Natural Attack Ranger [PFS]


Advice

Grand Lodge

So this alias is a character I've been planning for PFS. I'm just curious on thoughts.

Here is the build. After 6 levels of ranger I plan to finish off as Horizon Walker.

Stat Increases:

4th- Wisdom

8th- Strength
For feats I'm thinking:

Level 2: Aspect of the Beast (Claws) from Combat Style
Level 3: Improved Natural Attack (Claws)
Level 5: Rending Claws
Level 6: Eldritch Claws from Combat Style
Level 7: ?
Level 9: ?
Level 11: ?

I'm not sure about the last three feats. This is the big bit I could use help on but all recommendations are helpful. Also, while Scent is flavorful it actually does have some solid uses and could save my life. I'm sticking with it.


Feat suggestions, power attack, iron will.

By level six you should have an amulet of natural fists, eldritch claws is not so great, maybe weapon focus instead? Or improved natural attack at level 6 and something else at level 3.


Okay, rending claws I actually can't get. BAB 6. If I get an amulet like you said, I would take this at 6th and at fith take power attack.


MageHunter wrote:
Okay, rending claws I actually can't get. BAB 6. If I get an amulet like you said, I would take this at 6th and at fith take power attack.

Actually, I'll take power attack first. Better damage boost. Recommendations on favored terrains?


I was thinking you get Improved Natural Attack at Level 2, not level3.

You might consider a 2 level dip into Slayer, allowing you to take INA a 2nd time as the Slayer Talent Ranger Combat Style, allowing you to take INA for both Claws and Bite. So, maybe you can be a Tengu.

Consider dipping into Warpriest. Your base damage will jump to 1d6. And you will be able to buff yourself with ways around Damage Reduction, the bane of the Natural Attack character. Weapon Against Evil comes to mind.

Since this is for PFS, Magic Items are readily available at market price. Rather than take Improved Natural Attack, maybe you should acquire a Wand of Strong Jaw. A single standard action, and all your Natural Attacks bump up 2 sizes which will not stack with INA. Also, load up on Natural Attacks. A Helm of the Mammoth Lord will give you a Gore Attack. A level in White Haired Witch gives you a Hair Attack.

So, this is a little weird, but maybe be a Human? If you are getting a lot of Natural attacks through magical means, you might take advantage of the Human Martial Versatility Feat so that you can more efficiently apply things like Warpriest Sacred Weapon Damage to all your Natural Attacks.

I love the idea of gaining Scent, taking the Blindfighting Feat, then acquireing an Eversmoking Bottle. Everyone in a large radius will be Blinded, including you, but Sent lets you find your opponents with ease, and Blindfighting drops your Miss Chance from 50% to 25%. When this works, it is devastating. But my experience of PFS is that you can't rely on your fellow players to adequately plan for such things as being Blinded, so you will incapacitate your party members as much as your allies, and some PFSGMs out-and-out disallow that, calling it PC on PC violence. Sometimes it is the perfect trick to play, and if you are lucky enough to get a party of PFSPCs in on it with you, it is just the thing whenever you are fighting an opponent with eyes. I recommend you acquire Scent through a Wand, and you acquire Blind Fighting through a 1 level dip in Brawler and use the Martial Versatility Class Ability to give yourself Blind Fighting (or whatever) whenever the situation calls for it.

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Looking at your stats, I count a 24-point buy. Is there a reason your Int and Con are so high? I'd recommend 18/14/14/12/12/7, which will still be plenty survivable, have plenty of skill ranks, and have much better AC, Reflex saves, and initiative. And, you know, be legal.

Ditto on the Amulet of Mighty Fists; it's a must-have for you, and you should be able to pick it up around level 4 or 5.

Improved Natural Attack isn't worth it. It's an average of +1 damage for your claws, which is pretty weak for a feat. Weapon Focus or Power Attack would be a lot better. Iron Will is also solid, especially later on.


Scott Wilhelm wrote:

I was thinking you get Improved Natural Attack at Level 2, not level3.

You might consider a 2 level dip into Slayer, allowing you to take INA a 2nd time as the Slayer Talent Ranger Combat Style, allowing you to take INA for both Claws and Bite. So, maybe you can be a Tengu.

Consider dipping into Warpriest. Your base damage will jump to 1d6. And you will be able to buff yourself with ways around Damage Reduction, the bane of the Natural Attack character. Weapon Against Evil comes to mind.

Since this is for PFS, Magic Items are readily available at market price. Rather than take Improved Natural Attack, maybe you should acquire a Wand of Strong Jaw. A single standard action, and all your Natural Attacks bump up 2 sizes which will not stack with INA. Also, load up on Natural Attacks. A Helm of the Mammoth Lord will give you a Gore Attack. A level in White Haired Witch gives you a Hair Attack.

So, this is a little weird, but maybe be a Human? If you are getting a lot of Natural attacks through magical means, you might take advantage of the Human Martial Versatility Feat so that you can more efficiently apply things like Warpriest Sacred Weapon Damage to all your Natural Attacks.

I love the idea of gaining Scent, taking the Blindfighting Feat, then acquireing an Eversmoking Bottle. Everyone in a large radius will be Blinded, including you, but Sent lets you find your opponents with ease, and Blindfighting drops your Miss Chance from 50% to 25%. When this works, it is devastating. But my experience of PFS is that you can't rely on your fellow players to adequately plan for such things as being Blinded, so you will incapacitate your party members as much as your allies, and some PFSGMs out-and-out disallow that, calling it PC on PC violence. Sometimes it is the perfect trick to play, and if you are lucky enough to get a party of PFSPCs in on it with you, it is just the thing whenever you are fighting an opponent with eyes. I recommend you acquire Scent through a Wand, and you acquire...

