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It is nota gunslinger but it is the highest, if not one of the highest, DPR characters ive made and played.
-Race-
Human
-Class-
Fighter (Weapon Master)
-Stats 20pb-
STR 16 (+2 racial)(+2 leveling) = 20
DEX 16 (+2 leveling)(+6 item) = 24
CON 10
INT 14
WIS 09
CHA 07
-Feats-
01 Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus Composite Longbow
02 Deadly Aim
03 Rapid Shot
04 Weapon Specialization
05 Point Blank Master
06 Manyshot
07 Clustered Shots
08 Greater Weapon Focus
09 Snap Shot
10 Improved Snap Shot
11 Combat Reflexes
12 Pin Down
13 Greater Weapon Specialization
14 Hammer the Gap
15 Penetrating Strike
16 Greater Penetrating Strike
17 Vital Strike
18 Improved Vital Strike
19 Greater Vital Strike
20 Bullseye Shot
-Method-
Clustered Shots and Penetrating shot makes DR apply to the total damage from full round attacks and reduced that DR by 5/10. Snap Shot gives the ability to perform AoO and Pin Down makes it were withdraw actions and 5ft steps provoke and will force enemies that get into melee to stay in melee when needed. Vital Strike chain and Bullseye Shot ar to make use of the Weapon Master's Unstoppable Strike when forced to make only standard action attacks or when facing an enemy that's ac is so high that only one attack will hit. Unstoppable Strike btw ignores DR and hardness anf hits Touch AC.
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Once your blaster gets access to Fireball, that should start helping; also, you'll be able to summon bigger and better things and have them last longer, which will help too. In the meantime there's not a lot you can do, unless you can convince your fighter to ditch the shield and start two-handing. (Maybe your GM will let him retrain his feats?) Between two wizards and a healbot cleric, he should not lack for his choice of buffs.
Flaming sphere is a pretty good low-level blast spell for you wiz kids, too. Get a few of them rolling around the battlefield and you can just stand back and conduct them like some kind of fiery orchestra. (Combo with Pyrotechnics for extra fun!)
Oh, and if you want to do something similar to wizard but better at damage, go with an Alchemist. With a high Str, two-handed weapon, and Power Attack, alongside your mutagen and other extracts, you'll deal PLENTY of damage; plus you'll have bombs for backup/ranged attacks. The blaster should take care of long-distance damage.
This sounds like a party that could do well with an elven inquisitor. At level 5, you'll get the damage you need. I say elven because it gives martial style sword proficiencies, high dex and more skill, and racial spell like abilities with alternate features, as well as that wonderful racial silent hunter fast stealth deal. This will allow arcane strike for damage that has no accuracy penalty, judgments, and that beautiful, beautiful bane feature.
If you get higher levels and two weapon fighting, double bane will allow you to do the bane damage with each weapon for half duration.
You get stealth, nice buffs, exceptional detection, and some incredible spike damage in ranged or melee. The teamwork feats might be nice to get to work off the party's overly controller/defender feels. If you pick a domain, I would go with destruction to crank out the damage, and get that optimistic gambler trait for ridiculous durations per use. At 8th level, you get to share that extra damage with adjacent like party members.
You'll bring the pain, and even help the others bring some too!
An otherwise solid option is the arcane duelist archetype bard, but change out bladethirst or inspire courage, and masterpieces, for the bane.
Or go sohei monk and wait until level 6 I think? where you can flurry with the nastiest polearm you can get your hands on, wear light armor and safely dumpstat wisdom, and go power attack and combat reflexes crazy! More attacks that all hurt!
