Help with Feat Selection for Archer.

[TracerBullet42]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Improved Precise Shot. It's a great feat to have and lets you blow off a common defense. Manyshot is also a good thing to have.

He doesn't meet the requirements for Improved Precise Shot. BAB +11, Dex 19....down the road, it's a necessity. But he can't get it yet. Manyshot is the way to go for now. If nothing else, having multiple arrows nocked and ready to let fly is just cool, dangit!

 

[Ysgarran]

I'll admit to a bit of min/maxing here: I'm going to take another level of wizard, put four ranks into Knowledge(Religion) which will give me 8 total ranks and at tenth level take a level of Templar. Now, the campaign we run in is on the dangerous side so my character may not make it that far...time will tell.

Evasion is indeed very tempting and I always like skill points.

Next levels I'd go for fighter 2 and some rogue thingies... Weapon Specialisation will help your damage output with ranged weapons a lot and I never say no to evasion.

Manyshot is indeed nice for surprise rounds or hit and run tactics.

 

[Zad]

He doesn't meet the requirements for Improved Precise Shot. BAB +11, Dex 19

Lol well that would explain it. I knew I should have checked the prereq's but I was in a rush.

Manyshot is great to get off a few arrows in situations where you needed to move or it was a surprise round. Add a true strike in for high AC opponents since all the arrows of the Manyshot are resolved with a single roll.

As for the min/maxing, given the number of classes you have I'd say it's more than just "a bit"

 

[Ysgarran]

I'll admit to the gift of understating the obvious also

As for the min/maxing, given the number of classes you have I'd say it's more than just "a bit"

 

[Rackhir]

It's my experience with archers (especially in 3.5) that your options for increasing damage are fairly limited. So I would recomend Weapon Spec highly. Multi-Shot is also a terrific feat for an archer, since it can substantially increase your damage output and still let you move. IIRC, multi shot would let you shoot two arrows (1 with all bonuses, 1 with only arrow specific bonuses and no crit) and 3 very soon. I would very strongly recomend making these two your next feats.

You are trying to build an archer, concentrate on that. Not trying to deal with what-if melee situations. Magic items can cover a lot of that sort of stuff. Items that can make you fly will render most melee concerns irrelevant for example.

Shot on the run is essentially useless. So don't bother aiming for that.

If you are outdoors or traveling a lot. Mounted archery can kick some serious ass, especially if you have a flying mount. So it's well worth considering especially as you are taking some DWS levels and being "up stairs" can let you really use that range.

Remember finally, there are limits to how many classes you will want to take. There are lots of classes that have neat little abilities, but if you take too many then you will dilute the effectiveness of the character and make him moderately to totally ineffective. Levels of rogue for example are unlikely to help you much with regards to finding traps and such. Since the traps you will be facing will have their difficulty set for theives who have 9 levels as rogues, not 2. That's one of the reasons AA tends to be not such a hot class since you need to be both a good caster AND a good fighter.