I keep hearing that archers in Pathfinder are far more powerful than in 3.5, but I can't seem to find any reference as to why? Could someone clear this up for me? What changes between 3.5 and Pathfinder fixed this kind of character?
Deadly Aim is power attack for bows. Also you don't need to spend actions (a move action for example) to get into attack range. Manyshot and rapid shot ensure you get more attacks/hits than your melee companions. The feat 'clustered shots' makes DR apply only once to all your shots in a given round, meaning that the 3.5 mechanic of DR soaking up all your damage isn't that big of a problem.
The fighter also has been buffed, meaning they make fantastic archers. But a ranger, cleric, inquisitor or bard (arcane strike helps a lot) can all make good archers as well.
What Krass said.
For feats you "only" need Point-blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Manyshot and the big difference when compared to D&D3.5: Deadly Aim.
With less need to maneuver/move into position you get off more full-attack actions than your melee buddy and can start even earlier pin-cushioning your opponents, cos you're in reach earlier - of course this is from a highly theoretical pov, because it all depends on the set-up of the encounter.
Clustered Shots and Point-blank Master (?, and only accessible for fighters rangers) are just gravy.
Put on top the Adaptive enchantment for bows which obliterates the need to have a new bow made when your bonus to STR changes and off you go.
Ruyan.
Archers are good, but fickle winds leaves them cold. And bards DO make great archers, their self-buffing qualities makes them very good at it.
Paladins also have a ranged Archetype now called the Divine Hunter, and they make excellent ranged combatants. Against evil targets they are downright mean.
Aside from the Divine Bond with their bow, they can cast Litany of Righteousness which gives anyone with a good aura double damage. They can smite, which allows them to add their Charisma to attack and level to damage, and they have Divine Favor (or Divine Power at higher levels if they take Unsanctioned Knowledge).
The feats you need are:
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Deadly Aim
Rapid Shot
Manyshot
Improved Precise Shot
Clustered Shots
Feats that are nice to have include:
Snap Shot
Improved Snap Shot
Combat Reflexes
Fighters get access to Point Blank Master (preventing AOO's from firing a ranged weapon while threatened), and the Weapon Specialization feats.
My current build as I've mentioned before is a level 5 Gunslinger/11 Paladin (Divine Hunter). I use a Rifle with the Infinite Sky property which frees me up from having to reload, but you can easily get around that with a Musket using Rapid Reload and Alchemical Cartridges to make it a free action. The Rifle just has a longer range increment and gets to fire against touch AC in the first 5 instead of just the first. The 5 levels of Gunslinger let you add Dex to damage and give you the feats for repairing/maintaining firearms. After that it's a pretty easy build. Pump Dex to max, followed by Charisma. Take the ranged feats. Everything else is gravy.
Here's a sample build (25 point buy):
LG Humanoid (human)
Init +12; Senses Perception +20
Languages Common, Pick 11 more (Linguistics)
-----Defense-----
AC 41, Touch 25, FF 33 (+11 Armor, +8 Dex, +5 Natural, +5 Deflection, +1 Insight, +1 Luck)
HP 188 (16d10+96), Plus 10 Divine Power (Temporary)
Fort 27, Ref 26, Will 20
Immune Disease, Resist
-----Offense-----
Speed 30ft, Fly 60ft (Good) 1/day, 5 minutes
Ranged Touch (Musket) +28/23/18/13 (d12+11, Crit x4), 40ft
Buffed Ranged Touch w/ Deadly Aim and Rapid Shot (Musket) +26/26/26/21/16/11 (d12+26, Crit x4), 40ft
Weapon Bond (+2 Enhancement Bonus)
Divine Power (+3 atk/dmg, extra shot at highest BAB, +10 temp HP)
Deadly Aim (-5 atk, +10 Dmg)
Rapid Shot (-2 atk, +1 extra shot at highest BAB)
Paladin Spells Prepared (CL 10th)
4th - Divine Power, Dimension Door
3rd - Pick 3
2nd - Litany of Righteousness x4
1st - Hero's Defiance, Pick 4 more
-----Statistics-----
Str:7(-2), Dex:26(+8), Con:20(+5), Int:16(+3), Wis:12(+1), Cha:22(+6)
Base Attack +16, CMB+14, CMD+32
Traits: Reactionary (+2 initiative), Magical Knack (+2 caster level)
Feats: BH1-Weapon Focus (Musket), BG1-Rapid Reload (Musket), 1-Point Blank Shot, 3-Deadly Aim, 5-Rapid Shot, BP1(6)-Precise Shot, 7-Clustered Shots, 9-Skill Focus (Spellcraft), 11-Improved Precise Shot, 13-Craft Wondrous Items, 15-Unsanctioned Knowledge
Skills: Acrobatics +25, Craft Alchemy +11, Diplomacy +25, Fly +11, Knowledge Religion +11, Linguistics +14, Perception +20, Spellcraft +28
