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sam vimes
2014-06-15, 06:14 PM
Long post apologies:

So my warlock died in three rounds, two hours into his first adventure lol, an ice elemental looked at me funny, anyways the DM suggested a cleric and I'm liking him just two levels behind everyone else at lvl9, but I'll catch up quick, anyways as a back up I'm doing a second character sheet for my preferred class the Ranger, I'm doing it to level 10 with feats granted every odd level I'm human, were also using a pre rolled stat line numbers from a dice program, we simply put them were we need and obviously the stat point increasing every four levels below are the numbers for the stats with out increases obviously:

The stat line were using: 17,16,13,13,12,12, the DM said we got a bit lucky geting this as our base stat line, personaly I like puting the 17 into dex, moving on.

Money to spend on gear is.... well it was 27,000 at lvl8 but this ranger is lvl10 so 35,000 seems a fair amount?

So class wise I'm thinking 6lvls in ranger 3 in scout and one in rogue, were lacking a dedicated rogue and well we have two fighters in the party, two paladins one is a fighter that the DM decided wanted to followin his masters footsteps so I guess you can say he's a squire lol, the other two fighters are pure fighters with a few twists but are quite fun, oh the paladins are pathfinder inspired i.e worth a damn anyways my idea for this build is to skill monkey but able to do other things as the campaign were in is a real mixed bag hence this idea and why I'm asking for feedback, and given my experience with the ranger he/she seems the most flexabile type, so my ideas for feats below its late here so if I'm missing the blindingly obvious ones apologies lol, I'm going for a darth maul type sword, and lob hand axes at anything that smells funny lol as well this is a fun build I want to try a few different things now I've been playing a while.

So I'm going two weapon fighting focus here as its boring shooting arrows and iirc I get them for free and I'm going to go over the number I'm allowed for ideas and flavour apologies for being unclear so tired, I'm so done with this heat so damn tired :(
Two weapon fighting both feats
Quick draw
point blank shot
Rapid shot
Many shot (win my prefernce for dex 17 has paid off here NEVER took this feat before in any build)
Precise Shot, with two dwarf fighters one part dragon I need this lol the amount of times they've ran in and kicked off...
Far shot (ok enough ranged feats lol)
Combat Reflexes
Iron Will (the amount of times the DM has exploited my low will save...)
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Darth Maul lives)
Power Attack (just an idea, never hurts to smack something extra stupid)
Two-Weapon Defense (well with the dragons we've been fighting every little helps)
Shot on the Run (throw hand axe on the charge, then slice and dice? again an idea)
Quick Draw (can't believe I forgot about this nearly)
Able learner (why not? I've got the skill points to use may as well invest wisely)

Well thats it for feats I'm just using the players hand book at the moment for these so if you know of others that may fit in with my build please point them out, right gear this is were I get confused:

Mithril breast plate +1 (our standard armour it seems we take this quite a bit good bang for buck imo)
composite long bow +1 (I'm a ranger lol)
Hand axes enchanted with return (I will win that axe throwing comp :P )
double bladed sword again +1 (I did mention I liked darth mauls fighting style)
amulet of natural armour
cloak of resistance

More can be added but I'm to tired to look at the minute and as a reward for putting up with my long post here's a overview of the story so far in the campaign, and yes your right it does read like a monty python sketch lol the DM wrote this up for our group please enjoy:

The story so far…….

A fallen priest of The Lady Knight named Raven was told to travel to the Cathedral of Blades in Highhold to receive forgiveness for his transgressions. He recruited a wizard and joined a caravan travelling north. While fighting off a Bullette, they joined forces with a wandering Druid. The caravan was attacked by a Battlebriar and destroyed, the party managed to rescue 2 guards who joined them in their journey north. They also recruited a Paladin and a Crusader in the wilds.

After a few weeks of travelling they came to the village of Pebblestone and were tasked with stopping the attacks of giants. After a disastrous trip into the hills they returned in failure and joined the road north again. When they reached Nordenhold, they realised they had been going in the wrong direction and turned east. On their journey through the mountains, the druid was killed by a dragon and they reached Middenheim short of two party members. By this time one of the caravan guards had decided to become a squire to the Paladin and help him in his quest to discover the fate of his kingdom of Frostfell.

