PF:KM; Eldritch Archer Custom Build [UNMODDED]

Here you go buddy! A lvl 12 Eldritch Archer/7 Eldritch Knight/1 Vivi dip so you can sneak attack with a team. Enjoy!

[@brothermutant7370]

Custom Eldritch Archer Build (NO MODS USED) Race Elf; STATS: Str 13 to 14 Dex 18 to 20 Con 10 Int 18 to 20 Wis 10 Cha 10 LAWFUL NEUTRAL Class Levels: ELDRITCH ARCHER 12, Vivi 1, Eldritch Knight 7 In Order of the video: LVL 1- ELD ARCH: Point Blank Shot 2- VIVISECTIONIST: Gives you Mutagen (PROBABLY DEX one every time) + Sneak Attack 3- ELD ARCH for 6 more levels (7 TOTAL): Precise Shot 4- +1 STR; Magus Arcana: Arcane Accuracy 5- Accomplished Sneak Attacker 6- Magus FEAT: Weapon Focus: LONG BOW (includes Composite Longbows) 7- Magus Arcana: Enduring Blade; Rapid Shot 8- +1 INT 9- ELD KNIGHT for seven levels: Manyshot; Eld Knight Combat Feat: Dazzling Display 10- Arcane Spellcasting: MAGUS 11- Shatter Defenses 12- +1 INT 13- Weapon Specialization: Long Bow; Eld Knight Combat Feat: Point Blank Master: LONG BOW 14- 15- LAST LEVEL OF ELD KNIGHT: Deadly Aim 16- ELD ARCH: +1 DEX 17- Arcane Strike; Magus Arcana: Prescient Attack (would pick Ghost Blade except Brilliant Energy does NOT work on a bow for some reason!) 18- 19- Improved Precise Shot OR Clustered Shots; Magus FEAT: Penetrating Strike 20- +1 DEX; Magus Arcana: Dimension Strike (or whatever you think is missing). PIE in the SKY gear to hope for: Hat of Mental Perfection +8; CLOAK of Resistance+5 or 6(?); RING with +4 or 5 Deflection in it (?) AND Ring of Circumstances (activate DEX/INT/AC/DC bonuses imho; BRACERS OF ARCHERY; Necklace of Natural Armor +5(?); Best MEDIUM or LIGHT Armor!; Belt of Physical Perfection +8; Gloves that increase your RANGED ATTACK BONUS!!; Manticore Skin Boots. RODS: Rod of the Fearless; Rod of Undeath; Rod of Power Source; Rod of Flaming Vengeance (MAKE SURE TO UNEQUIP OUTSIDE OF COMBAT as it turns ALL your spell damage into FIRE DMG which some opponents are IMMUNE to!); Oculus of Abadon (HARD AS HELL TO GET, need to be EBIL to do it right). ALSO, the GRANDMASTER ROD is amazing. ALSO, there are magic Quivers that you can equip in these slots (no more than 5 slots). BEST LONG BOWS (even NON-COMPOSITE ONES!) you can FIND; Involves kissin an artisan's ass (look up online who she/he is and how to make sure you get them to craft you that weapon). IF you can find a BRILLIANT ENERGY Long bow, you want this ASAP! SPELLS: You scribe ALL level 1-6 spells you can; pick ones on level up that you either A) want, or B) don't think will drop soon enough for you to scribe/use it. REMEMBER, you have ONLY level one Spells for VIVISECTIONIST, BUT any spell a VIVI COULD CAST level 1-6 you have the ability to cast from SCROLL or WAND WITHOUT UMD being used! (PAY ATTENTION TO THE SPELL CASTER LEVEL YOU NEED FOR UNLOCKING ELDRITCH KNIGHT by level 9!!) *SKILL points invested : Athletics-1 Mobility-0 Trickery-20 Stealth-0 Know Arcana-20 Know World-0 Lore Nature-0 Lore Religion-0 Perception-20 Persuasion-20 UMD-10 (ALTHOUGH, I might consider taking this TEN from UMD and putting it in Athletics or STEALTH, up to you).

[@xionkale3688]

Simple and Informative! this is what i really wanted from all the tutorials! this game is so in-depth and complicated to you need a thesis to make the character... i have spent atleast 20hours in character creation reading though stuffs and still lots of things were unexplained ... thank you for your videos please make more classes!

[@albertoalonso6104]

Damn! actually someone who understands Magus. i wish other youtubers would delete their misleading videos, took me so long to find a good magusbuild

[@brothermutant7370]

Thanks buddy. What kind of Magus you thinking of making?

