Unique PFS-Legal Builds?

[Timrod]

I have to roll a new character, since as far as I know my main character is doing the rest of Emerald Spire. I want to make something a little bit unique, but PFS seems to have the stance of "no fun allowed" when making builds.

I run in a group that has far too much melee for its own good, and as far as I can tell there are no valid ranged builds outside of the cookie-cutter ones like fighter archer.

Are there any builds that are at least somewhat unique that are legal for PFS?

[Imbicatus]

Well, insulting the campaign you are playing with seems like a good way to ask for help, and then you are asking for a "unique build" which is an oxymoron.

Not really sure what you want, but there are several ways to make a good ranged character that are not default archery.

Bolt Ace Gunslinger makes crossbows viable.

Far Strike Monk makes thrown weapons viable.

Warpriest Blowgun user isn't really good, but it's unique and adequate.

[RainyDayNinja]

Here are some unusual ranged builds for you:

Six-Gun Wizard
8/16/12/17/14/8
Human Pistolero 1/Wizard (Scryer) 1/Eldritch Knight X
The SLA from the Scryer subschool counts as the 3rd-level spell to qualify you for Eldrtich Knight. Pretty standard ranged feat progression, plus Arcane Strike to make up for the loss of Gun Training compared to normal Gunslinger. Oh, and you're a wizard too.

SAM Barbarian
14/18/14/10/10/10 (adjust mental scores to taste)
Human Barbarian (Savage Technologist)
Again, standard ranged feat progression, but the Str/Dex rage makes your arrows beastly. Reckless Abandon rage power keeps your accuracy above-average, and Surprise Accuracy and Rolling Dodge are good too.

Gun-Fu Monk
9/18/14/10/16/7
Human (or Undine, if you have the boon) Pistolero 1/Zen Archer 1/Pistolero 4/Fighter X
Standard gunslinger feat progression, but the Zen Archer dip at 2 gives you Wis to AC and Precise Shot for free. Eventually you can pick up Deft Shootist to do all your shooting in melee if you want.

Personally, I have a Wayang Lore Warden as an archer, and between the archetype, FCB, and 16 Int, he gets 8 skills/level. Add in a Discerning Wayfinder, and he can identify his own magic items, attempt all the Knowledge (and Linguistics) checks, and eventually he'll take Additional Traits to become a UMD monkey too.

[Genuine]

This requires some cooperation from another player, but a Master-Blaster build is legal. You'll have a ride penalty for your 'ill suited' mount, but there's a number of tricks you can pull. The only real limitation is the presence of a party member who doesn't mind being ridden, and of course encumbrance.

First off, only the rider needs to optimize initiative. You can also use mounted combat to negate attacks to your mount. This provides a great excuse for the 'mount' to dump Int down to a ridiculous level. You can pick up 'Undersized Mount' and you don't have to be small sized, too.

And between Bloodriders, Mounted ragers, inquisitors with free Teamwork feats, cavaliers, etc., you aught to be able to find a whole bunch of free tricks.

[Andrew Roberts]

With so much melee, an archer spec bard can be a lot of fun, and really a force to be reckoned with themselves.

With so much melee, your inspire courage is as strong as ever, and you can still attack just fine. If you go this route, I would recommend human for the bonus feat and make every single feat you ever take help archery (point blank, precise, rapid, deadly aim, manyshot, take them all!). You can be proficient with longbow if you want but shortbow works just fine too (my archer bard uses one and never really had a problem). Make all of your spells utility based or buff based so you don't have to worry about their DCs. Dex is your primary stat, not charisma, although I probably wouldn't put charisma below 13 or 14.

The great thing about an archer bard among melee is that not only do you bring ranged damage and buffs, but you bring knowledge, social skills, and other utility spells to the party!

I've made an archer bard, and once they hit 7 it becomes pretty crazy (with the ol' inspire courage + haste combo, and then arrows flying everywhere on every turn after). Plus, they are just tons of fun to play in general because they are adaptable. Social situation? You got it! Pure dungeon crawl? Buffs and arrows everywhere! You can basically take the character to any scenario and be effective.

