PrC: Direwind Archer

[Felon]

I'm liking it and waiting for the final cut. he arrows produced by Eldritch Fletching are full fledged magic arrows and can be used by anyone who can nock a bow, right?

Indeed, as it is essentially just a specialized variant of Craft Magic Arms & Armor.

Felon, great work! I have an NPC named Khasoum "Father Bow" who is just dying for this prestige class!

On a technical note, you said the concept is an archer who fires lots of arrows in a round to beat overwhelming odds. At 6th level the archer gets Improved Precise Shot.
Now, I can see where this would be useful in a large melee with your allies grappling orcs and general chaos, but it seems like the only element that isn't a perfect fit. Most archers would take the feat on their own, and there aren't many high-level archer feats.

Very perceptive. The origins of the class lay with the Peerless Archer PrC, a class from the 3e Silver Marches sourcebook. It received an ability called Sharp Shooting, which incrementally negated cover and concealment. When the 3.5e PHB came it out it added Improved Precise Shot to the list of available feats and since it pretty handily trumps that class feature, I just worked that into my revision. That was an early design decision, before it really started to sink in how many different directions you can go with an archery concept (as I commented on in my initial post).

Having said that, I keep it for a few reasons. For one thing, it's pretty evident this is a ranger-friendly class. The ranger's archery combat style meshes perfectly with both the concept and requirements for becoming a rapid-fire archer. And the ranger's combat style grants him Improved Precise Shot at 11th level. Whenever I considered dropping IPS from the direwind archer, I found myself hearing the complaints of someone who might have abandoned ranger for what's supposedly a more focused, streamlined archer--and yet they don't get the one archery benefit that they would get if they'd stayed a ranger.

Also, Improved Precise Shot has a 19 Dex prerequisite. Many archers can meet that prereq, but certainly there are some can't. The ranger in my campaign only has a 15 Dex, for instance. Just as a ranger gets bonus feats without having to meet the prereqs (even though they usually can) based on the justification that their training compensates for the lack of standard requirements, I figured I'd go ahead and let the DWA have IPS. Note though, he doesn't get it until his total BAB is at least +11, which is what the prereq for IPS requires. That seems balanced.

As for there being a dearth of good archery-oriented feats, I'd certainly recommend Dodge & Mobility for the DWA. And Improved Critical is always a good idea. If you use external sourcebooks, then there's a fair number of archery feats--in particular, Complete Warrior provides a lot of options (Improved Rapid Shot, Ranged Sunder, Ranged Disarm, Ranged Pin), and Races of the Wild complements archery as well (Able Shot, Defensive Shot, Woodland Archer).

I may lose it, but right now I don't think so. We'll see.

Mind you, nothing wrong with keeping it the way it is (it's great!), but here are some ideas to tighten up the ability to your concept

Entangling shot: You may sacrifice -4 to hit in order to make this shot against an opponent who is within 5' of one of its allies. If you hit, you immediately prompt a grapple between the two, from which they can extricate themselves next round. Essentially, you knock the one target into the other (who is already moving toward you), and they get tangled together. The hit creature's ally may choose to make an attack of opportunity against their fellow rather than get entangled.

Cool, though I'd say that meshes more with the "trick-shot artist" archer concept.

Quickdraw their bow and nock it all in a standard action without provoking an AoO.

I'm not sure I follow here. Any archer can draw a bow as a move action without provoking an AoO, unless he actually has it packed away. And he nocks it for free. Only thing that might be handy is Quick Draw. That would be something I'd definitely give an archer designed to stand his ground in melee.

I really am grateful for all the helpful feedback and kind words. Can't believe I haven't been flamed or called a munchkin once lol.