Making a ranger or a barbarian\ranger for a low level campaign!

[Sergio]

Heya,
I'm making a ranger. I want him to have a double fighting style. Anyway, I was checking this website:

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/12637/a-ranger-build-that-is-close-to-tier-3-classes

Check the

'Ranger 20*' 's post

No, stop, don't leave! Hear me out. On its own, the ranger has a couple tools to make it compete with the main Tier 3s on its own. I am of the personal opinion that the ranger itself, with all options in play, can be considered a fairly good Tier 3, comparable to the bard in its jacking of all trades.'

So he suggests to go double weapon fighting, and only going for a ranger only build, with some variance according to which alignment you wish to play, or if you want to be more focused on spellcasting.

But right near the end, he suggests to go for the first level of barbarian and then full ranger. Can someone explain me the post better? I need to make a level 6 character for my next campaign, and I could go ranger or barbarian\ranger, but I don't know which one is better given that I'm pretty ignorant about fighters\rangers. Suggestions?

[Flickerdart]

"Ranger 20" can be made okay, but not great. Taking dips brings you closer to greatness.

Barbarian 1 is a very strong level, especially so for a dual-wielding character, because of the Pounce ability from Spirit Lion Totem. You also get to max a d12 hit die instead of a d8 hit die (which is what rangers get) so you get 4 extra HP, which are valuable early on. Your starting build should be fine as barbarian 1/ranger 5.

However, most people will tell you about Swift Hunter, which is very good for a dual-wielder thanks to the bonus damage from Skirmish. Barbarian 1/Ranger 1/Scout 4 will let you pick up Swift Hunter and Improved Skirmish at level 6. You have to wait until level 7 to get your Two-Weapon Fighting, but it's worth it.

[nedz]

Mystic Ranger with Sword of the Arcane Order is fairly well known but people normally stop at around level 10 or so since the spellcasting tops out about here. Normally the Shooting Star ACF is also included in the mix.

There's even a handbook here (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1543).

[Darrin]

But right near the end, he suggests to go for the first level of barbarian and then full ranger. Can someone explain me the post better? I need to make a level 6 character for my next campaign, and I could go ranger or barbarian\ranger, but I don't know which one is better given that I'm pretty ignorant about fighters\rangers. Suggestions?

The Barbarian 1/Ranger 5 build is "better" because the Spirit Lion Totem ACF (Complete Champion) gives you Pounce. This allows you to combine a charge with a full attack instead of a single attack. On a TWF Ranger chassis, this means so long as you are adjacent or within charging distance to an opponent, all those TWF feats won't go to waste. Without Pounce, you would have to spend a move action to close into melee range and this prevents you from using TWF.

If you add Travel Devotion, then it gets even better. For 10 rounds, you can back up as a swift action, charge your opponent, full attack, then rinse & repeat.

If this is an E6 campaign or if it's not going to last long enough to worry about leveling up, you could also go Barbarian 2/Ranger 4. There's another Barbarian ACF, Wolf Totem in Unearthed Arcana, that trades away Uncanny Dodge for Improved Trip. In the same book, you can replace Rage with the Whirling Frenzy ACF for an additional attack. And if you take the Champion of the Wild ACF (Complete Champion), then you can trade away your spellcasting at Ranger 4 to get Improved TWF as a bonus feat.

If you want the highest density of feats, then consider:

Race: Human
Ranger 2/Barbarian 2/Fighter 2
1) Ranger 1. Feat: Travel Devotion. Bonus: Track. Human: Power Attack.
2) Ranger 2. Bonus: TWF.
3) Barbarian 1. Feat: Oversized TWF or Improved Unarmed Strike. Spirit Lion Totem -> Pounce.
4) Barbarian 2. Wolf Totem -> Improved Trip.
5) Fighter 1. Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
6) Fighter 2. Feat: Improved TWF. Bonus: Shock Trooper.

If you wield a greatsword as your primary attack and unarmed strike as your offhand attack, you still get Power Attack damage on both weapons. Or take Oversized TWF and wield two longswords.

Some other ACFs to consider:

Trap Expert (Dungeonscape). Trade away Track for Trapfinding. Track is rarely useful, and mostly used by the DM to tell the party completely obvious information, or to just make the ranger feel like he's contributing. Trapfinding allows you to take over or back up the party rogue's ability to find and disarm traps. Your DM may or may not use traps, or may be using them incorrectly (see Bad Trap Syndrome Part 1 (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/90/bad-trap-syndrome/) and Part 2 (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/91/bad-trap-syndrome-curing-the-bad-trap-blues/)), but you're more likely to run into traps than any information that can *only* be discovered via Tracking.

Spiritual Connection (Complete Champion). Trades Wild Empty (AKA "The animal is angry/hungry... DUH!" check) for speak with animals/plants 3/day. You're much more likely to get a favorable reaction from an animal by just talking to it (along with any useful information it might have). This also helps cover any situations that you might have needed Track for: just ask the nearby plants/animals what they saw, which way did they go, etc.

Distracting Attack (PHBII) or Spiritual Guide (Complete Champion). The Ranger animal companion doesn't advance quickly enough to be anything other than a bloodsmear waiting to happen. If you really want a sturdier animal companion that has a better chance to hold its own in combat, consider taking the Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) feat instead. There are two ACFs that trade your animal companion for something else. Distracting Attack causes any foe you hit to be considered flat-footed for any subsequent attack. If you still have a rogue in the party, he will be your BFF. You may also get some additional sneak attack damage out of the hunter's eye spell (PHBII). Spiritual Guide gives you a divine bonus on a collection of ranger-y skills, along with commune with nature 1/day (an excellent "Beg the DM for a Clue-By-Four" spell).

My TWF OffHandbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?279079-3-5-The-TWF-OffHandbook) has more advice on how to get the most out of TWF.