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I've been working on a new 1st Level ranger (been out of RPG for a LONG time), and I need some advice about some beginning first level skill
I am able to choose all of 6 skills and have narrowed my choices down to the following list:
1. Climb (Never know when you have to climb up to a window or hole to enter somewhere)
2. Escape Artist (hey chasing bad guys means sometimes you are captured by them and need to escape - sometimes surrender is better than fight to the death)
3. Heal (Every party needs healers, you never know if you cleric is the one you need to save)
4. Kn Nature (hey I'm a ranger after all)
5. Perception (no one wants an unperceptive tracker)
6. Ride (This one I question for now, is a horse or ride a luxury at 1st level)
7. Survival (Hey isn't the Ranger suppose to be the resident expert in this?, plus it helps in the tracking and bounty hunting)
8. Swim (nothing worse than having to go around rivers and streams just because you are afraid of water)
Now at 1st level, my basic skills at this point is human bounty hunter (if this makes a difference)
Now I could up the number of skills by changing my +1 HP feat to +1 skill feat. Which is more advantageous at 1st level and later?
Thanks for everyone's help from a new Pathfinder player getting back into RPGs.
Robyn
The simple answer IMO would be...
It also may depend on whether or not you find yourself needing that one extra point/rank in something you don't have. You've covered the basics, the only other 2 off the top of my head that I can think of would be Handle Animal or Use Magic Device. Possibly another knowledge or some sort of craft/profession?
AND... if you have a prestige class in mind down the road or plan on multiclassing, you may want to grab a point/rank in something towards that. (Ex: Shadow Dancer...Perform (Dance))
AND... depending on your CON, you may not want/need another Hit Point or on the opposite end might want to compensate for a low/negative CON.
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The simple answer IMO would be...
Two Weapon Fighting (melee) = +1 Hit Point
Archer(ranged) = +1 Skill Point It also may depend on whether or not you find yourself needing that one extra point/rank in something you don't have. You've covered the basics, the only other 2 off the top of my head that I can think of would be Handle Animal or Use Magic Device. Possibly another knowledge or some sort of craft/profession?
AND... if you have a prestige class in mind down the road or plan on multiclassing, you may want to grab a point/rank in something towards that. (Ex: Shadow Dancer...Perform (Dance))
AND... depending on your CON, you may not want/need another Hit Point or on the opposite end might want to compensate for a low/negative CON.
Well, the Ranger is not exceedingly strong, and is an elf, so only has 10 HP to start with.
So at this point I have to rid myself of two of these skills to start the game.
I'm leaning heavily toward losing the ride, but I'm just ambivalent about losing one of the others.
Figure he is going toward an archer specialization, so I have a high dex to help me with AC and survivability.
Plus I decided to take Weapon Finesse as my other Feat to allow me to use my dex bonus rather than my strength bonus in melee (if they get under my bow range).
Climb, Swim & Ride are all untrained and aren't necessary, usually you can get by with just a skill check and appropriate gear(rope) or with the help of someone in the party whose stronger or magically inclined.
I wouldn't bother with Ride as long as you aren't planning on being mounted on your animal companion.
If you plan on being an archer and avoiding melee combat as much as possible... I'd leave Escape Artist to the Rogues, but it may fit into your character concept well... that's up to you. Acrobatics might be a more beneficial replacement allowing you to get out of tight situations, being an archer with low STR(prolly light armor), melee is not where you want to be.
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) might not be a bad choice.
Just my opinion, based on how I would build an archer/ranger type, someone else may have different thoughts.
EDIT: Diplomacy is never a bad choice either, can be extremely helpful for Gather Information checks or haggling a discount on goods.
How much use you will get out of Climb and Swim depends a lot on the campaign and the GM. As an archer, you won't want to be doing either in combat. As a result, you might want to consider keeping both of them at half of the maximum.
These are also skills that eventually can be replaced with spells. I would focus on skills where the wizard/cleric won't be able to cast a spell to solve the same problem.
Most of the time, I wouldn't recommend Escape Artist for a full BAB class. However, it sounds like your CMB could lag notably behind your Escape Artist, so it's a reasonable option this time. (I'm comparing it to CMB because the most common uses of Escape Artist are things like escaping a grapple, where you could also make a CMB roll.)
All of those look pretty good for a ranger. I would suggest getting at least one point into all of them for the +3 trained bonus from a class skill eventually.
Here is how I would do it.
Level one take all except for Ride and Climb.
Level two don't advance swim and put that point into ride if you have a horse or climb if you don't.
Level three don't advance swim and put a point into the one that you skipped at level two.
Level four + mix and match skill advances based upon what you use in game... but keep Survival and Perception at max.