Let's play a game today!

[skypse]

Hello Giants! Let's play a game today!

So I will start on a custom campaign made by a friend of mine, who had been working on it for 3 years now. It is set on a world based on Golarion, all races except from elementals and some uncommon ones are playable, and the same goes for classes.

No 3rd party material except from the "Unarmored mastery" and "Improved unarmored mastery" feats. Also, he allows us to use some universal monster abilities as feats (e.g. quicken spell like ability).

So, the campaign will start during November and the specific story includes a "protagonist" character who has a little bit of less limitations than the others but has a more "main" role to fulfill in the campaign. Being the most experienced and the one with the most free time from our group, I get to be that guy.

Due to the fact that the campaign is pretty hard and is set on a Heroic level of difficulty, (even though we don't actually use hero points) we start at 5lvl, with 25 point buy, 1 floating free point to put it anywhere we want (max increase from 16 to 17 though) and the classic 1 point from lvl 4 (which we can use in conjuction with the other point to have a 16 become an 18).

I wanted to play a rogue and especially a sniper archetype, so I made up a quick setup with the following:

Race: Noble Drow
Class: 1lvl fighter (cavern sniper archetype), 4lvl rogue (sniper archetype)
Stats: STR 14 (10 base +4 points)
DEX 18 (10 base, +4 racial, +4 points)
CON 14 (10 base, -2 racial, +4 points, +1 lvl 4, +1 floating)
INT 15 (10 base, +2 racial, +2 points)
WIT 14 (10 base, +2 racial, +3 points)
CHA 16 (10 base, +2 racial, +4 points)

Traits: Indomidable Faith, Reactionary
Talents: Finesse Rogue, Snap Shot
Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Quicken Spell-Like ability (Fearie Fire)
Combat Gear: Mithral Shirt, Drow Curve Blade +1, Composite Longbow (+2), Amulet of Natural armor +1, Ring of protection +1, Cloack of resistance +2

Starting money are 10500, max buy is 1/5 of that (2100)

Combat tactics: at the start of combat use deeper darkness SLA and then quicken fearie fire on any target inside the darkness in order to pinpoint him for my party. Next rounds hide in the shadow of my spell, and deliver painful sneak attacks with my bow while I use the Cavern Sniper special ability "Imbue Shot" and pinpointing with fearie fire every target I hit so my allies will not be affected by total darkness miss chance and at the same time be beneffited from the same source. After that, repeat step 2 :)


So the game rules are the following: Using what I gave you at the beginning, beat that char :D

[skypse]

Nothing??? Come on now... You have almost every source available to make a better character than this and noone is willing to give it a try? Even some feedback at least?

[Nightraiderx]

I'm not as versed in pf as I am with 3.5 but I have an idea in mind:

Ok, so you got the first chance to strike but you wasted it not doing damage, darkness is decent but not good enough to stop the enemy more than one round.
He can move out of your darkness-type ability and that's the end of it. you could do something nastier at lvl 5 than that if you are allowed traits.

I'd like to share a trick with you but it requires using magus (Myrmadarch style) for the best effect.

Traits [magical lineage (snowball) , metamagic master (snowball)]

Feats:
Improved Initiative
Lingering Spell (+1)
Tenebrous Spell (+0)
Umbral Spell (+2) magus bonus at 5

You now have a missile effect that had 5d6 cold damage in a 10 ft area, has a chance to stun and adds extra concealment. anyone that enters the dark/ice ball
gets dealt 5d6 cold damage and has to pass a fortitude save to stagger as a 2nd lvl spell. The lingering metamagic qualifies snowball for the Umbral metamagic and vice-versa. Now you have dealt damage, blinded a foe, dealt damage in an area (possibly disabling multiple foes at once) and your allies can focus on those outside the snowball of death.

[avr]

You know that you need caster level 10 to get the Quicken SLA feat, right? Also since faerie fire is a light spell of lower level than deeper darkness, it will be overridden by the latter.

If you want to stop people walking out of your deeper darkness you might prefer cavern sniper 1/alchemist (grenadier) 4. Take the explosive missile discovery to add damage and use the grenadier ability to add a tanglefoot bag as well.

[skypse]

Oh my bad.. I thought I mentioned this. Even though I am allowed to chose as a race the Noble Drows, if I do so, I am not allowed to play any kind of spellcasting class (either divine or arcane). I can start taking spellcasting class levels from the playable levels and forth, but the initial character (an his 5 starting levels) must not be casters. I have also thought of taking advantage of this and playing an arcane trickster, but I am not sure cause I will lose the stealth range bonuses I would otherwise take.

