Are there any ways for a Swift Hunter build to get Movement+Full Attack in a round besides Travel Devotion and Shadow Pounce?

Question

I've been looking into this for quite a while, seen many different methods and builds regarding Shadow Hunter builds, and most of which at least mention Travel Devotion. Thus far I haven't been able to find in any of the guides any way to actually do this aside from some very limited use magical items. As I'm trying to make a character who functions as the party trapper/scout while still being viable in combat, I'm finding it difficult to balance. The current ways I've found to get a full attack and a movement on the same round are: -Travel Devotion -Pounce (unless there's a way to use this with ranged attacks it's useless to me) -Shadow Pounce -Limited use magic items

Are these my only options or am I going to be limited to a One-Shot-One-Kill style of fighting and pray that I can make it work?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'd be looking to move at least 10ft for Skirmish use. If possible, 20ft for Improved Skirmish.

Answer 1

Travel Devotion is, by orders of magnitude, your best option

Losing some BAB, HP, perhaps skills, Skirmish damage, and Favored Enemy bonuses... are all worth it for what that single level of cleric can get you. Travel Devotion straight-up solves your movement problem, which not much else can say.

Pounce does not work

Charges specify melee attacks, so Pounce is useless to you. Swift Hunters can use Pounce, mind, but with melee attacks.

Greater Manyshot is deep down the feat tree, but works

Greater Manyshot makes each shot from Manyshot a real attack, letting you deal Skirmish damage on each one. Excellent solution, but at the cost of four feats.

Mounted Full Attack might work, but is very expensive

Some prestige classes give you the ability to make a full-attack while your mount moves. If you ignore the utterly stupid errata for Skirmish, which prevents using it based on mount movement, it could work.

Cavalier or halfling outrider (Complete Warrior), for instance. This route will take many feats and take a very long time (Cavalier requires four feats, most of which are useless to you, and gets it at 6th, while the halfling outrider requires two feats you might actually want, but doesn’t get it until 8th). Ashworm dragoon (Sandstorm) splits the difference with two feats, one kind of useless to you, and getting it at 7th, plus it gives you a decent mount.

Magic, psionics, mysteries

Hustle and dimension hop are low-level psionic powers that allow swift-action movement, knight’s move is a paladin spell that would work for you, and flicker is an amazing mystery that works kind of like Travel Devotion in that you set it up, and for next rounds/level you can teleport as an immediate action. All of these are limited and very difficult for you to acquire though.

Sparring Dummy of the Master

This thing requires that you either be a monk, or consistently hit very-high UMD checks. But, it turns your 5 ft. steps into 10 ft. steps, permanently. Very nice on any skirmisher.

Answer 2

On the Failure of Travel Devotion

The Travel Devotion feat seems like an answer to the problems with Skirmish - swift action to get an extra move action per round for a minute? Fantastic.

However, there is a problem. It's only 1/day, and the only way to get more uses is to be a Cleric.

Why not be a Cleric? Clerics are great! They can even trade out the Travel Domain for Travel Devotion, saving you a feat? They are also just generally awesome and badass!

The problem is, if your alignment changes, or you don't advance the goals of your chosen god, you lose your powers. If you got Travel Devotion from the class, that includes that. If you got it from a feat instead, it drops you back down to 1/day.

Normal Clerics get enough bazaaamph out of their class to make keeping on the straight and narrow worthwhile - but for a dip, is it worth it?

The downside of a cleric dip and travel devotion isn't mechanical - it's the severe roleplaying onus that comes with taking the level.

Some groups don't enforce alignment or that rule. There's also the 'godless' cleric who worships a cause, although fundamentally that doesn't really solve the problem of 'walking the straight and narrow' that alignment restrictions and 'worshiping' entail.

So it depends on your group, but it can be at best a slight change in your character all the way to a roleplaying straitjacket.

Do you have other options, though?

Yes

Greater Manyshot specifically allows precision damage on each arrow. Can't use Rapid Shot or TWF with it (it caps to the number of attacks allowed by your BAB), but it's still great.