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if psionics are allowed, Soulknives do a good amount of damage
scorching ray does decent damage, if you were higher level I'd suggest potentially trying for arcane trickster ninja/sorscerer or wizard/alchemist (vivisectionist)
see if your DM will allow the 3.5 feet "precocious apprentice" to get into it early
you might want to try my "ultimate archer build" it was originally designed for gestalt where the build is frankly an insane flurry of magic arrow-y death
but the first part works decently enough alone outside of it
for your first 4+ levels take the magus class with the Myrmidarch and hexcrafter archetypes
as soon as possible, get your quiver enchanted with continuous "abundant ammunition" it's a 1st lvl spell so it's not that expensive
next get yourself some of the special arrows, choice among them the one with Drow poison, get one arrow of each special material type that overcomes DR, get a bleeding arrow, and a raining arrow for when you're fighting undead and outsiders etc etc etc
while using those normally would be either expensive or use up actions, now you get an unlimited supply at the start
at this point you now have touch spells and deadly drow poison and a spell on the end of each and every one of your arrows, even when you run out of normal spells, you'll be able to add "brand" to it for +1 damage and an unheal-able curse scar (well unheal-able without removing the curse first), for humiliation purposes should the enemy live
you can find the full version of said build here
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another damage dealing build of mine is the one I like to call the "hulk" build (I like to name my favorite builds)
(this also has a gestalt version which can be found via that same link)
start with alchemist (rage chemist/vivisectionist), then multiclass to barbarian (drunken brute) for 1-3 levels, when you have 7 levels of alchemist take the PrC Master Chemist
alternatively you could focus more on the barbarian part and upon getting 3 levels of barbarian take a 1 lvl oracle dip and take the prestige class "rage prophet"
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A reach bard with the Goblin feat Lead From the Back and Spear Dancing makes for a decent buffer/bruiser especially if you want to invest into Whirlwind attack.
If you dont mind the RP, and can actualy handle it, paladin is a personal favorite that does good dmg with nice self sustain. Be a Tiefling with ur 1st feat as Fey Fondling followed by Power Attack and Furious Focus and you will be set. Swift cast LoH + Tiefling bonus + Fey Fondling = amazing in combat self sustain.
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Here is a whip rogue i made and played a while back to level 19. I made it primarily because my friend was complaining about how weak the Rogue is and being a waste to the party. This character is a face character, does decent dpr when there are multiple enemies, does some minor debuffing, can sneak attack almost every round, and has ac comparable to tanks in plate.
-Race / Class-
Half - Elf / Fighter - Lore Warden, Rogue - Thug
-Stats (20 pt)-
STR 28 (Base 15)(+2 racial)(+5 leveling)(+6 item)
DEX 20 (Base 14)(+6 item)
CON 16 (Base 10)
INT 08 (Base 13)
WIS 10 (Base 10)
CHA 20 (Base 14)(+6 item)
AC 41 (+ an addition 4 from combat expertise and an additional 5 from defending for a total of 50, also + 10 more from Offensive Defensive)
Touch 21
Flat - Footed 30
-Class / Feats-
R01 EWP Whip, Dodge
R02 Talent Weapon Training (Weapon Focus Whip)
R03 Whip Mastery
R04 Talent Offensive Defense
F05 Mobility, Spring Attack
F06 Combat Expertise, Whirlwind Attack
R07 Dazzling Display
R08 Talent Strong Impression (Intimidating Prowess)
R09 Shatter Defenses
R10 Talent Combat Trick (Lunge)
R11 Skill Focus Intimidate
R12 A Talent Improved Evasion
R13 Persuasive
R14 A Talent Entanglement of Blades
R15 Improved Feint
R16 A Talent Feat (Greater Feint)
R17 Skill Focus Bluff
R18 A Talent Skill Mastery
R19 Deceitful
R20 A Talent (w/e u want)
Traits = Bully, Defensive Strategist
-Gear-
+5 Defending Holy Ghost Touch Whip
+5 Mithril Chain Shirt
+5 Shield Cloak
+5 Ring of Protection
+5 Natural Armor Necklace
Dusty Rose Prism (Ioun Stone)
Belt of Physical Might (Str/Dex)
Headband of Alluring Charisma
-Misc-
Character performs a full-round action intimidate to demoralize all enemy targets within a 30ft radius then proceeds to attack with Whirlwind Lunge Attacks that apply Offensive Defense upon all targets or Entanglement of Blades depending on situation. For single targets move action with a whip attack or full-round action intimidate with full attack next round. Intimidate at cap level is d20+48 (20 ranks +3 trained + 6 skill focus + 4 Persuasive +5 Cha +9 Str +1 trait) and bluff is d20+38 (20 ranks +3 trained + 6 skill focus + 4 Deceitful +5 Cha).
