Melee Ranger - Help build

[Kerilstrasz]

Often, while talking about DnD with my players i told them that at some situation they are too attached with certain stereotypes...
When they talk about Arcane casters they think a guy who's throwing fireballs..
When they talk about rangers they think about Legolas...
When they talk about Fighters they think Aragorn... (who i think is most of a ranger)..

Anyways.. i decided for the upcoming campaign to introduce some "out of the box" built champs..

One of them will be a Ranger that favors melee combat and only use his trashy bow on really rare occasions.

So.. Material to work with:
Level: 9
Classes: (PhB, Wh.Gnome, Strgheart Halfling, Wood Elf)
Books: PhB,PhB2, Completes, UA, Races of..
Max of 2 flaws
DmG PCs suggested WpL
He can have an an.comp but at best it will be a flanker, Not his main dps source.
Also no mounted combat.

So.. if you plz..
Suggest Class, Feats, Weaps & Arms, and any clarification you think its needed.

Thnx for your Help.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Wildshape Ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) 5/ Master of Many Forms 4 starting out. Go Wildshape Ranger 5/ Master of Many Forms 7/ Warshaper 4/ Nature's Warrior 1/ MoMF 3 for your final build.

Feats are Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Alertness, Leap Attack, and Frozen Wild Shape starting out, Multiattack and Improved Multiattack via flaws if you have enough feats. Keep in mind flaws are restricted to 'when creating a character' so they can show up at any level up to the one you're starting at. Plan to get Robilar's Gambit and Defensive Sweep from PH2.

Items at ECL 9 WBL should be 36k, get a Monk's Belt (13k) with a Wilding Clasp (4k), Armbands of Might (4.1k) with a +2 Enhancement to Str and Dex added per MIC p234 (8k) and a Wilding Clasp (4k), and two 1st level Pearls of Power (2k). You'll have 900 gp remaining for misc gear. Note an item with a wilding clasp 'continues to function' when you wild shape, this includes both magical and mundane functions. A function of a belt is to hold other items, so you can put the Pearls of Power in a pocket on your belt and they too will be usable when Wild Shaped. All of your Ranger spell slots should be filled with Rhino's Rush.

Beginning play you can Wild Shape into a Cave Troll (MM3) or a Smilodon (Frostburn) or a Dire Lion (MM) or a Lammassu (MM). You can Power Attack for -2 to get +2 damage, the Armbands of Might increase that to +4, and post-errata Leap Attack increases that by 100% to +8 damage per hit. Note all those forms I mentioned get Pounce even, though Rhino's Rush only affects your first hit on a charge. The Cave Troll form can use a large club two-handed, charge in and Rhino's Rush to full attack with pounce, drop it and make secondary claw, bite, and rake attacks, and get rend and improved grab even, all on a single turn.

Once you hit Master of Many Forms 8 you can take the form of a 12-headed Cyrohydra per Frozen Wild Shape, and make 12 bite attacks on every attack of opportunity. Once you have Robilar's Gambit and Defensive Sweep plus a decent Enhancement bonus to Dex this will get absurd. At level 12 you can use the form of a War Troll (MM3), which is one of the physically strongest creatures you can find even at level 20. Also note that all of its special qualities are extraordinary (SR, DR/Adamantine, Regeneration), and you'll gain all of them in that form when you have Master of Many Forms 7. The same goes for the Cryohydra's Fast Healing.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'd suggest a pearl of speech placed on your tongue after you wild shape, with the above build. No reason to ever NOT be wild shaped.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd suggest a pearl of speech placed on your tongue after you wild shape, with the above build. No reason to ever NOT be wild shaped.

The first level of Master of Many Forms allows you to speak normally regardless of what form you take.

[Gavinfoxx]

The first level of Master of Many Forms allows you to speak normally regardless of what form you take.

Ah, forgot that. Silly me.

