Good to has some free Arcane Archery guide stuff out there for PF1e, Garahs. ;)
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Arrowsong Minstrel probably makes a better Bard entry than Arcane Duelist.
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just wanted to add this super-secret hidden class which is an almost unknown divine archtype to the arcane archer!!
-Seriously i have no idea how to reach this page from the normal tabs. I can only find it when i use the search. it's not in the classes tabs nor the prestige class tab. they didn't even put it in the Erastil tab which list feats\classes\traits etc that are specific to his followers. Desna have her prestige class listed. the archive is seemingly hiding this class on purpose!
now you can have everything arcane archer has but with a divine caster as base!
You must worship Erastil so limited alignment allowed
But Erastil have many-many goodies for archers\divine archers like this feat
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Just checking this out.
Races: Half-Elf -- deserves a higher rating, because of ONE SPELL: Paragon Surge: Temporarily snag any feat you qualify for.
Martial Class Entry: Magus -- just stick with Eldritch Archer Magus (or Myrmidarch if you want a switch-hitter), or take a dip of no more than 2 levels of Arcane Archer to get Imbue Arrow for the area of effect attacks (including the Imbue Arrow Antimagic Field cheese). You don't want to lose 6/9 casting class features while progressing 6/9 casting with the prestige class.
Arcane Class Entry: Bard (Arcane Duelist) -- see Magus above, apart from different choice of archetype.
As for divine archers: Hinterlander is for you. It is written as if expecting you to go in single-class from Ranger, but you can just dip ranger and then go Cleric and have it advance your Cleric spellcasting, and then it's turbocharged. Here's my Limburger (weapons-grade) cheese: Human Ranger 2/Cleric (Foundation of Faith, Separatist) of Erastil 3/Hinterlander x (except replace the 9th level floating feat with Clustered Shots, and all level-up ability score increases go to Wisdom). You get the Imbue Arrow with Anti-Magic Shell cheese online at level 12, 2 levels before a Caster-Centric Arcane Archer, and at level 20, you will have just 1 fewer Archery Combat Style Feats than a single-class Ranger, BAB of 18 (and thanks to Erastil's Blessing you will be a pretty good shot despite having totally mediocre Dexterity), and the ability to cast 9th level Cleric spells (gained at 19th level instead of 17th level, just 2 levels behind a single-class Cleric and with no impairment of your caster level except at level 6). I noticed that according to Archives of Nethys, Hinterlander was not PFS-approved -- I wonder if I unwittingly got it banned by posting that build back in the later heydey of Pathfinder 1st Edition?
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IMO, most of the arcane archer class abilities after Imbue Arrow aren't that great. Almost all of them require their own standard action, which means they can't be used with Imbue Arrow, and/or are limited times per day.
IMO, the "best" progressions for arcane archer are:
1) Bard (arrowsong minstrel) 8/arcane archer 2/bard +10 (to retain multiple target Arrowsong Strike at bard 18)
2) [Cavalier, fighter, or ranger]* 1/wizard 6/eldritch knight 2/arcane archer 3/eldritch knight +8 for +17 BAB and 9th level spells without needing to take Prestigious Spellcaster on top of the arcane archer prerequisites; take the Magical Knack trait at 1st level, the Arcane Armor Training feat at 3rd level, and retrain Arcane Armor Training to Quicken Spell at 12th-13th character level (on gaining 5th level spells)
3) Magus (eldritch archer) 9**/arcane archer 3***/magus +8
4) Skald (spell warrior)**** 8/arcane archer 3/skald +9
*- depending on if getting a head-start on Mounted Archery from cavalier (emissary), the extra feat from fighter, or Favored Enemy (or Ranger's Focus with the guide archetype) and the ability to use wands of cure light wounds, barkskin, etc. without Use Magic Device checks are more desired
**- for Reach Spellstrike
***- Enhance Arrows (Elemental) is compatible with using arcane pool points to enhance the bow, as long as you don't try to double up on the same elemental damage type
****- the Enhance Weapons weapon song can be more versatile than the magus using arcane pool and can enhance the weapons of the rest of the party at the same time to boot; the bard spell list is somewhat limited for area effect spells, however
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For staple spells to use with Imbue Arrow, don't forget about burning hands, color spray, obscuring mist, glitterdust, web, lightning bolt, stinking cloud, etc. An arcane archer can get a lot of use out of Close or no-range area spells, as well as mixing direct damage from the arrow with battlefield control or blasting spells.
