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I'm creating a new Level 1 Pathfinder character, and have decided to go with a Ranged Inquisitor. I'm planning for a Sacred Huntsmaster of Pharasma. Sort of an ultra orthodox ranger/hunter, focusing on Parasma's role in the "circle of life" in nature, as well as a zealous investigator of necromancy and destroyer of undead. In addition to the ranged combat, he will also excel as a Knowledge monkey and Face.
It's a 20 point buy. Unknown party members. I don't expect this campaign to get to Level 10+, but it might.
Here's what I've come up with so far, for the first 8 levels:
Human
STR 14
DEX 17
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 7
Savannah Child Trait: +1 to Handle Animal and becomes Class Skill.
Deft Dodger: +1 to Reflex save.
Domain: Conversion Inquisition, which lets me use my WIS modifier in place of CHA for Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate. (I'm thinking the low CHA but high social skills means he's somewhat creepy and off-putting in appearance, yet very well-spoken and emphatic.)
1st: Feat: Spirit’s Gift. Bonus Feat: Point Blank Shot.
2nd: Favored Class Bonus: Extra 0 level spell known.
3rd: Feat: Precise Shot. Teamwork Feat: Coordinated Shot. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 0 level spell known.
4th: +1 DEX. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 1st level spell known.
5th: Feat: Huntsmaster. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 1st level spell known.
6th: Teamwork Feat: Improved Spell Sharing. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 1st level spell known
7th: Feat: Rapid Shot. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 2nd level spell known.
8th: +1 WIS. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 2nd level spell known.
Skills: Smattering of points in the various Knowledge skills, occasionally useful physical skills (climb, acrobatics, swim, etc.), and secondary social skills (Sense Motive, Bluff). Focus on Perception, Survival, Stealth, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Diplomacy.
Will be using Light Armor, Buckler, and a Composite Longbow (+2 DMG from STR). Buckler and Morningstar as backup melee, but I plan to avoid melee when possible.
I'll be going with the Small Cat (Lynx/Bobcat) for my Animal Companion, with a focus on maximizing DEX. That way, no matter what the rest of the party looks like, I have a built-in off-tank with high AC and DR 5/Adamantium thanks to Spirit's Gift. It'll have high mobility for screening, and high to-hit (albeit with relatively low damage) for precision strikes with effects like Trip as well as Shaken and Entangled, once I teach it a few of the alternate Skirmisher tricks.
1st: Weapon Finesse.
2nd: Toughness.
4th: Skip size increase. +2 to DEX and CON. +1 to DEX
5th: Power Attack.
8th: ???? Feat
What are your thoughts on this build? Any suggestions?
I also had the (admittedly sorta crazy) idea of a 1 level dip into Divine Marksman Ranger from the Weapon Master's Handbook. Most likely at Level 2. My Huntsmaster human racial feat will offset the loss of the 1 animal companion level. BAB will be unaffected. HP and Skills won't suffer. I'll be a level behind in caster level, but since I'm focusing mostly on buffs, caster level isn't as imperative. I'll also be a level behind in Teamwork feats, but that's also less important since there's a dearth of decent ranged Teamwork feats. The one level delay in spells per day, Animal Focus, and Bane could hurt more...
I'll be mainly taking it for the free Bullseye Shot feat, for which you don't have to meet the prerequisites. That feat otherwise wouldn't be available until level 7. Granted, it will see less use once I pick up Rapid Shot at level 7, but seems like it would be very useful for levels 2-6, and still occasionally useful against higher AC enemies in levels 7+. With the build being rather feat-starved, this early extra feat could be worth it. In addition, I also like it from a roleplaying standpoint, further emphasizing that I'm a divinely-inspired archer, as well as allowing me to take Undead as a Favored Enemy to further highlight my role as an Undead Hunter for the Church.
If I decide to go that route, the Animal Companion progression would remain the same, but I'm thinking the character progression would likely look like:
1st SH1: Feat: Spirit’s Gift. Bonus Feat: Huntsmaster.
2nd DM1: Free Feat: Bullseye Shot.
3rd SH2: Feat: Point Blank Shot. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 0 level spell known.
4th SH3: +1 DEX. Teamwork Feat: Coordinated Shot. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 0 level spell known.
5th SH4: Feat: Precise Shot. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 1st level spell known.
6th SH5: Favored Class Bonus: Extra 1st level spell known
7th SH6: Feat: Rapid Shot. Teamwork Feat: Improved Spell Sharing. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 1st level spell known.
8th SH7: +1 WIS. Favored Class Bonus: Extra 2nd level spell known.
Do you think this alternate plan would be a waste for just an extra feat and some RP value, or is potentially it a valid addition?
Thanks for the thoughts and advice!
Since the nerf, spirit's gift is not much use past the lowest levels. You're talking about getting rapid shot at level 7 - that's rather late for a dedicated archer. If you drop spirit's gift and move feats up it comes in at level 5 (and precise shot at level 1) which is significantly better for an archer. Magic items & shared spells will probably be better for saving your cat from harm.
Bullseye shot is not good value for a move action and a feat IMO. If you like the flavour sure, but don't think it's going to be useful often.
