The best gish archer is probably an Eldritch Knight. Full BAB, and (assuming you only dipped one level in a melee class) only 2 lost caster levels.
Arcane Archer is terribad. Imbue arrows does seem cool, until you really look at it.
I know you wanted a "gish" archer, but if you're open to "gish-adjacent" Ranger is a good archer and gets some spells. Ditto for Paladin. Inquisitor and bard get even more spells, but I don't consider them to be great archers (bard w/ a "selfish" archetype like dawnflower dervish or archaeologist can be ok). Magus has an archetype to use spellstrike with a ranged weapon, but ultimately, you're going to want to full attack with your bow, something that you can't do w/ spellstrike, unlike with melee.
Why not dip 2 levels into Arcane Archer for Imbue Arrow then go about your business with Eldritch Knight? You get the best class ability of AA, then can get your full BAB and other abilities from EK. Best of both worlds for only a 2 level advancement into AA.
Imbue Arrow is suppior to a normal standard attack if that is all you have like in the surprise round. Consequently, this is also when an imbued arrow could have the most impact (pun intended) in the fight.
You could play a Myrmidarch magus...
Yeah, sadly AA just isn't that good, despite being a great concept...better than the 3.5 version, but that's not saying much. It does allow for the D&D (or Pathfinder now) Cruise Missile, though, so there's that...one trick pony, but it's an awfully nice, if slow to repeat, trick.
Magus melee mainly lose a lot by going archer
The Myrmidarch archetype can do alright at it, thanks to getting Spellstrike on ranged weapons and a couple other things that help for archers.
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Actually, you could argue that PF's AA is actually nerfed from 3E's version. It was cheesy* and silly, but there was one cool trick you could pull with 3E's Arcane Archer: Exploit the text of Imbue Arrow to cast extremely long (even 24 hour!) casting time spells as a standard action.
For reference, the 3E version:
At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell’s area is centered on where the arrow lands, even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster. This ability allows the archer to use the bow’s range rather than the spell’s range. It takes a standard action to cast the spell and fire the arrow. The arrow must be fired in the round the spell is cast, or the spell is wasted.
And the PF version, which closed that loophole:
At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell's area is centered where the arrow lands, even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster. This ability allows the archer to use the bow's range rather than the spell's range. A spell cast in this way uses its standard casting time and the arcane archer can fire the arrow as part of the casting. The arrow must be fired during the round that the casting is completed or the spell is wasted. If the arrow misses, the spell is wasted.
*Note, while cheesy, AA advances CL not at all (in 3E), so it was still weaker than just advancing as a caster. Cheesy doesn't always = overpowered.
Yeah, sadly AA just isn't that good, despite being a great concept...better than the 3.5 version, but that's not saying much. It does allow for the D&D (or Pathfinder now) Cruise Missile, though, so there's that...one trick pony, but it's an awfully nice, if slow to repeat, trick.
Well I'd actually add the Anti-Magic Shell arrow trick and call it a two trick pony, but agree it really is limited.
Eldritch Knight with an Archer fighter would be a much better option.
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You are missing two points:
1) The Imbue Arrow ability basically lets you attack and cast (without Quicken Spell) in the same action. Note that unlike the magus, the arcane archer does not have to make a full round action to do this (allowing a move action as well in most cases) nor does the arcane archer suffer a penalty to attack rolls; the arcane archer also gains the benefit of gravity bow and/or (Quickened?) true strike on the arrow attack.
2) There are many area spells that you can use, "even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster." An arcane archer makes a highly effective mage-killer with antimagic field imbued arrows, not to mention color spray, flare burst, fog cloud, frost fall, glitterdust, gust of wind, web, daylight, hydraulic torrent, lightning bolt, pellet blast, shifting sand, sleet storm, stinking cloud, vision of hell, black tentacles, confusion, crushing despair, detonate, fear, obsidian flow, river of wind, shout, solid fog, etc.; note that you can also make the argument that the various pit spells are area spells.
A myrmidarch magus X/arcane archer 2-4 can gain a lot of options between Arcane Pool, Enhance Arrows, Imbue Arrow, and Ranged Spellstrike.
