What are the must have pieces of equipment for a dedicated archer?

Though I like a universal list, I also am focusing this towards a Zen Archer backup I am working on.

Items I have so far
+1-5 Adaptive,???,???,???,??? Composite Longbow
Bracers of Falcons Aim
Efficient Quiver
Boots of Speed or Spiderclimb
Essential AC items: Ring, Amulet (though these can always be replaced with items I may have missed.
Cloak of Resist

So thats it so far. Are there any other pieces that I am missing, better quivers, etc? Also what are usually some other good enchantments for bow besides Adaptive and maybe Holy depending on the situation? Any notable arrows besides the basic cold iron, blunt, and adamantine?

Speed and endless ammunition are good enchantments for a bow

Bracers of archery

special material arrows.

I prefer Bracers of Falcons Aim to Bracers of Archery.

Ciaran, any particular kind of special material arrows?

It used to be bracers of archery, but bracers of the falcon have pretty much obsoleted BoA now.

If you are truly a dedicated archer, long before you get all the cool magic stuff, you need to have a decent strength and dexterity, then you need to buy a masterwork composite, strength adjusted bow.

As you level up you'll need to focus on increasing your str and dex together so that your attack and damage scale. That means things like belts of physical perfection. The latest gift to PF archers has been the "adaptable" enchantment which allows your bow to get better automatically if you gain strength (such as from a temporary buff spell).

Bottom line is focus on dex and str items, get the basic stuff (bracers, boots of speed) and make sure you have "adaptable".

Well my main dedicated archer atm is going to be Zen Archer so I will be focused on Str and Wis mainly. And yeah Bracers of Falcon are just too good to NOT have, especially for their price.

I'm also looking for mundane magical items that would help against random assortments of things my GM may throw at me. He likes to throw obstacles our way that are usually not in cannon adventures such as multiple climb checks EVERYWHERE wehre a Ring of Featherfall come in handy, along with uncommon knowledge checks. So the tinyiest things can kill us...including the 90ft drop I suffered from last night that nearly ended my DD

And yeah Bracers of Falcon are just too good to NOT have, especially for their price.

I believe we have a term for that, but I can't quite place it... :p

Adamantine goes through stoneskin and ignores hardness of less than 20, silver bipasses a lot of DRs, cold iron for fey

Ring of substance and handy haversack are must haves for low gold cost, for any character

Wow, those bracers are broken...

That item would not have made superstar Top 32...underpriced. WAY underpriced.

Wow, those bracers are broken...

That item would not have made superstar Top 32...underpriced. WAY underpriced.

Yeah, I sell them for 8K g

A bow.

Also, from the mundane side: I mentioned this in another post, my archer asked other party members to carry a quiver of arrows for him. Manyshot, Rapid Fire, multple attacks because of level and boots of speed make for going through arrows VERY quickly.

Also, when comparing ranger to fighter build for your archer, don't over look the 1st level spell Bowstaff. With a casting time of a swift action and transfering realivent enchantments-why carry a melee weapon?

special material arrows.

Also, a few bane and holy arrows are nice.

Since it's for a zen archer, get guided property on the bow. Now you can dump str. everything for attack and damage is off of wisdom for you now.

Improved critical, goggles of eagle = bracers of falcon. goggles of eagle provide a +5 to perception. get bracers of archery to increase attack and damage.

Merciful and seeking should also go on the bow.

Get potions of featherfall, or snapleaf items, found in ultimate equipment.

Trick arrows, bane, holy, smoke, thistle, blunt, special material arrows. Weapon Blanches are prefect for archers.

If this is a home game and custom items are allowed, a quiver of Abundant Ammunition, and 5 or so Adamantine, Cold Iron, and Silver arrows. Quiver is a steal at 2k. Best part is it cuts down on all the annoying bookkeeping that firing 5 arrows a turn can generate, lol.

A good melee weapon for when his bow is useless.

What book is the adaptive thing in? Wish I'd had that for my barbarian character. He's mostly a melee guy, but he carried a composite bow as a backup weapon. Retired now, so no longer important.