[Captnq]

Get a Notbora and go with a double weapon as opposed to a light and a one handed weapon. It's just a big pile of numbers. Here's the conversion to 3.5

NOTBORA

- MONSTER MANUAL 2 (3.0)
- SAVAGE SPECIES (3.0)
Exotic Two-Handed Melee Weapon
[Double, Droppable, Tripping]
Cost: 20 gp
Damage (s): 1d8/1d8
Damage (m): 1d10/1d10
Critical: x2 (B) or 19-20/x2 (S)
Weight: 2 lb
Type: B or S
This Huge exotic double weapon looks like a big quarterstaff with a crook at one end. It is made by desmodu. A notbora has a hinge in the middle so that it can be folded for storage. The wielder can unfold the weapon and lock the hinge by pressing a hidden catch (a free action when drawing the notbora). The notbora’s straight end is actually a sheath that can be removed to reveal a blade. The hooked end can be used to make trip attacks. A wielder who is tripped during his or her own trip attempt can drop the notbora to avoid being tripped. The hooked end is a blunt weapon that deals double damage on a critical hit and threatens a critical hit on an attack roll of 20. With the sheath in place, the straight end functions the same way. With the sheath removed, the straight end is a slashing weapon that deals double damage on a critical hit and threatens a critical hit on an attack roll of 19 or 20.
Editor: As per the conversion rules, It’s a huge exotic weapon. Alas, to bring it up to 3.5 standards, we need to shrink it down to large, which reduces the damage. You might think you could wield it with an exotic weapon proficiency, but since it already is an exotic weapon, you can’t shrink the number of hands that way. Originally, the weapon did: (s) 1d10/1d10, (m) 2d6/2d6. Still, this is a BIG pile of numbers.

[Gavinfoxx]

Get a Notbora

How about no? Seriuosly, if you wanna be a melee ranger and use a weapon (why not wildshape ranger instead??) just be a strong-arm ranger and two hand a greatsword.

[Thurbane]

TWF fighting is a bit more viable if you use a 2 handed weapon (greatsword etc.) as your primary, so you can get 2x Power Attack return and 1.5x Str bonus, and armor spikes as your secondary weapon (leaving your hands free for a two-hander).

It doesn't fit very well with the TWF ranger archetype, but it can be more practical in terms of damage output.

[FrznTear]

A combination of scout ranger and dervish is pretty cool.
Dance around your enemies to get skirmish unloading a bunch of twf attacks.

For level 9 probably have scout4/ranger4/dervish1 making sure you pick up swift hunter at level 6 and improved skirmish at level 9 using level 1 3 and the two flaws for 3/4dervish prereqs and weapon finesse so you don't need points in str. Ranger 2 gives twf and scout 4 gives the last prereq for dervish.

since you will only be taking up to ranger 6 you can swap out your level 1 spell you get at level 4 for a feat from a specific list as per pg 50 of complete champion. Weapon finesse is there so if you grab it from there it frees up a feat.

Animal companion will be weak, so probably look up an acf to swap it out for like distracting attack from phbII.

A guy who tumbles about slashing foes into ribbons with two scimitars seems pretty ranger to me.

[SciChronic]

i would either use a halberd and trip (w/ knockdown), or utilize the free TWF plus a fighter/feat rogue dip and/or flaws to go High Sword Low Axe and trip.

[FrznTear]

I can get high-sword low axe to fit into the ranger-scout-dervish build if you go human or strongheart halfling for the bonus feat.

1 (Scout 1) lvl1 feat combat expertise
flaw dodge
flaw weapon focus (battle axe)
human/stongheart halfling weapon focus (scimitar)

2 (Ranger 1/Scout 1)

3 (ranger 2.Scout 1) lvl3 feat: mobility
combat style: two weapon fighting

4 (Ranger2/scout 2)

5 (Ranger 2/scout 3)

6 (Ranger 3/scout3) Swift Hunter

7 (Ranger 4/scout3) Champion of the Wild(replace spells with feat: Improved Trip

8 (Ranger4/scout4) Scout bonus feat: Improved skirmish

9 (Ranger4/scout4) Lvl9 feat: High sword, Low axe

Getting high-sword low axe in there is nice, having an extra attack is really nice with 4d6 skirmish when dancing.

The only problem is that scout and ranger don't get perform so the duration of dervish dance will be short to begin with :(

I would recommend choosing constructs and undead as favored enemies so that you can get skirmish damage on creatures that would otherwise be immune to it.

[shaikujin]

TWF ranger using scimitars. Race Drow.

So there's a stereo-type for melee rangers too.

[Killer Angel]

i would either use a halberd and trip (w/ knockdown),

At this point, I would go for the horizon tripper.

[nedz]

At this point, I would go for the horizon tripper.

Needs 1 level of Monk for Sun School, but you may as well go Monk 2.

Also: check out the last Zinc Saucier for more Ranger ideas.

[Person_Man]

Wildshape Ranger is your Tier 3 option. It actually works fine as strait Wildshape Ranger 20 with a few useful Feats thrown in (Aberration Wild Shape, Frozen Wild Shape). But head into Master of Many Forms as Biffoniacus suggests if you want the more powerful version.