We have a fighter that uses sword and board, pretty poorly optimized. He basically went for straight defense, so he'll never die but he doesn't help much damage wise.We have a samurai that is with the order of the cockatrice, uses two-handed weapons and his horse to dish out good damage.
We have a cleric who is basically trying to be a healbot. He went with the healing domain and picked all the healing spells he could.
One thing you could do in the short term is to ask that cleric to stock up each morning on buff spells to help the fighter and samurai deal more damage.
If he is of good alignment, remind him that he can spontaneously change one of his memorized spells for a cure spell of the same level, anyway. So he may as well stock up on buffs.
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Gunslinger can dish out outstanding damage, albeit at fairly short range. You don't want a fighter archer, but would you consider a different class? Zen archer, ranger, and inquisitor are all quite good.
The alchemist isn't really a fighter tht drinks potions. There are two build types: Mr. Hyde and mad bomber. Mr. Hyde drinks a few buffs (preferably before combat) and attacks with natural attacks (beastmorph and vivisectionist do quite well, and te sneak attack will come up often with the melee focus) while mad bomber might be what you want if you want ranged damage (plus touch and ignores DR. Some of the bomb discoveries also fulfill a controlling role).
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-Race / Class-
Half - Elf / Summoner (Synthesist), Paladin 2, Monk 1
-Stats with out Eidolon (25 point buy)-
STR 07 (+6 item)(-6 age) = 07
DEX 07 (+6 item)(-6 age) = 07
CON 10 (-6 age) = 04
INT 13 (+3 age) = 16
WIS 17 (+6 item)(+3 age) = 26
CHA 18 (+2 racial)(+3 age)(+5 leveling)(+6 item) = 34
-Saves with out Eidolon-
Fort = 28
Reflex = 25
Will = 40
AC = 36
Touch = 23
Flat - Foot = 28
-Stats with Eidolon-
STR 29
DEX 28
CON 13
INT 16
WIS 26
CHA 34
-Saves with Eidolon-
Fort = 32
Reflex = 37
Will = 44
AC = 72 (76 with combat expertise)
Touch = 31
Flat - Foot = 58
-Eidolon Abilities-
Base - Darkvision, Evasion, Improved Evasion, Devotion, Multiattack
Form - Biped - claws, limbs (arms), limbs (legs)
Claws (x2)
limbs (arms) (x2)
Immunity (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic)
Spell Resistance (28)
Flight Su (30ft)
Improved Natural Armor (8)
Improved Damage (claws)
-Class / Feat Progression-
M 01 Dodge, Skill Focus Perception, Toughness
P O2
P 03 Combat Expertise
S 04
S 05 Extra Evolution
S 06
S 07 Combat Reflexes
S 08
S 09 Extra Evolution
S 10
S 11 Vigilant Eidolon
S 12
S 13 Extra Evolution
S 14
S 15 (insert feat here)
S 16
S 17 (insert feat here)
S 18
S 19 Extra Evolution
S 20
-Gear-
Bracers of Armor
Ring of Protection
Ring of Forcefangs
Cloak of Resistance
Amulet of Natural Armor
Headband of Mental Prowess (wis and cha)
Belt of Physical Might (str and dex)
High saves, immunities to all spell damage but positive / negative and force, and spell resistance.
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I am interested in an alchemist, I've never played one before. It's just that I have a sinking suspicion that it won't be that fun for me. It seems like it's just going to be another fighter who quaffs potions every now and then, but I'm not sure. On top of that, we could really use some ranged physical damage, and we already have a lot of people at the front line (cleric likes to get in the thick of things)
Well, it certainly is a self-buffing fighter, but with access to things like Enlarge Person, Burrow, and Invisibility it opens up a whole lot of interesting options. Especially if you take Infusion and start handing extracts out to your friends. You also get easy access to an alchemical item toolbelt and a reservoir of explosives (touch attacks that deal damage based on Int) and a suite of discoveries to either add effects like fog or tanglefoot to your bombs, or give yourself a familiar or fast healing or an extra arm or friggin' wings.