But I have another archer PC, so I'm interested in all these answers.

The abundant ammunition put on an efficient quiver is almost 8k gp, not 2k.

edit: adaptive comes from ultimate equipment.
edit: not an efficient quiver for 2k

Efficient quiver or even two are a must if your GM makes you track arrows. Endless ammunition is key if you want to carry only special material arrows and never keep track of normal shots.

By the time your launching 5 arrows in 4 shots (which if memory serves me can be as soon as level 6 in some cases) Your going to burn through a ton of arrows pretty fast. The standard 20 arrow quiver will only last you 4 rounds.

The abundant ammunition put on an efficient quiver is almost 8k gp, not 2k.

I didn't say anything about an efficient quiver.

true, but it's better on an efficient quiver than a regular one, because it holds more. for cheap, use journal, for more money and better economy of user efficient quiver seems best.

true, but it's better on an efficient quiver than a regular one, because it holds more. for cheap, use journal, for more money and better economy of user efficient quiver seems best.

lol, why on earth do you need 100+ arrows when they replenish every turn? You just need enough to flurry once with each counter for the DRs you might run up against.

A bow.

+ 1000000

Maybe it's because of the pay style I prefer both as a payer and a GM, but I would NEVER plan a character build around an item. Even if I find the Bow of Awesomeness + infinity, my build is going to be based around the assumption that I won't necessarily be using anything beyond a mundane non-magical bow (also applies to all other equipment).

Stop agreeing with me. It's weird.

Adamantine goes through stoneskin and ignores hardness of less than 20, silver bipasses a lot of DRs, cold iron for fey

I carry cold iron arrows as my base, and then use silver and adamantine weapon blanches. You don't take the -1 damage for the former and it's much cheaper for the latter. And it counts as both, so most of the time I'm shooting siler and cold iron arrows, just because I can.

Also don't forget blunt arrows, which can be blanched with any of the three as well.

Stupit DR/Slashing >.<

I too like to make wish lists for magical items. I don't know much about the Zen Archer but I have a Ranger Archer build and a wish list for him. Some of the things I have that haven't been said are:

Belt of Incredible Dexterity
Cloak of Elvenkind (if you want to be more of a sniper)
Headband of Inspired Wisdom

Seeking and Bane(Undead) are good enchantments for a bow too.

Grizzly the Archer wrote:

true, but it's better on an efficient quiver than a regular one, because it holds more. for cheap, use journal, for more money and better economy of user efficient quiver seems best.

lol, why on earth do you need 100+ arrows when they replenish every turn? You just need enough to flurry once with each counter for the DRs you might run up against.

because I carry many types of arrows, and if a zen archer, you run out faster.

cold iron, adamantine, blunt, silver blunt, thistle, trip, smoke, poisoned, bane, holy, special material, large arrows, and much more.

The full-time archer in our game has now lost three bows to Sunder, Warp Wood, and an unfortunate incident involving some green slime.

If this is at all likely to be a concern for you, I recommend two things:

1) Make your bow of greenwood, a special material from Ultimate Equipment. For a mere 150 gp over the price of a regular masterwork bow, your bow will be fire-resistant and able to heal itself if it gets broken. You're going to blowing a TON of gold on enchants for your bow; greenwood seems like a good insurance policy.

2) If that's not an option for some reason, carry a backup bow. A regular masterwork composite longbow with an appropriate STR rating is a comparatively cheap backup.

Stop agreeing with me. It's weird.

I agree, it is strange.

Damn, did it again.

because I carry many types of arrows, and if a zen archer, you run out faster.

Uh, you don't run out, they regenerate at the end of your turn. Like I said, 5 of each of the relevant DR counters (silver, adam, cold iron, blunt), then one or two of the special arrows. You can really get by with 40 or so arrows. Since you have to have a masterwork quiver to get it enchanted, I just had mine made with extra capacity.

Hmm okay got the weapons down pat, but why Merciful? And greenwood is an interesting suggestion, luckily my GM isnt that bad to sunder our weapons and such but heck I may make one out of it just because its cool haha.

