Hi folks!
I’d like to get your insight on this. I aim to be both a face and a skill monkey for the team. However, can’t decide the weapon to go with. Being an Elf opens up a variety of choices including longbow and ECB (with the heirloom trait). Starting at 3rd lvl.
Stats are: 13, 17, 10, 18, 10, 8
Melee:
ECB, weapon finesse, power attack. Gives out a nice amount of dmg and helps to utilize the studied combat abilities. Downside is that I’m pretty fragile at the moment, but hopping to up my AC to 17.
Ranged:
Longbow, weapon focus, ranged study. Utilizes studied combat for ranged, but it’s only for 30 feet... does’t seem save enough as an enemy can easily charge me and I’ll still need to shift to melee.
Is there any reason to go with ranged for an investigator? I’ve also seen options to go with rapier and inspired weapon, but that starts off with lvl7 AFAIK.
What are your thoughts?
You could take the classic one level of (inspired blade) swashbuckler to get finesse and dex damage on a rapier. After that it seems your feats are basically... free.
If you go pure investigator and melee, you might prefer the Elven Branched Spear for reach, to keep your tragically low con score away from being hit. It's all well and good to think you could do the same job with Long Arm extracts, but you don't have those all the time.
Going pure inv, at L3 you have two feats, which means you're not really specialised at anything yet. Also your class features haven't kicked in yet, so your contribution to combat is not going to be high. You can be a weak archer who keeps arching when melee starts (point-blank shot, precise shot), or a weak melee-er who can arch a bit at targets not in melee (finesse, whatever else). Archery fits your statblock better than melee.
Personally I'd go with the swashbuckler thing but then build into archery, because I'd want rapier-melee as a backup but range as primary.
UnholyWorm wrote: I aim to be both a face and a skill monkey for the team. However, can’t decide the weapon to go with. Being an Elf opens up a variety of choices including longbow and ECB (with the heirloom trait). Starting at 3rd lvl.
Stats are: 13, 17, 10, 18, 10, 8
* You intend to be the "face" with a charisma of 8? (Your UMD checks will also suffer.)
* Your chosen race dumps constitution (you put a 10 there) and amplifies dexterity (you put a 17 there). Investigators have slow fort-save advancement. Translation: stay out of melee. Every admonition against melee rogues applies to you as well, so, just no, unless you're a halfling or a goblin with a ton of in-game racial bling lending toward an unhittable lifestyle.
* This looks like 25pt-buy. Try using the 16,15,15,14,10,7 array for better attribute bonus distribution:
STR: 10
DEX+ 18
CON- 12
INT+ 17 (bump 4th, 12th+Tome)
WIS: 14
CHA: 15 (bump 8th)
Archery.... There's two ways to approach it. The first (and most common) is that you sink every feat you have into it. The second is to just take EWP:Heavy Repeating Crossbow and trick up the bolts while reserving your feat load for other aspects.
Slim Jim wrote: UnholyWorm wrote: I aim to be both a face and a skill monkey for the team. However, can’t decide the weapon to go with. Being an Elf opens up a variety of choices including longbow and ECB (with the heirloom trait). Starting at 3rd lvl.
Stats are: 13, 17, 10, 18, 10, 8
* You intend to be the "face" with a charisma of 8? (Your UMD checks will also suffer.)
* Your chosen race dumps constitution (you put a 10 there) and amplifies dexterity (you put a 17 there). Investigators have slow fort-save advancement. Translation: stay out of melee. Every admonition against melee rogues applies to you as well, so, just no, unless you're a halfling or a goblin with a ton of in-game racial bling lending toward an unhittable lifestyle.
* This looks like 25pt-buy. Try using the 16,15,15,14,10,7 array for better attribute bonus distribution:
STR: 10
DEX+ 18
CON- 12
INT+ 17 (bump 4th, 12th+Tome)
WIS: 14
CHA: 15 (bump 8th)
Archery.... There's two ways to approach it. The first (and most common) is that you sink every feat you have into it. The second is to just take EWP:Heavy Repeating Crossbow and trick up the bolts while reserving your feat load for other aspects. Yep, a face with 8 charisma! :)
That’s an Empiricist Investigator, Moonkissed Elf with traits Student of Philosophy, Bruising Intellect (Int for Intimidate) and Personal Addiction (+1 Fortitude saving throws) and Expanded Inspiration as an investigator talent. All combined should make all charisma and wisdom related skill checks based on intelligence, giving a total of 10+d6 bonus to social skills. That is if I’m not mistaken anywhere.
