I know that the wizard is very argent / pompous individual and I think that I can use it to my advantage.
So far it looks like the only way of doing it is to use my maxed out stealth and try to bring him down with the bow by shooting him n the back and try to drop him in one shot. Is there any other options or ways for a ranger to kill a wizard ? Other then use of skills like move silently and stealth and use the low hit points of the wizard to advantage and try to bring him down before he casts his second spell ?
My ranger is lvl 4 his feats are doge, combat reflexes , mobility , rapid shot ( combat style) (as well as the others that come with the class)
Note
1) the wizard is of a fevered enemy race
2) spells to use from any book
However, I do have one thought that may tip the odds in your favor. Do you have an animal companion? If so, how talented is it at grapple checks?
:D
Years ago my DM gave our group a side mission to take down an anti-paladin with the idea of delaying our quest long enough for him to achieve something else with the forces of the BBEG (it was an invasion campaign). Well, he didn't guess on our ingenuity. We pooled our resources and the 5 or 6 six characters were able to come up with something like 250,000 GP as a bounty and simply requested that we receive his personal possessions and whoever killed him could keep all the wizards money. The DM was a bit taken aback by this and basically gave us something like a 1/2% chance each day of it working and that each day after a certain date the wizards forces would be moving in on our flank. We then came up with a plan and managed to get the word of the bounty out to the wizard's troops. On the 3rd or 4th day the dice were in our favor and the wizard's troops took out the wizard. Nearly all of the troops were mercenaries and after we paid them off they left and were no longer a factor in the campaign. Sure, we blew a lot of money on that, but it was a great idea and it was great seeing the DM deal with this.
On a side note, a bounty is also a great way to deal with annoying characters in your group!
Do you have any background 411 (such as info supplied by whoever gave you the assignment) on him? When fighting a specialist wizard, it is always helpful to know what his opposition schools are.
If you can track him for a while and can pick your moment to strike, obviously a surprise round or even complete helplessness is in your favor. Try to attack at dawn before he has had a chance to study his spellbook, or during the night if you have low light vision.
For items, anything that inflicts continuous damage is helpful. For example, something that duplicates Melf's Acid Arrow. Continuous damage forces him to make concentration checks (with penalties) in order to cast. Dust of Appearance is a must-have for a mage hunter. Also, if you target is high enough in level to have Dimension Door then see if your DM will allow you to commission a one-shot item that casts Dimensional Anchor; nothing sucks like actually winning a fight only to have your target port away with 1 hit point remaining. If he can actually cast Teleport, then a 4th level ranger should not be messing with him.
If you get a surprise round and then win initiative, you should be able to burn through his 9 to 17 hit points before he even gets a spell off, which is the ideal situation.
If you fail to take out him out this fast you're looking at a 'save or you're stuffed' kind of situation. Your best bet here is to take potions of resistance, bears endurance, cats grace, and owls wisdom to boost all your saves by 3.
If he opts to go invisible and flee then you'll need a potion of See Invisibility.
If he's the kind of wizard that likes to pack direct damage spells then a Potion of Resist energy vs. Fire is the way to go.
An alternative to buying all these expensive potions is to hire mercenarcy's. You can get a level 1 Warrior Merc for 2sp a day, so for 2gp a day you can swamp the wizard with 10 level 1's, which is way more than he can deal with while you're shooting at him.
Sneak up and grapple him.. you don't need to be an expert grappler yourself.
Grappling wizards is not as easy as people seem to think. Wizards don't like to be grappled. Even if he doesn't Dimension Door out, he could have an Anklet of Translocation or any one of a number of fairly low-cost ways of getting out of a grapple.... like having Heart of Water (hours/level) cast.
Your best bet is to use the spell Hunter's Mercy (Ranger 1), from the SpC, and shoot him from a long way's. It makes your next hit a crit. Make sure you can do enough damage. Try and get him from a long ways away, too--there's another spell that negates distance penalties for a round, I think.