[Nefreet]

Timrod wrote:

I want to make something a little bit unique, but PFS seems to have the stance of "no fun allowed" when making builds.

Greetings! While others are posting sample builds, I'm more wanting to delve into this concept of "no fun allowed". Your experience is probably a local one, but I wanted to expand on your perception why PFS is "no fun".

Timrod wrote:

as far as I can tell there are no valid ranged builds outside of the cookie-cutter ones like fighter archer.

What books do you own thus far? It sounds like you may only own the Core Rulebook and maybe another? If that is the case, I can see why you might think a Fighter is the only valid archer out there. But there is actually a lot of potential using just core material.

Timrod wrote:

Are there any builds that are at least somewhat unique that are legal for PFS?

There is no build that is *not* legal. Builds themselves are just a collection of bits that make a character function better at one task, whether that be ranged combat, melee combat, social situations, control spells, etc. There are a small handful of "bits" that are not legal, but no build is restricted.

Care to expand on what some of your concerns are?

[Jason Wu]

I am having great fun with my Shield Champion.

Maxing out every range booster I can, I have that shield bouncing all over the battlefield, doing an absurd amount of damage.

Plus she's not too shabby at melee combat.

-k

[Angry Wiggles]

Use a Sling, or a sling glove if you want to do it easily. It's loads of fun. I've got a fighter up to level 9 using those.

Alternately, there are very solid builds multiclassing divine hunter paladin and mysterious stranger gunslinger.

[Blub Blub]

We should probably begin with a list of the various types of ranged weapons that are available, and then expand on their options:

Bows:

Zen Archer: It can Flurry with a bow, gets unique options not available to other classes, has great saves, and a decent AC.
Sohei: another Monk archetype. This one, by level 6, can not only Flurry with a bow, it can add Rapid Shot and Manyshot to its Flurry, outpacing the Zen Archer in numbers of arrows fired. They might not be as accurate, but if you like rolling a lot of dice, this is the archer for you.
Rangers make natural archers as well, and have spellcasting, class features, and skills that make them more rounded than the average Fighter.

Crossbows:

Not many people see Crossbow builds out there, but with the introduction of the Bolt Ace archetype they've become more intriguing. I have a Bolt Ace-4/Cleric-1 that's been super fun to play.
Rangers also have a Crossbow style, and can grab Crossbow Mastery for free at level 6, which lets them spend their other feats elsewhere instead of meeting prerequisites.

Alchemists:

These are almost by definition a ranged-focused class, and they can get their Dexterity up to obscene numbers. Bombs, alchemical weapons, and ranged weapons of all types synergize great together.

Launching Crossbow:

The Launching Crossbow from Adventurer's Armory is so unique it deserves its own entry. It's a really neat weapon, but I've never seen anyone use it. It probably takes the greatest amount of single-focused attention to pull off right, and it won't tack on as much damage as many other ranged builds, but it's certainly unique. Enchant your Launching Crossbow with Holy and watch as Evil Outsiders cringe at your 2d4+2d6 Holy Waters targeting touch AC, with no resistance to be had.

Thrown Weapons:

I'm not personally savvy on thrown weapon builds, but there's a way to eventually throw multiple two-handed weapons with a fairly decent damage output to back up its effectiveness. I think Tengu, with their Swordtrained ability, would work great for this.

Kineticist:

The Kineticist is a new ranged-focused blaster due for release next Summer. Think Avatar, the Air-Bender. I've played one to level 3 so far and it's a... BLAST! It's not currently available for PFS, unless you happened to grandfather one in from the playtest last month, but it's worth looking forward to.

Spellcasters:

A variety of spellcasting ranged options are available as well. Arcane Trickster is a fun archetype, if it suits your playstyle. Just grab Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot and suddenly those Ray spells available to Sorcerers and Wizards begin hitting a lot more. See the Advice Forum for ranged spellcaster builds.

Slings:

Halflings can reload the basic sling as a free action if they pick up an alternate racial trait, and a Halfling Warpriest gets the bonus feats and damage increases to make slings a viable weapon. Just don't grab their iconic weapon, the Halfling Sling Staff. It's a trap.