@NightraiderX
That could work. Especially if I go with Fetchling to get the "Shadow" bonuses. However I am not very fond of the Magus cause you get to lose high level spells and you are still worse than a fighter/barbie in close combat so you end up being mediocre at everything. I may try to do this with a clean wizard.

@avr caster level 10 for quicken SLA? Are you sure? Ok this messes up the feat list a little bit so I have to check it out. As for the alchemist I will have to dump the Noble Drow so I will also lose the cavern sniper archetype unless I go for human and take racial heritage which eventually will screw over my attribute scores. The darkness/deeper darkness SLA will mess fearie fire depending on the initial light level right? supposingly, If I cast darkness/deeper darkness on an area, I lower the light level by 1 or 2 steps. Fearie fire will outline my target of choise so he will be "shining" on a step higher than everything around him, thus making him visible compared to the rest who are in there.

Yup there it is I found it Quicken SLA (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/monster-feats/quicken-spell-like-ability). However it says on the third paragraph
The creature can only select a spell-like ability duplicating a spell with a level less than or equal to 1/2 its caster level (round down) – 4
FF is a 1st lvl spell. My half lvl rounded down is 2 so I should be able to use it since my total caster level is 5.

[Nightraiderx]

Oh my bad.. I thought I mentioned this. Even though I am allowed to chose as a race the Noble Drows, if I do so, I am not allowed to play any kind of spellcasting class (either divine or arcane). I can start taking spellcasting class levels from the playable levels and forth, but the initial character (an his 5 starting levels) must not be casters. I have also thought of taking advantage of this and playing an arcane trickster, but I am not sure cause I will lose the stealth range bonuses I would otherwise take.

@NightraiderX
That could work. Especially if I go with Fetchling to get the "Shadow" bonuses. However I am not very fond of the Magus cause you get to lose high level spells and you are still worse than a fighter/barbie in close combat so you end up being mediocre at everything. I may try to do this with a clean wizard.

@avr caster level 10 for quicken SLA? Are you sure? Ok this messes up the feat list a little bit so I have to check it out. As for the alchemist I will have to dump the Noble Drow so I will also lose the cavern sniper archetype unless I go for human and take racial heritage which eventually will screw over my attribute scores. The darkness/deeper darkness SLA will mess fearie fire depending on the initial light level right? supposingly, If I cast darkness/deeper darkness on an area, I lower the light level by 1 or 2 steps. Fearie fire will outline my target of choise so he will be "shining" on a step higher than everything around him, thus making him visible compared to the rest who are in there.

Yup there it is I found it Quicken SLA (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/monster-feats/quicken-spell-like-ability). However it says on the third paragraph
FF is a 1st lvl spell. My half lvl rounded down is 2 so I should be able to use it since my total caster level is 5.

I think you forget that it's 1/2 lvl -4 so you wouldn't be able to use FF because your number would be -2 effective CL.
Ah understandable about the magus, I wish they gave it full bab like the duskblade. There is a feat in drow of the underdark (3.5e) that allows you to trade sneak attack damage in order to blind an opponent for a round. (requires darkness as an sla) not quite the area effect damage dealer, but would work in disabling most normal foes for a period of time.

[skypse]

I think you forget that it's 1/2 lvl -4 so you wouldn't be able to use FF because your number would be -2 effective CL.
Ah understandable about the magus, I wish they gave it full bab like the duskblade. There is a feat in drow of the underdark (3.5e) that allows you to trade sneak attack damage in order to blind an opponent for a round. (requires darkness as an sla) not quite the area effect damage dealer, but would work in disabling most normal foes for a period of time.

Yeah you are right... Damn.. I got to start looking for another feat then :P (open to suggestions). The feat you are talking about must have been removed in Pathfinder though.

[avr]

Oh my bad.. I thought I mentioned this. Even though I am allowed to chose as a race the Noble Drows, if I do so, I am not allowed to play any kind of spellcasting class (either divine or arcane).
Technically, an alchemist isn't a spellcaster. It would probably trigger the same reaction with your DM though I admit.

