okay so here's the question do you wanna do the sneaky archer or the shadow dancer, because the shadow dancer works best for a melee build, it doesn't work very well for a ranged build.
after looking at the party what your party REALLY NEEDS is an arcane caster or a buffer, but its your character after all
so first off look at the slayer class it has everything your looking for. second id look at the expert sniper feat which reduces the penalty to sniping. then for one of your traits pick up the one that gives you a racial trait and get the tiefling sniper trait, which in all will make the penalty to sniping only a -5.
take a look at slayer and let me know what you think?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If you're brand new, the ranger is a great class to start with.
It introduces lots of rules systems in a fun package. It has lots of skills, 2 good saves, full BAB, and teaches you combat styles, bonus feats, spellcasting, animal companion and/or party buffing.
The slayer class is very similar to the ranger, but gives up spells to get sneak attack. It's in the Advanced Class Guide.
The ninja is a variant class similar to the rogue (from Ultimate Combat, I think), but it has a ki ability that can be used for minor magical abilities. One of them is Vanishing Trick, which lets you turn invisible as a swift action. This lets you move into position Stealthily, use your standard action to attack and get sneak attack, and then use your swift action to turn invisible. It's one of the easiest and best ways to guarantee a ranged sneak attack.
Ranged sneak attacking is pretty difficult to pull off using Pathfinder rules. Honestly, it can be frustrating.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pathfinder really doesn't reward multiclassing unless you have a really specific build plan. Even Prestige classes are usually worse than just sticking with you original class.
I would highly suggest you build an archer bard.
Fetchling works great for a bard. You will have plenty of skills to do the sneaking (and with the addition of spells can probably do that better than a rogue). With only a few feats you can be a pretty good archer, and generate significant DPR. Add in that spending your first round doing inspire courage, and you will be increasing the damage for the whole party.
Bards are a lot of fun, they can do everything and do it all pretty well. You should be able to sneak, disarm traps, contribute damage in combat both directly and indirectly, be the face of the group, provide info on what you are facing, and even do a bit of healing once in a while if someone is really in trouble. Plus you will be able to use the all important wand of cure light wounds that your party will really need.
if you follow the archer bard route you should look at the arrow song minstrel archetype, you get some cool bow spells you keep the inspire courage song plus if you wanted you could go arcane archer really easily
are you using a point buy system? or how are you doing stats?
Since you are starting out i might recommend some of the basic core classes. Sorcerer is quite interesting even in core, but i feel Cleric is a bit on the dull side if you are not familiar with the domain system.
If you want a more interesting cleric look up the base class "Oracle" and you could see if thats your cup of tea, though its not core. ( Personally, its my favorite class ) The negative is that you dont have access to every spell there like the cleric can.
Bard is pretty good for a buffer and as a "skill monkey" and can cover as a mini arcane caster while not being totally useless in combat either.
As for Slayer i am not too familiar with the hybrid classes, but you mix the abilities of a Ranger with a Rogue.
so your gonna want to look up a point buy calculator
str is the best stat for duel wielding so before racials id suggest a 16 so you can get a 18 after stats.
now how you build it after that is up to you on how to build him since I don't know how much you value your mental stats but if I was building him here's what my stats would be
first off id play a human and use the duel talented alternate racial trait so before racials id have
16
14
14
14
10
7
then with the 2 plus 2s id put them into str and dex
so youd have
18
16
14
14
10
7
this is just what id do
I value int a bit more then usual for my slayers because you can get the assassinate ability later from a advanced slayer talent
I also think you should check out the Stygian slayer archetype! its got some awesome abilities
Take a look at the archaeologist bard, in the Ultimate Combat I think. Its not as good for buffs, etc. as the vanilla bard, but it has some rogish talents and with some arcane tricks u can make a decent sneaky ranged PC.
Bard might actually be really good for your party.
1. Spells! And a neat mix of arcane and healing.
2. Skills! You can be the party face and still be Stealthy.
3. Archery! You can use a bow and be a decent archer.
4. Shadowdancer! You can make a Shadowdancer out of a bard if you want. You won't be able to choose archery feats and the pre-requisites for the Shadowdancer, so you kind of have to choose at 1st level.
5. Buffing! Your party consists of 3 other martial characters (barbarian, ranger, paladin/monk), so you'll be very effective at buffing your party--and your archery/shadowdancing.
Actually, a reach-build bard might be a good combo with the Shadowdancer prerequisites: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, and Mobility. If you go human, you can squeeze in Power Attack. Or you can take Point Blank Shot and go for Shot on the Run. Or delay Shadowdancer to 8th or 10th or 11th level and get more bard stuff (and spells!) and more archery feats, like Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, etc. You can even use the Shadowdancer's Rogue Talent to get a bonus feat.
A Slayer with the Sniper archetype is one of the best ranged/archer characters you can play. That first shot is going to be a doozy and then follow it up with general Pathfinder archery badassery, and make sure you pick up the Ranger Combat Style as slayer talents for extra archery feats. Seems like exactly what you are looking for. Hope this helps.
There are a couple things to keep in mind with a character concept like what you seem to be going for.
1. In pathfinder 'sniping' is really difficult, even if you specialize. Attacking REALLY gives you away, and the game intends for it to be exceedingly difficult to attack someone and them/their allies to have no idea who did it after the fact.
In addition, unlike most actual combat, one shot kills are basically not a thing. It is intended for it to take time to kill a foe, and it will almost all of the time. Theres no 'boom headshot' on keep targets. You can do lots of damage, you can surprise them, but most of the time, they will then be able to retaliate.
2. Stealth in a group where others are not focused in stealth can be frustrating. We have a saying in dnd/pathfinder. "How many player characters doe it take to screw in a ALL OF THEM! DONT SPLIT THE PARTY!". When you are the sneaky guy and there is also the paladin who clinks loudly with every step, you might feel inclined to separate yourself, scout far ahead to make use of your stealth.
But splitting off from the group more then a short distance is often a VERY bad idea. If you end up facing a threat meant for your whole party alone, and they are more then a round or two away from you, you will likely not survive (running away is also rather difficult in this game).
It takes a lot of planning and careful consideration to make good use of stealth/scouting abilities without splitting the party and putting yourself at unreasonable risk. But you will also get frustrated trying to sneak close to your probably not stealthy at all other party members.
Just some food for thought on the some of the general limitations of the game with this kind of concept.
I had a player quit his rogue sniper because it almost never worked.
Then we switched to 5th Ed, and he went back to sniper rogue--because it works in that rules system!
I had a player quit his rogue sniper because it almost never worked.
Then we switched to 5th Ed, and he went back to sniper rogue--because it works in that rules system!
Certainly there are things other systems represent better then pathfinder (particularly if you don't want to add in subsystems). The sniper is among them.
5th Ed does not limit the range of a rogue's sneak attack, and it allows you to Move-Shoot-Hide & Move with the Cunning Action ability.