Reach Weapons:

While not exactly "ranged", reach weapon builds can help you compete with your upfront melee buddies. Drink a potion of Enlarge Person and suddenly you can hit things up to 20 feet away with your polearm. And they deal massive damage two-handed. Be a Monk and Flurry with a Rope Dart from 20 feet away. Grab a whip and take Slashing Grace. Specialize and you can even parry with it! Reach weapons can be a lot of fun, and there are so many of them that variability will make it seem unique.

And... I know I'm missing something... Boomerangs? Throwing Shields? Pilums? The list could just go on and on...

[Farak, the Most Powerful Mage]

Timrod wrote:

but PFS seems to have the stance of "no fun allowed" when making builds.

Farak, the Most Powerful Mage in *ALL* Ablasom thoroughly disagrees with this assertion.

---

Farak is currently level 17, a ranged combatant and has been an absolute blast to play despite numerous "fun" choices made in his "build."

[Nefreet]

Funny, completely off-topic experience using one particular ranged weapon:

The Complete Barbarian's Handbook from 2nd Edition D&D added a small list of primitive weapons for Barbarian-type characters, which included both returning and non-returning Boomerangs.

The returning Boomerang dealt something like 1d4 damage, but it returned back so you could throw it again.

The non-returning Boomerang dealt more damage, since it was heavier and not designed to return.

But there was a misprint on the chart.

Instead of dealing 1d4+1d2, it instead dealt 14+12.

When I debuted them during our first game I kept telling the GM "Well, let's see.... fourteen... plus twelve... twenty-six damage!", until he eventually caught on.

But, he let me roll with it until I ran out of that lot of Boomerangs.

From that day since the joke has always been that Barbarians were the first culture to develop nuclear warheads.

[Zachary Davis]

So my turn on the box.
I have a few ranged characters.
I have a strait up fighter who uses bow(IMO better then the archer archetype), soon to dip into Wizard and eventually an Arcane Archer
A new Hunter build(Who happens to worship Erastil)
A Divine Hunter(also follows Erastil)
A dwarven ranger(stole the idea from Harsk) who uses a crossbow style feats. Who exclusively hunts Giants...tangant(really want the new update to drop)

All of them are unique, all have strengths and weakness and with the new Player Companions that came out recently, ie Ranged Tactics Toolbox and the Giant Hunter Handbook, how can it not be fun.

[Brigg]

I had a character specialized in Dirty Tricks and support. All of his spells and bardic performances were designed to boost the party. He saved his Swift/Immediate actions for Gallant/Timely Inspiration and Saving Finale

He toted a Wand of Grease to cause bigger targets to fall down and go boom. A Wand of Glue Seal (much later) to glue enemy potions shut.

And when the going got tough, he ran around, gouged eyes, gave galactic wedgies, kicked dudes in the crotch, wiped boogers on people, farted in their general direction, unfastened women's clothing, pulled out a chunk of a Dwarf's beard and mashed it in the enemy's face...the list goes on. Dirty Tricks are fun; especially when you have +24 to every attempt.

Never did he deal a lethal blow to another living being. But every team loved him, and loved to have him around. He's level 13.2 now due to Eyes of the Ten, and now a venture captain. But playing him through PFS was an absolute blast!

You can have fun without killing stuff. If you'd like a copy of the build, just PM me.

[Sammy T]

Heck, I theorycrafted a dual Repeating Handcrossbow wielding Barbarian on a dare (Savage Technologist 9/Alchemist 2)--one version focused on dual shooting with his third arm pressing the reload levers and the other version focused on firing until empty and then beating you to death with the empty weapons.

[Cao Phen]

I got/theorycrafted:

- Barbarian with high resiliency, health, and able to recover more quickly when healed
- Total Defense Halfling
- Magic Missile Man
- A very knowledgeable swordsman when he crits.
- A knight of Iomadae that will automatically strike evil-doers for the crimes they committed.
- Witch in Full Plate
- Anit-Magic Dwarf
- Captain Falcon
- Undetectable Shadow of Sneakyness
- Usain Bolt
- Rock Thrower of DOOM!

[Andrew Christian]

I'm running an axe thrower currently (10th level) and have played them from level 1.

