I don't think I'd bother with precise and rapid shot. If ranged combat is required, then those feats often won't come into play anyway. In those cases, the creature is usually far away and not in melee combat with something else.
1. You cannot pick Accomplished Sneak Attacker more than once.
2. Furious Focus is a very bad feat ):
3. Weapon Focus is not particularly good. I recommend, instead, Focused Target, which you can use to add different types of bonuses as you need them... but even then, it's not that powerful anyway.
4. You need Iron Will in there somewhere.
5. Skill Focus (Stealth) is not that necessary, as you'll likely get huge bonuses from your stats alone.
6. The Ranged feats you picked are great. Good job!
7. You could consider also a heavy armor build...
1. Your reasoning for Mobility is great. It's one of those feats people in forums complain about, but come handy in actual play.
2. Assassinate is not very good with your level of INT... a better option would be Hunter's Surprise. It may not look too powerful, but you can add sneaky to your weapon for just 5k gp and get an extra use out of it too!
3. Your style of play is good. You don't need to change anything if you like the idea of a 2H Slayer, it's a good build. The fact that you have a bow for quick ranged action is very good too.
4. My only remaining suggestion is to avoid Blood Reading, and instead look at things like Trapfinding, Aligned Sneak Attack, Jaguar's Grace + Jaguar's Protection... or, even better, Unbalancing Trick!
5. I don't know if your table allows this... but a 2H weapon + a buckler + the Unhindering Shield feat is one of the most powerful defensive combos in the game.
The slayer is a viable damage dealer, but sneak attack is just a complement to their overall damage. You should get it when you can, but it's not usually worth sacrificing for either.
Unfortunately, you don't see a lot of two-handed weapon slayers, because the ranger two-handed combat style doesn't have a lot of generally good feats in it. Most slayers tend to use 2 weapon fighting or archery.
The slayer is a viable damage dealer, but sneak attack is just a complement to their overall damage. You should get it when you can, but it's not usually worth sacrificing for either.
Unfortunately, you don't see a lot of two-handed weapon slayers, because the ranger two-handed combat style doesn't have a lot of generally good feats in it. Most slayers tend to use 2 weapon fighting or archery.
That's why 2H Slayers are better off as switch-hitters like Shadow's build!
You don't have to go deeper on your first style with your Ranger Style Feats, you can pick up extra tricks like this too.
Another option is devoting Style Feats to other strategies, like the Menacing style, Underhanded style, or one of the Deific Styles.
You really don't need those feats to switch hit though. The point blank shot will come up a little bit, like against flyers in a dungeon, but the precise shot will only come up in really contrived instances. And if you really want to switch hit, then I'd rather have quick draw, so you can quickly go from one weapon to the other.
For a 2-handed sneak attack build. I would recommend the following feats
Racial Heritage[Ogre](1st), Accomplished Sneak Attacker(3rd), Savage Critical(5th), Vital Strike(7th).
This makes it so that you don't have to mess with positioning or anything else to get your sneak attack. Savage Critical lets you add your sneak attack damage every time you vital strike. This in turn will allow you to apply your studied target as an immediate action.
For added fun, you could pick up
Power Attack -> Cleave -> Cleaving finish
While you can't use cleave with vital strike, you can trigger cleaving finish off of vital strike. Which helps get around vital strike's one attack per turn issue.
If you're going to go for a Human Slayer with a Stealth and SnA focus, I'd recommend getting Hellcat Stealth somewhere in that build, and make sure you take the 1/6 FCB for extra Slayer Talent. Also, this is a great time to go for Shattered Defenses and Cornugon Smash with a Cruel Weapon enchant, which is a nice combo for giving your enemies -4 to attack, save, skills, and abil checks, and a -2 to damage, as well as causing them to be Flat-Footed, which causes all subsequent attacks to deal SnA damage. Also, as a human, take the Focused Study alt racial trait, which will give you a Free Skill Focus at level 1, 8, and 16. For your level 1 Skill Focus, take Stealth, and for your level 8 Skill Focus, take Intimidation, and at level 16, it's dealers choice, but I'd recommend Perception or Survival (for Slayer tracking).
You might even consider going with a Merciful Bludgeoning weapon and get Enforcer instead of Cornugon Smash, and pick up Sap Adept and Sap Master, then w/e you get your opponent Flat-footed with Shatter Defenses, you'll deal 2x SnA + 1 dmg for each of your rolled dice. For example, if your SnA was 4d6 because of Accomplished SnA, with Sap Master and Shatter Defenses, you'd be dealing 8d6+8 SnA damage with every attack while they're Flat-Footed.
You could even save yourself the Merciful Enchant if you custom-create your own exotic weapon and give it the non-lethal property.
If any of that sounds interesting, I can come up with a build plan and help you custom-create a weapon if you like.
