Ive played a Mystic ranger(dragon 336) for a while now, since i saw the variant. I love this character. I took the sword of the arcane order feat(champions of valor) and started preparing arcane spells in my newfound spell slots, and ive never liked a character more.
The problem is that my group is converting to Pathfinder, which is awesome, except that when i tried to apply the mystic ranger variant to the Pathfinder Beta Ranger, it came out kindof wonky? Lots of dead levels combined with alot of levels where i get like four abilities all at once.
anyone have any experience with converting ClassActs variants to Pathfinder? How about variant abilities from 3.5 books?
help would be appreciated.
Without knowing he variant you mention, I would suggest taking those levels that you get multiple abilities and spread them out into the levels you don't get anything.
Err on the side of putting the more powerful abilities at higher levels, and the next best ones stay at that level. Anything left over gets moved down.
After that once over, the class should look a bit better and allow you to tweak it better.
But again, I'm really just guessing as I don't know the variant.
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OK, Combat Style feats are gained at the same rate, just one level later than normal Ranger, so a Pathfinder-ized Mystic Ranger should get combat feats at 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19th levels. Favored Enemy is slowed down to one every 6 levels. so 2nd, 8th, 14th, and 20th. Likely, this will slow down Favored Terrain as well... actually, let me just try to give you a chart.
1 - Wild Empathy
2 - 1st Favored Enemy
3 - Combat Style feat
4 - Endurance
5 - 1st Favored Terrain
6 - ???
7 - Woodland Stride, Combat Style feat
8 - 2nd Favored Enemy, Swift Tracker
9 - Evasion
10 - 2nd Favored Terrain
11 - Combat Style feat
12 - Quarry
13 - Camouflage
14 - 3rd Favored Enemy
15 - Combat Style feat, 3rd Favored Terrain
16 - Improved Evasion
17 - Hide in Plain Sight
18 - ???
19 - Combat Style feat
20 - 4th Favored Enemy, 4th Favored Terrain, Improved Quarry
Spells as per Dragon 336; skills, BAB, saves, and HD as per the Beta.
Don't know what to do for 6th and 18th level, though.
OK, Combat Style feats are gained at the same rate, just one level later than normal Ranger, so a Pathfinder-ized Mystic Ranger should get combat feats at 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19th levels. Favored Enemy is slowed down to one every 6 levels. so 2nd, 8th, 14th, and 20th. Likely, this will slow down Favored Terrain as well... actually, let me just try to give you a chart....
...Don't know what to do for 6th and 18th level, though.
this will help ALOT.
i guess for 6th and 18th i could just move woodland stride and the 4th favored terrain up to those levels? Neither of them are that strong, and theyre alot better than a dead level?
Its the level 4th favored terrain usually comes at but this actually means id get woodland stride sooner though, so idk if its kosher or not really.
the biggest problem ive had with the Mystic Ranger is that i cant take the Arcane hunter variant (which i want to take so badly) because i dont get that first favored enemy at first level. I think a DM could rule that you can trade your first favored enemy for it, but my dm wont.
also, related but unrelated:
If you take the Sword of the Arcane Order Feat from Champions of Valor, does ranger count as an arcane spellcasting class for the purpose of the Master Spelltheif Feat from Complete Mage?
I suppose the same thing can be asked about the Tahsalatora and Psitheif Feats?
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My personal issue with trying Arcane Hunter with this combination would be that the point of the Sword of the Arcane Order feat directly conflicts with the point of Arcane Hunter. Arcane Hunter is for Rangers that hate Arcanists and Magic and want to specifically hunt them, Sword of the Arcane Order is for the devoted knightly followers of Mystra. One precludes all chance of the other, unless you're turning your back on the Arcane Order in order to hunt users of the arcane, in which case you'd probably better retrain into a different feat, or else lose the feat altogether.
(I had a Knight of the Mystic Flame PC for several years, played him from 4th to 24th level, so I kinda get touchy about the details of Mystra's knightly orders.)
well, the basic reasoning behind it is that i hunt wild magic users, or anyone who doesnt fucntion within the weave, and also so i can use the Nemesis feat to detect Arcane magic users.
"Mystic Ranger"? Is that from the "Goofy TV Shows to sell silly toys" Dragon Special?
Is there a VR Paladin class in there, too?
Does it have d20 rules for "Zords"?
;-P
Do you guys think that Mystic Ranger is a different class than ranger? For example, could you even stack ranger variants onto it, and does it qualify for feats that specify you must be a ranger?
Basically im asking if because its name is different if is a different class, or if the variant is just a variant, and its still a ranger.
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Do you guys think that Mystic Ranger is a different class than ranger? For example, could you even stack ranger variants onto it, and does it qualify for feats that specify you must be a ranger?
Basically im asking if because its name is different if is a different class, or if the variant is just a variant, and its still a ranger.
I think all the "variant classes" that came out in Dragon's Class Acts were just that; variant classes. I think it says somewhere, if you take a level in this, you can't take levels in the standard ranger class.
It's not much different to a ranger with variant class features.
I think all the "variant classes" that came out in Dragon's Class Acts were just that; variant classes. I think it says somewhere, if you take a level in this, you can't take levels in the standard ranger class.It's not much different to a ranger with variant class features.
so mystic ranger is a ranger and can qualify for, say, swift hunter or ascetic hunter?
As a GM, I have to say that a player taking variant class abilities from various variant class lists is way too much of a headache to keep track of, and eventually a variant of a variant will end up causing some kind of disconnect during some game session, even if its just a trying to figure out how X class feature works with Y because the character has become so complex that its not easy to reconcile the two.
I have to say, with my GM hat on, one variant set of class features would be my limit, and any conversion would be the simplest possible (i.e. if an ability replaces ability X, then you get it when the "new" ranger class gets X without juggling too much), dead levels be damned.
I'd much rather see customization being accomplished the way the game normally handles it, with feats. I'm not against variant class features, just against complex conversions of said variant class features.
...too much of a headache to keep track of, and eventually...
I have to say, with my GM hat on, one variant set of class features would be my limit, and any conversion would be the simplest possible (i.e. if an ability replaces ability X, then you get it when the "new" ranger class gets X without juggling too much), dead levels be damned.
I'm not against variant class features, just against complex conversions of said variant class features.
so you would prefer to keep things simple, and easier on you, the dm, and in doing so you try and keep players customization to a minimum?
when i dm, i say you can feel free to use whatever sourcebooks you want in character creation, variants feats or alt systems. I see it as my job to make sure that the players can play the characters they want, but in a balanced way. I only say "no" when its unbalanced.
As a player, i favor heavy customization, and when assembling my character, i just put it together over time, and be sure i always have a backup built too. I keep track of the source of everything, and make things as easy on the dm as possible, copying all the alternative rules and feats im using from whichever splatbooks into one document, carefully recording the source of different things.
When im dm i allow alot of things, but i know most dms arent that way, thats why im asking a question like this.
To me, Mystic Ranger + Swift Hunter is so much weaker than regular old Ranger+SwiftHunter that theres no way i wouldnt allow it.