Draz74
2008-12-15, 09:23 PM
So I'm working on a pure Factotum build (no multiclassing, no PrCs). I've mostly got him figured out Levels 1-20, including skills and equipment, but late in the game I find myself tweaking his feats again. (Btw, before I go any further, Font of Inspiration is not allowed. Neither are Flaws, and even if they were, none of them fit his personality.)
The character concept is a Factotum who thinks of himself as a Ranger; besides the tricky adaptability that comes with the Factotum class, his focuses are archery, stealth, nature, and piety.
His feats are: Track, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Darkstalker, Woodland Archer, True Believer, Knowledge Devotion
I find myself left without Precise Shot as one of my seven feats. This seems strange to me, as I've seldom ever seen an archer build without it, but I can argue why every feat he has is more important to him than Precise Shot:
Point Blank Shot: Well, obviously I can't give this up in favor of Precise Shot. If I gave this up, I wouldn't be able to take Precise Shot!
Track: A kinda weak feat, but how can he possibly respect himself as a Ranger without it? Besides, I don't want all of his feats to be in Archery; he's supposed to be adaptable, not a one-trick pony.
Darkstalker: Like I said, not all of his feats are in archery. And I said Stealth is one of his focuses. And this has been called "the number one feat in any area, for any skillmonkey build."
Rapid Shot: Being able to shoot an extra arrow every round is a lot more important than Precise Shot, right?
At this point I'll interject that Precise Shot is really just a +4/+0 attack bonus (attack/damage) for an archer. And it's situational -- there are many times when you have a valid target to shoot who's not in a melee -- so, to keep things simple, I'm going to call it, on average, a +2/+0 bonus. This is for comparison with the character's remaining three feats.
Woodland Archer: The first function of this feat is another situational +4/+0 bonus to attacks. It applies for the rest of the turn, any time an attack misses. That means it will apply most often to targets that are hardest to hit, which is just when the bonus is needed. But it also means it's useless for the last attack in the round if all the others have hit ... Overall, considering just the first function of Woodland Archer, I'd say it's not quite as good as Precise Shot. (Maybe another +2/+0, effectively.) But then it has two more useful functions! A nice anti-concealment trick, and an ability that makes the character a mobile sniper. The latter is particularly appealing, since the character isn't particularly durable (but is terribly stealthy), and sniping/attrition is the only way he'll ever be able to win a tough fight if he somehow gets separated from his party.
True Believer (Ehlonna): Combined with a decent investment in Raptor Arrows (MIC), this feat gives all my attacks +2/+9 average bonuses. Yeah. It may cost 18k-24k gold, but this is still a great feat. As icing on the cake, it also lets me get some good Druid-y battlefield control spells out of the very affordable Ehlonna's Seed Pouch item. And get a +2 on one save 1/day.
Knowledge Devotion: This is not one of those Factotums who maxxes out every Knowledge skill and makes this feat the center of his build. Mostly he will just have 1 rank in each Knowledge skill. But still, high intelligence means this is still raking in some decent bonuses; +2/+2, perhaps, or up to +3/+3 at high levels. Or boosted up to +5/+5 when he burns a Cunning Knowledge on it, 1/day per category of creature, to "nova" an encounter. I think these bonuses are better than Precise Shot. Besides, unlike Precise Shot or True Believer or Woodland Archer, this feat's bonuses apply when the character switches over to melee, too.
Keep in mind that this character can often add more Fighter-list feats to himself -- but only one at a time -- using the Heroics spell, which he will probably prepare every day from Level 5 onward, and which eventually the party casters will have Eternal Wands of. This can get him Precise Shot, but I'd generally rather spend it on Improved Critical (longbow), or Manyshot, or something like that. (Or something not related to archery.)
With all this in mind:
am I making any dumb mistakes here? in not taking Precise Shot, or otherwise?
are there any more really superb feats for this character concept, that I'm just missing?
are there any good ways to pick up Track besides actually spending a feat on it or taking a level of Ranger? I know about Mask of the Tiger in the MIC, but he won't be able to afford it until Level 6 or so, and anyway it feels "fake" and vulnerable to have such an important ability depend on a magic item. Any other loopholes?
what order should he take his feats? Is Knowledge Devotion good enough to take early, or should it be saved for a Level 18 sort of "capstone"? Is Woodland Archer's accuracy effect important enough to take it at Level 9, or can it wait until a later level?
the character wants to have a lot of cool magic items. His budget is pretty tight, even though I surprisingly haven't upgraded his weapons to super-high levels. But is it worth it to find 10k gp somewhere (... I don't know where!) to add Precise to one of his bows?
