Hamatula Archer

[My Self]

So let's say an archer wants to use hamatula strike.

D20PFSRD wrote:

Hamatula Strike (Combat)

You can catch your opponents on your weapon and hold them in place.

Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, Strength 13, Base Attack Bonus +7.

Benefit: Whenever you damage an opponent with a piercing weapon, you can immediately make a grapple check; success means the opponent is impaled on your weapon and you both gain the grappled condition. While the opponent is impaled, as an attack action you may make a grapple check on your turn at a -4 penalty to damage the opponent with your weapon, even if your weapon cannot normally be used in a grapple.

Normal: You can only attack with an unarmed strike, natural weapon, or light weapon against opponents you are grappling.

So as I'm reading it, if you have Improved Grapple, 13 STR, BAB 7, Hamatula Strike, and a bow, you can grapple people you shoot with your bow. If you have Lob Shot (and maybe Seeking), you can grapple people you don't necessarily even see, so long as you hit them. And if you have the Warpriest Air blessing, you can grapple people at the edge of your range and drag them into a space adjacent to you, so long as you can see them. No?

[CampinCarl9127]

...technically yes. I think that should get an errata.

However, the arrow would not maintain the grapple.

[James Risner]

James Jacobs was asked about this a couple years ago, and there have been at least one other thread created about this.

He said no, but admitted it wasn't crystal clear.

I opted to not go with the ranged interpretation for a character I used the feat, as I didn't want to deal with table variance. If your GM okays it, you should be fine.