Can anyone help me tease out a build plan for a Flying Blade? i am open to all ideas though i have a lot of the basics picked out already. My big problem is that there are so many feats for ranged builds alone, adding the throwing feats into the mix gets silly.
Human for the extra feat and bump to Charisma.
Flying Blade for bonus damage and range
STR 10 DEX 13 CON 14 INT 10 WIS 12 CHA 18 (including human bonus)Feats:
1. Noble Scion of War
Human Bonus Feat. Divine Fighting Technique for Desna
3. Point Blank Shot
4 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Precise Shot
5. Quick Draw
7. Ricochet Toss (assuming Flying Blade Training qualifies)
8 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Rapid Shot
9. Deadly Aim
11. Combat Reflexes
12 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Weapon Focus: Starknife
13. Weapon Specialization: Starknife
15. Startoss Style
16 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Startoss Comet
17. Startoss showeri assume most games will end around level 13 but kept the idea going because there are so many more feats to look at. i would still like Improved Initiative, Clustered Shots, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specilization somewhere in there too.
Is it better to switch to Fighter after level 5 to pick up more feats and bump the Fort save?
I could save a feat by relying on a Blinkback Belt since so much is keyed off of Charisma in the build.
Where could i do better?
That looks pretty good to me, but here are a few tweaks you might consider.
1. You might consider replacing the Noble Scion feat with Point Blank Shot, so that you can get the key ranged combat feats for throwing builds (Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Shot) more quickly. And it doesn't seem the Noble Scion: War feat is getting you that much -- it only gives you a +3 bonus to initiative, which is less than you'd get by just taking the Improved Initiative feat. And initiative isn't *that* important for martial builds (as compared to, say, battlefield-control-focused casters).
2. I would definitely get the Blinkback Belt to save yourself a feat, and to allow you to get the Rapid Shot feat earlier. (By ditching the Noble Scion and Ricochet Toss feats, you can get Precise Shot, Quick Draw and Rapid Shot by level 5. And given how incredibly good Rapid Shot is, I think you want it ASAP.)
3. I'd think about taking either the Clustered Shots feat or the Deadly Aim feat as the next feat you take once you've gotten the essentials out of the way (i.e., as your level 7 feat). Deadly Aim isn't quite as good as Power Attack is for melee two-handers, but you'll start to meet a lot of DR-heavy creatures at these levels, and Deadly Aim makes a huge difference in how effective you'll be against such creatures. And Deadly Aim will usually add a fair bit to your DPR in ordinary encounters against mid-AC creatures, too.
Clustered Shots is even better against DR-heavy creatures. But it doesn't do anything to boost your DPR in ordinary encounters against mid-AC creatures. So a matter of taste which to take first.
4. This is a matter of taste, but I'd probably take the Steadfast Personality feat (add cha bonus to Will saves against mind-affecting effects) ahead of feats that just add +2 damage to my ranged attacks (e.g., the Startoss feat chain). Will saves are a weak spot for you, and as a martial character, you're always 1 failed Dominate Person save away from killing the rest of your party. (I'd also consider taking the Iron Will feat.)
5. Again, this is a matter of taste, but if you dislike the idea of facing attacks of opportunity when making ranged attacks against creatures that have gotten close to you, and don't want to have to spend panache to do so, you might think about either getting the Point Blank Master feat, or the Signature Deed (Subtle Throw) feat. This isn't a *huge* deal, since the Subtle Throw deed allows you to spend panache to do this too. But it's something to consider.
So, for example, an alternate feat progression to consider might be something like this:
Feats:
1. Point Blank Shot
Human Bonus Feat. Divine Fighting Technique for Desna
3. Precise Shot
4. Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Quick Draw
5. Rapid Shot
7. Deadly Aim
8. Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Clustered Shots
9. Steadfast Personality
11. Signature Deed (Subtle Throw)
12. Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Weapon Focus (Starknife)
13. Iron Will
15. Startoss Style
16. Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Startoss Comet
17. Startoss Shower
Interesting, I should note that i was looking at Irrepressible and tactician as traits. I feel that Irrepressible covers most of the ground that Steadfast Personality does and saves a feat there.
I agree. If you take the Irrepressible trait, then there's no need to take the Steadfast Personality feat.
Noble Scion is a gift that scales though as Charisma is my most important stat and boosts my initiate as it grows. Without that my initiative will be ~+4 (1 dex, 2 class, 1 trait). with it i would be around +8. i suppose is comes down to how valuable is initiative vs PBS, PS and RS online a level earlier.
That's absolutely true. So a key question to ask for each of the early feats is: "would I prefer to take this feat, or (say) Improved Initiative (+4 init) at this level?" Since Improved Initiative didn't make it on to my list at all (and didn't make it on to your original list either), that suggests that maybe it's not worth it, given the competition...
(Note that taking Noble Scion at level 1 means you'll get Precise Shot at level 4 instead of level 3 (so one more level of painful -4 penalties while shooting into melee) and you'll get Rapid Shot at level 7 instead of level 5 (so two more levels of significantly lower DPR). And you likewise have to put off all of the other nice feats you wanted to get for 1-2 levels (Deadly Aim, Clustered Shots, ...). Ouch.)
But, of course, a lot of these decisions are a matter of taste!