Xaimum Mafire |
I'm trying to come up with a solid build for a Halfling Arcane Archer that rides either a wolf or a leopard. The only thing I know that I want to take is one level in Wildblooded Sorcerer for the Sylvan (Fey) Bloodline. That will net me my needed arcane caster level 1 plus give me an extra effective druid for my Animal Companion/Mount.
The hard decision I'm having is whether to go Cavalier (for Expert Trainer to allow me the Horse Trainer feat from Ultimate Combat) or Ranger (for the Mounted Combat styles and free combat feats to level 6). If I went Ranger, I'd take Trick Riding at level 2, Mounted Archery at level 4 (CL 5), and Mounted Combat at level 6 (CL 7). If I went Cavalier, I'd take Luring Cavalier to lvl 6, Sorcerer at CL 7, then AA from CL 8.
I'm torn between taking Ranger for better combat effectiveness (more Feats for both Archery and Mounted Combat) vs taking Cavalier for a much sturdier mount (Horse Trainer lets your mount use character level, instead of Cavalier level for its abilities).
Unfortunately, we're only using Core, APG, UC, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Equipment, and Melee/Ranged Tactics Toolbox, so no Boon Companion.
Halfling X 6/Sylvan Sorcerer 1/Arcane Archer 10
Alternate Racial Traits: Outrider, Wanderer
Traits: Savannah Child, Adopted: Animal Friend (Gnome)
Point buy: 25
Str: 10 (12)
Dex: 18 (16)
Con 12
Int: 10
Wis: 14
Cha: 16 (14)
Feats (for Ranger build)
1 (Ranger): Point-Blank Shot
2 (Ranger): Trick Riding
3 (Sorcerer): Precise Shot
4 (Ranger): (Endurance)
5 (Ranger): (Mounted Archery), Deadly Aim
6 (Ranger):
7 (Ranger): (Mounted Combat), Weapon Focus- Longbow
8 (Arcane Archer):
I realize that my to-hit is going to suffer for long time (5 levels), but hey, I'll have True Strike for the hard-to-hit/must hit enemies.
Feats (for Cavalier build)
1 (Cavalier): Point-Blank Shot
2 (Cavalier):
3 (Cavalier): Precise Shot
4 (Cavalier):
5 (Cavalier): Deadly Aim
6 (Cavalier):
7 (Sorcerer): Weapon Focus: Longbow
8 (Arcane Archer):
9 (Arcane Archer): Horse Trainer
My mount will be a lot tougher, but, I feel like this build will have me relying on my Cavalier abilities to offset my damage output. I'm not too familiar with how useful a Cavalier's Tactician and Banner can be.
Any advice?
Capt. cheesey |
Have you thought about going with the summoner instead of the sorcerer? if you are playing a Halfling then your Eidelon has enough evolution points to have the mount and fly evolutions, while still only being medium sized. the spell list is a little limited but contains some good ones, plus allows for summon monster 1 as a standard action, which is great if your Eidelon isn't around. but thats missing the main point. FLYING MOUNTED HALFlING ARCANE ARCHER.
The Layout:
str 11 (13)
DEX 19 (17)
CON 12
INT 10
Wis 10
CHA 17 (15)
put your fourth level advancement into DEX for a clean 20 (+5) and the 8th level advancement into either strength (to use composite bows) or charisma ( increase spellcasting power and other summoner goodies)
summoner level 1( maybe 2): (gain Eidelon with the serpentine or quadruped base forms.) take mounted archer, make sure you have a military saddle and now you are at a cumulative -0 every time your mount/Eidelon makes a double move.
ranger (levels 2 or 3-6): take the archery combat feat progession, and your feat prereqs for arcane archer are taken care of with a few left over for you to play around with. If you take the hunters bond with your companions i would think the bonuses apply to your Eidelon as well, if not there are several other flying animal companions available (the Roc is my favorite). Now suddenly you have 2 flying animals swooping over the battlefield= total arial control. AND they are both medium sized which means they can both fit into dungeons and such. think about taking an archetypes that gets rd of your ranger spells ( the Divine Marksmen and Skirmisher archetypes both provide other cool stuff instead of ranger spells. the Divine Marksmen gets bonus feats and bonuses to ranged attack rolls while the Skirmisher gets hunter tricks.)
Feats:
1 Summoner (mounted archery or mounted combat)
2 Summoner ( gain evasion for the Eidelon)
or
2 Ranger (not much but it gets better)
3 Ranger ( take the archery combat feat chain, start with probably Point-blank shot which sucks to have to take for you, but leads into all the feats you want, you probably wont use this feat, and take either Mounted archery or Mounted Combat, whichever you havent already taken)
4-6 Ranger (get the feat prereqs for Arcane Archer and 1 or 2 flavor feats, or more archery feats if you like)
at this point you are Summoner lvl 1 or 2 Ranger lvl 5 or 6. you should have all the prereqs for Arcane Archer done and depending on how you set it up, a flying Eidelon/mount AND an animal companion, or a hunters bond with your buddies that should apply to your Eidelon.
Drawbacks:
your animals will be weaker than a cavalier mount, but you can FLY wich should hopefully keep them out of harms way most of the time, and with the Mounted combat feat, you can make a ride check to have any* attacks against them damage you instead and if you put 2 levels into summoner then your Eidelon has evasion. you also lose out on some of the spellcasting compared to a wizard, and you don't have the spell selection of a sorcerer, but the Summoner spell list has some real gems. Having to take Point- Blank shot sucks, as you hopefully wont need it, but can be helpful in those few situations when you are close enough to use it. being a halfling with a 10 strength, dealing consistent damage with arrows is going to be your main priority, taking feats to buff this will help but wont totally eliminate the issue until you get into arcane archer.
Good things:
you will have a FLYING ARCANE ARCHER
summoners have a 3/4 BAB so your to hit overall will only be 1 or 2 points behined
you can spend feats to increase the overall power of your Eidolons if thats really important to you, but again, they should be flying and shouldn't be getting hit terribly much, if at all. plus with evasion (Eidolons gain this at summoner level 2) they will have a pretty solid chance of evading, the serpentine base form has a dex of 16. if you drop that second level into summoner you also gain 1 more evo point (put it towards the Eidelon's natural armor giving it a +2).
Tactics:
hop on the Eidelon at the start of each day and dont get off. Have your Eidelon/mount fly above the ground within the first range increment of your bow, but well out of range of mellee weapons and close range spells (somewhere between 50-80 feet up). scout ahead if you feel like it and if you run into trouble simply fly a little higher. once combat starts RAIN HALFLING POINTY DEATH on your enemies from above, using your mounts movement to get around any cover baddies may have. you can supplement arrows with summoner spells, some of which are pretty cool, and every level of the summon monster list has something that can fly, so summoning it 60 feet up isnt an issue, its actually a boon for things like the eagle (gets a swoop attack im pretty sure).