Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 milano Jun 15, 2011 4:20:17	Hi! Soon we will start a new campaign, beginning at level 3. We got a Fighter, a Wizard/Cleric (planning on Mystic Theurge) and a Spellthief. I want to play a dwarven ranger using an urgrosh for twf. Books allowed are the Complete series and Forgotten Realms books, but espescially not Book of exalted deeds, vile darkness, unearthed arcana and other more "exotic" book. We will use 32 point buy. So, I want to play this dwarven ranger for roleplaying reasons and I want to use the urgrosh for style reasons. The ranger shall be a ranger, so I want to get the best out of his spells and animal companion. Multiclassing with lots of levels fighter, scout or barbarian are not in question. Some levels of multiclassing or a little bit of a prestige class are fine. My main problem is the damage output. I don't see many possibilities with twf without getting sneak attack or skirmish attack – and getting them means losing spells and levels the animal companion. I even don't know which feats would get me some damage. I don't want to be the best damage dealer, but I don't want to lack much behind the fighter. Do you have any clues or hints regarding feats and prestige classes for me? The only really interesting prestige class I found yet was Lion of Talisad, which is sadly in the BoED. Feats I thought about yet were Improved Buckler Defence (with Level 1), Natural Bond (Level 6) and Two-Weapon Rend (Level 12). I thought about going Dodge - Mobility - Spring Attack, but getting Spring Attack with Level 15 would be very late. So I had to relinquish Improved Buckler Defence and Natural Bond to get Spring Attack till Level 9. Also I thought about Mounted Combat, if I get a Dire Bat as an animal companion. But still, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Paladin . So I am asking hiere for help.
#2 tr0llman Jun 15, 2011 6:06:58	Allright, the spellcasting and the animal companion are important to you. That makes it a challenge. Don't do Spring Attack. You want to full attack, so you can strike with both ends of your weapon. Straight ranger doesn't give you a lot of options to play with. If you have access to Complete Champion, take Knowledge Devotion. It helps attack and damage rolls. Don't take Improved Buckler Defense. You'll still take a -1 to hit, in exchange for +1 to AC. You could take Skill Focus: Handle Animal, in order to take a level of Beastmaster. Dodge, then Titanfighting from Races of Stone is another option. Titanfighting upgrades your +1 bonus from Dodge to a +4 bonus.
#3 Krusk Jun 15, 2011 8:51:14	My main problem is the damage output. I don't see many possibilities with twf without getting sneak attack or skirmish attack – and getting them means losing spells and levels the animal companion. I even don't know which feats would get me some damage. I don't want to be the best damage dealer, but I don't want to lack much behind the fighter. Pretty much the case. Here is my shot Dwarven Lion totem (Refluff it to a rhino)barbarian 1/Scout 1/Ranger 18 Feats - 1 - Power Attack 3 - Shock Trooper 6 - Swift Hunter 9 - Leap Attack 12 - Extra Rage 15 - Improved Skirmish 18 - Natural Bond Its almost straight ranger, but you get a splash of full attack ubercharge and a little bit of skirmish damage (Which applies on each attack of your charge).
#4 tr0llman Jun 15, 2011 8:59:51	My main problem is the damage output. I don't see many possibilities with twf without getting sneak attack or skirmish attack – and getting them means losing spells and levels the animal companion. I even don't know which feats would get me some damage. I don't want to be the best damage dealer, but I don't want to lack much behind the fighter. Pretty much the case. Here is my shot Dwarven Lion totem (Refluff it to a rhino)barbarian 1/Scout 1/Ranger 18 Feats - 1 - Power Attack 3 - Shock Trooper 6 - Swift Hunter 9 - Leap Attack 12 - Extra Rage 15 - Improved Skirmish 18 - Natural Bond Its almost straight ranger, but you get a splash of full attack ubercharge and a little bit of skirmish damage (Which applies on each attack of your charge). The Swift Hunter part doesn't work. Scout doesn't qualify until level 3.
#5 Krusk Jun 15, 2011 23:25:47	My bad. I even opened the books to check. I just assumed they got +1d6/+1AC right away when I saw the +1d6 bit. In that case, go barb 1/scout 3/ ranger 16. Less ranger-ie, but you get swift hunter.
#6 ah_andras Jun 19, 2011 18:17:55	With FR books allowed, is Dungeonscape allowed? Check out the Beastheart Adept, then open up Underdark pg 99 for the Stone flyer. Ranger 1-5 (Distracting Attack PHBII: Hit enemy = flanked) BHA 1-10 Ranger 6-10 When I started a BHA build like this my DM allowed my to use a Stone Flyer as a Manticore on the BHA alternative companion table. Also we agreed to let the additional companions be replaced with bonus feats for the companion so there weren't a bunch of beasts to keep track of. Feats- 1)Animal Affinity 2)bf 2wf 3)bf endurance 3)Steadfast Determination 6) Mounted Combat 9) Ride by attack 12) Spirited Charge 15) Combat Reflexes 18) xxx BHA gives you three special abilities for fighting with the companions: Monsterous Flank (+2 to hit and dmg when flanking with companion) Monsterous Tactics (you get AoO when companion hits enemy) Monsterous Teamup (all members of party gain benefits of above) The Stone Flyer can 'fly' through earth and stone and take a passenger with it. Normally a stone flyer is evil, but the BHA changes the companions alignment to match his.
#7 elthenar Jun 19, 2011 22:22:56	The offhand end of the urgosh counts as a light weapon right? That means power attack bonuses won't get applied to it. But even with that, Krusks build is more or less what I would suggest. Double weapons are hard to optimize outside of a few unique circumstances.
#8 aelryinth Jun 19, 2011 22:59:14	I would suggest asking your DM if you can use the 2h Weapon Ranger from Pathfinder as a guideline to using a big weapon for feat progression, if you don't want to be a TWF guy. Get a Hunter's Bane weapon that is Bane against all of your FE's. Look to see if there's some Dwarven sub levels for rangers in Races of Stone that might work for you. Take Deepwarden for Con bonus to AC instead of Dex...it's a ranger/theif class. Improved Buckler Defense is a complete cheese feat, but well worth the -1 AC. Up to a +6 Shield AC for the feat is hard to pass up, and you can always forgo it if you're not in danger. Armor and Shield +'s are the cheapest AC buffs to get. ==Aelryinth
#9 lormador Jun 20, 2011 18:51:52	How about the Tome of Battle? I find that Ranger is a good class to mix with Warblade or Swordsage. A 1 level dip in Warblade gets Punishing Stance straight out of the box, and that will help somewhat with the damage. If you dip Swordsage early, and again at 9th, there's Assassin Stance for a bit of sneak attack. Swordsage 2 gives you Wisdom to AC. Deepwarden gives you Constitution to AC... you could start a collection. Have you considered thrown weapons? Scout really does work well with Ranger for increasing damage output via Swift Hunter. Forgotten Realms has this awesome Thunder Twin feat that's basically a Leadership for another dwarf (your Thunder Twin), which you can take a low levels. There's also a cool underground mount in Races of Faerun, similar to a spider but not actually a vermin. You could focus on your mount, and attacking with that. That mount can walk on walls and ceilings.... Battle Jump? Your Thunder Twin can stay mounted on the steeder, softening the target with a flurry of arrows, before you Battle Jump and Leap Attack off of the mount to crash into your target with the Urgosh. And I mean, just because the Urgosh is a double weapon, and rangers get TWF for free, doesn't mean you have to focus your combat style on that. Isn't there a Strong-Arm Ranger variant somewhere that lets you trade TWF for Power Attack?