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Ricky S
2008-10-04, 09:54 PM
Hey. I was wondering what prestige classes would suit a Ranger? Also is it worth changing to a prestige class or just continuing to level the Ranger?

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2008-10-04, 10:17 PM
It depends entirely on what you want the character to do. Not every character who starts out with Ranger levels is a cookie-cutter copy of every other character who started with the same class. There's the Wild Shape Ranger/ Master of Many Forms builds, there's the skills and versatility-focused Rangers who take Horizon Walker, a Divine Crusader or Pious Templar could even start out as a Ranger. There's no way of knowing what sort of prestige classes would suit your character if the only thing we know about him is his class. This isn't 2e when every character of a given class was identical to every other character of that same class, every character is unique, every character has its own strengths and areas of focus, so you need to give us a little more information before we can give you any advice.

Ricky S
2008-10-04, 10:32 PM
ooh good point I'll tell you some of my stats.

5th Level Halfling Ranger
Specialising in bows
Str 12
Dex 18
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 9

Skills:
Climb +10
Handle Animal + 9
Hide +12
Jump +10
Knowledge Nature +4
Listen +10
Move Silently +10
Ride +2
Survival +2

Generally from what I have seen I don't qualify for any prestige classes and I only know a few anyway. Although I have just found a list of prestige classes for level 5 at http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/index.php

xPANCAKEx
2008-10-04, 10:54 PM
what would you like to do with the character? If you know what sort of stuff you hope to achieve, then the board will happily suggest possibly avenues to achieve your goals

AslanCross
2008-10-04, 11:18 PM
Frankly I don't really see Ranger as a class that benefits much from Prestige Classes. If you do want to multiclass, I'd suggest taking Scout levels instead. You get bonuses to AC and damage if you move at least 20 feet before you attack.

Alternatively, the Scout has a Sniper alternate class feature where you gain bonuses to damage if you attack from 60 feet away or more.

dspeyer
2008-10-05, 01:55 PM
I second multiclassing into scout and taking swift hunter, but if you want prestige classes, a few options come to mind:

Order of the Bow Initiate: gain d8/2levels precision damage on your archery (you're currently doing what, d6+1?) and various other archery-related powers. You can probably grab the prereqs in a level. The lose of skill points may be a problem.

Exemplar: The ultimate skill-monkey class. Forget combat, perfect stealth and woodcraft.

Assasin: Stealth and death together. Get a magic item of sniper's eye as soon as you can. Technically requires you to be evil, but your DM might wave this on the grounds that killing from ambush, striking at weak points and even using poison are very much the way of nature.

Ricky S
2008-10-06, 02:16 AM
Hey so you suggested the Assassin prestige class which sounds really cool but how would I get 4 disguise ranks as a Ranger. And in answer too what I would hope to achieve? I just want to be able to do some more damage or get some cool abilities. I'm more focused on RP than actually being a damage machine. All my other players are power gamers. But assassin sounds really cool and the only reason I didnt go rogue was because another player was and he didnt want to double up classes.

Tempest Fennac
2008-10-06, 02:27 AM
I heard of 1 feat called Apprentice which lets you have any 2 skills count as Class Skills (asking your DM if you can trade in a skill you're not using for Disguise could work as well).

Telonius
2008-10-06, 11:32 AM
Horizon Walker is a decently good PrC for Ranger. The planar attack bonuses stack with Favored Enemy, some of the terrains give you nice abilities, it's full BAB, and has equal hit die to a Ranger. The downsides are lack of spellcasting progression, slightly lower skills, lower Reflex save, and no animal companion progression.

Talya
2008-10-06, 12:19 PM
Order of the Bow Initiate: gain d8/2levels precision damage on your archery (you're currently doing what, d6+1?) and various other archery-related powers. You can probably grab the prereqs in a level. The lose of skill points may be a problem.



Only if he can get the DM to fix the class, first. The OotBI requires a standard action attack to get that precision damage, which means he only gets a single attack per round.

Swordsage with Fax Celestis custom "Falling Star" martial discipline is another good selection, if the DM okays it.

Person_Man
2008-10-06, 01:32 PM
Kensai: By ECL 10, you'll have the best magic weapon in your group. Use the savings to buy magic ammo. Rain death on enemies.

