Divine Sniper - FS(18),Brd(2),Clr(1),AA(9)

Introduction
The Divine Sniper is a master of the bow, using divine spells to enhance accuracy and greatly improve damage output.

The main distinction that this build has with other archers is that the Divine Sniper uses Epic Divine Might to greatly enhance damage from his bow.

--Riviet

Description
Advantages
 * Damage output greatly increased by epic divine might.
 * With divine power, can get 30 BAB.
 * Haste and improved rapid shot give a total of 8 attacks per round, 3 at full AB.
 * Has access to level 9 divine spells and various useful buffs to boost AB/damage.
 * Plenty of buffs and healing spells to go around for the party.
 * Relatively good saves (30+ buffed) due to favored soul levels and buffs like battletide and recitation.
 * Gets weapon focus and specialization (longbow) for free due to Favored Soul levels.
 * Due to decent strength and high AB from buffs, the character is quite effective in close-quarters.

Disadvantages
 * Relatively low AC (Low 40s).
 * Relatively low hit points.
 * Lacks skill points.
 * Highly ineffective offensive casting due to poor wisdom.
 * Buffs are time consuming and short duration ones expire at varying time intervals, requiring constant rebuffing.
 * Misses out on the feat, One Shot.

Character Creation

 * Wood Elf was chosen as the +2 racial modifiers for str and dex were important. Another option is Drow (for the SR?), but it's ECL +2 and will be slow to level up given a 20% penalty from level 12 onwards.
 * Alignment: I'm not familiar with which alignments Solonor Thelandira can be but it definitely can't be lawful as the build contains bard levels.
 * Favored Soul was chosen instead of cleric since the relatively high charisma complimented this class' spells per day and means that you don't need to pump points into wisdom (in addition to str, cha and some dex).
 * Bard was chosen mainly for inspire courage and qualifying for AA.
 * 1 level of cleric was needed to get divine might, and also gives you two free feats from the domains.
 * AA is pretty self explanatory considering this is an archer build. The enhance arrow +5 by level 9 AA is nice. The fortitude save on arrow of death is not that great (20) hence only 9 levels of the class.

Development

 * FS 18/bard 1/cleric 1/RDD 10: This was one of the initial ideas I had in mind for a divine archer build. The main issue here is no AA levels meaning the build missed out on +5 to hit AND damage. The advantages that this has over the Divine Sniper is better AC from RDD and 30 tumble, and can focus on cha a little more, which would boost EDM damage. However, the slightly better EDM damage did not compensate for the loss of +5 hit/damage. So damage and AB wise, the Divine Sniper is still superior in these aspects.


 * Cleric 15/bard 2/AA 9/RDD 4: continuing on from the previous idea, I wanted those AA levels for enhance arrow +5, and the only way to do this is to remove some of the RDD and FS levels to allow for it. The problem now is that FS 15/bard 2/AA 9/RDD 4 can not qualify for divine might due to the missing cleric level. The solution? Switch FS to cleric. At this point, I believed this would be my final build for a long while. The main thing that I was unhappy with was starting with horrible wisdom (9), relying on wisdom boosting items to be able to cast spells and the lack of spells per day. I didn't feel good taking RDD simply for the str bonus so I decided to try achieving 21 str/cha without any RDD levels. This lead to me coming up with the Divine Sniper.

Variations
There is a bit room for variation in the Divine Sniper and this section outlines some possibilities to customize and tweak this build for your own liking.

Divine Sniper Variations:


 * Bard 4: you get level 2 bard spells, allowing access to heroism. Remember to cast it before you put on your armor. Beware of the 40% exp penalty.


 * Cleric 2: the second cleric level allows you access to divine shield.


 * Sorceror 1: for those that are big fans of true strike. Simply replace bard with sorceror.


 * Arcane Archer 10: offers arrow of death and adds 1d6 damage to your imbue arrow. Not that great, and not recommended.

The Zen Archery Route: If you look at the damage calculations above, manyshot effectively adds an extra attack worth of damage at the cost of getting -8 AB penalty on the 57/52/47 attack rolls. This penalty to hit does not make it worthwhile to use manyshot on high AC opponents. Therefore, in general, you are better off just using improved rapid shot. You can even just use rapid shot and forget about 17 dex for manyshot/improved rapid shot, and make up for the -2 to hit penalty such as through epic prowess.

Neglecting manyshot means you can focus on wisdom now instead of dex, using zen archery to determine your AB. Unlike Favored Soul, you get FULL access to the cleric spells AND casting offensively is possible since wisdom determines the DC. Having said that, your wisdom will not be as good as a pure wisdom pumping cleric.

If you decide to go this route, I would recommend starting with a bard 2/AA 9 or sorc 1/AA 9 framework, then determine the number of cleric levels that you want (see below), then finish off with whatever you like. The reason why I recommend this is that 9 levels of no other class will give +5 to hit/damage for archery and there aren't any clear options that stand out for the fourth class, so I'm leaving it up to you to decide what you want. As you can see, the zen archery route allows for a lot more variability than the Divine Sniper. The following are some possibilities:


 * Cleric 9: this seems like the lowest you should consider as divine favor is capped here and you still get access to extended divine power and all of the AB buffs. The main issue here is that your buffs will have short to moderate duration, and you won't get many casts of the AB buffs like prayer and recitation.


 * Cleric 13: a good cut-off point to take advantage of persistent divine favor as well as level 6 & 7 spells. Most of your buffs will have a pretty good duration too.


 * Cleric 13+: 15 and 17 are good cut-offs for level 8 & 9 spells respectively. Persistent prayer is nice. You get more spells for the party and for yourself, plus they last longer.


 * Fighter: Obviously for the bonus feats. Speaking of feats, the absence of FS levels means you lose the free weapon specialization/focus and need to fit in weapon focus somewhere (probably through the fighter bonus feats).


 * RDD 4: for the +2 AC and qualifying for EDM (+4 str), but this decision will create a bottleneck for your feats.


 * Rogue: not a bad choice if you want more skills; the sneak attack and feats in the first few levels is good icing on the cake.


 * Divine Champion: the bonus feats are nice and I believe Great Wisdom is on the bonus feat list if the DC levels are taken when the character is epic.