"Gunslinger with a Mount" or "Help me optimize my poor decisions, please?"

[Sedall]

Evening (or your relevant time-based greeting here) Playground, I return once more to ask for your advice on planning a character.

I'm going to be playing Pathfinder for the second time ever; the last time I played was long ago, but I know the APG had just been released. So it's been a while and I'm very inexperienced with the system. Originally, I wanted to play a cavalier and try my hand at a mounted character, despite some complaints I've heard about the class. But the idea of a gunslinger kept growing on me, and the image in my head is a combatant with a longcoat over some armor, with a lance in one hand and a double-barreled pistol or musket in the other on a horse (or camel. or mastodon). I also really like the idea of this guy becoming a Grand Marshal/Shield Marshal (Whatever the class is called. Grand on PFSRD, but address is for Shield and I've seen it referred to both ways).

The DM is going to be sympathetic toward my mounted plight, but he's an old school guy who mostly learned from AD&D and doesn't have a problem taking characters down. So I'd like to optimize as much as I can to do some damage and survive.

Things I'd like to keep in the build:
A) 4 levels of Cavalier with Expert Trainer for the Horse Master (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/horse-master-combat) feat. Was looking at Dune Drifter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/cavalier/archetypes/paizo---cavalier-archetypes/dune-drifter-cavalier-archetype) or Luring Cavalier (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/cavalier/archetypes/paizo---cavalier-archetypes/luring-cavalier) archetypes. (He's ruled that I wouldn't start with my gun, but instead would find it very early on, to allow me the Gun classes/archetypes while in a very rare guns setting, so Luring looks the best.)
B) Mysterious Stranger (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/gunslinger/archetypes/paizo---gunslinger-archetypes/mysterious-stranger) Gunslinger Archetype.
C) Grand/Shield Marshal (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/e-h/shieldmarshal) prestige class.

I really don't know how feat starved the build would be though, and am looking for suggestions as to that end, as well as a racial selection. Wanted to get away from core races, so I was thinking a tiefling with fiendish heritage to change the stats to dex and cha bonuses, but that already marks two of my early feats with Horse Master, so that's up for debate. But if I can get away with not being a human, that'd be wonderful.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Helpful Links? Advice? Dessert Recipes?

Edit: Added links. Also, all Paizo material on the SRD is allowed.


(Originally, I just wanted to be a Mammoth Rider with a huge Triceratops mount...but noooo, those are a little too big. Bah.)

[grarrrg]

Luring Cavalier is nice for the "Guns target Touch AC TWO range increments away" gained at level 3.
Far Challenge can be a nice Ranged damage boost, but comes with an effective -4 AC, and can turn into "normal" Challenge if hit in melee. If you are comfortable going from Ranged to Melee then this can be useful.

I'd probably go with Dune Drifter though. The Amateur Gunslinger feat can regain access to the Quick Clear Deed (which Mysterious Stranger loses). If you really want, you -can- trade this in for the Extra Grit feat (+2 Grit) once you have actual Gunslinger levels, but you're probably better off with Quick Clear for a while.
It also gets Rapid Reload at level 3, something you'll want anyway.

Mysterious Stranger is a solid archetype, nothing much to say about it.

The official name is Shieldmarshal.
It has to do with names/things that can be 'owned' by Paizo or not. Due to [legal stuff] only Paizo is allowed to call it that. The SRD is _NOT_ affiliated with Paizo, and so they can not call it that. There are quite a few PrC's and feats that have different names and slightly different fluff on the SRD (the biggest one to note is the complete and utter lack of official deities as they are very much intellectual property.
As for why the SRD can (usually) use the actual names in the URL...I don't know.

As for Race, once they came out with the various Aasimar-blooded options, they retconned you not needing the Fiendish Heritage feat for Tiefling-spawn access. Still need to clear it with your DM though.

Human is still solid for the bonus feat, but while there are a variety of races with +DEX / +CHA, not many of them have much in the way of bonuses for Gunslingers/Cavaliers.

Of the "+CHA" Races, the only ones with a decent Gunslinger Favored Option are Humans, Half-Elves, and Ifrit. The first two improve your Grit pool, Ifrits can boost your Initiative bonus (special mention for Half-Elves, as they can favor 2 classes).

Halfling
Aasimar, Azata-Blooded
Tiefling, Div or Rakshasa Spawn
Catfolk
Dhampir
Drow
Fetchling
Ifrit
Kitsune
Merfolk
Vishkanya

[Sedall]

Ooo, the favoring two classes thing might be nice. I also didn't realize there were so many +Dex/+Cha races. That's more than expected. I really need to trawl through the SRD some more. It's an online game, so I'm going into this basically bookless.

Thanks for the explanation on the class names, also. That really helps clear some things up.