I'm working on a slayer kitsune, who'll eventually have the ability to assassinate targets.
I went with a heavy crossbow and took point blank shot at level 1, since its needed for like all the other feats.
I'm skipping rapid reload, and picking up crossbow mastery at level 8 via ranger style.
I went with cutthroat archetype so during a surprise round I could apply my target bonus as a free action.
The idea of the character of course is to constantly be stealthed as much as possible (Kitsune was to get access to fox form at level 3 for a huge bonus to stealth.)
AT level 10, I'm getting assassinate, which with the target ability means that it'll have a dc of 10+3int+5level+3target = 21 fort save or die. I'm planning on getting a +4 int item, and possibly ability focus (Assassinate) Making a fort save of 25.
Is there any other ways of really increasing this even further? Things I could do to make the guy better?
Is there any reason you want to use a crossbow instead of a regular bow? With a regular bow you could add strength to your damage. Or as long as you don't have a strength penalty you could use it with iterative attacks and could avoid crossbow mastery.
Verify with your GM that you can take ability focus. It is not necessarily available since it is normally a monster feat.
Crossbows have a longer range, and I do have a strength penalty. (-1) Also I'm possibly going to be picking up an water crossbow later on, due to the possibility of having to fight underwater. (port town, fighting fish people things)
And yes, its why its under the possibility category instead of I will have it.
Vital strike chain
Crossbows have a longer range, and I do have a strength penalty. (-1) Also I'm possibly going to be picking up an water crossbow later on, due to the possibility of having to fight underwater. (port town, fighting fish people things)
And yes, its why its under the possibility category instead of I will have it.
A light crossbow has a range of 80 ft and a heavy crossbow has a range of 120 ft. A composite longbow has a range of 110 ft. So, 10ft shorter than the heavy crossbow. Which probably isn't going to matter much. Also consider that reloading a heavy crossbow is a full-round action, and wont decrease until it becomes a free action when you pickup Crossbow Mastery. At level 8. If you rock a heavy crossbow you will only be able to attack 1 every other round until level 8. That's awful.
I don't care if you have sneak attack and get it on every shot and remain hidden every round. That's just terrible. Also, please note the damage difference between a heavy crossbow and a light crossbow is 1d10 versus 1d8. On average it's 1 point of damage of difference. You're much better off just picking up a light crossbow and pikcing up rapid reload at level 1. You may not like it, but not every situation is going to let you snipe. Sometimes you are going to need to take iterative shots and not be hidden. It's a bad idea to pidgeonhole yourself into one, paritcularly bad, tactic.
Oh, and apparently:
Strength Bonus: When you hit with a melee or thrown weapon, including a sling, add your Strength modifier to the damage result. A Strength penalty, but not a bonus, applies on damage rolls made with a bow that is not a composite bow.
So if you have a composite longbow you apparently don't take the strength penalty to damage when using it as compared to a normal bow. Never realized that.