Elven Arcane Archer VS Ranger Arcane Archer

[Major_Woody]

Can someone please let me know the difference between the Elven and Ranger Arcane archers? So far I can only see that the Elven requires a lot more to become with no difference in benifits. I must be missing something..

[Glenalth]

The Elf line lets you be a class other than Ranger.

[Alabore]

In simplistic terms...

Traditional AA is class specific: you need actual ranger levels.
Elven AA is race specific: as long as you qualify for it - elven blood, feats, enhs and BAB, you could pick it even as a different class from ranger.
Some specialised builds capitalise on this: since it locks Tempest out, they revolve around picking AA as a race PrE, and a different PrE for your main class: Kensai, Radiant Servant and so on.

[Major_Woody]

Ok thanks guys....

[ssgcmwatson]

So far I can only see that the Elven requires a lot more to become with no difference in benifits. I must be missing something..

Like anything in life there are trade-offs. The elf line starts later, and requires (among other things) at least one level of an arcane casting class. However, you could gain the benefit of combining AA with a non-ranger PrE (Kensai seems to be a popular one).

[Entelech]

Any Elf or Half Elf can take the Elven Arcane Archer PrE if they meet the prerequisites, regardless of class.

You generally will need some class that grants spell points, because you need either Elven Arcanum or Mental Toughness to qualify, but it can be done.

In fact, it's possible to have 4 tiers of prestige enhancements (5 if racial PrE's are implemented) if you go Arcane Archer.

I'm currently leveling a Radiant Servant 2 / Kensai 1 / Arcane Archer Half Elf.

PS: You don't need any arcane casting levels. Mental Toughness will bypass that restriction.

[Illiain]

Elven FvS of the Silver Flame AA's were popular at one point. Racial/class enhancements to longbow along with class bonus feats for weapon focus/specialization.

[Therigar]

You generally will need some class that grants spell points, because you need either Elven Arcanum or Mental Toughness to qualify, but it can be done.

It is possible to qualify for arcane archer without having any spell points. This is done by taking the L3 sorcerer past life. However, since you won't have any spell points you will not be able to conjure arrows or to imbue arrows -- making the PrE pretty pointless.

You must have two feats, Point Blank Shot and Weapon Focus: Ranged. You can then qualify for arcane archer with any one of the following:

Mental Toughness (feat)
Past Life: Arcane Prodigy (feat)
Energy of the Dragonblooded (enhancement)
Energy of the Scholar (enhancement)
Energy of the Music (enhancement)
Elven Arcanum (enhancement)

As you can see, that is a bigger set of options than just Mental Toughness and Elven Arcanum.

As others have said, the big appeal is in being able to stack multiple PrEs on the same character.

If the sorcerer past life feat ever works I anticipate a large number of monk and barbarian pure class arcane archers.