Help with a build?

[Rama_Lei]

I'm rolling up a ranger for a player and am stuck in three places.

1)Feat selection. He has two more feats to choose.


2)Skill distribution. What are the important skills this ranger should have?

3) I'm not sure if I made all the correct adjustments for the charcter. He's an afflicted werewolf (LA+2) with 4 levels in ranger. This should be ECL 6, right?

http://www.rpgwebprofiler.net/view.php?id=47001

[jjpickar]

1) I always like improved initiative and for a ranger the second depends on your combat style. Point blank shot for archery or weapon finesse for twf, or if strength based weapon focus (weapon you dual wield).

2) Survival, Spot, Listen, and Search are all essential. Knowledge (Nature) and Handle Animal can add flavor. Ride is good if your animal companion is a mount.

3) You forgot the hit die for being a werewolf, so your ECL is as follows: 4 ranger + 2 LA + 2 HD from its animal form = 8 ECL.

[Rama_Lei]

1) I always like improved initiative and for a ranger the second depends on your combat style. Point blank shot for archery or weapon finesse for twf, or if strength based weapon focus (weapon you dual wield).

2) Survival, Spot, Listen, and Search are all essential. Knowledge (Nature) and Handle Animal can add flavor. Ride is good if your animal companion is a mount.

3) You forgot the hit die for being a werewolf, so your ECL is as follows: 4 ranger + 2 LA + 2 HD from its animal form = 8 ECL.

Hmm...Thank you. I guess that means he'll have to be a level two ranger.

[Rama_Lei]

Now, is there anything I can do to lower the LA of the werewolf? Ditch a special ability or two?

[Person_Man]

If you'd like a weaker werewolf with lower level adjustment, you can find one here on the WotC website. But there's nothing you can do to get rid of the useless animal hit dice, making were-creatures a generally poor choice for most players.

[NullAshton]

LA buyoff. At his/her 9th CLASS LEVEL (not racial hitdice, or effective character level), you can buy off all of his LA, thus having only racial hitdice and class levels.

[Darrin]

Now, is there anything I can do to lower the LA of the werewolf? Ditch a special ability or two?

There's an article on the WotC site that breaks up the +3 LA Werewolf up into three template class levels (and then two levels for the wolf):

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040117a

I'm not entirely sure how you'd do that as a +2 Afflicted... I guess take the first two levels, maybe a wolf level or two, and then your DM will let you know when you've "mastered" your affliction and let you get the third level?

As far as feats, Improved Natural Attack would be good for your wolf/hybrid attacks, but hard to optimize that with your human form unless you pick up a level of Monk to treat your unarmed strikes as natural attacks. Multiattack would be nice, but... things get really wonky if you also take TWF via combat style (multiattack is supposed to replace TWF). To make TWF/Multiattack worthwhile, you'll need to supplement your damage, either by enhancing your Favored Enemy bonus or with sneak/skirmish/precision damage. Complete Scoundrel made Ranger/Scout multiclassing very appealing with the Swift Hunter feat, and it leads right into Highland Stalker.

[Rama_Lei]

What about Werewolf 1/Wolf 2/ Ranger 3? I could suggest some Rogue in there which you guys have suggested for supplemental damage.

[Darrin]

What about Werewolf 1/Wolf 2/ Ranger 3? I could suggest some Rogue in there which you guys have suggested for supplemental damage.

What the heck do you need Endurance for?

Rogue is better than Scout since Skirmish depends on movement, and movement generally kills extra attacks via TWF (unless you go Dervish or pick up some type of Pounce ability).

[Rama_Lei]

What the heck do you need Endurance for?

Rogue is better than Scout since Skirmish depends on movement, and movement generally kills extra attacks via TWF (unless you go Dervish or pick up some type of Pounce ability).

Rangers get Endurance as a bonus feat.

[Person_Man]

What about Werewolf 1/Wolf 2/ Ranger 3? I could suggest some Rogue in there which you guys have suggested for supplemental damage.

