Hi all! So, inspired by another thread on this very forums, I've been brewing up a concept in my head, and realized, "Where better to go than the CO forums?"
Essentially, drawing on the sniper idea in a recent thread (not sure what the ettiquette here on linking to other threads here), I have been trying to build a character whose job it is to hunt casters for bounties.
This has been based on the Targetteer/Spellthief concept, and I find myself wondering what advice you would all have for trying to build a ranged anti-caster?
Would be going through a campaign from 1-20, and at 20 will have numerous bounties including but not limited to sorcerers and wizards.
So far was tossing around the idea of a Silverbrow Human, Targetteer 1/Spellthief 19. Of course, I'm sure this is horribly unoptimized in numerous ways, so am open to any and all feedback.
One of the ways to prevent spellcasting is to make an attack of opportunity and force the caster to make a concentration check to avoid losing the spell. Normally, it's possible for a caster to cast defensively and avoid provoking the attack of opportunity, but the mage slayer feat (Complete Arcane, p81) shuts that down. Since ranged weapons don't threaten any area, they don't really allow you to hamper casters in this way. So ranged weapons and mage hunting don't seem to go together very well.
You might be able to get away with a ranged anti-caster if you use the other good method of preventing spellcasting, the divine defiance feat (Fiendish Codex II, p83). That feat lets you counterspell as an immediate action by spending a turn undead attempt. You''l still need an appropriate spell to counterspell with, but you can take care of that by using the spontaneous domain casting alternative class feature (Player's Handbook II, p37) with any domain that includes dispel magic. The inquisition domain (Spell Compendium, p275) is the natural choice. As a ranged cleric, the zen archery feat (Complete Warrior, p106) is a good option, since it allows you to use wisdom instead of dexterity for ranged attacks.
You can however Ready an Action to attack a caster when they try to cast a spell (even if they cast defensively). The spell Arrow Mind is also on the Spellthielf Spell List so if you're within your normal reach and using a ranged weapon you still get to make an AOO and recieve no AOO for using a ranged weapon within somoene elses threatened area.
Consider if you're going to use Spelltheif that there are "master spelltheif cheese" builds Ultimate Magus and Sublime Chord I believe are the big culprits of interacting oddly with the Master Spelltheif feat.