Shoanti Versatile Human Slayer. High Strength and started at 12 Dex.

Quick Draw allows you to throw weapons just like an Archer can shoot.
Blink Back Belt (while it disallows other belts to bump up your stats, it has a nifty ability that makes throwing weapons more viable.)
Improved Two-weapon Fighting (through the Ranger Combat Style feats so don't need to meet prerequisites).

Throwing or melee 2 throwing axes for 4 attacks per round at 1d6 + 4 damage not including favored target bonuses.

Took Far Shot and Distance Thrower to negate penalties to throw out to 30 feet, and then 31 to 40 feet is -1 and 41 to 50 feet is -2.

Will take either Double Slice or Close Thrower at 11th level.

[Andrew Christian]

Have a build I'm contemplating but haven't built yet.

Stone Shaman Gnome that specializes in rock throwing. Could be quite effective and interesting.

[Walter Sheppard]

Feel free to build anything you'd like for PFS. Just instead of running your character concept by your GM, run it by the Guide to Organized Play and the additional resources to make sure it's PFS legal.

I find it to be a lot more liberating because I never have to ask permission for a character concept, I just check the guidelines. It also lets me make characters at 3 AM, any night of the week.

Some of my concepts:
Brother of the Seal PRC - this is an awesome PRC that I've never seen before
Battle Oracle / Bodyguard specialist - use surprising charge to get within range then use AOOs to Bodyguard for +8 or more AC
Low Templar - another awesome PRC, mine is a slayer/fighter/templar uses Dirty Trick to great effect
Transmutation support wizard - utilize underused buffs, like bear's endurance to support your team
Dwarven Foehammer - use a longhammer with bull rush/trip to chain slam/trip people and provoke tons of AOOs

[G-Zeus]

18 str 17 dex (+2 human) 9 con,int,wis,cha. All lvl upgrades to dex to get it to 20. Feats, catch off guard and toughness (point blank if you are playing YOLO strats).
Congratulations you now have a character that is ranged but has more melee potential then most of your friends. When things are within 5ft you hit them with your bow instead of arrows.
Want to mess around more? Your character is now a bard. Now you inspire to increase your dmg even further.
Hmm not enough dmg for you? Why not arcane duelist bard, now as a swift you do +1 more dmg on top of your +1 from inspire.
But gzeus what about the spells? Don't sweat it you get the free wand activations and scrolls, also your dealing 1d6 or 1d8( trait for longbow) +5 dmg every turn. By level three your doing 2d6+10 Per turn. By level 7 you have a headband and belt so you can now cast allegro and you have an arane bond.

[Dorothy Lindman]

I described several different paradigms of fictional archers and how to build them in this post.

Since then, Advanced Class Guide and the Ranged Tactics Toolbox has introduced a few neat tricks:
Someone already mentioned the Bolt Ace. The Swashbuckler Flying Blade archetype also has some possibilities--it could combine well with a knife master rogue.(ACG)

The Far Strike Monk looks amazing--Thrown Weapon "pounce" with Shot on the Run! My next ranged build will probably be one of these.(RTT)

There's a new Throwing Magus arcana that lets you add Throwing and Returning to your weapon. I've already seen wand wielder maguses get a lot of utility out of the True Strike/Thrown Weapon combo in spell combat; this just makes that combo even more viable. (And hey, you can stand out by being a magus who doesn't cast Shocking Grasp.)(RTT)

Juggler Bard archetype looks fun. I had kludged together a juggler who throws weapons out of her pattern before (took several feats to pretend to do it, and there was table variation). This archetype is a lot cleaner and more useful. (RTT)

Of course, there's always the hurling barbarian or caber-tossing fighter. You won't have a lot of range, but Two Handed Thrower is so much fun.

[Thomas Graham]

I have my 'Hawkeye' character. Runt, a forlorn who grew up inTien, he's an alchemist (Grenadier) with two efficient quivers, LOTS of durable arrow types, explosive missile, tanglefoot bombs, and a handful of large arrows he puts on the floor before drinking his enlarge person/mutagen/bull strength combo to really make life fun for the bad guys.