Anyway, don't be too quick to dismiss alchemists.
PS: Note that it is possible to create an awesome Alchemist Archer. The Grenadier archetype gives you proficiency with a martial weapon and the ability to infuse your attacks with alchemical items. So you basically get Green Arrow utility arrows. Also with a Dex mutagen you deal pretty great damage.
PPS: Failing that, go Ranger archery or switch hitter. Your party needs more skill points.
You may be able to just fix your wizard. Take a level of crossblooded sorcerer with dragon/orc bloodlines. If you are an admixture wizard that's even better. Varisian tattoo, spell specialization, intensify spell are your friends. Magical Lineage for your main damaging spell of up to 3rd level. Empower rods are nice. So is blazing robe (or another element robe if that's your thing).
A wizard 5/ crossblooded sorcerer 1 with a blazing robe, spell focus (evocation), Varisian tattoo (evocation), spell specialization (fireball), and a blazing robe can cast a fireball for 9d6 + 18, average 49. If you have a rod of empower instead of the robe that's 8d6 + 16 x 1.5, average 63. That won't instakill most CR 6 monsters, but will take out most groups of CR 4s.
At lower levels you can do the same kind of things with burning hands. A wizard 2/ sorcerer 1 with the same build can cast burning hands at 5d4 + 10 (average 22) instead of 3d4 (average 7) for a level 3 average wizard.
Look at the guides to see more details on how this works.
If you were going to get a whole new character anyway then maybe your GM will let you retrain your feats and traits so you can redesign the wizard you're playing. Perhaps some kind of magical event or effect.
Peet
If you have a fighter and a samurai in the group i dont think you will make anybody more happy or make the game any more fun by adding a damage dealer to outshine them. When you say it takes forever to bring down the baddies. How long is that?
If you like your wizard stay with him and see how it goes. No good comeback from looking for how to make melee guys on there boards and judging your friends PCs short on that account. IMOP
I've been liking the look of the urban barbarian more and more... try one of those?
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How about rethinking your way of doing damage? Fights do not all have to be head on, hack and slash until one dies. It can be hit and runs and assassinations. Illusions. Snipers. Finding something alone without support (which everything does eventually even if it is to take a crap). Just because the group is not built for straight toe to toe damage doesnt mean it cannot be effective.
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You do make the alchemist sound fun, and more useful than I originally thought. Do the explosive potions do real damage with the str based build? That seems like it might be a fun and viable option if so.
I've played both a switch hitter and a range archer before, so I know that they dish out some damage. The point of this thread was just to find out if something I've never seen before that doesn't get much love could actually work
Bombs are pretty sweet. You get Alch level + int bombs per day, and they work as splash weapons (20 ft distance increment). Each one deals Xd6 + int fire damage on a touch attack, where X scales like Sneak Attack, and splash does minimum damage (reflex for half). They benefit from Point-Blank and Precise Shot too.
The really nice thing about bombs, though, is that you can enhance them with discoveries (and feats can be "extra discovery" if you want too.) You can get bombs that act like tanglefoot bags, bombs that act like Fog Cloud, Stinking Cloud, or even Cloudkill, bombs that deal ice or electricity or force damage, bombs that act like Dispel Magic, bombs that can blind or sunder or create grease or do wisdom damage... the list goes on. You can also get Precise bombs (think Selective Spell metamagic), increase their explosion radius, make them work like a breath weapon or a cone or a line, and get a discovery to let you throw them as iterative attacks. They're very customizable.
