how to make a sniper

[Baby Gary]

I have a simple question, I want to play a sniper in an upcoming campaign but I am not 100% sure how to do it. I an 9th level, any LA +0 stuff is fine, no traits or flaws, 36000 gp to spend, and a list of allowed sorces.

Spoiler: list of allowed sorces

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PHB
PHB 2
DMG
MM I-V
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Complete Adventurer
Complete Mage
Complete Arcane
Complete Scoundrel
Complete Champion
Spell Compendium
Magic Item Compendium
Unearthed Arcana
Cityscape
Dungeonscape
Stormwrack
Libris Mortis
Races of the Wild
Races of Destiny
Dragon Compendium (need to ask DM on each thing I want to use)

so what should I do, what classes, what ACFs what PrC, what feats, etc.

Thanks!

P.S. this campaign is in an urban setting

[DeTess]

So, first of all, You might want to find a way to either get greater invisibility with some regularity, or to get a very high hide bonus to make use of the 'sniping' feature of that skill. You'll also want a source of sneak attack damage, as that should apply to all of your ranged attacks when you're hidden.

Is there any chance that you can get 'races of stone' added to your list of sources? The 'Whisper gnome' race would be pretty good if you want to play the hidden archer. The small size will help with staying hidden, and if your damage is based on sneak attack dice, the small size won't hurt much there.

For class, a simple solution might be the thug/sneak attack acf's for fighter (from UA, if I'm not mistaken), as this'll give you full BaB and access to longbows, or rogue (for more skills, but no longbow natively, and only 3/4 BaB). Other people that know the rest of your sources better might have better class/prc suggestions.

[Maximum Carnage]

If I were you, I'd grab a few of the vanilla ranged feats. Precise shot would be a must for me, because shooting into melee happens quite a bit in my opinion, and a -4 penalty is nothing to scoff at.

[Malroth]

I'd also second races of stone for craigtop archer which is pretty much the king of long distance sniping prestigue classes.

Instead of the snipe action i'd dip warlock 1 at lv 1 for the darkness invocation and the blend into shadows feat which allows you to use said invocation to hide in plain sight as a swift.

[Eldariel]

Deepwood Sniper casting Hunter's Mercy

[Fuzzy McCoy]

Eldariel's is pretty good, but limited by the number of hunter's mercy you can cast. Granted, if you go archivist, you can have quite a lot of castings of hunter's mercy, at a reduced BAB. Another, more complex option would be using unseen seer, doing something like Rogue 4/Wizard 1 (using the martial feat variant)/Unseen seer 10/Rogue 5. Relevant feats are extend spell, persistent spell, and metamagic school focus.

While you wouldn't be able to be an all day sniper until level 15, the jist of it is that you can persist sniper's shot (sneak attack from any range), guided shot (no cover/concealment bonuses), and can learn vine strike, golem strike, and grave strike (sneak attack plants, constructs, and undead). You can also learn hunter's eye, but with the build I presented you can't persist it. Two more levels of wizard casting would allow you to persist it though.

Even before 15 though, you can snipe, shoot undead/golems/plants, and shoot through cover/concealment, you just can't do it all at once.

Unseen seer and metamagic school focus comes from complete mage, persist spell from complete divine, golem/vine/grave strike from complete adventurer, and hunter's eye from PHB2

[DEMON]

If you had access to Champions of Valor, I'd recommend either an Elf or a Human Ranger 6 / Martial Wizard 1 / Ranger +13

With Shooting Star sub levels and Sword of the Arcane Order Feat, your Ranger CL at level 9 (Rgr 8 / Wiz 1) would be 15 for 5d6 sneak attack through Hunter's Eye. And at level 20, your CL will be 31 for 10d6 SA. Add Hunter's Mercy (spell) and Telling Blow (feat) for range-unlimited sneak attacking. Favored Enemy (class feature) is an icing on the cake for some extra damage. And let's not forget about Craven (feat), when it comes to sneak attack related bonus damage.

With Ranger's Combat Style and Wizard's fighter bonus feat, you'll be able to take most of the archery related feats early enough.

Alas with the books listed in the OP, Shooting Star sub levels are off the table. With that in mind, let's go for something entirely different:

Beguiler 2 / Hit-and-Run Tactics Sneak Attack Fighter 1 / Beguiler +3 / Unseen Seer 10 / something +4. Beguiler has a lot of spells per day and has all the hiding spells and skills you'll ever need. It also easily qualifies you for the Unseen Seer PrC.

Practised Spellcaster will take care of the lost caster levels, Telling Blow is a must have for the same reason as above and Unseen Seer's advanced learning will get you Hunter's Eye and stuff like Golem Strike/Grave Strike/Vine Strike, Critical Strike, Healer's Vision, Sniper's Shot... just pick your poison. Squeezing in all of the archery feats into this build might be a challenge, though.

[weckar]

You'll also want a source of sneak attack damage, as that should apply to all of your ranged attacks when you're hidden.

But only within 30 ft, right?



Honestly, if you want to snipe, Warlocks are built for this. Instantly scaling damage, Eldritch Spear gives you ridiculous range, invisibility and flight as class features...


Alternatively, bowblade (it's a type of surprise weapon from CSc) Iaijutsu focus shenanigans are fun. It allows you to get IF damage off ranged attacks at any distance.

[Goaty14]

As said earlier, try to get Races of Stone added, it includes the Cragtop Archer which basically is the base class for any long-range shooting build.

But that probably won't be very useful if your DM pops enemies close to your party.

Regardless of what you want to build, you should always take Deepwood Sniper from RoW, as it includes some really great archery stuff, you also might want to take a look at this

CW also has a greatbow which does 1d10 over the longbow's 1d8

Despite what you may think, with all of that gold to burn, your should probably go the str/CompGBow path instead of dex.

[Eladrinblade]

Wood Elf Ranger 2/Cleric (War, Elf) 1

1st level feat, 3rd level feat, Track, Rapid Shot, Longbow Focus (assuming you have access to a god with favored weapon longbow), Point Blank Shot. If you pick precise shot and far shot, you've got all the good core archer feats. 5 ranks in hide/listen/move silently/spot/survival even with low int
access to ranger and cleric spells
Wood elf for bonus to str & dex, elf is nice for listen/spot bonus as well
Favored Enemy for a small nice situational bonus against the humans of the city

Were it me, I'd go rogue (or wilderness rogue) for sneak attack and utility skills/survivability (evasion, uncanny dodge, good reflex) at 4th and onwards. Grab Improved Initiative at 6th.

Put a wand chamber in that bow, grab a wand of hunter's mercy (at low levels) or maybe sniper's shot (later on). You could use the hunter's mercy wand (in hand) before taking your surprise round, then use sniper's shot (in wand chamber) at the beginning of the first round. Get bane on your bow ASAP. Try to get a +1 warning spiked gauntlet. Distance stacks with Far Shot.

It might actually be worth it to take greatbow proficiency, if not for the damage increase then for the range increase.