So I was looking at the Half Orc Skulking Slayer and immediately thought of the Scout archtype. I've got a buddy that wanted to play a rangery type character in an upcoming campaign. His concept was a total paranoid survivalist that thinks the end of the world is right around the corner and so he's been stashing bunkers around the region, filled with whatever his paranoia thinks is going to be valuable at the end of the world.
Neither of us were really impressed with Ranger or any archtype for ranger, but we did think this could work. So I'm just curious- how would you guys fill this out.
I think 1 level of Fighter is pretty much a must have to bring the abilities on line as fast as possible since Power Attack requires a +1, Cleave needs Power Attack and Surprise Follow Through works off of those two.
Thinking:
1. F1: Power Attack, Cleave
2. R1: Sneak and some other stuff.
3. R2: Surprise Follow Through
4. R3: Sneak 2D6, Bold Strike- D8sneaks w/ Charging with 2H Weapon
5. R4: Charging Sneaks
This seems like the pretty basic building blocks, but I'm curious where we could take it next. Thoghts? What kind of weapon? We were thinking some kind of Spear maybe, with reach, maybe a falchion or greatsword.
Dirty trick seems like it would work well in this build.
I am building a similar character, at level 11 it looks like this
1Unarmed Fighter 1 Power Attack, Improved Unarmed, Dragon Style
2True Primitive Barb 1
3Rogue 0 Cleave
4Rogue 1 Trick: Surprise Follow Through
5Rogue 2 Bludgeonor
6Rogue 3 Combat Trick: Sap Adept
7Rogue 3 Trap Wrecker
8Rogue 4 Trick: Fast Stealth
9Rogue 5 Great Cleave
10Rogue 6 Trick: Ninja Trick, Wall Climber
11Rogue 6 Sap Master
The true primitive is flavour though and could be replaced with another level of rogue, DM is hand waving the pure orc pre-req for trap wrecker, or else I would take Toughness. Unarmed fighter for Dragon style seems like the kicker for this build, as its bonus's for charging really help out. Designing the character as a reformed leg breaker/kidnapper, hence all the non lethal feats, easily does 85 damage non lethal on a charge. All this is based on whether you think the Scout archetype lets sap master activate, we (my group) do. I'm using a greatclub for kicks, an earthbreaker is probably much better though. Level 10 in rogue take improved surprise follow through
I have been taking a look at the skulking slayer also. I am building a 2hd brute rogue who focuses more on one big hit than a full-attack setup. This is because we have an evil GM who will not play the lets stand next to each other and full-attack until one of us goes down game. At first I thought it was an interesting archetype and might work well with the scout. However, after really taking a look at the archetype I noticed that you don't actually get anything great for loosing trapfinding / trapsense, especially if you are combining it with the scout. Here's why
1) Skulking slayer lets you take surprise follow-through and improved version as "bonus feats." However, these are not a bonus as you use your rogue talent for that level to gain them. Also, you could gain them as a normal half-orc rogue by just taking combat trick. So this is not really a class feature at all, just telling you something you can already due with any rogue archetype.
2) Unexpected charge - feint as swift action before charge. Not bad as this leads to being able to sneak attack on a charge....oh wait we combined this with scout and by now I have been sneak attacking on a charge for 5 levels. Sigh...so all this really does is allow me to drop their AC a few points.
So now I am wondering if it would just be better to take scout and grab surprise-follow through for my 2nd level talent and improved surprise follow-through as my lvl 11 feat.
1Unarmed Fighter 1 Power Attack, Improved Unarmed, Dragon Style
Dragon Style has a prerequisite of 3 ranks in Acrobatics, thus rendering this feat not available until a minimum level of 3rd.
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1Unarmed Fighter 1 Power Attack, Improved Unarmed, Dragon StyleDragon Style has a prerequisite of 3 ranks in Acrobatics, thus rendering this feat not available until a minimum level of 3rd.
Unarmed Style: At 1st level, a unarmed fighter gains the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and any single style feat (see Chapter 3) as a bonus feat. The unarmed fighter need not meet all the prerequisites of the style feat he chooses, but style feats that grant additional uses of the Elemental Fist feat cannot be taken until the unarmed fighter has that feat. This ability replaces the bonus feat at 1st level.
He's fine.
I had posted THIS on another thread. It is a similar build to what you are talking about except I would drop Scout and go with Bandit. Scout gives you a kind of redundant set of abilities. Bandit goes well with Skulking Slayer and gives you additional abilities rather than redundant ones.
I have made a version of a skulking slayer for pfs going with intimidate, first level being a fighter and the rest skulking slayer:
starting stats 19str 14dex 14con 7int 10wis 11cha
traits tusked(orc race talent(not racial trait) for bite attack), reactionary(+2 initiative)
1 power attack, furious focus(bonus fighter feat)
3 Improved initiative, rogue talent - weapon training - greatsword
5 dazzling display, rogue talent - strong impression
7 cornugon smash, rogue talent - fast stealth
9 gory finish, rogue talent - combat trick - shatter defenses
11 vital strike, rogue talent - crippling strike
i had not thought about adding another archetype, i should look into that, bandit does look nice.
I helped a new player in our group build something very similar using the Skirmisher Ranger (he requested "no magic") and Scout/Skulking Slayer.
Lv. 1 (Ranger 1): Power Attack, Favored Enemy
Lv. 2 (Ranger 2): Cleave (Two-Handed Style)
Lv. 3 (Rogue 1): Weapon Focus: Greatsword
Lv. 4 (Rogue 2): Surprise Follow-Through
Lv. 5 (Rogue 3): Bold Strike, Dazzling Display
Lv. 6 (Rogue 4): Scout's Charge, Strong Impression
Lv. 7 (Ranger 3): Endurance, Cornugon Smash
Lv. 8 (Ranger 4): Hunter's Bond (Wolf)
Lv. 9 (Ranger 5): Surprise Shift, Shatter Defenses
Lv. 10 (Ranger 6): Great Cleave
We're not quite sixth level yet but that character already is a beast. Makes me feel silly for all the dex-based TWF-ing rogues I've built over the years.
He'll probably go ranger from here on out and that's probably for the best. As Shadowlord pointed out, Skulking Slayer starts picking up features that redundant given the Scout's. But Bold Strike has nice synergy with the Scout's Charge Ability.