Swift Hunter + Dread Pirate?

[ChaosStar]

So yeah. I lost all my builds when my last computer broke so I've been revisiting some of them. The character in question was a Half-Fey Hadozee Mystic Ranger Swift Hunter. I was wondering, how would adding Dread Pirate go? I saw a way to do two weapon fighting with a Hand Crossbow in a Reddit post and that got me thinking. I know it wouldn't be optimal but it seems flavorful. What do you guys think?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you get the two-weapon fighting style from Ranger, then the TWF feature of Dread Pirate is redundant. If you get the archery style from Ranger and use rapid shot with your offhand hand crossbow, your main hand also takes -2 to hit from using that.

Apart from organically growing a character into this build due to in-game circumstances, I don't see any reason why a character would take this path, especially considering the special requirement is extremely campaign-specific. The Scarlet Corsair (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20050805b) is generally a better option for a PC, and gets many of the same abilities. Combine Scourge of the Seas with the feat Imperious Command to make enemies cower for a number of rounds equal to your Cha bonus.

Even then, you're looking at an extremely MAD build. You need Wis for Mystic Ranger casting, Cha for your pirate class, Dex for AC and attacks, Con for hp and saves, and you don't want a negative Str modifier for damage or a negative Int modifier being a high-skill-points character. You're also combining skirmish and sneak attack, needing to meet two separate criteria to get all of your bonus damage on attacks.

My advice is to use something with more synergy to enter whichever pirate class you choose.

[ChaosStar]

If you get the two-weapon fighting style from Ranger, then the TWF feature of Dread Pirate is redundant. If you get the archery style from Ranger and use rapid shot with your offhand hand crossbow, your main hand also takes -2 to hit from using that.

Apart from organically growing a character into this build due to in-game circumstances, I don't see any reason why a character would take this path, especially considering the special requirement is extremely campaign-specific. The Scarlet Corsair (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20050805b) is generally a better option for a PC, and gets many of the same abilities. Combine Scourge of the Seas with the feat Imperious Command to make enemies cower for a number of rounds equal to your Cha bonus.

Even then, you're looking at an extremely MAD build. You need Wis for Mystic Ranger casting, Cha for your pirate class, Dex for AC and attacks, Con for hp and saves, and you don't want a negative Str modifier for damage or a negative Int modifier being a high-skill-points character. You're also combining skirmish and sneak attack, needing to meet two separate criteria to get all of your bonus damage on attacks.

My advice is to use something with more synergy to enter whichever pirate class you choose.

I would be going Honorable not Dishonorable. I very much dislike evil characters. So no Scourge of the Seas and no Sneak Attack. Also I rolled good my lowest stat is a 12 after racial bonuses. Also since Mystic Ranger doesn't get Martial Weapons, needed for Cutlass, I decided to drop the variant.

Plus this character would be meant for a high seas campaign anyway. I can rearrange them, but my current statline is 14/20/13/15/15/12. Plus the Charisma only applies to Dread Pirate 9. Will take a look at Scarlet Corsair, though. I do generally roll well.

Edit: Looked and no. It requires Sneak Attack which I wouldn't be getting.

[Zaq]

Dread pirate is a cute low-power class, but it doesn’t have any particular synergy with Swift Hunter. You could certainly qualify on a scout/ranger base, but you wouldn’t be doing much to improve the character’s strengths by adding dread pirate to the mix; it would cost you more than it gives in return.

By all means, do it if you’re just in love with the class! Not everything has to be optimal. I’ve certainly built worse. Just do it with full awareness that it’s not particularly synergistic and it’s not exactly a power move even compared to a non-magical foundation.

There was an Iron Chef round for dread pirate waaaaay long ago. It was before the table formatting changed, so the builds themselves are a little hard to read, but you can get most of the info out of the stubs and the writeups without too much effort. Might provide a little inspiration. I don’t think anyone used Swift Hunter as the foundation, though.

I’d be on board with houseruling that dread pirate progresses skirmish, but that’s obviously not RAW.

[NigelWalmsley]

I’d be on board with houseruling that dread pirate progresses skirmish, but that’s obviously not RAW.

I was going to suggest something like that. I would probably give the PrC full progression in whatever sort of precision damage you had, and figure out something else for dishonorable pirates to get. As is, the class is a downgrade from pretty much any reasonable entry point, which IME is not very fun even when the flavor is good.

[ChaosStar]

Alright, just asked my DM about the houserule. Also decided to go Moon Warded as the Ranger ACF since my DM only allows 1 ACF per Class.