25pt buy - Human UnchainedRogue3/SlayerX
Str 13
Dex 26 (18+2racial, +2 level adv., +4 Belt of Dexterity)
Con 12
Int 11
Wis 10
Cha 12
Rather than going Strength-focused, I'd go Dex-focused. It helps your Initiative, Stealth, and AC, and with this build you’re going to have Evasion, so this will help your Reflex save too. And go with a 2handed Custom Exotic Weapon that deals bludgeoning damage and useable with Weapon Finesse.
Traits:
Dangerously Curious (makes UMD a class skill)
Child of the Moon (+1, +2, or +4 Stealth depending on the current Moon Cycle)
Weapon:
Custom Weapon is: Flying Blackjack (think Flying Blade, but with a Sap on the end of it). Use your starting funds to enchant it to make it a +3 Cruel weapon (32,000g) Level 10 Wealth-by-Level is 62,000gp, so this should be easily affordable.
Custom-created 2h Exotic Weapons have 12 Design Points.
3dp: weapon finesse
3dp: 19-20 crit
5dp: 2d6 dmg
1dp: non-lethal
Enchants:
Cruel (+1) - This causes Shaken, Frightened, or Panicked creatures to become Sickened, and gives you 5 Temp HP whenever you knock someone unconscious or kill them. With the Shaken/Sicken combo, the enemy is debuffed -4 attack, skills, saves, abil checks, and -2 dmg. This helps your survivability by a lot, and helps your group because -4 to Saves.
Items:
+4 Belt of Incredible Dexterity (16,000gp)
Skills:
Intimidate (Max)
Stealth (Max)
Feats:
Take Focused Study instead of the Human Bonus Feat (free Skill Focus at 1st, 8th, 16th, so that's 3 feats for the price of 1 feat)
Lvl1Rogue1: Unchained Rogue Free Feat: Weapon Finesse, Feat: Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Flying Blackjack, Human Bonus Feat: Skill Focus: Stealth, +1d6 SnA
Lvl2R1: Evasion, Slayer Talent: Rogue Talent: Weapon Training (Weapon Focus: Flying Blackjack)
Lvl3R3: Danger Sense +1, Finesse Training: 1.5x Dex to damage with Flying Blackjack, Feat: Enforcer, +2d6 SnA
Lvl4Slayer1:
Lvl5S2: Feat: Dazzling Display, Slayer Talent: Ranger Combat Style: 2handed: Power Attack
Lvl6S3: +3d6 SnA
Lvl7S4: Feat: Sap Adept, Slayer Talent: Combat Trick: Shatter Defenses
Lvl8S5: Human Bonus Feat: Skill Focus: Intimidate
Lvl9S6: Feat: Sap Master, Slayer Talent: Ranger Combat Style: 2handed: Furious Focus, 1/6FCB Slayer Talent: Powerful Sneak (all SnA 1 rolls are now 2's), +4d6 SnA
Lvl10S7: Stalker (allows you to use Studied Target bonus to Disguise, Intimidate and Stealth)
This is level 10, and where you'd start your game. You have multiple ways to cause your SnA, Stealth up on them, Flank, or Shatter Defenses. Once they're Flat-Footed, you're going to have no problem hitting them with your insane + to attack. At this point you have:
Attack: 9BAB + 1Weapon Focus + 8 Dex + 3Enchant + 2StudiedTarget - 3PowerAttack(-0 on first attack) = +23 to attack.
Damage: 2d4 (or 2d6) + 8Dex + 4dex(2hbonus) + 6PowerAttack + 3PowerAttack(2hbonus) + 2StudiedTarget + 3Enchantment = 2d6+26 damage
Intimidate: 3ClassSkill + 10Ranks + 6SkillFocus(Intimidate) + 2Studied Target + 1Cha = +22 Intimidate
Stealth: 3ClassSkill + 10Ranks + 6SkillFocus(Stealth) + 8Dex + 2Studied Target + 1-4ChildoftheMoon = +30-33 Stealth
So you're looking at 2d6+26dmg + 8d6+8 SnA damage vs. a Flat-footed target, which after your successful Intimidate check and next attack to make them Flat-footed, they will be taking all that damage with every single subsequent hit until they're dead or until you fail to Intimidate the target. And with your Powerful Sneak Rogue Talent, any time you roll a 1 on your SnA die, it’s counted as if you rolled a 2.
It only gets better from here. You have a choice at this point, max out your Stealthiness and make yourself completely untrackable and start Stealthing as a Move Action in combat with Hellcat Stealth (see below), or start going for Crit Feats and get Improved Critical, Critical Focus, Blinding Critical, and/or Staggering Critical. Or a mix of both if you want. Also, rather than getting Assassinate, I'd go for Hunter's Surprise. You can use Hunter's Surprise to force all attacks to consider them flat-footed just in case you come across a really high-dex target and you're having trouble getting that first attack off.