1) "Spellstrike (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon's critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier."
Magus can do that with melee attacks just as well, and MUCH earlier. Or if you want to do it w/ ranged attacks...
"Ranged Spellstrike (Su): At 4th level, a myrmidarch can use spellstrike to cast a single-target touch attack ranged spell and deliver it through a ranged weapon attack. Even if the spell can normally affect multiple targets, only a single missile, ray, or effect accompanies the attack.
At 11th level, a myrmidarch using a multiple-target spell with this ability may deliver one ray or line of effect with each attack when using a full-attack action, up to the maximum allowed by the spell (in the case of ray effects). Any effects not used in the round the spell is cast are lost."
2) Most of those already HAVE perfectly long ranges and aren't worth adding in the risk of missing your attack roll. Gust of Wind is not an area spell. Shifting Sand's main use is being able to move it each round, a functionality lost if shot farther than its spell range. I'll grant you that Color Spray and Antimagic Field are great uses, though. So, AA might be worth a dip. Which works well, considering it takes longer to get into than EK anyway. So go into EK, dip AA, then back to EK.
Touch =/= area. Spellstrike and Ranged Spellstrike let you add additional effects only to the target struck by a normal attack. Imbue Arrow lets you attack a target and apply an area effect spell to that target and anyone else in the area.
2) Most of those already HAVE perfectly long ranges and aren't worth adding in the risk of missing your attack roll. Gust of Wind is not an area spell.
I chose only those spells with long range or shorter. Long range is 100 ft + 10 ft per level; a longbow has a range increment of 100 ft, with a maximum range of 1000 ft (a composite longbow has a range increment of 110 ft, maximum range of 1100 ft). A weapon can have its range increment increased by using the longshot spell and/or the distance weapon ability.
Read the gust of wind spell description: "Effect line-shaped gust of severe wind... This spell creates a severe blast of air... affecting all creatures in its path. All flying creatures in this area take a -4 penalty on Fly skill checks."
Black tentacles by bow, hell yeah. Awe inspiring? heck no. Handy? dear god yes.
I think the people claimimg this is a bad class are looking at it wrong. It may not allow for as good a spell caster as erldritch knight, but I don't think that is the intent of the prestige class,
The key bit is the need to cast only lvl 1 spells. Basically make an AA if you want to make an archer who incidentally also casts spells.
You interrupt your bab with 1 lvl of wizard or Magus or whatever, then contnuepn.really its all about, the enhance arrow and imbue. Everything else is just bonus for situations.
But if the goal is to be more of a spell caster then elsritch knight is probably better.
An arcane archer makes a highly effective mage-killer with antimagic field imbued arrows, not to mention color spray, flare burst, fog cloud, frost fall, glitterdust, gust of wind, web, daylight, hydraulic torrent, lightning bolt, pellet blast, shifting sand, sleet storm, stinking cloud, vision of hell, black tentacles, confusion, crushing despair, detonate, fear, obsidian flow, river of wind, shout, solid fog, etc.; note that you can also make the argument that the various pit spells are area spells.
... I... I'm going to go build a bard/arcane archer now.
This has been my favorite prestige class, since ever, even when it wasn't as mechanically useful. It's tasty-flavorful, and fun to write up in a dozen different ways. I've actually been hoping that Paizo would give us an arcane-casting Ranger archetype, purely for the fun of running up a straight Ranger/AA. Ah well, I can houserule it if the occasion arises.
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I just house ruled that, if you fire an imbued arrow at a target and successfully hit their AC then, just like the meteor swarm spell, targets directly hit by the origin of the spell do not receive a saving throw.
I find this makes the prestige class a bit stronger overall.
Best version of the Arcane Archer I ever saw was posted on these boards months ago, and I've taken it and tweaked it for my personal tastes... that character has gone on to be one of the most fun of any I've ever played.
1st level Fighter (Lore Warden) / 5th level Wizard (Transmuter) / 10th level Eldritch Knight / 4th level Arcane Acher
Grab your Fighter and Wizard levels first then 3 levels of Eldritch Knight, 3 levels of Arcane Archer to get Imbue and Enhance Arrows, the remaining 7 levels of Eldritch Knight and finally that last level of Arcane Archer at 20.
