Man, if you're going to make a Kensai archer, you really need to abuse the great bow weapon mods. The first enchantment you put on your bow (other than the +1) should be Force (+2) from MIC or Splitting (+3) from Champions of Ruin. The second one you put on your bow should be whichever of the above you didn't put on your bow already.
Ranged combat, much more than melee combat, depends on making lots of attacks. The Splitting weapon enhancement doubles your damage output. It's that good. The Force enhancement means DR doesn't destroy your strategy of shooting lots of arrows that don't do much damage individually.
Since your Str will be changing, I also recommend you grab either a Bow of the Wintermoon from the MIC or add the ability for the composite bow to automatically adjust to your strength (should cost 1000 gold deriving it from the Bow of the Wintermoon cost).
For the Chameleon Archer, I'd recommend leading in with Cloistered Cleric of Trickery 1/Fighter 4 (+4 BAB) or Cloistered Cleric of Trickery 1/Human Paragon 3/Fighter 1 (+3 BAB). ETA: Feat Rogue could be used instead of Cloistered Cleric if you can't use DMM. You basically give up a domain power and Divine feats for a bonus feat and more skill points with Trapfinding. ETA2: Ninja can also be a great choice; it grants you Wis to AC instead of the Feat Rogue's bonus feat (and your Wis will be fantastic). Tough choice. With either of these classes, if you want to use the Human Paragon build, you can also opt to replace that last Fighter 1 with the second level of one of these classes for Evasion (and a bonus feat!) or Ghost Step.
Feats are at a premium. Able Learner, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Zen Archery, and Extend Spell are required or highly highly recommended. Persistent Spell/Quicken Spell and DMM(Persistent or Quicken) are very good if DMM is allowed. Woodland Archer should probably be taken as soon as you can afford the Splitting enhancement. Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Ranged Weapon Mastery are too good to pass up if you went Fighter 4.
As a level 10 human, you get 5 feats plus the floating bonus feat. That's enough to pick up all of the required feats. If you can, take Planning as your second domain to get Extend Spell for free (not sure if any deities offer both Trickery and Planning though
). With the Cloistered Cleric 1/Fighter 4 build, you can pick up Ranged Weapon Mastery with your bonus feats, or use your bonus feats for archery and take DMM and Woodland Archer. With the Human Paragon build, you have two free feats for whatever you like.
The biggest problem with this build is it suffers from lots of MAD. You want as high a Wisdom as you can get and at least 13 Dex. Having at least 12 Int is good, both for skill points and so you can cast level 3 arcane spells at level 10 when you combo Ability Boon with Arcane Focus. The downside of using DMM is you'll also need high Cha, unless your DM allows you to stack Nightsticks. On the other hand, the sheer power you'll get is worth it. High Strength may be needed if you decide on using Full Plate over a Monk's Belt (plus it adds to your damage), and high Con is always good.
If you want to see an example of what the Chameleon offers archers, here's a build I made. It's made with 40 point buy and flaws and I wanted to abuse item creation, so I went with a Cleric 5 lead-in with Practiced Spellcaster. I don't recommend that for most campaigns
. Still, you can take a look at the spell selection under the Limited Resources spoiler near the bottom, as well as the Morning Preparations spoiler and the explanation of what the guy can do. I was planning on using Arcane Focus during morning buffing then swap to Divine Focus, so I used a lot of Arcane spells with long durations.
Ranged combat, much more than melee combat, depends on making lots of attacks. The Splitting weapon enhancement doubles your damage output. It's that good. The Force enhancement means DR doesn't destroy your strategy of shooting lots of arrows that don't do much damage individually.
Since your Str will be changing, I also recommend you grab either a Bow of the Wintermoon from the MIC or add the ability for the composite bow to automatically adjust to your strength (should cost 1000 gold deriving it from the Bow of the Wintermoon cost).
For the Chameleon Archer, I'd recommend leading in with Cloistered Cleric of Trickery 1/Fighter 4 (+4 BAB) or Cloistered Cleric of Trickery 1/Human Paragon 3/Fighter 1 (+3 BAB). ETA: Feat Rogue could be used instead of Cloistered Cleric if you can't use DMM. You basically give up a domain power and Divine feats for a bonus feat and more skill points with Trapfinding. ETA2: Ninja can also be a great choice; it grants you Wis to AC instead of the Feat Rogue's bonus feat (and your Wis will be fantastic). Tough choice. With either of these classes, if you want to use the Human Paragon build, you can also opt to replace that last Fighter 1 with the second level of one of these classes for Evasion (and a bonus feat!) or Ghost Step.
Feats are at a premium. Able Learner, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Zen Archery, and Extend Spell are required or highly highly recommended. Persistent Spell/Quicken Spell and DMM(Persistent or Quicken) are very good if DMM is allowed. Woodland Archer should probably be taken as soon as you can afford the Splitting enhancement. Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Ranged Weapon Mastery are too good to pass up if you went Fighter 4.
As a level 10 human, you get 5 feats plus the floating bonus feat. That's enough to pick up all of the required feats. If you can, take Planning as your second domain to get Extend Spell for free (not sure if any deities offer both Trickery and Planning though
). With the Cloistered Cleric 1/Fighter 4 build, you can pick up Ranged Weapon Mastery with your bonus feats, or use your bonus feats for archery and take DMM and Woodland Archer. With the Human Paragon build, you have two free feats for whatever you like.The biggest problem with this build is it suffers from lots of MAD. You want as high a Wisdom as you can get and at least 13 Dex. Having at least 12 Int is good, both for skill points and so you can cast level 3 arcane spells at level 10 when you combo Ability Boon with Arcane Focus. The downside of using DMM is you'll also need high Cha, unless your DM allows you to stack Nightsticks. On the other hand, the sheer power you'll get is worth it. High Strength may be needed if you decide on using Full Plate over a Monk's Belt (plus it adds to your damage), and high Con is always good.
If you want to see an example of what the Chameleon offers archers, here's a build I made. It's made with 40 point buy and flaws and I wanted to abuse item creation, so I went with a Cleric 5 lead-in with Practiced Spellcaster. I don't recommend that for most campaigns
. Still, you can take a look at the spell selection under the Limited Resources spoiler near the bottom, as well as the Morning Preparations spoiler and the explanation of what the guy can do. I was planning on using Arcane Focus during morning buffing then swap to Divine Focus, so I used a lot of Arcane spells with long durations.
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