Hey, DnD help?

[Pigboy]

So, I'm really new to the whole DnD craze. I like it... I'm making a fourth level ranger. Any advice? Here is what I've got so far.


Stats for lvl 4 Ranger. Race: Elf

Str:15(+1 because of level)
Dex:12 (+2)=14
Con:10 (-2)=8
Int:14
Cha:14
Wis:14


Favored enemy: Orc

Combat Style: Two weapon fighting

Animal Companion: Wolf

Equipment:
Longsword(2)
Studded Leather
Backpack
Flint and Steel
Travelers outfit
Waterskin

Gold: 40

Feats:
Combat Expertise
Self-Sufficient

[Matthew]

You are going to want Oversized Two Weapon Fighting from The Complete Adventurer.

[Inyssius Tor]

Self-Sufficient, you say?


In all likelihood, you will never need the Heal skill (any more than you would need Decipher Script). Take Skill Focus (Survival) if you want it, or Weapon Focus (Longsword), or Oversized Two Weapon Fighting.

EDIT: Also, it would be a good idea to swap some of your mental and physical scores. Constitution is good for fightery-types, and I assume you are going to be one of those.

[Raltar]

12 dex is really going to hurt. Why is his cha so high? I'd drop cha down to 10(maybe even 8) and boost dex.

[Matthew]

You are also probably better off choosing Ranged Combat Style over Two Weapon Fighting.

[Inyssius Tor]

12 dex is really going to hurt. Why is his cha so high? I'd drop cha down to 10(maybe even 8) and boost dex.

Ack, no, fight the Dump Stat! Fight it!

But yeah. You're a warrior, so you should probably be either hard-to-hit or hard-to-kill, and preferably both. At the moment, you are neither.

[Pigboy]

Oh, crud, I forgot to say...I only have the core books available.

[Pigboy]

12 dex is really going to hurt. Why is his cha so high? I'd drop cha down to 10(maybe even 8) and boost dex.

Dex is fourteen...with the elf bonus. And cha is high because I like to cast spells...and I look secksay!

[Thinker]

Dex is fourteen...with the elf bonus. And cha is high because I like to cast spells...and I look secksay!

You use Wisdom for casting spells.

[Bosaxon]

Dex is twelve...with the elf bonus. And cha is high because I like to cast spells...and I look secksay!

Ranger spellcasting is based upon wisdom. Really, the only thing you MIGHT need charisma for is Wild Empathy and some skills, and that's a stretch.

edit: ninja'd

[Inyssius Tor]

Yes, but which one of these two people do you more closely resemble?

As for Core: That simplifies things considerably, and keeps us from getting too optimization-crazy, but-- [Scrubbed. Please don't link to sites that provide non-OGL content.]

[Tallis]

Rangers cast spells based on wisdom, not charisma. You should put that 10 in charisma and move the 14 to constitution, giving you 12. Rangers already have lower hit points than other warrior types and if you want to be a melee specialist you can't afford to lose more hit points due to a low constitution.

[Matthew]

That's okay. If you do choose Two Weapon Fighting over Ranged Combat style, all Oversized Two Weapon Fighting does is reduce your penalties with two Long Swords from -4/-4 to -2/-2.

Here's my two cents:

Elven Ranger 4 AB 4(6), AC 16, HP 25,
Attributes: Strength 14, Dexterity 14, Constitution 12, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 14, Charisma 10,
Feats:
Skills: Hide 7(7), Sneak 7(7), Spot 7(11), Listen 7(11), Search 7(11), Survival 7(9), Knowledge (Nature) 7(9), Heal 7(9),
Equipment: Mail Shirt, Long Sword, Dagger, Long Bow, Quiver of 20 Arrows,

[Pigboy]

You use Wisdom for casting spells.

Oops, yeah still thinking sorcerer. But yeah. I have cha for animal stuff... Yup.

[Thinker]

Oops, yeah still thinking sorcerer. But yeah. I have cha for animal stuff... Yup.

What do you want to do with the animals? In any case, in core only most ranger spells are not worthwhile and so you can afford to drop your wisdom, too.

[Draz74]

Are you using any books besides the Player's Handbook?

Are you trying to be an especially powerful character, or have you chosen most of your character just by the way you imagine him? (Personally, I recommend a healthy balance of the two. But either extreme is also a valid play style.)

Game balance generally assumes, when you are 4th level, that you will have about 5,400 gp worth of equipment. That generally involves magic items. Your DM can veto this rule if he wants (especially if the start of his storyline involves you in some kind of prison or captivity or shipwreck or something, and he will soon give you a lot of treasure to make up for your slow start), but I thought you should at least know about this rule. And if you are allowed to choose your own equipment according to a 5400 gp value, then picking out your magical equipment will be a HUGE factor in how powerful your character is.

