Pirate Knife Thrower [PF]

[GenPol]

I've got an idea for a knife-throwing pirate, to be played in an upcoming Skull and Shackles game. How can I make this build viable? The character starts at level 1, with the usual starting money, and 25 point buy. All Paizo books are fair game. We get two traits to start out with.

My first thought was to go Rogue with the Knife Master archetype, which isn't huge, I think, but adds some nice little things that make fighting with daggers easier. Unfortunately, this means missing out on the Pirate archetype, which also has some snazzy pirate related bonuses, that fit the theme and the campaign quite well.

If I go that route, then for feats I might take an Extra Talent, then go into the Ninja section, and grab Deadly Range, which increases the range that I can Sneak Attack inside of by 10 feet.

I could also get Point Blank Shot -> Rapid Shot, to be able a throw multiple knives a round. Deadly Aim might be viable as well. Combat Expertise -> Improved Feint could help me squeeze out some more Sneak Attacks, and maybe later I could throw in Wave Strike, which lets me Feint as a swift action, but only during the first round of combat.

--

Maybe Rogue isn't the right class for this build, and I'm certainly open to other ideas that better embody the concept. The other ideas I thought of were taking Fighter, and grabbing up all of those range related feats, or maybe even going Monk, and flurrying with daggers (the Drunken Master archetype fits with the Pirate theme too), or maybe Ranger with Favored Enemy (Humans) and a parrot animal companion.

What are your thoughts? Sorry if I left anything out. Thanks in advance!

[Daftendirekt]

Combat Expertise -> Improved Feint is a bad idea. Feinting is a very weak tactic, overall, and there are better and easier ways to get sneak attack.

[GenPol]

Combat Expertise -> Improved Feint is a bad idea. Feinting is a very weak tactic, overall, and there are better and easier ways to get sneak attack.

I suppose even if I did make feinting viable, it would suck up all of my other feats, and I'd be a one trick pony without a very good trick. It might be worthing pointing out that in this pirate campaign, I don't know how much opportunity there is for the traditional sneak up and stab somebody sort of Sneak Attack.

What are some better ways to get Sneak Attack? I'm starting to think now that the Ranger idea might be a better one.

[doko239]

Be a Ninja. A Pirateninja!

Seriously though, there's a Rogue archetype in Ultimate Combat called Pirate. Combine it with the Scout archetype from APG, and at 4th level, you can charge, deal sneak attack damage, and withdraw 5 feet while on a boat; at 8th level, so long as you've moved more than 10 feet this round, your targets are flat-footed.

[Blisstake]

I suppose even if I did make feinting viable, it would suck up all of my other feats, and I'd be a one trick pony without a very good trick. It might be worthing pointing out that in this pirate campaign, I don't know how much opportunity there is for the traditional sneak up and stab somebody sort of Sneak Attack.

What are some better ways to get Sneak Attack? I'm starting to think now that the Ranger idea might be a better one.

Actually, for the first adventure, you can get a lot of sneak attacks by just attacking someone unprepared. You're given plenty of opportunities for it, anyway.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Fighter 3 / Rogue 4, then Rogue for all the rest. Do it in whatever order you like, but start as a fighter at 1 for higher HD and starting wealth, and the +1 BAB.

You want Shatter Defenses, and you want it as early as possible. Ftr 3 / Rog 4 is the fastst you could get BAB +6 for it short of having no rogue levels at all.

You want to be an intimidate-based build. You can save a feat and trait and just be a Rake Rogue. Or you can be a Thug Rogue w/ Blade of Mercy trait and Enforcer feat. See how your DM interprets enforcer's wording. It says you need to use a melee weapon, not a melee attack. A dagger (and all thrown weapons...hell, any melee weapon can be thrown as an improvised weapon w/ 10 ft range increment) is classified as a melee weapon...

In any case, Shatter Defenses is your meal ticket for getting ranged sneak attack after round 1, as PF did everything it could possibly think of to nerf ranged sneak attacking.

For fighter archetype... sadly Brawler's close weapons group includes punching daggers but not daggers. Perhaps just do weapon master archetype. Getting the weapon training by the 3rd level means you can get gloves of dueling later on.


That's the difficult, struggle-filled way to do it. It takes a while to pay off, still fails against fear-immune enemies. But it doesn't require adding some stupid gimmick to your pirate fluff.
The EASY way to do this... involves dipping Oracle for 1 level. Take the Water Sight revelation from Waves mystery. Throw up some obscuring mist. Congratulations! You can see in it; against anyone else you have total concealment, which means they cannot locate you by visual senses. Ie, you're invisible to them! Proceed to full attack with thrown daggers with gusto. Of course, foes can defeat this tactic by running away from the mist out of your SA range, burning the mist, or using a wind effect on the mist. You can mitigate two of these 3 vulnerabilities:
1) Use a smoke stick as an alchemical power component (see APG). Your obscuring mist can no longer be burned away.
2) Get Sniper's Goggles when you can. You can now SA out to any range, and do +2 damage per SA die if the foe is within 30 ft.