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The Scout and ranged attacks


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Zhou Yu: Those are good points, but a ranged-primary Slayer can be very good at melee too, if not quite as good as a melee-primary Slayer.

First, Melee Training (Dex) and a starting Dex of 20 (assuming racial bump) leaves you with a Dex+(Dex/2) bonus of 15 at level 30, compared to a Str+Dex bonus of 18 at level 30 for a Slayer who starts with Str 18 and Dex 18 or Str 20 and Dex 16. 3 points of damage is not that big. Because you now only need to bost one ability score for attack and damage, you can choose to pump Con for extra survivability; you can do a lot of extra damage by staying conscious an extra round.

Second, if you still want to have high melee damage, you can go with a charger build, using the Berserker's Charge stance and tacking on feats and items for bonuses. Once you get the Armored Mobility feature, you can charge most rounds and get huge damage. I don't think you will miss those 3 points of damage much.

Granted, if you don't boost Str you will have to find another route to an expanded crit range, but I've never been convinced that was the only path to effectiveness.

If you want to go melee primary, the above route won't usually be ideal. But if you want to go 50/50 or ranged primary, it could be very effective.
 

Is that still legal? I heard you only get to add 1.5 Dex now.

Yes, it's legal, though "doubling up" now merely means "getting double duty from" rather than mathematically doubling the bonus by getting its full value twice.

As I point out above, when all you need is Dex, you have every reason to start with a pre-racial 18. Assuming a racial bump, you get the following relative to a more traditional Str 18 / Dex 18 Slayer:

Level 1: 5 + ( 5 / 2) = 7 vs. 4 + 4 = 8 :: -1
Level 8: 6 + ( 6 / 2) = 9 vs. 5 + 5 = 10 :: -1
Level 14: 7 + ( 7 / 2) = 10 vs. 6 + 6 = 12 :: -2
Level 21: 9 + ( 9 / 2) = 13 vs. 8 + 8 = 16 :: -3 (assume Demigod)
Level 28: 10 + (10 / 2) = 15 vs. 9 + 9 = 18 :: -3


When you throw in the extra damage the Slayer gets (up to +8 with Epic Slayer), a difference of 3 points isn't that much, really.
 



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