Soon after reaching Middenheim the group get mixed up in a bar fight and were thrown in jail along with the half dragon barbarian they had fought alongside. After some interrogation and torture they were tried for murder. While some of them managed to receive pardons for their crimes, the Barbarian assaulted the Judge and was turned to stone.

Raven then made a deal with a member of the Baron’s court to investigate the rumours of dragons in the mountains in return for the party’s freedom. The barbarian, Taklin, was freed under magical conditions and joined them in the hunt. All was going well until a mysterious creature attacked them and killed the Warlock called Marduk they had recruited as a guide.

Upon returning to the city, they realised that the crusader had wandered off in the wilds and they had no leads to finding the Dragon cult. Short handed, they took on a local ranger for support and tried to run down a cult member. Raven lost patience during an interrogation and murdered the presumed cultist. This split the party in two. Raven and the ranger fled town, while Taklin and Sir Searos gathered a posse to bring them to justice.
Searos and Taklin managed to survive the battle, but most of the guardsmen following them fell fighting the two traitors. Raven and his companion also died.

Upon returning to Middenheim, Taklin bumped into a childhood friend, a fighter called Tordek. They went giant hunting on a whim. After defeating two giants they were knocked unconscious by the third, which proceeded to strip them of all their possessions.

They wandered naked through the blizzard and came across a cave where they met two dwarves. Begging for clothes they were shocked to discover the dwarves were actually Duergar and they were now slaves.
After a week of working in the mines, they tried to escape using trickery. During their botched attempt, they managed to kill the king of the mine. Disguised as a duergar, Tordek claimed rulership of the mine and cemented his throne by marrying the daughter of the mine foreman. His secretary, a clever gnome, saw through the disguise but was willing to work with the two adventurers for a consideration. When Tordek consummated his marriage, his blushing bride discovered his secret and blackmailed him into leaving her in charge of the mines. Tordek agreed but put his secretary in charge of the military to forestall a coup.

Taklin and Tordek managed to take some items from the treasury when they left the mines and Tordek also carried the crown and hammer that were symbols of his royal rank. They returned to Middenheim to find the rest of the party had been preparing to renew the hunt for the dragon cult in their absence. Sir Searos and his squire Jonas had recruited a local entertainer and his cousin, a priest of the Lady Knight, to their cause

Irk
2014-06-15, 06:20 PM
This seems interesting, and I'd love to help, I'm just not exactly sure what you're looking for. Are any books banned? Do you want us to help you make a build of some sort? I'm happy to help, just need a more specific goal.

gorfnab
2014-06-15, 11:19 PM
Sounds like you want a Swift Hunter archer base build. This handbook may be of some use:
The Swift Hunter Handbook (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=103.0)

Here are two Swift Hunter archer based builds I've used before

Human Swift Hunter
1. Scout - Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
2. Scout
3. Scout - Alertness (prereq for SoK)
4. Ranger - (Arcane Hunter ACF), B: Track
5. Scout - B: Swift Hunter
6. Scout - Favored of the Champions (prereq for SoK)
7. Ranger - B: Rapid Shot
8. Stalker of Kharash
9. Stalker of Kharash - Nemesis: Evil
10. Ranger - B: Endurance
11. Ranger - (Distracting Attack ACF)
12. Ranger - Improved Skirmish
13. Ranger - B: Manyshot
14. Ranger
15. Ranger - Greater Manyshot
16. Ranger - (Spell Reflection ACF)
17. Ranger
18. Ranger - Darkstalker, B: Improved Precise Shot
19. Ranger
20. Ranger


