Stargrove |
We thought we were going to have a party of five in our campaign:
1) Wizard
2) Fighter
3) Ranger (me)
4) Rogue
5) Cleric
Fairly ideal party...
Now one of our players has decided not to play; the Rogue. I am wondering if I should change my character class from Ranger to something else. If so, what? If not, should I focus on something in particular for him? I am open to play anything that will help the party. But without reading the adventure path or reading spoilers here, I thought I would ask some of you who have played it.
Thanks in advance,
James
Gamer Girrl RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32 |
We thought we were going to have a party of five in our campaign:
1) Wizard
2) Fighter
3) Ranger (me)
4) Rogue
5) ClericFairly ideal party...
Now one of our players has decided not to play; the Rogue. I am wondering if I should change my character class from Ranger to something else. If so, what? If not, should I focus on something in particular for him? I am open to play anything that will help the party. But without reading the adventure path or reading spoilers here, I thought I would ask some of you who have played it.
Thanks in advance,
James
Firstly it depends on your group's style and the GM's preferences. I know that I always like having a rogue in the group, to cover those lockpicking and trapfinding abilities ... but if your GM is flexible, or if someone dips one level of rogue to get access to the skills, play what you like :)
Daniel Moyer |
If you stay Ranger I recommend...
Other...
Wizard could use Knock to unlock stuff and the Fighter could just kick in doors. There are traps, I doubt there's an AP written that DOES'NT have traps, though not entirely unheard of for a party to come up with creative means to disable traps or just take the hit.
Our first group has a Ranger/Rogue and she is quite happy with how it's played out so far, we're level 13 and almost done the 5th module. I'm 100% positive that the Ranger/Rogue(2-Weapon Fighter) and Rogue(Spikedchain Flank-based) have not spent ANY feats on skill buffs, both are DEX-based Combat Rogues.
Brutesquad07 |
If you are using Pathfinder RPG then you don't need a Rogue to deal with non-magical traps. You do have to have Disable Device though as it is trained only. As was mentioned. 1 level of Rogue takes care of the magical traps to. The way the skills work now if you have the skill points to keep pounding Disable Device you'll still have a nice score. The 1/2 rogue level to traps thing is awesome, but hardly necessary.
Ranger and Rogue synergy so well it is a little frightening. If you do the 2-weapon thing I would almost argue a level of rogue is close to mandatory anyway for the extra damage.
But, here is what I tell all my players now. Play the character you want to play. Don't worry so much about the "classic" roles. Just make sure that everyone knows ahead of time what your groups strengths and weaknesses are and adress them. Low healing parties need to spend money on wands, scrolls and potions. Low damage need to make new characters... I mean um... need to work together to maximize their abilities.
A party with no rogue had best be prepared to take a little extra damage here and there and deal with odd effects (like poisons and such). Also they may want to figure out what they want to do about locks. It is hard to stealth through places when you are smashing open doors. Then again, if you have no rogue, stealth is probably not a high priority anyway.
Sean Mahoney |
I would recommend playing a class that has access to (and takes) the social skills. Having the trapfinding abilities is a nice bonus, but I think it is the social skills I would miss the most.
I would probably take which ever of the following strikes you as fun:
Rogue
Bard
Factotum (dungeonscape)
Spellthief (complete adventurer)
Swashbuckler (complete warrior)
Beguiler (player's handbook 2)
My personal choice from the list for this campaign would be the beguiler.
Sean Mahoney
Dragonchess Player |
Now one of our players has decided not to play; the Rogue. I am wondering if I should change my character class from Ranger to something else. If so, what? If not, should I focus on something in particular for him? I am open to play anything that will help the party. But without reading the adventure path or reading spoilers here, I thought I would ask some of you who have played it.
You could remain a ranger (or just change to the Urban Ranger variant) if you wish. If you are playing with 3.5 D&D, then a scout from Complete Adventurer may also be an option.
As with most published adventures, a rogue (or someone with a level or two of rogue or a class that fills the same role) will be very useful at times to deal with traps, but not essential.
Golbez57 |
It looks like you've got a balanced group already; you should have fun as a Ranger! A Rogue really isn't essential to enjoying this AP.
A thought for your Ranger: has your DM shared anything about the Sable Company? I would ask if s/he has not. You might have fun gearing your character toward that organization, if you plan to focus at all on an animal(-like) companion. There are plenty of Feats and Prestige Classes out there that might make this feasible.
As an aside (still miss the ability to Message fellow board members!) to Gamer Girrl: I am kickin' around here again because I am thinking of revisiting this campaign. Going through my notes, I found an awesome list of treasures from the various adventures. I'm pretty sure you were the one who worked these up, but a board Search turned up nothin'. If you did a list for the last adventure, and can post a link, I'd be a happy guy!