Pathfinder Player Companion: Ranged Tactics Toolbox (PFRPG)

Could be interesting, I will pick this up at some point.

Listed as "PDF available today" but no link. ANyone else able to order it as PDF?

It says "Available Tomorrow" on my screen. Maybe it's a time zone issue and it will be available later today for you.

It should be available at 12 AM on the Pacific coast. That's how it has always been, the available today tag means, it's the day of release for you but is not yet the release date at the Paizo office.

The gunslinger review for this product makes me laugh. You would think they would be happy with the touch AC w/in 30 feet. Sheesh. The gunslinger is already very adept at ranged tactics. It's the whole theme of the class, is it not?

I am really excited about this book and will get it as soon as I can. Love that Tuned Bowstring, the stonebow, the rogue talents...have to own this book!

Just a quick point to the Paizo art department; as well as suddenly becoming left-handed (flipped art I guess) your Hunter on page 11 has got her arrow on the wrong side of her bow, it's supposed to be above her knuckles rather than her fingers.

The Hunter is ambidexterous actually, as are all the iconics. Which is statistically unlikely, but apparently its a lot more common on Golarion.

In the change from 3.0 to 3.5 all humanoids became ambidextrous.

Apologies for being "that guy," but I think the last thing Pathfinder needs is even more powerful archers.

This is probably the first Pathfinder product that I'm 'meh' about.

I still own it as part of my subscription, but don't think I'll personally use it.

Production quality is up to the usual high standards I've come to expect from Paizo. I enjoyed the art.

Apologies for being "that guy," but I think the last thing Pathfinder needs is even more powerful archers.

I partially agree. I don't think longbow archers need more power. Giving more options to crossbowmen, slinger users, and mounted archers is good though. I hope those are what the book is mostly about.

There's a fair mix, but remember that this is Ranged Tactics Toolbox, not Non-Bow Ranged Tactics Toolbox. Bows are the most popular ranged combat style out there, so it'd be really odd if this didn't have a fair amount of bow stuff.

I was pleasantly surprised with some of these though. There's a magic bolt that makes me think taking Craft Arms and Armor may not be the worst idea for a crossbowman :)

Bows are the most popular ranged combat style out there...

IMO that's at least partially because it was already -- and by far -- the most effective ranged combat style out there. YMMV.

For an upcoming home campaign our group is going to make the long bow exotic. Not only will that help make the crossbow and short bow more appealing, we think it better reflects reality.

Any new arcanist exploits??

Hand crossbow (light)
+19/+19/+14/+9/+4
17-20/x3
TYPE RANGE AMMUNITION DAMAGE
P 30' 1d4+20

Hand crossbow (light, offhand)
+19/+19/+14/+9
17-20/x3
TYPE RANGE AMMUNITION DAMAGE
P 30' 1d4+20

combined with Splitting bolt, damage is tripled.....

how nasty is that?

Ok, I'm game; how are you reloading?

So this is a fun book, I kind of had hoped for Hunter support given their release, and I guess there are new team work feats, so there is that. The one thing that caught my eye–and I'm not a number crucncher but this made me reach for my calculator– is the named magic bow Arrow Splitter. Checking in at 180k it isn't something your going to see pretty much ever, but should you have it in hand, for some super high level play, it is going to seriously increase your dmanage output.

The gist is that arrow splitters arrows, when striking the same target, always split the last arrow in (in the same round). Each arrow after the first does an additional 1d6 damage for each arrow preceding it. So the first arrow does 1d8, then 1d8 + 1d6, 1d8+2d6, etc. While the bow is not a composite bow, a level 20 fighter doing a hasted full attack, with multi shot and rapid shot would do 8d8+28d6 + 8*various modifiers. With just deadly aim and the +5ness of the bow I got something like a potential 270 average damage (assuming all arrows hit.)

I'd love to see someone actually do the numbers with likely to hit %s, standard buffs, crits, other feats and all that worked in.

Obviously Clustered shot is a required feat for this bow, although it flavour wise is a cluster shot.

Cheapy wrote:

Bows are the most popular ranged combat style out there...