Scout/Ranger with Swift Hunter is your Tier 4, but arguably higher damage output option. There are multiple Swift Hunter handbooks for you to peruse.

A level of Harper Paragon or Stalker of Kharesh PrC will give you Favored Enemy (Evil). There's also a variant in Complete Mage which let's you take Favored Enemy (Arcanist), which applies to anyone or thing that casts arcane spells, spell like abilities, or invocations. If you're going with a mostly Ranger build, these are useful ways to get your Favored Enemy bonus (which can be improved by various Feats, such as Wise to Your Ways, Nemisis, and Favored Power Attack) to a large number of enemies.

A fun backup option (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0922.html) is to optimize Wild Empathy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302815). Ranger isn't the best way to do use Wild Empathy. But a Shifter Ranger can use Wis in place of Cha and the Shifter Magnatism Feat to add a decent option.

[Fax Celestis]

Also, if you do go wildshape ranger, use the PHB-II ACF to drop your mostly-useless animal companion (due to it's extremely limited progression, it's nowhere near as good as the druid's) and pick up Distracting Attack. Your party rogue, if you have one, will love you.

[Darrin]

If you're looking for a Swift Hunter build, one of my favorites:

TWF, 10d6 Skirmish
Race: Human, Azurin, Strongheart Halfing, Frostblood Orc/Half-Orc
1) Ranger 1. Feat: Travel Devotion, Bonus: Combat Reflexes, Bonus: Track
2) Ranger 2. Bonus: TWF
3) Scout 1. Feat: Travel Devotion (x2). Skirmish 1d6
4) Scout 2. Skirmish 1d6.
5) Scout 3. Skirmish 1d6AC+1
6) Scout 4. Feat: Swift Hunter. Bonus: Improved Skirmish. Skirmish 2d6AC+1/4d6AC+3.
7) Dragon Devotee 1.
8) Dragon Devotee 2. Skirmish 3d6AC+1/5d6AC+3
9) Dragon Devotee 3. Feat: Improved TWF. 1st level Sorcerer casting (get at least 2 divination spells)
10) Dragon Devotee 4. Skirmish 4d6AC+1/6d6AC+3
11) Unseen Seer 1. Skirmish 5d6AC+1/7d6AC+3
12) Unseen Seer 2. Feat: Double Hit. Advanced Learning: Hunter's Eye
13) Unseen Seer 3.
14) Unseen Seer 4. Skirmish 6d6AC+1/8d6AC+3
15) Highland Stalker 1. Feat: Robilar’s Gambit.
16) Highland Stalker 2. Skirmish 7d6AC+1/9d6AC+3
17) Ranger 3. Bonus: Endurance. Skirmish 7d6AC+2/9d6AC+4
18) Ranger 4. Feat: Greater TWF or Travel Devotion (x3).
19) Ranger 5. Skirmish 8d6AC+2/10d6AC+4
20) Spellsword 1.

Or if you prefer a Full BAB TWF Swift Hunter:
Race: Human, Azurin, Strongheart Halfing, Frostblood Orc/Half-Orc
1) Ranger 1. Feat: Travel Devotion, Bonus: Combat Reflexes, Bonus: Track
2) Ranger 2. Bonus: TWF
3) Ranger 3. Feat: Travel Devotion (x2). Bonus: Endurance
4) Ranger 4. Distracting Attack ACF.
5) Simple Fighter. Sneak Attack 1d6
6) H.Stalker 1. Feat: Staggering Strike
7) H.Stalker 2. Skirmish 1d6
8) H.Stalker 3.
9) H.Stalker 4. Feat: Swift Hunter. Skirmish 2d6AC+2.
10) Ranger 5. Skirmish 3d6AC+2.
11) Ranger 6. Bonus: Imp. TWF
12) Ranger 7. Feat: Double Hit. Skirmish 3d6AC+3.
13) H.Stalker 5.
14) H.Stalker 6. Skirmish 4d6AC+3
15) Ranger 8. Feat: Imp. Skirmish. Skirmish 4d6AC+3/6d6AC+5
16) Ranger 9. Skirmish 5d6AC+3/7d6AC+5
17) Ranger 10.
18) Ranger 11. Feat: Travel Devotion (x3), Bonus: Gr. TWF. Skirmish 5d6AC+4/7d6AC+6
19) Ranger 12.
20) Ranger 13. Skirmish 6d6AC+4/8d6AC+6