Can you define glass cannon? Glass cannons can be made to be pretty durable. Also, is this for the organized play or a homegame?
Heading to the Advice subforum would be a good start."General Discussion"
"Pathfinder Society"
Your best bet will be to visit the Advise section of the general PFRPG section instead of the PFS specific general forum.
Regarding the OP, any ranged class can easily be made into a glass cannon as that's usually want the class is designed to be, deadly but not able to take the punishment melee classes face.
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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Best ranged I can think is Zen Archer. Something like:
Plumekith Aasamir
Ranger (Freebooter) 1
Monk (Zen Archer/Qinggong) 1
Ranger 2
Monk 2-4
Fighter (Weapon Master) 1-4
This will give you:
Clustershot, Snap Shot, WF, PBS, Precise Shot, Point Blank Master, Perfect Strike, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Manyshot by your 1st level Fighter. Weapon Spec at 4th.
Don't Flurry, instead Manyshot/Rapid Shot.
Swap Slow Fall for something you can use.
You can Freeboot in the rounds that you don't have a bow in hand.
Pale Green Prism instead of Bracers of Archery.
Adaptive Composite Longbow.
Can you define glass cannon?If you can't survive a full round of your own attacks, you are a glass cannon.
Sometimes, but there are some builds that are sturdy and can deal massive damage.
I am looking for a build/class that can act as a ranged glass cannon. Please leave your feedback!
1a - Half-Elven Master Summoner
1b - Human Weaponmaster (Bow)
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Best ranged I can think is Zen Archer. Something like:
Plumekith Aasamir
Ranger (Freebooter) 1
Monk (Zen Archer/Qinggong) 1
Ranger 2
Monk 2-4
Fighter (Weapon Master) 1-4This will give you:
Clustershot, Snap Shot, WF, PBS, Precise Shot, Point Blank Master, Perfect Strike, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Manyshot by your 1st level Fighter. Weapon Spec at 4th.Don't Flurry, instead Manyshot/Rapid Shot.
Swap Slow Fall for something you can use.
You can Freeboot in the rounds that you don't have a bow in hand.Pale Green Prism instead of Bracers of Archery.
Adaptive Composite Longbow.
Why is FreeBooter such a common dip amongst a lot of builds I've seen as of late??? I assume its the group boost to attack rolls but hey =)
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-Race-
Human
-Class-
Fighter (Weapon Master)
-Stats 20pb-
STR 16 (+2 racial)(+2 leveling) = 20
DEX 16 (+2 leveling)(+6 item) = 24
CON 10
INT 14
WIS 09
CHA 07
-Feats-
01 Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus Composite Longbow
02 Deadly Aim
03 Rapid Shot
04 Weapon Specialization
05 Point Blank Master
06 Manyshot
07 Clustered Shots
08 Greater Weapon Focus
09 Snap Shot
10 Improved Snap Shot
11 Combat Reflexes
12 Pin Down
13 Greater Weapon Specialization
14 Hammer the Gap
15 Penetrating Strike
16 Greater Penetrating Strike
17 Vital Strike
18 Improved Vital Strike
19 Greater Vital Strike
20 Bullseye Shot
-Method-
Clustered Shots and Penetrating shot makes DR apply to the total damage from full round attacks and reduced that DR by 5/10. Snap Shot gives the ability to perform AoO and Pin Down makes it were withdraw actions and 5ft steps provoke and will force enemies that get into melee to stay in melee when needed. Vital Strike chain and Bullseye Shot are to make use of the Weapon Master's Unstoppable Strike when forced to make only standard action attacks or when facing an enemy that's ac is so high that only one attack will hit. Unstoppable Strike btw ignores DR and hardness and hits Touch AC.
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Ooh, how about a Bomber Alchemist?
Human Alchemist (Grenadier archetype - Longbow proficiency)
Str 12
Dex 18 (+2 racial)
Con 12
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 7
1 Point Blank Shot
1 Precise Shot
2 Precise Bombs
2 Tanglefoot Bomb
3 Rapid Shot
4 Infusion/Spontaneous Healing (depending on campaign - Spontaneous Healing >> Toughness)
5 Extra Bombs
6 Dispelling Bomb (your party will thank you)
7 Deadly Aim
8 Fast Bombs
9 Manyshot
10 Force Bomb (bypassing elemental immunity is essential at high levels)
11 Clustered Shot
12 Sticky Bomb (works with other bomb types)
Boost your Dex with the Mutagen, then rain down debuffs and 'splosions on your enemies. The ability to get off 3-4 Dispel Magics in one turn could easily turn the tides against a powerful spellcasting foe, and is, I believe, unique to the Alchemist. You're also pretty darn good with a bow so you can keep the pain coming all day long. Infusion is really good here, since you'll rarely have many turns to buff.
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Ooh, how about a Bomber Alchemist?
