Feats for rangers 3.5 player handbook only

[ReD_Exorcist]

Hi guys i'm looking for some good feats on my ranger. I am only using the players handbook for feats. D&D 3.5

[Curmudgeon]

With only the PH, you're better off going the archery combat style; that way you can select Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Rapid Shot, and so on to make you a decent archer.

[Eladrinblade]

Hi guys i'm looking for some good feats on my ranger. I am only using the players handbook for feats. D&D 3.5

Give us some more info on your character build.

[Juntao112]

Hi guys i'm looking for some good feats on my ranger. I am only using the players handbook for feats. D&D 3.5

Leadership. Grab an elf archer and a dwarf fighter and you'll be good to go.

[ArcturusV]

Well... limited to Player's Handbook, you're not exactly rocking all the greatest hits for a Ranger. Things that come to mind:

Improved Initiative: Doesn't matter what you do, or what you are, going first rocks face. If you have room in your build, and you likely will limited to core only, pick it up. It pays off dividends.

Depending on the nature of the campaign setting you find yourself in, and your play style, you might want to pick up things like Craft: Wondrous Item or Scribe Scroll with your sixth level feat. Rangers have a lot of utility spells, but not a lot of spell slots. Course if your campaign is one where you can walk into any hamlet and just buy magic, less useful. But it's surprisingly useful in core to be able to pop off things that you might situationally want, but can't afford to memorize each day, like Animal Messenger, Speak with Animals, Alarm, Cure ___, Snare, Neutralize Poison, etc. Chances are you'll want to fill your limited slots with things you know will be useful on any given day, like Entangle, Longstrider, Spike Growth, etc.

Things to oddly consider: If you're running Archery, likely as it tends to be a better option than two weapon if you're limited to core, I think, you might want to consider looking into mounted combat and mounted archery. You can be a fairly effective skirmisher and fairly hard for enemies to handle if you use your Animal Companion as your mount, trading up for flying or otherwise highly mobile/useful mounts as you level up.

If you are going two weapon fighting? You'll want some sort of bonus damage ability available for you to make full use of the doubled weapons. Rogue for Sneak Attack isn't generally a bad thing, but you mentioned feats, not class selection. Going Crit Fishing isn't as effective in 3.5 as it was in 3rd, as it doesn't stack anymore, but it is an option and with your increased number of attacks it's one way to go. With good luck on Favored Enemies, good crit multipliers/ranges, you might do some fairly respectable damage with that, depending on your table's particulars in so far as optimization goes.

If you're worried about Ranger Squishiness in melee, going Two-Weapon style, taking a shield as your second weapon and Improved Shield bash can help you punt around people and still maintain a slight bonus to your AC, might be the edge you want at lower levels.

Combat Maneuver feats are always a good idea. Improved Disarm and Improved Trip comes to mind. Can be handy and if you're meleeing you have the attacks to burn to use it. Heck if you have a glut of feats for some reason you could Exotic Weapon Mastery a Spiked Chain for ranged tripping and such and be able to two weapon it if someone closes to melee on you.

[gorfnab]

Perhaps a variant on the Horizon Tripper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80415) could work
Human Ranger 3/ Fighter 1/ Barbarian 1/ Horizon Walker 10/ X 5
1. Combat Expertise, Improved Trip
3. Power Attack
4. Combat Reflexes
6. Diehard
9. Dodge
12. Mobility
15. Spring Attack
18. Whirlwind Attack

[Ortesk]

Go fighter 20, the archery line is alot of feats

[Urpriest]

Your character isn't a ranger, they're a character with some levels in ranger. Their future levels might be in other classes altogether. The thing that holds your character together is the combat style: what sort of character are you building, and what particular capabilities led you to choose the ranger levels that you have already chosen? Once we know what your purpose is in constructing your build as it is, we can advise you on how to expand it with the resources at your disposal.

[Gavinfoxx]

Try to get access to SRD feats. So PHB+SRD would be your sources.

I would suggest not just being a Ranger.

The Horizon Tripper is great:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80415

I wrote up a generic Horizon Tripper, using only PHB + SRD:

http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=55074

That would work as a solid character start.

[Azernak0]

As others have said, PH1 has Leadership. It is the best feat in the game, by far. That can go a long way to boosting your damage. Get a Cleric or something to buff you. It won't be too brokenly powerful if you stick with a buff / heal focused Cleric rather than going a CoDzilla type of thing.

If you have the strength, Power Attack is almost always worth taking. Maybe you need to break through a door or that pesky golem's DR makes arrows unfeasible.

Archery with Precise Shot / Pointblank / Rapid Shot is not too terrible. You can still do okay volley damage. Flaming/Shocking is a decent add on to a bow. You can get enough attacks that the extra 1d6 per hit could actually be somewhat meaningful. It still likely wouldn't beat the buffed Power Attacker who can PA away most of their BAB and still hit though.

