[3.5] High Damage Ranger

[kayden87]

I have a ranger build that I put together and I would like your guys' thoughts and constructive criticism.

Shadow-Walker, Snow Elf
Arcane Hunter-13/Targetteer-4/Deep Wood Sniper-2 (Ranger and Fighter Variants)

STR: 10
DEX: 36
CON: 18
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHR: 6



I will list The Feats Up to level 18, even though the ranger is level 19

I will not include Normal Ranger Feats, only combat styles

1 Flaw 1: Weapon Focus (Great Bow), Flaw 2: Penetrating Shot , Level 1: Point blank shot
2 Fighter Varriant: Vital Aim, Bonus Feat : Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Great Bow)
3 Combat Style: Rapid Shot, Level 3: Far Shot
4 -
5 -
6 Level 6: Precise Shot
7 Fighter Variant: Arrow Swarm
8 Imp Crit - Deep Wood Sniper
9 Great Crit +1 - Deep Wood Sniper, Level 9: Improved Rapid Shot
10 -
11 Fighter Variant: Weapon Spec (Great Bow)
12 level 12: Ranged Weapon Mastery (Piercing) Imp Combat Style: Many Shot
13 -
14 -
15 - level 15: Ranged Weapon Mastery (Slashing)
16 -
17 Combat Style Mastery: Imp Precise Shot
18 No Idea what feat I want to take...
19 -

Level ups in Order
Ranger 1
Ranger 1/Fighter 1 (v)
Ranger 2/Fighter 1 (v)
Ranger 3/Fighter 1 (v)
Ranger 4/Fighter 1 (v)
Ranger 5/Fighter 1 (v)
Ranger 5/Fighter 2 (v)
Ranger 5/Fighter 2 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 1
Ranger 5/Fighter 2 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 5/Fighter 3 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 5/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 6/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 7/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 8/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 9/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 10/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 11/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 12/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2
Ranger 13/Fighter 4 (v)/DeepWood Sniper 2

Weapon: Corrosive, Acidic Burst, Maiming Great Bow +3 (WITH Serpent Tongue Arrows, Slashing AND Piercing at the same time, works with Ranged weapon Mastery)

Armor: Robes of AC +8

Other Items:Ring of Invis, Ring Pro +5, Animated Adamantite Buckler +3, Gloves Dex +6, Greater Archery Bracers, Crystal Mask (+4 Will save one), Phoenix Cloak, Sandles of Light Step, Quiver of Energy x2, Vest of Resistance +5, Amy of Con +6, Tome +4 Dex used

Misc: Greater True Death Crystal, Fire, Cold, Electric Greater Assault crystals, Rubicund Frenzy Crystal

Stats: AC = 40
21 Fort, 30 Reflex, 16 Will
BaB 19
Great Bow +3 With Rapid shot 43/43/38/33/28
Great Bow +3 With Arrow Swarm + Rapid Shot 38/38/38/38/33/28/23

Damage: 19-20 x4 Crit, 1d10+24, +1d6 (elemental of choice from Quiver of Energy), +1d6 Acid, +1d6 (Fire cold or electric Crystal, -- Cant be same energy type as quiver -- ) Maiming +3d6 on Crit, Acidic Burst +3d10 on Crit

This guy is somthing I randomly Made up over the night. He does NOT have a purpose in anything. Just wanted to see how much Damage I can make a ranger put out. I guess this is fairly decent

Questions or constructive Crit?

[Flickerdart]

So you're dealing, on average, 40 damage per shot (assuming that your target has no resistances) for 280 damage if they all hit. And that's all you can do. Damage reduction you have no means of bypassing is very common at those levels, so any old DR 10/cold iron or silver or adamantine drops your damage by a solid 70 points.

I must also wonder why you're calling this a Ranger build, when most of the things your build has going for it are from either Fighter or items?

[kayden87]

Im basing this build of like.. World of warcraft Target dummy sorta dealio

And I would take off Maiming and Acidic Burst for Transmuting If I used this ranger.