An elven ranger with 14 charisma is indeed unusual. If you think that all elves should have high charisma, then you should know that a lot of people disagree; they feel that an elf's aloof attitude cancels out any of their natural artistic ability or beauty. And Charisma doesn't help you out much as a ranger. Still, as one person said, it can be fun to avoid the "dump stats" that most people pick for their characters. But people are right that, if you are a melee fighter with 8 Constitution and a d8 Hit Die, you will be flirting with lethal danger.

Favored Enemy: Orc is fine as long as orcs are a pretty common creature in your campaign. I'm not saying you have to ask the DM, "I want to cheat, what's the kind of enemy we'll be fighting the most?" But, for example, I am writing up a campaign setting that doesn't even have goblinoids in it. A ranger in that setting shouldn't take Favored Enemy: Goblinoid!

A Wolf is a solid choice for an Animal Companion. Unfortunately, rangers' animal companions are kind of fragile no matter what they are (unlike druids' ). So be careful with him.

Both your feats are kind of weak. Self-Sufficient can be a great "flavor" or "backstory" feat, but even if that's what you wanted, you should consider whether Skill Focus: Survival or something can represent the same aspect of your character. I think taking ranks in the Heal skill is cool: flavorful, unusual, and more useful than most people realize. But by the time you get to level 10 or so, you'll be good enough at Healing to do everything you need to do without a feat to help out. So a feat that gives +2 Heal really isn't amazing.

Combat Expertise is kind of lame, because the best defense in D&D is a good offense. But there are some great feats that require you to get Combat Expertise first, like Improved Trip, so it can be a good choice. Two-Weapon Fighters usually don't use any of those feats, though. Actually, there aren't very many good feats in the PHB at all for low-level Two-Weapon Fighters. Two-Weapon Defense isn't a powerful feat by any means, but on this character, I'd like it better than Combat Expertise.

Fighting with two longswords will indeed give you a lot of penalties, (-4/-4) unless you can get the Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting feat that someone mentioned from the Complete Adventurer book. If it were me, I would just stick with a longsword and short sword, or longsword and dagger. (At least you can throw daggers!) Either the feat or the smaller weapon would reduce your attack penalties to (-2/-2). Or you could use a Medium longsword and a Small (i.e. built for halflings) longsword, for (-2/-4) penalties.

What do you want this character to be good at, compared to all the other (imaginary) sword-fighting elf rangers wandering the forest out there? What are his particular talents?

[Diggorian]

What do you want to do with the animals?

A valid question, but also one hell of a one-liner.

"I like to dress up and be groomed for my animal ... companions."

Barbarian peers at you for a moment ... then takes three 5ft steps away.

Pigboy, if ya wanna play a certain concept in your head then make choices based on that.

If you want to play a figure that Orcs warn their children of for the next few centuries, listen to the mechanical advice here.

[Pigboy]

Wow, thanks for all the advice guys! But I gotta' ask, which two feats do you guys think I should take?

[Bosaxon]

It would depend on how you what you want to do with ranger.

Personal picks are bolded
At first, if you want to progess with the feat tree into various special attacks, I'd go with your Combat Expertise. On the otherhand, if you want him to be something of a skill monkey for a particular skill, I'd suggest a skill focus(insert skill here). Or, another possibility, is a focus on your longswords, do weapon focus(longsword), giving you a +1 to attack.

At third, either pick up combat expertise, combat reflexes, or some other feat.

However, since I'm fully rested now, I believe I should dissuade you from combat expertise. Yes, I know I recommended it twice. However, that was to be true to the original build. The last thing you need to do is lower your attack bonus.

[skywalker]

(snipped)If you want to TWF with two longswords (especially if you take the weapon focus), which it seems you do, I'd go with the oversized TWF at third, reducing your penalty from -4/-4 (-3/-3 with WF) to -2/-2(-1/-1).

He only has the core books. Which means no OTWF.

[Damionte]

Only thing I would really change is perhaps swapping your base Dex with your intelligence.

Only thing high intelligence does for you is give more skill points & bonuslanguages. You can afford to give up +2 skill points for +1. especially since the ranger get's 6 skill points per lvl which is the second highest rate in the game.

That 16 dex will boost up all of your dex based skills by one. The ranger is part skill monkey so that boost will pay off more. You actually won't be using the intelligence score for anythign with htis build, orther than possibly the Improved line of combat feets. Liek improved trip or disarm or whatever.

As for the Charisma thing, you're probably fine leaving it alone.