Large durable cold iron arrows infused with all manner of Alchemical fun via an adaptive bow. Bad guys go BOOOM

The most fun I haven't done yet? The use of paint arrows to taunt bad guys. Cause a ranged touch of hot pink to the face is SO fun.

[Martin Weil]

Barbarian with the Urban Barbarian archetype, for the switch hitter, using the +4 to Dex when fighting ranged, +4 to Str when going into melee.

[Bill Baldwin]

'Archer' Characters:

Alchemist (Grenadier) 14: Half his effectiveness is his bombs. The other half is his ability to hand out a large number of buffs via infusion. Several characters that play with him already refer to him as their "Pusher."

Paladin3/Gunslinger(Mysterious Stranger)7: Rapid fires a double barrel pistol.

Ranger (Urban Ranger)3: Most standard 'archer' I have. I plan on picking up a feat at 5th that lets him ride his dire rat animal companion (which has a swim and climb speed).

Swashbuckler (Flying Blade)1: Very ineffective offensively at low levels (though he is defensively effective enough to tank) but should really start to shine around 7th level.

Concept I have been tinkering with:

A warpriest that uses shurikens (that do 1d6 at 1st level)

[Caderyn]

I dont think there are any unique builds, considering the size of the campaign everything has been done before, the point is to find something you enjoy and play that.

I personally enjoyed my ST based brother of the seal, although 1 rounding both the King AND Queen of the Storval stairs in 1 full attack was a little disappointing after all the reviews I heard about the difficulty of that scenario I was hoping for something a bit more solid for the final combat.

The problem for me being after 20 something characters I am running out of non-optimised builds to try.

Tempted to run a Melee summoner who only summons his eidolon in emergencies (never calls it).

[BigNorseWolf]

By PFS legal rules I have a tiefling that snatches peoples weapons into his tail, a swashbuckling kitsune who's movement patterns look like a strip of the family circus, a neigh indestructable gnome cleric collecting his own zombie dance troupe with banshee backup singers,a drunken tengu archer that uses his own arrows for fletching, a sorcerer not even half as smart as his familiar, and a kangaroo pouch riding gnome.
In druids alone I have a faux rogue druid, a meatshield druid, and a druid that belly rubs the dungeon into submission.

If a rule is in place there's usually a good reason for it. Its not enough to stop the fun or stop creative builds.

[Andrew Christian]

Luring Cavalier is fun, cause you get to make a ranged challenge. I combined this with alchemist.

[Dave Baker]

Kessara Jerendi, the original Kess, not to be confused with that brute that calls herself Kess, the most Humble Holy Archer of Abadar, winner of Absalom's Best Dressed Pathfinder three years running and Best New Designer of 4712 at your service.

Human light-crossbow wielding Cleric of Abadar (13). Feat progression of Point Blank and Precise at level 1, Rapid Reload at 3, followed by your choice of Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus at 5/7.

Items focused on increasing shooting ability (belt of dex/con +4), cracked pale green prism ioun stone, straight +4 enchanted x-bow, etc.

There is little stopping virtually any class from being a super-fun, and unique archer.

[Ian Eastmond]

I don't find the PFS guidelines for character creation and organized play any more or less restricting than the house rules of every single 3.5 & PFRPG campaign I've ever been in. Although a DM may allow 3rd-party material in his home game, there's usually a balancing act or penalty involved to try to make things interesting and challenging.

I give major kudos to anyone involved in PFS organization at any level, it's a dang good job done for many years now and is always my main event at any gaming Con.

Just my 2 cents.

[Deussu]

A unique build? Well, if I'd tell you, it wouldn't be unique no more, now would it?

Okay okay.

Monk (Zen Archer) 1/Sorcerer (wildblooded (brutal) 4/Rogue (Scout) 3/Arcane Trickster 4

HOORAY!

[Zachary Davis]

I have a samurai/swashbuckler in the works. He is going to be really weak for the first coupl of levels, hince why he will be a GM baby.

[Derek Weil]

Mutli-classing gunslinger with a number of classes can be very powerful, especially at higher levels of play.

