How can I passively deny dexterity bonus with archers?

[Temennigru]

I'm trying to make a feat wombo combo build. I basically took 2 levels of each and every class variant in d&d that grants bonus feats at those levels.

I am level 9 and have 15 feats (I have used up most of them to get psionic shot enhancers and multiple attacks)

Basically how my combo works is get -11 attack roll to get 5 attacks with manyshot, rapid shot and arrow swarm.

Then, I deny the target his entire AC by making touch ranged attacks with fell shot and permanent focus, and denying his dex bonus, so his AC drops to 10.

After that, I have +4 to hit my arrows, so I have to roll anything larger than 6 to hit. If any one of the arrows miss, the others get +4 to hit because of woodland archer, so a miss roll would be a 1 or 2.

After I hit everything, each arrow will deal 6d6 + 9 damage due to greater psionic shot with permanent focus, dead aim, vital aim from targeteer, point-blank shot and the standard 2d6 from hank's energy bow (did I mention it goes through DR and hits ghosts?)

The minimum damage I can cause with this is 75, and the maximum is 225, assuming I hit everything.

Trouble is, I have to deny the target's dex bonus by using up a standard action to throw eggshell bombs and marbles, so I can only reliably deal damage at round 2. Does anybody know of a passive way to deny the target's dex bonus? (I thought about invisibility wands, but I'm already at negative 200 gold).

I can certainly spare 2 or 3 feats.

[Ephemeral_Being]

Ranged Pin (Complete Warrior) can be used to inflict the Grappled condition on enemies. Because they can't move, they are denied their Dex bonus to AC. It also lowers their Armour Class by 4.

If you need more help hitting your enemy and you're using Magic of Incarnum, you could spend a couple of feats to shape and add essentia to Sighting Gloves, which provide an Insight bonus to Ranged attacks. It would be "Shape Soulmeld (Sighting Gloves)," and then any of the Incarnum feats (which each grant one point of Essentia).

[Temennigru]

Ranged Pin (Complete Warrior) can be used to inflict the Grappled condition on enemies. Because they can't move, they are denied their Dex bonus to AC. It also lowers their Armour Class by 4.

If you need more help hitting your enemy and you're using Magic of Incarnum, you could spend a couple of feats to shape and add essentia to Sighting Gloves, which provide an Insight bonus to Ranged attacks. It would be "Shape Soulmeld (Sighting Gloves)," and then any of the Incarnum feats (which each grant one point of Essentia).

I actually don't need sighting gloves as I will be picking up improved rapid-shot next level, effectively adding +3 bonus ranged attack rolls; effectively reducing the failure roll to 3 or less.
Also, ranged pin is extremely circumstantial as the creature would have to be near a wall and I would have to make an attack at it before dealing damage. I would much rather throw flashbangs with AOE that have a much larger chance of success and only cost 20 gold.

There has to be some way to passively grant permanent flat-footedness the same way fell-shot grants touch attacks.

[Jowgen]

Making yourself undetectable by some means IS likely your best bet. Darkstalker is a good feat to invest in for that. The Dark template (Comyr tearing of the weave version) is a cheap way to get Hide In Plain Sight (Su) if you can buy off the LA. 5-ft step to hide check, target is flat-footed.

On a tangent, if you haven't already, I suggest taking the Touchstone feat and picking up the Oxyrynchus (probably misspelled) base ability, for an extra attack provided you work out a good flat-footing method.

[Temennigru]

Making yourself undetectable by some means IS likely your best bet. Darkstalker is a good feat to invest in for that. The Dark template (Comyr tearing of the weave version) is a cheap way to get Hide In Plain Sight (Su) if you can buy off the LA. 5-ft step to hide check, target is flat-footed.

On a tangent, if you haven't already, I suggest taking the Touchstone feat and picking up the Oxyrynchus (probably misspelled) base ability, for an extra attack provided you work out a good flat-footing method.

Nice find on the touchstone thing! But it will make me miss too many shots. I might take it later on.
My race is already chosen, BTW. I am a silverbrow human. I'm a friggin dragon person!

I also found a class that gets HIPS at level 1: Shadow dancer.
It's just sad that I'll lose 1 BAB

[atemu1234]

Nice find on the touchstone thing! But it will make me miss too many shots. I might take it later on.
My race is already chosen, BTW. I am a silverbrow human. I'm a friggin dragon person!

I also found a class that gets HIPS at level 1: Shadow dancer.
It's just sad that I'll lose 1 BAB

Meh, BAB isn't anything too powerful. Just make up for it with other to-hit bonuses.

[kaffalidjmah]

Maybe something like improved blink? It cause you to have all your foe to don't have dex bonus, but is a 5 level spell...if i remember correctly there is an item that can grant 10 round of it, but is an item, not a feat. Another way can be elven archer, 1 level of sorcerer and shooting grease with your first arrow, but...you are a human :)

[Psyren]

Ring of Blinking + Seeking Arrows will deny dex bonus to AC on all your targets.

[Jowgen]

Nice find on the touchstone thing! But it will make me miss too many shots. I might take it later on.


Oxyrynchus does not impose a penalty to all attacks like arrow swarm does, but the penalty only applies to the bonus attack it grants, so your attack routine does not suffer.

Also, have you considered taking that feat that gives you the equivalent of an animal companion (name escapes me, but its from a web article)? It could allow you to pick something with good init and grapple for the purpose of getting it to be your grapple-for-dex-denying buddy.

Or get a something with thumbs to blind/marble for you.

[Darrin]

I like Jowgen's suggestion: Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) feat. You can pick alternate animal companions off the Druid list as a Druid three levels lower, so... crocodile looks like your best grappler, but if you wait another level, you can grab a brown bear, giant crocodile, lion, or tiger. Giant crocodile is the best grappler: +21. Ask your DM if you can take the Natural Bond feat to treat yourself as a Druid 9, and you can grab the giant crocodile now. Wait another level, and you can get a polar bear or giant constrictor snake.

Note: Directing your wild cohort to attack is still a move action unless you take a level in Silverwood Arcanist/Outrider. Easy enough to qualify for, although you'll need to pick up the Mounted Combat feat. However, unless you point this out to the DM, he may not notice if you "forget" or assume directing your wild cohort is a free action. (You could also try suggesting a homebrew feat, "Improved Wild Cohort", to get the free action Handle Animal check, and maybe combine it with the Natural Bond effect.)

Another option with the Wild Cohort would be to pick one of the apes and give them bags of marbles. And here's another little RAW gem for monkeys/apes, courtesy PHB page 158: "Thrown weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don’t take the –4 nonproficiency penalty." So outfit your ape with a bandolier of eggshell grenades. Giving a Vial of Icy Sheets (2000 GP, MIC) to a wild cohort or an unseen servant would also work.

Here's a method that involves some ruleswankery: In Masters of the Wild, there's a 0-level druid spell called fire eyes that lets you see through smoke, fire, and fog, which might make this one of the most useful 0-level spells ever... until you get to this line: "This spell does not enable a subject to see through magical fog, such as obscuring mist and fog cloud." However... the text doesn't mention *magical* smoke, so there's an argument that this can be combined with an Eversmoking Bottle (5400 GP, DMG) to blind your opponents but allow you to see them perfectly. Check with the DM on this one.

Oh, here's another one... Martial Study: Cloak of Deception (Tome of Battle). Once per encounter, swift action to get improved invisibility for the rest of your turn. If you want it more than once per encounter... dip a level of Warblade when you take Martial Study, and you can recover it as a Warblade maneuver, so you can alternate every other round: full attack while invis, full attack + recover, rinse & repeat.