The darkness/deeper darkness SLA will mess fearie fire depending on the initial light level right? supposingly, If I cast darkness/deeper darkness on an area, I lower the light level by 1 or 2 steps. Fearie fire will outline my target of choise so he will be "shining" on a step higher than everything around him, thus making him visible compared to the rest who are in there.
"Magical light sources only increase the light level in an area if they are of a higher spell level than darkness" - deeper darkness refers to darkness and uses this text. Faerie fire is level 1, deeper darkness level 3. No dice.

Yup there it is I found it Quicken SLA (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/monster-feats/quicken-spell-like-ability). However it says on the third paragraph
FF is a 1st lvl spell. My half lvl rounded down is 2 so I should be able to use it since my total caster level is 5.
Half level minus 4. Scroll a little further down to the table to confirm this. It's basically unchanged from 3.5 - the formula is that you get quicken SLA at the same level a sorcerer would be able to quicken the same spell. CL 10 for a 1st level spell.

Anyway if the general trick doesn't work let's move on and try something else. Non-spellcasters only, races available include Drow noble. Hmm.

A single-classed gunslinger could make use of the nice stats of a Drow Noble. Fifth level is when you get gun training to add dex to damage.

If multiclassing wildly is OK, gunslinger (mysterious stranger) 1/ranger (hooded champion, skirmisher) 2/investigator (sleuth) 1/swashbuckler 1 is entirely non-spellcasting, gets grit, luck and panache to combine into one really big pool and plenty of ways to recover it and spend it.

[skypse]

Anyway if the general trick doesn't work let's move on and try something else. Non-spellcasters only, races available include Drow noble. Hmm.



This is ONLY in case I go with Noble Drow. Any other race is ok for spellcasters. (initial restriction to elemental races like ifrits still apply)

[skypse]

If multiclassing wildly is OK, gunslinger (mysterious stranger) 1/ranger (hooded champion, skirmisher) 2/investigator (sleuth) 1/swashbuckler 1 is entirely non-spellcasting, gets grit, luck and panache to combine into one really big pool and plenty of ways to recover it and spend it.

I ran some mathcraft behind this one. I think that it messes up with ranger's animal bond cause it will be lots of levels behind my total levels thus it will be useless in later levels (say 8 or 9)

[avr]

I ran some mathcraft behind this one. I think that it messes up with ranger's animal bond cause it will be lots of levels behind my total levels thus it will be useless in later levels (say 8 or 9)
Well, of course. You go off into a PrC or something - one more level of ranger then Horizon Walker maybe, and aim for the dimensional agility feat line - and never get or bother with an animal companion/later ranger class features. Not everyone needs a pet.

[skypse]

This seems like a waste of 2 ranger levels though. And I can still go for the dimensional agility feat line if I take Monk levels instead of Ranger ones. I don't know however if this insane multiclass can beat the Drow Noble racials.
Scratch that I was thinking ranger which I can't play with Drow Noble cause it has spellcasting.

However, if I go for that kind of built, I completely abandon ranged fight and ranged sneak attack which I kinda wanna have due to the advantage drow gain in darkness situations. After all they are the only race with 120 starting Darkvision range.

[Der_DWSage]

Hm. Your problems here are threefold.

1:You're trying to use ranged attacks, which are...problematic, to be sure. You need some kind of extra damage increase.
2:You're trying to use ranged sneak attacks as your damage increase, which just makes this incredibly difficult to use.
3:The tactics you're trying to use-which would certainly be very Drow-like tactics-won't work unless you're outside and in the sunlight. You can't even see through your own Deeper Darkness unless you're outside on a sunny day.

Having a huge supply of Grit/Panache/Insert another needless name here can be nice, but here's a few other options for running a sniper.

1:Run a Common Drow, so you can be a spellcasting class. Be a Zen Archer 1/Inquisitor 4, focusing on the Destruction Judgement. There aren't really any good offensive domains here, so take Deception or Venom, depending on if you prefer not being in melee or dealing a little bit of CON damage. Take Friendly Fire, to help out your buddies a little more.

2:Run a Dervish Dancer Soundstriker Bard. Performance gives you double the regular bonuses, so you'll be dealing quite a bit of damage regularly-and when you don't want to use arrows, the level 6 ability of the Soundstriker gives you a pretty nice chunk of damage, since you can direct all those words to strike the same target.

3:If your GM isn't likely to have too many encounters in a day, a ranged Guide Ranger is a perfectly viable choice. Be a Skirmisher so you can keep your Noble Drow status.