Ok right now in the campaign I am playing a ranger that has been given a side quest (mission) of hunting down and killing a wizard / necromancer and I was wondering what would be the best way of killing one?
I know that the wizard is very argent / pompous individual and I think that I can use it to my advantage.
So far it looks like the only way of doing it is to use my maxed out stealth and try to bring him down with the bow by shooting him n the back and try to drop him in one shot. Is there any other options or ways for a ranger to kill a wizard ? Other then use of skills like move silently and stealth and use the low hit points of the wizard to advantage and try to bring him down before he casts his second spell ?
My ranger is lvl 4 his feats are doge, combat reflexes , mobility , rapid shot ( combat style) (as well as the others that come with the class)
Note
1) the wizard is of a fevered enemy race
2) spells to use from any book
Hit and run.
Wizards can't heal themselves, so you drop a surprise round shot and a standard action shot followed by you running around a corner out of line of sight, then continue staying out of sight until you can get another surprise round shot in.
Get hard hitting arrows. see if you can buy 5 or 6 +1 flaming shocking arrows. If you know the necromancer to be evil, they can be +1 holy arrows instead. Get a wizard friend to cast keen on your arrows using a scroll (scrolls are cheaper than potions).
Finally, if you can manage it, and you have an animal companion thats pretty decent sized (like a wolf) have your animal companion grapple the wizard.
Can't cast spells while grappled unless they lack somatic components, and very few do, and I doubt he has still spells prepared.
The most nasty of necromantic spells are touch spells. So settle the fight from a distance. Even if he can't cast while grappled, he can still discharge a touch effect that is already on his hands. Using an animal companion as your close-range attacker is a good suggestion.
Ideally, you will catch him completely unaware so he won't have any spells in place. For safety, it is best to plan for a worst case encounter and assume he will have a few rounds of notice and will have some spells up.
Hit and run.
Wizards can't heal themselves, so you drop a surprise round shot and a standard action shot followed by you running around a corner out of line of sight, then continue staying out of sight until you can get another surprise round shot in.
Polymorph heals you.
Polymorph heals you.
If a level 4 ranger is trying to hunt a wizard that can cast polymorph he doesn't deserve correct advice.
If a level 4 ranger is trying to hunt a wizard that can cast polymorph he doesn't deserve correct advice.
Sure he does: Make sure your affairs are all in order and that your will is written out and entrusted to a reliable executor.
So best case scenario: Ambush him while he is bathing, having sex, asleep, handling his ablutions, or whatever. It doesn't matter that a component pouch has all components in it, if is is not at hand. Drop Silence round 1; he will be down to Somatic-only and spells he has prepared Silenced (or Sudden Silent Spell). If he has a Contingency spell up, well, there is pretty much nothing you can do to prevent it from going off if the trigger conditions are met. Most contingencies, however, are escape clauses.
Of course (back to the OP), while you can hope for best case, it is safest to assume worst case and plan accordingly. Get your stuff together assuming that he knows exactly who you are and when you might be coming at him. Assume he has made his Gather Information checks on you. Assume he will have items and spells that someone being stalked by a ranger would choose. If he has been less diligent in his preparation, then so much the better, and you will have an easier time than you planned.
Couldnt resist. Wasnt trying.
So best case scenario: Ambush him while he is bathing, having sex, asleep, handling his ablutions, or whatever.
Or all of the above.
I call this a "Productive Thursday night."
Check out the hide section in the chapter on skills. There are rules on sniping there. Likewise check out the spot section, particularily penalties for distance. Consider an elixer of hiding and an elixer of sneaking, if you can find a shop that carries them. They're only 250gp each, last 1 hour, and give a +10 to hide and move silently checks. Great for when you're closing in for the kill.
If you grapple and pin him, as he is too low of a level to have much defense against this, he'll also be screwed. He won't be able to cast spells and you can keep dealing damage until he's out cold. It's also a good way to prevent escapes via invisibility. If you're not going to grapple you might want to bring some other invisiblity counter.
There's already mean plenty of other good suggestions too, and you can combine ideas.