Post/Author/DateTime	Post
jstorrie 04-16-07, 04:14 PM	I've been toying with this build for a while, think it's getting very streamlined, and are interested in what people think of it. It's one of those builds that will really appeal to the 14-something fanboy crowd, a two-weapon-fighter light infantry elf: Wood elf Str 16 Dex 16 Con 14 Wis 12 Int 8 Cha 8 1 Scout: Telling Blow, Skirmish +1d6, Trapfinding 2 Ranger: Track, Favoured Enemy I+2, Wild Empathy 3 Ranger: Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Weapon Familiarity 4 Scout: Battle Fortitutde +1, Uncanny Dodge 5 Scout: Fast Movement +10, Skirmish +1d6/+1AC, Trackless Step 6 Scout: Swift Hunter, Improved Skirmish, Favoured Enemy I+4, Favoured Enemy II+2, Skirmish +2d6/+1AC 7 Ranger: Endurance, Skirmish +2d6/+2AC 8 Ranger: Animal Companion 9 Ranger: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Skirmish +3d6/+2AC 10 Ranger: Two-Weapon Pounce, Favoured Enemy I+6, Favoured Enemy II+4, Favoured Enemy III+2 11 Ranger: Woodland Stride, Skirmish +3d6/+3AC 12 Ranger: Improved Critical: Rapier, Swift Tracker 13 Ranger: Evasion, Skirmish +4d6/+3AC 14 Ranger 15 Ranger: Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Favoured Enemy I+8, Favoured Enemy II+6, Favoured Enemy III+4, Favoured Enemy IV+2, Skirmish +4d6/+4AC One thing to keep in mind is that the Improved Skirmish damage doesn't kick in unless you move more than 20 feet–so Telling Blow won't activate it, but it is still good for Two-Weapon Pounce or charging in general. Improved Weapon Familiarity (and thus wood elf over human) is so you can wield an Elven Thinblade and an Elven Lightblade, getting a slight damage boost over going kukri/kukri, and for the racial modifiers . Improved Critical: Rapier applies to both of them. At 5 skill points per level, you'd likely want Tumble, Survival, Search, Spot and Listen, with seven in Jump and seven in a skill of your choice. An earlier human version of this build ran Tactile Trapsmith and cross-classed Disable Device, but a wood elf won't have the skill points; max Search is still very nice for an elf for the automatic checks versus secret passages, Spot on a low-light vision character is nice, and at least if you can spot the traps you can try to bypass them without taking them apart. Flaws to shore up with equipment are somewhat low hit dice for a light infantry (Amulet of Con), low Will saves (Ioun stone of Wisdom, Vest of Resistance), lack of darkvision, lack of ranged feats, lack of magical mobility and lack of social skills. Initiative, to-hit, touch and normal AC, Fort, and Reflex are all solid, and grapple/trip resist isn't terrible. Ranger spells are nice, even if you'll only ever be casting Longstride, Blades of Fire and Swift Haste. If you get access to Lion's Charge you will be happy. Favoured enemy choice is by region, but I would strongly suggest taking non-crittable foes so that you aren't sub-iconic in encounters versus undead, plants, constructs and elementals. Undead is a pretty solid pick for Favoured Enemy I, though you might not always want to charge the other types head on for your skirmish dice since they can be big heavy hitters, and Telling Blow may not work on them depending on your DM.
jstorrie 04-16-07, 06:13 PM	It occurs to me now that you could get around the Improved Weapon Familiarity issue by taking EWP: Double Khopesh. If you switched to Human, you could run nearly the same stats but fit in an extra feat, likely Power Attack. Human Str 16 Dex 14 Con 14 Wis 14 Int 8 Cha 8 1 Scout: Telling Blow, Power Attack, Skirmish +1d6, Trapfinding 2 Ranger: Track, Favoured Enemy I+2, Wild Empathy 3 Ranger: Two-Weapon Fighting, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Double Khopesh 4 Scout: Battle Fortitutde +1, Uncanny Dodge 5 Scout: Fast Movement +10, Skirmish +1d6/+1AC, Trackless Step 6 Scout: Swift Hunter, Improved Skirmish, Favoured Enemy I+4, Favoured Enemy II+2, Skirmish +2d6/+1AC 7 Ranger: Endurance, Skirmish +2d6/+2AC 8 Ranger: Animal Companion 9 Ranger: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Skirmish +3d6/+2AC 10 Ranger: Two-Weapon Pounce, Favoured Enemy I+6, Favoured Enemy II+4, Favoured Enemy III+2 11 Ranger: Woodland Stride, Skirmish +3d6/+3AC 12 Ranger: Improved Critical: Double Khopesh, Swift Tracker 13 Ranger: Evasion, Skirmish +4d6/+3AC 14 Ranger 15 Ranger: Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Favoured Enemy I+8, Favoured Enemy II+6, Favoured Enemy III+4, Favoured Enemy IV+2, Skirmish +4d6/+4AC It's a matter of preference, I guess. The Wood Elf has a few more miscellaneous perks, but Power Attack is still the king of feats... I think they're at about par with each other, so I'd pick based on how likely it would be for a Wood Elf to show up in my region.