| Derringer |
I played a 5th level human slayer in a playtest over last weekend. The rest of the party included a shaman, hunter, bloodrager, and swashbuckler.
I built the Slayer with a 25 point buy and focused on archery as the hunter, bloodrager, and swashbuckler were all melee focused.
My feats were improved initiative, point blank shot, precise shot and rapid shot. For the talents I took deadly range and snipers eye.
The sneak attack damage during the surprise round and first round of combat was a nice little bonus but having only 1d6 instead of the 3d6 I would have had as a rogue felt very weak. Landing 3 quick shots for 9d6 of sneak attack as a rogue always feels impressive. The extra 3d6 of sneak for the slayer was much less exciting.
The favored target bonus was very flavorful. Everyone at the table liked the assassin feel of me studying the target. It was also nice to be able to apply it to any target instead of hoping you fight a favored enemy. However, the decision to use that move action to study was a very difficult one.
As a archer type slayer I wanted to get off as many shots as possible. Passing up one round of rapid shot for future +2 on hit and damage did not seem to be worth it. However, I was not fighting high AC targets. I can see how it would be very useful in that situation.
The deadly range and snipers eye both really did let me get off sneak attacks that I wouldn't have otherwise. We were traveling though the forest and had encounters with creatures that had concealment from the thick underbrush and I actually did have a situation where the DM coincidentally set up the closest opponent 40 feet away as we rolled for initiative. However, only getting 1d6 for those cool powers was lack luster.
On the whole I think the feel was interesting but lacked the impact of either the rogue or the ranger. He didn't that huge first round damage potential of the rogue archer. Compared to the ranger, you might say that the talents and favored target could be a straight up flavorful trade for the favored enemy, favored terrain, and some of the extras a ranger would get like woodland stride and endurance. However, it feels like the slayer is trading the ranger's hunters bond, spells, skills, and the combat style feats for a very lack luster sneak attack.
Of course, this is really focused on a 5th level comparison only.
The character was effective in the game and the favored target was flavorful, but ultimately I the slayer needs to be given a little more power to have it match the ranger.
I would suggest that you specifically allow the study of the favored target to take place outside of combat. This would definitely lend itself more to the feel of the slayer class. It would seem by RAW that this cannot be done.
I would also suggest that you could simply increase the frequency of the favored target upgrade (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19)