Charging Ranger Help Please

[Bloodhands]

Hi,

For an upcoming Planescape campaign one of the characters I'm considering making is a ranger variant with a pair of mercurial longswords. I'm looking at using Oversized Two Weapon Fighting, Uncanny Blow from EWM, Leap Attack and Favored Power Attack (we're already told many enemies will be evil outsiders) to dual wield at a 4:1 ratio of damage bonus:accuracy penalty. I will be dipping EWM (obviously) and Lion Totem Barbarian with the whirling frenzy option. At 20, that leaves me up to 8 attacks a round, all with a large power attack bonus. I'm also taking Shock Trooper to keep accuracy high. As a side note, I won't be completely abusing this combo until I get a feel for the power level of the rest of the group (no idea what their skill level is like.)

This leaves me with 13 levels taken up (11 Rgr, 1 Barb, 1 EWM.) I'm still tossing ideas about what to throw in elsewhere. I considered scout for swift hunter, shadowdancer for HiPS (feat intensive, but I can use fighter levels to cover that and then get elusive target) swordsage for stealth abilities plus the diamond mind save abilities and Horizon Walker for skill help, dimension door and the fact that it fits the character well. I'm also considering the 3.0 version of Holy Liberator (which the DM oked) for +CHA to saves and immunity to charm and compulsion and because it also fits the character well.

My first question is does all that work as I think it does and my second question is what should I fill those other levels with? I think I've got damage covered so I would like more options and tricks, defensive bonus and non combat stuff.

[nedz]

Scout 3 or 4 for Swift Hunter is fairly obvious.

[Little Brother]

Why Ranger? They're, like, trash. Waste of space unless you're a Mystic Wildshape Ranger. If you are, you'll want to take levels of Master of Many Forms, so you can get better forms to pounce with.

[Bloodhands]

Ranger for the fact that it fits what I want out of the character RP wise and for the TWF feats without dex requirements and rhino's rush spell. I'm not really worried about damage output, 8 attacks at well over 100 damage each should be enough without being utterly game breaking.

[Bloodhands]

Ranger for the fact that it fits what I want out of the character RP wise and for the TWF feats without dex requirements, the rhino's rush spell and the fact that dual wielding exotic weapons lets me take EWM to treat each of those weapons as being two handers as far as power attack is concerned. I'm not really worried about damage output, at level 8 he's got 4 attacks each with +24 to damage from power attack alone and that scales geometrically as he levels. I'm really more worried about ways to keep as safe as possible against casters and increasing non combat utility.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

You could always go dark creature template from the tome of magic, for HiPS it also gives bonuses to sealth skills. The Template is a +1 LA but you use the LA buy off from unearthed arcana if the DM allows that.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

For defenses, check out this list (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187851).

With Barbarian, the Lion spiritual totem works with any version of Barbarian that would still get Fast Movement. That means you can use Wolf Totem Barbarian (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures ) 2 and grab Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown). You should also go for Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) if you've got enough feats for Extra Rage, and pick up Extend Rage a few times via the Otyugh Hole in CS while you're at it.

I wouldn't really consider an extra five Ranger levels worth it for getting Greater TWF. An extra attack at -10 isn't going to make much of a difference most of the time, and those levels would be better spent elsewhere. I'd even encourage you to stop at Ranger 2 and get the Gloves of the Balanced Hand (MIC) for Improved TWF. Pick up some Warblade for the Xing Mongoose boosts and you'll be better off in the long run, plus you'll be able to get Weapon Specialization and Melee Weapon Mastery along with the Diamond Mind save boosts and Iron Heart Surge.

[Bloodhands]

Thanks for your help! The other build I was considering is a sword and board warblade (also with EWM to let a 1 hander power attack like a 2) with shield ward and divine shield for a little extra defense. The more I think about it, the more I realize that one might be more fun to play and have much better survivability.