How does this Archery build look?

[The Kwisatz Haderach]

Small sized Muse-Touched Aasimar

Stats need to be rolled or purchased but Dex and Cha will be the Focus.

10 levels Dervish of Dawn, 2 levels Fighter
Feats: Dervish Dance, Arcane Strike, Quick Draw, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Clustered Shots, Deadly Aim, and Manyshot.
Items: +1 Keen Scimitar, +1 Longbow, Dervish Sikke, Three Reasons to Live, Tuned Bowstring

So by level 10 Bard Battle Dance is giving a +10 to Att and Dmg. Primarily a ranged fighter but can hold his own in melee and actually has higher dmg in melee per hit though Manyshot and Rapid Shot will make up for the lack of Str. Tuned Bowstring allows me to continue performing without using rounds, and Allegro gives haste as a second level spell for as long as I’m performing.

Any suggestions to cap this build off or make adjustments?

Thanks!

[Claxon]

I would suggest taking 4 levels of fighter, eventually, to qualify for weapon specialization and get access to point blank master, so you don't provoke.

Though it's not an absolute essential, it is nice.

Now a straight fighter build will output more damage probably, the levels in bard give a lot of versatility that a fighter would lack.

Since you're mostly focusing on buffing yourself I probably wouldn't worry about buffing charisma too much, just don't cast spells on enemies. This would enable you to have some strength.

You might want Lingering Performance somewhere.

[The Kwisatz Haderach]

Lingering Performance wouldn’t work with Battle Dance. The ability calls it out specifically. I do intend on taking Fighter the rest of the way. You’re right about Cha though. I guess I’d only need a 14 or to get the 4th level spell. That would definitely let me bring Str up a bit for a Composite Bow. Do you think Straight Fighter puts more damage out? The Battle Dance will give 10 to Damage. WS, GWS, and WT 5 is only a +9 to Damage, +11 with Gloves of Dueling and that’s at level 20. Straight Fighter doesn’t offer Arcane Strike either. Between that and Battle Dance it’s 13 Damage. Plus the +10 to hit. All by level 10 Bard.

[ZᴇɴN]

Take the trait Strength of Submission and pretty much always have Heroism up. That's +3 to attack and +1 to damage. Or have the occasional Good Hope up instead, for +3 to attack and damage.

[Slim Jim]

Very similar in concept here would be a halfling all-into-Charisma and using Desna's Shooting Star for a kickass melee and ranged weapon. Then you don't need Dervish, among others means of gaining finesse, because that isn't necessary. The bulk of the build would be warpriest, which pumps the base weapon die, gets the DSS feat by swapping a minor blessing, and offers other utility to the character. (IMO the base warpriest is better than the more glass-cannony Arsenal Chaplain archetype, but YMMV.)

STR- 5
DEX+ 14
CON: 12 (halfling, 17,14,12,12,12,7 20pt array*)
INT: 12
WIS: 14
CHA+ 19
(*or 15,14,12,12,12,12 array with GMs who frown upon minmaxing.)

racial trait: Fleet of Foot
character traits: Fate's Favored, Dangerously Curious

01 uMonk1 [Invested Regent][Move+10], DFT:Desna's Shooting Star
02 Cleric1 (worship Desna)
03 Warpriest1 (slide DFT into minor blessing & retrain 1st-level feat to Crusader's Flurry), Quick Draw
04 Warpriest2 CHA>20
05 Warpriest3 FEAT(g), FEAT(w)
06 Warpriest5 [Channeling], (retrain Cleric1 into a level of Warpriest)
07 Warpriest6 FEAT(g), FEAT(w), ...etc.

* Four open feat slots
* Paladin-like saving throws due to Investiture.
* AC = 11 + Dex + Wis + (Fervor buffs) + (UMD'd Mage Armor) + Bracers, etc.
* Flurry with same charisma-based weapon into melee AND ranged.
* Since dex/str aren't attack stats, a Blinkback Belt is painless.

Dip a level into Oracle for any of several revelations using Charisma for AC and Reflex or CDD instead of Dex, and that stat can basically be dumped as unnecessary for anything except bonuses to some skills.

[ZᴇɴN]

A single level dip in Medium (using the Champion spirit, especially with Medium of the Master archetype) is fantastic for an archer. Take the Spirit Focus feat and for a single level dip get +2 to attack and +4 to damage, with the added bonus of Spirit Surge to help turn failed attacks or fort saves into successes. Medium of the Master gets you a couple of extra free uses of Spirit Surge, and you can give away the first Champion power (mostly useless if you are already proficient in the weapon you want) for even more free uses of it.

