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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?
One of the advantages of the ranger's two-weapon fighting style is not having to meet the Dexterity prerequisites to get the TWF feats.
I would recommend high Strength and medium/low Dex instead, which will reduce MAD and let you focus a little more on effective melee feats and ranger skills.
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.
And if you do stick with a decent str, Power Attack is still a good feat option. You'll get +2 damage for your primary hand and +1 for your off-hand for each -1 to attack you take -- which is meaningful when your base damage is reduced for light weapons.
Not to mention that with Double slice, some DM's will interpret the full strength on your off-hand, to result in -1 +2 on both attacks with power attack, another small benefit.
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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 :)
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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.