Help needed building a Rogue or Skirmisher Ranger build for Rise of the Runelords

[famey]

As a new player I would like to get some advice on a build either a Ranger Skirmisher with a focus on archery or a Rogue for the RoTRL AP.

All official material is allowed; races etc.

The group (3) consists of a dhampir swashbuckler, a human wizard and me. Love playing a sneakish character however the more I read about the rogue they seem to underpowered especially as a lot of the damage is circumstantial (flanking etc.).

Ranger: Based on the ROTRL player companion a dwarf would probably be nice to play however going archery based human probably fits well as well.
Rogue: Human seems to make most sense.

What do you guys advice playing?

[Mellok]

A Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor will hit the middle between those two and will give you a strong ranged support and lots of face skills.

[Blave]

With only three players, I'd say go for melee. A single melee guy will have trouble protecting two ranged characters, even more so if he's a non-tanky class like the swashbuckler.

Unchained rogue is completely fine to play. Yes, your main damage source is sneak attack which is situational. However, Dex to damage helps immensely to deal some decent damage without sneak. If you want even more damage, you can go with an elven curved blade which grants 1-1/2 times your dex bonus to damage and go for power attack (+ furious focus) for an even greater damage bonus.

This topic had some nice discussions about ways to build an effective unchained rogue.

[justaworm]

I'm hoping your GM adjusts several of the encounters for having only 3 people and no healing.

Another option to cover sneaky, melee, and healing is the Cult Leader (Warpriest). You can't channel with your group anyway because you'd always be potentially hurting one of your other PCs.

[Just a Mort]

Id go oracle. You can smack stuff and seeker of secrets gives you trapfinding, or bum off mummy's mask. Lunar will help you add more frontline, battle will let you join the frontline yourself.

Half orc, divine favour with fates favored rocks my socks.

I think there will be a problem on the total lack of healing.