I'm playing around with ideas for a Kitsune archer build (I have a boon that would get me proficiency with bows), and I'm interested in the Eldritch Scrapper archetype for sorcerers. It gets me martial flexibility like a brawler, which would make up for the lack of combat bonus feats, while allowing full arcane casting (for buffs like heroism and haste). But I'm not sure if that will make up for the loss of BAB compared to something like an Oracle or Ranger, especially at early levels. So here's where I need some crowdsourcing:
1) What low-level (1st or 2nd level) spells would buff my archery?
2) What bloodline would fit best, in terms of bloodline arcana and powers, and bonus feats?
Imperious bloodline would be best, but this has to be a Kitsune, not a human, so it's out. Any thoughts?
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The Stormborn bloodline looks like it would be really good, since it'll give your weapon the shock property. The bonus feats even fit pretty well.
Good low-level spells include reduce person, gravity bow, and others like that.
I know that you have a boon to get free martial weapon proficiency with bows, but I agree with LoneKnave on both points: using a firearm over a bow would drastically improve your character because as a sorcerer, your to-hit is going to be terrible and most of the time your attacks with a bow will miss. The real challenge is going to be figuring out a backstory for a kitsune who somehow got ahold of firearms from Alkenstar.
Now, things get tricky when we stop to consider that virtually all gun-totting archetypes from classes other than the gunslinger are banned from Pathfinder Society play. The only exception that I can find is the picaroon swashbuckler archetype, and although that archetype uses Charisma for its panache pool instead of grit, the deeds that you'd get aren't particularly helpful if you're trying to focus on bow usage. So realistically, I would pick up one level in gunslinger, specifically I would take the musket master archetype. Muskets have decent range with a good damage die, but best of all is the fact that that musket masters can reload their muskets as a standard action AND they get Rapid Reload (muskets) on top of that, so in reality you can reload your musket as a move action. Taking this one level of musket master could make it very plausible that you could have Precise Shot, Point-Blank Shot, and Rapid Reload all at 3rd level, which means you have the most important feats for both a gunslinger and a ranged touch attack sorcerer fairly early on. Investing in eldritch knight (as LoneKnave suggests) would also improve both your base attack bonus and caster level with minimal penalties.
The problem with focusing on the bow, as mentioned, is that your base attack bonus would either make you completely dependent on your own attack roll-boosting spells or ensure that you will miss. Often. Furthermore, most of the bloodlines focus on martial weapons, not ranged weapons, as they tend to interweave a lot with natural attacks. As a result, there's really no "best bloodline" for what you're trying to do. Your best bet, honestly, is to pick the nanite bloodline (People of the River) and use its arcana to increase the duration of gravity bow by 50%, but you can't even do that because the nanite bloodline isn't PFS legal.
I would seriously consider the arcanist class before the sorcerer. The arcane weapon exploit is very similar to the magus's arcane pool class feature, giving you a much-needed bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls. It would also allow you to consider taking a wizard school instead of a bloodline; maybe you'll find a more useful ranged attacking ability in one of those schools?
I'd actually propose you use Mysterious stranger because of the CHA synergy it gives, though yeah, muskets are real nice.
As a sorcerer you can also grab named bullet pretty easily for some added oomph.
I would argue that if you're using a musket (which has a 40 ft. range increment), the only deed that you really need to spend panache on is quick clear, which the mysterious stranger doesn't have. The ability to add Charisma to damage is nice, admittedly, but again you don't really need a lot of grit points as a sorcerer/gunslinger multiclass unless you're going mysterious stranger because there's nothing super important to spend them on otherwise.
Plus when you eventually get other stuff to do with your swift actions, not having another deed that requires a swift action to use will also be helpful.
The Stormborn bloodline looks like it would be really good, since it'll give your weapon the shock property. The bonus feats even fit pretty well.
Good low-level spells include reduce person, gravity bow, and others like that.
Stormborn + firearms would be really cool; your firearm blasts would literally be as loud as thunder!
I really want to stick with archery rather than guns (especially since that would require a level dip and slow down my spell progression). The concept was to make a pair of Kitsune archers with my wife, so that part is set.
I really want to stick with archery rather than guns (especially since that would require a level dip and slow down my spell progression). The concept was to make a pair of Kitsune archers with my wife, so that part is set.
There is a difference between being an archer and being proficient with a bow. There really isn't a sorcerer build that is going to do what you what it to because your base attack bonus will literally be half of that of your wife's, and spells spent buffing your attack bonus will be better spent on ... just about everything else. The eldritch scrapper isn't going to change that because you're either not going to be able to meet the feat prerequisites of the feats you want or the feats you want are ultimately going to be unable to conceal the fact that your base attack bonus is going to be significantly lower than every other martial fighter in the game.
This discrepancy will be moderately unnoticeable for the first level or two of your career, but you're really going to start to feel it around Level 3, when your wife has the feats (or the class abilities) to add +8 or +9 on her attack rolls with her bow and you're still sitting it at +4 or +5, most of that being your Dexterity bonus. And when the encounters are tuned so that sometimes those big, scary martial warriors will miss, it basically means that you are nearly always going to miss with your bow. It'll be frustrating and you won't want to play the character anymore, which'll disappoint your wife because you built the characters around a theme. She'll feel diminished without that theme, and either one or the both of you will lose interest in your characters.
Sorry if I sound pessimistic, but I've seen this sort of thing happen WAY too often not to warn you about it.
To iterate, I'm not saying, "Throw the theme out of the window." What I am saying is that if the theme is that important to you, build the character in a way that the theme works well.
Is archery important to you? Should it be your main weapon? Do you still want magical powers? Maybe you should consider building primarily fighter and going for arcane archer instead. If you want the full arcane power of the sorcerer, then you're not going to be good with a bow to compensate. There isn't much that we or any archetype can do to change that.
I know it's not optimal, but I was hoping to find a way to make it at least adequate. But from what I've seen, there's just not enough to bring it even to that level.