| Cerion |
Having played an archer-focused fighter through level 12 in 3.5, I must say I do not like the change to this feat.
The real benefit of Manyshot wasn't the increased arrows, but that it only took a standard action. This means I could move and fire a volley of arrows albeit with a penalty. With your version of Manyshot, I'm rooted in place again.
I would prefer to have options in combat. If I'm able to stand still and fire arrows, then I have the option of Rapid shot with full attack. But if I'm tactically forced to move, I have one option in this rule set, move and fire one arrow. At high levels, that is devestating.
Also, Manyshot in this ruleset is virtually redundant with Rapid Shot. They both produce the same results though I avoid the -2 penalty to hit with Manyshot. But at high levels, with high BAB, this -2 becomes nearly meaningless anyway. Furthermore, since precision based damage isn't applied to the second arrow of Manyshot, I'm going to be using Rapid Shot. At least in 3.5, if I wanted to sacrifice precision-based damage to use Manyshot, I did so to gain the move action.
Finally, though I won't go into detail about combat chaining as it is dealt with elsewhere on this board, let me just say I'm not a fan of being locked into chaining shots. The tactical dynamics in 3.5 are very nice, but also change from round to round. I may have to move after my Rapid Shot, thus ruining my Manyshot.