Overall 3.0 to 3.5. How similar?

[killem2]

I'm getting everything setup for my first session, (i'm the dm) and I have a ranger who really loves the class, but is struggling to find just the right spot in 3.5. I'm ok with him being wishy washy until we start, I want him to be ok with his choice, as these are going to be long haul characters.

Are the over all prestige classes and aspects of a ranger of 3.0 easily converted or just usable for 3.5 with out throwing everything out of place?

[Diefje]

Most martial classes translate pretty well to 3.5

What exactly is your player looking for? There's plenty of "plays like a ranger but isn't really one" ranger types.

[killem2]

He really wants that two weapon style, but still be great at ranged combat if need, all while having the same skills of a ranger (tracking ect) which, I build around.

I've tried to make sure all my initial quests and dungeons fit their characters in some way and build clues and such around it.

I do know he asked about the Elf Ranger in the Races of the wild, which I allowed him to take that, but I changed the hit dice back to D8 because I feel A D6 hp in exchange what you really DONT get, is not worth it.

[Big Fau]

Just a couple of notes: The way feats work make it a pain in the ass to switch between ranged and melee combat easily. This was true in 3.0, and it stayed the same in 3.5. That, and the fact that ranged combat got shafted anyway throughout 3.X, so him wanting to be good at both means he's asking a lot from a new DM.

Even the most practical optimization advice we can give isn't enough to remove the major weaknesses of ranged combat.

If he wants to be relevant at range, he needs spellcasting along the lines of a Sorcerer, and he needs to put some serious effort into learning about spellcasters in general.


That out of the way, one of the best resources I can offer you is the handbooks over at BG (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?board=28.0). I don't know if the Ranger handbook has been ported over, but search through them and find things that can help your players.

[killem2]

Well, since I am the dm, I'm willing to make the game enjoyable as best I can. Magical arrow, explosive arrows, magic bows, none of that helps?

[eepop]

A Swift Hunter build (Ranger/Scout) may fit the bill.
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=103.0

Giving him some magic item that lets him switch between the different ranger fighting styles when we swaps weapons would go a long way if you just want to solve it via items. So if he has two swords out, he gets the two weapon fighting feats, if he has a bow out he gets the archery feats.

I would say to stick to 3.5, there wasn't a lot of redeeming qualities to the 3.0 ranger in my opinion. With all the splats available in 3.5, there isn't much you could do with 3.0 that you can't do in 3.5.

[Big Fau]

Well, since I am the dm, I'm willing to make the game enjoyable as best I can. Magical arrow, explosive arrows, magic bows, none of that helps?

One spell shuts them down (Windwall), they cannot negate miss chances very easily, damage reduction is a pain in the neck, they have a hard time dealing a good amount of damage, most prestige classes for archery are garbage (OotBI...), the best spells that help an archery are all high-level Ranger spells (which means no multiclassing), and the Ranger itself is feat starved.

That is just off the top of my head. Yes, there are answers to some of those, but fitting them all into one character is a caveat and a half, and usually won't happen until 15th level or so.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a

Energy bow! Make sure it has the good effects of the 'force' enhancement from MIC as well (it doesn't specifically say it has all that stuff, but it does imply it).