Dimensional Dervish, Bows, and Attacks of Opportunity

[Tinalles]

Dimensional Dervish lets you attack from multiple different squares in a single turn by teleporting in between each attack. Dimensional Savant lets you provide flanking from each square you attack from (including with yourself, weirdly enough).

If a character using these feats attacks with a longbow from squares immediately adjacent to enemies, do the enemies get an attack of opportunity?

I'm inclined to think the answer is yes, but I thought I'd check. It just seems weird that enemies can attack a character moving so fast that he can flank with multiple allies (or even himself).

[Grick]

Tinalles wrote:

If a character using these feats attacks with a longbow from squares immediately adjacent to enemies, do the enemies get an attack of opportunity?

Neither of those feats appear to cause firing a ranged weapon to not provoke.

Also, you will not gain a flanking bonus on those longbow attacks, as flanking only applies to melee attacks.

[Tinalles]

Oh, right -- you can't threaten squares with ranged weapons so you can't flank with them. So the whole Dimensional Savant thing is irrelevant.

Oh, well. I still think an Arcane Archer could have some fun with Dimensional Dervish.

[Grick]

Tinalles wrote:

Oh, right -- you can't threaten squares with ranged weapons so you can't flank with them.

Dimensional Savant: "While using the Dimensional Dervish feat, you provide flanking from all squares you attack from. Flanking starts from the moment you make an attack until the start of your next turn. You can effectively flank with yourself and with multiple allies when using this feat."

So, even with a bow, using this feat, you do provide flanking.

[space] [orc] [ally]

If you teleport into [space] and shoot the orc, you will have provided flanking for ally. You will not gain the +2 flanking bonus on your longbow attack, because Flanking only grants a bonus when making a melee attack.

Don't overlook the feat Snap Shot which allows you to threaten 5' with a ranged weapon, and make AoO's with it also. (It still won't let you use a flanking bonus, but you can still provide other people with one)

You still provoke AoO's for firing a ranged weapon, however.

[Tinalles]

That's a good feat.

My initial idea was to do a Wizard 12/Arcane Archer 8 combo with a feat chain something like this:

[ 1] Point Blank Shot
[ 3] Precise Shot
[ 5] Weapon Focus (Longbow)
[ 7] Dimensional Agility
[ 9] Dimensional Assault
[11] Dimensional Dervish
[13] Rapid Shot
[15] Dimensional Savant
[17] Snap Shot
[19] Something

It's already a very feat-intensive build, as is common with archery, and some of them don't really make sense.

Dimensional Assault lets you do a "teleport charge", but of course you can't charge with a ranged weapon, so that feat doesn't actually do anything except act as a pre-req for Dimensional Dervish.

The Dervish attacking-from-multiple-locations thing would be very cool. The Savant version has problems, namely provoking AoO's for each shot. That could be overcome with Point Blank Master from the APG, but that requires Weapon Specialization, which a non-fighter cannot get.

Rapid Shot -- a pre-req for Snap Shot -- is nice except for that -2 penalty on attack rolls, which hurts a LOT on a build whose grand total BAB at level 20 is only 14.

The whole Dimensional feat chain makes a lot more sense for a melee type (it was of course made primarily with monks in mind). A Magus or an Eldritch Knight build focused on melee combat would likely work well.

A Myrmidarch Magus might be able to pull off the ranged version, thanks to their bonus combat feats and qualifying for fighter feats. But the diminished spellcasting hurts a lot if you want to be using Dimension Door frequently.

[Grick]

Tinalles wrote:

The whole Dimensional feat chain makes a lot more sense for a melee type (it was of course made primarily with monks in mind). A Magus or an Eldritch Knight build focused on melee combat would likely work well.

Zen Archer monk would work with a bow, or a melee Inquisitor with the Travel domain and flank-related teamwork feats.