Looking for very Strong Archer Build

[JuliusCromwell]

I will be starting a new Game in the new year and it will be High powered
it will be my groups first mythic game (Starting level 10 and mythic rank 2)
The game has a high chance of getting to level 20 Mythic rank 10)

the idea is we are Hero's Legends from other worlds being summoned to a new world to save it from some unknown threat.

I have one build made but i want at least 3 to choose from

I am looking for a very High Dps Archer build that can also do other stuff.

RACE??
Class??
Archetype??
Stats?? (20 point buy)
Feats (???)

I made a high Dps Archer for a holiday one shot befor but he had so much hombrew stuff on him that i could not get a feel for the class (Fighter)

[Larkos]

The champion at the DPS Olympics was the Arsenal Chaplain (aka Molthuni Arsenal Chaplain) Warpriest with the wind blessing. Can snipe from a ridiculous distance with self-buffs, self-heals, and AWT.

There's also the classic Zen Archer Monk. Just re-flavor the ki if you don't want to be a Monk.

[Meirril]

A Warpriest based archerer will get more dice of damage than any other build. But Warpriest is a 3/4 BAB class. Self-buffs will bring up your DPS but there are 2 problems with depending on self-buffs.

First is that you have a limited amount of spell slots, and you'll need an increasing amount of buffs as you level to even yourself out with full BAB classes. Considering you're going to be launching attacks with Rapid Fire (-2) and Deadly Aim (variable penalty) and expecting to hit with your iterative attacks at a bare minimum you want to be slightly exceed a full BAB class if you bother wasting a round to buff.

Which brings me to the second and more damning flaw with self buffing: It ruins your action economy. Even with a class that can quicken spells it takes you multiple actions to buff yourself to be equal to a full BAB at the higher end of the game. Either you quicken 1 spell per round and do Full Attacks with less than optimal hit or you use your standard action to cast more buffs to finish catching up. Once you're buffed you might be ahead, but how long does it take you to get to where a full BAB starts?

Also depending on what you mean by "does other things" changes which classes are desirable. If you mean has skills and or spells to use out of combat then classes like Ranger and Paladin look good. If you mean uses a second fighting style then Fighter looks good because it is one of the few classes that gets enough feats to fully support an archery build and do something else.

If you are willing to slow down the Fighter build a bit you can use Advanced Weapon Training to introduce more skills and abilities to the fighter. The ability to stack Bane onto his weapon is rather attractive. You can easily afford to sacrifice your second weapon training + a feat to pick up 2 AWT abilities at 10th.

Human is almost the default race for Archery builds, because there is a high demand for feats. Fighters can afford to be other races. Elves can use a Orc Hornbow without taking an exotic weapons feat so that makes them a decent choice too. Any race that can fly is also a good choice.

Stats: Not sure why this is a question. Pump Strength and Dex, favoring Dex. Con will help you survive all of the attention you're going to draw to yourself. Wisdom if you don't want to TPW your own party.

Also on gear: First thing you should spend money on is a +1 Adaptive Seeking Composite Longbow(Orc Hornbow). Adaptive because you're strength will change and you want to take full advantage of it. Seeking because it defeats Mirror Image and is extremely good vs invisibility. So many bosses are protected with Mirror Image that Seeking becomes a top pick for enchantments.

Probably after that you'll need to focus on defense. Archery builds tend to draw a lot of attention. As a GM I'd throw guys at you because archery builds are more intimidating than casters. The archer is probably the only guy that got multiple kills the first round of combat. If that doesn't make you a target I don't know what does.

When you start earning real money, Dex belt before you get Str/Dex belt, because to hit is more important than damage. Bracers of Archery (greater/lesser) eventually. Handy Haversack early on, fill it with bundles of arrows to shove in your quiver(s). Personally I used 2 normal quivers until it was cheap to buy 2 magic quivers to replace them. Even then the capacity of a magic quiver isn't enough to last an entire dungeon. You can easily go through 60 arrows in a single encounter once you hit high levels. If you have access to Weapons Training: Gloves of Dueling.

Special arrows are a luxury. Depend on Clustered Shots to get past DR. Save your gold for big ticket items. The AoE splintering arrows might be worth the purchase. Maybe. Crafting your own arrows is probably a good idea.

[LordKailas]

Larkos wrote:

The champion at the DPS Olympics was the Arsenal Chaplain (aka Molthuni Arsenal Chaplain) Warpriest with the wind blessing. Can snipe from a ridiculous distance with self-buffs, self-heals, and AWT.

There's also the classic Zen Archer Monk. Just re-flavor the ki if you don't want to be a Monk.

how is it getting the wind blessing?

the arsenal chaplain archetype forces you to take the war blessing and only the war blessing.

Otherwise I agree. Arsenal chaplain seems to dish out the most damage and gets some flexability with feats. Sohei monk gets more attacks then any other archer but gets zero feat flexability. Zen archer is powerful because it gives you 90% of the archer feats meaning you can spend your normal feats on whatever you want.

[born_of_fire]

You could consider a nature fang druid or a wood blessing oracle for increased versatility without sacrificing too much in the way of straight archery prowess; it’s hard to go wrong with 9 levels of spellcasting. I personally like an inquisitor for the skills compared to the slim pickings of 2 or 4 skill points per level of most strong archer classes plus it’s a 6 level spellcaster. It depends on what you are looking for most.

[Darklone]

Not that strong but versatile and with all the feats you need: zen archer4 for many good feats and ki Pool plus good saves, AC and WIS to hit and AC. Then inquisitor. Many swift action self buffs, but since you only need a decent STR then put all raises into WIS, hitting is scarcely a problem (you shoot at Full BAB -2 for level 10).