The character concept is a Factotum who thinks of himself as a Ranger; besides the tricky adaptability that comes with the Factotum class, his focuses are archery, stealth, nature, and piety.
His feats are: Track, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Darkstalker, Woodland Archer, True Believer, Knowledge Devotion
I find myself left without Precise Shot as one of my seven feats. This seems strange to me, as I've seldom ever seen an archer build without it, but I can argue why every feat he has is more important to him than Precise Shot:
Point Blank Shot: Well, obviously I can't give this up in favor of Precise Shot. If I gave this up, I wouldn't be able to take Precise Shot!
Track: A kinda weak feat, but how can he possibly respect himself as a Ranger without it? Besides, I don't want all of his feats to be in Archery; he's supposed to be adaptable, not a one-trick pony.
Darkstalker: Like I said, not all of his feats are in archery. And I said Stealth is one of his focuses. And this has been called "the number one feat in any area, for any skillmonkey build."
Rapid Shot: Being able to shoot an extra arrow every round is a lot more important than Precise Shot, right?
At this point I'll interject that Precise Shot is really just a +4/+0 attack bonus (attack/damage) for an archer. And it's situational -- there are many times when you have a valid target to shoot who's not in a melee -- so, to keep things simple, I'm going to call it, on average, a +2/+0 bonus. This is for comparison with the character's remaining three feats.
Woodland Archer: The first function of this feat is another situational +4/+0 bonus to attacks. It applies for the rest of the turn, any time an attack misses. That means it will apply most often to targets that are hardest to hit, which is just when the bonus is needed. But it also means it's useless for the last attack in the round if all the others have hit ... Overall, considering just the first function of Woodland Archer, I'd say it's not quite as good as Precise Shot. (Maybe another +2/+0, effectively.) But then it has two more useful functions! A nice anti-concealment trick, and an ability that makes the character a mobile sniper. The latter is particularly appealing, since the character isn't particularly durable (but is terribly stealthy), and sniping/attrition is the only way he'll ever be able to win a tough fight if he somehow gets separated from his party.
True Believer (Ehlonna): Combined with a decent investment in Raptor Arrows (MIC), this feat gives all my attacks +2/+9 average bonuses. Yeah. It may cost 18k-24k gold, but this is still a great feat. As icing on the cake, it also lets me get some good Druid-y battlefield control spells out of the very affordable Ehlonna's Seed Pouch item. And get a +2 on one save 1/day.
Knowledge Devotion: This is not one of those Factotums who maxxes out every Knowledge skill and makes this feat the center of his build. Mostly he will just have 1 rank in each Knowledge skill. But still, high intelligence means this is still raking in some decent bonuses; +2/+2, perhaps, or up to +3/+3 at high levels. Or boosted up to +5/+5 when he burns a Cunning Knowledge on it, 1/day per category of creature, to "nova" an encounter. I think these bonuses are better than Precise Shot. Besides, unlike Precise Shot or True Believer or Woodland Archer, this feat's bonuses apply when the character switches over to melee, too.
Keep in mind that this character can often add more Fighter-list feats to himself -- but only one at a time -- using the Heroics spell, which he will probably prepare every day from Level 5 onward, and which eventually the party casters will have Eternal Wands of. This can get him Precise Shot, but I'd generally rather spend it on Improved Critical (longbow), or Manyshot, or something like that. (Or something not related to archery.)
With all this in mind:
am I making any dumb mistakes here? in not taking Precise Shot, or otherwise?
are there any more really superb feats for this character concept, that I'm just missing?
are there any good ways to pick up Track besides actually spending a feat on it or taking a level of Ranger? I know about Mask of the Tiger in the MIC, but he won't be able to afford it until Level 6 or so, and anyway it feels "fake" and vulnerable to have such an important ability depend on a magic item. Any other loopholes?
what order should he take his feats? Is Knowledge Devotion good enough to take early, or should it be saved for a Level 18 sort of "capstone"? Is Woodland Archer's accuracy effect important enough to take it at Level 9, or can it wait until a later level?
the character wants to have a lot of cool magic items. His budget is pretty tight, even though I surprisingly haven't upgraded his weapons to super-high levels. But is it worth it to find 10k gp somewhere (... I don't know where!) to add Precise to one of his bows?