Human Swift Hunter
1. Scout - Point Blank Shot, Education
2. Scout
3. Scout - Precise Shot
4. Ranger - (Arcane Hunter ACF), B: Track
5. Scout - B: Swift Hunter
6. Scout - Improved Skirmish
7. Ranger - B: Rapid Shot
8. Ranger - B: Endurance
9. Ranger - (Distracting Attack ACF), Knowledge Devotion
10. Ranger
11. Ranger - B: Manyshot
12. Ranger - Greater Manyshot
13. Ranger
14. Ranger - (Spell Reflection ACF)
15. Ranger - Darkstalker
16. Ranger - B: Improved Precise Shot
17. Ranger
18. Ranger - *Open Feat*
19. Ranger
20. Ranger

*Penetrating Shot, Nemesis: Arcanist, Dead Eye (Drg#304), or some other appropriate feat. If you're playing in Forgotten Realms take Sword of the Arcane Order at 15th and Darkstalker or Nemesis: Arcanist at 18th.

sam vimes
2014-06-16, 05:57 AM
Our campaign setting is ebberon iirc
The main goal of this build is to get two weapon fighting as that seems to be the best way for a ranger, but at the same time I need to be able to do some measure of ranged attacks, as I can't/don't always need to get into close quarters, hence the throwing weapons with return on them, also the level in rogue is to open up more skill options as our previous rogue is doing rather well as paladin it must be said, so I'm trying to cover a few bases skill wise as were lacking a good skill monkey and let the others paste what ever is in front of us I'll look at those hand books and thank you for the replies.

IIzak
2014-06-16, 10:29 AM
Alternately, the straight up scout handbook has a lot in it too: http://community.wizards.com/comment/20731126

Honestly, I would give up on the rogue level if I were you, in exchange for scout or something like that. scout gets the same amount of skill points, and you would need to burn a feat to get your sneak attack and skirmish to stack and its just a pain to try and trigger both. Instead, I'd prly go with the swift hunter route and be a human and take the able learner feat to get all the skills you could ever want. It seems like your wanting to go with more of a melee attack build than a ranged one, so i'll try and get that going for you.

Are you really hung up on being a ranger? Because if you go the scout route you could run something along the lines of this build:
Human Scout 4/Fighter 2/Highland Stalker 6/Tempest 5/Chameleon 3

This build goes to level 20, but for you, you want to take it as follows:
Scout 4/Fighter 2/Highland Stalker 4/Tempest 5/Highland Stalker 5-6/Chameleon 3

Drop the double sided weapon motif, because you'll get alot more out of 2 weapons than you would out of 1 with two sides.

Take feats as follows:
Able Learner, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, Track(Scout Bonus Feat), Mobility(Fighter Bonus Feat), Spring Attack, Two Weapon Fighting(Fighter Bonus Feat), Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Elusive Target, Bounding Assault, and close quarter's fighting.

Really this build comes online right around level 10, when you take improved two weapon fighting, and suddenly you have no more penalty to attacking. If you take it all the way, you get some OK spell casting ability from Chameleon, some pretty good melee defenses, and a decent amount of skill points plus the ability to focus on the skills you want to have. your first four levels in scout are going to give you a minimum 56 skill points to play with (Granted over 4 levels)

Possible stat array
Str: 12
Dex: 17
Con: 16
Int: 13
Wis: 13
Cha:12

Plus you'll have 2 points to spend on your stats so you would prly end up with something like this
Str: 12 (+1)
Dex: 18 (+4)
Con: 16 (+3)
Int: 14 (+2)
Wis: 13 (+1)
Cha:12 (+1)

(I put the second bonus in Int because you said you wanted to be kinda skill monkey-ish, but alternately you could put it into wisdom to help pump up your will save)

sam vimes
2014-06-18, 10:51 AM
I'm not hung up at all on it lol it is just a class I find easy to play is all and a previous ranger build that got to lvl9 took three lvls in scout to get the skirmish thing man did I miss those skill points from lvl5 onwards lol and the double blade sword is to be a little different as I'm tired and no offense to those who use these hand books there seems to be little personal touch on something that is essentially your creation something I find rather dispiriting considering how much work you can put into a character I'll have a look at the classes you've mentioned and I think I will drop the rogue level , as I forgot just what kind of door able learner opens up damn British summer being good for once.

