Psionic Ranged/Sniper help

[Xhosant]

So, one of my players has been thinking of building a ranged character and I want to help them do it. First of all, she's new, so we're trying to keep things simple and tame despite using psionics.

I'm aiming for a build that can function acceptably in mid-range but shine in "satellite" sniper scenarios, where ideally she can spend rounds stacking buffs for her next shot with her great crossbow, or rush her next shot, as seems appropriate (my solution to her firing only every other rounds and going bored). How does that sound?

To spare her the multiclassing, i was thinking of modifying an ardent for her use, giving her mantles dedicated each to perceiving targets, getting her shots accurate/strong, and giving her something to flee or fight up close. Perhaps I'll throw her Imbue Arrow in there somewhere too (but running on psionics, not arcanes).

The point is: Any powers (or spells) a psion sniper would like, matching one of the above mantle descriptions? Any other mantle focuses I should include, with or without example powers? Any no-brainer feats or any fun class features I could throw in? Do you think that's gonna be viable/game-breaking?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Sniping with a single big shot just doesn't work in any version of 3.x unless it's a metamagic-stacked spell. For a psionic ranged attacker, go with any kind of Soulbow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060403a&page=2) build with TWF. Consider any of the following:

Any race, Swordsage 1/ Soulknife 2/ Swordsage 2/ Soulbow 4+/ Swordsage and Soulbow depending on what maneuvers/stances you want and when you'll have the appropriate initiator level. Good at dealing damage, plus it has a lot of tricks from Swordsage maneuvers and skills/skill tricks. Consider switching Swordsage for Warblade, which allows you to get Ranged Weapon Mastery (PH2).

Nonpsionic Thri-Kreen, LA +1 (bought off)/ Monstrous Humanoid 2/ Monk 1/ Soulknife 2/ Soulbow, with (Improved, Greater) Multiweapon Fighting. This build does nothing but deal damage.

Some kind of Ardent 3/ Soulknife 2/ Soulbow 1/ Ardent 1/ Slayer 10, with Practiced Manifester to still get normal access to the next higher level of powers. Be sure to use Substitute Powers (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a), and swap the Soulknife's free Wild Talent for Hidden Talent.

In any case, the first +1 ability you put on the Mind Arrows should be Lucky (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/weapons.htm#lucky), so every arrow fired has its own 1/day reroll on a failed miss, which gives every shot a second chance to hit. Wilderness Archer (RotW) is another must-have, especially with TWF and Rapid Shot.

[Xhosant]

I'd be loathe to give a first-timer such a dip-heavy build :/

Since I'm looking primarily at a tier-3 group, I don't think it will take the amounts of optimization that demand multishots for the build to be competitive.

Are there spells/powers that can give a bonus to the arrow's damage (besides the obvious Imbue-ing with explosives), or better yet increase ease of criticals (or its multiplier)?

[Piggy Knowles]

Deepwood Sniper is what you're looking for. It increases critical multipliers.

In the archer build guide my sig, you'll find a build called the Murderous Sniper. It's a Ranger 2/Rogue 4/Chameleon 7/Deepwood Sniper 7. It can deal about 400 damage in a single shot, plus 24 points of Charisma damage and poison. While that might be a bit much for your campaign, you can tweak it down to fit the rest of the party.

Basically, though, it works like this:


Deepwood Sniper raises the critical multiplier of your bows by two stages.
Hunter's Mercy means that your next successful hit automatically threatens a crit.
Murderous Intent means that you automatically confirm any critical hit against a favored enemy.
The Extra Favored Enemy feat, picked up as your daily floating Chameleon feat, lets you tailor your favored enemies each day against your preferred target.


If you don't want an evil build, you can drop Murderous Intent and Extra Favored Enemy for either the Bless Weapon or Surge of Fortune spell (both of which you can also nab as a Chameleon).

To give this some psionic flavor instead, you could go with Ardent and maybe Slayer. Dropping Maiming Strike and Martial Study/Stance means you could go with a pretty straightforward Ranger 2/Ardent 4/Chameleon 7/Deepwood Sniper 7 and keep the build roughly the same, although you might need to fiddle a bit in order to get the skills right.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Archery is really only good if you get tons of attacks, since it's so lacking in bonus damage. There aren't many builds that can be good at archery without a lot of multiclassing. Consider the following, none of which are psionic:

Fighter 20, Ranged Weapon Mastery, Penetrating Shot, and enough feats to get all the archery feats.