As for the stats, it’s base 20. I’m just taking the old age modifiers.
Swashbuckle is a neat idea, thanks! Will further look into that!
I do feel archery might be my best bet, I’m just concerned that I won’t be able to fully use my combat study skills. Or will 30 feed be enough most of the time if I pick ranged study?
If you're taking the old age modifiers, you're pretty much committing yourself to ranged IMHO.
PCScipio wrote: If you're taking the old age modifiers, you're pretty much committing yourself to ranged IMHO. Why so? Many melee aging attacks?
With 10 con, you will always be vulnerable to a single critical hit taking you from full health to dead. Assuming full hp at 1st lvl, and half rounded up after that, and FCB in hp, you would have 21 hp at 3rd lvl. All it would take is a 31 hp critical hit to kill you outright.
Totally go ranged. There will always be another party member who wants to be in the front line, up on “bleeding edge” of the encounters.
As an investigator, you have Craft Alchemy, which would open up all the alchemical arrow possibilities. Raining Arrows alone are worth every copper piece you spend on them. And if something charges up to you, you either 5’ away to shot them, or, if they get more than 2 attacks, you just move away and shoot. Move back and shoot it with a Tangleshot arrow.
And i would rather go the Point Blank Shot/Deadly Aim feat path than the suggested one. Possibly going Rapid Shot before Percise Shot even.
The biggest reason to go ranged is that Investigators can give static bonuses with Studied Combat and static bonuses often favor ranged over melee since firing multiple arrows with Rapid Shot means each arrow is carrying that bonus. It's one of the reasons the Molthuni Arsenal Chaplain is one of the strongest archers.
Just hide next to a melee ally and make sure you're unable to be attacked without the enemy eating an attack from your ally.
JiaYou wrote: The biggest reason to go ranged is that Investigators can give static bonuses with Studied Combat and static bonuses often favor ranged over melee since firing multiple arrows with Rapid Shot means each arrow is carrying that bonus. Out-of-box, Studied Combat and Studied Strike bonuses apply only in melee. Quote: It's one of the reasons the Molthuni Arsenal Chaplain is one of the strongest archers. Huh? That's a Warpriest archetype.
D'oh, you're technically right (although you COULD read that damage rolls get boosted both in melee and ranged and attack only gets boosted in melee).
I was just giving the Warpriest example because Divine Favor and other blessings will affect each arrow, not because it had anything directly to do with an Investigator.
Either way, I'll see myself out before saying, "You'll gain some by going melee, but that will exacerbate your squishiness to an extent which will offset your greater combat contribution."
Elven Branched Spear might be a better choice than the Curve Blade to exploit reach and Combat Reflexes if you still want to go melee. I'd also comment that on a 6/9 caster, I don't really think putting your 18 in INT over DEX makes a huge amount of sense. Especially when this is gimping your CON so much.
30 feet is probably ok if you can be mounted during combat a lot. But I don’t think anyone should ever go below 12 Con. Maybe in a 10 point buy.
Archives of Nethys wrote: Studied Combat (Ex): With a keen eye and calculating mind, an investigator can assess the mettle of his opponent to take advantage of gaps in talent and training. At 4th level, an investigator can use a move action to study a single enemy that he can see. Upon doing so, he adds 1/2 his investigator level as an insight bonus on melee attack rolls and as a bonus on damage rolls against the creature. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) or until he deals damage with a studied strike, whichever comes first. The bonus on damage rolls is precision damage, and is not multiplied on a critical hit. RAW, the attack bonus is limited to melee attacks (without the Ranged Study feat). No restriction is mentioned on the bonus to damage rolls. That may not be intended, but that's the way it reads.
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