New Bolt Ace Build: Trying to Max Out Damage and / or AC


Advice


Well hello there ladies and gentlemen.
Today I come to the vast pool of Pathfinder Knowledge in hopes of getting advice on maximizing The AC and damage potential of this character.

Currently I have no armor selected for it and I have a Light Repeating Crossbow.
The reason for the light crossbow and not the heavy is because this character has a hook for a left hand and the only repeating weapon I could reasonably use with a hook was the light crossbow(Believe me when I say convincing the DM of how the character loads the darn thing was fun).

The stats I rolled for this character are

STR: 12
DEX: 15
CON: 12
INT: 12
WIS: 19(after the +2 granted by being a human)
CHA: 13

The feats I have selected are
Extra Grit
Point Blank Shot
Rapid Shot
Rapid Reload
Crossbow Mastery

The character's current level is 5th(Starting Level for my group)
and he has the Crossbow Training for Light Repeating XBow
and the deeds
Sharp Shooter
and Gunslinger's Initiative.

Aside from that i have a short sword for when things get a little too close for comfort.

I have a starting gold budget of
10,500 gp so I have a lot of room to work with on this.


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Are you absolutely set on the repeater? Because, with rapid reload, anything short of heavy (excluding some of the weird ones) would be a free action to reload anyway (especially with the bolt ace's Inexplicable Reload ability reducing it even further). Crossbow mastery also seems a bit unnecessary (although it does mean no AoOs for reloading).

The easiest way I know of to max AC would be to go sword and board. And that is an actual option for you. Nothing about the gunslinger/bolt ace says you can't use shields. You just need a free hand for reloading (which you have if you use a buckler/light shield). Even the lack of shield proficiency is not a problem, since masterwork bucklers/light shields have no ACP (and thus no penalty for using them).

I know that this might not exactly go with the normal image of this class/archetype...but hey, having two items you can enhance for AC bonus means you can get them for cheaper.

Anyway, if you do use a shield, I suppose a hand crossbow might be a better weapon choice, since you only need one hand to shoot it.

Silver Crusade

I would actually swap wis and dex, or at least make them 17/17 at level 5 you will get Dex to your damage. So make use of it. (gotta hit too)


I'm rather curious about the massive wisdom investment on your character when dexterity is usually considered a far more important stat. After all, dexterity handles your offense and quite a bit of the defense too, while wisdom only really affects grit pool, will saves, and a couple skills.


lemeres wrote:

Are you absolutely set on the repeater? Because, with rapid reload, anything short of heavy (excluding some of the weird ones) would be a free action to reload anyway (especially with the bolt ace's Inexplicable Reload ability reducing it even further). Crossbow mastery also seems a bit unnecessary (although it does mean no AoOs for reloading).

The easiest way I know of to max AC would be to go sword and board. And that is an actual option for you. Nothing about the gunslinger/bolt ace says you can't use shields. You just need a free hand for reloading (which you have if you use a buckler/light shield). Even the lack of shield proficiency is not a problem, since masterwork bucklers/light shields have no ACP (and thus no penalty for using them).

I know that this might not exactly go with the normal image of this class/archetype...but hey, having two items you can enhance for AC bonus means you can get them for cheaper.

Anyway, if you do use a shield, I suppose a hand crossbow might be a better weapon choice, since you only need one hand to shoot it.

Yes I'm set on the repeater. This character still has a hook for a left hand which makes it harder to explain most other crossbows, Though I might just throw in a hand crossbow for the more stealthy jobs that come up.

Chengar Qordath wrote:
I'm rather curious about the massive wisdom investment on your character when dexterity is usually considered a far more important stat. After all, dexterity handles your offense and quite a bit of the defense too, while wisdom only really affects grit pool, will saves, and a couple skills.

You're right on the money with the will saves.

My group DM has a thing for mind altering effects and trying to get characters shaken.

Though I probably could afford to move the +2 over to dex and just have both stats at 17.

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