Build Advice: Roc mounted archer.

[Liongold]

I dreamt of a large bird riding archer. How would you build one??

Q1. Druid or Ranger? Ranger gets the free feats and longbow training, but the Druid will get the large Roc 3 levs faster. leaning on druid, mostly flavor wise. i like wild shape.

Q2. Elf or other? elf free bow and dex boost. ???

Q3. Archetypes‎?

20pt build.
could a buy an Roc egg and just rase it my self? does it have to be a "compainion"?

all sources allowed, lots of houserules excepted.

Go!!!

[James Fenix]

Inquisitor with the feather subdomain and take Boon Companion from Seeker of Secrets.

Trade in solo tactics with the preacher archetype since not many teamwork feats are ranged friendly.

[Liongold]

james: are you saying 4 levels diping into Inquisitor?

[Max Sharpe]

You have to wait for 4th, but Take a Ranger with a Boon Companion Feat. The Ranger gives you Aspect of the Falcon and Gravity Bow as spells, which will really ramp up your Archery Ability.

[James Fenix]

Liongold wrote:

james: are you saying 4 levels diping into Inquisitor?

No, I'm saying inquisitor all the way.

With the feathered subdomain and base class abilities you get 1/2 your level to intimidate, sense motive, survival to track, and perception.

Animal Companion at level 4 with Boon Companion at 5 to bring you up to full druid power. (Same advice if you play a ranger. Boon Companion makes a huge difference)

Judgements and Bane give great to hit and damage bonuses. This helps offset inquisitors being a medium BAB class. I've never had any problems hitting when I've played an inquisitor.

Spells,
Heals:Check
Dispel Magic:Check
Divine Might:Check
Invisibility:Check
Tactical Acumen:Check (I've seen GM's rule that flying doesn't count as higher ground since, you know, you're not on the ground so ymmv)

I will say the loss of Aspect of the Falcon hurts until you can get improved crit at 11.

Now the biggest problem I've had as an inquisitor is preparation time. They have a ton of buffs they can stack and I've been in many fights where I simply couldn't get to my full potential without spending the entire melee sitting in a corner buffing. A Metamagic Quicken rod can help offset this as can a good stealth check to ambush instead of being ambushed.

Of course you should play what you'll enjoy. I was mostly throwing Inquisitor out there to open up avenues you may not have realized.

[Liongold]

James: am i missing something? how does a Inquisitor get an animal companion? i must have missed something.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Inquisitors get access to the granted abilities of any one domain; if you choose the Animal domain, it comes with an animal companion at 4th level. (They don't get the bonus domain spells, just the powers.)

You can also choose a subdomain, and like James I recommend the Feathered subdomain, as the bonuses are really great.

Fighting ranged is a bit tricky as you miss out on some of the better melee teamwork feats, but there are still some good ones if your GM considers your mount to be "adjacent" while you're riding.

[Liongold]

o i c