DISCUSS!
Umm...my current and only PF ranger I'm playing is a gestalt Ranger//Druid with half a dozen different archetypes and alt. class features and the majority of 3E material allowed.. He spends all day as a huge air or earth elemental and shoots a sizing bow of the wintermoon (auto adjusts to his ever-changing str and swift to change its size to whatever I want) for massive damage every round.
He's in a party with only one other person, a Magus//Warblade that got some massive homebrew tweaks so that he spontaneously casts Magus spells and his warblade maneuvers and stances mimick spell effects, not quite sure of the particulars, but he's also pretty strong. I handle the wisdom, ranged, healing (Glorious Heat + Spark orison for the win!), and stealth stuff; he handles the intelligence, melee, and item crafting stuff. We leave the social needs to our familiars (one of my alt. features was to swap animal companion for a familiar), who are much, much cuter than us. By necessity of the party size, we're both hyper specialized to complement each other as much as possible. It works pretty well.
Next ranger I want to play would be using Weapon and Shield style w/ two heavy spiked bashing shields and be a bull rush machine. Trying a Rogue/Ranger/Horizon Walker twinked out on favored terrain would be amusing at some point, too.
I guess I'll give it a shot...
Elf Ranger (Beast Master Archetype)
Giant Spider Companion
Two Handed Weapon Fighting Style
I'm using a 15 point buy, and with racial modifiers his stats are as follows:
STR: 14
DEX: 16
CON: 10
INT: 14
WIS: 13
CHAR: 8
I haven't rolled the character yet, but the idea is to make a sneaky badass who specializes in crafting traps. A favored tactic is to apply poison to weapons and turn them into traps. My spider is going to be a sneaky bastard too, and his bite comes with it's own poison. Sure, he's not an optimized build but he should prove fun to play.
bump!
Two handed with favored enemy undead in carrion crown.
My 4e ranger is an awesome damage machine... But then most rangers in 4e are awesome damage machines...
My PF ranger is a dedicated dragon hunter, ranged bow specialist who rides a hippogriff. He's an original 2e character converted to 3.0, then 3.5 and now Pathfinder.
His hippogriff is a story in itself... Back in 2e days you could raise and train hippogriffs for fun and profit. This was before rangers had animal companions, but he raised and trained the hippogriff so he could track down dragons.
Lots of fun to play.
I'm currently running a PFS spirit ranger. Currently at 4th level:
Human (Mwangi) / Osirion Faction:
STR 18
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 08
L1 Power Attack, Quick Draw (Human), Favoured Enemy (Undead)
L2 Rapid Shot (Ranger)
L3 Cleave
Planned:
L5 Deadly Aim, Favoured Enemy (Human)
L6 Manyshot (Ranger)
It's a switch hitter build that uses Quick Draw to switch between polearms, sword (or thrown weapons) and board, and a bow.
Love rangers. best of all classes.
My current ranger is
Human level 9 spirit ranger (extra spells and divination > weak ranger pet)
took leadership at level 7 and have a Pseudodragon companion with rogue levels (much better than any pet I would get bad part is he can die and I get no replacement.)
I always play ranged so PBS, Precise, Rapid, WF Long Bow, and Clustered, I use my range as much as possible rarely closing closer than 30 feet. Its more important that I hit often than hard so I plan to take Improved Precise, false opening and pinpoint targeting.
in the wilderness I always lead by 60 to 100 yards scouting ahead (unfortunately GM pretty much ignores player stealth and perception so its kind of moot most of the time) but in dungeons I always stay 10 to 20 feet behind and let the rogue do doors and traps) in battle I tend to always stay back, or if they enter a room or building I am the guy that stays outside to make sure we are not snuck up on. Pseudodragon usually does the trap finding and device disabling, in combat he mostly stays out of the fight except to do emergency heals with potions or wands and does pretty good sneak attacks at critical moments.
generally speaking I play my ranger as a tactical fighter. always the one suggesting back doors, scouting and tactical retreats... always in opposition to the punch in the face types who want to just kick in the front doors.
But im also always one of the best damage dealers and im usually the soul survivor of party wipes so I guess we are even.
I usually play my Rangers as cautious, patient hunter, with common sense and a great affinity for recon, tactis, see above.
My current char came in at Lvl 6 as replacement for another half-orc Ranger, Archer, that was crippled and turned NPC. Had a shoanti Barb1/Ranger5, but he didn´t last long. Got eaten instead of the party´s paladin;)
So, this built is somewhat different and heavily influenced by the background story. Barsuk Bloodshirt, Ranger-Giant-Infiltrator Lvl 9, used to be a slave-warrior to his tribe of orcs, so his tactics would be centered on stayin alive, until his brothers deigned to also attack the enemy in question, propably a giant.