IMO that's at least partially because it was already -- and by far -- the most effective ranged combat style out there. YMMV.

For an upcoming home campaign our group is going to make the long bow exotic. Not only will that help make the crossbow and short bow more appealing, we think it better reflects reality.

Really? Bows pre-date crossbows and exceedingly simple to manufacture. Mastery is another issue, but that is representative of BAB and Dex Modifier as a metaphor for trained and inherent skill. Mechanically short bow is just 1ish average damage less then longbow, that isn't likely enough to make the crossbow more appealing, and only makes mounted archery more viable.

bugleyman wrote:

Cheapy wrote:

Bows are the most popular ranged combat style out there...

IMO that's at least partially because it was already -- and by far -- the most effective ranged combat style out there. YMMV.

For an upcoming home campaign our group is going to make the long bow exotic. Not only will that help make the crossbow and short bow more appealing, we think it better reflects reality.

Really? Bows pre-date crossbows and exceedingly simple to manufacture. Mastery is another issue, but that is representative of BAB and Dex Modifier as a metaphor for trained and inherent skill. Mechanically short bow is just 1ish average damage less then longbow, that isn't likely enough to make the crossbow more appealing, and only makes mounted archery more viable.

Actually bugleyman is still on point. Though normal bows might seem easy to make (they aren't) the amount of training along with access to them made them pretty inaccessible to most people in a European setting. Most longbows are difficult to use and master and take a lot of extensive training to manage to use well. Realize this is why everyone wasn't using them on the field rather than say full armor, cavalry, or pikes until much later in modern history.

How do crossbows take any less expense in manufacturing and care? I will grant perhaps less training. Mass combat is also not a great comparison, as Pathfinder and its predecessor are crude simulations of skirmishing not wars. A lord or huntsman could be proficient in a bow and use it for hunting, bows have been for hunting and warfare since the Middle Paleolithic.

The decline of the archer in Europe may be attributable to other factors, like their lack of efficacy on armoured opponents, as they remained in wide scale use until over taken by gun powder weapons. Early gun powder weapons being much more susceptible to environmental conditions.

Crossbow master reduces the time to load any arrow to a free action.

at 11th level a gunslinger (Bolt ace) gains "Inexplicable reload", which turns a free action into "not an action"

so there's really no need reload time requirement.

All that doesn't serve to deny that crossbows need more love via feats (a feat that allows Dex bonus to damage ONLY for crossbow users would be sweet, for example)

OK, I know have it and I like it quite a bit. There are a couple of weapons I was really happy to see included as among other things I have been wanting stats on the one ninja weapons for quite some time now. The other was in a Dragon article awhile back and now has been updated to Pathfinder which I greatly appreciate. All in all I am VERY glad to have this in my library.

How do crossbows take any less expense in manufacturing and care? I will grant perhaps less training. Mass combat is also not a great comparison, as Pathfinder and its predecessor are crude simulations of skirmishing not wars. A lord or huntsman could be proficient in a bow and use it for hunting, bows have been for hunting and warfare since the Middle Paleolithic.

The decline of the archer in Europe may be attributable to other factors, like their lack of efficacy on armoured opponents, as they remained in wide scale use until over taken by gun powder weapons. Early gun powder weapons being much more susceptible to environmental conditions.

Actually building a long bow isn't that hard but the historical ones had a draw weight of 80 - 110 pounds, and the training to be able to use one was so intense that when they find the graves of longbow men the skeletons are deforned from the force of having to continuously pull the bow back. There is a famous quote by Edward the III "to train a longbowman start with his grandfather". The longbow was a more efficient weapon than the musket in terms of range and armor piercing it was just so hard to use that muskets took over. So going off of history it makes a lot of sense as an exotic weapon.

On the other hand if go by fiction, everyone who has ever set foot in a forest uses a longbow. I would say pathfinder is much more modeled after fiction than reality so it makes sense that longbows aren't exotic.

Galnörag wrote:

How do crossbows take any less expense in manufacturing and care? I will grant perhaps less training. Mass combat is also not a great comparison, as Pathfinder and its predecessor are crude simulations of skirmishing not wars. A lord or huntsman could be proficient in a bow and use it for hunting, bows have been for hunting and warfare since the Middle Paleolithic.

