Small archers.. Whats a good race / class combo?

[Merellin]

So.. I like small races, But have yet to actualy play one. And I'd like to try a archer aswell so I started pondering, Whats a good small race for archer, And what is a good archer class? Should I go for Goblin, Or Halfling, Or something else? For the class, Fighter, Zen Archer Monk, Ranger, Or something compleately diferent? I'd like to use bows, But also be able to use a melee weapon incase I run out of arrows, Or am low on arrows and want to save them for something specific.

[Scrapper]

not an Archer, Bow & Arrow type, but a Goblin Gunslinger/Alchemist might be a worth while range type. Halfling Monk with Shortbow Martial Feat, add weapon finesse and optionally Two Weapon Fighting & Two Weapon Defense if you can squeeze in those two after Point Blank Shot/Precise Shot/Rapid Shot. Halfling tend to be good with throwing weapons, and small size characters in general get that size bonus to Attack and Armor Class.

[Merellin]

Unfortunately Gunslinger wont work well in either of the two campaigns I'm in.. In one guns are very rare and in the other they are next to non existant.. And I wonder, Why pick a Shortbow over a Longbow? Longbows seem over all better.

[Saldiven]

For a straight Archer, consider:

Monkey Goblin: +4 Dex and no Str penalty.

Wayang: +2 Dex and no Str penalty.

To the best of my knowledge, all the other small races have a Str penalty. You're already going to take a small penalty to damage from being small due to the damage dice difference. No reason to take another damage penalty for the reduced Str bonus once you start getting Str to damage with the bow.

[Chess Pwn]

halfling paladin works quite well.

[Merellin]

Halfling Paladin? Hmm... Might be intresting to try for the saturday good party campaign.. Dident know you could make a effective archer paladin ^_^

[Percy Footman]

Divine Hunter Paladin Archetype gets Precise Shot at 1st level (replaces Heavy Armor Prof.)....

So a Halfling Divine Hunter can be very surprising...

[Chess Pwn]

Divine Hunter really helps out, any race can have PBS and precise at lv1, rapid shot at 3, deadly aim at 5, manyshot at 7.
and being small makes you really good at being a mobile turret riding something.
your a full bab archer that just destroy's any smited target a few times a day.

[Ectar]

You absolutely can.
The upside to playing an archer is lots of attacks per round.
The downside is that each arrow does low damage.
A smiting paladin can add tons of static damage to each arrow, significantly raising your damage per round.

They don't get a lot of feats, and you NEED precise shot in almost every party. Consider the divine hunter archetype if you're starting at level 1 or 2. They get precise shot instead of heavy armor.

edit:double ninja'd!

[Imbicatus]

Bolt ace gunslinger is also great for small races, the str penalty doesn't burn when you have dex to damage.

[Dave Justus]

Anything where a good portion of your damage comes from class abilities is usually good for a small character.

Paladins smite damage, Inquisitor's bane, Magus spell damage with spell strike, alchemist bomb damage are all examples of damage that is the same whether you are small or large. These type of classes will often hardly even notice the difference in damage between small and medium.

Beyond that though, in truth archery is powerful enough that a small character can really do just fine without anything special. A typical small race, (dex bonus, str penalty) is typically trading about -2 points of damage per shot (1 die type smaller base, 1 lower str bonus) for 1 point better accuracy (assuming your medium archer would have a racial attribute bonus to dex). Not a great trade admittedly, but with an extra point of AC as well, it isn't horrible.

It can be an especially nice trade for a 3/4 BAB char who is less likely to hit than a full bab character. Personally, I like archer bards and halflings work great for them. Even if you never hit with an arrow, you are probably going to be contributing quite a bit to combat just by inspiring courage, and if you invest your feats in archery you will be able to hit, and hit quite a lot for pretty good damage.

[Merellin]

Thanks for all the replies ^_^ Depending on what campaign I need a new character for first, I might try a Halfling Paladin (Good Campaign) Or maybe a Goblin or Kobold Alchemist (Evil Campaign)

[Matt2VK]

Another suggestion would be a Halfling Arrowsong Bard (archetype).

[Scott Wilhelm]

I was thinking I'd like to play a Grenadier Alchemist: Exploding Arrows are cool.

Ninja? Take Vanishing Trick and the False Attacker Rogue Talent. Vanishing Trick will let you turn Invisible as a Swift Action. You're Invisible; they don't get their Dex anymore, and you get your Sneak Attack Damage on your arrows. Use Vanishing Trick and/or then Stealthily hide somewhere. What False Attacker does is on a successful Bluff Check, your target thinks your attack came from somewhere else, and you don't break Stealth, and can keep shooting. Acquire a Mask of the Stony Demeanor: +5 on Feinting in Combat, +10 to tell lies.

[Paradozen]

You might ask about the Bestiary 5's Orang Pendak which is small sized and has a strength bonus. But they don't work for mounted builds and need a rank in linguistics or a high Intelligence score to speak common. Works well for an inquisitor or warpriest archer build, as well has most full BAB classes.

[Arutema]

Consider a halfling archery medium. Champion spirit bonus gives attack and damage. Champion seance boon gives damage. Halfling favored class bonus boosts the damage you're getting from the seance boon.

The downside is it's very feat-heavy. You want Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Spirit Focus, and possibly also Deadly Aim on a class that grants no bonus feats.

[Yondu]

Straight fighter work well also, with weapon training, WF, WS and full BAB, you can almost hit everything using deadly aim and Rapid shot, strength is less relevant in this case, especially with clustered shots, you only lose 1 damage for strength and 1 damage in average for size, but you gain a + 1 to hit due to size and + 1 due to dext bonus, so a Halfling is pretty good...
a goblin archer is a halfling under P.E.D., with + 4 in dexterity, after it is up to you if you want to play a small gnashing pyromaniac guy...you can even make it mounted on dogs..

[Imbicatus]

Paradozen wrote:

You might ask about the Bestiary 5's Orang Pendak which is small sized and has a strength bonus. But they don't work for mounted builds and need a rank in linguistics or a high Intelligence score to speak common. Works well for an inquisitor or warpriest archer build, as well has most full BAB classes.

Huh. I didn't realize Pathfinder has ewoks.

[Arkady Medvyed]

Paladin very definitely. Halflings get a CHA bonus and a racial save bonus, which works nicely with paladin +CHA to saves. Also, weapon bond -- besides smite, your weapon can be a number of useful things as you need them.

Bad side: against non-evil foes you are much less effective. Then again, most parties spend a lot of time fighting evil ;)

Ranger with archery combat style could work, with favored enemy + spells boosting damage (but sometimes your enemies are not favored), and gives you a lot more skills to work with (including stealth!)

[Lavinia Snowbeard]

This profile is my take on a halfling archer using alternate racial traits for mobility and luck bonuses; picking up deadly aim, improved precise shot, and vital strike in coming levels. My idea with this character is less about massive and more about consistent damage output.