Feats for a Dwarven Ranger?

[Palanan]

I have a player who's completely new to tabletop gaming, and who settled on dwarf ranger because it's the best fit for his character concept. He doesn't know the feats at all, and I'm trying to give him some advice.

We're starting at first level, and he's planning to go TWF at second level, with an emphasis on front-line combat. What feats would serve him well at first level, and would support his TWF path as he advances?

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, if he's so set on his concpet, what IS his concept?

And would the Guide be fitting? It lacks Favored Enemy, but picking Favored Enemy as a newbie is always hard.

Step Up/Following Step might be good for a melee dwarf, given the reduction in speed.

[Secret Wizard]

In no particular order: Steel Soul, Toughness, Boon Companion (if he picks up an animal companion)

[Drelua]

If they're not aware of them, I'd suggest pointing out the additional combat styles in APG, and there's more in a few other books. My first PFS character is now a Dwarf Barbarian 1/Ranger 12 with the two-handed combat style and a dwarven longhammer. Sword(/axe) and board style can be pretty good too, and fitting for a dwarf. I'd definitely suggest that they keep favoured enemy, not because it's good by itself but because you need it to cast instant enemy which is pretty much the only 3rd level spell any of my rangers ever need. The Step Up line is a good suggestion, I just used the animal companion as a mount to make up for the low speed, plus the fast movement from Barbarian, but you have to jump through some hoops to get a cool animal that you can ride before level 7. The cool thing about being a dwarf is that with fast movement you're just as fast in medium or heavy armour as a faster race, even if they're in light armour or they have fast movement, just not if they have both.

If they do decide to stick with TWF, they'll probably want to get their DEX up to 15 so they can get TWF and Double Slice, unless they decide to spend a few feats on DEX to damage. Other than that, they'll probably want 14 WIS, 14-16 CON, and the rest in STR. INT isn't too important with Ranger skills and CHA is just a small bonus to a few skills they probably won't use much. Well, and Handle Animal, but you get a +4 to that with your animal companion, so it shouldn't be a problem to get it as high as you need it.

[Extra Anchovies]

I have a player who's completely new to tabletop gaming, and who settled on dwarf ranger because it's the best fit for his character concept. He doesn't know the feats at all, and I'm trying to give him some advice.

We're starting at first level, and he's planning to go TWF at second level, with an emphasis on front-line combat. What feats would serve him well at first level, and would support his TWF path as he advances?

Honestly, Rangers don't make for spectacular two-weapon fighters - I'd say Fighter does a better job of it unless the Ranger's up against their favored enemy. However, their cousin the Slayer is as close to perfect for TWF as anything from Paizo gets. Studied Target and Sneak Attack give them significant boosts to attack and to damage-per-hit, both of which TWF builds very much need, and they can skip prerequisites just as easily as a Ranger can thanks to the Ranger Combat Style talent. They can also get Favored Terrain through the Terrain Mastery rogue talent; the talent's bonus doesn't scale with level, but I wouldn't see any issue in applying a homebrew ACF of sorts, e.g. swap the slayer talents at levels 4/8/12/18 for the Ranger's favored terrain at 3/8/13/18. If the player wants to get an animal companion, that can be done with two feats, either Nature Soul and Animal Ally or Skill Focus and Eldritch Heritage (Sylvan).

[Secret Wizard]

Not sure where you are getting that. Rangers make amazing TWFers. All their damn spells are about increasing damage and they have the single largest bonus to attack/damage rolls in the game in Favored Enemy.

It's almost as if you were ignoring the Ranger's spellcasting and Favored Enemy features.

[Extra Anchovies]

Not sure where you are getting that. Rangers make amazing TWFers.

I continue to maintain that they do not.


All their damn spells are about increasing damage

A look at the Ranger list (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/spell-lists-and-domains/spell-lists---ranger) turns up only one spell that increases melee weapon damage. That spell - Instant Enemy - is pretty nice, but unless a Ranger can somehow afford a 26 in Wisdom without neglecting their physical stats, it's only usable a maximum of 1/2/3/4 times per day at levels 10/11/15/19, or up to 7 times at 20th level if they prepare only Instant Enemy in all of their 3rd- and 4th-level spell slots. The Ranger's spellcasting is for utility, not buffing.


and they have the single largest bonus to attack/damage rolls in the game in Favored Enemy.

The Investigator's Studied Combat provides a bonus equal to 1/2 class level, scaling to the same +10 to hit/damage as Favored Enemy can. Studied Combat only applies to one creature at a time, yes, but it can be applied to an enemy regardless of their type (and with a swift action thanks to Quick Study). On top of that, favored enemy scales to +10/2/2/2/2, +8/6/2/2/2, +8/4/4/2/2, +6/6/4/2/2, or +6/4/4/4/2 - so tying Studied Combat for the highest means keeping your FE bonuses to (for 20th level) meagre levels for all but one creature type. Keeping bonuses as even as possible, i.e. either of the last two options, puts them at pretty much the same numbers as the Slayer's Studied Target - except only usable against five creature types.


