Pathfinder Builds: "Aerial Vitalshotsman" Fighter, Lore Warden; Strix (ACTUALLY MORE FUCKING RIDICULOUS)

Self-Interested Preface: An offspring of the Vital Critbowsman build, this character's much better, with a racial fly speed, the ability to get Iron Will, the Overwatch feats, and Point Blank Master sooner, and enough feat room to use the Called Shots optional rule if your DM allows it, adding more debilitation versatility to its regular barrage of ridiculous damage. The main exchange here is doing 2d6 base damage instead of 2d8, which catches back up with the large heavy crossbow using the Focused Weapon Advanced Training at level 13.

This character is a Vital Strike build combined with the Overwatch Style chain to do what I'm pretty sure is the most consistent highest damage per round I've ever seen in a build. At level 20, this character maxes out at between 212-660 damage per round with an enchanted +5 large longbow, assuming no critical hits and a full-round four-readied-attacks action. That's a shitty example, though, since no one'll ever play to level 20, so for a more detailed breakdown by level, scroll down to below this build to see this character's base attack and damage with modifiers, assuming no enhancements or items aside from a large longbow and a Gravity Bow spell effect. Through use of a too-large weapon (taking a -2 for oversized wielding), Weapon Training, Point-Blank Shot, the Focused Weapon Advanced Weapon Training, the Vital Strike feat chain, Weapon Specializations, and Gravity Bow, each damage roll will use so many fucking die you'll get kicked out of the campaign for knocking over some part of the combat area every round multiple times every combat. I mean, you could just use a die-rolling app but let's be honest for a second, that's bitch as fuck.

This character's Strix for the racial flight ability, bonus to DEX, built-in darkvision and dump stat penalty. Strix also gives it I went Lore Warden, since this character's meant to use light armor anyway and has fantastic use for the Lore Warden's swift-action (after level 14) +2 attack/damage bonus as well as the extra skills and immediate-action Acrobatics-roll critical negation. The massive CMB/CMD boost isn't terrible, either.

Wasp Familiar, gained at level 9, allows for much greater action economy as your familiar uses wands in-combat for spell buffs like Gravity Bow and Coward's Cowl to boost ranged damage and attacks/AC/saves, respectively. It's the Figment archetype, which means it gains evolutions which it uses to greatly boost its Use Magic Device skill as well as improve its versatility for whatever else you'd like it to do and keep it from ever dying permanently(dead Figment familiars always return each morning). Finally, it adds the greensting scorpion's +4 Initiative bonus and a free Alertness feat when adjacent (which should be always). I didn't put up the statblock for every level of the wasp familiar because that sounded really fuckin tiresome for something that only exists to use wands. I'm just gonna go ahead and say I'll never do that. If you play this character, you'll figure it out.

I could probably gush about this build a little more, but the by-level breakdown of attack and damage pre-item shows this character's capability better than my self-important nerd-ass prose. Scroll down to the bottom and look- it's fucking ridiculous the kind of damage this character puts out when Overwatch Vortex and the various Vital Strikes come into play. If you use Called Shots, you also have the options of deafening, partially blinding, sicken-fatiguing(sort of), partially muting, and other neat abilities for the cost of not* using your Vital Strike for an attack. The final thing I'd like to mention is the Massive Damage optional rule, which states that if half a susceptible creature's hitpoints in damage (minimum 50) are taken from a single attack (very possible with this build) it has to make a Fortitude save or immediately die. This character would be forcing a lot of that.

*It says on the Called Shot page that Vital Strike cannot be used as Called Shots, but cites the fact that Called Shot is a full-round action as the reason. The Improved and Greater Called Shot make a Called Shot into a substitute for a regular attack, so they may be combinable with Vital Strike. This is probably not the intention, though, as it'd end up pretty overpowered.

Build created in May of 2016.