Gunslinger 5/ Inquisitor 5: Dex to damage plus bane against Touch AC? Yes, please.

Gunslinger 5/ Paladin anything: Dex to damage plus SMITE v. Touch. Amaze-balls!

Multiclass with bard: Buff, face, shoot the crap out of things. Seems pretty versatile.

Multiclass with ranger: guns and favored enemy!

The list goes on.

Now, maybe you don't like guns in your fantasy, or something similar. In some regions gunslingers are pretty rare, making actually playing one somewhat unique.

[ohako]

I just wrote up a summoner myself. Not, like, some wacky blood summoner of doom and fluffy bunnies. Just a summoner. And no weird spell choices or anything, really. Kinda neat, you know, haste as a 2nd-level spell, a big green eidolon...fun!

[Ragoz]

One of my current characters is pretty unique.

Void Wizard 1 / Eldritch Knight 6 / Arcane Archer 2

...hes a human and a legal build. Most players won't be able to recreate this if they tried.

[Zachary Davis]

That sounds fun. I think?

[Ragoz]

Mine? He has only lost 1 bab and 2 caster levels. If you ever wanted to be an actual arcane archer this is about as good as it gets. By the time you get arcane archer's imbue arrows you have reached 4th lvl spells which is fairly respectable (emergency force spheres and named bullets).

[Zachary Davis]

Yeah, im taking a stansdard route for Arcane Archer.
Fighter 6/ Wizard 1
thinking either jumping in next level or gaining a second level of wizard.
I should have went ranger instead of Fighter though.

[Ragoz]

Yeah the normal entry without early entry prestige class is rough. The fighter build traded 5 levels of spell casting for 1 feat pretty much. EK is actually what makes this all come together. It's a fairly strong prestige class despite its lack of class features.

[RainyDayNinja]

Ragoz wrote:

One of my current characters is pretty unique.

Void Wizard 1 / Eldritch Knight 6 / Arcane Archer 2

...hes a human and a legal build. Most players won't be able to recreate this if they tried.

I'm fairly sure that isn't legal. How are you getting the 3rd-level spell to qualify for Eldritch Knight?

[Sammy T]

I am also intrigued by how you got the all Martial weapon requirement for the EK without a martial.

I'm suspecting some boons are being leveraged to meet the requirements but I could be wrong.

(eta: I'm guessing from his profile he has a Shard of Greed to meet his spellcasting requirement)

[Giamo Casanunda]

totally unique 14th level Cleric (with no archtypes) - Domains Travel and Love....

;-)

it's all in how you play your PC - not what classes he has!

[Ragoz]

Retraining and Arcane Archer meet all the requirements.

(Also yes being greedy helps)

[BigNorseWolf]

You can't retrain into a prestige class

[deusvult]

One of my PFS characters is a gunslinger(mysterious stranger)/sorcerer. I think the stormborn bloodline makes a ton of sense for a gun-totin' gunslinger... The fury of thunder is a natural match for firearms!

[Ragoz]

Nobody has retrained into a prestige class.

[Sammy T]

I don't the particulars or timeline of your rebuild, but you can't retrain a base class into a prestige class. And once you trained out of whatever class qualified you for Eldritch Knight, you no longer qualify for it.

Like I said, I don't know the time line of your build but it looks illegal and would need to be corrected.

[Ragoz]

Arcane Archer grants martial weapon proficiency.

[Sammy T]

Oh, I absolutely understand that, but since it has pre-req of BAB +6, you had to take something until you qualified for it, which could not be the EK since it requires the martial training. Sorry if it seems like we're picking on you, but your build is outside the norm and since it's hard to piece together, it sets off the Hmmmmmm alarm. How the heck did you build your snowflake?

[Exguardi]

He retrained a base class into another base class once his requirements were met by his prestige class.

So, Magus gives martial proficiency for Eldritch Knight. The Shard gives the spell for EK. Eventually Eldritch Knight gives BAB for Arcane Archer. At this point he qualifies for EK without Magus. Magus level becomes a wizard level. Voila, snowflake.

[Sammy T]

Ah!

[Ragoz]

Aaaand that's the story of how this character is PFS unique while any home game GM slaps you.