[Flickerdart]

I've not played WoW, does the target dummy have thirteen useless Ranger levels too?

[Seerow]

I've not played WoW, does the target dummy have thirteen useless Ranger levels too?

lmao needs moar characters

[Treblain]

Needs Splitting Arrows, I think. Champions of Ruin?

[imperialspectre]

I have a ranger build that I put together and I would like your guys' thoughts and constructive criticism.


There are three ways to get fairly solid damage as a ranged-focus ranger.

1) Ditch the fighter levels, get a few levels of scout (CAdventurer), go Swift Hunter (CScoundrel). Get the Splitting enhancement (Forgotten Realms: Champions of Ruin) on your bow, since it's far better than anything you've got on it. Get some form of swift-action movement so that you can make full attacks and stack up the d6s with skirmish.

2) Get Mystic Ranger (Dragon Mag 336), the Hunter's Eye spell (PHB2), the Splitting enhancement, the Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis (Tome of Magic), and the Darkstalker feat (Lords of Madness). Find a good place to hide, stack up the d6s on sneak attack, and shoot someone in the face.

You can mix and match elements from these two options, but Hunter's Eye is less good if you get scout levels because your caster level determines how much sneak attack you get.

3) Play a cleric or archivist, carry a bow, and call yourself a ranger. You'll have to work less hard and you'll get better results.

[kayden87]

Yeah, I tried making a scout/ranger But, I cant find a way to move + make a full round attack every turn.

[Darrin]

Yeah, I tried making a scout/ranger But, I cant find a way to move + make a full round attack every turn.

For a Swift Hunter build:
Cloistered Cleric 1/Scout 4/Ranger 15 should work fairly well for a Snow Elf.

Take Sehanine Moonbow as your deity, which gives you the Elf Domain (PB Shot), Knowledge Devotion (free action for attack/damage bonus), and Travel Devotion (plus Turn Undead to use it more than 1/day).

[Seerow]

For a Swift Hunter build:
Cloistered Cleric 1/Scout 4/Ranger 15 should work fairly well for a Snow Elf.

Take Sehanine Moonbow as your deity, which gives you the Elf Domain (PB Shot), Knowledge Devotion (free action for attack/damage bonus), and Travel Devotion (plus Turn Undead to use it more than 1/day).

The important part to take out of this for someone who doesn't want to follow the whole build: Get turn undead somewhere (usually a dip in cleric), pick up the Travel Devotion feat out of complete champion.

Travel Devotion gives you the ability to say "For the next minute I can take a move action as a swift action" usable once per day. You can spend 2 turn/rebuke undead uses to gain an extra use of the ability, or you can take the feat multiple times to get extra uses.

[Morbis Meh]

Yeah, I tried making a scout/ranger But, I cant find a way to move + make a full round attack every turn.

Like the poster before be mentioned... Travel devotion will be your beat friend. It's a feat from complete champion that allows you to move you base speed as a swift action for one minute a day, if you take a level of cleric I do believe you can use turn undead attempts to get another minute but I'd have to double check.

Edit: swordsaged

[Flickerdart]

If you don't want to/can't dip Cleric, Greater Manyshot lets you make lots of attacks as a standard action. You do lose out on the Targeteer shinies and Rapid Shot, so it's by no means as good, but you get four attacks per round (at a -8 penalty, sadly).

Which is why you go into Factotum. Factotum 8/Scout 4/Ranger 8 gives you +17 BAB, and lets you take extra standard actions a few times per encounter (depending on how many Fonts of Inspiration you took). Assuming you took four Fonts of Inspiration, you can take that extra standard action five times, meaning that you can open an encounter with as many as twenty-four attacks (up to six against any one creature). Each attack will have +5d6 Skirmish (because you took Improved Skirmish with your Scout bonus feat, obviously), so you've just slapped four people with 30d6 (average 105) damage before we've even started talking about your items. Granted, you can only shoot as many as this once per encounter, and since you are taking a -8 penalty, some of these attacks might miss. But because you are a Factotum, you can benefit much more from Knowledge Devotion (taken as a regular feat) than the Scout/Ranger. And hey, you have Turn Undeads from Factotum, too!