Merciful is generally considered for the fact that it adds 1d6 damage like the elemental enchantments, but things that are immune to non-lethal damage are much less common than things with elemental resistances. It also stacks with base damage for overcoming Damage Reduction.

It used to be bracers of archery, but bracers of the falcon have pretty much obsoleted BoA now.

What? No. No one EVER used bracers of archery as a dedicated archer (you MIGHT get someone grabing the lesser variant for proficiency, but that was all you ever got), they cost WAY too much for their effect. Even with infinite money, they are pretty poor choices for the bracer slot.

Agree on Bracers of Archery being absurdly expensive. Redressing the fact that BoA are rubbish by creating BoFA doesn't make BoFA too powerful.

Grizzly the Archer wrote:

because I carry many types of arrows, and if a zen archer, you run out faster.

Uh, you don't run out, they regenerate at the end of your turn. Like I said, 5 of each of the relevant DR counters (silver, adam, cold iron, blunt), then one or two of the special arrows. You can really get by with 40 or so arrows. Since you have to have a masterwork quiver to get it enchanted, I just had mine made with extra capacity.

You mention about 6 arrows. My archers carry about 15-20 different types of arrows. If I have a golf ball bag of ammunition to choose from, why limit myself to a few types of arrows? I'd rather have the right ammo for the situation, and ontop of at efficient quiver gets me the arrow I want first, a regular quiver can't. And since it's cheap anyway, it's not a big deal. Also, zen archers get off about 8-9 arrows at higher levels, even low levels they get about 5-6 arrows. Even with abbundant ammunition, which I know the interactions of very well, the efficient quiver as the base quiver for the abbundant ammunition spell is still warranted. Not many archers who will spend money on the permancy of the spell on a quiver would pass up the efficient. 3 slots: arrow sized, javelin sized, bow sized. If you have since DM the javelin compartment can hold more arrows. On top of that, the arrow spot holds 60 vs a normal quiver of 20. If I carry a large variety of arrows, even if 6 types as you state, I'd rather have lots of them at once, then just 5 of each one. I don't want to have to rely on a spell to function to make my archer effective. Just my opion.

The full-time archer in our game has now lost three bows to Sunder, Warp Wood, and an unfortunate incident involving some green slime.

If this is at all likely to be a concern for you, I recommend two things:

1) Make your bow of greenwood, a special material from Ultimate Equipment. For a mere 150 gp over the price of a regular masterwork bow, your bow will be fire-resistant and able to heal itself if it gets broken. You're going to blowing a TON of gold on enchants for your bow; greenwood seems like a good insurance policy.

This is what I'm doing as well. This I'd a great option, however I'm not sure it will fix a destroyed bow, only broken condition. Using the sunder maneuver if the sundered decides to destroy the bow, nothing short of a miracle or wish spell will fix it. Because of this, I would cast the ironwood spell on the greenwood. This will make the wood as hard as steel, and make its HP as steel, instead of wood. Then have the impervious enchancement for weapons it on it afterward. Now your bow is twice as hard as steel and twice the HP.

Only other option would be whip wood, which adds a +2 to your CMD vs sunder. Problem is it can't be changed by the ironwood spell. So it's not as good in my mind. Zen archers will have a decent CMD anyway some wouldn't worry over the +2 anyway. The higher hardness and HP will help with this.

-as for bracers f archery vs bracers of the falcon for an archer, the falcon bracers are really worth it. However, once you get improved critical, and goggles of the eagle, it makes those bracers obsolete. If you don't get the feat, or purchase the goggles, it's worth it. Otherwise, get the bracers of archery for the bonuses to atk/Dmg. Unlike a fighter, paladin, inquisitor, or ranger who have burst bonuses for damage, zen archers only get this through their unarmed damage boost. So getting more damage is always a plus. Thus, the bracers of archery are somewhat worth it in the end later on.