Good stuff here. I was planning on blind fight thinking I'd eventually get terrain mastery underground. I'll try to think about the dips you recommend and plan it out. I want to stick with Half-Orc for scent and three natural attacks. Tengu's have less favorable stats and only 1d3 damage. Also, there is a FAQ that I can take human racial feats as a half-orc which lets me get the best of both worlds.


RainyDayNinja wrote:

Looking at your stats, I count a 24-point buy. Is there a reason your Int and Con are so high? I'd recommend 18/14/14/12/12/7, which will still be plenty survivable, have plenty of skill ranks, and have much better AC, Reflex saves, and initiative. And, you know, be legal.

Ditto on the Amulet of Mighty Fists; it's a must-have for you, and you should be able to pick it up around level 4 or 5.

Improved Natural Attack isn't worth it. It's an average of +1 damage for your claws, which is pretty weak for a feat. Weapon Focus or Power Attack would be a lot better. Iron Will is also solid, especially later on.

It's 24 points because the way I planned it out one was "lost" if that makes sense. I generally optimize but all my characters HAVE to have good intelligence. I probably should try your idea though. It seems INA is useless with a war priest dip and martial versatility, so I'll drop it.


Actually martial versatility only applies to combat feats, and requires fighter 4th. Scratch that, read sacred weapon. This might all work better as a war priest rather than ranger actually. Plus HW benefits are easily found elsewhere. It does change the concept, but probably is best for a Nat Attack user.


One unique way to do a "claw" build would be to utilize a level or two of Master of Many Styles with both Dragon Style and Tiger Claws. Tiger Style effectively gives you 1d6 'claws' via unarmed strike, Dragon Style makes your 'claw' unarmed strikes huge, and the special Tiger Claws attack combined with Dragon Style and Power Attack hits like a sledgehammer - first hand drops 2.5xSTR, second hand drops 2xSTR, both hands add full Power Attack.

For a Ranger concept, maybe use it with Wild Stalker to eventually gain Rage and Rage Powers on a Ranger chassis.


MageHunter wrote:
RainyDayNinja wrote:

Looking at your stats, I count a 24-point buy. Is there a reason your Int and Con are so high? I'd recommend 18/14/14/12/12/7, which will still be plenty survivable, have plenty of skill ranks, and have much better AC, Reflex saves, and initiative. And, you know, be legal.

Ditto on the Amulet of Mighty Fists; it's a must-have for you, and you should be able to pick it up around level 4 or 5.

Improved Natural Attack isn't worth it. It's an average of +1 damage for your claws, which is pretty weak for a feat. Weapon Focus or Power Attack would be a lot better. Iron Will is also solid, especially later on.

It's 24 points because the way I planned it out one was "lost" if that makes sense. I generally optimize but all my characters HAVE to have good intelligence. I probably should try your idea though. It seems INA is useless with a war priest dip and martial versatility, so I'll drop it.

I disagree that Warpriest + INA is usless insofar as your GM will go by what the rules say, but I already proposed Strong Jaw in lieu of INA anyway for completely other reasons.

And if you are thinking of non-Ranger Natural Attack Builds in general now, I have another suggestion. Play a Druidzilla character. Work in 4 levels in Druid, take the Natural Spell and Shaping Focus, and your character will be able to Wildshape into Giant Octopi, Megaraptors, Allosauruses, Dire Tigers, and Warcats by level 8. You will get 3-17 Attacks/round depending upon the form you take. You might go up to size Huge (or Tiny, if you like a Sneak Attack build. There is a thread called Songbird of Doom.).

If you are a Human and take levels in Warpriest, taking Martial Versatility for Weapon Focus in any weapon in the Natural Fighter Weapon Group, including Unarmed will let you apply Sacred Weapon Damage to any Natural Attack you gain. If you never gain another level in Warpriest, growing to size large ups your Damage to 1d8, Huge to 2d6. Buffing yourself with Strong Jaw will buff your Damage to 3d6 for Large and 4d6 for Huge.


Synthesist Witch 8 / Eldritch Knight with Strength Patron has a lot of potential for a full or partial natural attack build, since you can get multiple natural attacks from Witch and then buff with Heroism, Divine Favor/Power and Arcane Strike.

I have a build concept like that that combines longsword, dragon style unarmed strike, claw, and gore. By level 9, every attack has +6 to both attack and damage from buffs. Arcane Armor Training and Barkskin is like having heavy armor.


By level 11... I can get you a much bigger set of bonuses, but not with Horizon Walker included.

Rage Pounce Smite at level 11.

26+ Str, 6 attacks, +14/+14/+14/+14/+14/+14 doing 1d6(or 1d8)+25 damage each.(with power attack -3/+6 incl)

Str 17 Dex 14 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 7 to start. Str at 4, Con at 8.
As Human/Half-orc...
+4 Str item...

Wild Stalker Ranger 5/Druid 6

Shaping Focus Feat, Planar Wild Shape Feat.

Rage 9 rounds/day, (take extra rage maybe) Lesser Fiend Totem power.

Shape into any pouncing creature (Tiger, Raptor)

Planar wild shape gets Smite=HD So, claw/claw/bite/gore/rakex2 on a charge (so +2 attack on top of the earlier numbers)

This is without even using any of the nice buff spells on the ranger/druid lists.

But for a Horizon Walker goal, I actually prefer the World Walker Druid Half-Orc (for the free endurance) entry as opposed to the Ranger, 2 less feats but you get druid spells to 3rd level and Wild Shape, with the Shaping Focus feat that is amazing.


Oh yeah, Horizon Walker. Ilyat, what do you want to be a HW for? I was thinking maybe for Dimension Door, but I think I have a better way to get that.

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