Arcturus24's page

Thank you all for your advice! I think I'll pick up the Mistborn series first, it seems well-rated pretty much everywhere and I'm quite intrigued by its time shift from medieval to pre-modern.

But I'll certainly keep your extensive lists in mind when I need to choose something new!

I'd personally like to mention the Slayer, and one with the Sniper archetype at that. Sniper builds have often been deemed inviable, but I think the Slayer's archetype can fix that.

One of the big problems with Archer builds is the huge number of feats they require to function properly. Luckily, the Slayer gets ten extra Slayer Talents, of which 6 can be used to get feats relevant to an Archer build (the Ranger Style talents, up to 3 times, weapon training, combat trick, and feat). Also, humans get a favored class bonus that can give up to 3 more Slayer Talents.

The progression would look something like this:

1: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot
2: Ranger Combat Style (Rapid Shot)
3: Deadly Aim
4: Rogue Talent (Weapon Training (Longbow))
5: Combat Reflexes
6: Ranger Combat Style (Improved Precise Shot), Rogue Talent (Combat Trick (Manyshot))
7: Snap Shot
8: Blood Reader
9: Improved Snap Shot
10: Ranger Combat Style (Point Blank Master)
11: Clustered Shot
12: Assassinate, Stealthy Sniper
13: Silent Kill
14: Opportunist
15: Greater Snap Shot
16: Feat (Pinpoint Targeting)
17: Improved Initiative
18: Snap Shot [1], Evasion
19: (Empty Feat)
20: Sniper's Eye

[1] the Rogue Talent

One thing to note: the Sniper archetype gets a class feature at level 2 that doesn't seem to trade in anything. It might be that it gets two class features back for Track, but you might want to check this with your DM.

This build gets the relevant archery feats even faster than the standard Ranger build, and can even take some toys on the side, such as Blood Reader and the Assassinate package.

The plan of action is to start combat with sniping, which starts out potent and becomes devastating. The Sniper can, from second level on, ignore the range restriction on sneak attack when their target is totally unaware, and gets a damage bonus equal to their Slayer level. At level 12, you get Assassinate, which nothing says is not usable with ranged weapons. Combined with Silent Kill, you could theoretically wipe out an entire group of enemies without them noticing you. And at level 16, Pinpoint Targeting allows you to negate pretty much any AC bonus they might have. Nice little detail: with Blood Reader, you can inspect a group of enemies and pick out the one that you can snipe best. They don't know you're there, so you have all the time you need to cycle through a group with Studied Target.

So, what do you do when you're found out and combat starts? Well, you're at least as good as a ranger when it comes to archery feats, so you'll be firing volleys of arrows into your enemies. You might miss Favored Enemy bonuses, but Studied Target is half as strong and applies to everyone.

I hope this helps! If needed, I also have a build that gives up the 2nd level Slayer Talent if your DM decides to cut that one for the archetype, if you need I'll happily supply it!

Arcturus

If I might suggest another route: the Scaled Disciple. Such a build uses the kobold feat Scaled Disciple (from Kobolds of Golarion) to qualify for Dragon Disciple as oracle.

If you don't want to be a kobold, you can be any race that can count as human (humans, half-elves, half-orcs, various other races with the correct racial trait), and then take the feat Racial Heritage (from the APG) to count as kobold for feats. If you're human, you can have all necessary feats at lvl 1.

This build is more melee-focused than casting-focused, as Dragon Disciple gains melee abilities in return for delayed casting. You will, however, gain a number of spells normally unavailable to oracles (Form of the Dragon!).

Another upside of having Racial Heritage is that you can take other Draconic kobold feats, giving stuff like a breath weapon, a fly speed and spell-like abilities.

It can also work pretty flavorful: you can match your draconic heritage to your mystery (flames for a red dragon, winter for a white dragon, lunar for lunar dragon, and so on). I've made a Dark Tapestry/Void dragon build myself.

I hope this helps!
Arcturus

All ranger combat styles

These styles function just like normal ranger styles; just look for Faithful (Achaekek).

The Ranger Combat Style talent says that you can take it at level 2, 6, and 10, and that you can pick a combat style (archery, twf, or one of the faithful), and that you don't have to meet the prereqs. I don't see anything that says it doesn't work ;)

[EDIT] Just saw your edit, this post is irrelevant

In Inner Sea Gods, there are ranger combat styles for certain gods, Achaekek included. That way, you can use the 2nd and 6th level slayer talents for some two-weapon fighting stuff and sawtooth saber proficiency. These can be found on the ranger page on the srd.

You don't actually have to buy the books: all the main rulebooks are on paizo's PRD, which is linked on the paizosite under the 'pathfinder roleplaying game', and the contents of other books are on both the 'archives of nethys' and 'pathfinde srd'. Just google those two, and you can look up everything.

If you want the books themselves, they can be bought as cheap pdf's.

Challenge accepted! Except that Gripplis are smaller than Halflings, so they might be better. According to the ARG, a Grippli female is 1' 7", minimum. Reduced, that's 9.5" by 2.5' by 2.5' per Grippli. That's 8550 cubic inches per Grippli. A 30 ft radius sphere is about 1.95 * 10^8 cubic inches, meaning 22857 Gripplis will fit in there (rounded down, any use for 0.56676 female Grippli sorcerer?). That increases your CL by 22856, as you are the last Grippli in that sphere.

I'd say harsh, bringing civilization with an iron fist, and severly punishing those who break the laws and defy civilization. Stern, not afraid to use violence, but only when necessary.

I don't get the connection between unbalanced PrCs and rules bloat? And about the evangelist: what feat gives class features back? I've been around these forums for a while, so I think I should've seen such an exploitable thing. Lastly, the evangelist has only 3/4 BAB and d8 hit die, so martials really take a hit. (Though I admit it's solid for low/medium bab)