Some Help with a Ranger Build Please

[Kate C]

Hi all.  

I am running a game for a brand new player and he asked me to help him build a Human Ranger.

Since I am the GM for the game I do not want my knowledge of the mini campaign and upcoming adventures to affect my choice in picking his Feats and favored enemies, etc. I am also not the best at building 'optimal' combatants so I feel I may not be able to help him fully.

He did specify he wanted to use (long) knives and be a sort of a dual wielding/ two handed knife fighter, more of a finesse weapon warrior than a heavy tank type.  For distance and range he would use a long bow and would like to be capable in using it but not "specialize" in that form of fighting. He was leaning on playing a Eastern European/Baltic region type.

I'm looking for advice that would take the Ranger from 1st (the early levels being of greater importance) to roughly 7th level.

His ability scores are as follows:

St 14
De 16
Co 13
In  12
Wi 14
Ch 11

Any and all advice regarding what species enemies, feats and combinations he should take are welcome.

Thank you all for your input.

[Joyd]

I actually -would- let your knowledge of what's coming up affect his choices of Favored Enemy, etc. In particular, Favored Enemy suggests talking to your DM about what sort of enemies might show up in your adventures so you can pick something that will be useful. The ability isn't much fun if it's hardly ever working.

[Corlindale]

Yes, you should certainly let your knowledge of the upcoming campaign affect favoured enemy choices, that's pretty much assumed in the ability. All the AP player guides also give ranger players good suggestions for often encountered foes.

Otherwise, you might take a look at Treatmonk's guide to Rangers. He specifically mentions a switch-hitter build good for both ranged and melee, which sounds like what your player might be interested in.

[Duna the Explorer of Indol]

Yes, favoured enemy is important. My velociraptor is a ranger and his favorite enemy is undead.

[Tinalles]

You say he wants to dual-wield longish knives? For weapon, try either daggers or short swords. If he needs it to have a particular regional flavor, you can change the name and use the same game mechanics as one of those.

Regarding bows -- Rangers get proficiency with them automatically, he has a pretty good DEX, and he has a high BAB. Just give him a longbow and he'll be fine.

Favored Enemy choices should be based on stuff you as GM expect to come up fairly often. Give him 2 or 3 creature types that you expect to use pretty often, and let him pick one.

Feats:

1 Weapon Finesse
1 Something of his choice (Human bonus feat)
2 Two Weapon Fighting (Combat Style feat)
3 Weapon Focus (Dagger or Short Sword)
5 Double Slice
6 Improved Two Weapon Fighting (Combat Style)

Weapon Finesse fits with the character concept, and it'll let him boost his AC, attack, initiative, and reflex saves all at once by increasing his DEX over time. I think it's important to have that in place at level 1.

TWF and Improved TWF at 2 and 6 are no-brainers. He'd wind up fighting just with one weapon for level 1, but that will help keep things simple while he's learning how combat works.

For the first level human bonus feat, let him experiment. Improved Initative or Toughness would both be solid choices, but this is his first character -- let him pick something that he finds interesting or exciting. If he comes to regret the choice, you always have the option of letting him swap out the feat for something else.

Weapon Focus at 3 and Double Slice at 5 would make sense from a purely combat-oriented perspective, but he may find that his thoughts about the character evolve in response to experiences in the campaign. For example, maybe social skills come to look a lot more important than he first thought; in that case, something like Cosmopolitan to pick up Sense Motive and Diplomacy as class skills would make sense.

I approve of starting newbies as Rangers. They get a good BAB, a large hit die, plenty of skills -- all the things you need to learn about combat and skill use. Then at 4 they get a teeny bit of magic so they can start learning how that works. It's just a good class to start with.

[Grand Moff Vixen]

Also, once he hits 3rd level, keep in mind about the favored terrain that he will be most likely to encounter. It would fall under the same idea as the favored enemy if he never gets the chance to use this.

[james maissen]

Kate C wrote:

Hi all.  

I am running a game for a brand new player and he asked me to help him build a Human Ranger.

Two questions:

What is the rest of the party?

Would you let him minorly adjust his stats? (Say 13INT 10CHA?)

-James

[PSY850]

Deffinatly help him out with his favored enemy and terrain choices. short swords are a good choice for keeping things simple and using the same weapon in both hands. Switch hitting you may need to explain the downsides of shooting into or around melees to make sure he's doing the melee whenever neccesary. Ranger is a really good choice to start out with though. Not quite as many feat choices as fighter and fewer odd mechanics than barbarians or paladins, and the magic comes after he's gotten the hang of normal gameplay. Just help remind him when things like favored enemy and terrain come into play for a bit.

Asta
PSY

[Shalafi2412]

How would you add levels to an animal companion to get a raptor ranger?