Fighter (Lore Warden), Level 20

Race: Strix, +2 DEX, -2 CHA (+1 Hit Point/+1 Skill Point/+1 to CMD against two chosen maneuvers)

Racial Traits

Base Speed 30'

Fly Speed 60' (Average)

Cautious Brawler (no penalty for dealing non-lethal damage with lethal weapon; +1 damage to non-lethal attacks)

Dayguard (+2 to Perception, Perception is always class skill)

Darkvision 60'

Low-Light Vision

Character Traits/Drawbacks

Drawback: (Detriment, Circumstance)

Combat: Armor Expert (armor class penalty for wearing any armor reduced by 1)

Regional: Storm Pilot [+2 Profession (Sailor); wind effect size category is one weaker for flight and ranged attacks]

Religion: Well-Prepared (+1 to attacks made as a readied action)

Point Buy 20 Racial Lvl. 4 Lvl. 8 Lvl. 12 Lvl. 16 Lvl. 20

STR 11

DEX 17 19 20 21 22 23 24

CON 14

INT 10

WIS 14

CHA 7 5

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Craft (Any), Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Any), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Profession (Any), Ride, Sense Motive, Sleight Of Hand, Survival, and Swim.

Known Languages: Strix, Common

Starting Gear (175 GP): Studded Leather Armor (25 GP), Longbow (50 GP), 50 arrows (5 GP), Spiked Gauntlet (5 GP), Caltrops x5 (5 GP),

1: Fighter (Lore Warden) 1, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +1

Base Saves: +4/+4/+2

New Feats: Simple and Martial Weapon Proficiencies, Light Armor Proficiency, [Fighter 1^st] Point-Blank Shot, [1^st Level Feat] Rapid Shot, [Anti-Hero] Precise Shot

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Linguistics (Common), Perception

2: Fighter (Lore Warden) 2, +1 Skill Point

BAB: +2

Base Saves: +5/+4/+2 (+2 to saves against mind-affecting effects, +1 against fear effects)

New Feats: Combat Expertise, [Fighter 2^nd] Weapon Focus (Longbow)

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device x2

3: Fighter (Lore Warden) 3, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +3

Base Saves: +5/+5/+5

New Feats: Maneuver Mastery +2, [3^rd Level Feat] Iron Will

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device

4: Fighter (Lore Warden) 4, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +4

Increased Ability Score: DEX +1 (20)

Base Saves: +6/+6/+5

New Feats: [Fighter 4^th] Overwatch Style

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device

5: Fighter (Lore Warden) 5, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +5

Base Saves: +6/+6/+5

New Feats: Weapon Training(+1): Bows, [5^th Level Feat] Overwatch Tactician

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device

6: Fighter (Lore Warden) 6, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +6/+1

Base Saves: +7/+7/+6

New Feats: Bravery +1, [Fighter 6^th] Vital Strike

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device

7: Fighter (Lore Warden) 7, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +7/+2

Base Saves: +7/+7/+6

New Feats: Maneuver Mastery +4, [7^th Level Feat] Weapon Specialization (Longbow)

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device

8: Fighter (Lore Warden) 8, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +8/+3

Increased Ability Score: DEX +1 (21)

Base Saves: +8/+7/+6

New Feats: [Fighter 8^th] Point Blank Master (Longbow) or Improved Called Shot, if using called shots optional rule

Skills(4): Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Perception, Use Magic Device

9: Fighter (Lore Warden) 9, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +9/+4

Base Saves: +8/+8/+7

New Feats: Advanced Weapon Training (+2): Versatile Training [Bows (Knowledge: Engineering, Perception)], [9^th Level Feat] Wasp Familiar, (Familiar) Alertness

Skills(4): Acrobatics x9, Knowledge (as desired), Knowledge (Local), Use Magic Device

Familiar: Wasp (as flying Greenstring Scorpion), Figment Archetype

10: Fighter (Lore Warden) 10, +1 Hit Point

BAB: +10/+5

Base Saves: +9/+8/+7

New Feats: (Alertness bonus to Perception increases to +4), Bravery +2, [Fighter 10^th] Snap Shot or Point Blank Master, if using called shots optional rule