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The Arcane Archer class looks really cool. It adds a lot of nice options and basically acts as a gold conservation for the archer, but my question is, though the class itself looks interesting, what does it do?
The arcane archer has a few cool tricks, like shooting through walls and shooting around corners, but since you're an arcane caster, you could just fly above the walls and take shots then, right? You'd avoid them altogether and you would be safer from counterattack and could make full attacks. Even if you couldn't fly, you can only use Seeker Arrow and Phase Arrow as standard actions (thus you are limited to one arrow, and since you have to use that standard action to use the ability, you can't also Imbue it with a spell, so the arrow only deals 1d8+5+1d6 elemental+2d6 aligned plus bonuses, so about 19 damage. Not exactly going to bring down the powerful hiding enemy.)
Other than that, the arcane archer has his signature Imbue Arrow ability, but with +6 BAB required to get into the class, you're probably going Sorc or Wiz 4/Fighter or Ranger 4 to enter the class, or maybe just Fighter or Ranger 6/Wiz or Sorc 1. With the generous casting from the first entry point, you would still have to wait until Arcane Archer 3 to get fireball available as a sorcerer. So then, you could shoot a few fireball arrows per day, with a caster level of 6 (or 8 if you took Magical Knack), at level 11.
So the caster with some powerful weapons part is out, because you lose too much casting to get into the class. I guess it's supposed to buff the archer side of it?
But the archer side of it involves losing access to bonus feats from the base class, as well as extra bonus damage from Bane/Favored Enemy/Weapon Training. Instead, you get free enhancement bonuses (which you should already have if you're at the appropriate WBL, a level 9 warrior should definitely have at least a +1 bow by now) and free elemental and aligned damage to your weapons (admittedly nice, but I'm not sure if it's stronger than flat bonus damage when you factor in critical hits).
So...am I missing something? What does the arcane archer do? Or is the idea simply to add "more utility" to your combat-focused character?
It's for flavor. That's it. Why use an arrow to launch a fireball, when you could just launch the fireball. It might be neat to launch a globe of invulnerability, but is what you lose really worth that one trick? I would say not.
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There's an interesting discussion on a pure-caster Arcane Archer here
The first post links to a rough draft of a class guide.
As im sure u arleady know most prcs are just not as good than staying base class.. With that said most of them imo exist as pure flavor, that can, in the right builds still be potent in the long run.. AA is one of these, although only for a 4 level dip.. The best build ive seen involving it is a Fighter 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 3/AA 4/EK 7.. This gives u +17 BAB and caster level 17(19 with mag knack/20 with ion stone), at 20th level.. You take the full range of archer feats and maybe extend/quicken spell and reign death... Interesting note u can shoot an antimagic field with ur bow :)..
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Shooty plus casty. Arcane buffs, plus little things like Arcane Strike, can really boost damage. Arcane defensive buffs and mobility spells also help mitigate some of the vulnerabilities of archers.
Just tacking on fireballs to arrows really misses most of the goodness of Imbue Arrow. Think area debuffs and battlefield controls. For instance, Imbue Arrow with stone call and now a 40' radius of badguys is in difficult terrain, giving you twice as long to shoot at them before they can reach you.
I generally prefer to think of them as Archers with some casting capability. If you want to be a real caster, Arcane Archer isn't for you.
Shooty plus casty. Arcane buffs, plus little things like Arcane Strike, can really boost damage. Arcane defensive buffs and mobility spells also help mitigate some of the vulnerabilities of archers.
Just tacking on fireballs to arrows really misses most of the goodness of Imbue Arrow. Think area debuffs and battlefield controls. For instance, Imbue Arrow with stone call and now a 40' radius of badguys is in difficult terrain, giving you twice as long to shoot at them before they can reach you.
The problem with this is that the range of Stone Call is 100' plus 10' per level. If I were a pure caster, I could cast it 130', why would I need to add it to an arrow? Really, the only time Imbue arrow helps you is with an area spell that has no range... Globe of Invulnerability
When I played an Arcane Archer, he was an archer with some magical tricks. Spellcasting was secondary, and the magic was just used to boost his effectiveness as an archer, like Charlie suggests. Anything that can boost your damage per arrow is great for an archer, because they tend to get a lot of arrows, so Arcane Strike and Gravity Bow are super nice. Haste is even better for an archer than it is for melee characters, because you'll get a full attack more often.
He was, when I quit playing him, something like Ranger (Guide) 6/Wizard (Transmuter) 1 / Arcane Archer 3. I used movement and damage enhancing spells from both lists to maximize my battlefield position, like Spider Climb to get to a good spot to shoot from - I spent a lot of that campaign in trees shooting people.
Imbue Arrow is mostly a way to enhance the range of short-range spells (at 10th level my character's Short range was something like 40', but his composite longbow had a range INCREMENT of 110', and could be shot accurately several times the length of the battlemat) and a way to deal a little bit of damage (one arrow's worth) while casting a battlefield control spell. Note that nothing specifies that the spell has to be arcane - if you've got ranger levels you can launch ranger spells with Imbue Arrow. I think Entangle was probably my most commonly cast spell with Imbue Arrow.
I made an arcane archer for a low magic game one time. One level wizard (divination)+levels of fighter until the character qualified for Arcane Archer worked out fine for me. It was handy to have a way to do some extra damage via imbue arrow (not to mention bypassing DR sometimes), when we didn't have the option of acquiring much in the way of magical gear.
In a typical game I imagine that is a lot less useful (although still nice). I would think the best thing they can do (as someone else already mentioned) is cast anti-magic field w/ a bows range. Very useful.
I think there are better options for archers out there, but archery is so powerful in Pathfinder (full attacks forever!) that I doubt a fighter taking a level of wizard and then some levels of arcane archer would do fine in most games.
I do question the capstone ability though. DC based on charisma? What?!?
Or is the idea simply to add "more utility" to your combat-focused character?
Yeah, I think that's pretty much it.
The ability to cast gravity bow should not be overlooked or flaming arrow , fly,shield , wall of wind . The spells you will be casting are not damage spells . Enhance Arrows saves you tons of money and adds even more damage per hit .
No saying its the best thing ever but does have its uses and is not weak.
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Like other people have said, AA is for the most part an archer with some casting utility rather than the other way around. I like to think of it as giving archers useful things they can do other than full-round attack every round. And while Enhance Arrow is the class feature you'll probably get the most use out of, don't discount the others- they can be very useful when used inventively. For example, I use Seeker Arrows to track down invisible or hiding enemies, firing off a smoke arrow so I can follow the smoke trail. And as for imbue arrow, the real power there is in the fact that it uses the same casting time as the spell- even immediate actions. So spells like Emergency Force Sphere are extremely powerful in concert with it- imagine denying the wizard line of effect just as he tries to cast Energy Drain.