Hey all, I'm just starting with a inquisitor (point blank and precise) and while I love the archery and feel he has potential I feel like it will take a long time to get there. I'm about to hit 2 and seriously taking a hit to casting for a level of fighter so I can get rapid shot. I'm just curious if I should multiclass and if there might be a better way I'm not thinking of or if I should just toss the inquisitor all together and just go with the bow (would prefer a class with decent skills.)
best archer is unfortunately the synthesist... four longbows
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Other than that go with ranger
The reason I was debating on fighter was to get rapid shot at 2 then at 3 get deadly aim... then pretty much just level inquisitor from there. since I have feather domain I'd pick up boon companion at 5 then go from there. AS it stands I wouldnt seen deadly aim until 5 or 7 and manyshot at level 9
Yeah, I just created my new character, a level 8 Inquisitor (Preacher, Conversion Inquisition) of Cayden, after the unfortunate demise of my prior character last Friday. If he can pre-buff Heroism and then has one round of set-up (which includes drawing his weapon and moving into position), he can get unleash devastating full attacks as soon as the second round starts. We are talking around 20+ damage per hit on average. And it only gets better later. At 16 rounds of ability to use bane at level 8 it will probably last all the adventuring day, too.
I am debating on taking preacher, but was debating if I could use the teamwork feats in case I have to go melee. I like the conversion inquisition but really strapped on skill points already. I like the feather domain (perception bonus and in a couple levels I could claim to be a ranger) I'm trying to keep my knowledge skills up I'm trying make him a "monster hunter"
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It's hard to answer your question without knowing what level you plan to play to. If you're playing a capped game, like Pathfinder Society, the classes that get early access to Improved Precise Shot are very, very good (it sucks eating -4 in a large percentage of encounters for 11 of 12 levels).
So for a game that only goes to 12th or so, the "best" Archers are probably Zen Archer & Ranger. I give the nod to ZAM on account that they have better saves and are far more customizable then a Ranger (who pretty much has to be human and has to dedicate EVERY feat to Archery).
Now, an inquisitor will probably deal more damage then a Zen Archer Monk when they have Bane running, but they have a couple problems; 1) too many archery feats & not enough feat slots. 2) no early access to Improved Precise Shot (which isn't a problem if your GM doesn't calculate archery penalties correctly - which happens a lot actually).
Now, I'm not entirely sold on multiclassing (for the reasons mentioned by others), but I have heard that Inquisitors &Zen Archers work well together - there is some obvious synergy, I just don't know if whole ends up being less than the sum of its parts...
What do you mean by the best archer? There are several things that constitute a viable archer. The better question you should be asking is "what are the viable archer classes and what can each one of the do effectively?" If you find out that you like another class better for archery ask about switching your character around since you're not too far into the game.
Well I was curious as to some opinions of people that would determine what is the "best" obviously there are many variable and preferences to be had. I gave a example of what I'm trying to go with hoping someone might know something I might be unaware of
Reducing your to-hit penalties is critical. As such, your priority should be to get Improved Precise Shot as soon as possible. This leads to 3 possible classes: Ranger, Zen Archer monk, and Slayer. All of them get it by level 6.
Why not take a try at marksman, it is the psionic archer class, you get better bab, hp, and powers, as well as cool styles that can get a cool concept going.
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If you're an inquisitor, stay with it. One of the players at the table I run is a level 18 inquisitor, and we've been playing for quite awhile now and he started at level one. Eventually your judgments and self-buffing spells will get you a BAB as good as any full BAB class. Sure, Improved Precise Shot would be nice at level 6 instead of level 15, but it really isn't that big of a deal. You're going to most likely hit, and kill whatever with full attacks laced with bane and whatever buff you may have on at the time.
For what it's worth, I would argue (as does the player who has the archery based inquisitor), archery as a combat style is pretty boring. You're going to dish out tons and tons of damage, but it's boring.
A ninja would do good with a bow after he gets improved invisibility. Sneak attack every round.
I disagree about the teamwork feats, there are brilliant archery related teamwork feats such as Enfilading Fire and Target of Opportunity (especially this!). These are at least equal to the re-rolls and the such the Preacher gets.I wouldn't bother dropping levels of Inquisitor.
