the arrow demon could make a single attack with a bow, it can attack with both of its bows, at -2 on all its attack rolls that round. For example, when making an attack action, an arrow demon can fire one arrow from each bow at its normal attack bonus minus 2, and when making a full-attack action, it can fire one arrow from each bow for each of its normal iterative attacks (two arrows from each bow, each shaft at a -2 penalty). The statistics block above already includes these bonuses. The arrow demon takes no additional penalties for using multiple weapons as long as it is using only bows.

I was wondering which lines override which:

1)Alter Self:

A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal.

or..

2)Polymorph:

This spell functions like alter self... It also gains all extraordinary special attacks possessed by the form...

I know this has been discussed to death, but this is not the case of natural attacks (Hydras etc.)

Any ideas?

 

[Dandu]

If only I had the time to list the composite bows and other magical trinkets I could buy with 25K!!!

A +4 Composite Longbow would not be among them, as it costs over 32K.

That does't give the right to every strong character to pierce hard rock as if it was butter.

Not in the real world, no. However, we play a game where you can carve out tunnels in solid rock with longswords. (And which seems to lack mechanics for breaking parts off of weapons other then, perhaps, by using Sunder.)

I was wondering which lines override which:

1)Alter Self:



or..

2)Polymorph:




I know this has been discussed to death, but this is not the case of natural attacks (Hydras etc.)

Any ideas?

Alter Self states:
"You do not gain any extraordinary special attacks or special qualities not noted above under physical qualities, such as darkvision, low-light vision, blindsense, blindsight, fast healing, regeneration, scent, and so forth."

So the text you quoted from Polymorph overrides that.