4:If you decide you just want to deal buckets of damage, be a Cavalier. Have a Dire Bat companion through some means or another. Take Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, and Spirited Charge. Use a lance, and deal 3x damage to everything you ever encounter. Be of the Order of the Sword, so you can add your bat's strength modifier to your own when charging. Make sure your bat takes Narrow Frame, so he can't be left behind anywhere.

As for ranged equipment, here's some goodies I would recommend.

1:Bracers of Falcon's Aim. This is THE ranged accessory of choice.
2:If there's a full-fledged spellcaster in the party, +1 Spell-Storing arrows. Get a few tricks for every situation.
3:+1 Bane Arrows of critters you run across often wouldn't be amiss either.
4:A Lesser Designating Bow, eventually. This lets you help your allies out if you don't murderize something on the first go.
5:Efficient Quiver. So you can legitimately have your golf bag full of silver/cold iron/adamantine/spell storing/bludgeoning arrows and never be called on the fact that you get the right arrow the first time, every time.
6:Drow Poison. Soak all your arrows in drow poison. It's cheap, and there are worse things you can do than a 1/20 chance of Save Or Suck.

[avr]

This seems like a waste of 2 ranger levels though. And I can still go for the dimensional agility feat line if I take Monk levels instead of Ranger ones. I don't know however if this insane multiclass can beat the Drow Noble racials.
Scratch that I was thinking ranger which I can't play with Drow Noble cause it has spellcasting.

However, if I go for that kind of built, I completely abandon ranged fight and ranged sneak attack which I kinda wanna have due to the advantage drow gain in darkness situations. After all they are the only race with 120 starting Darkvision range.
The skirimisher archetype removes ranger spellcasting. So you could do this and play a drow noble. Sleuth archetype removes the investigators alchemy. The insane multiclass includes no spellcasters by design.

One of DWSage's ideas will work as well.

BTW a member of any race with 60' darkvision can spend a feat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/deepsight) to get 120' darkvision. It's nice but not unique. Also, some DM's don't like varying from the one 25 mm square = 5' standard, if yours is one you may find less situations where you can use the full range than you might like.

[skypse]

Hm. Your problems here are threefold.

1:You're trying to use ranged attacks, which are...problematic, to be sure. You need some kind of extra damage increase.
2:You're trying to use ranged sneak attacks as your damage increase, which just makes this incredibly difficult to use.
3:The tactics you're trying to use-which would certainly be very Drow-like tactics-won't work unless you're outside and in the sunlight. You can't even see through your own Deeper Darkness unless you're outside on a sunny day.

1/2) I'm trying to effectively use my ranged attacks. Considering the fact that I am a rogue, (thus a skill monkey) I will be the one scouting ahead of my party. In case I am able to do some decent damage to a patrol guard I want to do it from the shadows and then run back to my group to let them know. That's why I'm planning on using Fast Withdrawl so I can get a free withdraw action after a sneak attack. Combine this with the extra sneak attack range I get from the sniper archetype and I can sneak them from 100ft away AND be able to run back before they can catch me. (unless someone has 100ft move action and a standar afterwards or I get caught from a wizard). After all don't forget that I also have my +1 Drow Curve Blade so I won't be based ONLY in ranged combat especially at the begining.

3) I can chose if I want to use deeper darkness or normal darkness since I have them both. Depending on the light condition, I use the corresponding skill. It is only logical that inside an underground dungeon I would only use fearie fire or dancing lights in order to help the party.




2:Run a Dervish Dancer Soundstriker Bard. Performance gives you double the regular bonuses, so you'll be dealing quite a bit of damage regularly-and when you don't want to use arrows, the level 6 ability of the Soundstriker gives you a pretty nice chunk of damage, since you can direct all those words to strike the same target.
I should drop the Drow to get the bard however since I am still taking his spellcasting abilities. Also, Soundstriker's 6th is the complete opposite from "sneak" since he has to sing and shout :D The ability specifically says "words" As for the Dervish, if I was to drop the drow and go for a bard multiclass (which I thought of) I would do it for the "Dervish of Dawn", taking Dervish Dance feat for free and switching from the Curve blade to Scimitar.



3:If your GM isn't likely to have too many encounters in a day, a ranged Guide Ranger is a perfectly viable choice. Be a Skirmisher so you can keep your Noble Drow status.

The skirimisher archetype removes ranger spellcasting. So you could do this and play a drow noble. Sleuth archetype removes the investigators alchemy. The insane multiclass includes no spellcasters by design.

