Messenger's page

If you are set on going two weapon fighting, I would ask how locked in you are to using a kukri in your main hand. Your damage potential goes way up if you use a combination like longsword/kukri. Ranger does have a 1st level spell that increases the damage die of melee weapons, which would increase the longsword damage from 1d8 to 2d6.

I wanted to play something I've never tried before, in this case two-weapon fighting. My current character (in a Savage Tides campaign) is a paladin using a greatsword, so I'm very familiar with Power Attack, Vital Strike and similar feats good for big weapons.

I'm not totally locked on the idea of two kukri's. I've also thought of scimitar/short sword combo (or scimitar/kukri combo) or even using a trait change from the APG to change "orc weapon" to chain fighter and picking a dire flail.

If you're going to be a TWF-style ranger, what's the advantage of pumping dex and weapon finesse over just pumping strength? You don't have to meet the dex prereqs for your combat style feats.

Well, a high dex offers other benefits: as a ranger, I'll be wearing light armor, a high dex will help with AC and reflex saves. It also helps with some skills important to rangers, like stealth. My secondary weapons will be ranged, so with one attribute score I'll have the same bonuses in both melee and ranged attacks.

Basically, I'm trying to get the biggest bang for my buck :)

I need some advice on a character build I’m planning for an upcoming Shackled Cities campaign. All the players agreed to try building a character they’ve never played before. In my case, I’m going for a half-orc urban ranger (using info from the new APG). I pictured a stealthy half-orc bounty-hunter who prowls the city’s streets and alleys for his target. He would be a two-weapon fighter, wielding twin kukri’s in the close-combat environment of a city (I love the imagery, plus I’ve read discussions about the effectiveness of the high-critical potential of the kukri).

My plan was the make Dexterity my main attribute (placing the +2 half-orc bonus there), then placing the following attributes in order of next importance: strength, wisdom, constitution, intelligence and charisma. I was going to take Weapon Finesse as my first feat, taking advantage of my high dexterity and then choosing two-weapon fighting as my 2nd level ranger combat style. The rest of my feats from 3rd level on will fall into place as normal (double slice, etc etc).

I was going to replace orc ferocity with bestial from the APG to increase my perception (with orc bestial plus perception as a class skill, plus a minor wisdom adjustment, plus level ranks, plus ranger abilities, I should have a pretty good perception score).

This all sounds good in planning but my biggest worry is how effective I would be at first level. I’m going to be using a light weapon as my primary damage doer, and hitting pretty well with weapon finesse, but my damage output is going to be low (kukri 1d4 + str), especially for a fighter. I won’t have two-weapon fighting yet (or I’ll have some huge negatives if I try to do it, offsetting any bonuses from WF).

My only thoughts are to use a different weapon at first level (say short sword and shield) and switch at 2nd level, but that sounds weird.

Any advice?

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the input, especially all the familiar stats from Skrahen, that is a real time-saver for me.

Hey guys,

I'm an old-time gamer who jumped from AD&D to Pathfinder (skipping 3.0/3.5 entirely) and loving every minute of the Pathfinder system.

I'm in one group who is just about finishing Savage Tides (I have a 16th level Paladin) and I'm in another group that is just starting Age of Wyrms. I've never played any of the Pathfinder series before Savage Tides, so this is all new to me (very exciting).

I've always played fighter-types, but for the new campaign I decided to try something completely different and run a single class wizard from level 1 to 20.

Here are my questions:

1.) do ranged touch attacks suffer the -4 to hit if you cast the spell at a target engaged in melee (or is that only for normal ranged attacks)?

2.) I know you can use Weapon Focus and choose ray spells. Are there other weapon feats that can give bonuses for casting spells?

3.) are there any tips sites that I can go to to help me create my familiar. I have the core rulebook, beastiary and APG and I'm having a heck of a time fleshing out my familiar.

I created a Wizard/necromancer spec for Age of Wyrms and chose a scarlet spider (APG) as a familiar. I'm trying to get all the numbers together for a tiny-sized spider.

Thanks all.