Scoffney Tactics

With the addition of his Alchemist classes, Scoffney is a bit more complicated than he used to be, though still pretty straightforward. He also has a number of choices to make when attacking, so this page suggests some things to think about when sorting that out.

Who is the best target?

Scoffney is built for ranged sneak attacks. At this point, if he can't sneak attack, he is pretty much just wasting bullets. So, the first question is always which targets can be sneak attacked?

Next, of those targets he can sneak attack, which have the least damage reduction (or damage reduction which Scoffney can penetrate)? Damage reduction is most effective against flurries of lower damage attacks, which is exactly what Scoffney does (though, sneak attacking makes this less of an issue).

Next, who is within point-blank range?

Next, of the remaining targets, are any particularly vulnerable to whatever ammunition he happens to be using?

Next, of the remaining targets, are any using ranged weapons? The front line fighters are likely to mow down close-combatants, but have trouble with ranged opponents.

Next, which of the remaining targets has the worst armor class?

What combat options?

Three abilities give Scoffney options. Some types of targets/situations make using these abilities ideal, so may override targeting considerations above. Keep in mind with all this that Scoffney's base attack bonus is merely average (BAB = 75% of level), so he is going to hit less often than front line fighters (BAB = 100% of level). When scaling opposition, the game tends to tune the AC of in-your-face combat monsters to the front-line fighter BAB and more secondary fighters to a rougue's BAB.

Should he use Arcane Strike? The answer to this is almost always yes. There is no downside other than costing a swift action to activate, so the only time not to use it is if you need to use your swift action for something else that round. (A swift action is like a free action, but you only can use one per round). (Note that Arcane Strike scales with arcane caster level. As a level 6 alchemist, this means this bonus is +2 to damage.)

Should he use Rapid Shot? When making a full attack, take a -2 to all ranged attacks for the turn in order to get an extra attack (this stacks with haste, by the way). Many of Scoffney's best abilities trigger each time a hit occurs, so additional attacks are good, especially when sneak attacking and/or using bullets that give bonus damage. When doing either of these, rapid shot is probably worth it, and will become more so as you increase in level (the -2 penalty is fixed, so becomes less and less important, and the benefit of a hit will get better and better).

Should he use Deadly Aim? Currently, this gives +6 damage for -3 to hit. (Note that with both Arcane Shot and Point Blank Shot, this nets out to +0 to the hit roll.) This applies to all attacks for the round, but can be used both with standard and full attacks. Because you need to hit to trigger sneak attack damage and extra damage from special bullets (e.g. holy), this decision is a bit harder to make for a rogue than it is for a fighter using Power Attack. If you know the target's AC is particularly bad, using this is a no brainer. Similarly, with a known very high AC, it should be avoided. Somewhere in the middle? A bit of a toss up. If the target has damage reduction, lean towards using it. If you are using Rapid Shot, lean away from using it.

For some perspective, at current level (12), some average damage in various situations (all with the rifle), and assuming all attacks hit:

• Full attack, no options: 13 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot: 17 damage
• Full attack, deadly aim: 25 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot: 25.5 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, deadly aim: 29 damage
• Full attack, sneak attack: 34 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, haste: 34 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, sneak attack: 38 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, deadly aim: 43.5 damage
• Full attack, sneak attack, deadly aim: 46 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, sneak attack, deadly aim: 50 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, sneak attack: 57 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, haste, deadly aim: 58 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, sneak attack, deadly aim: 75 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, haste, sneak attack: 76 damage
• Full attack, arcane shot, rapid shot, haste, sneak attack, deadly aim: 100 damage

What critical strategy?

With the change to more official firearm rules, Scoffney's guns to a bit less damage, but have an insane critical multiplier (x4). The bonus from Arcane Strike does get multiplied on crits but, unfortunately, precision damage (sneak attack, special bullet additions, etc.) don't get multiplied, so Scoffney has to think hard about what critical strategy to use. Also, since Scoffney's BAB is only average, the confirm roll can sometimes be a problem. Our house rules provide the following choices when you roll within the critical range of the gun:

• You may avoid the confirmation roll and take max damage. Since this is a x4 crit weapon, it does three times the max. With the rifle (1d10+1 damage), this would be 33 points (39 with Arcane Strike). This doesn't suck. For example, if you assume that just one of the attacks in the list of damage above is within the critical range, it would add 33.5 to the totals. The extreme case (the last line), where all of the attacks roll in the critical range, that would be 198 points of damage.
• You may roll for to confirm critical hit, and if successful, choose one:
  • roll the 1d10+1 (or 1d10+3 for Arcane Strikes) damage four times. This will average 34 points of damage (compared to an average of 8.5 for a non-crit roll). At best, you'll get 52 points, one time in a thousand. Since you can do better than the average without needing to make the confirmation roll, rolling this way is probably a bad idea.
  • draw a card from the Critical Hit deck, doing what the card says. Since this is a x4 crit weapon, if the card says to multiply the damage by x, add 2 to x. Most cards will say to roll damage twice, meaning you would roll four times. This works out the same as the prior option, but with an added effect from the card, usually. As such, its a better choice plain rolling damage, but perhaps not by much.
  • draw three cards from the Critical Hit deck. You then select one of the cards and do what it says exactly (i.e. no adjusting the multiplier). This one comes down to luck. Usually, with three choices, one of the effects will likely be helpful (and you will still probably roll damage twice, averaging 17 points).

Of these possible choices, the first one is probably better mathematically, but the last one is probably more fun. If the target has a high AC, definitely go with the first one.