Gestalt Archer Advice


3.5/d20/OGL


I'm going to be starting RotRL in a couple of weeks. I've elected to use a few house rules, the most significant of which is that the characters are allowed to play gestalt characters, but I'm looking at banning prestige classes or multiclasses except for very few exceptions. That is, if you elect to play a warmage/cleric, you'll be playing a warmage/cleric all the way from levels 1 to 16.

My wife wants to play a swashbuckling archer-type character, a la Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, and she is looking for the best two classes to gestalt together to make this work.

I thought that the clear choice would be fighter/rogue: fighter gets all the good archery feats, and rogue for all the swashbuckler-y skills like Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Tumble, etc.

But I thought I would also open it up for discussion here: what two base classes do you think would make a good swashbuckling archer when gestalt-ed together?


I would almost say Swashbuckler/Fighter. The Swashbuckler gets a few good mobility goodies and the fighter for all the feats. Now if she is really thinking about being very mobile maybe something like a Swashbuckler/Scout. Still decent amount of skill points and mobility all around. You don't get as many feats as the fighter but when your on the move doing skirmish (which feel more swashbucklery than sneak attack) you only need a few archery feats.

Liberty's Edge

For an off-the-wall possibility, you might consider Warlock/Warblade.

The Warlock is effectively an archer in play, and also gets decent social skills and some really interesting incantations. And the Warblade can be played very much as a swashbuckler. The classes have little overlap in their best parts, so a gestalt would be quite effective.

Though I doubt that was what you were thinking of. 8-)


If you're sold on Rogue for half the build (for the skill list or the trapfinding), you could consider the "Feat Rogue" variant in the SRD. Lose Sneak Attack, gain Bonus Feats as a Fighter.

The Sneak Attack doesn't really do much for an archer--you shouldn't be attacking from 30' away anyway, and the immunities at the higher levels are aggravating. You'd have the feats for the archery build, and that frees up the other class for Rogue/Ranger, or Rogue/Swashbuckler, or even Rogue/Scout.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Fighter/Ranger is a good choice for a classic archer and hunter. Bonus feats, combat style, favored enemies, track, etc. make this a powerful combination.

Fighter/Rogue is a good choice for an archer and sniper. Bonus feats, evasion, skills, sneak attack, trapfinding, etc. make this a nice combination for a commando-style character.

Ranger/Rogue is a good choice for an archer who combines hunter and sniper roles. Combat style, evasion, favored enemies, skills, sneak attack, track, trapfinding, etc. make this combination very versatile, although it lacks the fighter bonus feats.

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