Rogue is a really lousy way to add damage to a build. Sneak Attack average damage progression is +1.75 per level, and it has Precision restrictions. This is lower then Power Attack (+2 per level) or standard spells (+3.5 per level) or Leap Attack (+4 per level) or a spell using the Empower feat (+5.25 per level).

I would suggest a Human Natural Werewolf 2/Wolf 2/Barbarian 2. Then head into Warshaper 4 for a bonus to your natural weapons, +4 Str and Con, Reach, and Fast Healing 1. Stay in Hybrid form and attack with 2 claws and your bite (remember, Power Attack applies to all natural attacks). Strait forward, high damage, high mobility melee build.

[Rama_Lei]

Rogue is a really lousy way to add damage to a build. Sneak Attack average damage progression is +1.75 per level, and it has Precision restrictions. This is lower then Power Attack (+2 per level) or standard spells (+3.5 per level) or Leap Attack (+4 per level) or a spell using the Empower feat (+5.25 per level).

I would suggest a Human Natural Werewolf 2/Wolf 2/Barbarian 2. Then head into Warshaper 4 for a bonus to your natural weapons, +4 Str and Con, Reach, and Fast Healing 1. Stay in Hybrid form and attack with 2 claws and your bite (remember, Power Attack applies to all natural attacks). Strait forward, high damage, high mobility melee build.

We already have a barbarian..but another can't hurt, and it's a large enough group.

[The J Pizzel]

Have you given any thought to a Shifter from the MM3 (or maybe MM2). It's got a werewolf heritage. I don't recall all the specifics but I think you can "shift" a couple of times a day and you get a few cool things. You get a +2 to either str. con. or dex. and a little side ability. My personal favorite, and the one I think fits your character, is called "longstrider". I think it gives a +2 to dex and adds 20 ft. to your base speed. You also gains a few physical characteristics of the animal you chose. PM if you need more info on it.

jp

[Rama_Lei]

Have you given any thought to a Shifter from the MM3 (or maybe MM2). It's got a werewolf heritage. I don't recall all the specifics but I think you can "shift" a couple of times a day and you get a few cool things. You get a +2 to either str. con. or dex. and a little side ability. My personal favorite, and the one I think fits your character, is called "longstrider". I think it gives a +2 to dex and adds 20 ft. to your base speed. You also gains a few physical characteristics of the animal you chose. PM if you need more info on it.

jp

Hmm...I don't have either.. Can you think of anything similar? Or should I homebrew something?

[Ikkitosen]

LA buyoff. At his/her 9th CLASS LEVEL (not racial hitdice, or effective character level), you can buy off all of his LA, thus having only racial hitdice and class levels.

IIRC that is when you can buy off the first 1 of his LA, not all of it. There's a chart in the SRD that tells you when you can buy of each LA level - that chart follows a simple formula that I can't remember :P

EDIT: Here's the chart.

[Person_Man]

If you don't want Barbarian, Fighter would also be an ok choice. Paladin of Slaughter would also work well.

In general, you should never mix spellcasting classes and level adjustment. If you want to be a good Skill Monkey, certain races are useful or fun for that purpose, but Lycanthrope is not one of them. So that kinda limits your options, unless you want to accept being a much weaker build.

[Darrin]

Rangers get Endurance as a bonus feat.

I know. That's why I said, "what do you need it for?" since it's useless for the build. His ranger abilities aren't going to work in Medium or Heavy armor, and lycanthropes have issues with armor anyway, since shifting doesn't absorb the armor, and if there's a size change it'll ruin and/or hinder you.

While ranger gives you TWF, multi-attack would be preferable if you're going to attack in hybrid form. Monk is probably more optimal than ranger, since it gives you an AC bonus for no armor (Wis or Int), flurry, movement bonus, and allows Improved Natural Attack to apply to your unarmed attacks in human form (add Superior Unarmed Strike for more damage). Variant monk fighting styles would also give you more bonus feat options (Passive Way gets you Improved Trip at 2nd, which stacks with the Wolf's trip ability).

One level of Barbarian/Snow Tiger Berserker would also be good, this gives you Pounce with light weapons without going through five levels of Druid.