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Bombs are pretty sweet. You get Alch level + int bombs per day, and they work as splash weapons (20 ft distance increment). Each one deals Xd6 + int fire damage on a touch attack, where X scales like Sneak Attack, and splash does minimum damage (reflex for half). They benefit from Point-Blank and Precise Shot too.

The really nice thing about bombs, though, is that you can enhance them with discoveries (and feats can be "extra discovery" if you want too.) You can get bombs that act like tanglefoot bags, bombs that act like Fog Cloud, Stinking Cloud, or even Cloudkill, bombs that deal ice or electricity or force damage, bombs that act like Dispel Magic, bombs that can blind or sunder or create grease or do wisdom damage... the list goes on. You can also get Precise bombs (think Selective Spell metamagic), increase their explosion radius, make them work like a breath weapon or a cone or a line, and get a discovery to let you throw them as iterative attacks. They're very customizable.

It dovetails nicely with a high-Str build because you can spend one feat on Power Attack and the rest on Extra Discovery or Extra Bombs. Also, since they hit touch attacks (and deal splash damage even if they miss), you don't need a particularly high Dex to use them well. (In fact, since extracts have no spell failure chance, you can be an alchemist in medium or heavy armor if you want.) So you'll be primarily a melee beast, but in the meantime you can huck bombs and drink extracts. Smoke bombs let you essentially disable enemy ranged attacks, or Tanglefoot...

Wouldn't that lead to the class being pretty MAD? I guess if I only have to focus on str and int it wouldn't be too bad. Also, our gm uses the 4d6 system instead of a point buy for whatever reason, so I guess it would really just be up to luck.

Once your blaster gets access to Fireball, that should start helping; also, you'll be able to summon bigger and better things and have them last longer, which will help too. In the meantime there's not a lot you can do, unless you can convince your fighter to ditch the shield and start two-handing. (Maybe your GM will let him retrain his feats?) Between two wizards and a healbot cleric, he should not lack for his choice of buffs.

Flaming sphere is a pretty good low-level blast spell for you wiz kids, too. Get a few of them rolling around the battlefield and you can just stand back and conduct them like some kind of fiery orchestra. (Combo with Pyrotechnics for extra fun!)

Oh, and if you want to do something similar to wizard but better at damage, go with an Alchemist. With a high Str, two-handed weapon, and Power Attack, alongside your mutagen and other extracts, you'll deal PLENTY of damage; plus you'll have bombs for backup/ranged attacks. The blaster should take care of long-distance damage.

I've tried to get the players to change around a bit (especially the fighter), but everyone is pretty resolute about staying how they are. We throw buffs at the samurai and fighter all the time, but we still take ages to kill an encounter. The blaster mostly took crappy ray spells (I think he missed the point of being a blaster), and I grabbed a lot of control spells, so neither one of us can dish out the damage.

I am interested in an alchemist, I've never played one before. It's just that I have a sinking suspicion that it won't be that fun for me. It seems like it's just going to be another fighter who quaffs potions every now and then, but I'm not sure. On top of that, we could really use some ranged physical damage, and we already have a lot of people at the front line (cleric likes to get in the thick of things)

It is nota gunslinger but it is the highest, if not one of the highest, DPR characters ive made and played.

I like how it looks, however I just started up a new fighter-archer in a different campaign, so I feel like it would be very boring playing such similar characters in different campaigns. Obviously they could have vastly different backstory, but the mechanics would still feel similar.

What level is the party and could you give us the whole party composition, along with specialization?

Sure thing, probably should have done this in the OP. The party is level 3 right now, it's a relatively new campaign.

We have a fighter that uses sword and board, pretty poorly optimized. He basically went for straight defense, so he'll never die but he doesn't help much damage wise.

We have a samurai that is with the order of the cockatrice, uses two-handed weapons and his horse to dish out good damage.

We have a rogue, also pretty poorly optimized. He tried to be too MAD, and ended up not being good at much at all. He's still alright at finding traps and being decently sneaky.

We have a cleric who is basically trying to be a healbot. He went with the healing domain and picked all the healing spells he could.