Depending on books allowed starting at level 10 a pure inquisitor may be more tempting but has to put all feats into archery. Zen archer can spend some feats for fun (drow nobility feats for spell resistance anyone? Which other archer build can do that?)

[Firebug]

Slayer 5/Sanguine Angel 2/Slayer X may not be optimal, but could be fun. Essentially at 7 your bow attacks use Strength for everything instead of Dexterity. It has a few "dead" feats in Shield Bash, Armor Proficiency(Heavy) and Weapon Focus(Longsword), but you mentioned "can do other stuff" so 'tanking' and 'two-weapon fighting with sword and board' is something this can do too. Good skills (6+Int) plus bonuses from Studied Target. Ranger Combat Style can get you Rapid Shot and Improved Precise Shot early and without investing in Dexterity.

If you go Sanguine Angel 3 you pick up Armor Training 1 while 4 levels in gets another discipline like Favored Enemy(Human) or Dreadnaught's Dead Calm (rage with half the bonuses, no restrictions or penalties, no fatigue but 1 minute cooldown).

[Zoin]

As this is a mythic campaign, then most classical archer builds won't be suitable.
The Arsenal(molthuni) war chaplain is one of the best solution for archery ... but with mythic involved, your swift action will be in competition between using fervour and a mythic power, so i don't think it's such a great idea.
If your GM would agree you take the equivalent of coupled arcana (an archmage mythic power enabling you to combine with one action a mythic and a non mythic special ability) then it could be a great option (if not the best). Note that you should aim for Guided hand mythic feat, this would enable you to attack and damage with WIS.

If you're running Wrath of the Righteous, then a Demon Hunter Ranger would be awesome imho ...

If not, you can't go bad with a fighter (if you're able to use the advanced armour and weapon training). Go Vanilla fighter, or if you're not unfraid to be hated by your GM, and want an absolutely overkill char at level 20, go with mobile fighter : you can make full attack as a standard action, and as you can have 2 when you're mythic, it means double full attack. (I would not advise it, as you'd be weak before level 20).

While i love the Zen Archer, i think that you'd screw yourself with mythic, as most great mythic stuff wont work for a zen archer (mainly the two additional attacks you can get with mythic rapid shot and manyshot)

Finaly, Inquisitor could be good, but like with warpriest, action economy would suck.

Note that most mythic abilities are designed to work with core classes, with a few working with base class abilities.
Mythic is anyhow stupidly broken (or brokenly stupid), be carefull when you build your character, and you should really talk with your gm, and other players. In classical pathfinder, two characters aiming to do the same thing but optimised or not can have a power gap of maybe X2 or X3. With mythic, i'm pretty sure that can become X10 if there is no GM intervention.

For defense, my advice is to boost your saves as much as possible (and you have armed bravery that helps a lot for that if you play fighter) but for the rest, mythic is so blatantly favouring offense over defense, you should try to have the highest initiative possible, and kill anyone that can threaten you before they get to you. As you should be easyly dishing out 500 to 1000 damage per round, you should be fine with weak defenses :)

[Mysterious Stranger]

An oath of vengeance paladin could also work well. Take the Champion path and go for Mythic Smite and Sniper’s Riposte for you path abilities. You are staring out high enough to have enough feats to cover the basic archery feats, but that will leave nothing left over for anything else. Between oath of vengeance and mythic smite you will have plenty of smite evil to allow you to take down most of the tougher opponents. Those that are not worth using smite evil you can probably handle without needing it. Assuming a 18 CHA with headband you will be able to get 15 smite evil per day at 10th level. As you level up that number will only increase. You will also be getting 4 attacks per round with the first attack getting two arrows.

Being able to ignore all damage resistance is going to allow you to deliver more damage, even if your bonus is less than another build. Getting CHA to hit will also boost up your damage as well. You will also have access to Litany of Righteousness which will allow you to deal double damage to an evil target.

The nice thing about this build is that unlike a lot of other mythic builds you don’t have to worry too much about the action economy. You use your swift action to activate smite evil and you are good to go. Mythic Smite is a free action and at this point you don’t have much else requiring a swift action.

For race go Azata-Blooded Aasmimar to get +2 to DEX and CHA with no penalties. This also gives you darkvision and some minor energy resistance.

[Alphavoltario]

I personally choose to be the most awkward archer to walk the earth....

I use the Groom Ranger AT:

Groom wrote:

Source Dungeoneer's Handbook pg. 21

The groom attends to the needs of the party’s mounts and beasts of burden during their adventures, and guards these animals while the party goes underground.

Hide the Horses (Ex): A groom finds the best place to stable and conceal a party’s mounts while the group explores a dungeon. A groom adds half her level (minimum 1) on Stealth skill checks for both herself and the mounts she’s hiding while she is concealing a party’s mounts. This ability replaces track.

Horse Whisperer (Su): At 3rd level, a groom can use speak with animals at will, but can use this power only on horses, riding dogs, and other mounts of the animal type. This ability replaces Endurance.

Scout the Area (Ex): At 3rd level, a groom gains a +4 bonus on Knowledge (local) checks. In addition, she always knows where to find the nearest expert or spellcaster who can provide a particular service, such as the nearest source of raise dead. This ability replaces the ranger’s 1st favored terrain.

It's obviously meant for the Torchbearer Cohort, but when you can ride around as a mobile rapid firing ballista and don't need to roll Handle Animal or Wild Empathy because you can talk to your horse and have it do favors for you (treat it right and it will take you places), people die.

I use a Shoanti Human with the <Shoanti Steed> Racial Trait (free horse you don't need to pay attention to until you need it.) Edit: Starts as a normal light combat trained horse, then when you get Hunter Bond just pick up <Boon Companion> to bring it up to speed.

Also Groom gives a bonus to stealth for you and your horse :3

+ You get some buffing Spells