Human Alchemist (Grenadier archetype - Longbow proficiency)
Str 12
Dex 18 (+2 racial)
Con 12
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 71 Point Blank Shot
1 Precise Shot
2 Precise Bombs
2 Tanglefoot Bomb
3 Rapid Shot
4 Infusion/Spontaneous Healing (depending on campaign - Spontaneous Healing >> Toughness)
5 Extra Bombs
6 Dispelling Bomb (your party will thank you)
7 Deadly Aim
8 Fast Bombs
9 Manyshot
10 Force Bomb (bypassing elemental immunity is essential at high levels)
11 Clustered Shot
12 Sticky Bomb (works with other bomb types)Boost your Dex with the Mutagen, then rain down debuffs and 'splosions on your enemies. The ability to get off 3-4 Dispel Magics in one turn could easily turn the tides against a powerful spellcasting foe, and is, I believe, unique to the Alchemist. You're also pretty darn good with a bow so you can keep the pain coming all day long. Infusion is really good here, since you'll rarely have many turns to buff.
You failed to mention Two-weapon fighting. The penalty for tossing multiple bombs is quite high. Also in order to toss multiple bombs one would also need Quick Draw. Also if one plans on using the bow with bombs a handy discovery would be explosive missile. True it only allows one attack but some times that one attack is all that is needed and you cant risk getting into bombing range.
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Why is FreeBooter such a common dip amongst a lot of builds I've seen as of late??? I assume its the group boost to attack rolls but hey =)
This ability replaces favored enemy.
Untyped attack/damage bonus to self and party, as well as other bonuses for being a Ranger.
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You failed to mention Two-weapon fighting. The penalty for tossing multiple bombs is quite high. Also in order to toss multiple bombs one would also need Quick Draw. Also if one plans on using the bow with bombs a handy discovery would be explosive missile. True it only allows one attack but some times that one attack is all that is needed and you cant risk getting into bombing range.
The discovery Fast Bombs takes care of all that. Explosive Missile is good for long range/single target bombing, it's true.
Benefit: An alchemist with this discovery can quickly create enough bombs to throw more than one in a single round. The alchemist can prepare and throw additional bombs as a full-round action if his base attack bonus is high enough to grant him additional attacks. This functions just like a full-attack with a ranged weapon.
Why is FreeBooter such a common dip amongst a lot of builds I've seen as of late??? I assume its the group boost to attack rolls but hey =)** spoiler omitted **
Untyped attack/damage bonus to self and party, as well as other bonuses for being a Ranger.
Also mixes well with trapper if your only dipping. Pretty much free trapfinding right there.
Can you define glass cannon? Glass cannons can be made to be pretty durable. Also, is this for the organized play or a homegame?
"Glass cannon" typically refers to a character that can deal a massive amount of damage, and focuses on doing so, while not being able to absorb a great deal of damage.
Generally at lower levels the Barbarian is a Glacial Cannon that has the durability of the Frozen Glacier with the power of the Glass Cannon due to 1-shotting capabilities from 20-str and 2-handed weapon with power attack.
At higher levels, however, the STR heavy characters even out, and the casters--chiefly the wizard--becomes the true glass cannons they were meant to be. However, with so many choices to Pathfinder characters it is often hard to make a true glass cannon.
To OP: Glass cannons are usually a play-style choice. It suggests high rewards at high risk. You either kill it before it gets to you or you die. One such option is the Wizard who focuses on doing extreme single target damage, extreme AOE damage, or be extremely invested in damage of a single element to the exclusion of all others.
A sorcerer fits this role the best due to being able to spam more spells.
Go Crossblooded, select a bloodline that lets you change the element of other elemental spells--such as Polar Ray to fire--, and then select Draconic for that element or Orcish for just universal damage.
Select offensive spells, focus on killing the enemy before it gets to you, and massacre everything.
Strix is a fantastic choice because you can fly away from the enemy, which is infinitely better than just running. This is made even better by the fly speed being higher than your base move.
So, in essence, battles should go like this:
Round 1:
Enemies appear!
You kill one of them on your turn and run/fly away from them.
They attack the party--and you if they can--and your party does stuff.
Round 2:
You blow up more of the enemies.
They continue fighting, run away, or all die. Your party does stuff.
Round 3:
See round 2.
If you are running out of spells then pick up rings of wizardry.
Feats:
Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Elemental Focus, and Greater Elemental Focus are all fantastic feats, and the latter two are fantastic if you are focused in a single element due to bloodlines. Pick spells that are of as many different elements as possible, then just turn them into your element as a free action to kill people.
At Low levels you will be trash. You just will be. Accept that. At level 3 you will get Scorching Ray and your DPR will spike upward. At level 5 you will get Fireball and your DPR will spike even more vs large numbers of enemies.
As a glass cannon your worries are not defensive, but instead they are offensive. You are there to kill people, and so long as your saves are stupidly high you wont need to really worry about enemies saving against them all that much.
Metamagic feats (for later) are Maximize Spell, Empower Spell, and Intensify Spell--all of which increase damage or max it out. I don't know if Metamagics stack--for instance an intensified fireball at level 15 that is then empowered. 52 fire damage from fireball becomes 78 fire damage, and with Maximize it is 90 fire damage or 135 fire damage.
To put that in perspective you could 3-shot most CR 20 monsters if they don't make their saves with an intensified(+1) empowered(+2) maximized(+3) Fireball(3)(Spell level 9).