Honestly you should move the archery feats way up. As it stands now when someone is in your way and in combat you are taking -8 to hit..until level 5...then -4. You want Friendly fire maneuvers asap. Personally I went with a sanctified slayer with feather domain with a similar results
So if I abandon the 1 level dip (which I was dubious about anyway), then ditch Spirit's Guide (which means losing that DR 5 for 1 min/day :( ) and move all the archery feats up, that would look like:
1st: Feat: Point Blank Shot. Bonus Feat: Precise Shot.
2nd:
3rd: Feat: Huntsmaster/Rapid Shot. Teamwork Feat: Coordinated Shot.
4th:
5th: Feat: Rapid Shot/Huntsmaster.
6th: Teamwork Feat: Improved Spell Sharing.
7th: Feat: Bullseye Shot/Deadly Aim
8th:
9th: Feat: Manyshot Teamwork Feat: ????
I'm not sure I see the usefulness of Friendly Fire Maneuvers over Coordinated Shot or Improved Spell Sharing. It only negates soft cover for my AC, since unlike a standard Inquisitor, Sacred Huntsmasters only share teamwork feats with their AC.
And I think the likelihood of my AC being the sole one in the way AND my character and/or AC is unable to maneuver around to eliminate that is probably much less likely than situations in which my AC is threatening an enemy for the Coordinated Shot bonus.
Plus, if I do find myself in a situation where both myself and my AC can't maneuver for a clear shot, then I can eliminate that soft cover penalty by taking Bullseye Shot as my 7th level feat, spending my move action for +4 to hit, thus offsetting the -4 from soft cover. In addition, that would also serve to offset the penalty if *anyone* was providing soft over, not just my AC alone as with FFM. Plus, it would further serve as help against high AC opponents with no cover.
I guess if I really wanted to replicate Friendly Fire Maneuvers' mechanic, I guess I could use my AC's 4th level ability bump to move its INT to 3, and then have it take the Low Profile feat, which means that as a Small creature it wouldn't grant soft cover.
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Huntmaster is a pretty bad feat. I would drop it. There are a ton of items and options to help with animal handling if you need it. Ioun stone, training harness, your +4 from your class, +3 class skill, training sleeve training whip.
Bullseye shot is a weak feat as well. Archer's power comes from full attacking.
Huntmaster is a pretty bad feat. There are a ton of items and options to help with animal handling if you need it.
Granting my AC an instant extra level is pretty bad? I disagree...
The bonus to Handle Animal isn't the point. It's just gravy to the +1 AC level:
You gain a +2 bonus on Handle Animal and Knowledge (nature) checks with creatures of that type of animal. Furthermore, you are treated as one level higher when determining the abilities of your animal companion or mount, as long as it is of the chosen type.
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I will make 2 corrections. The extra level is alright. It is definitely not bad. My apologies for being hyperbolic. The best levels you AC is +2 AC, +1 to everything else across the board. A little better than 5% improvement across the board. The worst nothing but they're rare. Most levels are somewhere in between.
My thought process was you are going to want deadly aim sooner as it normally results in more damage than a 5% increase in the damage output of a small cat. After doing the calculations for the build it does out perform a good level for your cat at most levels.
I would still consider deadly aim especially with divine favour, judgement and bane it will net more damage. For your 7th level feat I would consider retraining to cluster shot once you hit 8. DR should not be a huge problem for you with special arrow and being able to throw more damage and everything but it is worth a look.
Friendly Fire Maneuvers is a feat I like because it encourages good positioning and tactics i.e. you always being behind your animal companion and focusing fire.
FFM does make a bit more sense in that context. Basically always purposely positioning the small cat directly in front of my archer's line of fire, when possible, to act as a screen.
And it looks like I could potentially have my cake and eat it too, thanks to the Inquisitor's "floating" teamwork feats. You can swap out the most recently gained bonus Teamwork feat multiple times per day, until you gain another bonus Teamwork feat, which "locks in" the previous bonus Teamwork feat.
So that would let me take Friendly Fire Maneuvers as my 3rd level bonus feat at first. Then at the Cat's Level 4, go +1 INT for 3 total, allowing it to take any feat for which it qualifies. Just before leveling up to 6th level, I swap and "lock in" Coordinated Shot as my final choice for 3rd level Teamwork feat, and choose FFM as my 6th level bonus Teamwork feat at first. Finally, at Cat's Level 8, I have my Cat take Small Frame as its feat, and swap my 6th level Teamwork feat over to Improved Spell Sharing.
This way, I get the benefit of FFM from Archer's Level 3 up until Cat's Level 8 for "free". And after that point, I now have the benefit of both Coordinated Shot and Improved Spell Sharing, as well as Low Profile negating all soft cover from my Cat from then on, just like FFM did (with the added bonus of a +1 to the Cat's armor class).
On the other hand, I could just say "forget it" with regard to Coordinated Shot's +1/+2 bonus to hit altogether, go FFM at 3rd and call it good, and just have the Cat take Combat Reflexes and put the +1 to DEX.
I'm thinking that by 8th level, the extra bonus to hit may potentially not be a make it/break it deal (in light of magic item bonuses, spells, Animal Focus, increased BAB, etc.), and may not be worth the cost of my Cat's first ability score bonus as well as one of its feats.