It dovetails nicely with a high-Str build because you can spend one feat on Power Attack and the rest on Extra Discovery or Extra Bombs. Also, since they hit touch attacks (and deal splash damage even if they miss), you don't need a particularly high Dex to use them well. (In fact, since extracts have no spell failure chance, you can be an alchemist in medium or heavy armor if you want.) So you'll be primarily a melee beast, but in the meantime you can huck bombs and drink extracts. Smoke bombs let you essentially disable enemy ranged attacks, or Tanglefoot bombs can glue them in place long enough for you to close distance and murder them. Fun times abound!
While one way to deal with a party that lacks damage dealing capability is just to make optimized dpr characters, I think a better and more fun way to do it is to develop cohesive party strategy. This is more challenging, but tends to be more fun for everyone.
Find ways as a group to shore up the characters that don't do as much damage, such as summoning flanking partners for a rogue, casting buff spells etc. Similarly, tactics that keep enemies from ganging up on one person, getting off full attacks etc. can make it so it doesn't matter your damage isn't great, because you are not using many resources each battle.
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I would just pick spells to help out your Fighter and Rogue. Both wizards are 3rd level so you can learn and prepare Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace to make them more optimized when that's necessary, as well as Enlarge Person and Blur. You can also prepare Summon Monster spells to give the party more damage when combat happens.
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Wouldn't that lead to the class being pretty MAD? I guess if I only have to focus on str and int it wouldn't be too bad. Also, our gm uses the 4d6 system instead of a point buy for whatever reason, so I guess it would really just be up to luck.
A little, but since alchemists can only wear light armor you probably wanted Dex anyway. And of course Str was going to be a want for you, and Int is your casting stat. (It's unfortunate that the Str mutagen decreases your Int by 2 (so 1 lower on your bombs' DC & damage), but +4 to str & +2 AC is a pretty good trade off.) You'll be OK with 12 con if you take the Spontaneous Healing alchemist discovery - it's basically a souped-up Toughness. (Toughness gets you 1hp/level, Spontaneous Healing gets you 2.5.) If things get rough you can also retreat and start bombing, and you have spells like Shield, Displacement, and Greater Invis available.
Of course, if you go Archer/Bomber, you only need Dex and Int (and can prepare Dex mutagens instead of Str). There's also a discovery, Explosive Missile, that lets you basically strap a bomb to an arrow. So with a 6th level Grenadier Alchemist, you can move, spend a swift action to add an alchemical item, like an Acid Flask, Smokestick, or Thunderstone, to your arrow; then as a standard load a bomb and fire it. Pretty sweet huh?
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The best idea I heard here for doing a lot of damage is the Reach Bard. Not only can they pull down considerable DPS on their own, but they also enhance the damage output of the other martial PCs.
It also might be possible to do the job with your wizard. At 3rd level you are almost to the point where Summons are effective. If you take Augment Summons then at 5th level you can summon critters with decent damage. Summons are not particularly effective with a highly optimized group, but will be very strong with your non-optimized mish-mash of a group.
Any chance your cleric can come out of healbot mode and inflict damage? That would help, too.
If your sword-and-board warrior is buffed with Bull's Strength, Enlarge Person, Bless, Magic Weapon, & Bardsong he will be quite effective. At 5th level Haste him routinely FTW.
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If you're human, you could get Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, and Precise Shot by level 3, which is most of what you need. You'd definitely be Dex-focused more than int. There is a trade-off involved: a simple Power Attacking melee brute can spend his feats on Extra Discovery, and is slightly better suited to the alchemist's extracts.
These depictions of forgotten spirits can be used to augment summoning magic. If used as an additional material component for any summon monster or summon nature’s ally spell, the summoned creature has an additional +2 hit points per Hit Die.
Improve your summons on the cheap.
/cevah
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Crazy alchemist dex focused charactor: 2 x extra arms, rapid reload, 2 x light crossbows, two weapon fighting. srd states a crossbow in each hand counts as a light weapon in the off hand, and no one handed fining penalty because there are two hands for each crossbow. rapid shot may be able to stack, and you can continue to get extra attacks from the two weapon fighting tree that you can also use in melee when switch hitting.