Ranged / Trapper build

[Timzhem]

Hi People,

For a new character idea I have I am looking for a build that fits to it.
The main idea is to have a ranged build (prefered bow/arrow but something other is also OK) combined with traps.
I would like to make the race a Hin or Human.
The characters main core business will be around assassins type of roleplay.

I have plenty hours on Arelith to understand all basics about building.
But making a build myself still feels like seeking for a needle in a haystack.

Can someone help me get started?
What important feats do I need to take on what levels?
And what would be my starting stats?

If you wish to contact me private or ask me anything that is also ok!

Thanks guys

[Waldo52]

I'm going to assume human, because hin are lame.

I prefer rogues, but a ranger would fit this concept just fine. 25 rogue/5 ranger is extremely solid, as the archery path for ranger gives you point blank shot, rapid shot and rapid reload (in case you go crossbows).

A good starting stat block would be

Str 10
Dex 18 (gift 20)
Con 14
Int 14 (gift 16)
wis 8
Charisma 8

A note on ability scores:

You can easily get away with gifting CON instead of INT if you're in a comfortable place with skills. If you want a LOT of feats and want to do something fun but slightly suboptimal, you can also reduce dex by 1 and invest some points elsewhere. An even dex score like 18 (gift 20) means that you'll need to burn an epic feat on epic dexterity to get an even number in the end, which can be annoying.

Your level up feats would look something like this:

1) Expertise
1) Improved Expertise
3) Weapon Focus
6) Blind Fight
9) (think of something)
12) Improved Critical
15) (Think of something)
18 (Think of something)

A note on pre-epic feats: You are not a particularly feat starved build. If you want it, you can take luck of heroes. Decide on this beforehand, because you can only take it at level one.

21) epic weapon focus
24) Blind Speed
27) (Think of something. Maybe Epic Prowess)
30) Epic Dodge

Keep in mind you'll need evasion and defensive roll as rogue feats to qualify for epic dodge (I did not include a separate list of rogue feats, there are a lot and you have some good options).

I wish I had time for more of a deep dive, but this should be a good start. The advice I provided is a solid chasis for something that is not botched at level 1, so if you make a mistake in leveling up you can use the -relevel command.

Best of luck.

EDIT: If you're going for the trapper angle, gruesome technique is a great way to go. Skill focus and Epic skill focus in intimidate plus some intimidate gear will get your DCs to a reasonable level. Intimidate will also improve the DC of your dirty trick feat, which is a good thing to invest in. Archers have a free hand free so they can use the blinding variant of DT which is quite good.

[Timzhem]

Thank! This helps a lot and gives me an idea on how to proceed.

So, lvl 1-4 ranger (archer path)
5-29 Rogue
30 - ranger

Would that be a good lvling path to follow?
Or do you suggest otherwise?

[Waldo52]

Thank! This helps a lot and gives me an idea on how to proceed.

So, lvl 1-4 ranger (archer path)
5-29 Rogue
30 - ranger

Would that be a good lvling path to follow?
Or do you suggest otherwise?

You actually want your first levels in rogue. You get four times the skill ranks at level 1, and this is a bigger number for rogues than it is for rangers because rogues have more skill ranks.

8 ranks (rogue) + 3 (int 16) + 1 (human) is 12, and multiple by 4 this is 48.

Is this a huge deal? Obviously not but it's clearly smarter to start rogue for this reason.

I would recommend taking your last level in rogue as well. While you'd be missing out on a single rank in discipline you have an enormous list of skills that you could invest your last skill points into.

All you need are 4 ranger levels before level twenty, but keep your first three levels rogue levels. Take a 5th ranger level at 29.