Never doubt the power of a character obsessed with damage. Also, that spell level 9 fireball can hit from at least 600-ft away. Probably more.
Most likely statistic would be Cha 26 (headband+6) so the save would be 22 for a cantrip that uses the element specialized in, all the way up to 31 for a level 9 spell.
Well I was asking what the OP defined as a glass cannon. I mean, I can see a wizard who chooses not to use defensive spell as a glass cannon, or a barbarian who goes bare naked, or a rogue who goes "Wee D6s!". I'm not sure if there's much to get in offense at the cost of defense because of the way cost scales.
Empower and Maximize don't stack. Maximize's +3 SA means you usually take it on a rod.
What you want is feats that boost caster level to get your damage up there, Intensify to add more dice faster past the normal caps, and Empower to add half again. On top of that, you want Quicken spell to hurl out another barrage as fast as possible.
Reducing the cost of metamagic to do this is going to be key, so people take the trait or traits that do that. Varisian Tattoo to give +1 CL, Spell Master/Specialization etc are all used to up the caster level and get ahead of the damage curve.
Scorching Ray is a good early damage spell and a poor late one, because it is multiple 4d6 rays, not one big one. That means fire resistance applies against each ray, multiple rolls to hit, etc. Because of fire resistance, you want one spell that does a lot of damage in one hit.
There are several Blaster Caster builds on the board, and I can post the standard one if you like. Basically you dip Admixture Wizard so you can change the element on the fly, then blow stuff up.
==Aelryinth
Empower and Maximize don't stack.
Is there an FAQ on that? I just imagine that since the spell has random variables, and that maximize just turns them into max values, that it still qualifies.
An empowered, maximized spell gains the separate benefits of each feat: the maximum result plus half the normally rolled result.
I remember that the last time we ever used Explosive Runes we ruled that the magic was discharged if the page was destroyed. If your DM rules as such as well then fill up a book (50 pages or more) throw it to the enemy saying you surrender, then destroy a page in the book.
Boom.
300d6, or 1050 force damage from them all exploding.
Though, I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually work that way.
Empower and Maximize are applied independently of one another, the only metamagic feats that are.
Example: A 10d6 Fireball. If you empower it, its +5d6, a 15d6 Fireball.
If you Maximize it, its a 60 HP fireball.
If you Maximize + Empower it, it's a 60 HP + 5d6 fireball, NOT a 90 HP fireball.
Granted, that's a legacy from 3.5 and holdover, and if you waived it, it would not upset anything.
So far the only spells that increase dmg in PF are Intensify spell adding +5 dice to the damage cap, Empower, and Maximize. Nods to the two traits that reduce the costs of metamagic to a single spell. On top of this, you want the bloodlines that add +x damage per die of damage to get your damage potential up.
Right now, the best spells are Cone of Cold and Firesnake, which are unfortunately short range, but with a MM reducer can fit in both Empower and Maximize without a Rod into a 9th level spell, allowing you to Spell Master a Quicken and double up your damage in a given round.
Damage at caster level 20, attained at level 15, is 20d6+40 (Intensified for +5 dice), Maximized for 160 damage, +10d6+20, netting out 180 + 10d6, or roughly 215 damage.
Then you quicken a second casting, for 430 damage, to everyone in the area of effect.
You could potentially get higher numbers with Disintegrate, since it tops at CL 20 with 40d6, but you'd only be able to apply all three feats with Rods and fit under the 9th level cap. Plus you'd have to wait until level 11 to get the ball rolling, and you wouldn't get the elemental damage bonuses since it's not an elemental spell. It's also single target, goes against a strong save for almost every enemy, and has a pitiful secondary effect, so no one uses it.
IN 3.5, you had Searing Spell (+1), Burning Spell(+1), Split Ray (best MM damage increaser, +2), Twin Spell (#3 best after Empower), Admixture (#4 best), Repeat spell (Meh...), and Consecrate spell (a stacking Empower vs Undead for +1).
You also had the various Elemental Sheathe feats that added +1/die of damage while they were active to the appropriate element of spells.
PF is being very careful about letting blaster damage get out of hand. If you can build a blaster that can outdamage melee, there's precious little use for any other ranged combatant.
As I've noted before, you have to build a good blaster, and it takes a lot. Once you have, you can solve a lot of problems with the 'flesh to charred ash' spell of your choice.
If you can't, you just do control/debuff/buff, like all the other casters do.
You can do what they do, but without a devoted build, they cannot do what you do.
==Aelryinth
Empower and Maximize are applied independently of one another, the only metamagic feats that are.
Yup yup.
Also if the Glass Cannon goes sorcerer and decides to go cross blooded Draconic/Orcish then that is an extra 2 damage per dice theoretically rolled to get even higher damages.Polar Ray would do 20d6+40 (60 - 110 - 160) at level 20, so it could be quite the painful spell to get hit by.
By far I think going Crossblooded Orc Draconic bloodlines is the most effective way to get huge numbers due to extra damage per dice.
Oh, wait, you already covered this. XD
@ Taku Ooka Nin best part is you only need a single level of Sorcerer with those bloodlines.
Yup, then the Pew Pews ensue!
