Kingmaker AP - Elf or Half-Elf Archer


Advice


Hello everyone,
To begin with, thank you in advance for your advice. My GM is thinking of switching over to the Kingmaker AP.

What is the Best way to go about building a Elven Archer with the prospect of picking up the Arcane Archer prestige class in the Kingmaker AP.

For the prestige class I have to be either elf or half-elf. Before anyone ask I'm just really tired of playing human. We actually have not had a single non human in our gaming group in a really really long time.

Thank you agian for all of your help


mcgreeno wrote:

Hello everyone,

To begin with, thank you in advance for your advice. My GM is thinking of switching over to the Kingmaker AP.

What is the Best way to go about building a Elven Archer with the prospect of picking up the Arcane Archer prestige class in the Kingmaker AP.

For the prestige class I have to be either elf or half-elf. Before anyone ask I'm just really tired of playing human. We actually have not had a single non human in our gaming group in a really really long time.

Thank you agian for all of your help

I am actuually playing the Kingmaker AP right now and this is how i am going to do it

i feel it fits the AP very well

I have trying to work on a build my self and what i have come up with is
2 Ranger/8 Sorcerer with the Verdant Bloodline out of the APG/10 Arcane Archer

you still have the stealth of a ranger
you will get 7th level spells
and a good BaB of 16/11/6/1

and with the verdant blood line you get a built in ring of sustanace


mcgreeno wrote:

Hello everyone,

To begin with, thank you in advance for your advice. My GM is thinking of switching over to the Kingmaker AP.

What is the Best way to go about building a Elven Archer with the prospect of picking up the Arcane Archer prestige class in the Kingmaker AP.

For the prestige class I have to be either elf or half-elf. Before anyone ask I'm just really tired of playing human. We actually have not had a single non human in our gaming group in a really really long time.

Thank you again for all of your help

As someone who runs Kingmaker for his group, i can say, that an archer will be a great choice, there are various good paths to get to the class.

Depending on what kind of spells you want to use, and your party has access too, some options are better than others.

Archer Monk (can´t remember the name)/Sorcerer with the bloodline that lets them use WIS as casting stat/ arcane archer: the big advantage is te ability run around naked ^^ (with some serios AC)

Magus 8 / arcane archer 10. Your bow will be pretty powerfull, pretty soon, your spell selection is quite nice, and you are still damn dangeraus in melee.

Synthesist Summoner 8 / arcane archer 3 I guess this could work, and it will be easy, you can cast haste as a level 2 spell, improve your stats and will be quite durable.


Lots of ways to make an AA.

Fighter 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 3/AA X is pretty solid. Like most builds it loses 2 spellcasting levels, but the nice thing about this one is you can continue on with EK if you finish AA. Or if you only want a few levels of AA you can switch back into EK to keep both spellcasting and BAB up. You could instead take 6 sorcerer levels instead of wizard and then would need only two EK levels to get to AA, if you'd prefer spontaneous casting. Also could switch out FIghter 1 for Ranger, or any other class that gives +1 BAB and martial weapon prof.

Another option is to take Witch as your casting class. This gives access to some spells that would normally be off limits, and also gives hexes, several of which can be useful without being a full witch.

To get the most out of saves via charisma synergy could do Paladin 2 (for divine grace)/Sorcerer 6/EK 1/AA X. Although this loses 3 spellcasting levels. Or if spellcasting is more important than BAB go Paladin 2/Sorcerer 8/AA X to lose only 2 spellcasting levels, although at the cost of being down 4 BAB from a full BAB character. But either of those builds gives a nice boost to all saves, plus the ability to smite once a day (which wont do much damage, but will give a nice boost to attacks and AC and will bypass DR). Also if using Paladin can take the Divine Hunter archetype to get Precise Shot for free at the cost of Heavy Armor Proficiency (a worthy trade for an archer build).

Bard 8/AA x works well, although you just get bard spells instead of wizard spells. But you would have a lot of skill points to work with too. And several of the bard archetypes are well suited to this.

You need a fair number of feats to be a solid archer, so you need to plan these out with your build. Of the top of my head I'd want Pt. Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Arcane Strike, and Manyshot. And at higher levels Imp Precise Shot and Quicken Spell. So it doesn't leave lots of room for things like Imp Initiative or Improved Crit, for instance. The EK builds do pick up a feat at EK 1, as does first level fighter and first level divine hunter (paladin), so that helps quite a bit.

For race, I'd generally say that if you are going with an Int based caster then go Elf, as the bonuses to both dex and int are very nice, and con is not quite as important since you are a ranged character and should not ever be up close in melee. The elven magic racial trait is also very nice at helping ensure your spells affect targets with SR. If using a different casting stat then Half-Elf would probably be superior. However, since dex will be your primary stat, elf will work either way.

Theres a lot of options available as far as bloodlines (for sorcerers), school specialization (for wizards), hexes/patrons/archetypes (for witches), and archetypes (for bards). Plus a lot of spell choices to be made, especially for spontaneous casters who have a limited number of spells known. It'd be a lot of work to list the better choices out of all those possibilities; but if you get a character concept down then we'd be happy to discuss any of those that might work.


As far as character concept, I'm working on an idea.

