A Study of Slayers, A Class Guide

[Faelyn]

Opuk0 wrote:

Captain Morgan wrote:

Opuk0 wrote:

Will you eventually be adding anything for other races?

I have a friend who's playing a Catfolk Slayer, but she's have a hard time deciding build-wise what to do.

She wants to be rogueish and do all the typical rogue things so she went dex focused with a rapier, but she also wants to do a lot of damage (especially since she feels like she's falling behind the paladin with a glaive and 18 str, and my elven grenadier alchemist.), but also took the Ranger Style talent to get Crossbow Style.

It's kinda led to the DM having to give her free stat boosts so she feels useful.

I would actually use the Unchained Rogue for that sort of focus. Dex to damage is pretty clutch, and you get Weapon Finesse free to help offset the Slayer feat edge. And more sneak attack dice.

One of the strengths of the Slayer is it doesn't need to have high dexterity for traditional high dex styles.

I'd told her about Unchained Rogue when we were first doing character creation, but she really wanted to stick to Slayer.

Suggest to her an Inspired Blade dip... that will get her Weapon Focus: Rapier and the ability to then pickup Fencing Grace. A paladin with a two-handed weapon and 18 strength is going to a large amount of damage anyway compared to a Dex build (unless you go with a two-handed finesse weapon and Unchained rogue for 1.5 Dex to damage...) simply based upon the extra damage done.

Slayers are really best when you devote to strength and Unchained Rogue is definitely the sweet spot if you want Dexterity to be your primary damage stat.

[Melkiador]

I really do need to add the class specific magic items to the guide, but advice for an individual character is better achieved in a specific advice request.

[strayshift]

I would add a few words within the introduction about the slayer's role within a party's balance, for example if you are the sole h2h combatant your lighter armour and less likelihood of being able to sneak attack may make the class less attractive, likewise against a rogue there are certain situations (e.g. finding magical traps) where you may feel disadvantaged.

The class to me depends a lot on contextual elements within the game in order to evaluate its abilities. There are a lot of caveats with this class, in some games it will shine, in others... not so much.

Also when I first saw this class I compared it to a fighter (10 combat feats, full armour & weapon proficiency, training and bravery) set against (medium armour, studied target, 4 slayer talents, 6 advanced, sneak attack, better saves, more skill points, quarry/advance) and I thought it slightly better, I still do, but I do think it less able to fullfill a 'point of the spear' type role.

[Major_Blackhart]

I was wondering if this guide was going to get updated at all with the latest options for slayers and the like.
Lots of stuff came out from ultimate intrigue and the related books, and slayers can definitely make use of armor and weapon master's handbooks.

[Melkiador]

I would like to update it someday soon. Unfortunately, I don't have Ultimate Intrigue yet. I have also heard that one of the new player companions has some Slayer options, but I don't have access to that yet either.

[Grond]

I can't remember if the Dragon one did but Horror Adventures has new archetypes for several classes which includes slayers.

[thatotherguy12]

Sir, I would argue that sneak attack is by far the greatest ability a slayer has as far as combat goes, and here's why: Feint and Two weapon fighting.

Take Favored skill bluff, and grab an item that can boost you even a bit more. When fighting your studied target you get bonuses to bluff. I am currently level 10 and against my studied target I have a +24 to bluff. meaning Feint basically always succeeds, and with two weapon feint I give up my first attack to basically remove the targets dex bonus for the entire round, since you can take improved feint and such. Now you're doing sneak attack on every single attack, arguably hitting almost every time, since you should have a high bonus on your weapon and you take the finesse line and stack dex. My slayer at level 10 averages around 90 damage per round, with deadly sneak. Because deadly sneak is actually pretty damn good if you're rolling 12 sneak attack dice per round.(You also variant multiclass into rogue, for extra sneak attack dice)

[Major_Blackhart]

I like feinting, but at the same time I'm less enthused about it vs something akin to an intimidation based build via Vanguard Slayer (my favorite archtype) or even using ranger combat styles to get Shattered Defenses, etc.

[Ciaran Barnes]

I'm just looking at this for the first time. Here's some feedback.

Studied Target
This gives a bonus on DCs, but there aren't many available to the class. Perhaps a compiled list of all options that do so?

Quarry
You didn't mention the bit about critical confirmation rolls. Calling this a "track heavy" ability is only acknowledging half of the class feature. Using a standard action to activate it isn't so terrible if you think of it like a buff spell you cast on yourself. Many caster/martial builds rely on casting a spell before jumping in.

Studied Ally
I would rank this as orange instead of green. There are ways to boost aid another, but it requires investment. In all my years of gaming, it is something I see very rarely during combat. A full BAB warrior has better things to do than use its standard action to give someone a boost. My point is, it is conditionally good, and that makes it orange.

Slowing Strike
It is worth noting that this is one of the few abilities that can take advantage of the part of studied target that lets you increase a DC.

Powerful Sneak
I don't agree with your math that this increases damage by a mere +1/6. If 1-6 averages out to 3.5, and 2-6 averages out to 4, then that is an increase of +1/2. There is the -2 penalty to attack, but I'm not sure how that changes the math.

Skills
-I agree that climb, swim, and heal don't need maxed out ranks, but many guides point out that 1 rank is usually sufficient to use the skill when needed.
-Knowledge dungeeoneering and local each have creature types associated with them, so that makes them handier than those with none. Oozes and aberrations are not as common and creatures associated with other knowledge skills, and humanoids don't have many abilities and vulnerabilities one needs to be aware of. I would bump these down to green.
-I have a hard time taking your ranking of ride seriously when you rank craft and profession higher than it. Barring campaign where certain craft or profession skills become useful or even usable, I would rank ride as more important due to situations where mounting or dismounting quickly would be be helpful. This could be another 1 rank skill.
-My personal feeling is that stealth should be a blue skill for this class, but honestly it has limited use in the typical campaing. Allies screw up stealth checks, and going solo is generally good (there are exceptions). Green might be more accurate.