Sniper

When we talk about guns, it inevitably goes down into the sniper talk at one point or another. Does that mean I have a sniper build for you?

Why, yes, yes it does mean exactly that.

We will be multiclassing, taking the Musket Master Archetype, the Slayer class and the Assassin Prestige Class. Our Leveling should look like the following:

Classes

Gunslinger 5/Slayer 5/Assassin 10

Race

We are beyond feat starved, so we are going for Human here. That floating +2 goes into Dex.

Ability Scores

15Point-Buy

Str 7/Dex 19/Con 10/Int 14/Wis 14/Cha 7 Throw everything into Dexterity

20Point-Buy

Str 7/Dex 20/Con 11/Int 14/Wis 14/Cha 7 Once again, everything into Dex.

25Point-Buy

Str 7/Dex 20/Con 11/Int 16/Wis 14/Cha 7 Again, everything into Dexterity

Traits

Ambush Training gives you an Initiative and Damage bonus during the Surprise Round, and

Sharp Eye gives you Immunity to the Dazzled Condition.

Favored Class Bonus

Skills, as we will be staying as far away from melee as possible anyway.

Skills

Stealth, Perception, Disguise are all mandatory for this build. Beyond that, Survival is extremely thematic, Craft to reduce our money throwing build with each bullet, and Sense Motive are all great to have too.

Feats by Level

1-Point-Blank Shot

Human Bonus-Precise Shot

Musket Master-Rapid Reload(Musket)

3-Deadly Aim

Bonus 4-Rapid Shot

5-Weapon Focus(Musket)

7-Vital Strike

9-Overwatch Style

11-Murderous Sniper

13-Overwatch Tactician

15-Improved Vital Strike

17-Overwatch Vortex

19-Greater Vital Strike

Aight aight, Precise Shot and Deadly Aim are pretty much self-explanatory, but our main methods of damage comes from the Vital Strike and Overwatch Style feat lines, one allowing us to quadruple our damage die if we make a single attack a round, and the other letting us ready four standard action attack per turn as a standard action, letting us also hide as a move action each turn. Just from this we get 16d12 damage a round, and that’s before any other bonus at all. Finally, Murderous Sniper lets us use our Death Attack from Assassin at range.

Slayer Talents by level

7-Rogue Talent: Sniper’s Eye

9-Deadly Range

Increase your Sneak Attack Range and can Sneak Attack opponents with Concealment. Great stuff.

Equipment

You start with a Musket for free and frankly, that is all you will ever need. Have fun with the rest of your equipment.

Final Thoughts on the Build

So, each round you can ready four standard action attacks, with your Musket, each doing Greater Vital Strike damage because they both are Standard Action Attacks, with your Musket Master bonuses, Deadly Aim, Sneak Attack, Studied Target, we are dealing, each round, 16d12+60 plus 24d6 damage. All that from a hiding place that can be anywhere because we have Hide in Plain Sight. Oh, and we can Death Attack a target without studying them 1/day and if we succeed at a stealth check, no one knows we killed them, where we are or whatever, allowing us to study another target from our hiding spot to, once again, insta kill em in a few rounds… Or we can start blasting I guess.

If we do not use readied actions and sniping, we are attacking 5x/round for a total of 5d12+75 plus 30d6 each turn. That’s more than enough to make our target bite the dust.