The character concept included heavy use of the spell Overland Flight to stay our of melee range and lots of buffs/defensive spells. Also some nice AoE attacks to soften foes up and a few utility spells like Teleport and Dispel Magic. All in all a really fun and effective character to play and a nice version of the Arcane Archer concept.
Heh, honestly though, my favorite archer to play was a Paladin/Master Summoner who used Aspect to get flight from his essentially non-existent Eidolon and 'hunted' evil with a pack of Lantern Archons... as a Holy Tactician, its nice being able to grant the teamwork feat Target of Opportunity to a half-dozen or more Lantern Archons and rain holy hell down on the enemy.
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i think my favorite gish archer is the one im playing at the momment.
ranger 1(trap archetype)/wizard 5(teleportation)/EK 4/AA 4/EK 6
while only casting buff/debuff or god wizard spells, create pit being my favorite, i have made a medium armored spell caster that hits like a truck with arrows, takes enemies out of the fight single handedly with spells, and is the resident trap springer for the group.
my character is the most functional character in my group. everyone else can hit hard,but i hit hard and have 3 roles in the group. shoot i can even be the healer of the group using the "new" infernal healing spell.
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An arcane archer makes a highly effective mage-killer with antimagic field imbued arrows, not to mention color spray, flare burst, fog cloud, frost fall, glitterdust, gust of wind, web, daylight, hydraulic torrent, lightning bolt, pellet blast, shifting sand, sleet storm, stinking cloud, vision of hell, black tentacles, confusion, crushing despair, detonate, fear, obsidian flow, river of wind, shout, solid fog, etc.; note that you can also make the argument that the various pit spells are area spells.... I... I'm going to go build a bard/arcane archer now.
The Barcher is a very nice combo. bard 8, and then all arcane archer.
Actually, you could argue that PF's AA is actually nerfed from 3E's version.
I disagree because the new wording allows you to quicken spells imbued into arrows. You could potentially get off several imbued arrows in a full attack. This makes the quicken rod a valuable purchase.
By the way, I fall into the camp of people who think that Arcane Archer is NOT a weak class. With d10 hit dice, full BAB, 2 good saves, some good unique class abilities and 7/10 caster progression it allows you to keep up with full martial classes and pick up some nice tricks along the way. I agree that the class was built as a martial class with some casting flair not the other way around. It also isn't hard for the class to find a niche in a party. Ranged damage/battlefield control is a role that this class fills well.
You are missing two points:
1) The Imbue Arrow ability basically lets you attack and cast (without Quicken Spell) in the same action. Note that unlike the magus, the arcane archer does not have to make a full round action to do this (allowing a move action as well in most cases) nor does the arcane archer suffer a penalty to attack rolls; the arcane archer also gains the benefit of gravity bow and/or (Quickened?) true strike on the arrow attack.
2) There are many area spells that you can use, "even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster." An arcane archer makes a highly effective mage-killer with antimagic field imbued arrows, not to mention color spray, flare burst, fog cloud, frost fall, glitterdust, gust of wind, web, daylight, hydraulic torrent, lightning bolt, pellet blast, shifting sand, sleet storm, stinking cloud, vision of hell, black tentacles, confusion, crushing despair, detonate, fear, obsidian flow, river of wind, shout, solid fog, etc.; note that you can also make the argument that the various pit spells are area spells.
A myrmidarch magus X/arcane archer 2-4 can gain a lot of options between Arcane Pool, Enhance Arrows, Imbue Arrow, and Ranged Spellstrike.
I would never knock the AA class as I've found great fun playing it and always enjoyed its flavor... but I have to say that if people are hanging their hat on its Imbue Arrow ability then they are going to be disappointed - mainly due to the fact that the vast majority of spells you could actually use with the ability, by the time you have access to them they usually have pretty great ranges, further than most think. Moreover, when was the last time you were in a dungeon and needed to cast a spell more than 100' away? In most instances a straight up Wizard would outdamage the Arcane Archer when it came to AoE, would control better andget earlier access to spells.
