Is it worth loosing spells?
Very worth it in my opinion. While I can see the value of spells, I find the divine aspect of a ranger to be questionable at best. I would like it more if there were different paths of magic available.
But the ranger I am playing, magic would not really fit with the concept. So the "talent" options that skirmisher brings are much more his style. I also took the infiltrator archtype as well since I felt the favored terrain to be limiting and the latter being more versitile.
We already had a cleric in the party and it seemed more of an overlap.
Your milage may vary.
You might also want to check out the Spell-less Ranger in Kobold Quarterly #11 :)
Beaten to the punch.
I'm currently playing a KQ11 Spell-less Ranger, combined with TreantMonk's suggestions regarding a switch-hitter, and he's already one of them ost fun characters I've played in a while.
Is it worth loosing spells?
Yes, because you won't need a Wisdom score of 14 anymore. You'll be able to put those extra points in another ability.
I have to disagree with what most people here are saying. Remember you are limited in the number of times you can use the tricks. at most your will probably be able to use the tricks around 12 times at 20th Level. Some of the spells at this point are lasting all day. Also this gives you the ability to use wands and scrolls. This may not seem like much but consider a ranger with a couple of wands of cure light wounds can be very useful.
If you were limited to the spells form just the core book then it would probably not be such a big deal. The APG really boosted the rangers spells.
As for dumping Wisdom keep in mind this is going to lower your Perception and Survival, not to mention Sense Motive (Which is not a class skill). It also is used for a couple of class abilities including the number of tricks per day.
At 20th level with a Wis of 14 you will have 16 spells, or 8 tricks usable 12 times per day. Your caster level will be 17th so spells that last an hour per level are pretty much all day long. As a divine caster you get the entire list of spells to chose from.
I have to disagree with what most people here are saying. Remember you are limited in the number of times you can use the tricks. at most your will probably be able to use the tricks around 12 times at 20th Level. Some of the spells at this point are lasting all day. Also this gives you the ability to use wands and scrolls. This may not seem like much but consider a ranger with a couple of wands of cure light wounds can be very useful.
If you were limited to the spells form just the core book then it would probably not be such a big deal. The APG really boosted the rangers spells.
As for dumping Wisdom keep in mind this is going to lower your Perception and Survival, not to mention Sense Motive (Which is not a class skill). It also is used for a couple of class abilities including the number of tricks per day.
At 20th level with a Wis of 14 you will have 16 spells, or 8 tricks usable 12 times per day. Your caster level will be 17th so spells that last an hour per level are pretty much all day long. As a divine caster you get the entire list of spells to chose from.
Good point Mysterious Stranger, and you may be right in the long run, but remember that not all campaings end up at level 20. Also, you will only need UMD for using a wand of cure light wounds if there's not body else in the party who can do it. There's no need of two PCs with UMD in a party for this kind of thing.
I'm playing a Half-Orc Skirmisher/Beast Master Ranger, Two-Weapon-Fighting style, and I'm having an absolute ball. The Skirmisher allows you to play a Ranger without having a religious or spiritual bent to the class, and the tricks a Skirmisher can pull off can be very advantageous.
While, yes, the Spells are always useful at higher levels, the Skirmisher is never tied down by spell components or having to use his hands or voice to use his abilities.
And no Ranger should ever have a Wisdom lower than 12, just pays to have a bonus of some kind into that stat, given the general feel and purpose of the class, although an Urban Ranger could possibly get by with just a 10 and a higher Charisma/Intelligence score.
I've been working up a Ranger as my backup character for RotRL, and I just can't see the trade being worth it. If you just don't like dealing with spells, that's fine, but I think a clever player can get a LOT out of what spells the average Ranger can get.
I admit that I haven't looked at the KQ variant, but even in 3.5, when Rangers were feat-starved, I only took the nature's warrior variant when I was only taking <8 levels of Ranger.
In a campaign that won't go past 10, the trade is better, but if it is going past 12 I just don't think it compares to spells favorably at all.
Wand use is great. Rangers also get a lot of really good spells at SL1-3, just like Pally's do, and even with a cruddy WIS of 13-14 you can get a lot of extra spells by buying Pearls of Power, which are amazing buys at the lower SLs.