Yeap just saw it. Sorry for that. Now breaking down the multiclass.
1) Sleuth and every other advanced class is out of the game unfortunately. As I was informed, he wrote his campaign before the advanced class guide came out, so even if he can allow some of the feats including in the book (after he checks them ofc) he can't add advanced classes to his campaign.
2) Skirmisher is ok but I have 2 objections. 1st is about the underleveled companion that I have to built feats around it so it won't go to total waste.
2nd is the archetype description:"Skirmishers do not gain any spells or spellcasting ability, do not have a caster level, and cannot use spell trigger and spell completion magic items." So from what I understand, I won't be able to use my Drow SLAs or some other magic item I may find during the adventure. In such case, I wouldn't want to do that tbh.
3) Mysterious stranger seems kind of useless since all his abilities revolve around Firearms, as well as the 1st level deeds he gets except maybe 1. Does it worth a whole class level for 1 deed?



4:If you decide you just want to deal buckets of damage, be a Cavalier. Have a Dire Bat companion through some means or another. Take Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, and Spirited Charge. Use a lance, and deal 3x damage to everything you ever encounter. Be of the Order of the Sword, so you can add your bat's strength modifier to your own when charging. Make sure your bat takes Narrow Frame, so he can't be left behind anywhere.

Not really. I prefer playing something that can have a really strong RP with high skill ranks. I am not the HUGEIMMENSEUNBELIEVABLESUPERWOWOVER9000!!!!111!1!! !!1 damage type of players.


As for ranged equipment, here's some goodies I would recommend.

1:Bracers of Falcon's Aim. This is THE ranged accessory of choice.
2:If there's a full-fledged spellcaster in the party, +1 Spell-Storing arrows. Get a few tricks for every situation.
3:+1 Bane Arrows of critters you run across often wouldn't be amiss either.
4:A Lesser Designating Bow, eventually. This lets you help your allies out if you don't murderize something on the first go.
5:Efficient Quiver. So you can legitimately have your golf bag full of silver/cold iron/adamantine/spell storing/bludgeoning arrows and never be called on the fact that you get the right arrow the first time, every time.
6:Drow Poison. Soak all your arrows in drow poison. It's cheap, and there are worse things you can do than a 1/20 chance of Save Or Suck.

Thanks for that. I would really spend a lot of time gathering info on items that help ranged combat.






BTW a member of any race with 60' darkvision can spend a feat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/deepsight) to get 120' darkvision. It's nice but not unique. Also, some DM's don't like varying from the one 25 mm square = 5' standard, if yours is one you may find less situations where you can use the full range than you might like.
However Drows have it since birth so that helps in feat economy. Also, don't underestimate the ability to know that in front of you there is a wall and not something unknown. It really helps when you try to sneak your way into a dungeon without letting your Barbie scream and break things all over the place.

[avr]

No, it's not worth taking Mysterious Stranger without the luck/panache classes. The point was to get grit based off charisma so that each point of CHA bonus added 3 to the combined pool.

Skirmisher only affects the class abilities of the ranger. It does not kill your racial SLAs.

The guide/skirmisher ranger should work well enough for you. If you want any further advice please mention any further source restrictions that apply.

[skypse]

The only source restrictions are no 3rd party, no advanced class guide book, no elementals races and no spellcasting classes if the race is Drow Noble.

Are we sure about the racial SLAs and the Skirmisher? The description doesn't seem to allow room for exceptions on that.

Also, if I try to combine skirmisher with something what would it be good? Should I still keep some levels in rogue for the sneak attack or 1lvl cavern sniper for the swift imbue shot or go full skirmisher?

What animal companion should I chose? Keep in mind that the campaign is being played on a whole map which means that from time to time I will be changing terrain and the fights could be anywhere. Also, if I multiclass is there anyway to keep the animal companion on par with my total level?

In general what are the key points I should focus on as far as the skirmisher is concerned? I've never played/created a ranger so I don't know him at all.

If someone has time available I would appreciate a more detailed build path (including stats, attributes, feats,traits, equipment). Thank you in advance.

[avr]

"This ability replaces the Ranger's spells class feature. Skirmishers do not gain any spells or spellcasting ability, do not have a caster level and cannot use spell trigger and spell completion magic items."

It is clearly referring to the spells, spellcasting ability and caster level of the ranger class. You don't have a caster level as a Skirmisher Ranger but there is nothing stopping you from getting one from a different source.

