Adaptive is an obvious one. Not only does it bring the bonus from your strength up to the full +4, if your strength is buffed from a spell or increases later it takes advantage of that too. Just +1000 gp.
Seeking is a useful bonus to get. Miss chances are annoying.
Holy is cost-effective against many enemies.
Still, as a switch hitter you may find that you use your bow for one round most combats before switching to your melee weapon. This would make your melee weapon more important to improve. YMMV.
As noted above, Adaptive, Seeking, and Holy are the best.
I wouldn't necessarily relegate my bow to secondary weapon as a switch-hitter, however, especially after BAB6, when, after dropping nearby opponents during a melee full-attack, there may be enemy targets remaining for which only archery is suitable.
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maybe go as high as a +3 on bow, but save the real enhancement for Arrows, a +5 Arrow counts as magic/silver/holy/adamantine for bypassing damage reduction, while a +1 to +5 bow only makes arrows count as magic for bypassing damage reduction. Still investing in assorted arrow head types is a cheap alternative, a few cold iron, silver, ect..
Arrows can have elemental damage added or bane. Your mixed bag of tricks.
Eh, I find it easier to bypass material DR with weapon blanches. My fave is silver blanch on cold iron arrows, but having a quiver full of adamantine-blanched arrows is also a good idea.
For later on, in case your GM tries to foil your archery with magic (fickle winds for example) cyclonic isn't the worst thing to have in your toolbox, but it might be better if this is an enchant you can make to order on your weapon (with Warrior Spirit or Legacy Weapon say) or put on some special occasion ammo.
Unless you're attempting to improve your field of view, I wouldn't Enlarge as an archer (even with the big arrows trick mentioned above): you're trading -2 to hit for +2.5 damage, which is just awful.
Unless you're attempting to improve your field of view, I wouldn't Enlarge as an archer (even with the big arrows trick mentioned above): you're trading -2 to hit for +2.5 damage, which is just awful.
True, unless you are going all in on this with say an orc horn bow, the gravity bow spell, enlarge with large arrows and vital strike all. I think then the minus to hit becomes pretty negligible since you are only making a single attack and the increase in dice makes it worth it.
For the sake of fun, I'll do the math,
2d6 Base Weapon dice
3d6 Virtual size increase
4d6 actual size increase
x2 for vital strike
so average damge we go
7 Base Weapon dice
10.5 Virtual size increase
14 actual size increase
28 for vital strike
So in total you can increase 21 damage via that path, (If I did the math right, and got the size increases correct) but that's a lot to do so may still not be worth it. Still, nice for someone who's going to pick up vital strike anyways...
People still play switch hitters!? Thought point blank master kinda killed it. If you are going for a +5 item I assume you have some levels...and the nice thing about archery is sometimes skill trumps items. Aka get clustered shot.. nothing makes a gm sadder then 4 arrows hitting and doing 110 damage to hear the only dr applied is the one time. Honestly most materials are optional at that point. For hardness I agree with Jeff Durable Adamantine arrows are expensive but worth it if you come across a golem. Improved precise shot will negate the need for seeking. Honestly the only time you would need to pull out a melee weapon is when you are doing party tricks at the celebration of your victory :)
Anyways that said getting the biggest and most powerful weapon is nice but there are small things that add up. Pick up a swarmbane clasp asap nothing more fun then killing swarms with arrows. (3000g) A silver nocking point can be a life saver. (3150 gp) Deliquescent gloves are just fun..adding acid to your arrows..and I guess that melee weapon gaining dust (8000g) Get pearls of power (3nd level) and get them like they are candy (9000gp) or get a wand of instant enemy (11,250) nothing like adding +6 hit and damage to each arrow going after the target. Oh of course adaptable is a must nothing stinks more then getting str drained and getting -2 to hit for each point with the bow.
People still play switch hitters!? Thought point blank master kinda killed it.Still doesn't work in a grapple, still doesn't grant AoOs (see Snap Shot for more feat consumption), and it also sucks under water, in windstorms, etc, and you have a crappy threat-range. PBM's two tax feats (WF+WS, or WF and six Ranger levels) are a crushing weight on a damage platform already more heavily loaded down with feat demands than any other martial concept.
If you are going for a +5 item I assume you have some levels...and the nice thing about archery is sometimes skill trumps items. Aka get clustered shot.. nothing makes a gm sadder then 4 arrows hitting and doing 110 damage to hear the only dr applied is the one time.A character with WF, WS, PBS, RS, PS, PBM, Manyshot, Deadly Aim, and Clustered Shots is what level again? ...at a level where 110pts in a full-attack is not out of the ordinary for a competent striker, and much less than many builds are capable of. To be sure, you'll cakewalk most "average party appropriate CR" opposition circa 2009, but if the whole party is keeping up with you, then the GM will be upping the ante anyway to prevent you all from getting bored.
Pick up a swarmbane clasp asap nothing more fun then killing swarms with arrows. (3000g) A silver nocking point can be a life saver. (3150 gp) Deliquescent gloves are just fun..adding acid to your arrows..and I guess that melee weapon gaining dust (8000g) Get pearls of power (3nd level) and get them like they are candy (9000gp) or get a wand of instant enemy (11,250) nothing like adding +6 hit and damage to each arrowUsing the same general arithmetic that concludes that elemental bonuses are poorer than straight enhancement bonuses, the Deliquescent gloves would be inferior to Bracers of Archery (Lesser), not to mention costing more and lacking an item upgrade path in the future (and, if you're at the point of affording a +5 bow, then Bracers of Archery, Greater are in your budgetary range as well).
Unless you're attempting to improve your field of view, I wouldn't Enlarge as an archer (even with the big arrows trick mentioned above): you're trading -2 to hit for +2.5 damage, which is just awful.True, unless you are going all in on this with say an orc horn bow, the gravity bow spell, enlarge with large arrows and vital strike all. I think then the minus to hit becomes pretty negligible since you are only making a single attack and the increase in dice makes it worth it.
I'm envisioning this usually-normal-sized character comically struggling to haul around these monstrous, golf-bag-sized quivers full of javelin-sized arrows. Note: putting the large arrows in the javelin slots of an Efficient Quiver won't work because that magic item produces objects "as if from a regular quiver or scabbard", and objects in its javelin slots would need a move-action to draw (as if from a scabbard, because javelins are not ammunition). <shrug> Maybe your GM lets you do it.
In any event, being Enlarged is still only contributing 1d6+1 (2d6+2 w/Vital Strike) to that stack with large arrows. (My previous post on the matter didn't account for ranged weapon "shrinkage" or the increase in the strength; both are accounted for now.) If all you ever do with a rarely-used bow is Vital Strike, then sure. But no pro archer with Rapid Shot should be doing this when that BAB6 iterative is barely wheezing along at -9 off single-shot standard action once the iterative, Rapid, and Deadly Aim penalties are accounted for. Enlarge sacks all three attacks to a further -2 to hit for the hope of +13.5 damage, or -2 to four attacks for +18 if you're Hasted, and it'd have to be a pretty rotten target AC to not lose more damage due to misses than is gained with more destructive ammunition. (I have a poor opinion of Gravity Bow as well, since it's so short duration that you can reasonably expect to have it going only when you have the drop on the enemy and plenty of time to pre-buff. But if the party has the drop, they should easily win anyway. It's what you can do when you're caught with your pants around your ankles that keeps you alive.)