Combat-style two-handed: Shield of swings, Great cleave
Adaption: Natural armor, energy resistance fire
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Vital-strike
Lately i´m working mostly with a great-sword, leaden blades and a wand of enlarge person.:P
Planning to take Chevalier around Level 12, as Barsuk got into Iomedeas service.
Also, I've never played a ranger as having to hate their favored enemy and am constantly confused why so many feel they must be played like that. Not saying they can't, but that they don't have to play it that way.
That's a hld over from earlier editions of D&D. I think at least in 2nd edition, ranger was described as hating their chosen enemy. Of course, most of my 2E knowledge comes from Baldur's Gate 2, but Minsc did rather hate the undead.
Like a boss!
This is the half-orc ranger, I currently play in Alexander Kilcoyne's Kingmaker PbP. He deals a good bit of damage on a full attack. I'm going for Combat Patrol at 7th level, which will give him up to 4 attacks per round, all at his full attack bonus.
Truth be told, he is more like a barbarian than a ranger, though, and I'm seriously considering adding a couple of levels of barb (which also makes sense in character because of some developments).
My current ranger is a switch hitter. I took the Urban Ranger archtype I am debating skirmisher vs keeping the spells. Personality wise he is very driven to be liked and accepted. He is a half-drow (half elf with drow features no bonus to it) raised by gnomes who found him abandoned as an infant. We are playing Curse of the Crimson Throne so I have a feeling I am going Sable Company Marine because I never road a Hipogriff before. I play him pretty cautions because of predjudice, but when he lets his guard down that gnomish influence plays out.
my most recent and one of my favorite sofar is a bit of an oddity. He's a half orc with the horse lord archtype, making the mount as big a part of the character as he is. It's a home campaign so the unusual mount is a critter out of the Iron Kingdoms setting called a ferox, basically a Big saber toothed cat with scales instead of fur. He spent his early life as a circus performer, juggling, everything from balls and knives and even pieces of meat which either get thrown out to the cat or have the cat jump thru the spinning objects to grab.
As for combat he's had a rough time as part of a mostly half orc travveling circus, so humans and elves without a more open way of thinking sometimes attacked them thinking it was an orc warband or raiding party. He regularly rode front scout and learned that charging in close got him into more trouble than it was worth so took up a bow to harry and stall ofenders to let the slower wagons get away.
Not an overly optimised build, but it has been a fun character to play, which is what matters. =)
Asta
PSY
Also, I've never played a ranger as having to hate their favored enemy and am constantly confused why so many feel they must be played like that. Not saying they can't, but that they don't have to play it that way.That's a hld over from earlier editions of D&D. I think at least in 2nd edition, ranger was described as hating their chosen enemy. Of course, most of my 2E knowledge comes from Baldur's Gate 2, but Minsc did rather hate the undead.
I play the favored enemy simply as an enemy that the character has studied greatly either as a matter of environment (humans are the most common enemy), practicality (faced too many evil outsiders and thought it would be a good idea to study them) in fact... my characters only chose hate because undead is such a wide range of creatures and i have no other reall reason to study them.
I like the idea of rangers having a mentor/apprentice (like jedi/padawan). If you want to take favored enemy of undead, train with a higher level rangeer with that favored enemy. Makes for some good story hooks, especially when the mentor comes with their own baggage.
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DISCUSS!
As a semi-mobile machine gun platform.
Unless koa-toa monks are involved; then I gotta draw the Sword of Plot and Cleave those b@$&*es to death.
Notable houserules that grant extra awesomeness:
* copious 3.5 material (including Zen Archery feat)
* allowing repeating crossbows + manyshot to work together
* full access to the druid's animal companion list (can you say T-Rex with Cleave, Great Cleave & Cleaving Finish?)
What keeps us from running roughshod over the game:
* We're playing through Night Below
* GM's an evil psychotic that pulls no punches
It's like D&D-as-Vietnam, only our cause is just... :)
However I like!
One ranger I'm playing in a PBP is your standard wilderness-guide-with-a-bow.
Another character I'm playing right now is a fighter/ranger, and is a sword-and-board (well, actually barstool and board) tank who has learned a few scouting/field skills to help keep the party alive.
I generally haven't been into the animal companion thing, but would like to switch that up and play a beast lord or something at some point.
My beastmaster ranger for our up-and-coming Kingmaker campaign, disregards all that natury stuff. Instead of animal companions, he tinkers with clockwork creatures. Being a inventor-type he don't do magic but traps instead.
In combat he is the traditional switch-hitter, albeit on the weak side, since his primary stick is creating stuff. I am looking forward to a character who isn't specialized in one weapon, so he is going to be using a plentora of different weapons (bow, x-bows, thrown, reach, 2-handed, sword and board).
I stand in the back and if I get stuck in melee, then I was do'n it wrong! I try to use Stealth as often as possible and don't always stand and make full attacks. In fact, lots of times I sacrifice ROF to shoot and move. I am a ranged-Ranger and if the front-line breaks down, then I get out of there.