Exemplar rifleman

[Ravingdork]

I'm trying to build a cut-above-the-rest mana waste mutant (mutated fleshwarp exemplar) that wields a two-handed firearm to devastating effect.

However, I'm having trouble deciding on what Exemplar options to take. Does anyone have any advice on how to make an effective ranged Exemplar build?

[Dr. Frank Funkelstein]

The Deft Epiteth at lvl 3 is a key element.
Starshot is usable for ranged weapons.
Light Air Repeater is also interesting, as it gets an increased die with humble strikes, but a classic Jezail is probably more mutant mana waste style.

[Dragonchess Player]

The Gaze Sharp as Steel (the transcendence, especially) and either Scar of the Survivor (self healing with the transcendence) or Skin Hard as Horn (choose resistance vs. piercing during daily preparations), as well as either the Starshot or Unfailing Bow [Gun] (personally, I think the splash and area damage from Starshot is not as valuable as the extra damage on a critical and the repeat the previous attack roll from Unfailing Bow) ikons are probably good choices.

And yes, the free reload with transcendence from the Deft root epithet is a great choice. Dancer in the Seasons or Of Verse Unbroken might be a good choice for the dominion epithet at 7th level.

[Aristophanes]

Ravingdork wrote:

I'm trying to build a cut-above-the-rest mana waste mutant (mutated fleshwarp exemplar) that wields a two-handed firearm to devastating effect.

However, I'm having trouble deciding on what Exemplar options to take. Does anyone have any advice on how to make an effective ranged Exemplar build?

So...a deformed Chuck Connors. ;-)

[Squark]

If you can figure out how to get critical specialization with your firearm, Peerless Under Heaven is very nice with strong critical specializations like that of Firearms.

As for Starshot vs Unfailing Bow... Starshot's splash damage is inconvenient, but the AoE is very nice (Save+Strike has always been solid). Unfailing Bow's critical damage is nice, but the transcend is very, very hard to use consistently unless you are able to spam fortune effects. And being unable to consistently transcend makes for a very unhappy exemplar.

[Ryangwy]

Squark wrote:

As for Starshot vs Unfailing Bow... Starshot's splash damage is inconvenient, but the AoE is very nice (Save+Strike has always been solid). Unfailing Bow's critical damage is nice, but the transcend is very, very hard to use consistently unless you are able to spam fortune effects. And being unable to consistently transcend makes for a very unhappy exemplar.

The tricky thing is that while you do get the free reload with every transcendence, both ranged ikons then immediately uses it for the transendance, which forces you to commit to looping transcendence (at least Gaze as Sharp as Steel gives you one more attack, though you feel sad if you face precision immune enemies).

Starshot uses your base Strike damage, which makes things like Fatal, Deadly and Scatter dead weight, unfortunately. I think the best choices are d10 kickback weapons, who do apply their damage bonus to starshot; harmona gun being standard, but the best might be the gun-sword, who gives you a backup melee weapon for when endlessly looping AOEs gets difficult.

Of course, you also have to deal with being kinda useless until you hit level 3...

[Ravingdork]

What equipment might be appropriate for such a character? I've got the armor and weapon figured out, but don't know what else would be suitable for a rifleman / Mana Waste guide.

For the moment, the character is to be 7th-level and has 358gp left using lump sum.

[Trip.H]

That PC seems like the best candidate to have a graft or two included as part of their base mutant biology. Mostly a flavor-enhancement though.

If your GM is a base RaW stickler, then you might honestly be limited the scant few like Spry Sinews that simply provide a boost to their niche, like jumping. Almost all the neat abilities are ruined by flat DCs, or are inappropriately made once per day with action costs.

(An ability like the active camo that allows Hide & Sneak w/o cover should really not both cost 2A to enable as an empty activate, *and* also be limited to once p day. Should either be a 0A 1 p day, or a 1A once p hour)

If your GM is a little more homebrew friendly, Grafts become much, much more enticing. A single GM-adjudicated homebrew-edited graft could become a core nugget of a PC's identity.

You might even get your GM on board with a normal magic item w/ a mechanic you like being ~flavored into becoming a graft. With a little creative writing, even something as seemingly incompatible as a Retrieval Belt could be "flavor downgraded" into being some kind of mutant skin flap ejecto-pouch.

So many options for hat/face/mask slots items just being a part of the PC's head, etc.