To a certain extent, you've got two characters here. One is the rogue with all the skill points, and the other is the archer with the good dex and strength.
I'll assume you can build a rogue with skill points. You need stealth and perception, the rest is up to you. Note: a 10 INT will do it.
To build an archer, it's mostly about feats, and a little about equipment. I'd start with Point-blank shot, precise shot, and rapid shot. After that, Imp. Init, Deadly Aim, and Quick Draw are good.
If you're playing from level 1 onwards, it's not a bad idea to take 2 levels of fighter or ranger. You have a feat-heavy build, and my personal opinion is that darkvision is worth having, so you only start with 1 feat at first level.
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So, the USUAL plan is to fill people with arrows. If you can score a sneak attack, that's the bonus. Do NOT spend five rounds maneuvering for a great sneak attack. In that time, you could have fired ten normal arrows, for far greater effect.
Going first is good. Attacking from stealth is good. Darkvision is excellent. Invisibility is good, and smokesticks are helpful.
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And yes, Sniper Goggles one day, but you should be an effective archer long before.
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Don't forget, you have crazy good aim. Load up on holy water, alchemists' fire, and tanglefoot bags when you can. Get a crossbow for firing from prone, or when your strength gets drained.
The biggest difficulty with a ranged rogue is setting up sneak attacks without the option of flanking. The best way I've found is to coordinate with a party fighter and have him pick up Dazzling Display or Cornugon Smash, to spread around Intimidate. Then take the Dazzling Display chain to Shatter Defenses, meaning that any debuffed enemies you hit will be flat footed, thus ensuring sneak attacks from ranged.
Thanks rk and sunset,both of your posts are great advice.
I have figured out how to get sneak attacks-the ninja has a vanishing trick,a swift action that allows him to turn invisible.SA,np!
That doesn't really work before level 10 though, so you're well advised to find tricks to carry you that far.
So, are you going ninja or rogue? For a rogue, I think the scout archetype might be interesting. Maybe combined with sniper. With the parting shot feat, you'd be incredible frustrating to fight. :)
One idea I'd been playing with is creating a hafling sniper. They can take an alternate racial trait from the APG (Swift as Shadows) which makes the actual sniping mechanic practical if they also heavily invest in stealth. Useful feats, other than the standard archery ones, might include Skill Focus Stealth and Go Unnoticed. Useful Rogue Talents might include Snap Shot and Stealthy Sniper once you can get it.
This results in a build that usually only gets one shot off but ALWAYS does sneak attack damage and is almost impossible for foes to target in combat.
To make them more than a one trick pony, it might be fun to make the character a combination sniper/scout so you have good melee options as well.
I'm actually playing a halfling rogue/alchemist (vivisectionist archetype) and tried making the character a crossbow sniper - unfortunately, the extra feats involved are a bother, and you really need to go all out with that build. I think I've spread myself a little bit too thin, though, and don't get a sneak attack off all that often. A more focused build may be somewhat effective, but I'd still say it might be worth it to devote a feat or two into weapon finesse and TWF.
And IN archery type build, you've got even more options.
Bow - for bow to be used to its maximum effect, you need Shatter Defense fighter and/or max'd UMD for Greater Invis wand (but you can't do that from the get go). Many attacks, but harder to pull it off until mid levels. You could have some Str but not needed.
Crossbow - feat intensive if you want to pull off many attacks per round. You need same things you need for a bow if you are going for more attacks per round(invisibility, Shatter Defense, etc.). Do note that in my gaming group you cannot stealth while reloading, dunno is that by rules or not but that means that you need Rapid Reload before you are able to stealth and shoot every round. Greatest choice if you want to pull off Sneak Attack with Stealth, limiting yourself to 1 attack per round - Vital Strike tree.
Thrown weapons - now this one stacks with melee pretty nicely and it got potential for most attacks per round. Quick Draw is a must, TWF is a must and only thing you will need that won't be able to be used in melee is Rapid Shot. Now drawback is that you do get most attacks per round, BUT at -4 (-2 TWF, -2 Rapid Shot). Other drawback is that usual thrown weapons got range of 10 feet, and some (like shurikens) are counted as ammunition.
To be able to make Sneak Attacks with ranged weapons at low levels in most situations is hard, so its best that you are well versed in melee as well, if you go with Thrown Weapons, that is a possibility.
Its not for Rogue to get, but for a Fighter - if he is willing. Whatever route Rogue goes, he will find himself lacking feats, so something like Shatter Defense is out of his reach anyway.
Its not for Rogue to get, but for a Fighter - if he is willing. Whatever route Rogue goes, he will find himself lacking feats, so something like Shatter Defense is out of his reach anyway.
Shatted Defense (from the PRD)
Benefit: Any shaken, frightened, or panicked opponent hit by you this round is flat-footed to your attacks until the end of your next turn. This includes any additional attacks you make this round.
I don't believe Shatter Defense makes the target flat-footed to the benefit of you allies only your personal attacks unless there's some errata or something around the flat footed condition I am missing. If I am mistaken, please let me know.
I've been hearing a lot of talk about the vivisectionist(not necesarily on these forums).What I was thinking of is taking a two level dip for poison use as well as retaining sneak attack.I'll look into it....I am determined to make a viable rogue/ninja sniper!
Sorry if I'm misinterpreting your statement here - it sounds like you're considering multiclassing rogue and ninja. Unfortunately, Ninja is an alternate class for Rogue, which means you can't multiclass them. You must pick either ninja or rogue, and can never gain levels in the other.
That said, you might be able to convince your DM to allow your ninja to make use of Rogue archetypes. I'm not sure if there is an official rule on that either way, but most of them seem like they'd still be compatible.
I have figured out how to get sneak attacks-the ninja has a vanishing trick,a swift action that allows him to turn invisible.SA,np!
Keep in mind that once you make your first attack, you're visible and now the rest of your attacks aren't SA.
So, not useless, but not that awesome either.
IMHO, for a ranged rogue to be very combat effective you pretty much need someone else in the party who will greater invis you or blind some of your enemies as a priority when combat starts. I'm not saying you can't play one if you can't line that up, but you'll be happier with it if you give up on the idea that you'll be more than subpar in combat ahead of time.
(And I'd argue that combat isn't really the rogue's strongest point, so that doesn't mean it's a bad character.)
But you can turn back invisible again,stealth,then attack.Right?
Once per round, sure. But if you're in a position to take three bow shots per round, you're only invisible for the first one and don't get to apply SA to #2 or #3.
That's why to really milk it you want a solution that means they can't see you for a whole full attack. For example, someone in your party casts Glitterdust on a small group of monsters and you light up the one that fails their Will save and is momentarily blind.
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If you are willing to consider the choice, my Zen Archer monk absolutely rocks.
No, he doesn't get the rogue's sneak attack, skills or trap-related abilities.
But a ZA can take Precise Shot (no penalty to shoot into melee) at first level. At third level, he can use WIS instead of DEX bonus to hit with a bow and he can shoot without provoking AoO. At 6th level, he can get Improved Precise Shot, allowing him to ignore anything less than total cover or total concealment. A rogue can't get that until level 15, with 19 DEX. At 10th level, the monk can take Pinpoint Targeting (ignore armor, shield, natural armor on a single ranged attack). The ZA also gets Perfect Strike (1 per day per level). And ZA gets to flurry with a bow. Oh, and don't forget the cool things you can do with ki.