Trophy Hunter Archetype

[deinosuchus]

We are starting a Kingmaker campaign this week, and I am playing a ranger, and am considering the Trophy Hunter archetype. Anyone played it? Is it fun, and can it contribute well enough? Our party will be a human barbarian, human wizard (conj), tiefling rogue, aasimar cleric, and my ranger.

[Deadmanwalking]

Using guns without getting the ability to make ammo or getting Dex to damage really hurts. Why not just go Gunslinger, at least for the first 5 levels?

They get a few less skill points, but Handle Animal, Perception, and Survival are class skills, and you can easily burn a Trait to get Knowledge (Nature)...and be seriously effective. Go Musket Master for theme, and you can make a very solid big game hunter. And post 5th level you can easily just go standard Ranger if you like.

[XMorsX]

It is a great 2lvl dip for getting back the Quick Clear deed as a Mysterious Stranger or for aquiring the Cha-to-dmg deed as a non-Mysterious Stranger, but not so great as a stand-alone class. What do you really want from the Ranger?

At least, you should consider going Gunslinger (archetyped) 5 / Trophy Hunter X for Dex to damage.

[deinosuchus]

Mainly just looking for fun to play. Our barbarian will be the damage machine, as will the wizard. I watched Last of the Mohicans a couple of weeks ago, and I thought that would be fun to try and play.

[EvilPaladin]

I'm not sure if either of these mix with Trophy Hunter, but if either Guide or Freebooter mix, or you know a Favored Enemy who you will fight most all the time, then you should be fine. Dex-to-Damage on guns is overrated IMO. You just need anything to add to damage. Favored Enemy [or better, Guide/Freebooter Replacement for reliability] adds a lot of damage. Instant Enemy spell will help if you keep spellcasting. At a certain point, you will be checking for misfires instead of actually rolling attack rolls, since touch AC gets horrendous and BAB alone gets high enough to hit touch.

[XMorsX]

Well, it is not a terrible choice, but unless you can add Dex-to-damage, there is not a reason to choose guns over bows, the touch AC is not worth having to deal with missfires.

A Musket Master would actually be a better chpice for your concept. Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe uses a Musket, and only teh Musket Master gunslinger makes them competitive. You could go Musket Master 5 / Ranger x, so that you aquire Raped Reload for free and Dex to damage, and then continue with the Ranger features.

Because neither Guide, nor Freebooter stack with Trophy Hunter, you would have to make a choice between them. I would either go for a Guide Skirmisher (swift action for bonus damage, since you lose favored enemy you may as well trade spells (as Instand enemy is now useless to you) for tricks that can be done as part of your attack, or Trophy Hunter, so that you keep Favored Enemy + Instant Enemy (better choice in the long tun). Vanilla ranger is also an option in case you want to keep the animal companion. In the last case you will need Boon companion though.

[EvilPaladin]

XMorsX wrote:

Well, it is not a terrible choice, but unless you can add Dex-to-damage, there is not a reason to choose guns over bows, the touch AC is not worth having to deal with missfires.

You are less MAD as you don't need STR to keep from attack roll penalties.

[XMorsX]

EvilPaladin wrote:

XMorsX wrote:

Well, it is not a terrible choice, but unless you can add Dex-to-damage, there is not a reason to choose guns over bows, the touch AC is not worth having to deal with missfires.

You are less MAD as you don't need STR to keep from attack roll penalties.

Unless you play with 10pb or you rolled really abyssmal Strenght, having Strengh to damage is actually a great bonus.

As soon as you make your bow adaptive, you also eliminate the potential attack roll penalty.

To the OP, it is not that a pure ranger with aa gun does not work, it is just that it is a worse choice than your standard martial.