Ranger / fighter Prestige class...

[Alucard2099]

I have a fighter 4 / ranger 9, and I'm looking to prestige. I have been looking into the deep warden and the horizon walker. Can anyone give me some thoughts and reasons? please include the books so I can take a look as well. Thanks for you thoughts!!

[ComaVision]

Race? Optimization level? Feats so far? Try as we might, none of us are Diviners.

[Alucard2099]

Race? Optimization level? Feats so far? Try as we might, none of us are Diviners.

This is true. Mostly ranger for out of battle, survival, skills and so on. Fighter was used to enhance melee battle. I have all the bow feats and power attack and cleave. Not sure if this helps. Also I'm a Dwarf.

[Flickerdart]

So, you have no focus at all. Why do you want to take a prestige class? They are typically for characters who want to get better at a specific thing, and you don't seem to have any direction for the character.

[Alucard2099]

So, you have no focus at all. Why do you want to take a prestige class? They are typically for characters who want to get better at a specific thing, and you don't seem to have any direction for the character.

I'm trying to FIND a focus, find a way to make it less spread out.

[Flickerdart]

Right, so what do you actually want to do? Do you want to keep getting better at melee combat? Do you want to focus on improving your ranged attacks? Sneaking? Improve your animal companion? Get better divine casting? What kind of personality and motivations does the character have?

[Alucard2099]

Let me go about this in a different way... forget the levels, and the skills. If you had a ranger/fighter, what would you prestige into?

[Troacctid]

If I had a Fighter 4/Ranger 9, it would presumably indicate that I don't want to prestige at all, or else I would have already done so. It's a rare prestige class that takes 13 levels to qualify for.

Something like Eternal Blade or Deepstone Sentinel would be the most logical, I suppose, although it's still a bit late even for those.

[Extra Anchovies]

Deepwarden is pretty solid, and it's Dwarf-only (so you can be a dwarfier dwarf by taking it). Full BAB, d12 HD, good Fort and Will, 6+Int skills, and some cool class features:
Constitution to AC instead of Dexterity
Animal Messenger at will
Uncanny Dodge and its improved version
Ability to re-roll failed saves vs enchantments and Mind Flayer mind blasts
Sending at-will (as a spell-like, so I think it only has a standard-action cast time)
Swift Tracker
I highly recommend it. It's mostly flavor-generic ("fight stuff underground", which is what dwarves do anyways), and quite strong. Also you don't need to worry about missing out on cool capstones, because you get a slight improvement to animal messenger at 9th and +1 to your trap sense at 10th.

[DEMON]

Deepwarden is pretty solid

Cool option, seconded.

It might have some overlap with your Ranger (Tracking + Swift tracker), but that can be fixed with Ranger ACFs.
If you have a much lower DEX than CON (which you could, since you get 3 archery feats as bonus feats irregardless of your DEX), the CON to AC is also neat.

It's from Races of Stone, btw.

Although, I'd say there's nothing wrong with Fighter 4 / Ranger 16 at this point with the character you have.

And if you have access to that book, check out and consider the Hit-and-Run Fighter ACF from Drow of the Underdark.
The armor proficiency hit is not really an issue to you, I assume, since you're a Ranger, too.
And if you did not dump your DEX, the bonus, the bonus damage, albeit situational, is handy.

[Scipio_77]

Let me go about this in a different way... forget the levels, and the skills. If you had a ranger/fighter, what would you prestige into?

I'm not sure I would prestige... ranger/fighter is pretty solid. Prestige classes are fun, but they tend (emphasis on tend) to sacrifice a broad skill-set for a narrow specialization. That works, but often leaves characters ending up as one trick ponies.

Some play in campaigns with an emphasis on the technical aspects of challenging encounters, and those might force such builds. I am not demeaning people who do, I understand the allure of such games. It becomes a bit more like chess, but with an exploration element. However personally I'm more of the type who enjoys exploring the world, getting to know NPCs and generally mucking about. I think playing a wizard who time stops the dragon fight to puff his pipe and consider the ramifications of poisoning a goblin horde with gnomen booze is more fun than playing a wizard designed to crush dragons into pulp.