Character build advice for new player.

[Logan Holt]

My fiance has just started playing Pathfinder so she is still very new to the rules. Her current character in a kingmaker campaign is a ranger archer built with bullseye shot and Vital strikes. She enjoyed it for the big hit and decent damage. She added Greater designating to her bow to be better party support since she basically never missed.

We're close to wrapping up our current campaign so the next campaign we will be playing in Wrath of the Righteous. Characters can only worship Asmodeus and it is strongly preferred we be Lawful Evil. She wants to play an archer again, but she wants this one to feel radically different. She is still less than comfortable with role-playing but she wants to try more. (Some interaction skills, but not party face.) She wants a good number of skills, and was leaning towards playing a rogue. She is struggling with how to do reliable damage as a rogue when she can not flank. She definitely does not want an overly complicated build, and does not want a min/maxed build.

The players in this group are not optimizer. (her bullseye shot and Vital Strike build is the strongest damage in the group unless the groups cavalier is mounted to give an idea of their builds.)

[Helikon]

Lawful evil Zen archer monk. ;-)
Lawful evil Asmodeus Inquisitor. ;-)
Booth very workable. Booth not tooo difficult.
Booth fun.

[Charon's Little Helper]

A Snakebit Striker Brawler might fit the bill. It still has sneak attack - but it's much less reliant upon it, and with Brawler's Flurry it doesn't have to worry about two weapon fighting. Plus it has decent skills.

If she wants to go rogue - a ninja isn't as reliant upon flanking as starting at level 2 if they get Vanishing Trick they can turn invisible on their own. Just make sure she does it at the end of her turn for defense - and the 1st attack of her next turn gets sneak attack.

[TheBlackPlague]

Helikon wrote:

Lawful evil Zen archer monk. ;-)

Lawful evil Asmodeus Inquisitor. ;-)

I was actually about to say both these things exactly. Both can have a smattering of social skill for good roleplaying without needing to be the party face, both are relatively simple (a good step up from a basic ranger archer, I think?), and both deal solid damage.

[Logan Holt]

Ok, both of those sound pretty good. Any advice on particulars for either build, things you would do.

[Helikon]

Inquisitor:
I made myself some cards to show wich Judgement I use, with the boni. Worked awesomely.
Inquisitor is better skillwise, and can take a few of the archetypes to go to town, cold iron, i am looking at you,
Monk is faster and has a better ref saves

[Helikon]

Inquisitor:
I made myself some cards to show wich Judgement I use, with the boni. Worked awesomely.
Inquisitor is better skillwise, and can take a few of the archetypes to go to town, cold iron, i am looking at you,
Monk is faster and has a better ref saves
Oh and flavorwise... sorry sounds chauvenistic but asmodeus is the epitome, if you play an inquisitor, play a male char.

[pennywit]

Hmmm ... How about an inquisitor with a crossbow?

[Charon's Little Helper]

pennywit wrote:

Hmmm ... How about an inquisitor with a crossbow?

Crossbows require an extra feat - and frankly - they're subpar to using a bow. (Unless you go Bolt Ace. But that wouldn't be an inquisitor at all then.)

[RumpinRufus]

Inquisitor sounds like a good choice.

Also - are you sure you mean Wrath of the Righteous, and not Way of the Wicked? I haven't played WotR, but my impression is that LE worshippers of Asmodeus are not really the intended party.

[Nyaa]

pennywit wrote:

Hmmm ... How about an inquisitor with a crossbow?

Don't forget to use water balloons as ammunition.

[Logan Holt]

RumpinRufus wrote:

Also - are you sure you mean Wrath of the Righteous, and not Way of the Wicked? I haven't played WotR, but my impression is that LE worshippers of Asmodeus are not really the intended party.

Way of the wicked is definitely what I meant. I can't edit it. This is why you don't type and read at the same time.

[Drogos]

I've got a 9 Inquisitor/1 Fighter Archer in PFS. Here's some tips I've found for ease of play for mine:

1 - Cards/Notes for each Judgement is vital. You're likely only going to use it for Accuracy then Damage, but since they scale by level and at different rates depending on what you're choosing, keeping each bonus straight in your head is futile. And sometimes you need more than just to hit and damage.

2 - Use something to keep track of bane rounds per day. My preference is little glass beads that I drop back into my dice bag as I spend them.

3 - Between Bane, Judgement, Teamwork Feats, and normal feats, there are a metric ton of things to keep track of that modify your attacks. I find the way I keep track of it all best is to calculate as many of them as possible ahead of time so I keep an attack line for With Bane or Without Bane and for each of Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, within 30 ft, Target being threatened or Flanked (cause teamwork feats factor in then), and all possible permutations therein. That way, I just make the changes for active Judgement and range as I'm rolling. Functionally, these are kept up on 4 Note Cards (rather 2 front and back):

A) Within 30ft Bane off
B) Within 30ft Bane on
C) Greater than 30ft Bane off
D) Greater than 30ft Bane on

I keep my damage calculation at the top right corner (total Deadly Aim modifier in parentheses) and on the lines below a notation of what is active and my total to hit adder. I really get hit hard when I swap weapons, but for my main one, it works pretty well.

4 - Keeping track of Swift actions is incredibly important on an Inquisitor, something I doubt she had to worry about on her Ranger. She'll need to understand which abilities take Swift to activate and remember that she only has one of those a round.

It seems like a lot, but really, it's just keeping track of the game board.

[Pink Dragon]

Logan Holt wrote:

Ok, both of those sound pretty good. Any advice on particulars for either build, things you would do.

For the Zen Archer build I would pick up a level of sorcerer (Wildblooded Empyreal bloodline to work with the Wisdom) in order to get access to mage armor, shield and true strike.

[SmiloDan]

I played a 3.5 ninja that had a similar vanish ability. I liked the combination of at need invisibility and Shot on the Run. I could start out hidden behind a tree, move 15 feet, shoot & sneak attack, move 15 feet, and hide behind a boulder.

Maybe combined with Zen archer Monk? Do they still get a speed boost?

[Dafydd]

Hunter is also an option. Kill off the pet (should not be too hard, you are evil anyway) and gain the constant focus for yourself. Get Gravity Bow and Aspect of the Falcon. Precise Shot for free at 2nd. Skillful (6+int).