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So I was recently in a game that started at 12th level, and allowed any material on the PFSRD, including the psionic stuff, so I figured I'd see what I could come up with. Basic rules were: 25 point buy, open race choices, standard WBL. And I ended up coming up with a Zen Archer build that I found to be frankly ridiculously overpowered in its SADness.
Race: Aasimar (Plumekith)
Class: Monk 3 (Zen Archer)/Soulknife (Soulbolt) 3/Soul Archer 6
Starting stats
Str 12
Dex 18
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 18
Cha 8
Final stats
Str 12
Dex 18
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 27
Cha 8
AC 28 (higher with MV/MA)(+10 fighting defensively)
Saves 11/16/19
BAB +11/+5/+1
Feats:
(1)SK 1 : Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Wild Talent
(2)Monk 1: Improved Unarmed Strike, Perfect Strike, Rapid Shot
(3)Monk 2: Psionic Shot, Far Shot, Weapon Focus (Mindbolt)
(4)Monk 3: Point Blank Master, (Zen Archery)
(5)SK 2 : Deadly Aim, (Focused Offense blade skill)
(6)SK 3 : (Psychic Strike, Enhanced Mind Blade)
(7)SA 1 : Intuitive Shot, Fighter's Blade, (Focused Defense blade skill)
(8)SA 2 : Manyshot
(9)SA 3 : Greater Intuitive Shot, (Freezing Bolt bladeskill)
(10)SA 4 :
(11)SA 5 : Hawkeye, (Mind Shield bladeskill)
(12)SA 6 : (Reflexive Shot)
The beauty of this build is that you're using Wisdom for attack and damage with your mindbolts, and Greater Intuitive Shot lets you expend your focus to add Wisdom to your damage rolls a second time when full attacking. At level 12, you'd have a BAB of 11/6/1, plus the iterative attacks from Rapid Shot, Manyshot, and any Haste effects, allowing you to pump out 6 shots in a round, each doing 1d8+Wis+DA+enhancements+1 in damage.
Wisdom also adds to the other obvious things, like AC, Perception, Will saves, and even your AC a second time should you need to be fighting defensively. You also threaten in melee with both your unarmed attacks (which use Wisdom for attack and damage while focused) and your ranged attacks, and don't provoke for firing in melee, letting you get really close to the action.
WBL for level 12 is 108k. Invest in a Crystal Bow +2 (44.8k), Headband of Wisdom +6 (36k), Cloak of Resistance +3 (9k), Amulet of Natural Armor +2 (8k), Ring of Protection +2 (8k), and a Handy Haversack. By this level, you should be able to bum a Magic Vestment or a Mage Armor from party members. If you want to downgrade the Crystal Bow to only a +1, you get another 33.6k to play around with, to possibly upgrade your other defensive items, maybe grab some Bracers of Armor or Bracers of Archery.
Fighter's Blade means the monk levels and the first level of Soul Archer won't count against your Enhanced Mind Bolt progression, so you'll have a free +5 weapon. I recommend Seeking and Holy for some of your enhancements. Linked Striking is also the best option for tearing apart a single target. The boost from the Crystal Bow means you could have a +1 (or +2) Seeking Holy Linked Striking Mindbolt
This means that a Hasted full attack action, at a single evil target, expending your focus for Intuitive shot and Psychic Strike, would be at: +18 (2d8+2d8+4d6+42)/+20 (1d8+4d6+27)/+20 (1d8+4d6+27)/+15 (1d8+4d6+27)/+10 (1d8+4d6+27). That's a lot of damn dice.
And this isn't one of those builds that's only good at higher levels. Starting from level 1, you're a perfectly solid archer with infinite ammo and a free weapon, and you only get better, especially once you hit level 7 and start adding Wisdom to damage rolls.
The build as a whole is also kinda thematic, as monks and psionics can share similar themes, and using Wisdom to guide your mindbolts into hitting harder and more accurately is pretty awesome. Thoughts?
don't know why this reminded me of Bleach the anime, and their Quincy. Pretty awesome, i will still like to know from a more experienced person (than me) if this is legit. If it is, i would just salute and say awesome job!
The first shot gets Holy damage still, while the iteratives get Linked Striking. I was even being nice in the math about saying that the double arrows from manyshot land at the same time, else one of them would get the Linked Striking bonus, too. And you can hold a Psychic Strike charge indefinitely, so that's not a big problem.
I'm also a big fan of the Freezing Bolt bladeskill, since it lets you convert all your damage to cold damage, bypassing DR, and hitting enemies with a slow effect that keys off Wis. And in a full attack, that's a save they'd be having to make multiple times. Cold resistance isn't necessarily the most common one, either. You could also nab the fire or lightning bladeskills, too, I just like the free AC bonus from the shield.
One thing I noticed, if you can make a good case to your GM, is that if you can take both the Armored Blade and the Soulbolt archetype (technically doesn't work, since both AB and Soulbolt modify the Mind Blade feature, but AB just reduces its power and gives you armor for it, so letting them both stack doesn't seem like a big deal), there's a bladeskill that allows your light mind armor to count as wearing no armor at all. So you'd be getting a free magical armor bonus, which can be further boosted by Crystal Spaulders, that still lets you get your Wisdom to AC for just a slight reduction in weapon power.
I also like the mental image of a character walking around looking like he's unarmed, then BAM energy armor, energy bow, pew pew.
There are two arrows in the first shot from Manyshot, each of which would get the Holy damage boost. Manyshot doesn't multiply precision damage like sneak attack, but as far as I know things like Holy and the static damage from Wis and Deadly Aim are legit. I lumped the two damage sums together in the first shot, but it should really break down to 1d8 (arrow)+2d6 (Holy)+8 (Wis)+8 (IntShot)+1 (PsiShot)+2 (Enh)+6 (DA). The extra +Wis damage from Greater Intuitive Shot would only apply on one of the two arrows, since it's classed as precision damage.
Gifted Blade is pretty solid, and is one way to use your PP, especially if you can make this build work with a Psionic race. I chose Plumekith because the +2 Dex/+2 Wis help get a high Wis while still netting you the Dex prereqs for archery feats (Manyshot having the highest one). Though it's sort of iffy on whether or not Soul Archer would advance the Gifted Blade manifesting. It's much less worthwhile if it doesn't, since you'd only have 3 levels of Soulknife to manifest with.
I can only imagine how much more absurd this build would get in a Mythic game. Dump all the Mythic stat boosts into Wisdom, grab Mythic Deadly Aim, Mythic Rapid Shot, Mythic Manyshot, Mythic Precise Shot, and the Distant Barrage ability from the Champion path. At the same level (12), you'd be firing off a potential 9 arrows a round, with higher static modifiers on them. Precision would also allow your iteratives to be made at the same bonuses, further increasing the odds of them landing. Truly silly amounts of damage potential, even for a Mythic character.