Combat Gear: +3 Greater Reliable Musket, +5 Celestial Armor, +6 Belt of Physical Might (Dex/Con), +6 Headband of Mental Prowess (Int/Cha, Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Linguistics), +5 Amulet of Natural Armor, +5 Ring of Protection, +5 Cloak of Resistance, Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier, Ioun Stone (Dusty Rose Prism, Ioun Stone (Cracked Dusty Rose Prism), 21,600gp (Spend on misc items and ammunition)
-----Special Abilities-----
Smite Evil (+6 atk, +11 dmg against evil target), 4/day
Divine Grace (Add Charisma to saves)
Shared Precision (Allies within 10 ft gain Precise Shot against target)
Lay on Hands 11/day (5d6)
Distant Mercy (spend 2x Lay on Hands to use it at range of 55ft
Divine Health (Immune to Disease)
Mercies (Fatigued, Nauseated)
Channel Positive Energy (6d6, consumes 2x Lay on Hands)
Aura of Care (Allies within 10 feet do not provide cover against each others ranged attacks)
Hunter's Blessing (Expend Smite Evil to grant allies Deadly Aim, Precise Shot and Improved Precise Shot)
Deeds (Fast Musket, Steady Aim, Deadeye, Quick Clear, Gunslinger's Initiative, Pistol Whip)
Musket Trainin (+ dex to damage)
Ran out of time at the end so I'm sure I missed a few things but it's pretty accurate. It's a solid build, and one that I highly recommend. My stats were rolled and they were a bit higher than 25 point buy but it could even work at 20 point buy.
Dont forget monks make great archers as well.
As for why PF is better for archers than 3.5 was is simple damage increases that match what the melee characters get. The example mentioned above is deadly aim which matches power attack.
In 3.5 there were very few ways to make your arrows do more damage, now we can buff that damage in many ways.
In 3.5 I remember having an archer that would constantly hit for around 6 damage per shot (around level 5 i think). While I doubt I was min/maxing with this character, it really frusterated me and I quit playing that character. The last archer I played in PF was level 2 dealing about 11 damage per hit and shooting 2 arrows per round.
The main changes in PF that made archers stronger were:
Deadly Aim - the long wished for ranged Power Attack
Manyshot - now instead of a side option, it's just added damage to your normal attack routine
Clustered Shots - You know how damage reduction *used* to be an archer's greatest bane in 3E? About that...
Archers in 3E primarily had a damage problem. They did not hold down the front line or provide valuable combat maneuvers like a melee character did. They were pure artillery and thus needed to put up big damage or go home. PF fixed their damage problems tremendously with the above 3 feats, significantly pumping up their damage per round, and with the latter feat making damage reduction completely irrelevant.
To a lesser degree, there are another few factors at work:
Enhancements trump DR - Clustered Shots makes it moot, but even if you're stuck with core PF, your archer is better off against DR than the 3E archer. Because in PF, just enhancing your bow to +5 alone will let you pierce (nearly?) every form of material DR.
Point Blank Master - Yes, there were ways to shoot safely in noncore 3E (I love you forever, Arrow Mind!), but having a feat for it means not needing to have it on your spell list or having UMD ranks for a wand.
Gravity Bow spell - In 3E, archers could choose to bump base damage w/ enlarge person at the expense of -2 attack/AC, or get +2 attack/AC at the expense of damage w/ Reduce Person. Gravity Bow is basically enlarge person w/o the drawbacks.
Early entry - Rangers and Zen archer monks can get Improved Precise Shot at 6th level, a full FIVE levels early! Among other early entries, that one in particular is very *very* nice.
More feats - Unlike those melee saps who had their feats weakened and split up, all the archery feats are the same (or improved, see Manyshot) as before. So you are able ot fill up the huge archer feat list faster than in 3E.
Cheap str adjustments - It's still a fairly new release, but as of Ult. Equip., you can get a bow that adjusts to any strength for a flat +1000 gp. This is an amazing boon to cover one of archery's most ANNOYING drawbacks, albeit not the most crippling one. 3E had str-adjusting bows, but they were so obscure or rare (I can think of 3 bows; one was an EPIC weapon, another was "Hank's Energy Bow" from some web article to model the D&D cartoon character's bow; and the one you were most likely to actually get approved was Bow of the Wintermoon, a RELIC weapon of a specific deity) that obtaining one was entirely based around begging the DM. Even if you could get one of the 3E str-adjusting bows, this is still about half the price of the Bow of the Wintermoon, the cheapest 3E option.
Fickle Winds really is a bit over-the-top in its capability to utterly make the archer useless. Then again, the fighter archer in my Jade Regent group is utterly annihilating most enemies on his own, so unless you, as a GM, abuse it by throwing it up too often on higher level enemies, it balances out.