Peerless Archer: Probably the best archer PrC out there, it gains the ability to make magic arrows for cheap, ignores concealment, and gets Power Attack for bows. It's 3.0 material though, from Silver Marches.

Stalker of Kharash: Gets Favored Enemy (Evil). With Favored Power Attack and Wise to Your Ways, you become a better Paladin then Paladins. But I don't think it will help an archer ranger.

Master Thrower: Another one that's great for TWF Rangers.

Anything with Hide in Plain Site: By RAW, you can Hide as part of any movement. Some DMs will let you do this with a 5 ft step. So an archer with HiPS is ridiculously difficult to target. Throw in the Darkstalker feat (Lords of Madness) and you can Hide against anyone.

Anything with a burrow speed or Earth Glide: With Shot on the Run and Manyshot, you can move, fire, and move. If you have a burrow speed or something similar, you can move underground. Enemies without line of sight can't target you.

Here's the lists of stuff (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=662842). It should help you find what you need.

Silvarelion
2008-10-06, 01:50 PM
Alternatively, the Scout has a Sniper alternate class feature where you gain bonuses to damage if you attack from 60 feet away or more.

Does anyone mind telling me which book this is in? I've been looking for a while and haven't managed to find it.

Thanks

AstralFire
2008-10-06, 01:57 PM
Does anyone mind telling me which book this is in? I've been looking for a while and haven't managed to find it.

Thanks

Wow, I can't either. This is pretty obscure.

sonofzeal
2008-10-06, 02:02 PM
Does anyone mind telling me which book this is in? I've been looking for a while and haven't managed to find it.

Thanks
Seconded! I'd love to see this if it exists...

Tempest Fennac
2008-10-06, 02:14 PM
Page 160 of http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Classes-Base.pdf mentions the variant, but I'm not sure which book it was from (I'll try to find the source key.)

AstralFire
2008-10-06, 02:18 PM
That's Dragon 346, I think. No wonder it's so hard to find info about.

Silvarelion
2008-10-06, 07:32 PM
So, that scout varient, you give up you added mobility for added damage from any distance. Lol, combine that with Farshot, and you'll start doing a lot of damage from 150 ft out.

Temp.
2008-10-07, 01:34 AM
For Archery, Scout. Look at the CScoundrel Scout Feats and Spellcasting/Animal Companion variants in CChampion and the PHB2.
For TWF, Warblade. Dig into Tiger Claw maneuvers and pick up Stormguard Warrior+Robilar's Gambit as soon as the combination is possible.

In a Core-ish setting, I build my Ranger-archetype characters along the lines of Ranger 2/Rogue 3/Assassin 10/Rogue 5.

If Favored Enemies are your thing, see if your DM will let you modify Dragonstalker (Draconomicon) according to your favored enemy. It gives huge bonuses to tracking and sneak attack against a single creature type, as well as ways to escape detection.

If the Spell Compendium is available, straight Ranger works just fine.

On a Ranger-heavy build, a Beastmaster dip and Natural Bond (both in CAdventurer) can be nice if you're into the whole "Animal Companion" thing. Together they add 6 to your effective Druid level as far as ACs are concerned. The bonus is great at low levels (5-10-ish), if slightly lack-luster later on (A level 16 Druid's AC just isn't that great when you're nearing an Epic game).

I find Bloodhound (CAdventurer) useful for filler levels; when I need to advance something, but can't alter base classes due to multiclass penalties and the like. What it has to offer is handy, but nothing to get worked up about (in the first three levels: d10 HD, 6+Int skill points, Swift Tracker, free Nonlethal damage substitution, the ability to ready an action against a specific enemy outside Initiative, the option to reduce enemies to -1 HP instead of killing them).

Races of Stone's Deepwarden is pretty slick for Fighter/Rangers or Warblade/Rangers, but it loses spellcasting (meaning UMD, however it's obtained, is a must).

Eldariel
2008-10-07, 01:47 AM
Other ways to do Precision Damage a bit further away:

Ranged Skirmisher (likewise Dragon) - Requires Far Shot and something; increases Skirmish range to 60'

Crossbow Sniper (PHBII) - Allows precision within 60' with Crossbows.