A "Swift Hunter" is a Ranger/Scout built around the feat of the same name. In the Swift Hunter Handbook, (the one everyone links to, and the one that comes up first in Google," says:
"If you want your character to be able to shoot arrows and deal damage, the calculations have shown that a single classed fighter volley archer is actually better than a swift hunter."
I was wondering how on Earth that could be true.
I've spent all day reading various archery handbooks, and swift hunter handbooks, and forum posts, looking for the best feats and features, etc. The BEST I've come up with is that Fighters, thanks to their bonus feats, can easily have higher attack bonuses, can be more versatile, and can even have more attacks, but still PALE in comparison to the damage of the Swift Hunter.
I decided to compare the two at Level 10.
At Lvl 10, I gave my flaw-using human fighter: Weapon Focus (Longbow), Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Dead Eye, Precise Shot, Combat Reflexes, Reckless Offence, Weapon Specialization, Woodland Archer, Clustered Shot, Ranged Weapon Mastery, Snap Shot, Improved Snap Shot.
That leads to three shots per full attack, at 1d8+4 each. (I'm not including the Str or Dex portions of the damage here because the Swift Hunter will have the exact same thing so, they cancel out in comparison.) That's an average of 8 damage per shot, x3 shots = 24. Even IF you substitute a feat for the old Arrow Swarm ACF (add two ranged attacks at a -5 penalty,) that's 40 damage. Even if you include two attacks of opportunity in the round thanks to the Pathfinder feats, that's 56 damage.
Compare that to the S.H., (Rng2/Scout3/Rng5). At Lvl 10, he has: Weapon Focus (Longbow), Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot (Ranger bonus), Dead Eye, Precise Shot, Reckless Offence, Swift Hunter, Improved Skirmish.
With his skirmish bonuses, that leads to 1d8+5d6+1 damage per shot, at three shots per full attack. That's 66 damage, average. Which is a lot more than the very generous 56 damage mentioned above.
EVEN when you take into account my fighter build having Clustered Shot, if he hit five times, doing 8 dmg each, and the enemy had 10DR, he'd dp 30 dmg. The S.H., without the feat, hitting three times, still does 36. Which is more.
So, I ask you, is there any way to make a PURE fighter that out-damages the Swift Hunter? (Again, I'm caring about pure damage potential here. Don't point out how the Scout needs to move in order to do extra damage, or how the fighter is more versatile, etc. I know these things.) Thanks!
