Arelith

I'm thinking of making a character focused around the Gonne xbow.

Something like a vampire hunter.

Any thoughts on a optimal build?

The gonne's not really something you can "focus" around since there's a limit to how much more effective you can make it.

If you're looking for that sort of style, though, a ranger-archer with crossbow focuses would be pretty solid, and have a similar sort of aesthetic.

Gonne is just a ranged touch attack. So putting points into the relevent crafting skills to make your own ammunition and weapons, picking a class with a full BAB and taking lots of Dex is all you can do.

I'd suggest Paladin, that way you can mix and match for Bless Weapon Crossbow bolts.

Maybe go all out and add some ranger levels in to, for some thematic favoured enemies? Undead/Werewolves, etc?

Right. Here's how you do:

Cookie-cutter rogue.
Gift of Crafting highly recommended.
6 points in forging. (Iron & lead ingots)
19 points in alchemy. (Gonne slugs, fire & acid bombs)
4 point in art. (Cutting malachite & flourspar)
13 points in herbalism. (Flasks of oil)
Start crafting gonne slugs and fire/acid bombs.

You are now a self-sufficient grenadier.

Gonne is best used as a side-arm. A utility item that can be really powerful in some circumstances but not something you will want to rely on.

Jagel wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:55 pm

Gonne is best used as a side-arm. A utility item that can be really powerful in some circumstances but not something you will want to rely on.

This is unfortunately true. The strength of gonnes is that they are a (mostly) reliable source of 100-ish damage/round. The weakness is that there's nothing you can do to improve them past that point, and 100 damage/round isn't very impressive.

My hopes and dreams have been shattered..

Oh well.

I'll probably go with the rogue crossbow with some ranger levels to stick with my idea.

Thanks for the replies.

I haven't flesh out a damn thing with this build, but the idea of making a healer cleric with zen archery/rapid reload came to mind. That could probably work as an undead-hunting-ish character, using spells as your main means of support/offense, with your secondary means of attacking being sniping at things with divine power crossbow bolts from behind a conjuration boosted summon. Switch to a gonne to take out enemies that both you and your summon are struggling to hit, or to finish something off that you need dead right then and there.

Rogue, with a few ranger levels as a secondary multiclass, sadly, is going to struggle hard against undead.

Half elf ranger with dual lesser moon blades and bane of enemies. Something, something crossbow.

Pure monk so you can pew pew and then run away to pew pew some more.

I'm getting angry just thinking about it!

For a gonne expert:

If you have a weavemaster laying around, use that. If not then regular sorc would work even if not as well. Could go maybe a 10 sorc, 15 monk, 5 SD.

That'd give you access to a lot of true strikes (including quickened ones), as well as extended expeditious retreat and haste.

Sd would give you HIPS to hide, monk would give you evasion, a decent will save (avoid holds!) and 50% movement speed. With retreat and haste you could run around really fast, hide from people and truestrike to ensure your shot hits.

I suppose the question is, what role do you want your gonna character to fulfill?

DPS isn't gonna happen, because, well... 100 damage/round. That's what gonnes do.

Tank isn't really gonna happen, because no shield.

Probably the best role for a gonne-main character is some form of party support where any other form of offense would be so weak that it's not worth doing.

Hey, y'know what's a really good support character with awful offense that happens to get simple weapon proficiency? Healer.

Gonne healer. You know you want to.

I've found that the holy water grenades make fighting undead as a rogue pretty easy so far. I can see a combination of throwing holy water, slowing them, gonneing them, and repeating as being pretty solid. Whilst the grenades are a little expensive, so far, each one has taken out a whole group. I'm not sure how this scales in epic levels, though.