Is this reasonable Ranger for PFS?

[Valanarr]

Almost brand new to PFS.
Friend helped me make this character.
Click on avatar picture for details.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for any help or advice you can give.

[RainyDayNinja]

It mostly looks good, but I see a few issues:

1. You shouldn't have spells until level 4.
2. Check the math on your skills. All your stat bonuses are wonky (you have yourself getting +2 from WIS, +4 from STR, +1 from DEX, etc.). Also, you have something labeled "spec" on a few of them, and I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. You should also have one more skill point, from your INT bonus.
3. I'd take another look at your planned feats. You say you're going to pick up Weapon Finesse, Power Attack, and Cleave (for Elven Curved Blade, I assume), but those feats might be better spent amping up your archery instead (Weapon Focus (Longbow), Deadly Aim)
4. You've invested in a rank in Intimidate, despite dumping CHA. I would recommend putting that somewhere else. You might even consider dumping CHA farther down to 7, and bringing INT up to 14 for more skill points, and better knowledge skills.

[Krodjin]

Ditto what Rainydayninja said. In the Guide to the Guides thread there is an excellent Archery guide for Rangers.

If you're wanting to both melee & ranged I'd go Switch hitter and follow Treantmonks guide.

Obviously you can take what you want and still do your own thing. Your definitely on the right track.

For flavour I would swap Reactionary for Warrior of Old. It does the samething but sounds way cooler IMHO!

[Bearded Ben]

1. Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate are all CHA-based skills, not WIS.
2. Knowledge (Religion) isn't a Ranger class-skill
3. I get that the spec+2 on perception is the bonus for being an elf, but where are the others coming from?
4. Your friend doesn’t happen to play a melee-focused half-orc Inquisitor with the Conversion Inquisition, does he?

[Valanarr]

DOH! Ok, I'm a dufus. Sorry about that.

In copying and pasting back and forth I ended up putting my skills and equipment on his sheet and his spells on my sheet.

I believe Valenear is fixed now.

Spells removed.

Going for archer, but can't count on not getting in melee. That was why I had weapon finesse and power attack for use with the elven curved blade.
Wouldn't mind losing cleave since I don't want to stay surrounded. maybe I'll switch that for deadly aim.

What book is warrior of old from? I don't have many of the PF books yet.

Yes, my friend is going to be a half-orc inquisitor. I don't remember what domain. I will give him a call so he can fix his sheet if he hasn't already noticed it.

[Truesight]

If you are looking at archery as your main role and you have full BAB, Deadly Aim is not optional, it's necessary.
If it were me I would get it at 5, moving your weapon finesse and power attack to 7,9 respectively. I would drop cleave it won't do you any good at level 9.

[Krodjin]

@Valenear: Warrior of Old is in Advance Players Guide. Truesight's advice is good - Deadly Aim will be a huge damage boost for you at all levels. The earlier you can take it the better. Same with Manyshot. Improved Precise Shot @ 6th makes the most sense as you get it 5 levels early, but you may want to squeeze in Manyshot as soon as you an take it normally.

Lastly, unless your sold on the Andoran Faction feat for RP reasons, Magicak Knack is probably one of the best traits (if not the best) for a Ranger that keeps spell casting. It adds a significant amount of time to your buff spells. Heck even the Round/Level spells will benefit with the +2 rounds duration.

Remember, plans can change. If there is always a Melee guy at your table it means you may be able to focus more on Archery - which would free up 2 feats for you (Power Attack & Weapon Finesse).

[Krodjin]

Oh wait. This is for Society play? Magical Knack may not be an option.. I'll double Che k and report back.

[Jiggy]

Magical Knack is banned in PFS, I'm afraid.

[Valanarr]

Friend said he heard I may have trouble completing my faction mission with my charisma that low and no social class skills. Not entirely sure how to re-arrange my stats to increase that without hurting the others too much. I suppose I could drop both int 4 to raise cha 4. But I didn't want to lose that many skill points and lower my know skills.

Since mostly an archer and still want to be decent in melee, spells will definitly be a 3rd tier ability for this character.

Yeah, decided I will ditch cleave for deadly aim.

I do have the APG so I can use warrior of old.

Not sure about order since I seem to already be waiting along time for the melee capability.

Do I really need both rapid shot and many shot?

Does undead, human, and abberation seem like good choices for favored enemies in PFS?
What are good choices for favored terrains?

