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The Barricade Buster in Treasure Vault is really cool. I’ve been theorycrafting a few builds around it and keep coming up against the same problem; specifically, without either a Fighter or Archer dedication and the Point Blank Shot feat, the Volley trait on the weapon creates an extremely narrow “sweet spot” in which it is reliably accurate. It has Volley 30 and a 40 foot range increment.

I don’t necessarily mind the feat investment in its own right, but both Fighter and Archer dedications don’t actually offer much else to most of the build ideas I’ve played around with, so it always feels like three feats to get one, which isn’t great.

Are there any other ways to get access to Point Blank Shot, or to an equivalent feature?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't know 2e very well, but isn't Point-Blank Shot a Fighter 1 feat if you don't take it via the archetype? Can't you just take it at any point (as long as you're some type of Fighter)? Have I missed something? \$\endgroup\$
    – Pilchard123
    Mar 6 at 14:13
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Pilchard123 if you’re a fighter, sure you can just take it at first level. But if you’re playing any class other than Fighter, you need to take the Fighter Dedication feat in order to qualify for it, and then take the feat (so, two feats). Then, if you want to take any other archetype feats at any point, you need to take another fighter dedication feat to open up that option. So you’re spending three feats to get the one you wanted. \$\endgroup\$
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Mar 6 at 16:19

2 Answers 2

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No Good Options for Removing Volley

Point-Blank Shot is probably still your best bet. If you were just using a longbow, you’d need to find a way to get the Moderate Boon of Erastil, which would allow you to ignore the volley trait. Otherwise, I can’t find a single item, feat, or feature that allows you to ignore volley. @Alan's answer has found you can remove volley as a level 15 weapon inventor, but that doesn't seem to be doable with an advanced ranged weapon like the Barricade Buster.

An Alternative

If your goal is to use the Barricade Buster effectively with minimal feat investment, I’d recommend trying the Ranger dedication which gives you Hunt Prey. This increases your penalty free range by another 40 feet against your Hunted Prey (since you ignore penalties for your second range increment), giving you a much more workable window of 30-80ft away. It’s only a one feat investment instead of 2 for Point-Blank Shot. It’ll have a higher action tax throughout some encounters, but you’ll be able to be at a safer distance, so that should balance out. Plus, it opens up some great ranged feats like Gravity Weapon or Hunter’s Aim, or grabbing an Animal Companion to bolster your front line or provide extra damage (or both).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Hunt Prey is a good call for some builds, but doesn’t work for others that rely on explicitly being in the first range increment (which can be altered by other means IIRC), rather than simply not taking the penalty while being in the second. \$\endgroup\$
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Mar 6 at 3:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ @LessPop_MoreFizz unfortunately yeah, you're correct. Assuming you're a Gunslinger, some Ways and builds will be better suited for this (e.g. Sniper), and there's a lot of feats you'll have to avoid (e.g. Fake Out). It's not ideal, and Point-Blank Shot is still probably the best way to do this build as a Gunslinger. \$\endgroup\$
    – ESCE
    Mar 6 at 18:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ Funnily enough, the class that really made me ask this question was trying to do something interesting w/ a Starlit Span Magus, which specifically calls for first range increment. \$\endgroup\$
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Mar 6 at 19:33
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I have only found 2 other ways, the first will not work for you and the second would take being a level 15 inventor, but leaving them here for anyone searching the question in the future.

Requires GM to give it to you answer for being in good with Erastil

the moderate boon for Erastil does it for longbow only (Not useful for you, but for future searchers of this question)

Requires being a level 15 inventor with the weapon being your invention:

omnirange stabilizers removes the volley trait from your invented weapon. this question gives a suggestion on how to get an advanced weapon as your invention.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Good spot on the stabilizers, although I didn’t find a way for an inventor to get an advanced ranger weapon as their weapon innovation, so that also might not work for OP unless I’m missing something. \$\endgroup\$
    – ESCE
    Mar 5 at 22:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ESCE There's this question: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/204954/… \$\endgroup\$
    – Alan
    Mar 7 at 10:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ yeah, but that only works for melee weapons (because Shifting only works on those). \$\endgroup\$
    – ESCE
    Mar 7 at 17:28

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