sam vimes
2014-06-21, 02:34 PM
so my character sheet has been done four levels in scout six in ranger in that order feats I've choose are:
Able Learner
point blank shot
precise shot
two weapon defense
weapon finesse

stats are
str:12
dex:18:
con:16
int:14
wis:13
cha:12

so skill points were 73
five ranks in
bluff, disable device, escape artist, gather information, handle animal, hide, knowledge dungeonering, geography, local, nature, open lock.

seven ranks in search, three ranks in spell craft, eight ranks in survival.

only thing I'm struggling with working out is my attack bonus's so much so I'm beginning to think I'm dyslexic with numbers. :(

gear I'm thinking mostly off the top of my head here and this also just to see what the DM will let me have:
mithril breast plate +1
composite long bow +1
four throwing axes
back up weapon a silver dagger on a wrist sheath
cloak of resistance +2
ring of climbing +5 on climb checks
ring of protection +1 to ac
head slot, need ideas lol
neck amulet of natural armour
gloves/bracers ideas needed thinking bracers of armour or gloves of dexterity

other slots sing out with ideas please.

Juntao112
2014-06-21, 03:58 PM
You know, there's a Ranger ACF that gives you trapfinding instead of Trank. I believe it is called Trap Expert.

sam vimes
2014-06-23, 09:56 AM
Well I've wrote up my charcter sheet using some of the ideas, no seriously we thrashed it out quite a bit but were keeping it to the KISS method so four levels in scout six in ranger got twenty skill points left to spend so any ideas for a good crafting skill? as I had 131 skill points to spend just a quick question my +1 long and short sword do they increase my bab from 10/5 to 11/6 and the same for damage its been... three characters since I've had any plus weapons kinda forgot lol

Darrin
2014-06-23, 11:35 AM
so my character sheet has been done four levels in scout six in ranger in that order feats I've choose are:
Able Learner


I'm not sure you really need Able Learner. The scout/ranger lists overlap quite a bit. If you're trying to max out Disable Device, the Trap Expert ACF (Dungeonscape) adds Disable Device to the Ranger list.



two weapon defense


Don't waste a feat slot on this. If you need a shield bonus, pick up a Dwarven Buckler-Axe. You don't need to spend EWP on it, just use it for the +1 shield bonus (there are no penalties for using it as a buckler).



mithril breast plate +1


Darkleaf (A&EG, Eberron Campaign Setting) is cheaper.



composite long bow +1


Make sure this is an Elvencraft longbow (300 GP, Races of the Wild). This allows it to be used as a quarterstaff, so you can instantly switch between ranged attacks and TWF without wasting any actions. Also, you can add at least two (possibly three) wand chambers to it (100 GP, Dungeonscape). Make sure one of the wands is instant of power (Forge of War), and the other could be blades of fire (for TWF) or sniper's shot (for skirmish damage beyond 30').

My TWF OffHandbook has a decent selection of magic items tailored for TWF builds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=15034723&postcount=9).


Well I've wrote up my charcter sheet using some of the ideas, no seriously we thrashed it out quite a bit but were keeping it to the KISS method so four levels in scout six in ranger got twenty skill points left to spend so any ideas for a good crafting skill?


I like to put a couple points into Craft: Painting just in case I run across any Marvelous Pigments. Craft: Alchemy can be useful, if your DM is ok with Eggshell Grenades, Liquid Smoke, and Tarmak War Paint.



just a quick question my +1 long and short sword do they increase my bab from 10/5 to 11/6 and the same for damage its been... three characters since I've had any plus weapons kinda forgot lol

The enhancement bonus from magic weapons does not increase your BAB. A Scout 4/Ranger 6 has a BAB of +9, so you get two iterative attacks: +9/+4. TWF with longsword/shortsword makes that +7 longsword/+7 shortsword/+4 longsword.

Vizzerdrix
2014-06-23, 12:02 PM
TWF and skirmish? You should try to get Travel Devotion into your build.