Hunter or Ranger or barbarian (Archer / switch hitter) advice and thoughts

[rorek55]

One my characters sadly died in an online/roll20 game this past week and I'm now in need for a new one. I've been going over a couple options in my head. For specific reasons, I am looking to not have an animal companion, but also want something fairly woodsy/shamanistic feeling. That said, if you can think of a way to make an animal companion work for a switch hitter without acting as a mount feel free to say so. And yes, I know, A warpriest of Erastil can be a woodsman etc etc. But I honestly like the small bits that add that extra pizazz such as favored terrain/animal focus/etc. And besides, we already have a warpriest, a cleric, and a fighter in the group. (all melee/reach build focused) alongside a rogue(eldritch scoundrel) and a wizard.

level 3, close to level 4. (2 session max before hitting level 4)

I'm wanting a switch hitter, focused on archery and only joining Melee when necessary (such as the front line goes down, or numbers overwhelm us) We are using the elephant in the room feat tax (eliminating 2 feats from archery line, PBS + deadly aim)

For Ranger-
Wild Hunter + Spirit Ranger:

Meshes will with the shamanistic/totem/animist vibe I've been trying to get across.
Full BaB, Combat style feats, favored terrain, extra spells (thanks to Spirit Ranger), and the Animal focus ability from the Hunter. However it has lesser spell casting abilities compared to hunter even with the free spells, and no cantrips. I've always found Cantrips Extremely useful in situations (detect magic, purify food/drink, create water) though, not necessary.

Hunter Forester Archetype-
Really good spell selection thanks to gaining spells from the ranger spell list and 2/3 casting, bonus feats for archery, evasion and constant animal focus. Can provide teamwork buffs similar to a cavalier. Breath of life 1/day can be handy once we get there as well. The downside is it is a 3/4 BaB class and a d8 HD. The biggest draw here for me is the early entry to spells and the fairly good spell selection,

I've also considered the Feral Hunter archetype in place of Forester. Wild shape, while limited to only animals, is a great utility tool.

Barbarian- Primal Hunter/Elemental Kin archetypes-
The most purely martial focused of the three, no access to spells at any point, but comes with a d12 HD, full BaB, and rage. With the archetype, will probably deal the most damage and have the highest to hit bonus of the 3 options (at least, without spells in the mix) Rage powers can provide some diversity or build on strengths (such as superstitious fixing the will save loss from Primal Hunter)
Possibly the best melee hitter of the lot as well. However gets no bonus feats to help with the needed archery feats. However this is mitigated by elephant in the room feat tax. Only one good save, but reflex is rarely that big of an issue.

[avr]

For something a little different - an enlightened bloodrager gets cantrips and a few druid spells, and a bit of fey flavour with the whimsey emotional focus, or other emotional foci might relate to their history. Or there's a totemic skald archetype too.

Those aside, full BAB makes feats come online significantly faster with archery. Wild/spirit ranger sounds like the most fun to me.

[Cavall]

Well, I've played a forester ranger recently. Amazing archetype, and the hunters focus will alleviate a lot of costs for gear.

But even with bonus feats everywhere, the fact is you need BAB to really get the most out of feat choices prerequisites, even with focus evening our the numbers themselves. The spells are more often and more powerful than rangers too, lasting longer. Hunters focus best ability comes when you can do at once and you can REALLY play switch hitter best there.

Ranger however just gains the most feats with no prerequisites, and has a couple more hitpoints. With a higher BAB you're less dependant on feats like weapon focus to round out your numbers to hit.

Since Forester also adds some damage from favoured terrain unlike ranger, that may help make your choice for you.

Personally I think both work you cant really go wrong there

[PhD. Okkam]

Forester is basically a Ranger/Cavalier combo.
Don't forget to pick up Planar Focus. Lots of utility for a single feat.

I wonder if anyone has ever built a build for this archetype?

Terrain Bond spell - must-have for the forester

[Cavall]

PhD. Okkam wrote:

Forester is basically a Ranger/Cavalier combo.

Don't forget to pick up Planar Focus. Lots of utility for a single feat.

I wonder if anyone has ever built a build for this archetype?

Terrain Bond spell - must-have for the forester

Well a lot of my build had to do with my party, we were all dwarves and I had a plan to grab a dwarven helm for teamwork stuff. Let's see what I remember..

Spoiler:

Traits
Zest for battle (add a bonus to damage when under morale to attack)
Bruising intellect (int to intimidate)

1. Auspicious Birth (conjunction)

2. Power Attack

3. Hurtful
3. Shake it off

5. Practiced Tactitian

6. Outflank

7. Ferocious Loyalty
7. Cornugon smash

9. Healers hands
9. Precise strike

Went great sword and pellet bow. Granted other builds will vary as the groups changed, mine was 3 melee and 1 ranged dwarves.

I also reccomend boots of friendly terrain. With a foresters boost to raw damage based on terrain, they are cheap as hell to even grab a couple pairs and trade out as you see fit to grab a huge init boost, perception boost, small damage boost and host of other abilities for just a 2400 off the shelf.

[PhD. Okkam]

Interesting, bonus from "fighting a creature native to that terrain".
What creatures will be considered native to urban favoured terrain?

[Cavall]

I'd imagine most humanoid ones. Urban is streets buildings and sewers. So Ratfolk humans elves etc... also most domesticated animals.

But one could say boggards live in swamps more than urban, so GM call

Most in the bestiaries have terrain listed, and urban is an terrain type. For instance were rats are urban.