Pathfinder 2e – Are There Other Options to Mitigate the Volley Trait?

featsfirearmspathfinder-2e

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?

Best Answer

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).