However character role for the group not too sure.

I know that their will be a Magyar Kensai in the group who is focusing on a whip controller build. The way he has it tricked out he should be a great battlefield controller.

So with that in mind, I'll either half to go DPR/healer. Or DPR/ Faceman

So a build that can heal part time, talk well, and do good damage would be optimal. We only will have 3 players so each character needs to fill multiple rolls.

The ST is using traits

I like the idea of bard/ ranger/AA. Or even paladin/bard/Ranger/AA

So keep the ideas conning they are all interesting so far. And aging thanks


As a note, spell power is not a focus of the character. The idea of the arcane archer is more to enhance the archery aspect of the character.


I'm trying for something along lines of arcane archer. Wizard 6/figter 2, with next level in Eldrich Knight. I picked the transmutation school as a specialty school, which helps with most of the buffs I want to cast on myself/party. (Gravety bow, keen, fire arrow, magic weapon (greater), haste etc.) I was going to go for AA, but eldrich knight gives the feats that make ranged attacks worthwhile, full bab, and only one loss of spellcasting level. If I were to build again, I wouldn't be so concerned about maxing out int, as the spells are for the most part nosave. I'd also progress 5 wizard/1 fighter/x Eldrich knight. That's just my build though, have fun!

Dark Archive

If you want to enhance archery just be a straight ranger. Really, they get feats faster and stay straight bab. The Arcane Archer is a sad failure of a prestige; it really should get keywords at a faster rate.


try a half elven ranger (falconeer archetype...i believe its in ultimate combat) and a witch combo to get to AA. you get a falcon familiar that can do cool stuff and deliver hexes and touch spells for you


Take Witch 5, Fighter 1 and then Eldritch Knight and then AA.

Take the Patron with the Divine Favor etc pp. and take quicken spell as soon as you can afford it (or a rod if you have the money).

Good BAB, nice self buffs and can heal himself... what more does one want...

Dark Archive

Sadly a witch / Eldrich knight does NOT get the patron bonus spells from levels they are Eldrich knight; I almost made that build (the witchbarian). Still might, though more than likely my next PFS guy will wait till after I retire a current one (or at least till advanced races :)).

Liberty's Edge

Elf bard going straight into AA could be cool.

Also what about the ranged archetype for the magus from Ultimate Combat? The Myrmidarch? That might be interesting... not sure if it works or not.


What about a summoner (synthesis) dip for Ranger then going to Switch Hitter?

It would look something like this
15pt buy
STR 7
DEX 7
CON 7
INT 14
WIS 14
CHR 20 (+2 Racial Bonus)

Level One Summoner (Synthesis)
Attributes: STR 16, DEX 12,CON 13,INT 14,WIS 14,CHR 20,
HP 6 (12), AC 19 (+4 NA, +1 DEX, +4 Armor), BAB +1
Darkvison, Low Light Vision, skill focus Perception
Feat: Resilient Eidolon. 2 First Level Spells both set to heal Eidolon

Level Two Ranger (trapper)
Get Disable Device, and Trap finding. +1 BAB, Medium armor, so I can up grade that AC to 21 with chain mail

Level three
Feat Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Level four
Level Five Percise Shot
Level Six
Level Arcane Archer, with many shot

What do you guys think?

Shadow Lodge

mcgreeno wrote:

What about a summoner (synthesis) dip for Ranger then going to Switch Hitter?

It would look something like this
15pt buy
STR 7
DEX 7
CON 7
INT 14
WIS 14
CHR 20 (+2 Racial Bonus)

Level One Summoner (Synthesis)
Attributes: STR 16, DEX 12,CON 13,INT 14,WIS 14,CHR 20,
HP 6 (12), AC 19 (+4 NA, +1 DEX, +4 Armor), BAB +1
Darkvison, Low Light Vision, skill focus Perception
Feat: Resilient Eidolon. 2 First Level Spells both set to heal Eidolon

Level Two Ranger (trapper)
Get Disable Device, and Trap finding. +1 BAB, Medium armor, so I can up grade that AC to 21 with chain mail

Level three
Feat Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Level four
Level Five Percise Shot
Level Six
Level Arcane Archer, with many shot

What do you guys think?

I think that's cheesy as all hell and don't be surprised if you die. 7 con is just ASKING to die, the GM will barely need to try... You won't get extra evolution points or str/dex bonuses unless you actually take levels in summoner again as getting levels in the arcane archer gives you spells per day, spells know and caster levels, but none of the other class features, like the eidolon. At higher levels you'll get hit once by something, your eidolon will disappear and you'll end up with huge penalties to hit and damage with your bow and only have a few spells

Summoners aren't very good classes to dip/multiclass into due to the eidolon and how much it depends on you taking straight summoner

Dark Archive

You also use the Eidilon's BAB, which is going to be +1 life. But you do get the Eidl's 13 con while merged, so bonus HP + the Eidilon's 6 as temp. Not doomed to die.

But Eidilon synthasists don't have to multi; just be mono, serpent form. Only issue is you never qualify for deadly aim with a 7 Str, which lowers damage output somewhat. And you can't multi-arm sling because you don't q for two-weapon fighting.

They are melee and support machines though :).

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