So we've played the character, and he's a really fun character to play. He's 15th level now, but I think I want to rebuild him up from level 11 (when I dropped out of the ranger class in favor for a dip in fighter). I'm level 15 now, and I'm unsure which way to proceed. I want this character to be a powerhouse.
He's human. At level 11, my feats included: Improved Critical, Improved Buckler Defense, TWF, ITWF, Flay Foe, Improved Favored Enemy, GTWF, and Weapon Focus. This ranger dual wields shortswords and has his weapon-specific feats attributed to that. His shortswords are enchanted, each one being a +1, one with ice, the other with shock. In addition, he managed to find a +3 chainshirt of heavy fortification which is his pride and joy (My DM has us randomly roll for found treasure).
I was originally going to go into the tempest PRC, and geared my ranger towards that, but I reread the features and found that the prime benefit of the class, being able to apply weapon specific feats from one weapon to another that you TWF, wasn't really worth it for me. So now I'm stuck. I don't know if I want to rebuild the fighter levels, dip into rogue for SA damage, or whatever else. Any suggestions on how to make this guy even more of a hard-hitting SOB would be great.
:D
STR: 19/21
DEX: 18
CON: 16/20
INT: 16
WIS: 14
CHA: 14
AC: 25 (10 + 7 + 2 + 4 + 2)
Initiative: +4 (dex)
FORT: 14 (9+5)
REF: 11 (7+4)
WILL: 5 (3+2)
Feats: Improved Critical (SS), Improved Buckler Defense, TWF, ITWF, GTWF, Flay Foe, Weapon Focus (SS), Endurance, Track, Improved Favored Enemy, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, +1 more I haven't chosen
Abilities: Favored Enemy (Undead/Shapeshifters/Reptiles [We use a broader category because we tend to travel around a lot]), Wild Empathy, Swift Tracker, Woodland Stride, Evasion.
Skills: Do you need them? We don't follow the same skill rules (it doesn't take 2 skills to take 1 rank in cross-class skills, though you can still only have the class/cross-class ranks).
Items: Hyresti (+1 Ice Shortsword), Megin (+1 Shocking Shortsword), Frami (+2 Silvered shortsword), +3 Chainshirt of Heavy Fortification, +1 buckler, +2 ring of protection, Amulet of Health +4, Necklace of Adaptation, Cloak of Arachnidia, various homebrew potions, 2x Longstrider scrolls, 2x Resist energy scrolls, 3x Camoflague scrolls. Mundane items.
My DM makes it dificult for us to find/get magic items of our choice. He forces us to roll randomly on his tables every time. Which is how I ended up with the armor of heavy fortification. So a gear-based character is out - he also routinely underfunds us. At level 14, I only have 8k gold to my name, in spare change, and he greatly devalues trade in items. For instance, I rolled randomly on an item charge and ended up getting a major artifact (Orb of Dragonkind, Red). The Orb was destroyed in a campaign event, but still. He's good about letting us KEEP it (unless it falls into his preconcieved notions of what's broken or not) but still. As it stands, I desperately want to get speed enchantments on each of my shortswords. I know going TWF is the way to go.
Is that better, or should I just forget it? :P
Dwarf Swordsage(Unarmed Variant) 5, Deepwarden 2, Fist of the forest 2, Swordsage 2.
Ok, then keep boosting Swordsage and your good, max out Tumble and you should be good to go.
"Feats: Improved Critical (SS), Improved Buckler Defense, TWF, ITWF, GTWF, Flay Foe, Weapon Focus (SS), Endurance, Track, Improved Favored Enemy, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, +1 more I haven't chosen"
i would say try this:
[indent]
Track
Endurance
TWF
ITWF
GTWF
Skewer Foe ................... for Piercing Weapons(Short Swords do Piercing)
Weapon Focus (SS)
Weapon Specialization(Short Sword) .............. +2 Damage
Melee Weapon Mastery(Piercing) ....................... +2 Attack and +2 Damage, stacks
Knowldege Devotion ................................... Insight bonus to attack and Damage, stacks with everything else you have(must make a Skill check as free action to determine bonus)
Improved Buckler Defense
Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack[/indent]
this should give you a major boost to combat ... you will have more accurate attacks against everything and do more damage vs everything .... not just fav enemies
Skills are very important..... max these out[indent]Spot
Search
Listen
Hide
Move Silent
[/indent]
those are most important for a Ranger Character.... Detect the enemy first, then you determine the course of the encounter. other useful skills for you:
Balance 5 ranks ..... look up the skill
Tumble 5 ranks ..... look up the skill
Use Magic Device 5 ranks..... look up the skill
Knowledge ...... need to have 5-10 ranks in the following to give a boost to combat, but should have at least 1 rank in all Knowledge skills:[indent]
Arcana
Dungeoneering
Local
Nature
Religion
The planes[/indent]
these next ones need at least 1 rank in each, remember if you dont have ranks in these you can even make a roll for them:[indent]
Decipher Script
Disable Device
Handle Animal
Open Lock
Profession
Sleight of Hand
Speak Language ....... some useful language that is common in your campaign
Spellcraft[/indent]
:D
Thanks for all the help.
