Advice building a Trick Archer, please?

[Green Smashomancer]

So, my home group doesn't seem to ever end up making ranged characters of any sort (or even casters), which I think might end up being a problem, so I ended up thinking about possibilities for an archer that would be fun to play and I've narrowed down my options a bit.

To start, the character would be a noble-type, perhaps not directly tied to an actual noble house, but from a high-class background, and as such, has ended up with an outwardly inflated opinion about himself, in reality, he wants to show that he's the best at what he does, mostly to himself and his parents because they never seemed happy with whatever he tried to impress them with, but he'd never admit that.

His modus operandi usually involves a lot of show boating in and out of combat, as such I have a few classes I think would work the best:

Ranger. Comes with early access to useful feats that can show great skill early on in levels.

Fighter (archer archetype). Comes with lots of extra feats that would allow some wiggle room build-wise, and allows combat maneuvers at range which is really great with the background, but is kind of, I don't know, bland?

x/Arcane Archer. Would be cool to see the PrC in action, and it has enough bells and whistles to pull some cool tricks as well. I should note that I don't know what to precede the Arcane Archer levels with though.

Our group is open to trying some 3rd party stuff if there is something that would work well with the "Smug Trick Archer" route, but there are a few classes I have ruled out:

Inquisitor. He would have to worship Erastil to my knowledge, and it doesn't really feel right, flavor-wise. Plus, while the Inquisitor is a great damage hose with a bow, they don't really have much else that works here.

Monk (Zen Archer). Same as above, but without Erastil.

So, out of these options, which do the message boards think will provide the best option for a noble-in-title trick archer? And of course, if there's something I missed, please offer the suggestion.

Thank you all in advance!

EDIT: Just realized a name might help. His name is Daniel Dante Jerald George James Jedediah Bartholomew Thurwood the Third. Dan to his friends.

[Green Smashomancer]

Bump? you can call him Dan if you want.

[Green Smashomancer]

Well, I guess I'll just keep talking to myself then. So far I'm leaning towards ranger but the teamwork aspect feels off to me.

[DesolateHarmony]

Green-- not everyone can get on at work. Give people a chance to respond.

My newest character is a Diviner Wizard, who uses a bow in combat, with a few support spells. Don't limit yourself on class choices. For example, a cleric of Erastil might just be your cup of tea.

For Arcane Archer, one level of wizard and six of fighter or ranger will get you right in. Gravity Bow!

I'm looking toward an Imperious Bloodline Sorcerer (advanced race guide), and that could head to Arcane Archer, too. It would fit the persona you described, and just as good a first level caster as a wizard.

Look at Oracles of Various stripes. They have some very fun ways to progress, and are charisma based casters.

[Ethereal Gears]

Have you checked out the Marksman psionic class from DSP? One of the most interesting and versatile ranged classes out there, IMHO.

Here it is.

[Green Smashomancer]

DesolateHarmony wrote:

Green-- not everyone can get on at work. Give people a chance to respond.

My newest character is a Diviner Wizard, who uses a bow in combat, with a few support spells. Don't limit yourself on class choices. For example, a cleric of Erastil might just be your cup of tea.

For Arcane Archer, one level of wizard and six of fighter or ranger will get you right in. Gravity Bow!

I'm looking toward an Imperious Bloodline Sorcerer (advanced race guide), and that could head to Arcane Archer, too. It would fit the persona you described, and just as good a first level caster as a wizard.

Look at Oracles of Various stripes. They have some very fun ways to progress, and are charisma based casters.

I'm just trying to use backstory to narrow down the class choices. I like gravity bow, so I think Imperious bloodline Sorcerer would fit really well too. On the Charisma-based caster note, I have heard that Oracles don't make especially good archers, are there any specifically you are referring to? Battle would be first I assume?

EDIT:

Ethereal Gears wrote:

Have you checked out the Marksman psionic class from DSP? One of the most interesting and versatile ranged classes out there, IMHO.

Here it is.

Actually, Marksman sounds pretty neat, I'm going to look through it. Thanks!

[Ethereal Gears]

I think they're amazing. My group doesn't really like the fluff of psionics as it doesn't gel very well with the flavor of our homebrew setting, but a marksman could easily be re-fluffed as some sort of mystic archer or whatever. Might be playing a 7th-level one as my new character this weekend. Hope you like it!

[Green Smashomancer]

Finesse marksman sounds like a real contender here, I really like the ranged combat maneuvers especially.

[Ethereal Gears]

Yeah, you basically get that neat but somewhat niche trick of the fighter archer archetype (ranged CMs), plus 4 levels of manifesting and lots of other goodies. Definitely my favorite combat style.

[Gwen Smith]

There are some nice trick arrows in the Elves of Golarion book. You can really get your Hawkeye on (or Green Arrow, if that's your bent).

[cnetarian]

Depends on what you want, but the archadin (archer paladin) sounds like a good fit for the psychology, although the archadin is pretty much human only due to needing the bonus feat. Note that inquisitors are proficient with the long and short bows so there is no need to be an Erastil worshiper and inquisitors don't even need to worship a god.

[avr]

For the arcane archer you want some nice area spells to imbue arrows with. This and the BAB requirement firmly push you towards the Eldritch Knight PrC first. If you start as an Aasimar Fighter 1 / Wizard 1 / EK 5 you can get into arcane archer reasonably quickly with enough spells to make it worthwhile.

Edit: or sorc instead of wizard, of course.

[Rerednaw]

Trick Archer...or trick martial ranged?

Not sure if it's on the table however if you're open the gunslinger class comes with a host of trick shots.