We then have our two wizards. I'm a Conjurer, and the other wizard is a blaster. These could both be alright, but I don't feel like it's going to pick up at all for a while. Also, the way the GM is making the campaign the world just isn't very friendly for magic users.

So, I was thinking about making a new character for a campaign that I'm in. We currently have plenty of utility to get by, but a lot of it is wasted because multiple PCs do the same things (2 wizards and a cleric isn't going great so far, and I'm one of the wizards.) While our utility is nice, we lack a lot of damage. It's a campaign with 6 characters, but so far only one of those does a good deal of damage so everything is going pretty slow. While I love my wizard, I was thinking about dropping him for a gunslinger. I've never had a gunslinger in any of my campaigns or any campaign I've played in, but they look interesting. I've also heard that they're really good at dealing damage but that's about it.

One thing that worries me is that I've heard that they're lackluster early on and later on, and only really shine in the mid-game. We level up pretty slowly, so if it takes me a long time to reach my prime we might not even be playing any more. Is there a way around this, or would it be better to pick a different class?

Thanks for reading, I appreciate any help.

Darkvision is priceless for a scout.

If you really need more feats, I'd add ranger two into the mix, or zen archer monk.

I actually plan on dipping one or two into fighter, as Scavion suggested. I'm considering dipping ZAM, but I'm leaning towards fighter.

If your sold on the animal companion take a look at Boon Companion to have it be treated as your class level = effective druid level.

I'm not so much sold, but considering it. I'll be taking boon companion if I get it, but I'm still strongly thinking about which domain I should follow.

Feather Domain for the boost in perception and a animal companion

Oh yeah, that's actually a really nice domain. Boost to perception will help out with the scouting, and the animal companion would be great since we don't have anyone else with a pet right now.

Also by grabbing the rage subdomain, you can get a Furious Courageous +2 melee weapon for when you need to get up close and personal. Your strength and con bonuses get increased by another +2 and its just a really nasty combo in general.

Yeah, that would definitely be good for laying down some major hurt. And having a viable melee option would be very useful. I just might go with the rage subdomain. I gotta think you again, you've been a major help.

Inquisitions in general are suboptimal, but if you really like it feel free, don't let me stop you.

Take a look at the Rage Subdomain. If you pick up an Adaptive Bow (+1000gp enhancement) you can rage and add the damage to your shots. You also get ragepowers which rock.

As I look at it, Tactics is a very nice choice.

I would also recommend the Liberation domain. Freedom of Movement is very powerful.

I recommend taking a look at this guide here. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gFK_A8YV84hMUMXjxvCLFTnGO2GF7CMQiGIYyAQ 2kns/edit#

I built a melee oriented Inquisitor taking heed of it's words and he was quite the devastating combatant.

I've actually read that guide, it was pretty helpful. I like to get second opinions on everything, though.

Travel rocks, perhaps Trickery for flavor reasons. For damage the destruction domain is solid.

Travel domain is always solid, and like you said, trickery would be nice for flavor. Not too fond of the destruction domain. Do you know anything about the tactics inquisition? For me I think it's between the travel domain or tactics inquisition.

No problem. You'll get some things later but your BAB will be 1 higher and you'll qualify for those clutch feats sooner. Most games tend to not go to 20 so losing your capstone shouldn't be a big deal.

It shouldn't be too relevant depending on what spells you use but the Magical Knack trait will make up for the caster level loss and if you want to grab a 2nd level of fighter for another feat the option is open.

Yeah, I will most likely pick up the magical knack trait. Getting another level in fighter might be a good option, I'll see how it turns out when I get around that level.

Another quick question, what would you guys recommend for a domain/inquisition for this character?

Consider grabbing a level of fighter and grabbing one of these.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/baldr ic-bane

Get the level of fighter as your 7th level and you can grab Manyshot and Clustered Shots at once.

Wow, that actually looks like an amazing way to go. This might be exactly what I was looking for. Pretty simple, but I completely overlooked it. Thanks a lot man.

If you don't significantly dump charisma you can dump intelligence easier than a hobgoblin, I just don't care for dumping intelligence myself.