[Ekeralos]

Reminds me of a ranger in a game I DM'd who had 10 Wis and 14 Int. His backstory involved him hailing from a barbarian tribe, and he decided that he would return one day in order to educate the barbarian children and teach them to be literate. But I digress.
I agree wholeheartedly that you are limiting your survivability with both realtively low Con and Dex. I'd suggest boosting one of those at the cost of Int or Cha

[ravenkith]

If someone asks for advice, and then doesn't take it, that person should reconcile themselves to their future failure.

Rangers: Dual wielding. Take Short Swords and Weapon Finesse. Dump strength in favor of dexterity, and invest in a mithril chain shirt. Dump charisma in favor of con or str.

Make sure intelligence does not have a negative modifier.

Wisdom should be a positive modifier (for spell casting).

Survival is the key skill here, followed closely by your awareness skills, listen and spot. Hide and Move silently are the next most important.

Your last feat can be spent on anything, but I prefer Dodge, or Two weapon Defense. Dodge is a prereq for other feats (like mobility and spring attack) while two weapon defense gives the same ac benefit, but against multiple opponents.

[Person_Man]

Class Option 1:

Wildshape Ranger: At 1st level you gain Fast Movement, and at 5th level you get Wildshape, one of the most powerful class features in the game. You trade... your 3 bonus Combat Style feats. What's not to love?

Class Option 2:

Barbarian 2/Ranger 2 using the Complete Champion Barbarian variant to gain Pounce. Fast Movement, Pounce, and plenty of attacks.

Class Option 3: Ranger 4: Most vanilla option, but simple and playable with the right feats.


Feat Tree Option 1: Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Knock-Down, Oversized TWF, Power Attack, in that order. This has a nice parallel between you and your wolf Animal Companion, in that you both use Trip.

Feat Tree Option 2: Strongheart Halfling. Ride your Animal Companion. Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, Spirited Charge, Oversized TWF, Improved Shield Bash.

Feat Tree Option 3: Orc (or Half Orc, if your DM won't let you play an Orc). Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Dagger Whip), Oversized TWF, Headlong Rush, Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Leap Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper.


General Suggestion 1: Dump Cha. Wis never needs to be higher the 12 at low levels. You can always boost it up to 14 at higher levels if you need it for spellcasting. Int can also be left at 10 unless you want to go with a Trip build, and then it should be 13.

General Suggestion 2: If you go pure Ranger, buy the Spell Compendium. It adds a great deal to the Ranger's arsenal.

General Suggestion 3: Elf is inferior to Human and Strongheart Halfling. It's better then Orc, but Orcs have access to the uber Headlong Rush feat.

[Townopolis]

Ignore STR
Pump DEX
use 2 Short Swords
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus: Short Sword.

Using 2 longswords with core-only is a mistake (no OTWF).

[Rasumichin]

Survival is the key skill here, followed closely by your awareness skills, listen and spot. Hide and Move silently are the next most important.

Quoted for added emphasis.
Good wisdom and dexterity modifiers may be useful here, too.
Keep that in mind when placing your ability scores.

Your last feat can be spent on anything, but I prefer Dodge, or Two weapon Defense. Dodge is a prereq for other feats (like mobility and spring attack) while two weapon defense gives the same ac benefit, but against multiple opponents.

I am quite fond of spring attacks and the whole hit-and-run combat style in general, but i think they're more interesting for scouts than for rangers.
For a TWF-ranger, who relies on full attacks for maximum damage output, this is only recomendable in combination with pounce (which is most likely unavailable in a core only game), since otherwise you sacrifice 3 feats for making attacks that have no synergy with your class features.
Not an optimal choice, IMHO, even though it would make the character more flexible in combat.

So i'd rather stick with two weapon defense, which might help better to keep the squishy ranger alive.

[Pigboy]

Stats for lvl 4 Ranger. Race: Elf or maybe Halfling... what do you guys think?

Str:12
Dex:15 (+2)=17
Con:14 (-2) =12
Int:14
Cha:10
Wis:14


Favored enemy: Orc

Combat Style: Two weapon fighting

Animal Companion: Wolf

Equipment:
Shortsword(2)
Studded Leather
Backpack
Flint and Steel
Travelers outfit
Waterskin

Gold: 50

Feats:
Weapon Finesse
Combat Expertise (For the other stuff I can't get without it...)

This any better? Oh and to person. I'm poor .

[MeklorIlavator]

Class Option 1:

Wildshape Ranger: At 1st level you gain Fast Movement, and at 5th level you get Wildshape, one of the most powerful class features in the game. You trade... your 3 bonus Combat Style feats. What's not to love?

Where exactly is this variant you speak of? I can't find it on the site you linked to.

[Townopolis]

That's looking good. Not the most "oh wow, optimized" build in the world, but cookie cutter characters suck anyways.

Oh, and Weapon Finesse isn't weapon specific, it is automatically applicable to all your light weapons.

[Pigboy]

Hey guys, if I'm not going to focus on strength should I be a halfling instead?