I seem to remember a build I did that involved shield bash. Like another poster said, you could go Shield Bash. TWF with a Shield as your "main-hand" weapon. A Medium sized Heavy Spiked Shield of Bashing would do 2d6+Strength+1 damage. So you would have a light weapon in the off-hand and mostly bash people to death with the shield. But it has the same problem has usual for TWF; flurry of attacks that don't have an extra oomph in them (usually bonus dice) don't amount to much.

Good luck with your character.

[Coidzor]

It has its own issues, but you can also use two-weapon fighting with a two-handed weapon such as a great sword as your primary weapon and armor spikes as your off-hand weapon.

[Darrin]

It has its own issues, but you can also use two-weapon fighting with a two-handed weapon such as a great sword as your primary weapon and armor spikes as your off-hand weapon.

If this is core-only, you might get a bit more mileage with Improved Unarmed Strike as your offhand weapon. That way Power Attack damage gets applied to both your primary and offhand attacks.

[ReD_Exorcist]

Alright so here is my build
Class: Rogue lvl 3 Ranger lvl 2
Race: Elf
Size: Medium
Weight: 210 with all of my equipment
Height: 5,3
Dex: 19
Con: 11
Str: 12
Int: 13
Wis: 10
Cha: 14

I have decided to go with Archery as my Combat Style.
I just need to know what feats would go best with me.
I have been playing as a sneaky archer that has a Sherlock Holmes personality
I want to make sure that I have a good animal companion preferably one that can fly and carry me.

[Kane0]

Improved Initiative
Point Blank Shot
Rapid Shot
Precise Shot
... Anything with the word 'Shot' in it.
Weapon Focus
Improved Critical
Blind-Fight
Mounted Combat
Mounted Archery
After all that, toughness or skill focus or something. Having only the player's handbook really cuts down your options.

Then Grab yourself a nice bow, an assortment of nice arrows and a wand or two of your favourite 1st level spells (Cure light wounds is a great choice).

Oh, and don't forget to quiz your DM for a good choice of favored enemy.

Edit: Leadership! Get a druid or nature cleric to follow you around and provide buffs and heals, or a fighter or ranger to shoot alongside you.

Edit2: A shortbow works best with sneak attacks and mounted combat, but if your DM allows longbows thats cool too. Remember to stay within 30' for that sneak damage when you can get it.

[Gavinfoxx]

Your con needs to be at least a 14. It is generally one of the more important stats in the game. Also why are you going rogue??

[ArcturusV]

Probably for Sneak Attack dice to fortify up ranged combat damage, which is hard to boost in core only. Makes a certain amount of sense if you're doing it right and now what you're doing. Though you're slowing down useful stuff like Animal Companion and Spellcasting which is generally a bad thing if you're going heavy on the Ranger.

Granted, with 10 wisdom the ranger won't be casting spells anyway. So that's not a huge loss. If you are going to take up ranger 2 more levels look into buying a periapt of wisdom as soon as you can to fix that.

[turbo164]

Alright so here is my build
Class: Rogue lvl 3 Ranger lvl 2
Race: Elf
Size: Medium
Weight: 210 with all of my equipment
Height: 5,3
Dex: 19
Con: 11
Str: 12
Int: 13
Wis: 10
Cha: 14

I have decided to go with Archery as my Combat Style.
I just need to know what feats would go best with me.
I have been playing as a sneaky archer that has a Sherlock Holmes personality
I want to make sure that I have a good animal companion preferably one that can fly and carry me.

Stats: Did you include your 4th level stat bump yet?

You might want to put your 14 into Int; skill points are not retroactive, so if you later improve it from 13 to 14, you don't gain the skill points you missed from the levels at 13. And Holmes wants lots of skill points!

I'd also recommend lowering your charisma a bit. Yes Holmes could Bluff and Intimidate pretty well, but Wisdom fits him a bit better; Spot, Listen, Survival, and Sense Motive all help you notice those Chinese fish tattoos and cheetah pawprints and whatnot! And it helps with Ranger spells and Will saves.

So probably:

Str: 12 is good, so you can use a Mighty bow. (and Holmes could straighten an iron poker!)
Dex: 19, yep.
Con: This is a pretty important stat for combat. Unlike intelligence, hit points (and Fort saves) *are* retroactive, so you might be able to level this up later if you survive!
Int: 14 fits Holmes well.
Wisdom: As mentioned a Periapt of Wisdom can let you cast spells at the cost of some gold and your necklace slot, but I think you'll want at least 11 here.
Charisma: 10 should probably go here. The slightly lower people skills can be made up for by having more actual skill points to spend on whatever combination of people/knowledge/observation you want.

Most of the flying animal companions can't carry non-Halfling characters until you have quite a few Ranger levels to unlock the bigger ones; early on you'll probably just have a small bird for scouting (and occasionally scratching an enemy wizard's face).

[ReD_Exorcist]

Thank you so much guys the advice you gave was so helpful thank you all!!