Seriously, compare a Fighter 5/Wizard 5/Arcane Archer 10 to an appropriately blooded Sorcerer 1 / Wizard 19 for area of effect damage dealing, burst damage dealing or battlefield control.
Mercurial: I know I'm preaching to the choir here but I think your last post missed the point on several levels:
...but I have to say that if people are hanging their hat on its Imbue Arrow ability then they are going to be disappointed - mainly due to the fact that the vast majority of spells you could actually use with the ability, by the time you have access to them they usually have pretty great ranges, further than most think.
Untrue. First of all, I know the ranges so it wouldn't be more further than I would think. ;) But seriously, there are a lot of personal range AoE spells that do not increase in range at all. Any short range (25ft +5ft/level) spell is just never going to get beyond the bow's first range incriment let alone it's max range. The ability to cast spells with an AoE at the bow's range is a very nice ability that can not be gained any other way.
But, again... this really misses the point. Your firing an arrow, the arrow is hitting, doing all the things it normally does (normal arrow damage, elemental enhancement damage, elemental damage from the class ability, Strength damage, Deadly Aim damage, class ability damage like from weapon training, various other thigns like gloves of dueling and bracers of archery, etc) AND it is delivering an AoE spell. The idea isn't to look at JUST the spell. It is to look at the arrow that is hitting and delivering the spell at a far greater range than would normally be possible.
Moreover, when was the last time you were in a dungeon and needed to cast a spell more than 100' away?
I don't think that is the pertinant question. How often are you in a dungeon fighting to begin with? Many campaigns have plenty of outside fighting. That is where this class shines. Another question to ask might be: how often have you wanted to cast a short ranged spell and not been close enough to deliver it? You don't have to worry about that with this class.
In most instances a straight up Wizard would outdamage the Arcane Archer when it came to AoE, would control better andget earlier access to spells.
I disagree. On single targets the Arcane Archer would do more damage than the Wizard if it was built with a martial priority. On AoE it depends on the number of targets.
But again, you are comparing apples to oranges here. An Arcane Archer isn't supposed to compare to a wizard for straight out spell casting. However, if you compare an Arcane Archer to his non-spell casting equivalents you will see he has a lot more versatility and battlefield control. In other words, if you are already considering playing an archer then the valid comparison to make would be to compare the Arcane Archer to a straight classed Fighter who is specializing in archery or something of the kin. And when making that comparison I think it is easy to see that the Arcane Archer comes out on top.
The problem with Arcane Archer is that it's stuffed with abilities that would be cool at level 3 or 5, but you get them at level 11 or 13 or higher.
For instance, Seeker Arrow would be handy at low levels, but you get it at level 11 (minimum) and it's inferior to Improved Precise Shot which is also available at that level. Same with Hail of Arrows, Phase Arrow and Arrow of Death -- they sound cool, but they're about 7 or 8 levels too late.
But free holy, shocking burst arrows are nice.
Doesn't the Arcane Archer have the weakness of not being able to imbue the arrows with touch spells ?
Doesn't the Arcane Archer have the weakness of not being able to imbue the arrows with touch spells ?
Now something like that would make the Arcane Archer perfect in my opinion, even if you took away the ability to cast AoE spells to do it... or perhaps made them two separate level-dependent class features, perhaps replacing Phase Arrow with the ability to deliver touch spells.
I would consider something like Paladin 5(6) / sorcerer 2(1) / Arcane Archer X. Smite 2x a day, 2 extra caster levels and tons of RP potential. Just something to consider.
Great points, this gives me a lot to think about. Or a new way of thinking about the class, perhaps.
Followed to its conclusion, the Arcane Archer is going to get a minimum of 8 arcane caster levels, which gets you to 4th level spells if using a wizard for your base. I think that there are some nice options to be found there, even for higher levels, though of course their usefulness would often be greater at earlier levels.
I guess I *have* been hanging my hat on Imbue Arrow, as Mercurial said - worrying about whether the save DCs would be too low for their level, and noticing that the range of some of those spells is pretty good to begin with.
