Mystic Ranger high level planning

[PoeticDwarf]

I posted several times help for druid and duskblade builds, after that, I now want to make a mystic ranger.

On level 10, the mystic ranger already has level 5 spells, which is very strange but also really nice, so then I want to go in a prestige class.

I don't understand everything of 3.5, but can I then go in a prestige class still giving me higher casting (higher level spells) ? If yes, what would a good one be giving me even better casting than a full mystic ranger would have, if no, what would a prestige class be that doesn't really give me better casting but gives me better stuff than the mystic ranger gives itsself?


EDIT: One thing I could see working (but I don't know many prestige classes) is the animal lord, it looks really cool for ranger fluff. Is this prestige class an OK choice (I do it for the fluff but I want it to work), would there be other nice things, if I can improve casting with higher level spells I'd love that

[prufock]

I think you mean 3.5 edition, as 5th is enyirely different.

How do you feel about Nar Demonbinder into Malconvoker? Meeting the prereqs may require some extra fiddling, but should be possible, and yoy'll get up to 8th level spells.

You could also see if your DM will allow the Swift Hunter feat to apply to Mystic Ranger and dip into some Scout.

Animal Lord isn't great but has a few nice features that can work depending on your build. If you want to focus on animal companions look at Beastmaster, assuming you can apply your ranger levels as normal.

[Chronos]

I assume you meant to ask about 3.5 edition, not 5th edition, since 5th doesn't have Mystic Ranger nor prestige classes.

Mystic ranger is kind of odd-- Its spell access is comparable to a full caster for the first ten levels, and then just ends at 10th (well, pretty much: You get more spells per day, but no new spells). So, yes, you might as well prestige out at that point. But into what? Most spellcasting prestige classes just advance your already-existing spellcasting as if you'd taken more levels of your original class, which, in this case, isn't much.

On the other hand, there are a few prestige classes that have their own separate spellcasting advancement. Sublime chord is the most famous of these, but you need at least a dip in Bard or something similar to qualify, since it requires bardic music. I've also heard that Nar Demonbinder is a good choice for gishes, which your character will probably be to at least some degree. In either of these cases, it won't actually be doing anything to your ranger spellcasting: You'll have two separate casting classes with different spells and spell slots available to each. In practice, though, the effect is that you have low-level spells and slots and high-level spells and slots, not too different from a single-classed full-caster.

Animal lord is not a good choice. It slightly buffs your primary animal companion, but late enough that even with the buffs, the animal companion is still falling a bit behind. And the extra companions you get are even further behind, to the point of being completely irrelevant.

EDIT: I might be getting Animal Lord and Beastmaster mixed up.

[DrMotives]

Yeah, that's beastmaster you're describing. But animal lord is from the same book, so it's understandable. Animal Lord is if you want to play Tarzan or Mowgli from Jungle Book, at least by fluff. They have to pick one iconic group of animal (wolf, bear, shark, etc. 8 options are given) which the get a halfway shapechange, kinda like the wild feats from Complete Divine, only as class features. Really fluffwise it shouldn't be a PrC but perhaps a barbarian variant with the animal powers replacing rage. As RAW, some warrior type who studies knowledge (nature) suddenly realizes he's been raised by tigers, and becomes a catlord? Plus on a powerscale for 3.5, it feels more like a baseclass. Does nothing for casting, it's a straight adding minor (su) powers to a mundane warrior.

[gorfnab]

Here are some of Mystic Ranger builds that I've seen:
Wildshape (Simple Variant ACF - UA) Mystic Ranger 8/ Swordsage 2/ Daggerspell Shaper 10
Wildshape Mystic Ranger 10/Master of Many Forms 10
Mystic Ranger 10/ Knight of the Weave 5/ Abjurant Champion 5
Mystic Ranger 12/ Swordsage 2/ Telfammar Shadowlord 6
Mystic Ranger 5/ Knight of the Raven 3/ Crusader 2/ Ruby Knight Vindicator 10

Also here is a small Mystic Ranger Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1543.0) that may provide some help.