[Cptexploderman]

Slim Jim wrote:

Very similar in concept here would be a halfling all-into-Charisma and using Desna's Shooting Star for a kickass melee and ranged weapon. Then you don't need Dervish, among others means of gaining finesse, because that isn't necessary. The bulk of the build would be warpriest, which pumps the base weapon die, gets the DSS feat by swapping a minor blessing, and offers other utility to the character. (IMO the base warpriest is better than the more glass-cannony Arsenal Chaplain archetype, but YMMV.)

STR- 5
DEX+ 14
CON: 12 (halfling, 17,14,12,12,12,7 20pt array*)
INT: 12
WIS: 14
CHA+ 19
(*or 15,14,12,12,12,12 array with GMs who frown upon minmaxing.)

racial trait: Fleet of Foot
character traits: Fate's Favored, Dangerously Curious

01 uMonk1 [Invested Regent][Move+10], DFT:Desna's Shooting Star
02 Cleric1 (worship Desna)
03 Warpriest1 (slide DFT into minor blessing & retrain 1st-level feat to Crusader's Flurry), Quick Draw
04 Warpriest2 CHA>20
05 Warpriest3 FEAT(g), FEAT(w)
06 Warpriest5 [Channeling], (retrain Cleric1 into a level of Warpriest)
07 Warpriest6 FEAT(g), FEAT(w), ...etc.

* Four open feat slots
* Paladin-like saving throws due to Investiture.
* AC = 11 + Dex + Wis + (Fervor buffs) + (UMD'd Mage Armor) + Bracers, etc.
* Flurry with same charisma-based weapon into melee AND ranged.
* Since dex/str aren't attack stats, a Blinkback Belt is painless.

Dip a level into Oracle for any of several revelations using Charisma for AC and Reflex or CDD instead of Dex, and that stat can basically be dumped as unnecessary for anything except bonuses to some skills.

Interesting build but hard pass on the 5 strength. Any number of things that are pretty common shuts you down.

[Claxon]

The Kwisatz Haderach wrote:

Lingering Performance wouldn’t work with Battle Dance. The ability calls it out specifically. I do intend on taking Fighter the rest of the way. You’re right about Cha though. I guess I’d only need a 14 or to get the 4th level spell. That would definitely let me bring Str up a bit for a Composite Bow. Do you think Straight Fighter puts more damage out? The Battle Dance will give 10 to Damage. WS, GWS, and WT 5 is only a +9 to Damage, +11 with Gloves of Dueling and that’s at level 20. Straight Fighter doesn’t offer Arcane Strike either. Between that and Battle Dance it’s 13 Damage. Plus the +10 to hit. All by level 10 Bard.

Yes, but I can't point to the build immediately. You have to really expertly build it and take advantage of Advanced Weapon Training and some other obscure abilities. All that said, if you search the forums there was a comparison between different ways to build archers and the top 3 winners were: Fighter, Arsenal Chaplain Warpriest, and Inquisitor for maximum damage. I don't recall the builds off the top of my head unfortunately, but I think the fighter will still out damage. Especially when using Advanced Weapon Training to get Bane(that enemy) on the fly. I will say, it may also not be a purely fighter build, but a build that's primarily fighter with small dips for specific abilities.

[Philippe Lam]

Lack of Toughness, only 12 con and no Blind-Fight for the melee, this make for a glassier recipe. It should work most of the times, but it might (not necessarily will) stumble if the opponents can either do awful damage in a very short time or being denied line of sight when the negative effect is bigger than the 60 ft. darkvision. Even at the cost of some power, there should be provisions for more resilience. Decent perception bonuses might be decent too

[Derklord]

Philippe Lam wrote:

Even at the cost of some power, there should be provisions for more resilience.

You mean like the ability to swift action cast spells like Ironskin?

[Philippe Lam]

Derklord wrote:

Philippe Lam wrote:

Even at the cost of some power, there should be provisions for more resilience.

You mean like the ability to swift action cast spells like Ironskin?

Not only, but it's a good start.

[Slim Jim]

Cptexploderman wrote:

Interesting build but hard pass on the 5 strength. Any number of things that are pretty common shuts you down.

You're a spellslinger, and therefore are not appreciably different than a common vanilla arcane caster with a 7 in strength. --Except that you're ten times more durable due to being a divine caster with lots of free swifts.

[Philippe Lam]

I see a cleric ? They usually say, " A good cleric is a dead cleric. " Buffs or not, the 5 strength is still a cardinal sin. The higher level the adventure is, the more likely creatures adept to ability damage/drain will appear.

[Slim Jim]

Bah. You're not really pushing your luck unless you have two 5s.