[marcielle]

If you don't have the skill points to spare for knowledge devotion(though you should, between CC and ranger), animal devotion is an ok substitute.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Yeah, I tried making a scout/ranger But, I cant find a way to move + make a full round attack every turn.

Sudden Leap, Travel Devotion, mounted (as long as you don't use errata).

[Flickerdart]

If you don't have the skill points to spare for knowledge devotion(though you should, between CC and ranger), animal devotion is an ok substitute.
It doesn't matter if you have the points to spare - you only have Nature and Dungeoneering in-class from Ranger, and maybe Arcana or Religion from Knowledge Devotion, meaning that you only get +1 against many monsters.

[kayden87]

so how many attacks per round can a Scout/Ranger even get, maybe 6? so 5d6 weapon dmg per arrow. so 30ishd6 for the round

My guy with arrow swarm has 38/38/38/38/33/28/23 ( at level 19, with no haste ) with 1d10+24, with splitting arrow, 2d10+48 x7 = 406 ( 203 ) average, if they all crit 1904 Damage.

Can a scout/ranger even get close to that? if the scout/ranger gets 30d6 ( 105 ) average a round

Then again the scout build can hit more things at once. But was only needing 1v1

[Flickerdart]

so how many attacks per round can a Scout/Ranger even get, maybe 6? so 5d6 weapon dmg per arrow. so 30ishd6 for the round

My guy with arrow swarm has 38/38/38/38/33/28/23 ( at level 19, with no haste ) with 1d10+24, with splitting arrow, 2d10+48 x7 = 406 ( 203 ) average, if they all crit 1904 Damage.

Can a scout/ranger even get close to that? if the scout/ranger gets 30d6 ( 105 ) average a round

Then again the scout build can hit more things at once. But was only needing 1v1
Your attacks have a 10% chance of threatening a critical hit. Assuming you automatically confirm, the chance of each of the fourteen attacks being critical hits is infinitely small.

Then, the Scout/Ranger can easily take a Fighter 2 dip to get the things you're using for most of your damage, and can also have Splitting. Improved Skirmish gives him 7d6 Skirmish damage. So in reality, compared to your build, he is dishing out the same number of attacks, except each one has an extra 24.5 damage sitting on it. And if he wanted, he could take the same feats you take, and do the same silly critical hit stuff. So he is exactly the same as you, except better because he hasn't wasted the vast majority of his levels.

[kayden87]

Ahh okay. But what about Splitting? Does skirmish get put onto both arrows? In champions of Ruin, it says they are identical, But it does not say the precision damage is also applied to both arrows

[Flickerdart]

Ahh okay. But what about Splitting? Does skirmish get put onto both arrows? In champions of Ruin, it says they are identical, But it does not say the precision damage is also applied to both arrows
Precision damage applies once per attack roll, and Splitting arrows have their own.

[Seerow]

Ahh okay. But what about Splitting? Does skirmish get put onto both arrows? In champions of Ruin, it says they are identical, But it does not say the precision damage is also applied to both arrows

It's basically a whole extra attack, so yeah identical.


As to how many attacks, it depends on which build. Personally I don't like the Factotum build, despite its power, but you can't deny its burst capability.

Also, what's the source for Arrow Swarm?

[kayden87]

Also, what's the source for Arrow Swarm?

