Steve and I were talking the other day and I liked the idea of making some more super hero types using the Pathfinder system. To make it a bit more challenging, I am also going to work with Steve's world, Hekinoe. I like the idea of them being Steampunk and fantasy mixed in. I am going to try to have a post up like this every Wednesday, hopefully.
This week I start with The Avengers Series: Hawkeye. I chose him because it would get me started and should be fairly easy. If I feel like it eventually, I will figure out how they are a team. I think I will have them all centrally located in Meroteth.
Klint Bar'ten
He would be Fell Human to gain bonuses in both Dex and Strength, of course he would be a Ranger (Skirmisher archtype) who uses a compound bow (for the bonus Str damage), I don't think it would be nessasary for him to be high level, but 11th for Ranger should be good to get as many ranged combat feats from that tree as possible, like Precise Shot, Many Shot, Rapid Shot, Point Blank Shot, Pinpoint Targeting and Shot on the Run (to name a few, if not almost all of them).
He has an animal companion (from the Ranger) that is a Hawk, who he calls... Ready for it? Bird. You thought I was going somewhere else with that, didn't you?
I mean really, it seems pretty straight forward, he is an archer. But here comes the fun...
Make him at least a level 8th Alchemist (or higher). If you wanted, you could alternate leveling each class so he develops with his trick arrows. There is a discovery from Alchemist that allows you to imbue a missile or bullet with your bombs from that class and as long as you keep focusing on his bombs with the discoveries, you can make an "arrow" for almost any situation. There is also a discovery called Quick Bombs which allows you to use as many in a round as you have attacks, so... bonus!
If you wanted this to be your goal, you could focus more on Intelligence than in Strength to gain more bombs per day and take a discovery called "Extra Bombs." I am thinking any and all Feats gained as an Alchemist should be put in to Extra Discoveries.
Of course, this doesn't even figure in the class feature of the Alchemist to craft alchemical items in record time. Tanglefoot bag on an arrow anyone? You could also use the mutagen to enhance his already decent Dexterity. Have some skill ranks in Craft Bow and Arrow to make specialty arrows... After all, he fights crime at night on the streets of Meroteth, don't you think he should be able to make his own equipment?
During the day he is just a mild manored Alchemist.
There is of course the Prestige class Arcane Archer, which is neat and allows you to imbue the arrows with spell like abilities, but I think I rather like the idea of the Alchemist a tad bit better. It just... fits better.
Thoughts, anyone?
Something to keep in mind is that using the Explosive Missile discovery and attacking with it is a standard action. This means you can fire only the explosive arrow that round. Which is fine, but it makes Quick Bombs rather useless in terms of this build. At least that is how I interpret the wording in the discovery's description.
ReplyDeleteI read over it last night and I think the Explosive Missile would work with the Fast Bomb discovery because creating the explosive munition takes the same time as creating a regular Alchemist's bomb. Really, I see no reason why it wouldn't work...
ReplyDeleteI took the time to Google it, it looks like there are some people who say you can and a lot more that say you can't combine those two discoveries. It wouldn't matter till 8th level anyway and even then you have a limited number of bombs available to you each day, so I can't see it being to game breaking.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that it is a standard action to make the bomb, attach it to your ammo in whatever way you do that, load the weapon, and then attack with it. That whole process is a standard action. To make multiple attacks in a round, you need to be able to take a full round action. Since you have taken a standard action to use the Explosive Missile discovery, you only have a move and minor action left and cannot take a full round action. All Fast Bombs does is allow you to create multiple bombs in a round, which allows you to make multiple bomb attacks in a round, which has no bearing on the fact that using the Explosive Missile discovery is a standard action.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if you have the catalyst on the end of your arrows, creating a bomb (which you are supposed to have the catalyst already for bombs)should be a simple as a thought. I am not really arguing here, but I could see having the vials of catalyst on the end of the arrows, three knocked on the bow and ready to fire. While drawing back, using the "energy" to activate the bombs would be able to travel from your hands through the bow and arrows making it possible. But that is just me, I can also see why not, standard action, blah blah blah. Creating and throwing bombs to me would take the same time it would take you to create and fire bombs, as long as the catalyst was already on the arrow...
ReplyDelete