Snare Rhodiani's page

I typically can't spare the action to Hunt in the first place because Surprise Snare takes all 3 actions.

Snare specialist here! Level 8 now, and it works ok.

Basics:
Kobold with Snare Setter then Snare Genius.
Ranger with Snarecrafter Dedication, Surprise Snare, Snare Specialist, Remote Trigger.

Free snares: Snare Genius gives me 4, snare specialist 6, and snarecrafter dedication gives me 6; so 16 free snares per day.

You used to want Powerful Snares at level 8, but now that's baked into the Snarecrafter Dedication in remaster.

There will be some games where you can really shine, but I'll admit it's pretty rare that you're charged with defending a plot of land from an expected attack. About one per year, really. So you'll want to be a bit selective about what missions you go on.

The rest of the time: Surprise Snare IS your game. This feat lets you spend 3 actions to bowl your snare into an opponent's square and set it off. Before remaster, it did lower your DC by two, but with remaster that's gone! What remaster DIDN'T do is fix the range question. The feat doesn't say how far away you can set these snares. But in 2020 I happened to be at a table with Tonya as GM, who made a table ruling of 20' range. That wasn't issued as a campaign rule though, so your table may vary.

Outside of snares, I've got crossbow ace. And in theory Hunt Prey -> Precision applies to the surprise snare, as it doesn't say the hit has to be a strike.

Which snares to take? The hard limits: nothing with a cost, nothing that takes more than a minute to craft. Those just don't work. Outside of that... same as picking spells. Some damage, some conditions, some utility. A couple snares are fort instead of ref, and a couple have no save. Take a variety.

I have NEVER had other players be a problem or complain about my snares. And I've not had GMs try to go around them either. I've got a bunch of cardboard tiles that I'll lay out when we're defending an area, with a mark under them to say which type of snare they are. Then we get a surprise when they go off.

The only problem I've had is playing dumb. Because when you're putting snares around a campsite, your character doesn't know that the map only goes one direction. So if you don't want to be meta, you waste some snares on approaches that as a player you know won't happen. Oh well.

I'm guessing he's thinking of the Surprise Snare feat, which lets you spend 3 actions to just place one of your quick snares in an opponent's square and trigger it - at the cost of the DC being 2 lower.

The problem with that feat is that it doesn't list a range. For org play I was able to be at a table with Tonya as GM and she made a ruling of 30', but that's not a very official fix.

I also kind of like Zyphus but I wouldn't mind him getting merc'd in lieu of a deeper, more interesting, souls-ferrying deity.

Zyphus would be interesting. My character is built on hunting down cultists of Zyphus - they'd be thrilled at the development, but "mission accomplished" ends the character's concept. Still, Zyphus is a niche tool that allows for places filled with traps that aren't otherwise justified in having them, so I don't see him leaving.