One of my earlier concerns was that, if you miss the shot, you don't cast the imbued spell, and so it seems like a waste of a class ability. It now seems obvious to me that, while technically true, this isn't a good argument against the class ability. It's like saying a ranger's favored enemy bonus isn't worth it because he needs to hit.
If I'm planning on shooting anyway, may as well have some goodies attached to the arrows. And, since I'm planning to be an archer, I'm going to make sure I hit most of the time, since that's what the character would be about.
And even without imbue arrows, getting 7 caster levels for personal and utility spells, all without sacrificing BAB, is very nice indeed!
I don't disagree with any of that at all. Lots of great spells out there to be had... but if you're going to follow that line of reasoning, I would suggest considering some Eldritch Knight - for a path that won't feature a real capstone, being able to cast a quickened spell on a critical hit is very, very nice.
My 'Archer' experiences have been:
Human Bard 17 / Arcane Archer 3
Halfling Paladin 10 / Master Summoner 10
Human Fighter 1 / Wizard 5 / Arcane Archer 4 / Eldritch Knight 10
Human Zen Archer 20
Not all of those characters were played to level 20 though all were planned to be. Of them all, the third one, the 'Eldritch Archer' was probably the most fun, and I can't take credit for that particular build.
Since this thread is already here and alive, may I ask how you interpret this?
Imbue Arrow (Sp): At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell's area is centered where the arrow lands,
1) (minor issue) I imbue an arrow with a Fireball, shoot it at an orc in the middle of a group of orcs, and hit. The Fireball blooms... from where exactly? The arrow hit an orc standing in a square, but Fireballs are centered on grid intersections. Eligible grid intersection closest to me? Determine randomly? Choose freely?
2)(less minor) I imbue an arrow with Fear, and shoot it at & hit the foremost in a group of foes. Fear affects a 30' cone... but where does that cone originate? A literal reading of Imbue Arrow seems to imply that we need to find the center of the cone (centers of cones don't seem to be explicitly defined anywhere?) and put that over the foe. This puts the origin of the cone some 15' in front of the victim (toward me, of course).
Now I suspect that this wasn't the intention, at least it seems counterintuitive to me. I suspect the cone was supposed to originate either (most likely) as if I had been standing right before the victim; or(possibly) from the victim as if it was the caster.
I could also see how some people could take the "centered" wording to mean that only spells with a well-defined center are eligible for Imbue Arrow, i.e., that it means "no cones".
How do you run it?
Since this thread is already here and alive, may I ask how you interpret this?
Imbue Arrow (Sp): At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell's area is centered where the arrow lands,1) (minor issue) I imbue an arrow with a Fireball, shoot it at an orc in the middle of a group of orcs, and hit. The Fireball blooms... from where exactly? The arrow hit an orc standing in a square, but Fireballs are Icentered on grid intersections. Eligible grid intersection closest to me? Determine randomly? Choose freely?
2)(less minor) I imbue an arrow with Fear, and shoot it at & hit the foremost in a group of foes. Fear affects a 30' cone... but where does that cone originate? A literal reading of Imbue Arrow seems to imply that we need to find the center of the cone (centers of cones don't seem to be explicitly defined anywhere?) and put that over the foe. This puts the origin of the cone some 15' in front of the victim (toward me, of course).
Now I suspect that this wasn't the intention, at least it seems counterintuitive to me. I suspect the cone was supposed to originate either (most likely) as if I had been standing right before the victim; or(possibly) from the victim as if it was the caster.
I could also see how some people could take the "centered" wording to mean that only spells with a well-defined center are eligible for Imbue Arrow, i.e., that it means "no cones".
How do you run it?
Wouldn't the cone simply be pointed in he direction of the arrow?
Wouldn't the cone simply be pointed in he direction of the arrow?
Of course. The question is, where does it originate?
(I think the RAI of the phrase "the spells area is centered where the arrow lands" is along the lines of "the spell's point of origin is where the arrow lands, or the grid interseqtion or square along the path of the arrow closest to where the arrow lands, as appropriate for the spell")
I would think it originates from the arrow.
I wonder if you can deliberately strike a grid intersection instead of an enemy. Then you would only roll against, what a 5 AC? You could hit those shots 10 range increments out, giving your spell a range of 2200+.
