Fluff (and a little crunch) help for Zen Archer


Advice


My group has been using the Pathfinder rules with homebrew worlds for quite some time, but we are finally going to play Rise of the Runelords. Since I don't know much about the world, I wanted some help getting my character to the starting location.

I plan to play an oread zen archer from Jalmeray. I'm not dead sold on that, but I like the feel of how the race, class, and location seem to gel from my little knowledge of the world. But I have no idea of how to get him to the starting point with any actual hooks to the adventure.

Since he is going to have a high wisdom but a charisma in the crapper, I wanted to have a lot of just mind achingly dumb sounding stuff come out of his mouth. I am gathering a collection of Confucius says lines, and "insightful" dingle berries of wisdom like the Sphinx from Mystery Men liked to spout. If you have any to drop here, I would like to hear them.

And finally, I plan to take a trait that will boost init, and then I may take rich parents so that I can start with a good masterwork mighty bow. But is there another trait I should consider for a zen archer? I mostly play casters, so I don't know what a fighter type really needs to succeed.


Well, for character personality, remember that Charisma is basically force of personality. You said high wisdom, low charisma, not low intelligence.

Low Charisma just means he has trouble getting people to listen to him. He could just be quiet and not talk much, or maybe he stutters, or that he constantly lets people talk over him instead of asserting himself.

Low Charisma tends to be more of a wallflower than dumb sounding. Or possibly he's just really rude and sarcastic and can't help but rolling his eyes at everybody and making cutting remarks that don't exactly endear him to people easily.

I rather like that last way of looking at it, actually. Intelligence is being able to learn from experience, Wisdom is being able to see from inference. You could play him as someone that is very insightful, but mainly uses that as a way to see the best way to make a biting comment.

As an archer, you're going to be maxing out Perception (due to the penalties to spotting things at range), so maybe he's quite good at spotting little details about someone, and piecing together what they mean, kind of like a sarcastic Sherlock Holmes.

Just because you're using a monk class archetype doesn't mean you have to be all zen meditation, and just because you have a high wisdom doesn't mean you have to be Mr. Miagi.

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For traits, I would avoid taking the init booster. You're not a rogue, you aren't getting sneak attack, so you have no real advantage to going first. Plus, since your attack stat is going to be Wisdom as soon as you hit lvl 3, your Dex likely isn't going to be stellar to start with, so you're unlikely to reliably go first anyway.

Rich Parents can be tricky, its a huge boost at lvl 1, and then becomes completely worthless at level 2. It increases your starting gold, but it does nothing for your wealth by level, which means you'll get pretty much nothing for a while.

I'd say you're probably better off picking up the opposite of Rich Parents (thematically), and go with Poverty Stricken to get Survival as a class skill. Your huge Wisdom is going to make you an effortless tracker, and assuming a Wisdom of 16, it would give you a Survival check of +8 at lvl 1, which means you can Take 10 and feed yourself and 4 other people in the wild, eliminating the need for trail rations for the whole party (for the most part).

With Survival, Stealth, Perception, and Climb you'd make an excellent scout/sniper.

Another idea for a trait that you wouldn't normally think of, Alchemical Adept. Tangleshot arrows are going to be *VERY* good for you (the saves only keep them from being glued to the floor, they get the -4 dex and -2 attack for the full duration no matter what they do), the ability to make your own, as well as poisons for your arrows, will be quite useful.

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Also, how married are you to the race? I ask because if you go Half-Orc, you can pick up the racial feat Keen Scent. Gives you the scent ability permanently.

Why is that important? Pheromone Arrows.
Your biggest mechanical issue is going to be actually hitting things with either your 3/4 BAB, or your Flurry. Those extra flurry shots don't mean as much when the penalties make them unlikely to hit. First round you can fire off a Pheromone arrow and then a tangleshot arrow, and you're sitting at an effective +4 to all your attacks. Thats a huge boost that is going to make the tail end flurry shots *MUCH* more effective. And you can fire those arrows as part of your flurry. Plus, since you have Scent, if you shoot something that then gets away, it reeks to high heavens for you so you get massive bonuses to your Survival check to hunt it down again. Badguy running away? Tag it with a pheromone arrow and it pretty much can't hide from you.

One point in Craft (Bows) and you can make your own arrows easily, the Craft (Alchemy) ranks will let you make your own tangleshot and pheromone arrows, and not only will you be drastically upping your own firepower, the tangleshot arrows benefit your entire party.

