RedPorcupine's page

Hello fellas,
i´m playing a half-orc Ranger-Infiltrator in Kingmaker. This character is relatively new, was introduced in Varnhold and went after big ole´V. with the group. He started at Level 6, earned a level Ranger on the way and yet another at V.´s. He was immobilized during the last fight and the Paladin, that was chopping at V. from the other side, cried to his godess for help... she answered. Iomedea did indeed help my character, who swore live-long service and obedience ( to her, personally only;).
Now, i feel obliged to take a level Oracle of Battle, with the HAUNTED Curse..., you see the problem, the general sentiment in the forum was something like: worst possible choice for a melee-character.
But it just fits to well, exspecially with the Battlefield Clarity revelation. My GM thinks so too, but is pretty strict with the curses rules, possibly including the spring-loaded wrist-sheath for a potion of heal or cure serious, so standard action for everything, always.

Just yesterday i got access to Herolab again and tried out level-progression and most importantly how to build a two-handed ranger, taking full advantage of the fact that one can take combat-style feats, without having the prerequisites.
I ended up with shield of swings and great cleave as combat-style feats, got rid of power attack, cleave and furious focus, kept vital strike and faced a near full rebuilt with dodge, mobility, spring attack, combat reflexes/patrol. My GM would be ok with that, but i really want to get it right and not built a(nother) trap.

The character used to have a really nice attack-routine with furious focus/power attack/vital strike/ leaden blades with a great-sword (Issian Wyvernprey+3), ranged with deadly aim/vital strike/ gravity bow/ Chadas Harpoon.
The new build would offer me a better chance to avoid " give-as-you-get"- situations and actually fit his background-story way better.

Barsuk " The Porcupine " Bloodshirt used to be a slave to his full-orc brothers of the " Dead Eye" Tribe in the southern Tors of Levinie ( HAIL King Olberon - working title because of V.).
He was only gotten out of his cave to be systematically beaten-up/trained or to fight/track giants or other dangerous intruders of the tribes territory.
It stands to reason that he was primarily interested in surviving until the main hunting-party deigned to attack, while making it look good, rather than doing great damage and downing a foe by himself.

So: Dodge, Mobility, Spring attack and ? Next level (Ranger 8/Oracle 1) i plan to take Lunge, via giant-adaption and get a wand of enlarge person soon. I imagine that between those, a lot a AoO will present themselves, enough to make Combat Reflexes( with Cat´s Grace) worthwhile and the damage will be good enough with leaden blades/enlarge/vital strike. I´m thinking to take Critical Focus next and get a falchion or go improved vital strike ?

What feats and tactics would you suggest for a enlarge/ leaden blades / vital strike/ great cleave / spring-attack/ lunge feat-concept or in general ? Obvious errors, oversights ?

Ps: Stat-block later;)

Pps: Thinking about Chevalier PrC after Ranger 11/Oracle2.

Please critique my Archetype.(Sketch)
So, currently i´m thinking up a new Ranger Archetype primarly for NPC- Troops for a Kingmaker Campaign. I am trying to built up Marine- Raider-Type, light assault troops for landing operations, ship-to-ship fight, fighting in difficult terrain like forest, swamps, cities...

I´m doing this on the premisses that its easier to train a ranger to use a shield properly and make a shield-wall, than to teach a fighter how to sneak, live in the woods and get a favoured enemy.

As a rolemodel i´m using the Hidden Sniper Archetype, since he looses Wild Empathy to get AIM in second level, which i want the "Raider" to have. The Hidden Sniper trades his fav. enemy for sneak-attack, which i´m not interested in. But as i see those guys, they don´t need Track either, so i´d trade this for ShieldFocus or ShieldWall.

We´re talking about NPC mostly so going from a 15 or rather 13- Point buy, i want them to have STR 14 and DEX 15, so the front-line can shieldbash at higher Levels. Not having a functioning Herolab, i´m not sure if they´d have enough WIS to cast spells, if they´re to have a decent Con.

Tactically they´ll work in teams of at least three:
3 Guys Front: with Tridents/ThrowingAxes + Hvy. Shields with ShieldWall
3 Guys Flanks: with Javelins/Scimitars + LightShields
3 Guys Back: Crossbow and Buckler
Mostly Wooden Armor

Level Proggression:

1- Shield Focus + ShieldWall/Fav. enemy: Raider´s (Guide´s) Target or Human
2- Aim + CombatStyle Crossbow Feat: Deadly Aim
3- 1/2 Missile Shield/ Fav. Terrain: ???
4- ....Bond?/ Spells ?

Here i´m groping. I want them to be as versatile as possible. I like the Skirmisher, but i´m loath to loose the spells, as a unit with gravitybow or lead blades would be too great. I´m trying to sell my DM some sort of Homebrew TeamBonus, Favourite Terrain: difficult and dangerous, like the one for mass-combat in the RiverNationsBook, but first i wanted to run this by the comunity ( exspecially those that have read UC): Have i overlooked an obvious feat,archetype or tactic ?

Edit:
PS: I know that MissileShield doesnt work with Bucklers, the Troops that come up as far will probably get a rapid reload: large heavy crossbow, or exotic proficiency: repeating heavy or launching crossbow, those will be the companies fire support;)harharhar...

PPS: And please don´t see any of this as an insult to either Malazan Marines nor exspecially real world marines...

First off: All Hail Meista Hutte - our DM for Kingmaker,
i´m mostly presenting his work here and wanted to know about other campaigns, their fluff-flavour-style, memorable NPC´s and how they were presented/taken down, house-rules-homebrew and Names and places....

Whatever your willing to share- i´m interested, because browsing through the thread there were quite a lot of differences and i wonder how much our DM improvised/sucked out of his own fingers and whats out there.

While i think such comparisons might be usefull to DM´s, exspecially those that are just starting the AP, this thread is primarily for players to show off ;)

Before i start introducing the "Band" and our kingdom (i´m exspecially proud of the Names) two or three things about our DM:

The winter: December, January and February are downtime for our group, no building, no exploring, just downtime and winterschool for recruits.
We have a strong russian-style Borderland-Flair and with snow over 3-4 feet you stay at home. The marshal has dog-sled to check out but thats it.

Troops: we have a percentage of 10.2%, which means 260 men in the standing army. We used to have 15% at some point, where the DM threatened with a stop-gap of unrest if we didn´t wait for more settlers, before building more barracks/whatever.