Dragon mag 310. Fighter Section ( Targetteer ) It says U need rapid shot to use arrow swarm, and it does not say rapid shot is not included with your attacks. So I assume 2 attacks + Rapid. If worse comes to worse. then 2 extra attacks with no Rapid. Either 2 extra or 3 :P STill decent

[Curmudgeon]

Assuming you took four Fonts of Inspiration, you can take that extra standard action five times, meaning that you can open an encounter with as many as twenty-four attacks (up to six against any one creature). Each attack will have +5d6 Skirmish (because you took Improved Skirmish with your Scout bonus feat, obviously), so you've just slapped four people with 30d6 (average 105) damage before we've even started talking about your items.
You're overlooking the limitation of one standard action in a surprise round, and Improved Skirmish only kicks in after you've moved 20' in that round, so you're not going to "open an encounter" like this until you've figured out how to move that minimum distance first.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Dragon mag 310. Fighter Section ( Targetteer ) It says U need rapid shot to use arrow swarm, and it does not say rapid shot is not included with your attacks. So I assume 2 attacks + Rapid. If worse comes to worse. then 2 extra attacks with no Rapid. Either 2 extra or 3 :P STill decent

Does Spring Attack require Dodge? Yes. Does it treat your Dodge target any differently? No. If it doesn't state Rapid Shot does anything in Arrow Swarm, it doesn't do anything to arrow swarm.

[Seerow]

Does Spring Attack require Dodge? Yes. Does it treat your Dodge target any differently? No. If it doesn't state Rapid Shot does anything in Arrow Swarm, it doesn't do anything to arrow swarm.

If that's the case a -5 to hit for only 1 extra attack above a feat you had to take to get this ability is really pretty ****ty.

[Flickerdart]

You're overlooking the limitation of one standard action in a surprise round, and Improved Skirmish only kicks in after you've moved 20' in that round, so you're not going to "open an encounter" like this until you've figured out how to move that minimum distance first.
That is assuming the presence of a surprise round - which is not always the case.

[kayden87]

If that's the case a -5 to hit for only 1 extra attack above a feat you had to take to get this ability is really pretty ****ty.

I was more so asking if rapid shot stacks with arrow swarm, no where in the paragraph saying it doesn't stack. So as far as I know and what my DM says it stacks.

[Urpriest]

I was more so asking if rapid shot stacks with arrow swarm, no where in the paragraph saying it doesn't stack. So as far as I know and what my DM says it stacks.

Is Arrow Swarm a full attack though? Been awhile since I've looked at it, but I remember it being its own action.

[kayden87]

I cant remember what it said about about what type of action it takes up

[nedz]

Is Arrow Swarm a full attack though? Been awhile since I've looked at it, but I remember it being its own action.

Arrow storm is a full round cast, actually its worse - no 5' step and no swift action. It allows you to fire one arrow at up to one target per ranger level, within range. Tactically its quite suspect, only really good for lots of trival targets e.g. mirror image.

What you want is to have a +1 bow with lots of energy enchantments (forget the bursts). You then cast Greater Magic Weapon on the bow (or arrows).

[Hiro Protagonest]

Arrow storm is a full round cast, actually its worse - no 5' step and no swift action. It allows you to fire one arrow at up to one target per ranger level, within range. Tactically its quite suspect, only really good for lots of trival targets e.g. mirror image.

Arrow SWARM! :smallmad:

[nedz]

Arrow SWARM! :smallmad:

Oops - My BAD :smallredface:
I was only two letters out.

[JadePhoenix]

That is assuming the presence of a surprise round - which is not always the case.

Even in a surprise round, all you'd have to do is to use Cunning Surge to get a standard action and then use that standard action as a move action.

[kayden87]

Arrow swarm is not based on ranger level. its the fighter (targetteer) varriant option

[Dr.Epic]

Order of the Bow Initiative lets you add damage to bow shots when within a certain range.

[nedz]

Order of the Bow Initiative lets you add damage to bow shots when within a certain range.

Yes but its a standard action for 1 shot only.

[kayden87]

Once a round Sniper/Precise damage abilities are kinda lame, They let you move and attack once. Thats about it.

if you could.. Some how Get a scout/ranger as flickerdart mentioned with the 7d6 skirmish damage with Greater many shot and Bow of splitting, some how add the one time per round +Hit or +damage to the shots would be amazing