[3.5]Mystic Ranger Build advice.

[Xrocks]

Well my friends campaign is finally (after a few delays) going to start next week and we had some last minute changes and I need a new PJ that can cast since now we have 2 Warblades :P, a gish sorc/swiftblade and a spirit shaman.
The campaign starts at lvl 1 and ends at 30 (although the DM told me there's a good chance that it will end at around lvl 15,18). So I want to make a build that's good since the start but has epic potential. I never played in an epic campaign so I'm not really sure how to go about it but I figure I have at least a year before we get past lvl 20 so no problem there.

I have little experience with casters (I've only used wizards and only up to around lvl 8) so I'm a little lost here and any link to spell guides would be really helpful.
I had 2 builds in mind:
-Bard 1/Mystic Ranger 5/Planar Shepherd 4/Sublime Chord 2/Fochlucan Lyrist 10/X?
At first I really liked this one but I'm not sure it will work at low levels, and I'll be many months before I get to lvl 12 I'm not sure about it.

The other one is:
-Mystic Ranger 5/(Wizard 1?)/Planar Shepherd 10/Mystic Ranger 5/X?
This one (not sure about the Wizard level for *Improved Spellcasting with Shooting Star sub lvl 4) seems a lot better.
Does this look good?:
Race: Dragonwrought Venerable Kobold
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Stats: STR 4 DEX 16 CON 16 INT 18 WIS 21 CHA 11 (I have 33 points to give to stats, all stats cost the same, an 18 cost 10 points, 16 8,etc).
Flaws:Weak Will, Inattentive
1 Mystic Ranger 1(Wildshaper,Arcane Hunter)-Dragonwrought,Greenbound Summoning, Zen Archery?
2 Mystic Ranger 2
3 Mystic Ranger 3 (not sure what feat to choose this lvl)
4 Mystic Ranger 4
5 Mystic Ranger 5
6 Wizard 1 (combat wizard) Natural Spell, Point Blank Shot?
7 Planar Shepherd 1
8 Planar Shepherd 2
9 Planar Shepherd 3 Sword of the Arcane Order
10 Planar Shepherd 4
11 Planar Shepherd 5
12 Planar Shepherd 6 Improved Spell Capacity [Epic], if I have the GP (or there is a better way to do it) Dark Chaos Shuffle 3 feats (probably PBshot,Iron Will from Otygh Hole and 1 more feat) to get 3 more ISC Epic so I'll have lvl 9 spells of Ranger/Druid/Wizard list.
13 Planar Shepherd 7
14 Planar Shepherd 8
15 Planar Shepherd 9 feat?
16 Planar Shepherd 10
17 Mystic Ranger 6
18 Mystic Ranger 7 feat?
19 Mystic Ranger 8
20 Mystic Ranger 9
21 Mystic Ranger 10

With the Planar Shepherd I'll choose Lamannia since I don't want to destroy the game with Dolurrh or Fernia.
I'm not sure about the wizard level, as you can see I'm really lost as to what feats to take. Maybe I can take Bard instead at level 20 and then take 1 Sublime Chord and 9 Fochlucan Lyrist?.
So other than good spell guides is there any item guide that can help me with this build?.
About the wildshapes, after fleshraker is there any good form I can use before I get Lamannia forms?.
Should I use wildclaps, barbs and focus on my wildshape form once I get fleshraker?.

About the Dark Chaos Shuffle, it would be around 3000gp per feat?, does the caster have to be evil?.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

[sonofzeal]

Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle is chaotic, but not evil. Officially. Don't try it on an Exalted character though.

Otherwise, your build looks strong... but aren't you trading away Combat Style twice? I'm AFB, but I was under the impression both Wildshape Ranger and Mystic Ranger lost Combat Style.

[Coidzor]

Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle is chaotic, but not evil. Officially. Don't try it on an Exalted character though.

If you can do it, do it, because dear lord those exalted feats are meh. So very, very meh. It is not, however, the kind of thing one should do blindly or blithely, but build choices never are unless they're exceptionally solid and boring.

But if the DM screws you after you ask him for clarification on the matter prior to attempting it in game, that's just evidence the DM is a jerk and shouldn't be played with in the first place. :smallconfused:

As for combat style, Mystic Ranger delays each instance by one level, as far as I can recall. Certainly delays the first instance from 2nd to 3rd level. Wildshape axes it entirely though, yeah.

[Xrocks]

Mystic Ranger and wildshape variant do work together, as least my DM hasn't rule otherwise.
Cool DarkChaos is not evil :D.
So any advice as to what feats I could take, and any spell advice or spell guide to help me?.

[Tokuhara]

Mystic Ranger and wildshape variant do work together, as least my DM hasn't rule otherwise.
Cool DarkChaos is not evil :D.
So any advice as to what feats I could take, and any spell advice or spell guide to help me?.

