What combat maneuvers can work well for archers?
I have no experience with maneuver builds and am interested in diversifying a current character beyond solely dealing a lot of damage. I am playing an 11th level Inquisitor archer in a Slumbering Tsar campaign, but am willing to multi-class after 12th level.
What maneuvers work/make sense for archers?
What feats, etc. would be useful?
Thanks for any advice.
As an archer, I assume you have a high Dexterity score. As such, I would recommend either Agile Maneuvers or Weapon Finesse, depending on which maneuvers you decide to concentrate on.
I might recommend disarm. If a big brute runs up on you with a big bad melee weapon, you disarm them, then pepper them with your arrows with impunity. The best part? You can do it all in a single full attack. Just let go of your bow with one hand for the first attack (a free action), disarm take their weapon from them (your primary attack), place your hand back on your bow (free action), and then fire away (iterative attacks).
If you have Greater Disarm, then you can send their weapon sailing away. They will have to choose to either try and continue hurting you without their primary weapon, or move away from you to go get it. Either way, it's win/win.
The sunder feats might also be a good idea, if only to help protect your bow from being sundered. Though if you go this route, I would first recommend picking up Defensive Combat Training first (at 11th-level it gets you a +3 increase to your CMD as opposed to Improved Sunder's +2).
Stay away from trip. It may hinder your foe's mobility, but it also makes them harder to hit with ranged attacks.
Dirty Trick could be a lot of fun too, giving you a means of bestowing a number of different negative conditions upon your foes.
Reposition is gold. If someone gets to you in the back row, simply reposition with your fighter friend and suddenly you are in the back row again and your foe has got a pissed off fighter to deal with.
If you multiclass, take a look at the Archer fighter archetype. It allows you to use certain combat maneuvers from range.
If you were an Archer Archetype Fighter, you could actually do some Maneuvers WITH your Archery.
Check the Archetype for what it does. Of course, since it's Ranged, you don't care about avoiding AoOs.
If I wanted to concentrate on disarm, would the Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers work together? Am I right in thinking the Weapon Finesse would let me substitute my DEX for STR while the Agile Maneuvers would let me substitute my level for BAB? Together this would make my CMB much better.
If I wanted to concentrate on disarm, would the Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers work together? Am I right in thinking the Weapon Finesse would let me substitute my DEX for STR while the Agile Maneuvers would let me substitute my level for BAB? Together this would make my CMB much better.
Both those feats substitute your Dexterity for Strength on Combat Maneuvers. Neither one of them effect your effective base attack bonus.
Weapon Finesse applies only to combat maneuvers involving light weapons or finesse weapons (weapons like spiked chain or dagger; maneuvers like disarm, trip, or sunder) and also helps your traditional attack rolls.
Agile Maneuvers works on ALL combat maneuvers (bull rush, disarm, grapple, trip, etc.), but does nothing for traditional attack rolls.
Having both doesn't do much, unless you want to use your Dexterity (rather than Strength) on all your traditional attack rolls involving light and finessible weapons, and on all your combat maneuvers.
A person with Agile Maneuvers trying to disarm someone with their rapier VS a person with Weapon finesse trying to disarm someone with their rapier, will have the exact same chance of success, provided all other things being equal (in short, the two feats don't stack).