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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteelDraco" data-source="post: 5702230" data-attributes="member: 359">What's the level range for this game? Where are you starting at, and where do you expect to go?If you're not attached to ranger, you might consider a zen archer monk gestatled with a mindchemist alchemist. There could be some fun synergy there in a few places, though you'd have a lot of ability score dependencies. Depending on what level you start out at, Dex might not be all that important - at 3rd level a zen archer uses Wisdom instead of Dexterity for ranged attack rolls. Perfect Strike could be used to make sure that an important Explosive Missile hits, since it's an arrow attack. As Stream recommends, the various cloud spells are very useful for battlefield control - but you can't shoot at a target inside one of your cloud spells, as they have total concealment. At 11th level, zen archers can spend 2 ki points to ignore total concealment for a round, allowing you to full attack into a cloudkill or stinking cloud spell - a nasty surprise for an opponent.Assuming you're going ranger, though, consider the guide archetype. It's quite useful - you get to designate a specific opponent a few times a day and gain your bonuses from favored enemy against that specific target until they are dropped, rather than depending on the GM to throw your favored enemy at you. You also get some small group buffs as long as you're in your favored terrain, and since it sounds like you'll always be underground, that's nice and effective.Besides the trapper, the other official ranger archetype that gets rid of spells is the skirmisher. It's... nothing special. Starting at 5th level, you get abilities similar to rogue talents usable a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier + 1/2 your ranger level. Useful ones for you might be defensive bow stance (no AoO from ranged attacks for a round as a swift action), hobbling attack (free action when you hit with an attack, target's speed is halved for 1d4 rounds, no save), skill sage (free action, roll twice on a skill check and take the better one, must be a skill you have ranks in), or tangling attack (free action before an attack, if it hits target is entangled for one round, no save). Personally I think spells are a better deal, but if you don't want them you might consider the skirmisher. Heck, I practically view the gravity bow spell alone as worth taking the ranger spells. Alchemists don't get a lot of the spells that help out a ranged character - rangers get all of them.I'm playing an archer now, and I personally don't have much trouble hitting most of the time. I routinely do the most damage in the group each round, even factoring in penalties for Rapid Shot and Deadly Aim.</blockquote>

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