It's almost as if you were ignoring the Ranger's spellcasting and Favored Enemy features.

Ranger spellcasting, as explained above, has no real effect on melee damage until 10th level, and even then only works on up to 7 enemies per day by 20th level. Favored Enemy's effectiveness is very unreliable. Unless you know at character creation that you're going into a campaign heavy on a specific monster type (e.g. Wrath of the Righteous with all its evil outsiders), it's going to be useless more often than not - and if you try to maximize how often it's useful, it doesn't give you better numbers than Studied Target would.

[Geddy2112]

A look at the Ranger list (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/spell-lists-and-domains/spell-lists---ranger) turns up only one spell that increases melee weapon damage. That spell - Instant Enemy - is pretty nice, but unless a Ranger can somehow afford a 26 in Wisdom without neglecting their physical stats, it's only usable a maximum of 1/2/3/4 times per day at levels 10/11/15/19, or up to 7 times at 20th level if they prepare only Instant Enemy in all of their 3rd- and 4th-level spell slots. The Ranger's spellcasting is for utility, not buffing.

While I don't disagree that TWF can be done better in other classes, the ranger only spell lead blades (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/l/lead-blades) is incredibly good for buffing and buffs all melee weapons the ranger is carrying, so a major TWF boost.

You can get TWF, improved, and greater through the combat feats. You can also get double slice and rend. Outside of that, boon companion is a near must take. Diehard becomes a decent choice because you get endurance for free at level 3. Improved initiative is always a good feat to take if you have no other things to choose. Power attack is a no brainer for any melee build.

[Extra Anchovies]

While I don't disagree that TWF can be done better in other classes, the ranger only spell lead blades (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/l/lead-blades) is incredibly good for buffing and buffs all melee weapons the ranger is carrying, so a major TWF boost.

Ah, I missed that one. However, it's not as good as it seems - short swords and other 1d6-base weapons (which is the highest that non-exotic light weapons get to) gain an average of +1 damage from the spell.


You can get TWF, improved, and greater through the combat feats. You can also get double slice and rend.

Two-Weapon Rend is a pretty solid choice for 10th level; getting another attack at -10 isn't honestly that great, so I recommend putting off Greater TWF until 14th level. Double Slice, though, isn't all that good until higher levels. A Ranger with 18 Strength is getting +2 damage on half their attacks - compare to Weapon Specialization, which gives +2 damage on all attacks and is considered generally subpar. Every +4 to Strength is +1 to Double Slice's output, so it could be worth picking up at 18th level when scores start getting into the mid-high 20s. None of the TWF chain, Double Slice, or Two-Weapon Rend are worth taking as non-Ranger feats, because of the Dex requirements.

[Elder_Basilisk]

Conceptually, ranger (or slayer) seems like the best class for sword and board two weapon fighting. They get to ignore the dex requirements for advanced TWF feats and their attack and damage boosts are not dependent upon a particular weapon type.

That said, you will get a lot of the feats you need for the fighting style as ranger bonus feats so they're not things you need to take at level 1.

At level 1, you might consider: Power Attack, Toughness, Steel Soul, or Step Up.

Power Attack hasn't been mentioned yet, but it's a great feat and though it's usually thought of as a two-handed weapon feat, two weapon fighters can get a lot of mileage out of it too since they get to apply the bonus damage to each weapon.

Other feats you might consider at later levels: Boon companion (if you take an animal companion), the combat reflexes, following step, step up and strike, and Stand Still combo (if you take Step Up. The net effect will be to make any foe you get adjacent to is stuck. If they five foot step, you follow them and get a free attack. If they try to suck up the Opportunity Attack and move away, Stand Still will stick them in place).

[Geddy2112]

Ah, I missed that one. However, it's not as good as it seems - short swords and other 1d6-base weapons (which is the highest that non-exotic light weapons get to) gain an average of +1 damage from the spell. Agreed, but since it affects all weapons carried it will add up when TWF and lots of attacks. Still probably not worth the action in combat, but handy if you can knowingly buff before a fight. It is 1min/level so you can get an okay duration.


Two-Weapon Rend is a pretty solid choice for 10th level; getting another attack at -10 isn't honestly that great, so I recommend putting off Greater TWF until 14th level. Double Slice, though, isn't all that good until higher levels. A Ranger with 18 Strength is getting +2 damage on half their attacks - compare to Weapon Specialization, which gives +2 damage on all attacks and is considered generally subpar. Every +4 to Strength is +1 to Double Slice's output, so it could be worth picking up at 18th level when scores start getting into the mid-high 20s. None of the TWF chain, Double Slice, or Two-Weapon Rend are worth taking as non-Ranger feats, because of the Dex requirements. Second the feat order "TWF, ITWF, TWR, GTWF, Double Slice" entirely. The other feats in the two weapon combat style are not even worth considering.