[ossian666]

Depends on what Faction and stuff...there are a few people that can give you what skills to choose to help with what factions. For the first 2-3 levels though the faction missions aren't as skill dependent as later on...should be able to get most done with almost any character you make.

Rapid Shot and Many Shot both increase the number of arrows you put in the sky...aka its more damage homey.

For Favored Terrains I've spend a lot of time in the city, sewers and crypts...

[rangerjeff]

I'll refer you to the sticky class guides at the top of the advice forum, and you'll get great explanations as to the why of everything, plus some more great ideas.

And yes, without CHA, faction missions will be tougher. I discovered this with my first PFS character, also an archer ranger, while I was still level 1 and needed to make a DC20 Diplomacy or fail, while my Diplomacy was -2, so no chance for success.

Two things you can do. 1) hope somebody else in the party has the same mission and great Diplomacy, or else ask somebody without the same mission to do the job for you. 2) game the hell out of your Diplomacy. I rejiggered my 1st level build to include the trait Ease of Faith, making Diplomacy a class skill and giving me +1 in it. So now at 1st level, still with -2 from CHA, put a rank in Diplo, and it's now +3. Later added a cracked mulberry pentacle ioun stone for 500gp (I think) for a further +1 Diplo. Now at level 5, I have +8 Diplo. So I'm not useless. But I still rely on other party member when I can.

Bottom line, if you aren't opposed to dumping stats, your CHA should be 7.

Being a great archer is very feat intensive. You must be human, and you can't take any feats which aid melee. You will only melee in very rare situations (before you discover blunt arrows and are fighting skeletons, it might be advantageous to pull out your hammer and get into flanking position, but that's about it. Wait now, that I told you about blunt arrows, you'll never need to pick up a melee weapon. 5' step back, fire, repeat.) With Snap shot and point blank master by lvl 10, you will be a melee archer, won't threaten AoO's every time you try to shoot something with it standing next to you, and will threaten anything getting within 10' of you that does something that provokes.

Edit: also, human and undead generally in that order. I did it in reverse of that and have been fine with it.

And favored terrains? You're the glass cannon, your job is to mop up after the casters buff/debuff/control. You don't need the initiative bonus in any terrain. Perception is always nice, but until lvl 8 it's only +2 and only in one place. Stealth and survival haven't been particularly useful for me yet in PFS, and even without this bonus, mine are like +12 and +11 at lvl 5 already, so I don't feel like I need a bonus there, either. So I went infiltrator archetype and lost favored terrain. Only 10 min/lvl, so you have to activate it ahead of time, I took iron will adaptation, and it's instantly up as soon as we know we're facing something tricky. If your first favored enemy is human, you can take as your adaptation Skill Focus in anything (say Diplomacy if you're worried about that) and before you roll, activate it for a +3 there.

[Krodjin]

Jiggy wrote:

Magical Knack is banned in PFS, I'm afraid.

This (thank you Jiggy).

Regarding skills/attributes/faction missions... I have been told that some factions favour certain skills over others. I've made a switch-hitter Ranger for PFS play who I've assigned to the Shadow Lodge Faction. While I can't be certain, after reading up on the Shadow Lodge in the PFS Guide I think (*hope*), that I will be able to get some milage out of Sense Motive - my WIS is already decent as a Ranger and I took the Faction trait that gives me a bonus to Sense Motive...

Here's hoping.

I like the suggestion for Infiltrator - I'm going to have look closer at that myself...

[Krodjin]

Just read over the Infiltrator archetype - some interesting stuff there for sure. I've started a thread in the rules forum looking for clarification on how Adaptations are activated / ended.

If it turns out you can pop in & out of Adaptations the way a Barbarian can start & stop a Rage (free action), a high level Ranger could have fun with that class feature to be sure!

Need to make a Fort save? Perfect, there's an Adaptation for that. Will save? There's one for that too. Darkvision? Got it covered. Problem is I didn't see what type of action is required to activate - so it may be more restrictive then "Adaptation Cycling".

At any rate, my Ranger is an "Urban Ranger" so I can't be an Infiltrator - but I think it would still be nice to know the answers!

[rangerjeff]

I'll check that thread, too. It's an (Ex) ability, and I don't see anything about activating. Only that it needs to be in 10 min increments. so I've been applying it fairly liberally. In between other people's turns, etc. But if I don't say it's activated, and GM calls roll will save, I just eat it, and then activate in case there's another will save coming.