Help with Shadar-Kai Longbow Samurai

[Armored Walrus]

This is a battle royale/team pvp game, so having ways to stay at range and get out of the middle of a group will be important. The Shadar-kai's bonus action teleport is currently my only ace in the hole for that. Although I may buy a horse and use its mobility to stay at range, at least at first.

So here's what I've got:

Shadar-Kai
Samurai 5
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 8
Archery Fighting Style
Elven Accuracy

Looking forward I'm weighing a few things. Sticking with Fighter one more level will give me Sharpshooter. I think I need that ASAP. Level 7 give me Wis save proficiency, and 8 is an ASI to get Dex to 20, boosting attack, damage and AC by 1 each. Or, I guess, Crossbow Expert so I don't have to flee melee.

Alternatively, multiclassing to rogue gets me Sneak attack, then Cunning Action - which will be very useful for getting out of melee. But it competes with my Fighting Spirit for my bonus action.

Multclassing to Ranger (Revised Ranger is approved) gives me bonus damage vs humanoids for one level, Defense Stylel and Hunters Mark after two levels, and an archetype after three levels. I'd probaly either take Hunter and use either Horde Breaker - to pick off anyone dumb enough to stand toe-to-toe with each other, or Colossus Slayer - to take down folks that others have already wounded - or I would go Gloom Stalker for the improved darkvision and the 1d8 bonus damage and bonus attack on the first round - with Super advantage thanks to Fighting Spirit and Elven Accuracy.

What do you guys think? Ranger gives me an awful lot, but it's a three class investment, and it doesn't make sense to start it until I'm ready to take all three levels. I don't expect the campaign to get beyond 15th level. So 12 levels of Samurai and then Ranger? Rogue gives me a lot more potential survivability, but it competes with other class features, and the d6 from sneak attack isn't that amazing.

Or I could just buy a horse and stay with Fighter all the way through.

[Dragons_Ire]

I'd stay with fighter, and grab crossbow expert at 12th. It's a longer wait, but you'll get that third attack. At the very least, I'd take the next three levels in fighter before considering a multiclass.

[Crgaston]

Cunning action only competes with Fighting Spirit 3x/day before Fighter 10, so I don’t know that I’d count it as that much of a negative. Depends on how many combats you expect per rest, I guess. Going to 3 gives an archetype and +2d6, and 5 gets you Uncanny Dodge for a major bump in durability and +3d6, but all those delay your 3rd Attack.

As to Ranger, if you can use UA, the Close Quarters Shooter fighting style removes the penalty for firing in melee and adds another +1 to hit, which would take some pressure off wanting XBX and delaying your 20 Dex.

You’d should know pretty quickly how badly you’ll need the Samurai’s L7 wis saves, so you can time the dip accordingly.

[Armored Walrus]

Ah, I didn't know about that fighting style. There's a lot of approved UA, so I'll have to go look if this is on the list. I'd prefer that over Crossbow Expert, because I don't intend to use the bonus action hand crossbow attack.

Fair point about Fighting Spirit being only 3x/long rest. I hadn't realized that. It's arena-style, so it's going to be one fight followed by another, but whether we'll get a short rest or a long rest between I guess depends on ... factors. So I can't count on having that for every round. My experience with the character so far has only been in duels, so I just burned all my FS and didn't worry about it.

Hmm, this may mean I need to start searching for another source of advantage, too.