What are the options to make ranged tripping worth it?

[Azullius Koujou]

A couple of months ago I finished playing "serpents skull" where i played a lore warden focused on ranged tripping. I could trip flying targets, I could trip huge targets, and when we finished at lvl 17 I had + 41(42 pbs) to my ranged trip attempts and my tripped targets would provoke aoos from me.
Yet even with all this, I hardly ever attempted to trip a target after getting my third arrow a turn and once i hit 6 arrows a turn I don't think I ever used the tripping at all.

So aside the archer archtype that could have gotten trip on each arrow, is there a way to make this work(my problem was i could only get 1 tripping arrow a turn to work with my feat selection)

Basically the choice turned into try to trip the target an do little damage or take away half if not all the hp of the target(and possibly hit more tagets).

[Ryan Freire]

I feel like ranged tripping is a thing you do to aid your melee or keep something from flying away. I'm not sure its possible for it to be that great a strategy if you aren't aiming for those goals.

[Azullius Koujou]

I did aim for those goals, but i don't think the situations appeared where it wouldn't be better to just full attack the flying target instead of attempting a ranged trip.
and with flying creatures often having a higher speed than movement speed of party members, for them to fly way for 1-2 rounds would require several turns of tripping for the party to catch up to them on the ground i fear.

Yes in the case it's someone we want to take alive it's better but that was pretty much what it became.
Sure I could trip the target and give my allies a +4 to hit the target, Or I could deal 120+ damage to the target and have a high chance of taking them out of the picture.

[Ryan Freire]

Azullius Koujou wrote:

I did aim for those goals, but i don't think the situations appeared where it wouldn't be better to just full attack the flying target instead of attempting a ranged trip.

and with flying creatures often having a higher speed than movement speed of party members, for them to fly way for 1-2 rounds would require several turns of tripping for the party to catch up to them on the ground i fear.

Yes in the case it's someone we want to take alive it's better but that was pretty much what it became.
Sure I could trip the target and give my allies a +4 to hit the target, Or I could deal 120+ damage to the target and have a high chance of taking them out of the picture.

Thats pretty much the issue with tripping. Honestly i feel its an issue with most combat maneuvers...they aren't terrible effects per-se once you invest in them, but I still believe only dirty trick is worth the 3+ feat investment, and grapplers are better handled by the archetypes that hand out a chunk of those feats for free (dont think anythings gonna ever beat tetori there).

[Stephen Ede]

If you want Ranged Trip I would suggest you use Topple Meta-magic and player a Wizard, Arcanist or Shaman - Lore Spirit (for access to both Divine and Arcane spells) specialising in Force Spells that do damage.

Take the Trip Feats for the bonus to Trip and when you trip your party members get AOOs on your target.
Use the trait that reduces Metamagic cost on 1 spell and apply it to Magic Missile.
Then cackle madly as you trip everything going. Note that it knocks them Prone using the trip Combat Manuver Mechanism so technically there is a strong case that this can knock prone creatures that can't be tripped normally.

Quote:

Benefit: The impact of your force spell is strong enough to knock the target prone. If the target takes damage, fails its saving throw, or is moved by your force spell, make a trip check against the target, using your caster level plus your casting ability score bonus (Wisdom for clerics, Intelligence for wizards, and so on). This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If the check fails, the target cannot attempt to trip you or the force effect in response.

A toppling spell only affects spells with the force descriptor.

Level Increase: +1 (a toppling spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.)

[Azullius Koujou]

Thanks for the suggestions, unfortunate not seeing how ace trip and ranged trip deliver.

Could be if i try a wizard one day I'd try your suggested trip build sounds quite interesting.

[Scott Wilhelm]

There are the Snap Shot and Improved SnapShot feats, which let you Threaten with Ranged Weapons, 5' for Snap Shot and 10' for Improved Snap Shot.

This will let you make Attacks of Opportunity with Greater Trip with your Ranged Weapon. I was thinking of doing this with a Quickdraw Throwing Shield, using a Blinkback Belt to get it back again. If you are doing this with adjacent opponents, 5', you can still benefit from Vicious Stomp.

I like the idea of using Ranged, Trip Weapons. One of the things about Tripping is that a catastrophic Trip attempt can cause you to be Tripped yourself. The advantage of a Trip Weapon is that you can elect to drop your weapon rather than get Tripped yourself, but that means you don't have it any more. Most people like Glaives and Halberds for Tripping because they are better weapons, but I think a Trip weapon should be disposable, one you won't miss when it's gone, like a Sickle or light Flail. But if your Trip Weapon is a Throwing Weapon that magically teleports back to your belt after you throw it, well, that's ideal.

[Gallant Armor]

Shield Champion Brawler would be good for this. You can substitute any attack in a flurry with a trip attempt and bounce the shield off of multiple targets bashing or tripping each one and have the shield return to you at the end of the round.