(Snow) Elf Cloistered Cleric 20, DMM: Persist abuse with Otherworldly to Greater Anyspell: Draconic Polymorph into an Arrow Demon. Works a lot better with a lot of prestige class dips.

Scout 4/ Ranger 16 with Swift Hunter and Greater Manyshot, maybe dip a level of Cloistered Cleric for Travel Devotion so you can skirmish with a full attack.

[Xhosant]

Deepwood Sniper is what you're looking for. It increases critical multipliers.

In the archer build guide my sig, you'll find a build called the Murderous Sniper. It's a Ranger 2/Rogue 4/Chameleon 7/Deepwood Sniper 7. It can deal about 400 damage in a single shot, plus 24 points of Charisma damage and poison. While that might be a bit much for your campaign, you can tweak it down to fit the rest of the party.

Heard of this build earlier today, and I can respect a build that lets you kill a target in two ways with one shot. But it is indeed too strong :smalltongue:

That said, You opened my eyes to the Deepwood Sniper. I'll probably pillage its contents for class features.

I should get an update out very soon with a draft of the psionic sniper.

[Eldaran]

If you're ok with Pathfinder stuff the Marksman is a psionic archer class, which has a Sniper combat style, and does a good job of it. Basically, they have an ability which increases weapon dice, and then combined with vital strike you do big damage with one hit, and then just hide afterwards.

[Xhosant]

If you're ok with Pathfinder stuff the Marksman is a psionic archer class, which has a Sniper combat style, and does a good job of it. Basically, they have an ability which increases weapon dice, and then combined with vital strike you do big damage with one hit, and then just hide afterwards.

Will check it, though I know null of Pathfinder, and adapting its material :smalltongue:

[Rubik]

Try using Strength of My Enemy on an elvencraft (Races of the Wild) bow of the wintermoon (Magic Item Compendium). You drain +1 Str for every hit and gain it as an enhancement bonus that stacks with itself (but not with other enhancement bonuses to Str).

You also might try using metapsionic'd (Empower/Split Psionic Ray/Chained) Energy Ray or Crystal Shard until you can nab Energy Conversion (which should be charged up via Energy Wall between fights).

[Xhosant]

First draft of the Ardent Sniper. Unless included, anything is identical to the base Ardent.

CLASS NAME
{table=head]Level|Special

1st|Bolt mantle, Assume Psionic mantle, Point Blank Shot

2nd|Range Increment Bonus (10ft/2CL)

3rd|Power Shot, Crossbow Mastery

4th|Imbue Arrow

5th|Clairvoyant Sense (added in powers)

6th|

7th|Projectile Improved Critical +1

8th|

9th|Far Shot

10th|Assume Psionic Mantle

11th|Precise Shots

12th|

13th|Projectile Improved Critical +2

14th|

15th|Precise Shots II

16th|

17th|Fell Shot

18th|

19th|Projectile Improved Critical +3

20th|[/table]

Power Shot: As Power Attack but for ranged weapons, treating them as melee.

Crossbow Mastery: If you have Weapon Focus and/or Improved Critical for a crossbow, apply their benefits for all crossbows and as if you had both.

Precise Shots: At 11 and 15, gain a feat from Ranged Pin/Disarm/Sunder, for use up to Dex mod times per day.

Fell Shot: Get the feat, regardless of requirements. If you have it, get bonus feat instead.

Mantles: Freedom (perhaps minus flight?), Magic, and Bolt (see bellow)

So, this has gone out of the original scope of a build, I'm making a class here. The intended play-style is single/double hand crossbows in tight quarters and heavy/great crossbow when you can support your allies from upwards of Long spell range. Regardless:

I need to fill the Bolt mantle (tailored to the class) with at least 9 powers, one of which will be True Strike (psionic'd) and anything above a cost of 4 must be compatible with Imbue Arrow. Surge of Fortune is a prime candidate. Any ideas?

Plus, i should drop the size of the PP pool to compensate for all the other stuff.