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Darcand
2010-04-28, 12:22 AM
I have the good fortune of playing for a change and I believe I have settled on a halfling archer. I know bonus damage is king, but the best way to do so using just the PF core?

Straight fighter is an option, for weapon spec and weapon training, but I am also thinking of taking 7 levels of bard for arcane strike and then hitting up eldritch knight. It hurts my BA a bit, but lends alot of good tricks. Any insight at all?

Greenish
2010-04-28, 12:37 AM
Paladin with ranged smite gets you extra damage (and some hit) a few times a day vs. favoured enemies.

Alternatively, you could play the actual ranger (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/treatmonks-lab/test2/treantmonk-s-guide-to-rangers).

Mongoose87
2010-04-28, 12:38 AM
Well, PF made the Arcane Archer viable again, so consider that.

Deadly Aim is a must.

Depending on how high your stats are, in general, a Paladin dip, to get Divine Grace and that new, improved Smite Evil might be a good idea.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/treatmonks-lab/test2/treantmonk-s-guide-to-rangers

Check out the Switch Hitter. I like it.

Eldariel
2010-04-28, 12:40 AM
Well, I'd just go straight Fighter. Arcane Strike in PF isn't very amazing (though usable at range); Fighter's Weapon Trainings give you nice scaling bonuses to damage, Deadly Aim goes nice with any generic To Hit-boosters, and uhh...yeah. Pick two levels of Ranger for skills, and go profit.

Since it's PF Core and you have more feats than you know how to use, you can actually pick WF-line and be just fine. If you want casting, I suggest some slightly stronger caster class than Bard, as Inspires aren't going to be terribly useful combined with Arcane Strike, but frankly, pure Fighter gets +4/+4 from Weapon Training, +2/+4 from Focus/Spec-line, and you can fool around with the various Crit-feats if you feel so inclined as you've got feats to burn.


But yeah, bottomline is you get high enough To Hit to basically negate -6 from Deadly Aim dealing you to only deal with the -2 from Rapid Shot (which you should be able to) and then pumping your Str and Dex as much as possible. With great stats, you could end up with 36 Dex, 26 Str. This gives you decent base damage at 1d6+8 Str+4 Training+4 Focus+12 Deadly Aim = 1d6+28 per arrow (along with weapon abilities for ~30+ more) for great justice.

And your To Hit is respectable +28 without magic (with magic, you should be pretty close to +40, which is, of course, the key as that's the average AC of level 20 things like Big T, fiends and Dragons; Heroism, Haste, Competence, +5 weapon is +10 already - then just find +2 Luck/Bane/whatever).

Ravens_cry
2010-04-28, 12:56 AM
Heck, even Pathfinder Paladin Archers are pretty rockin', in my opinion. You don't need Ranged Smite anymore, and smite works until you rest or they drop, not just on a single melee attack. And Pathfinder smite gets past ALL Damage Reduction, the bane of archers everywhere. If you can fit in the Extra Smiting feat from Complete Warrior, you'll be smiting practically every evil thing there is.

Mongoose87
2010-04-28, 01:06 AM
Heck, even Pathfinder Paladin Archers are pretty rockin', in my opinion. You don't need Ranged Smite anymore, and smite works until you rest or they drop, not just on a single melee attack. And Pathfinder smite gets past ALL Damage Reduction, the bane of archers everywhere. If you can fit in the Extra Smiting feat from Complete Warrior, you'll be smiting practically every evil thing there is.

Start with two levels of Fighter for the archery-related feats, then get into Paly?

Ravens_cry
2010-04-28, 01:42 AM
Start with two levels of Fighter for the archery-related feats, then get into Paly?
Personally I would go straight Human (or other free feat race) Paly, but I like my builds simple. Pathfinder gives everyone almost as many feats as a 3.5 fighter, so being human should give you the basic first archer feats.