Aspect of the falcon is also a nice buff for an archer.
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"Aren't that great" is a conversational understatement. I would consider them niche (orange) for a caster or possibly good (green) but gained late.
The arcane archer class abilities, other than Imbue Arrow, have basically no synergy with spell casting (or Spellstrike). This is because the PF1 version of arcane archer is basically the D&D 3.x arcane archer without the requirement to be an elf or half-elf and adding a spells per day progression (which the D&D 3.x version did not have).
Eldritch knight is basically to maximize both spell progression and BAB for a 9-level arcane caster over 20 character levels. Prestigious Spellcaster eats up feats to gain back higher level spells, instead of using them for better things such as metamagic, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, etc.
If you just want to focus on damage, then go ganzi (Weaponplay oddity) arcanist (blood arcanist [Orc bloodline]) 6/eldritch knight 3/arcane archer 4/eldritch knight +7 (detailed progression).
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Not that my opinion of the Arcane Archer prestige class has literally any relevance to Garah's guide, but me-thinks that regardless of how you choose to build your Arcane Archer... for archery or for spells... you should try to beat a Warpriest built for archery, as your baseline.
Can my Arcane Archer outclass a vanilla Warpriest? We aren't even talking about an Arsenal Chaplain with a HornBow. Lol. Your average Warpriest can add elemental and alignment damage, and can even change which element pretty much on the fly.
Now, attaching spells to arrows is cool AF, and Warpriests can't do that. You need good spells to attach to those arrows, otherwise, what's the point? If your DC's are easily passable, why bother? If you don't have any good spells, or enough spells, again, what's the point? If you can't hit your target with your arrows, then what are we even doing here?
Arcane Archer could be cool if given opportunity to showcase the abilities unique to it, but those situations occur too seldomly to warrant actually being an Arcane Archer. Just my opinion on the matter, though.
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So what is your unbuffed attack damage at level 20?
Assuming all attacks hit (for simplicity), an arcane archer can get 6d8 (arrows, BAB +17, rapid shot, many shot) + 6d6 (elemental) + 12d6 (alignment) + 30 (arcane strike) + 60 (deadly aim) +12 (weapon spec) you get an average of 180 damage.
The problem is that you cannot "assume all attacks hit," especially the latter iteratives. There are several damage calculators to estimate the average DPR, which is more meaningful than maximum possible DPR.
At higher levels, most of the time the -10 and -15 iterative attacks are misses against just about any level appropriate encounter.
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They might, or they might all hit.
That's kinda like saying "why should I try to get a job, I might win the lottery". Sure, it could happen, but it's just not a realistic expectation.
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The reason deadeye devotee doesn't show up along with the other alternate PrC is that they came out literally as PF1 ended in a blog spot as an extra thing that didn't quite make the chronicles of legends book.
Deadeye Devotee is something that I have forever (in its brief existence) wanted to get work.
I personally think a Cleric of Erastil is the best option, with the Growth domain (Feather domain would be great if you could get the Animal Companion to continue scaling), and also grabbing Deadeyes Blessing feat and prestigious spellcaster feat to get the supposed 'best of both worlds'
Another option would be to be a Waves Shaman with the Water Sight Hex to combo with Obscuring Mist
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Crusader of erastil may work? Sure you lose 1 spell per spell level, but the bonus feats are very nice when dealing with archery.The reason deadeye devotee doesn't show up along with the other alternate PrC is that they came out literally as PF1 ended in a blog spot as an extra thing that didn't quite make the chronicles of legends book.
Deadeye Devotee is something that I have forever (in its brief existence) wanted to get work.
I personally think a Cleric of Erastil is the best option, with the Growth domain (Feather domain would be great if you could get the Animal Companion to continue scaling), and also grabbing Deadeyes Blessing feat and prestigious spellcaster feat to get the supposed 'best of both worlds'
Crusader is not a bad idea. With Deadeye’s Blessing Combat making you SAD, the spell lose will not be felt as much as it could. The bonus feats are good, but the options are limited really too; Weapon Focus and Heavy Armour Proficiency.