I would think it originates from the arrow.
That would mean that, if you hit a monster that occupies one square or less, it is not included in the spell's area (assuming we're talking about cones). Seems odd.
I wonder if you can deliberately strike a grid intersection instead of an enemy. Then you would only roll against, what a 5 AC? You could hit those shots 10 range increments out, giving your spell a range of 2200+.Yes, but... you still autofail on a nat 1 giving you an effective 5% ASF. Not terribly useful compared to just using Enlarge Spell. You want to shoot at enemies, mostly. As
Your firing an arrow, the arrow is hitting, doing all the things it normally does (normal arrow damage, elemental enhancement damage, elemental damage from the class ability, Strength damage, Deadly Aim damage, class ability damage like from weapon training, various other thigns like gloves of dueling and bracers of archery, etc) AND it is delivering an AoE spell. The idea isn't to look at JUST the spell.
Since this thread is already here and alive, may I ask how you interpret this?
Imbue Arrow (Sp): At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell's area is centered where the arrow lands,1) (minor issue) I imbue an arrow with a Fireball, shoot it at an orc in the middle of a group of orcs, and hit. The Fireball blooms... from where exactly? The arrow hit an orc standing in a square, but Fireballs are centered on grid intersections. Eligible grid intersection closest to me? Determine randomly? Choose freely?
2)(less minor) I imbue an arrow with Fear, and shoot it at & hit the foremost in a group of foes. Fear affects a 30' cone... but where does that cone originate? A literal reading of Imbue Arrow seems to imply that we need to find the center of the cone (centers of cones don't seem to be explicitly defined anywhere?) and put that over the foe. This puts the origin of the cone some 15' in front of the victim (toward me, of course).
Now I suspect that this wasn't the intention, at least it seems counterintuitive to me. I suspect the cone was supposed to originate either (most likely) as if I had been standing right before the victim; or(possibly) from the victim as if it was the caster.
I could also see how some people could take the "centered" wording to mean that only spells with a well-defined center are eligible for Imbue Arrow, i.e., that it means "no cones".
How do you run it?
I had some similar questions posted in a thread here and I've yet to get any sort of practical response.
Let's say I fire an arrow imbued with the spell Silence at a flying mount and it hits. Is the spell centered on the mount? Is it locked in that space centered on where the mount was flying at the moment the arrow struck? What if I target an object like a door or a square on a floor? If I hit an orc with an arrow imbued with a Grease spell - does it Grease his armor or the square he's standing in and if the latter, do I get to decide which other 3 squares are affected?
Imbue Arrow can be a real pain and its not really that great considering 1) the ranges of most spells and 2) the close quarters much of combat takes place in. We're seriously considering changing the benefit of Imbue Arrow from area spells to touch spells.
Oh! I hadn't noticed your thread. Sorry 'bout that, thanks for pointing it out.
I'll go repost my question over there.
Just include the creature hit in the cone. To do otherwise is just unkind as a DM.
Thank you so much
You are missing two points:
1) The Imbue Arrow ability basically lets you attack and cast (without Quicken Spell) in the same action. Note that unlike the magus, the arcane archer does not have to make a full round action to do this (allowing a move action as well in most cases) nor does the arcane archer suffer a penalty to attack rolls; the arcane archer also gains the benefit of gravity bow and/or (Quickened?) true strike on the arrow attack.
2) There are many area spells that you can use, "even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster." An arcane archer makes a highly effective mage-killer with antimagic field imbued arrows, not to mention color spray, flare burst, fog cloud, frost fall, glitterdust, gust of wind, web, daylight, hydraulic torrent, lightning bolt, pellet blast, shifting sand, sleet storm, stinking cloud, vision of hell, black tentacles, confusion, crushing despair, detonate, fear, obsidian flow, river of wind, shout, solid fog, etc.; note that you can also make the argument that the various pit spells are area spells.
A myrmidarch magus X/arcane archer 2-4 can gain a lot of options between Arcane Pool, Enhance Arrows, Imbue Arrow, and Ranged Spellstrike.