A Belt of Battle can be used to spend charges to grant extra move actions.

The Hustle psionic power converts a swift action into a move action.

Cyran Gliding Boots turn 5' steps into 10' steps.

An Anklet of Translocation 'moves' you 10' as a swift action - at no point does the text say that teleportation is out of the question. NOTE: THEY ARE VERY, VERY CHEAP. YOU CAN PACK LIKE TWENTY OF THEM. (Note: Due to the MiC magic item stacking/custom creation rules, you can add the effects of an Anklet of Translocation to an Anklet of Translocation, for four uses per day instead of 2. This costs you 3.5k, or, 1.4k + 2.1k(150% markup to add item to item). You can add extra uses for extra lots of 2.1k to that one item, and end up with enough short-range teleportation to skirmish to your heart's content. In addition, the DMG's Custom Magic Item Creation rules specify that 5 uses/day costs the same as at-will activation - under those guidleines, an at-will Anklet of Translocation should cost 3,500gp. Which is a steal, but not broken.)

Similarly the Dimension Hop psionic power can move you as a swift action.

The Sudden Leap 1st level Tiger Claw maneuver allows you to move the distance of a single standing jump check as a swift action - with enough jump, you can hit a horizontal distance of 10'.

The Master's Sparring Dummy from the Arms and Equipment Guide teaches you how to take 10' steps instead of 5' steps, as does a DC 40 tumble check(Oriental Adventures expanded tumble skill entry), or a stance from Tome of Battle (forget which one).

Evasive Reflexes gives you a 5' step instead of an AoO, which can be useful if you can set it up right (have the karmic strike or riposte or robilar's gambit feat(s), trigger an AoO from a foe on your turn, get attacked in melee, cartwheel away, rest of your full attack has skirmish). Plus, looks cool as hell.

Dictum Mortuum's Swift Hunter Handbook

Be Levitating and have someone tow you around on a rope. You can't ride a mount and also get skirmish (WotC haet mongols), but you can be towed. Or even carried. Technically being carried is not the same as being mounted (if it is the same as being mounted, your fighter should be wearing a lot of tiny creatures all with the Mounted Combat feat and Ride).

Slide + 5' Step, or, Greater Slide. Allied spellcasters burning spellslots to enable your skirmish attack? You betcha!

Stuff that will get you 20' of movement for Improved Skirmish

Slimmer pickings here. Travel Devotion(if you dip cleric, pick up Knowledge Devotion and Animal Devotion as well, cloistered cleric style), Hustle, high-pp Dimension Hop, Greater Manyshot, Greater Slide. Aaaand that's about it.

No Dipping, No Magic, No Items!

You're looking at;

A DC 40 Tumble Check (Oriental Adventures)

Greater Manyshot (XPH)

Sudden Leap via the Martial Study feat (ToB: Bo9S)

Travel Devotion feat + lots of crying

Evasive Reflexes + AoO generation

Something funky like being dragged that technically meets the letter of the rules while hilariously undermining them.

Something Funky

Letting go of a climbed wall is a free action, you can make Jump and Tumble checks to not take damage from 10' of fall and land on your feet, and then shoot from there/while falling.

An ally with Fling Ally and a Readied action to hurl you when you yell 'now!' is a source of full-attack skirmish damage.

An ally with a Readied action to haul you via a rope somewhere is a source of full-attack skirmish damage.

Being carried by someone with a readied action to move is arguably a source of full-attack skirmish damage (doesn't really count as a mount, -2 circumstance bonus to ranged attacks for poor footing sounds applicable though).

Being on a boat or other mobile platform (wagon) is arguably a source of full-attack skirmish damage.

Answer 3

There is a feat called double step that allows a ten foot step instead of the usually five foot step in the ultimate book of feats. It has a lot of prerequisites though. Also, our group made a magic item based off of the Slipping the Ranks spell (2nd level spell in Book of All Spells). That accomplishes the same thing without spending three feats and 18 skill points to get there. Item cost was 8400 and you had to have the skirmisher class ability to use, allowed a 10 foot teleportation instead of five foot step.