D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Making a Scout a better archer?

[Summer-Knight925]

Its a long shot, but if you have Unearthed Arcana, the wilderness rogue would work, its a scout (kinda, the wilderness side, but doesnt get all the cool abilities, I know) but you dont have to move 10 feet to get your damage, infact, you can become a sniper

I have a half-orc wilderness rogue who is going to go Dread Commando (HoB) and destroy foes with a greatbow (CW)

1d10+sneak attack damage=Happy archer

 

[Dandu]

Interestingly, the eratta made it so you can't really juke and jive skirmish -- you have to move 10 ft from where you started, not forward and back or whatnot like the RAW originally allowed.

Clearly skirmishing must be treated as the integral of a state function instead of a path function.

 

[pawsplay]

Again, it's not just that it's situational, it's that any situation I can imagine for it, you pretty much win anyway just by virtue of being an archery-focused character in a shootout. Sure, it helps you pwn just a bit harder...but I'm not sure that's worth a stand-alone feat, and I'm quite sure it's not worth the three feats it actually costs.

People complain about Dodge granting only +1 AC and Mobility being situational. Shot on the Run turns all of that into one big yummy cover bonus. By the numbers, being able to start and end with full cover with skirmish in between is better than a lot of other ways to spend three feats.

I don't like the mathematical attack equates ot damage stuff... At a certain point, your highest BAB attack is so high that it will hit many monsters most of the time anyway. So at that point, Manyshot may not be much more damage, but it's practically a free boon.

In my campaign, there were plenty of fights where a -4 to hit meant the difference between needing a 16 and needing a 20 to hit. There were fights were the Scout didn't even use Rapid Shot, because the -2 cut accuracy to a third.

Skirmish works on grappling foes, it's just dangerous to try. Once again, IPS FTW!

I'm pretty sure that a 50% chance of hitting your friend counts as not being able to target a foe accurately. That's how we played it. On the other hand, risking skirmish damage on your friend every time they get snatched is no picnic, either... skirmish does not go well with grappling, at all, until IPS. There were many situations where the Scout switched to melee attacks, situationally.

Heh, my groups usually use Magic Missile / Chain Missile to get rid of fleeing enemies. I wouldn't mind having Far Shot, definitely. I just wouldn't want to spend a feat on it, even a class bonus feat.

That's another way. I just think there's a lot to be said for not having to sit out a battle that occurs at further than 60 feet away.