Here's My Suggestion:

#1: Obligatory Sword of the Arcane Order suggestion. It's a great feat for either Ranger or Paladin

#2: Since you plan on Gishing it up, maybe Suel Archanamach is a worthwhile class? You can gish it up and do some nasty things. Or Warmind to psigish it to 11.

#3: Bard is a late bloomer, but for a late bloomer, you get a lot. Be prepared for Flying DMGs.

#4: Wildshaping Mystic Ranger isn't really Ranger anymore. Think of it like a slightly weaker Druid who is more Gishy than Druid is. Treat it as such and tread carefully

[Flickerdart]

Suel Arcanamach is useless to a Mystic Ranger - the Ranger fights better and has better spells.

[Xrocks]

Here's My Suggestion:

#1: Obligatory Sword of the Arcane Order suggestion. It's a great feat for either Ranger or Paladin

Well ya the basic idea of the character is that Mystic Ranger only get spell progression up to level 5 spells so after that I pick Improved Spell Capacity [Epic] ( I can do it at level 12 thanks to Dragonwrought Kobold being a true dragon)4 times (Dark Chaos Shuffle ftw) and get level 9 spells, that along with Sword of the Arcane Order gets me ranger/druid/wizards spell list.

I'm just pretty lost about what to do with my other feats, like going the summoning way or archery or what ( I still have 5 feats to choose). Never having played a high level wizard (or any other caster class for that matter) I'm not sure what spells are good.

[Talya]

Otherwise, your build looks strong... but aren't you trading away Combat Style twice? I'm AFB, but I was under the impression both Wildshape Ranger and Mystic Ranger lost Combat Style.

As I recall, Mystic Ranger still gets combat style. They just get it a level later.

[Coidzor]

Suel Arcanamach, like sublime chord, just ups the MAD to including Charisma. So I suppose if you wanted to... or just went with a cha booster and never picked up anything with a save.

Consider some Incarnum feats for essentia and shape soulmeld, since you'll likely have body slots free from the wildshaping even with wilding clasps(since those actually just encourage MIC item stacking rules) and wild armor, and I believe with up to 5th level wizard spells from sword of the arcane order and mystic ranger, you should be able to afford the slots to bind some soulmelds every now and then to chakras for nifty things. And, well, soulmelds don't care what you're doing to your body. Dipping a level of Totemist or two might be of interest, especially for the epic part, though you'd be obligated to grab a fast progression casting class to grab and go into the incarnum/spellcaster PrC. Though, of course, Psycarnum is even more fun.

Of course, even Frozen Wildshape or whatever it's called from Frostburn for cryohydra combat forms work pretty well even into Epic last I recall, at least for polymorphers....

[Tokuhara]

To explain:

Archanamach was to give arcane on top of divine. You could also go Warmind and bring the Psigish

[Flickerdart]

How would getting low-level arcane spells while simultaneously delaying his mid-level divine spells help, exactly?

[Tokuhara]

How would getting low-level arcane spells while simultaneously delaying his mid-level divine spells help, exactly?

Theurge-Gish

[Flickerdart]

Theurging isn't even worth is when you have double-nine progressions, unless you can get early entry. For a melee character, it's even more useless than usual, because 1/2 BAB and d4 HD do not make you very good at, you know, fighting. I mean, I suppose you could aim for Fochluhan Lyrist, but the entry is convoluted enough without trying to cram in Suel and Ranger levels.

[deuxhero]

How would getting low-level arcane spells while simultaneously delaying his mid-level divine spells help, exactly?

Mystic Ranger's progression is funky, it stops getting new spells at 11.

[Xrocks]

Mystic Ranger's progression is funky, it stops getting new spells at 11.

Yeah and that's exactly why the Improved Spell Capacity trick works so that I can get level 9 spells so early, because of the Mystic Ranger spell progression. Remember that Improved Spell Capacity has the prequisite: Ability to cast spells of the normal maximum spell level in at least one spellcasting class.

[Xrocks]

Sorry for the bump, but this has slipped out of the first page and I still have 5 empty feat slots and no idea with what I should fill them. Plus I'm not sure about Zen Archery,Greenbound Summoning (not sure if summoning is a good way for my char) and Point Blank shot.
I've found lots of nice feats but I think the character has no direction right now.

Also I was thinking that maybe the feat Lost Tradition (from Bastards & Bloodlines) could be useful, I can change WIS to CHA, use the Half-Fey template, maybe get a bard level instead of mage so I can level as a Fochlucan Lyrist after level 20, or do something funny with the feat and use DEX or something to cast :smallbiggrin:.

[silverwolfer]

Windwalker faith and patheons is all I can suggest xrocks

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Take the feat Magical Training (PGtF) instead of a level of Wizard. That will give you a spellbook into which you've already scribed several 0-level spells. It would make sense that your character could learn and scribe more spells into that book the same way as a Wizard does, so you've got a book full of spells to prepare via SotAO. On that note, you've got Sword of the Arcane Order way too late in the build.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10830

You should read that...