Money is no object, what are high level zen archers choosing for bow enhancements these days?

[Daenar]

Wondering if there is something essential to put on a bow for Z.A. all I want are the Endless ammunition and Seeking qualities. Am I overlooking something?

[Imbicatus]

Endless Ammo is over-rated, and Seeking is nice but ZA's have a better option for it in Trick Shot. Adaptive is pretty much mandatory to deal with STR damage. I like called in case you are ever disarmed or surprised without your bow out. Various elemental burst enchantments are nice for the ZA, as perfect Strike makes you crit more often than not.

[The Human Diversion]

Holy if you find yourself fighting evil creatures more than half the time. Phase locking if you want to make sure they can't get away or use any kind of teleportation trick.

[Calel101]

Speed is still nice, unless you are getting haste for somewhere else

[Gwen Smith]

Adaptive is a must-have for any archer.

Personally, I like Designating: each time you hit, your allies get +2 attack and damage (morale) for 1 round. A Zen Archer can usually hit once a round, so this becomes a really nice party buff. Greater Designating increases this bonus to +4.

I agree that Seeking is overrated: once you have Improved Precise Shot, you really only have to worry about invisible opponents, and there are better ways around that.

Planar is nice: it only reduces DR by 5, but it works on any outsider. Combine that with Clustered Shots, and you should be holding up nicely against any elemental, demon, devil, angel, or whatever.

[Thomas Long 175]

Gwen Smith wrote:

Adaptive is a must-have for any archer.

Personally, I like Designating: each time you hit, your allies get +2 attack and damage (morale) for 1 round. A Zen Archer can usually hit once a round, so this becomes a really nice party buff. Greater Designating increases this bonus to +4.

Remember these are morale bonuses, so if you have a bard who likes to use the heroism spell and greater heroism spell they won't stack.

[Theconiel]

Straight enhancement. I would rather have a +5 bow than a +3 bow with other magic, usually.

[Imbicatus]

Theconiel wrote:

Straight enhancement. I would rather have a +5 bow than a +3 bow with other magic, usually.

Yes, but you can have +10 total, so what do you like after you have +5?

[David Neilson]

I would think ghost touch. It is admittedly not always useful, but when it is you feel so grateful.

[Theconiel]

David Neilson wrote:

I would think ghost touch. It is admittedly not always useful, but when it is you feel so grateful.

This.

[Kayerloth]

Hmmm my archer experience is all prior to PF (mostly 3.5) but the short list would be:

Adaptive +1
Distance +1
Ghost Touch +1
Keen +1 (unless have Imp Crit)
Glamered (+4000gp) has to be on the list for my Archer particularly since Called was gutted for his purposes)
Planar +1

I could see my Archer being strongly interested in the following from a concept point of view if nothing else (He had both cleric and ranger levels and was the party's scout).
Grayflame +1
Huntsman +1
Stalking +2

I see Called has been substantially altered from previous, a 100 foot range would have made it all but useless for my Archer.

And a Phase Locking, Anchoring, Greater Designating I could see as interesting to be carrying around for those "special targets". Heck add in Spell Storing and he'd store Status in it for real thematic overkill.

[Turgan]

Ghost Touch and Keen are both not possible on a longbow.

You need seeking eventually -

Played a zen archer until level 19. I had a +5 adaptive whipwood composite longbow since level 15. I missed seeking sometimes.

Trick Shot does not help you in all cases, where seeking would, e.g. displacement (no concealment, just 50% miss chance)

[Devin O' the Dale]

+5 Cheese Bows of Winning

[Gwen Smith]

David Neilson wrote:

I would think ghost touch. It is admittedly not always useful, but when it is you feel so grateful.

Ghost Salt weapon blanch is much more cost effective.