Ranger Tier

[SpawnOfMorbo]

I have a DM who says that as long as the archetype doesn't change the tier of the base class then it may be used in his game (weird but ok...) so I wanted to know if the following archetypes bring the Ranger up or down a tier.

I have created a Freebooter Skirmisher Ranger. Will this stay at tier 4?

This combination fixes everything major I hate about the Ranger except Favored Terrain but I can deal with that minor aspect of the class and probably forget about it for the most part (sadly). I don't think the tier goes up or down since some of the abilities are a wash but... I may need to present an argument and I know no forum better than giantitp to ask on the matters of tiers.

I'm not sure what my combat style will be but I think I'll go Dex > Wis > Con > other and make a ranged weapon specialist. That will cover all of my saves, AC, and tricks.

For feats, I figured the regular ranged feats should work fine. I think there is a way to power attack with a bow... But I'm not sure what the name of that feat would be.

I don't need to super optimize but good feat choice is always nice.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Urpriest]

Basically, this makes you good at dealing damage, which is still very much a Tier 4 thing. I don't think you get enough qualitatively new capabilities to pierce the Tier 3 ceiling.

[Ssalarn]

Anything that doesn't change its Tier is a weird stipulation because Tiers are very subjective, but...

No, those don't change the Ranger's Tier. It would take something pretty spectacular to change a Ranger's Tier, particularly in an upward direction. Are you using Pathfinder or 3.5 rules? If you're using the Pathfinder Skirmisher and Freebooter archetypes you're actually taking the Ranger from a Tier 4 peeking at the edge of Tier 3 and dropping him into solid Tier 4 territory, because you're giving up spellcasting , Favored Enemy, and an animal companion for some pretty mediocre buffing that eats up your action economy.

Deadly Aim is the Pathfinder feat that works like Power Attack for a bow.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Yup pathfinder, the weirder thing is that if it drops the class down a tier it is also a no go... Weird but whatever, I can deal with it.

I'll look into Deadly Aim, I just couldn't remember the name of that feat for some reason.

[NoACWarrior]

For a class to get to t3 you'd need a bit more flexibility. No matter how much damage a charger can do, a charger cannot get into t3 unless he/she can do other things rather than hit really hard.

Keeping spells on a ranger, giving the ranger a better animal companion (or even changing animal companion to be a 1 at a time summon natures ally x as a druid -3 levels), giving the ranger better skill access and more skillpoints, and giving the ranger class abilities which apply on a wider scale.

To make a ranger t3 I'd do the animal companion sub for summon natures ally, give the ranger 8 skill points per level, give the ranger some social skills, and give the ranger a few maneuvers.
I would also change favored enemy to enemies who hit you, but that changes the flavor of the class completely.