Hey everybody. I was looking around through the books and found a few feats of interest: Point Blank Master, Snap Shot, Improved Snap Shot, and combat reflexes. My idea was to put them all into one character and make an archer who runs into the melee and focus on attacks of opportunity and of course normal archer attacks (rapid shot, point blank, many, ect.). Either my google-fu sucks or there are not any good builds or anything for this particular idea. I have the opportunity to use a Tiefling, or an uncommon race, as I got the % for both of those (any uncommon race with NO SR). I feel like a human fighter would be the best route with this, but i really want something a bit more unique.
The AP this is for is Mummy's Mask (no spoilers please) which I know is Undead Heavy so I thought maybe an Undead focused Ranger, or an Inquisitor. But again I really want to emphasize that I want to focus on being more of an upfront archer character.
Kitsune caught my interest as a fun Inquisitor infiltrator kind of thing, but if I did that it would have to be getting a ton of tails, exotic weapon prof: tail blade, and multi-weapon fighting as a ninja or rogue, and I may have done this too if we didn't already have a rogue.
Back on topic, any feats that could further make this build great is appreciated. I mean the ability to threaten within 15 ft is just to good to pass up. Yes I know only one attack per enemies' movement, but the ability to hit casters who move then attempt to cast, or hitting all those guys charging me in the beginning, or just for the sheer epicness of running into the fray using only a bow.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Builds? Any help is appreciated.
play an elf or half elf and get stabbing shot for even more fun: force them to take an AOO to reach you, then use stabbing shot to push them back 5 ft, shoot them and then 5ft step back so they are 10ft away and have to take ANOTHER AOO to reach you in the next round (plus they get no full attack), and so on.
This is incredibly feat-intensive to pull off well. Even going for an Archery specialised Human Ranger you only get 10 feats by level 11, which is barely scraping the "full effectiveness" barrier.
Pulling off a close-range archer at lower levels probably requires a fighter to do fully. The Archer Archetype even removes the needs for Point Blank Master with its level 9 ability Safe Shot, and adds scaling to hit and damage bonuses.
Zen Archer is probably your best bet. It has similar offensive capability to the Fighter, with much better defenses. Taking the Snap Shot line will be delayed by the Monk's 3/4 BAB, but they have a class feature that does the same thing as Snap Shot. You also get Point Blank Master earlier, as a bonus feat at level 3. The Fighter has to wait until level 5.
Check with your GM to see if the Zen Archer's "ranged attacks do not trigger AOOs" (gained at level 3) and the "threaten with ranged weapons up to 5 feet" (gained at level 9) could be substituted for Snap Shot in the pre-requisite for "Improved Snap Shot."
At my table, I would rule (and have ruled) "yes", and if your GM agrees, I would heartily recommend the Zen Archer for this.
Even if he doesn't, you can still take Snap Shot. Zen Archer is best archer.
Thanks for all the feedback. I enjoy all the suggestions, and see that Zen Archer and Fighter are the big contenders. I'm assuming Human is also the only race that could pull this off early enough?
I doubt that I can count reflexive shot as snap shot for the purpose of improved snap shot, which is the real beauty here.
What is the earliest level I could be in melee and provoking(not necessarily within 15ft, but at least 5ft around)?
Zen Archer gets it at level 9. A Fighter could have it at level 6, but doing so will delay Manyshot and Point Blank Master to level 7-8 for a Human, 8-9 for a non-Human.
Here's a feat breakdown for both classes. This won't necessarily be the order you want to take them in, and it assumes you take nothing but ranged combat feats, but it's there just to lay everything on the table. It also assumes the character is not a Human.
Fighter:
L1: Point Blank Shot
F1: Precise Shot
F2: Rapid Shot
L3: Deadly Aim
F4: Weapon Focus
L5: Weapon Specialization
F6: Point Blank Master
L7: Manyshot
F8: Snap Shot
L9: Combat Reflexes
F10: Improved Snap Shot
L11: Improved Precise Shot
Zen Archer:
L1: Point Blank Shot
M1: Improved Unarmed Strike
M1: Perfect Strike
M1: Precise Shot
M2: Combat Reflexes
M2: Weapon Focus
L3: Deadly Aim
M3: Point Blank Master
L5: (Optional)
M6: Weapon Specialization
M6: Improved Precise Shot
L7: Rapid Shot
L9: Snap Shot
Mo10: Pinpoint Targeting
L11: (Optional)
L13: Improved Snap Shot
The Monk has to wait longer to get Snap Shot and Improved Snap Shot, but he actually gets a couple of spare feats in there. And the Fighter has to wait until level 6 for Point Blank Master and level 11 for Improved Precise Shot. If you don't care about threatening at 15' and just want to use the Monk's class feature to threaten at 5', you can save three feats (including Rapid Shot, which doesn't work with Flurry). You could pick up Hammer the Gap for a little more damage, Clustered Shots to help against DR, or use those feats to increase your defensive advantage even further. Or maybe even spend a few feats on things other than combat. I currently have a Zen Archer that rolled a decent Int score, so I used the Clever Wordplay trait to switch Bluff from Cha to Int. Then I used the spare feats to pick up Racial Heritage (Gnome) and Bewildering Koan, and the free Skill Focus from Half-Elf on Bluff.
Sounds like you want a Human or Dwarven Zen Archer to me. Fighters give you all the feats you need but almost nothing else, leaving you with a LOT of vulnerabilities - Zen Archers give you a ton of utility and survivability that should work much better for you in the long run, both in and out of combat. With Dwarve's racial abilities and attribute bonuses, they not only make for excellent monks but also superb scouts due to high Wisdom and class skills. We've got one that's tearing it up in Emerald Spire right now.
Also look into Quinggong Monk which stacks with the archetype.
Just found something else very interesting. Having a 15ft threatened area is a huge benefit (all those AoO's), but what if you were to attack everything within that area. Whirlwind Attack, and heres the exact test.
You can strike out at every foe within reach.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, base attack bonus +4.
Benefit: When you use the full-attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your highest base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. You must make a separate attack roll against each opponent.
When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities.
Seems like a solid plan, except for even more feats to stack on. Thoughts?
Edit: Just Saw how bad spring attack would be for this since using a bow in close combat wouldn't technically be melee.
A friend and I played around with an archery tank character along similar lines using stalwart defender and archery. I'll try and find or reconstruct the build at some point sadly I've not got the time today.
Just found something else very interesting. Having a 15ft threatened area is a huge benefit (all those AoO's), but what if you were to attack everything within that area. Whirlwind Attack, and heres the exact test.
You can strike out at every foe within reach.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, base attack bonus +4.
Benefit: When you use the full-attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your highest base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. You must make a separate attack roll against each opponent.
When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities.
Seems like a solid plan, except for even more feats to stack on. Thoughts?
Edit: Just Saw how bad spring attack would be for this since using a bow in close combat wouldn't technically be melee.
You also don't technically have reach, snap shot just allows you to threaten.