The Boon companion feat will let you take one level in a class without an animal companion and still have a companion at max level. The first level of cavern sniper fighter seems useful to you as a Drow Noble. I personally wouldn't multiclass further, but if you chose you could take levels in another class with an animal companion and the levels would stack for this purpose.

With Cavern Sniper Fighter 1/Skirmisher Ranger 19 i'd take these feats:
1: Point-Blank Shot
3: Precise Shot, Rapid Shot (b)
5: Boon Companion
7: Manyshot, Improved Precise Shot (b)
9: Deadly Aim
11: Weapon Focus (longbow), Point Blank Master (b)
13: Improved Initiative
15: Iron Will, Far Shot (b)
17: Improved Critical
19: Impact Critical Shot, Shot on the Run (b)

The Use Magic Device skill will also work around the skirmisher losing its magic. Instant Enemy is a ranger spell that you will want a wand of eventually, max UMD so you can activate the wand when you get one.

I'd drop intelligence to 10 and get dexterity to 20 (2 more point buy pts each of dex and con, shift the floating point to dex). You have good skills as a ranger already and dexterity adds to a lot of things you care about.

There's some equipment notes above from DWSage, grab the Reactionary trait and whichever other one seems appropriate, traits aren't vitally important to this character.

[skypse]

Nice! Thank you for the time you put into this. Now it's time for the 1.000.000$ question: Why is this character better than the 1lvl fighter (cavern sniper)/19lvl rogue (sniper) I suggested in the first post? What are his pros and cons compared to that one?

[avr]

First, you wanted an animal companion. Here you have one.

Second, bonus feats, some of them early. Archery wants feats and a rogue only gets two relevant ones - one combat trick, one advanced trick for any feat. Neither bypasses prerequisites - a rogue never gets point blank master.

Full base attack. Besides the attack bonus you get extra attacks earlier and qualify for feats earlier.

Favored enemy. Only intermittently useful until you get a wand of Instant Enemy when it becomes awesome. BTW put said wand in a spring-loaded wrist sheath & attach it to a weapon cord.

Don't forget the effects of favored enemy and terrain on skills as well as combat.

Minuses? When you can set it all up and the stars align just right sneak attack does do more damage.

You get more skills, 2 more/level.

Rogue tricks have some specialised uses - you can actually get favored terrains faster and better than a ranger if you really work at it.

They get trapfinding - a ranger needs to either take another archetype and trade out some good stuff, or take a campaign-specific trait to get the same. Which reminds me, you might want to take that trait, or one which makes UMD a class skill.

PS one more in favor of the ranger - sneak attack won't be working at the full 120' range of your darkvision.

[skypse]

First, you wanted an animal companion. Here you have one.

Didn't WANT one, I just said that if it is to get one, I don't want it to be useless due to massive multiclass. It's good to have a grizzly bear around though tbh.



Second, bonus feats, some of them early. Archery wants feats and a rogue only gets two relevant ones - one combat trick, one advanced trick for any feat. Neither bypasses prerequisites - a rogue never gets point blank master.

Full base attack. Besides the attack bonus you get extra attacks earlier and qualify for feats earlier.
Touché


Favored enemy. Only intermittently useful until you get a wand of Instant Enemy when it becomes awesome. BTW put said wand in a spring-loaded wrist sheath & attach it to a weapon cord.
Wait, what?



Minuses? When you can set it all up and the stars align just right sneak attack does do more damage.

Ain't that hard to do when you can sneak attack from 30+10/3lvl range away, inside concealment and wihout being that easy to be pinpoined



Rogue tricks have some specialised uses - you can actually get favored terrains faster and better than a ranger if you really work at it.
It's the versatility they offer. Bonus on stealth, harder for foes to pinpoint you, stronger sneak attacks, bonuses on rolls etc.


They get trapfinding - a ranger needs to either take another archetype and trade out some good stuff, or take a campaign-specific trait to get the same. Which reminds me, you might want to take that trait, or one which makes UMD a class skill.
Not a big deal. I take Trapper instead of Skirmisher. I lose the skirmisher's abilities but I get free UMD, Trapfinding and trapmaking.


PS one more in favor of the ranger - sneak attack won't be working at the full 120' range of your darkvision.
Won't need it to though. What are the chances to need to attack someone at 120 feet underground? :D I highly doubt that there ever will be any place with 120 feet straight line of sight underground...