-Merciful is also useful for not only the extra 1d6 damage, or it's no lethal ability, but your also a zen archer. So unless your evil, you don't want to be killing your opponents right off. Not very zen like. Merciful helps with this, by doing non lethal.

You mention about 6 arrows. My archers carry about 15-20 different types of arrows. If I have a golf ball bag of ammunition to choose from, why limit myself to a few types of arrows? I'd rather have the right ammo for the situation, and ontop of at efficient quiver gets me the arrow I want first, a regular quiver can't. And since it's cheap anyway, it's not a big deal. Also, zen archers get off about 8-9 arrows at higher levels, even low levels they get about 5-6 arrows. Even with abbundant ammunition, which I know the interactions of very well, the efficient quiver as the base quiver for the abbundant ammunition spell is still warranted. Not many archers who will spend money on the permancy of the spell on a quiver would pass up the efficient. 3 slots: arrow sized, javelin sized, bow sized. If you have since DM the javelin compartment can hold more arrows. On top of that, the arrow spot holds 60 vs a normal quiver of 20. If I carry a large variety of arrows, even if 6 types as you state, I'd rather have lots of them at once, then just 5 of each one. I don't want to have to rely on a spell to function to make my archer effective. Just my opion.

I never said efficient quiver is bad, and eventually you may as well get one. But you can afford a regular old abundant ammunition quiver much earlier, and it's really all you 'need.' If you're carrying 20 different types of arrows, most of them are useless most of the time (not to mention that most haven't even been reprinted for PF, and may not be allowed). And it's not a spell, it's a wondrous item, just like your quiver. I don't know why you'd 'want lots of them' since no more than your full attack can ever be out of your quiver at one time. More than that is utterly pointless.

arrows i would think.

Abbundant ammunition is a spell, not an item. You cast it on the quiver to make it have the abilities for the short time. If you craft it, it's now the item.

I like options, more arrows equals more options, and many of them are PF allowed, printed. Also, efficient quiver automatically gets you the right arrow. Abundant ammo, of you wanted/ needed to switch arrows, mid attack, can't do that. That alone is a great ability, also, I can hold multiple bows, and arrows more than a few. If battle lasts a few rounds it's ok for normal quiver. More than 6 rounds and your screwed typically.

A good melee weapon for when his bow is useless.

Less necessary for Zen Archers than any other archer. They still get Monk Fists, and they get Point-Blank Master for free ludicrously early.

Early on you won't need special material arrows, but later on you will encounter monsters with DR that can be bypassed by adamantine, cold iron, silver, etc. You wouldn't need loads of each type unless your DM is running a campaign with lots of one genre of monster, such as lycanthropes.

Look into:

Quiver Of Anariel.

Quiver Of Plenty.

These are some I like. I tend to lean more for the Quiver of Anariel as a GM. Seems nicely Priced.

But Quiver of Plenty seems to fit better with Abundant Ammunition.

Using the sunder maneuver if the sundered decides to destroy the bow, nothing short of a miracle or wish spell will fix it.

Not entirely true. Make Whole can fix it, assuming it is cast by someone with a Caster Level at least twice that of the bow. There will definitely come a point when this won't be viable anymore, but it could potentially be useful.

Darkvision and a way to see invisible things. Otherwise, you are only sometimes a great archer, and sometimes useless.

Wand of faerie fire is a great buy if you can use it.

If you've got UMD, a wand of gravity bow can come in handy. Even more so if you have a pony following you around to carry large arrows, then quaff an enlarge person potion. Arrows now do 3d6 base.

But more seriously:

Pendant of the Blood Scarab: 1000gp and once per day auto-confirm a crit threat. With x3, longbow crits are awesome. Unless you have a neck slot item you'd rather wear... (no you really don't need the AC from Amulet of Natural Armor.) Hmmm... wondering if I can get like 5 of these, and every time I use one, take it off and put on the next, to get 5 autoconfirms a day.

Other suggestions are more standard for everybody, potions of darkvision, fly, gaseous form, snapleaf, dust of appearance, etc.

At higher levels, a scroll containing a 6th level or higher weather spell.