Feat selection for a 15th Level Fighter (Archer)

[Venator]

I'm interested in what the EN community would chose if they had to feat out a 15th level Fighter who specializes in archery. The idea being that I full attack most rounds and do not ride a mount. A major focus is obviously on landing attacks and dealing solid damage.

All WotC, non-world specific options are legal except the Dragon Compendium (was this WotC?).


Here is what I took:

Imp. Crit (PHB)
Iron Will (PHB)
Point Blank Shot (PHB)
Precise Shot (PHB)
Imp. Precise Shot (PHB)
Rapid Shot (PHB)
Many Shot (PHB)
Weapon Focus (Longbow) (PHB)
Weapon Spec. (Longbow) (PHB)
Greater Weapon Focus (Longbow) (PHB)
Ranged Weapon Mastery (PHB2)
Woodland Archer (RotW)
Imp. Rapid Shot (CW)
Necropotent (Longbow) (LM) - AoW adventure path, we fight lots of undead (Please, no spoilers)

At 16th I will take Great Weapon Spec. (Longbow), at 18th I will take Weapon Supremacy (Longbow) and something else.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Are you a human? How's your int? Consider Able Learner at level 1, so you can actually sink skill points in useful skills (Spot, Tumble, and Use Magic Device would be my top choices as a Fighter archer) without having to pay double for the ranks. If you are human, you have an open feat anyway.

You have a pretty good feat selection already. I never like the +2 save feats myself, but I suppose Iron Will is useful. I have to wonder why burn a feat on Imp. Crit when you're expecting to fight a lot of undead and when it's a cheap (+1) weapon mod, Keen.

Other feats...
Is anyone else in your party doing archery? Coordinated Archery (dragon mag #316) feat can be nice if you've got a friend or two who also has it. You stand adjacent to other allies with the feat, and you all delay until you can shoot on the same initiative count. Doing so, you get +2 attack and +1 damage, and since you delayed (not readied) you can full attack.

Penetrating Shot (PH2): Standard action to attack in a 60 ft line. Could possibly beat a full attack on occasion...

Plunging Shot (RotW): +1d6 ranged damage if your target is at least 30 ft lower than you. By level 15, Boots of Flying are cheap, and allow you to hover in the air.

All of the above feats are also here, on page 31: http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Feats.pdf

EDIT: I think C.Champion had a Fighter variant to lose one of your bonus feats and instead get to count any weapon you wield as holy, so that it is good aligned and deals +1d6 damage against evil creatures.

 

[Venator]

Thanks for the feedback so quickly.

He is a Wood Elf and the setting we are in is Greyhawk. The only Dragon Mag feats he's got access to are the ones specifically for Greyhawk.

The Character is already level 15. We have been playing through the Age of Worms adventure path since March 2005. It's just been forever since I looked into feats and was wondering if people had a "different take" on things these days.

He is the only archer in the group, otherwise that other feat looks good. It is in Dragon Mag though .

Able learner would have been a cool idea, but if memory serves it's human specific and must be taken at level one, correct? It would have been nice to have Spot as a class skill, that's for sure. His Int is an 11, so he's stuck at only 2 skill points per level... He can jump and climb well enough, but that's about it.

I took Iron Will for several reasons all game related. It may not be optimized in terms of dealing damage, but it certainly helps a bit with the fear saves we are bombarded by.

Imp. Crit I took because we also fight lots of stuff that isn't undead. Although it's very hard to predict these days. We see a good amount of all sorts of enemies.

Plunging Shot seems interesting... although the character can not fly yet. No real need to I suppose, being able to shoot everything while remaining on the ground, well protected. Being able to fly on his own is on the list of things to do... I may have to fork over some extra cash if I come across Boots of Speed or Winged Boots. Two items I really want in the same slot means I'll have to pay for the fancy upgrade. Winged Boots of Speed are going to be costly..... But I don't want to make this about items.

 

[Dandu]

What about Greater Manyshot?

Also, be sure to get the Force enchantment on your bow or arrows. It allows you to ignore Wind Wall, I believe.

Nothing is more embarrassing than having a level 15 character being negated by a third level spell. Do not let it happen to you.

Also, I must recommend magebane arrows.

