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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gaiden" data-source="post: 602934" data-attributes="member: 103">Eben,If you are going primarily for a skirmisher type with little or no magic, I would recommend the following classes/PrC's:FighterRangerRogueDeepwood SniperPeerless ArcherOrder of the Bow InitiateThe Ranger is probably the best skirmisher type and is definitely the most well rounded.  If you look, you will find long posts arguing whether or not the ranger class is balanced and/or sux or not.  I am one of those people who likes the class as is and thinks its really fun to play (so I may be a bit biased).The Ranger makes for an ideal skirmisher in my opinion because of access to skills like wilderness lore, hide, move silently, spot, listen, free feats of track, ambidexterity, and two weapon fighting.For a skirmishing archer, I envision the feats you would be most interested in would be Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Sharp shooter, Rapid Shot, and Many Shot in that order.  By 9th level a human ranger could have all of those feats.  Also, if you multiclass in two levels of fighter you could have all of them by 4th level (Ranger 2/Fighter2).  Far shot may be of interest to you but challenges my perception of a skirmisher.  A few levels of rogue are also extremely useful because of evasion, however, a ranger does a better job of giving you the right skills and buffing your combat prowess with a bow than does a rogue.  This is due to the fact that you can't flank with missle weapons, so after the first round, unless your hide is obscene, the opponents will know that you are there and where you are.  If you were going for the sniping type rogue, then as Drawmack initally stated, by all means go rogue.With regards to PrC's, they are very useful for enhancing your prowess with a bow (especially if you are trying to go magic-light).  The Deepwood sniper my be up your ally but focuses a bit more on longer ranges, so I am not sure.  The Peerless Archer, gives the Archer the most powerful ability of all - ranged power attack.  This is ridiculous because of the obscenely high BAB's of an archer, not to mention all of the other powers of the class.  OotBI, focuses on SA'ing so keep that in mind if you are going for that class - it requires frontloading encounters.I want to note a slight disagreement with an archer's relative power at different levels.  At early levels, the archer is probably the most powerful class in the game.With access to PBS, WF, WS, RS, a mighty mw bow, mw arrows, and a combatant's BAB at 4th level you are looking at ~ +10 to hit (translating to virtually never missing at that level) with damage @ 2d8+10.  All else being equal, no other combatant can boast such high BAB and DMG output.  Not to mention you have the option of having a great AC and great HP's.NO OTHER COMBATANT CAN BOAST THAT!At mid levels is where everyone else starts catching up because they can now out damage you and with magic get their BAB's to match your own.At high levels you again take over because of the iterive attacks - your lowest iterive attacks will probably almost always hit while everyone's else's miss and now you have access to magical bows and arrows which enhancement bonuses and energy damage bonuses stack.At smackdown levels you are a standalone force.  With healing arrows you are better than the cleric at healing (better range, more healing spells per round), with magic and specialty arrows you are hitting more often and doing more damage than melee combatants, and you should be at distances greater than most medium range spells so can outperform even magic users.  The drawback is your significant weaknesses which are (at those levels) lower AC's than your partners, weakness of a bow to sundering, lack of threatening an area, provoking attacks of opportunity when firing while in a threatened area.To answer your question, yes, archers are most definitely playable at low levels.</blockquote>

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