Crusader stacks nicely with Divine Paragon, which despite multiclassing gives a very powerful Evangelist capstone
3: Faithful Archer (Ex) You are particularly skilled at using Erastil’s favored weapon. When using a longbow, you add your Wisdom bonus on attack and damage rolls against targets within 30 feet.
Note: How Devoted Domain, Deific Obedience, and Multiclassing all interact may be up for some debate. I would say if you chose Evangelist at creation, every boon would be Evangelist, some may say that Evangelist can only be at level5, and then you gain Exalted Boons at HD 16 & 20.
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If you want to analyze the damage potential of various arcane archer progressions, then start by setting some baseline assumptions for the characters (to minimize variation) and check the results against the system expectations.
For example: use a starting ability score array of 16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8 (20-point buy equivalent, which is close enough to the system expectations for CR so that the comparisons are meaningful) before racial adjustments; 16 in the casting stat, 14 each for Str and Dex, 12 Con, and the 10 and 8 in the last two abilities (usually doesn't matter that much); Magical Knack; all advancements (+5) to the casting stat; belt of physical might (Str, Dex) +4, greater bracers of archery, headband (casting stat) +6, ioun stone (orange prism), otherworldly kimono, +1 adaptive distance [or seeking] holy [assuming a typical campaign with the majority of foes being evil] composite longbow (with greater magic weapon cast each day to improve the enhancement bonus to +5), and cold iron arrows treated with weapon blanch (silver) when not firing specific magic arrows (bane, etc.) for specific opponents (it's probably better to disallow custom magic items, as they can throw off the comparisons; any magic items and/or general buff spells should be assumed to be in effect for each character being compared).
For the fighter 1/wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 4/Arcane Archer 10 with Prestigious Spellcaster taken 3 times (plus Favored Prestige Class), this results in a bow attack bonus of +29 (+17 base +4 Dex +1 Weapon Focus +2 competence [bracers] +5 enhancement) and a caster level of 21 (27 Int); choosing a race with a +2 to Dex gets the attack bonus to +30.
For the ganzi (Weaponplay oddity) arcanist (blood arcanist [Orc bloodline]) 6/eldritch knight 3/arcane archer 4/eldritch knight +7, this results in a bow attack bonus of +29 (+17 base +4 Dex +1 Weapon Focus +2 competence [bracers] +5 enhancement) and a caster level of 21 (25 Int).
Based on Bestiary Table 1-1, a CR 20 foe should have an AC of 36, two CR 18 foes should have an AC of 33 each, three CR 17 foes should have an AC of 32 each, and four CR 16 foes should have an AC of 31 each.
The fighter 1/wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 4/Arcane Archer 10 firing 6 arrows with Rapid Shot and Manyshot would have an attack sequence of either +27 (two arrows)/+27/+22/+17/+12 or +28 (two arrows)/+23/+18/+13. Use a damage calculator to estimate the average DPR against a single CR 20 foe (AC 36), two CR 18 foes (AC 33), three CR 17 foes (AC 32), and four CR 16 foes (AC 31).
The the ganzi (Weaponplay oddity) arcanist (blood arcanist [Orc bloodline]) 6/eldritch knight 3/arcane archer 4/eldritch knight +7 (assuming Greater Vital Strike and an Intensified Maximized cone of cold, plus possibly a Quickened true strike; ignoring Mythic for now) can do 4d8 (arrow) +4 (Str) +5 (enhancement) + 1d6 (cold, electricity, or fire) + 2d6 (holy vs. evil) from the arrow (average 37.5) plus 140 (save for half) to the target hit with the arrow and all in a 60 ft cone. Against a single target, that's pretty close to the 180 points of damage if all of the Rapid Shot/Manyshot arrows hit; against more than a single foe, the single arrow with an imbued cone of cold will do more total damage, because the spell damage does not need to be split between targets.
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Crusader stacks nicely with Divine Paragon, which despite multiclassing gives a very powerful Evangelist capstone
They don't stack, my mistake
I've gone through every playable race and at least added a comment. If anyone thinks my rating for any of them are off, let's hear it.
I'm considering going through the martial archetypes next.
In regard to both of these, Kasatha adds the option of going Bow Nomad Ranger. Do note the explicit warning about Two-Weapon Fighting penalties with dual weapons that are not Light.