Goblin mounted archer

[Arcus]

Ok, I had this idea for a character build. Let me know if you think it works/could be improved.

The idea is to have a character firing from the back of a mount that can climb and move fast. Since most things players fight don't climb or fly you will be pretty safe most of the time (at low-mid levels anyway).

I chose to go with a small character as it is easier to find a medium mount to ride then a large one, especially if it should also climb.

Goblins are great for this build because they are small, have +4 dex, +4 ride, and +4 stealth (in addition to +4 stealth from size). The problem, and it isn't a small one, is the -2 strength.

I think Ranger is the best class for this build.

The build below assumes a somewhat flexible DM. I will have to ask if they can allow a variant of the small cat animal companion, where instead of getting the sprint ability it gets a climb speed of 20 at 4th level. This seems reasonable as it basically assumes the small cat is similar to the leopard in the bestiery instead of the cheetah.

The progression of abilities until 7th is below. * for bonus class feats.

Goblin with 22 dex.
Ranger 1 - Mounted Combat
Ranger 2 - *Rapid Shot
Ranger 3 - Mounted Archery
Ranger 4 - **Get a leopard**
Ranger 5 - Boon Companion
Ranger 6 - *Manyshot
Ranger 7 - Deadly Aim

This is the core of the build, the rest is whatever. It hurts having to wait till 7th to get deadly aim. You could get it at first but then you push back all of your mount feats.

One nice thing is +18 stealth check at first level (+6 dex, +1 rank, +3 trained, +4 size, +4 racial). So you can pretty much hide from anything all the time, you can even snipe at only -2 to your roll(normal sniping penalty is -20). If you shoot from 100 feet away they have a -10 to their perception check meaning they will generally never find you, and it only gets better with level.

Also if you hide somewhere you could send your cat out to trip opponents for you or your friends.

So what else could I add to this?

[Eric Tillemans]

Forget mounted combat and mounted archery. Even without those feats you can have your mount take a single move and you can still do a full attack with a bow with no penalties. Just make sure your ride skill is maxed out.

[northbrb]

since most of what you are getting from ranger is just the feats i might suggest you go with the cavalier, you would get the mount right off the bat.

[thegreenteagamer]

Eric Tillemans wrote:

Forget mounted combat and mounted archery. Even without those feats you can have your mount take a single move and you can still do a full attack with a bow with no penalties. Just make sure your ride skill is maxed out.

Forget Mounted Combat? NO WAY! A single ride check to negate any hit on your mount is AWESOME, especially when you can use him as cover. I had a ranger with a horse mount in Savage Tide that dropped Skill Focus: Ride into the mix, and I was unkillable without spells.

[Arcus]

Not getting the mounted feats, at least till later, sounds great. Lets me focus on archery more.

I looked at the Cavalier class. While it would be nice to get a mount right off the bat, I don't like the other class abilities. It doesn't make much sense to be shouting challenges when I am trying to snipe from a tree. Also Stealth would be cross-class, though I guess if I had to I could dip ranger or rogue or something.

As for other feats, precise shot and improved precise shot seem like the logical next steps. I don't know if there are any other feats that would benefit this character very much...