Winged Marauder.

[Lunchbox3000]

So my goblin alchemist died as I mentioned in another thread. I saw the new monster codex and found an archetype for me. What do you guys think of the Winged Marauder? How would you build him?

[Secret Wizard]

Dear Lord I need that book.

By the way, the Winged Marauder looks like it stacks with the Grenadier, so there's your build.

DEATH FROM ABOVE!

[Lunchbox3000]

I hadn't even thought that far ahead. I just thought of bombing from above.

[Secret Wizard]

We all did :')

Looks like you could go for bomb discoveries and high Int/Dex and some WIS, get one level of Sohei Monk to pick up Mounted Skirmisher as a bonus feat after getting the Fast Bombs discovery, use rest of your feats to improve damage.

You probably need the mounted archery feat too.

[Lunchbox3000]

I think this sounds like a lot of fun. What do you get from mounted skirmisher? I ask because I typically try to minimize my multiclassing.

[Secret Wizard]

Oh, you don't need to go Sohei, it was just for cheese.

The Mounted feats you need are:

Mounted Combat (allows you to replace your mounts AC for a Ride check once per round, good to avoid big hits if your Dex and Ride skill are high)

Trick Riding (allows you to do the Mounted Combat thing twice per round and has a few nice bonuses)

Mounted Skirmisher (allows you to full attack - or in this case, use Fast Bombs - while your mount moves)

Mounted Archery (allows you to reduce the penalties for shooting while moving)

What the Sohei does is allow you to take Mounted Skirmisher without taking Mounted Combat and Trick Riding, and instead of having to wait for level 14 to get the feat (as it requires 14 ranks in Ride), you can take it as soon as you take a level in Sohei. This is a ridiculous level of cheese though.

Other than those four feats, you only need feats to increase your mounts survivability - like Indomitable Mount (replaces a saving throw of your mount for a Ride check), or you can get Teamwork feats - Shake it Off and Ally Shield come to mind, or stuff to straight increase ranged damage like Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Point-Blank Shot, etc.

[Lunchbox3000]

Thanks I don't usually look at mounted characters but this sounds to good to pass up. I may have to take a level of monk for feat saving.

[Lunchbox3000]

Also is it just me or is giant vulture all around better?

[Stephen White]

Lunchbox3000 wrote:

Also is it just me or is giant vulture all around better?

Apart fron the Blindsense, appears to me to be so. The starting Strength of 9 makes a light load max of 30lb, less than the weight of a goblin so going straight to at least a medium load. I still want a bat for the story element, though.

[Avoron]

Actually, the bat is an even worse option than it appears to be.

Page 169 of the core rulebook:
"A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor."

Page 162 of the core rulebook:
"Flying mounts can't fly in medium or heavy barding."

[Stephen White]

Avoron wrote:

Actually, the bat is an even worse option than it appears to be.

Page 169 of the core rulebook:
"A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor."

Page 162 of the core rulebook:
"Flying mounts can't fly in medium or heavy barding."

I've been reading up on this on the message boards, and the consensus seems to be that medium/heavy loads have the penalties of the respective armour but are not armour, so do not count as coming under the barding flying retrictions.

[Avoron]

Yeah, that part seemed sort of strange to me as well. There's no difference between barding and nonhumanoid armor, correct? Because it uses table 6-8, and the only difference seems to be in the name. Are the rules really trying to say that there is a difference between "mounts" in "barding" and "creatures" in "armor"?

Or are you saying that flight isn't the sort of thing that the rule of loads counting as armor applies to? It seems to me that since not being able to fly is definitely a restriction and flight is both an ability and a skill, having a medium load should count as having medium armor for that purpose.

[Arcanic Drake]

Stephen White wrote:

Lunchbox3000 wrote:

Also is it just me or is giant vulture all around better?

Apart fron the Blindsense, appears to me to be so. The starting Strength of 9 makes a light load max of 30lb, less than the weight of a goblin so going straight to at least a medium load. I still want a bat for the story element, though.

Actually, the reason why you pick the dire bat is for night raids and the fact that because it has a slower movement speed it makes less fly checks for moving slower. Think of a night stealth bomber.