[@albertoalonso6104]

@@brothermutant7370 Picked up this game 2 days ago so initially i was just interested in learning about the classes and understanding game mechanics. found your build to be very interesting. i might just copy it completely

[@brothermutant7370]

@@albertoalonso6104 This vid is specifically for the RANGED version, but my most recent vids are for the melee side of things, using the Sorcerer-type magus called the Eldritch Scion. Let me know which you prefer, and make sure to brush up on how to run the kingdom once you hit chapter two, as it can ruin your game.

[@albertoalonso6104]

@@brothermutant7370 will do the kingdom vids for sure. but ill stay with the ranged magus, cuz i already will have 1 melee tank and a berserker in the party most likely. seems that ranged magus will have a better chance of dishing out reliable damage

[@socjocinus]

Very good, informative video sir!

[@brothermutant7370]

Coolio. Let me know how it works for you?

[@socjocinus]

@@brothermutant7370 Works great and it is very satisfying ;)

[@LTowgun]

I be curious to know how this same build works out in WotR! Trying to do eldritch archer rn and it’s been pretty okay! May go back and dip into Vivi for the sneak attack.

[@cdnarmymedic]

The Vital Strike feat chain is used against very high AC enemies. If the enemy AC is so high that you have an insignificant chance to hit on iterative attacks, then you might as well make one attack at highest BAB and just increase your damage on the attack that has a chance to succeed. Probably only worth it on a Fighter or Ranger archer build that is getting a ton of free feats.

[@brothermutant7370]

See, that's why I like you guys. Showing me stuff I never thought about. I wonder if a Sword Saint would benefit too, since they get those odd abilities that let them crit more and do full weapon damage? What do you think, should I test it to see what a proper Sword Saint could do with Vital Strike?

[@cdnarmymedic]

@@brothermutant7370 Probably not worth it. First, the tactic with a crit fishing build is to maximize your to-hit chances and number of attacks. If you trigger a crit on 15-20 then you need to make sure those 15's and 16's actually hit and confirm critical, and you want to roll as many dice as possible since each roll of the d20 has a 30% chance of crit. Second, the Vital Strike chain specifically states that the extra dice from VS are NOT multiplied on a crit, just the base weapon damage.

[@brothermutant7370]

@@cdnarmymedic True, but with what a Sword Saint can do to ensure crits land, you would be more capable of dishing out damage during the time you use Vital Strike. Hmmm, gonna have to roll one up to prove to myself that it isn't worth it. Wonder what weapon would be the "go to" for this?

[@cdnarmymedic]

@@brothermutant7370 I could see a possible niche case for this, but you'd really need to maximize the base weapon damage to take full advantage here. I'm unfamiliar with the late game weapons, but I believe there is a unique Longsword that has a 19-20/x3 crit value. With Keen/Improved Critical that becomes 17-20/x3. Since this would take a Str build you might as well Enlarge Person to boost both Str and size, and consider a Vivi dip to get mutigen. With a decent UMD skill you could then use a wand of Lead Blades to make the base weapon damage 3d6. Greater Vital Strike would deal 12d6 +Str and other modifiers (elemental, precision damage, etc.) on a normal hit. A crit with this x3 Longsword would be 18d6 +3x Str, plus other modifiers. (Only the base 3d6 is multiplied on the crit, not the additional 9d6 from Greater VS). For theory-craft purposes this would jump to a x4 modifier at 20th level, but that really won't see much (if any) play in this game.

[@brothermutant7370]

@@cdnarmymedic No x4 as I'd have that Vivi dip. BUT, I think I remember a clickable the Sword Saint gets that lets them do MAX weapon damage (Perfect Strike?) and they get that early on. Need to test it with CRITS and that Greater Vital Strike to see what I can do with it. As to damage output, wouldn't it be better to get a Bastard Sword or a Falchion or whatevs to get that HUGE base damage. Great thing about Sword Saints is I don't HAVE to pick a one-hander as that only really helps the Magi that do a LOT of spell combat/spell strikes through their weapon. If you try this through a two-hander, it still works BUT you only get the ONE attack that round too so, meh. On the flip side, I have been using the Eldritch Arcana mod and am LOVING the INTENSIFY metamagic upgrade to Shocking Grasp and Snowball. HUGE damage spike and with all the added TRAITS you can get, I can do that as a Level 1 casting still.

[@mooseday1]

Hi, I love the build and I love the video. Thanks! I am a total newb to PF:KM. Any chance you have this written out in text form? All skills etc., for each level. Thanks again!

[@angalv3152]

Ty so much

[@angalv3152]

I start the new run in 2 min ty I appreciate it so much :)

[@brothermutant7370]

Good luck my friend. I hope you like it. :)

[@angalv3152]

@@brothermutant7370 just so I don't make a mistake lol which I most likey will what feat you went for at level 1 eldritch archer when you made the toon

[@angalv3152]

Yeyyyyyy

[@skrungy1428]

I think true strike only works with one attack, so vital strike might be worth it if something has an extremely high AC or has concealment

[@brothermutant7370]

Or if it sets up something else, like if you are doing a Cornugon Smash/Shatter Defenses build where if you hit with a melee weapon once, every hit after could get easier because the target is shaken and they are Flat-Footed to your attack.