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm tempted to go human, it's just that darkvision could come in really handy for an archer and the +4 racial to stealth will serve us well since I'm the only one with any kind of scouting ability in our group.

Its up to you mate. Don't be afraid to get into melee. If you have a flanking buddy even more so.

1st: Point Blank Shot
3rd: Rapid Shot
5th: Precise Shot
7th: Deadly Aim
9th: Manyshot
11: Clustered Shots

Those are the niche feats. You won't be able to take manyshot or clustered shots till 9th anyway. The only thing human will really do for you is letcha work in Reckless Aim before 11th and getcha another skill point.

Thanks for the reply. This was my line of thinking, I'll start off slow but have higher abilities. I think I can easily manage without the extra human skill point.

Like you said, feats are at a premium. I'd definitely go human for this build.

Str 14, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Chr 7 after racial adjustments.

point blank shot, precise shot, at first level. And from there just persue the generic feat trees, rapidshot, multi-shot, deadly aim, etc. Archery is pretty much an optimal solution for virtually anyone who wishes to do combat (magus and non-luring cavaliers excepted).

This isn't bad, this would probably be the best ability spread for the human. Thing is, I don't really want to dump my cha.

If you are willing to multiclassing, a level or two of Zen Archer might have some good synergy.

I'm not opposed to multiclassing, but I played a monk for a few sessions and hated it. Would the idea be to take the levels to skip taking rapid shot/manyshot?

So I made a thread a day or two back asking for advice on making a scout character, and the idea of an inquisitor was raised. So I was looking into it, and the ranged scout inquisitor seemed like something that could really work. He can cast invisibility, bane ability looks great, has stealth/perception for class skills, and uses dex/wisdom which is great for the aforementioned skills. I also plan on going with the heretic archetype, which will boost my stealth even more. So this is all well and good, but the problem I have with it is the number of feats. In my experience with archers (which is relatively low), they always seem to hurt for feats at low level. I would go human, but hobgoblin seems like a much better choice (darkvision, +2dex and con, +4 race bonus to stealth). My abilities currently look like STR: 14 DEX: 18 CON: 10 INT: 8 WIS: 14 CHA: 9, with the bonuses applied using the 15 point buy. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on if this is a viable option, or if I should cut all the other nice bonuses and go human.

without any ideas on what books and such are allowed

Like I said, pretty much anything goes. I'm really looking at some of the less-common options right now, but I can't decide what I should go with

If you are limited to being a rogue (or multiclassing with some rogue levels) I'd suggest focusing on range. If that's not your style, then make a burly rogue and flank with the fighter a lot. Either of these options would be useful in combat, and rogues always have plenty of use out of combat. There is always ninja as well, if thematic concerns aren't an issue.

If you can stray from rogue, another type of utility/skillperson could be useful, it just means you are limited to disarming mundane traps. Things like ranger, bard, inquisitor. All of which can be both melee/ranged or even switchhitters, and all get 6+int skill ranks per level.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. I was actually looking at ninja, but I'm still not sure. My GM isn't requiring me to play anything in particular, but he strongly suggested that I played a stealthy character. Traps aren't as big of a deal, but they will have a presence in the campaign. Ranger seems like an alright option, but would a ranged ninja (better sneak)be a better option? I don't even know how great ninjas are to be honest, and I'm looking for something that's pretty well optimized so our group isn't terrible.

I'm going to be joining a fresh homebrewn campaign soon, and we're all starting at level 1. So far we've got a fighter, cleric, and sorcerer. As far as I know, the cleric is looking to be a healbot, the fighter is going to be using a 2h weapon, and the sorcerer is going to be blasting. I waited to be the last one to make his character, but my gm really wants me to play a rogue. It makes sense as we don't have any stealth or trapfinding (and my gm confirmed that stealth will be very useful), but I never really enjoyed the rogue. If it helps, I like doing good damage but being useful out of combat, like a player should. So I'm trying to see if anyone has any suggestions about what I should play, and really anything goes. I could probably even get my gm to let me play a 3rd party/custom made class. Any suggestions would be appreciated.