Archer help

[Systole]

Having read Treantmonk's Guide to Bards, it occurred to me that bards have a huge amount in common with summoners, so I decided to try making an archer summoner for LPF based on his recommendations for archer bards. (You can see her here. I tried to build her like a warped, unnatural version of a ranger.)

However, I'm a bit lost as to where to go with her feats. PBS was the obvious first level choice, but I couldn't figure the next couple. It seemed to me that the strongest choices are....

Rapid Fire: Two shots for the price of one.
Precise Shot: The eidolon is going to be in melee and will almost certainly be in longbow range, so this seems like a very strong pick.
Arcane Strike: Given that summoners get full caster progression, this seemed like another strong pick. +1 damage to start, ramping to +2 at 5th level.

I imagine I'll take these feats over levels 3, 5, and 7 ... but what's the best order, or am I missing some superior feats? I'm thinking I might have to spreadsheet this.


[MENTION=55582]Treantmonklvl20[/MENTION] Tagged for ya.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Deadly Aim and Manyshot are both better feats than Arcane Strike.

What books can you use? APG added the essential Point Blank Master feat, though without Ranger, Fighter, or Monk levels you'll sadly never be able to get it. Ultimate Combat has some archery feats. Most aren't noteworthy, but Clustered Shots lets you tally up all your damage from attacks on specific target and then apply any DR it has to that damage once. DR is one of the banes of archers, so that feat pretty much...solves it.

Are you willing to lose Summoner levels? Usually summoner more than even most classes, you DO NOT want to multiclass at all, since so much is tied directly to your class level, spellcasting and especially the eidolon. But an awesome trick someone pointed out has recently intrigued me: Dip Oracle 1 (Tongues is probably the least annoying curse) and take the Waves mystery. At level 1 with Water Sight, you can see perfectly fine in fogs and mist. Obscuring Mist is a level 1 spell that gives 20% concealment 5 ft out and 50% any more than that. Plant some mist down, and you have a pretty effective magical pillbox to shoot from.
It also helps that Oracle is a charisma-based caster, as well.

 

[Systole]

I'm not really willing to lose summoner levels. In the first case because of the hit you take to eidolon goodies, but also largely because this is my first summoner and I want to really play it out.

I misread Deadly Aim as being much worse than that for some reason, so I wasn't impressed. That now looks like my 3rd level feat. As far as PBM, think I can do without. With the eidolon around, anyone who wants to engage her in melee is almost certainly setting themselves up for a flank, and since she's built to be physical damage, she can moderately hold her own in melee. It works either way.

So (3) Deadly Aim, (5) Precise Shot, (7) Manyshot?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Precise Shot before Deadly Aim. A -4 to hit is like -8 damage in "Deadly Aim language"

At higher levels, be ready to take Improved Precise Shot, it's a great archer feat. Until then (BAB +11, so VERY long time) look to make your bow Seeking as soon as you can.