[@skrungy1428]

@@brothermutant7370 I’ll have to look that up. I’ve just started my first play I’m in troll trouble right now. My party build is based almost entirely in flanking. Everyone that uses their base attack for damage has 1vivisectionist, accomplished sneak attacker and melee has precise strike (the team feat that adds 1d6 for flanking). However the greater troll hounds are a nightmare for me because of their trip and because I don’t get the jump on them. However my magus archer usually one shots something every round along with my melee if I can get the flanking. I’m starting to see a weakness though because anything that is immune to flanking takes my whole team out. I have regongar, amiri, and two hand fighter, for the front. Magus archer, Tristan, and a pure wizard for backline. While the troll hound isn’t immune, once it trips two melee characters I lose my flanking and do no damage. Also with Amiri, I’m classing into two hand fighter with her as well.

[@skrungy1428]

I don’t want to start over and can’t really afford to respec my entire party. I don’t want to lower difficulty, I’m on the core rules difficulty. However if I can’t beat it I think there is a respec mod that will let me respec for free, rather than cheesing it on a lower difficulty

[@brothermutant7370]

@@skrungy1428 If you are using the Turn-Based feature, you should be able to beat the game on all but the hardest diff pretty easy (with a scum save or two on harder areas), so I wouldn't worry. Teams of 6 are great in this game, I've manage to do the game on Challenging difficulty SOLO with some effort and it was still a blast. Hope your playthrough goes well. If you are going to replay (I do all the time), and you want to try a specific build, let me know and I will try and make you a build to try, Cheers!

[@skrungy1428]

However before I get the mod I may try to do something else and get more levels, my party is level six. I’ve been reading some people do the dwarf fortress at a higher level, but also there is somewhat of a time line for troll trouble and I’m not sure how much time I’ve got. I also want to play kingdom difficulty normal. However if my only choice to save the game is changing that I will as a last resort to keep my save going. also I’ve had shared XP on and just now realized my active characters are losing out on XP. I may turn that off but in the beginning I had it on because I wasn’t set on which companions I would use.

[@Ironbuket]

What was the reasoning behind putting 1 point into athletics at level 1? Is it simply to unlock it and apply the class skill bonus? Is that a better choice than putting that 1pt somewhere else?

[@brothermutant7370]

I have this sickness that makes me try to "unlock" all skills, at least all of the ones that are class skills. Feel free to ignore that point and put it elsewhere. I do like unlocking them early as I can usually get by with a few more skill checks. And since I shut off XP share with skills, I can be the toon that gets ALL of that sweet XP. Let's me out-level my teammates, at least in the short-term.

[@neilmowles9581]

Mono once said in a video there is an early athletics check. Could possibly be when you venture through the burning part of the building near the start.

[@cdnarmymedic]

@@neilmowles9581 AFAIK that's the only really early Athletics check in the game, but Jaethal can make that check on a roll of "2" if you take her armour off before going through the fire. By the time you get to Old Sycamore, Amiri or Jaethal are probably better for Athletics checks (especially if you take her armour off first).

[@skrungy1428]

I’m trying to work out a touch CC build with both cleric and arcane touch attacks, it isn’t made to do a lot of dmg, in trying to make it tanky and accurate so the touch attacks hit, I also want to work in some regular old melee CC.

[@skrungy1428]

I’m trying to stay away from magus though because their spell progression is slow and I think I want an undead bloodline sorcerer for the DR

[@brothermutant7370]

@@skrungy1428 Are you using Mods at all?

[@skrungy1428]

@@brothermutant7370 no

[@skrungy1428]

@@brothermutant7370 but I think my wishlist might be too big

[@skrungy1428]

Also I just found out I can do touch attacks as a ranged touch attack with eldritch archer with meta magic feats, but I’m not sure if I can use any spell or only magus spells

[@scubasteve5326]

I hate how the elves look in this 😭😭😭 guess i gotta suck it to because from what i can tell only tiefling can get the same starting stats

[@mircokern8988]

is a wise sourcerer/ Eldrichtarcher a thing?

[@brothermutant7370]

Do you mean a Sorcerer that uses Wisdom and an Eldritch Archer dip? Sure, why? Any reason you would want to split either class and not be a straight level 20 sorc or level 20 Eldritch Archer?

[@angalv3152]

what feat did u go for on level 1 magus?

[@brothermutant7370]

I am sure it was Point Blank Shot as you need to work towards that Point Blank Master asap.

[@angalv3152]

@@brothermutant7370 ok I begin hehe