Lvl11S8: Feat: Accomplished SnA, Slayer Talent: Rogue Talent: Fast Stealth, +5d6 SnA
Lvl12S9: +6d6 SnA
Lvl13S10: Feat, Advanced Slayer Talent: Hunter's Surprise
Lvl14S11:
Lvl15S12: Feat, Advanced Slayer Talent, +7d6 SnA
Lvl16S13: Human Bonus Feat: Skill Focus: Perception or Survival (or w/e you want)
Lvl17S14: Feat, Advanced Slayer Talent
Lvl18S15: +8d6 SnA
Lvl19S16: Feat, Advanced Slayer Talent
Lvl20S17:
Maxing out Stealth:
Feats:
Fast Stealth (Stealth at full move speed with no penalty)
Hellcat Stealth (Stealth while being actively viewed in Normal or Bright Light)
Dampen Presence (Stealth against Blindsense & Blindsight)
Items:
Ring of the Chameleon +10 Competence Bonus to Stealth
Cloak of Etherealness: Cast Ethereal Jaunt for 10 minutes/day, useable in 1 min increments.
Etherealness Enchant on Armor: Remain Ethereal as long as you want, cannot use again for 1/day.
Dampening Ointment (250 gp Item) - Lets you Stealth against Lifesense and Spiritsense for up to 1 hour
Belt of Dexterity: Whatever level you can afford
Buy Scrolls/Wands of:
Greater Invisibility: +20 Stealth while moving, +40 while not moving
Fly: No tremorsense or leaving footprints
Haste: Because moving 30ft per round faster while running or flying is a good thing, and +1 additional attack per round on a full attack action
Negate Aroma: Cannot be tracked by Scent.
Pass Without Trace: Leaves no footprints or scent, which is handy for the times flying isn't feasible.
Reduce Person: If you're Medium Sized, this makes you Small, so it's a +4 Size bonus to Stealth.
Heroism or Greater Heroism: Gives you a +2 or +4 to all skill checks
Mundane:
Perception Check DC's increase by 1/10 for every ft you are from your target. So when making Stealth checks, distance is your friend. Basically for every 10ft you're from your target, increase your Stealth check by 1 DC. So if you're 80ft from your target, increase your Stealth Check by 8.
=======================
If you do all of the aforementioned stuff, you'll be completely immune to perception checks by a mile because you'll be rocking a God-like Stealth DC, and you'll be able to make stealth checks against every possible way to track you (blindsense, lifesense, tremorsense, scent, etc.).
At level 10, you're going to be averaging a 1d20+23 = 33.5 to attack, and you'll be attacking FFAC probably 70-90% of the time, not Actual AC, so you'll be reliably hitting everything, even with your Iterative attacks.
Your damage is going to be 2d6+26 + 8d6+8, so that's an average of 2x3.5 +7 = 33 avg damage with your weapon, plus 8x3.5 +8 = 34 average damage with your SnA, so your avg. total non-critical damage will be 67 damage per attack. And if you get Accomplished Sneak Attacker at level 11, then level 12 you'll have 6d6 SnA damage (so that's essentially FULL SnA progression), and you'll be doing 12d6+12 damage with your SnA with Sap Master :D :D You're going to hit like a truck!
And if you like doing the whole Stealthing up and one-shotting someone, consider getting Underhanded.
Underhanded (Ex)
Benefit: A rogue with this talent gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal a weapon. Furthermore, if she makes a sneak attack during the surprise round using a concealed weapon that her opponent didn’t know about, she does not have to roll sneak attack damage, and the sneak attack deals maximum damage. A rogue can only use the underhanded talent a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0).
You wouldn't even roll your SnA dice, you just count them as if you rolled all 6's.
With haste, you'd have 3 attacks per round when you do a full attack, so... you're gonna non-lethally wreck people :P The good thing about non-lethal dmg is that you can interrogate them afterwards :)
Another possible custom weapon:
3dp: weapon finesse
9dp: x4 critical
-1dp: 1d2 dmg
1dp: non-lethal
Now take 1 level in Warpriest for the free Weapon Focus and bring that 1d2 damage up to 1d6 with Sacred Weapon, and you'd lose 1 to your attack because of the BAB loss. So you'd have +22 to hit and 1d6+26 damage, but you can then use your level 2 Rogue Talent on something else (Fast Stealth maybe?) and with Improved Critical, now you cause x4 damage on a 19-20 roll.
Obviously you don't have to do this, the above build is solid, but if you want to do x4 dmg on a crit, this is probably the best way to do it.
I like your initial build, OP
Did you like my build? If not, what didn't you like about it? I can switch some stuff around.
It does basically everything you're looking for. 2handed, Stealth Focus, and SnA Focus.
Did you like my build? If not, what didn't you like about it? I can switch some stuff around.
It does basically everything you're looking for. 2handed, Stealth Focus, and SnA Focus.
You are basically building a new thing for someone who asked for a review of a really good build with just a few minor issues.
And all DEX builds are too samey to be fun.
Did you like my build? If not, what didn't you like about it? I can switch some stuff around.
It does basically everything you're looking for. 2handed, Stealth Focus, and SnA Focus.
You are basically building a new thing for someone who asked for a review of a really good build with just a few minor issues.
And all DEX builds are too samey to be fun.
I asked him if he would like to see a build like that, and he said yes. Scroll up. It wasn't unsolicited.