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So I'm looking at making a grippli ranger with the Poison Darter archetype from Blood of the Beast for PFS. Yes, I have the race boon. This doesn't look like an ultra-powerful archetype, but definitely different, so it could be fun.
I'm just worried about being too weak to be useful. Debuffing an enemy's dex with poison will be a little helpful, but isn't the most useful thing to specialize in. My primary weapon will be a blowgun that does 1 point of damage (no strength mod). I'll get sneak attacks starting at level 4, but only at range with that weak weapon, which is hard to pull off.
What are some rogue talents or alchemist discoveries I could pick up with the archetype to make my poison and/or sneak attacks more useful? Or should I forget the poison use combat style and just stick to the usual archery style for my ranger combat feats?
For that matter, how will I deny my enemies their dex to even get sneak attacks, other than just pumping up my initiative and stealth skill (which should be easy as a small, dex based PC).
One option is to just ignore the blowgun and sneak attack and play this guy as a straight up archer ranger with a longbow. I'll have the poison use that I put on a couple of arrows before combat starts to lower enemy dex (and sicken them starting at level 5). It's clearly not as good as the favored enemies, wild empathy, and hunter's bond that I lose, but it wouldn't totally suck.
Any suggestions?
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One option is to just ignore the blowgun and sneak attack and play this guy as a straight up archer ranger with a longbow. I'll have the poison use that I put on a couple of arrows before combat starts to lower enemy dex (and sicken them starting at level 5). It's clearly not as good as the favored enemies, wild empathy, and hunter's bond that I lose, but it wouldn't totally suck.
So I did a little more thinking on this, and decided to go this route.
The sneak attack with a blowgun just isn't worth the effort, when a longbow already does just as much damage and is much easier to pull off. Once I reach high enough level to get 2d6 sneak attack (6th level), I'll definitely carry a blowgun for those situations when I can stealth within 30 feet of an enemy before combat starts. But most of the time, I think I'll just stick to a typical composite longbow.
So why play the archetype? And what makes the PC different than every other generic ranger archer out there? The poison! Yes, a little dex damage at low levels isn't that great. But it causes the sickened condition starting at level 5, and the DC keeps going up as I progress.
Looking for other options, I realized this stacks with the Skirmisher archetype that gives up ranger spellcasting for a bunch of tricks. And many of those tricks require an animal companion, favored enemy, and/or melee attack to work, which I won't have. But there are enough good ones, starting with Tangling Attack, to make it worth it, even for an archery focused ranger.
And there's my theme: Completely non-magical debuffing done by an archer. Poison from level 1, Tangling Attack from level 5, more skirmisher tricks and more powerful poison as I progress.
It's not the most uber-optimized way to play an archer, but it's creative and different enough to be fun. Archery is clearly the most powerful combat style in the game, but I've always found it somewhat boring. By adding a variety of debuffs, it'll be very different.