Spells for TWF Ranger

[theblasblas]

A bow Ranger seems to have a lot of cool spells to complement its fighting style like Doublestrike Arrow or Bloodfreeze Arrow, are there any similar spells for a TWF Ranger? Are they any good? Or am I better off trading in my spellcasting for four bonus feats via the Divine Ranger ACF?

[Darrin]

A bow Ranger seems to have a lot of cool spells to complement its fighting style like Doublestrike Arrow or Bloodfreeze Arrow, are there any similar spells for a TWF Ranger?


Yes. Or rather, there aren't melee versions of the various arrow spells, but if you mean, "Are there spells that enhance a TWF Ranger build?" then yes, there are.

1st:

Blades of Fire (Spell Compendium): Swift action, two weapons touched get +1d8 fire damage for 1 round. Put this in a wand chamber (100 GP, Dungeonscape).

Blockade (Complete Scoundrel). Swift action to drop a 5' cube of wood into a square, which can be a nifty way to block a door/tunnel or create a choke point. Another good spell to put in a wand chamber.

Conjure Ice Beast I (Frostburn): Not quite so impressive at 1/2 CL, but gives you access to both the SM and SNA list. Ideally, you'll be conjuring these for the special attacks, particularly cold aura (free action, 1d6 cold damage in a 10' burst, *no save*). When summoning multiple ice beasts, essentially turns this into an Xd6 blasting spell. Check with your DM if the phrase, "In all other ways, conjure ice beast I functions like summon monster I" allows you to use Augment Summoning, Golden Desert Honey (Complete Mage), or Ring of the Beast (Complete Champion) with your ice beasts.

Instant of Power (Forge of War): Immediate action, give any ally a +4 enhancement bonus on their next attack, save, or damage roll. If you have access to this spell, put it in a wand chamber (100 GP, Dungeonscape) and *ALWAYS* carry it with you.

Rhino's Rush (Spell Compendium): Swift action, double damage on your first attack when you charge. I wish it applied to all attacks, but nope, just the first.

Segojan's Armor (Treasure of the Golden Hills (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041117a)): Mage armor for treehuggers. If you took Sword of the Arcane Order and Abjurant Champion, it also is one of the few spells that works with Abjurant Armor.

2nd:

Conjure Ice Beast II (Frostburn): Conjure two wolves for 2d6 cold aura damage, or a large-sized centipede to engulf medium-sized creatures.

Haste, Swift (Spell Compendium): YES, HAVE SOME!

Hunter's Eye (PHBII): Adds 1d6 sneak attack for every 3 caster levels. You get boned on the 1/2 caster level thing, but extra damage is extra damage.

Listening Lorecall (Spell Compendium): If you have 12 ranks in Listen, gives you blindsight 15' for 10 min/CL.

Lion's Charge (Spell Compendium): If you didn't get Pounce via a Barbarian dip, then you can get it with this swift action spell.

3rd:

Blade Storm (Spell Compendium): The melee version of arrow storm.

Conjure Ice Beast III (Frostburn): Conjure four ice beast wolves for 4d6 cold aura damage, or a huge monstrous centipede to engulf large-sized creatures.

4th:

Conjure Ice Beast IV (Frostburn): Conjure four dire badgers or hippogriffs, or two huge monstrous centipedes.

Freedom of Movement (Core): Very, very useful buff.

Snakebite (Spell Compendium): Turns one of your hands into a bite attack. You can use this bite attack as an offhand weapon, and also add some [acid] damage via venomfire.

Venomfire (Serpent Kingdoms): Adds Xd6 [acid] damage to a fleshraker animal companion or a bite from snakehand.



Or am I better off trading in my spellcasting for four bonus feats via the Divine Ranger ACF?

You mean the Champion of the Wild ACF in Complete Champion? I usually don't recommend it, since the feats it offers are usually *terrible* for TWF. You already get Improved/Greater TWF from your Combat Style, so you can't really get those via Champion of the Wild unless you're prestiging out of Ranger. You can get Weapon Finesse with a Swashbuckler dip or with feycraft weapons. Combat Expertise might be useful if you're looking to pick up Sense Weakness (Draconomicon). Improved Favored Enemy could be situationally useful, but hard to tell if it would be worth it.

If you're only taking 4-5 Ranger levels, then it might be worth considering, but losing access to all those spell-trigger wands would hurt... unless you were adding back some spellcasting with a Swift Hunter build, such as Scout 4/Ranger 5/Dragon Devotee 4/Abjurant Champion 1/Unseen Seer 4/Highland Stalker 2.