Help making a ranged focused ninja

[Quatar]

Is that even a viable option?

There seem to be two possible ways to do this:
a) Flurry of Stars and shuriken
b) using a bow

a) gets you one attack more but at a -2 for all attacks. Also I figure shuriken as your main attack will get extremely expensive later on, when you need magic weapons.

b) gets you one attack less (assuming you spend the 1 ki on extra attack), but you can also take multishot and rapidshot etc. Also cheaper to enchant in the end.

The problem I see is that rogues and therefor ninjas too are not the perfect class for a ranged focused build. They rely alot on sneak attack, which can be a problem.

Granted the ninja has it a bit better from level 10 upwards with Invisible Blade, which gives him sneak attack against alot of enemies. (unless invisible countermeasures are a common thing then as well)

So I'm looking for advice on maybe my first few feats, or on tactics in general.
I'm not opposed to dip into another class for archery stuff (fighter, monk or ranger come to mind).

Or do you think this is a completely silly idea and I should go with one of those 3 classes instead if I want an archer, maybe dip into ninja for some fluff instead?

[bigb103]

Don't forget that shuriken are not ammo therefore they don't get destroyed when using them. Put returning on them, since they come in sets of 5, and you end up with 5 returning shuriken. It makes them more viable and to be honest the damage of the weapon doesn't matter after you get a few dice of sneak attack behind it.

[Christopher Van Horn]

Go with the strength damage and shurikens while invisible. Start with the frst invisibility trick and work with mobility and sneak attack in melee. I would suggest feats or rogue talents that allow sneak attack in the surprise round no matter what (I know there are a couple but can't look them up from here). Then progress to improved invisibility and crippling strike, early on get the pressure point stat damage ninja trick to add more oomph to the sneak attacks and in the end the flurry will do small amounts of damage but huge penalties to STR. HP damage doesn't kill nearly as fast as ability damage. and even if half of your attacks miss a 12 penalty or so to STR will still mot likely be better than any HP damage you would do.

[Evil Dave]

bigb103 wrote:

Don't forget that shuriken are not ammo therefore they don't get destroyed when using them. Put returning on them, since they come in sets of 5, and you end up with 5 returning shuriken. It makes them more viable and to be honest the damage of the weapon doesn't matter after you get a few dice of sneak attack behind it.

Actually, shuriken are treated as ammo for most purposes. (Core Rulebook p.141), unless there was an errata I am unaware of.

[Cheapy]

I think that the hp damage will kill before hand against melee types. At the point where you have killed a strength 24 creature, you will have done at on average 26 * 12 damage.

[DreamAtelier]

Ninjas are far superior to rogues when it comes to being a viable ranged combatant. The major reasons for this are their invisibility tricks, which allow them to be far more certain they'll get their sneak attack dice even at range.

Arranging sneak attack in melee is easy, because you just need a partner to flank with. Arranging it at range requires some sort of ability that causes enemies to lose their dexterity bonus to AC, and invisibility happily grants this.

The thing that I dislike seeing is the assumption that at high levels a ninja has to be using magical shuriken for any reason at all. Most creatures which have DR, even at high levels, can have it bypassed by the appropriate materials (for instance, even CR 19 Immolation Devils can have their DR bypassed by simple silver weapons). Magical shuriken shouldn't be a necessity for a ninja who simply makes sure he carries around an appropriate selection of shuriken to overcome DR's he is likely to see.

Additionally, with the Abundant Ammunition spell from ultimate combat, keeping that supply on hand is ridiculously easy at high levels.

As christopher pointed out, ninjas have a lot of secondary effects they can apply to their sneak attacks, and that's really where having a bunch of attacks begins to shine (and thus why the shuriken option is better than archery).

[Cheapy]

Is this for PFS?

[Nicos]

A couple of level of monk for the bonus feats, the saves, unarmed strike, evasion and most important flurry of blows with shurikens

[Babkas Hammerheart]

Shurikens can get a lot more than +2 Attacks. Nothing stops you from going TWF with Shuriken either. You can wind up with 7 attacks per turn, by level 10! Although the penalties to-hit might make it prohibitive. And Pressure Points is where it's at. Honestly, I proffer DEX damage to STR, most things have very little DEX from what I've seen, and less DEX = less AC = more hits.

Hrm... What are all the ways to deny someone their Dex to AC at a range? Even Feint doesn't work, sadly.

[Cheapy]

Wtf? This is from August.