Plus, if you start with that 1 rank in Craft (Bows), you can ask your GM if you can craft your own starting bow. Max starting gold + only paying 1/3rd normal price for your bow and arrows means you can get a longbow and 3 quivers full of arrows and still have plenty of gold left over for the rest of your gear, without burning a trait for it.


What do your scores look like? Because for Zen Archers I would say go with lower Dex (compared to Str and Wis, and maybe Con), and just use your fists for the first two levels.


GeneMemeScene wrote:
What do your scores look like? Because for Zen Archers I would say go with lower Dex (compared to Str and Wis, and maybe Con), and just use your fists for the first two levels.

15 pt buy; going from memory s14/d14/c12/i8/w18/c6

I thought about using a quarter staff for the first level, but I don't really know of a trait that really helps me much.


Edymnion wrote:
Or possibly he's just really rude and sarcastic and can't help but rolling his eyes at everybody and making cutting remarks that don't exactly endear him to people easily.

I thought about going that way, but I think that spouting annoying wise sayings will be a lot more fun for me. Don't key in to much on the "dumb sounding" choice of words I used. Think more of jokes and advice that make everyone want to plug their ears and run away.

Edymnion wrote:
Why is that important? Pheromone Arrows.

No. Just no. No offense to people who like that idea, but for me, at the risk of being repetitive, no.


Melvin the Mediocre wrote:
Edymnion wrote:
Why is that important? Pheromone Arrows.
No. Just no. No offense to people who like that idea, but for me, at the risk of being repetitive, no.

Why not?

15g for +2 hit and +2 damage for the entire combat for a character that is going to have trouble hitting things with even moderate ACs is a really good thing.


I agree with not taking rich parents, I took it for my ZA monk and within about 3 sessions, we had gold for days.

If you took Irori as your deity (a common enough one for a monk) there's a religion trait called "Wisdom in the Flesh" that lets you use your WIS mod rather than STR/CON/DEX for any skill, and makes that a class skill for you, odds are you're WIS will be significantly better than the others so you can give yourself some more flexibility. For example, maybe pick-up Disable Device, or Slight of Hand.

Anatomist gives a small bonus to confirming crits, and with Flurry+Perfect strike you'll have good odds of critting, so it's a good way to help make them stick, especially considering the penalties we face.

Killer gives your crit modifier as extra damage on a crit, so it's a handy +3 damage to you're crits (which should be common).

Statuesque for Oreads could be fun and open up some tactical options if you invest in disguise, we wrapped RotRL a few weeks ago and let's just say some people have very tacky decor tastes, so a marble statue wouldn't be so out of place, then, PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW, that statue of an archer is actually an archer and you're enemy is now a pin cushion.

None of these will be particularly game breaking but offer their own flexibility. As for your hook to be in the area, maybe you're just out to explore the world and heard tales of the Swallow tail festival. The House of Blue Stones is a monk temple dedicated to Irori in Sandpoint, maybe you're there for instruction, or as an honoured guest from the distant land of Jalmeray to demonstrate Zen Archery for Varisian pupils who may be unfamilliar.

Scarab Sages

You should swap Dex and Con. You'll want the 14 con, and the extra point of Dex is going to be worthless after 3.


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Proley wrote:

The House of Blue Stones is a monk temple dedicated to Irori in Sandpoint, maybe you're there for instruction, or as an honoured guest from the distant land of Jalmeray to demonstrate Zen Archery for Varisian pupils who may be unfamilliar.

Thanks Proley! That is exactly the kind of help I needed. I didn't know enough about the world to come up with a good hook like that.

I will also take a look at statuesque.

On another note, here are some dingle berries of wisdom that might get someone's creative juices flowing:

man who keep feet on ground have trouble putting on pants
in order to defeat our enemies, first we must defeat our selves
squirrel who runs up woman's leg not find nuts
man who eat crackers in bed wake up feeling crummy
man who live in glass house, should change in basement
man who leap off cliff jump to conclusion
man who lay woman on ground, get piece on earth
man who sit on tack, get point
man who sit on upturned tack, rise above all
man who put face in punchbowl, get punch in nose
man who go to bed with itchy butt wake up with smelly fingers
The best way to keep your word is not to give it.
Even a fish can escape being caught, if it keeps its mouth shut.

The Sphinx quotes
"You must lash out with every limb, like the octopus who plays the drums."
"Learn to hide your strikes from your opponent and you'll more easily strike his hide."
"He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions."
"Do not go there, my son! When you doubt your powers, you give power to your doubts."


"What is the sound of one hand striking?" <strikes>

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