Delaying Bane even one level for Rapid Shot isn't worth it in my opinion. Also your Judgments.
The whole class just comes together really well all on its own. Just takes a couple levels to do so. I'd strongly suggest just waiting it out.
Don't get me wrong, you want Rapid Shot, but you'll get it at 3 anyway and Deadly Aim can be delayed. My point is that at level 2 you're getting all antsy over not having Rapid Shot and so you are debating taking it now in exchange for getting all antsy about not having Bane at 5th. Just kicking the can down the road.
Sidenote: You should definitely look into the Preacher Archetype. Teamwork Feats aren't all that hot at range, the rerolls and perks of Preacher are worth giving them up for an archer.
Should be more coming too with the Hunter on its way.... this is going to be a particularly nice boost for Feather domain inquisitors.
I don't think anyone will argue the fact that all the archers are going to do EXCELLENT damage. Due to the amount of damage archers bring, you need to not think about damage on this question and look at everything else the class brings.
If you're playing Paizo APs you're looking to finish up between levels 13 and 17. All those APs share some pretty lethal save or die mechanics, they're not cake-walks. Paladin and Zen archer probably come out as the most survivable archers, followed closely by the barbarian (with superstition) and to a lesser extent the inquisitor (high will save + wisdom as a needed stat + stalwart).
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I generally prefer rangers; Zen archers really only get will save; and that doesn't compare at high levels to Instant Enemy and the raw damage it outputs (and your enemies should be Human/Undead/Evil Outsider to keep the number of castings of this to a minimum).
Early entry to cluster shot and improved precise really make the differnece; improved precise is +4 to hit in many, many, many situations.
And the free animal companion to "go melee" is no slouch either (once you take a feat for boon companion).
I generally prefer rangers; Zen archers really only get will save; and that doesn't compare at high levels to Instant Enemy and the raw damage it outputs (and your enemies should be Human/Undead/Evil Outsider to keep the number of castings of this to a minimum).
Disagree, the damage loss from monk isn't enough to warrant a preference from one class to the next. They all do great damage.
Early entry to cluster shot and improved precise really make the differnece; improved precise is +4 to hit in many, many, many situations.
Agreed! Since the monk and ranger have improved precise shot at level 6 and clustered shot as early as BAB allows (level 6 in both cases due to BAB increases during flurry for monk) then they're on equal footing.
And the free animal companion to "go melee" is no slouch either (once you take a feat for boon companion).
Yes, I kind of wrote the guide on that. I assure you the Zen archer is every bit on the level of the ranger, it's a perfectly excellent class. When it comes to survivability it's hands down better though due to having a few spare feats to devote to the issue and because of monk saves and high wisdom.
Also your ZAM should probably go dwarf and has the feat/trait available to stack the dwarf racial saves vs spells and SLAs to +5. It's incredibly good. The ranger is stuck with poor will and can't afford to go dwarf because he needs feats badly, and even if he could go dwarf he couldn't lose another feat bumping the racial saves.
I agree each archer is nasty I was a tad disappointed to realize you couldnt use rapid shot OR manyshot while flurry so in the end the ranger and the monk both get roughly 5 attacks at level 12. (I leveled up all 3 to 12 to compare them) Both could go the snapshot route and get attacks of opp against anything within 15ft The monk could spend a ki to get a extra attack or make his arrows do 2D6, the ranger has a spell for that. While the zen gets weapon spec (+2 against anything) the ranger gets favored which will add damage if you are luck enough to have the enemy (personally a tie imo)
Anyways sorry about to fall asleep. I decided to go inquisitor. At first I didn't think it would work but looking at some teamwork feats and the idea that the hunter will have more coming sounds pretty nice (need to find out if i can use the feat coordinated shot add that with Enfilading Fire I could easly make up with not having improved precise. But then since the inquisitor IS a spellcaster I realized I could cast divine power, throw in my judgement and bane I could be looking at arrows doing roughly 1D8+4D6+15 and be able to get my 5th attack (tying me with the ranger and monk) oh and +8 to hit That right there would give some serious pain. Sorry if that doesnt make sense