Grain of salt for the anon internet user.
Anyways, I played an Eldrich Knight archer in the last campaign I was in. I started off as a transmuter wizard with the bonded item. From there I used transmutations to buff myself and use a longbow (was elf). He was pretty fun to play, did alot of damage and had high AC (when his spells were up). You could modify to have some summoning ability for your meatshield. GL HF!
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Well frankly if you want an archer with a strong pet, can't go wrong with the hunter. Being able to cast ranger and druid spells , especially with a lot of ranger spells improving your archery skills and quite possibly the strongest pet/animal companion.
It should be noted that you will start falling off around level 15 as a hunter. So it all depends how long the campaign is going to be but by level 15, your wizards and other full spellcasters should be picking up the slack, easily so it won't hurt you too much.
I am not sure i understand this comment, did i do something wrong? i am posting with an account, not as an anonymous user...?Grain of salt for the anon internet user.
I am the anon internet user. You've done nothing wrong at all.
That said, in the current campaign i'm in we have a summoner who's playing the synthesis archtype. It is a very strong character, and I believe that there are other options to have the summoned creature all day, and still have spell list (though i'm not very familiar with it).
Mad Dog Barbarian (animal archive) is viable, it's full BAB and gets an animal companion.
You could also play a Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor (Advanced Class Guide) or take the Chivalry Inquisition (Magical Marketplace) on an inquisitor or cleric to have a full progression animal companion along with a class that typically supports archery mixed with casting fairly well.
ranger is like custom built for this... the only drawbacks are waiting to 4th for your companion and having to blow your 5th level feat on boon companion instead of more archery yummies. you could always buy a trained animal to fill in until 4th.
mad dog barbarian is a fair option... full progression companion starting at 1st (with full druid selection, iirc) plus full BAB, but no bonus feats (which hurts)and if you want to benefit from rage at all you either have to get one of those transforming bows (to turn it into an appropriate Mighty bow) or be allowed to stack mad dog with urban to buff Dex. (that's actually a pretty solid set up for an archer but both archetypes modify rage... mad dog only postpones it so some GMs may allow both with controlled rage coming online at 4th).
zen archer is still tough to beat if you want a ranged power house... this would require more patience but if you invested in nature soul and animal ally (from faiths and philosophies) and boon companion you'd end up with a full progression pet on your ZA... it wouldn't come online until 7th i think so you'd have to rely on regular trained animals for a while, and it costs 3 feats (though ZA gets so many bonus feats), but it could be pretty sweet.
if you don't like any of those, inquisitor is a pretty good option too- judgements plus bane make them pretty good as switch hitters and there are a couple ways to get a pet.
Hmm, a wizard 1, warrior 1, EK 10, etc using 2 feats gets a pet.
And I agree with Nate, Zen archer using same 2 feats would be great too.
Mad Dog Barbarian (animal archive) is viable, it's full BAB and gets an animal companion.
You could also play a Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor (Advanced Class Guide) or take the Chivalry Inquisition (Magical Marketplace) on an inquisitor or cleric to have a full progression animal companion along with a class that typically supports archery mixed with casting fairly well.
And unfortunately, Mad Dog and Urban Barbarian don't stack because they both change Rage.
You might let a DM allow you to mix them both, since Urban B changes the way you rage, and Mad Dog simply pushes Rage off til level 4. But this is suboptimal if you're interested in the dex bonuses at first level.
If I were you I would look at a mount animal companion rather than a tank one. An archer who can full attack an re-position himself each round is a very tough thing to beat. As a bonus, if you aren't expecting your AC to be in melee very much, a lvl-3 AC is usually good enough to stay alive.
Sacred Huntmaster Inquisitor and Hunter end up virtually identical. I am trying to decide between the two for a PFS character myself. Having built them both to 12th, I was shocked at how similar they are. Pets are literally carbon copies of one another with the same access to Skirmisher tricks and teamwork feats. The main difference is the spell lists and the only thing that really sets them apart is the Bane class feature for the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor will be a better archer because of it in the long run with a slightly weaker pet so that sounds like the road you are looking to go.
ranger is like custom built for this... the only drawbacks are waiting to 4th for your companion and having to blow your 5th level feat on boon companion instead of more archery yummies. you could always buy a trained animal to fill in until 4th.Where does the "boon companion" feat come from? A search in the PRD did not give any result...
Animal Archive
The main difference is the spell lists and the only thing that really sets them apart is the Bane class feature for the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor will be a better archer because of it in the long run with a slightly weaker pet so that sounds like the road you are looking to go.gravity bow?
Gravity bow bumps your weapon damage up by one size so you go from 1d8 to 2d6. Bane outstrips this rather quickly considering that it adds 2d6 as soon as you get it and it ramps up from there.
It's kind of six of one and half a dozen of the other as far as I can see; they really are ridiculously similar, especially if you don't expect to play past 12th. My character is for PFS so I didn't bother looking past that level. They may grow more disparate between 13-20, I don't really know.
Honestly I don't see any 3/4 BAB class as making a better archer than the typical full bab candidates: Paladin, ZAM (we'll consider it full BAB because of flurry), Ranger. The Ranger can invest a single feat to get a full AC, the Paladin can invest two feats to grab an AC -3 and another to get AC. The ZAM is probably pretty tough to grab an AC with unless you're comfortable giving it 13 CHA.
OP wants a pet starting at level 1. Yes, all of those classes make far better archers but none of them have a pet at level 1.
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Human Zen Archer
Human Bonus Feat: Toughness
level 1 feat: Nature Soul
Monk 1st: Improved Unarmed Strike
Monk 1st: Perfect Strike (bow, special)
Monk 1st: Precise Shot
Monk 2nd: Weapon Focus (longbow)
Monk 2nd: Point Blank Shot
Monk 3rd: Point Blank Master
level 3 feat: Deadly Aim
level 4 retrain Toughness to Animal Ally using rules from Ultimate Campaign
level 5 feat: Boon Companion
Monk 6th: Improved Precise Shot
This gets you fully functional pet at level 5 and you are a bad a$$ archer.
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Human Zen Archer
Human Bonus Feat: Toughness
level 1 feat: Nature Soul
Monk 1st: Improved Unarmed Strike
Monk 1st: Perfect Strike (bow, special)
Monk 1st: Precise Shot
Monk 2nd: Weapon Focus (longbow)
Monk 2nd: Point Blank Shot
Monk 3rd: Point Blank Master
level 3 feat: Deadly Aim
level 4 retrain Toughness to Animal Ally using rules from Ultimate Campaign
level 5 feat: Boon Companion
Monk 6th: Improved Precise ShotThis gets you fully functional pet at level 5 and you are a bad a$$ archer.
I was going to suggest exactly this. ZAM gets all the archery feats you need so you have plenty of spare feats to fast track Animal Ally.
slacker's build is pretty much what i was suggesting (though i didn't know if you'd be allowed the retraining rules).
boon companion (as i think someone already mentioned) is from Animal Archive, which is a useful book if you want to make use of pets (there are some companion archetypes and feats in there too, iirc).
and +1 to Skyler's suggestion- if you go into the evangelist PrC (specifically for erastil), you delay monk goodies by 1 level but add a bunch of stuff that would be really cool for a ZA.
A Wild Child archetype from the ACG will give you an animal companion with a full BAB.
No juice for an archer though. This is possibly the most melee-dedicated class I've seen. In fact, the critter eats up four of your bonus combat feats.
Not that you could have used them on non-melee...