The decline of the archer in Europe may be attributable to other factors, like their lack of efficacy on armoured opponents, as they remained in wide scale use until over taken by gun powder weapons. Early gun powder weapons being much more susceptible to environmental conditions.

Actually building a long bow isn't that hard but the historical ones had a draw weight of 80 - 110 pounds, and the training to be able to use one was so intense that when they find the graves of longbow men the skeletons are deforned from the force of having to continuously pull the bow back. There is a famous quote by Edward the III "to train a longbowman start with his grandfather". The longbow was a more efficient weapon than the musket in terms of range and armor piercing it was just so hard to use that muskets took over. So going off of history it makes a lot of sense as an exotic weapon.

On the other hand if go by fiction, everyone who has ever set foot in a forest uses a longbow. I would say pathfinder is much more modeled after fiction than reality so it makes sense that longbows aren't exotic.

Exactly this and it is here where the main problem a lot of people have about building nonbow characters begins and continues. It is when my fantasy of being a kick ass crossbowmen is apparently punished because it doesn't align with pathfinder's fantasy expectations. It has been rather annoying for a very long time to have a large swath of options to choose from ranged wise but then find out that many of them are actually more a punishment for not choosing the bow.

A lot of my builds favored thrown weapons as the ranged attack. Partially due to the fact that Craft: Weapons takes care of making them and also because my favored build nowadays is the brawling bruiser who chucks things when he can't run up and pummel an enemy into oblivion.

Crossbow master reduces the time to load any arrow to a free action.

at 11th level a gunslinger (Bolt ace) gains "Inexplicable reload", which turns a free action into "not an action"

so there's really no need reload time requirement.

How many hands does your dual-wielding crossbowman with no reload requirement have?

just 2, since reloading is "Not an action" he doesn't need a hand to reload...

just 2, since reloading is "Not an action" he doesn't need a hand to reload...

So the crossbow bolt just magically appears in the crossbow. Got it.

RAW does not overrule common sense and logic.

Well, to be honest, neither does strict adherence to lack of imagination. Is there any logical reason that a person that's a master of the hand crossbow couldn't shove one into the other arm armpit, reload the other, then swap? Or use a few fingers of the one hand to pull back/wench the string, drop a bolt in, and then repeat?

A spell caster can swap a weapon to the <light> shield hand, cast a spell, crab some components, and then grab their weapon.

just 2, since reloading is "Not an action" he doesn't need a hand to reload...

"Normally, operating a light crossbow requires two hands. However, you can shoot, but not load, a light crossbow with one hand at a –2 penalty on attack rolls."

"Note: You can draw a hand crossbow back by hand. You can shoot, but not load, a hand crossbow with one hand at no penalty. "

Maybe the bolt ace is so skilled he can load a hand crossbow with a hand that's still holding a hand crossbow.

Can a druid use a stone bow?

Can a druid use a stone bow?

It is a simple weapon. However, druid's do not have simple weapon proficiency.

roll4initiative wrote:

Can a druid use a stone bow?

It is a simple weapon. However, druid's do not have simple weapon proficiency.

They have no proficiency with any bows either, so unless the GM says yes, I see 'no' being the answer.

Ah, ok thanks. I forgot theu don't have simple weapon proficiency and can only choose from a list of weapons. I was going to make a druid for PFS and figured the stone bow was a good fit for a druid.

I couldn't find it on the searches I tried, but a player recently asked me if the Primal Hunter still got the bonuses to Strength and Constitution when in a Focused Rage. The way it reads to me and the way I ruled it was that yes they do, the bonus on ranged attack rolls only replaced the bonus to Will saves that a normal rage gave. I was wondering if that was the intent.

I couldn't find it on the searches I tried, but a player recently asked me if the Primal Hunter still got the bonuses to Strength and Constitution when in a Focused Rage. The way it reads to me and the way I ruled it was that yes they do, the bonus on ranged attack rolls only replaced the bonus to Will saves that a normal rage gave. I was wondering if that was the intent.

Yes.