 

[Venator]

Greater Many Shot is an option, but it sort of acts like a Fireball at this level. Hitting 4 or 5 enemies for 25ish damage each can help, but I'm not sure I want to invest a feat slot to do it... I'd take an attack penalty to 3 or so shots and get a bonus to 2 others (at lvl 16). It's an interesting trade and I'd have to look at the numbers. It may be a good option for fighting several "smaller" enemies.

Generally the character loosens up or cleans up after the melee guys. I will full attack something and then a melee guy will kill it, or vice versa. It usually works out okay. Greater Many Shot might allow me to AoE, the Druid to AoE, and the Wizard to AoE and get smaller things dead. An interesting idea...


Out of curiosity, what leads you to believe a Force bow will ignore Windwall?

The character just recently upgraded his Force bow to a Holy Force bow and has the first "official" +5 weapon in the group.

The Force enchantment is out of the MIC, for reference.

Magebane is a great enchantment and I should probably look into getting a bunch of arrows. So many things to acquire, such a small amount of funds, and even a smaller amount of time... 1 day / 1000 GP is rough in a game where downtime makes little sense.

 

[Dandu]

Greater Many Shot is an option, but it sort of acts like a Fireball at this level. Hitting 4 or 5 enemies for 25ish damage each can help, but I'm not sure I want to invest a feat slot to do it... I'd take an attack penalty to 3 or so shots and get a bonus to 2 others (at lvl 16). It's an interesting trade and I'd have to look at the numbers. It may be a good option for fighting several "smaller" enemies.

Greater Manyshot works off of a standard action, which means you can move and shoot multiple arrows.

I think it's a decent use of a feat. Better than Improved Crit at least.

Incidentally, see if a Scabbard of Keen Edges can be modified for a bow.

Out of curiosity, what leads you to believe a Force bow will ignore Windwall?

Arrows are turned into Force attacks. Works for me.

(If that doesn't work for you, I advise you think of another way around Wind Wall.)

 

[Shin Okada]

Would you please show us his stats? Feat selection depends largely on stats.

 

[Venator]

Well, his stats have changed over time, currently they are:

Str: 20 (+2 stat bump item, +2 race, +1 at 8th lvl)
Dex: 19 (+2 race, +1 at 4th lvl, +1 at 12th lvl)
Con: 14 (-2 race)
Int: 11 (-2 race)
Wis: 13
Cha: 11

We use a 4d6, drop the lowest, 7 times, drop lowest. I rolled pretty well.


It's important to note that I can not go back and change anything. I'm just curious as to what people may have done differently or how they would proceed from this point.

 

[Runestar]

Greater Many Shot is an option, but it sort of acts like a Fireball at this level. Hitting 4 or 5 enemies for 25ish damage each can help, but I'm not sure I want to invest a feat slot to do it... I'd take an attack penalty to 3 or so shots and get a bonus to 2 others (at lvl 16). It's an interesting trade and I'd have to look at the numbers. It may be a good option for fighting several "smaller" enemies.

If my interpretation is correct, you are still allowed to aim all the arrows at the one same target, but also get the benefit of benefiting from precision based damage (eg: sneak attack, weapon spec) on all your arrows.

Manyshot combos great with weapon supremacy (the ability to take 10 effectively applies to all the arrows fired this way, as they all use the same attack roll). Pity you need to wait 3 more lvs.

While improved rapid shot typically nets you more attacks (especially if combined with haste), it roots you in place since it uses the full-round action, so I might actually prefer manyshot, as you can still move before/after attacking.

Is it possible to get buffed with mindblank? That might free up a feat (iron will).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If my interpretation is correct, you are still allowed to aim all the arrows at the one same target, but also get the benefit of benefiting from precision based damage (eg: sneak attack, weapon spec) on all your arrows.
While improved rapid shot typically nets you more attacks (especially if combined with haste), it roots you in place since it uses the full-round action, so I might actually prefer manyshot, as you can still move before/after attacking.

But he doesn't have any damage like that, and he really has no need to move most rounds. Imp. Rapid Shot is fine, hopefully he's getting hasted often enough.

Is it possible to get buffed with mindblank? That might free up a feat (iron will).

OP already said he can't change the feats he already picked.