1st Lion Totem (CChamp) Barbarian1
2nd-5th Scout4 (CAdv)
Rest Ranger15
Take Swift Hunter (CScoundrel) at 9, and whatever you want really the rest of the way. Improved Skirmish is fun, and Staggering Strike is worth it given the Skirmish/SneakAttack transparency. You have 19/20 BAB in the end, and better skirmish damage than a straight scout. You can also apply skirmish damage to things normally immune, as long as you pick them as favored enemies. So...you just run screaming at something, jump on it and shred it to pieces, lather, rinse, repeat. Blissfully elegant and simple and remarkably close to the concept you have now. If you don't like the feel of Barbarian, just don't rage. You're mostly in it for the pounce.
Hmm. I also wanted ideas what I could replace the 4 levels of Fighter with, in order to make him more combat oriented. Unfortunately to the individual who posted the TOB/Monk/Unarmed Strike stuff, I personally don't like the flavor of TOB. I don't have a problem of the mechanics, but its not what I'm looking for. Plus, the DM is pretty gestapo about including that kind of stuff. Rerolling the character is "out" as I've spent a lot of time with him and grew really fond of him as his character progressed. Yeah, the overly restrictive hand he uses on his equipment is annoying, but I'm not going to ditch an entire character just because of it.
Thanks for all the help.
looks like carnivore and Wyvernhand got it pretty much covered (especially with what you're looking for) -- at leats with out starting from scratch.
Ranger 11 (take the monk level before Ranger 11, need it to qualify for a feat), Wizard 1, Monk 1, Fist of the Forest 2 (You will be taking the last level, but beyond that it's pretty much up to you.)
The feats are as follows (I'm ignoring your ranger bonus feats)
1: Lion Tribe Warrior (shining south) it's got a roleplaying requirement, but you are human so that's clear. It grants pounce, letting you make a full attack on a charge.
3: Great Fortitude (Power Attack was here to qualify for Favored Power Attack, but once the first level of monk is taken, getting PA as a bonus feat, it's retrained into Great Fortitude, a requirement for Fist of the Forest)
6: Favored Power Attack
9: Sword of the Arcane Order (allows you to obtain a spellbook and prepare wizard spells in your ranger slots, these castings run off intelligence, but you won't be using
12: Improved Natural Attack (+1 effective size category for your unarmed strikes)
15: Ascetic Hunter (This stacks all your Ranger levels ontop of Monk levels, giving you the 2d6 unarmed strike damage before applying your fist of the forest levels, 2d8 at present, and 2d10 next level when you take the last level of Fist of the Forest.)
18: Snap Kick (This is that Tome of Blade feat I mentioned, it lets you take a -2 penalty on all attacks for the turn to get an extra unarmed strike, even if your just making an attack as a standard action, useful for those times you need to withdraw after your attack, or situations where charging doesn't work. Also see if you can con your DM into letting it be a non-magical speed effect, not stacking with haste and giving a free attack during a full attack action, only costing the penalty during other attack options) Alternatively you could take Battle Jump, by this point you should be able to easily succeed on the necessary jump check, to turn any jump into a charge, and deal double damage on your attacks.
After taking the last fist of the forest level, I advise you either take Ranger, or some prestige class that advances divine casting and has full BAB that you can get into for free, your going to want more spell slots, presently the only 3rd level slot you've got is one you would get from an enhancement bonus to wisdom, and depending on those isn't cool. (I forget, is owl's wisdom even on the ranger list? People?)
Anyways, about the sword of the Arcane Order, the biggest reason for it, is this 3rd level spell, greater Mighty wallop. Your ranger caster level right now is 12, enough to be treated as gargantuan for unarmed strike damage (improved natural attack gives the same value as collosal, though its not actual effective damage size). You need another 4 caster levels somehow (improved spellcaster could work if any of the feats above are banned) to be treated as collossal and get one more upgrade out of it.
In the end of things, your unarmed strike damage would be 16d8+damage bonuses per hit, and your full attack would look like this (numbers are subtracted from your total attack bonus) (if hasted or if you could con snapkick into being a non-magical speed weapon effect add one more to the first bracket, generally the extra attack isn't worth that much penalty when you've already got penalties flying) -3,-3,-3,-8,-8,-13,-13,-13
And for times you really, really REALLY need to kill something quickly, you should get your hands on wraithstrike. A 2nd level Arcane Spell, swift action cast, charge in and tear them up, taking advantage of Favored Power Attack.