All,
I have a vision of a character concept but I cant quite figure out how to build it. I am hoping you can help.
I envision these traits:
* Outdoorsy, survivalist, cunning, a tracker and hunter
* Full BAB and can be the party warrior
* Medium or light armor only due to theme/style
* agile and hardy (fort and dex saves good)
Now so far, I would think "Ranger" except I also want:
* no spells, no skirmisher moves
* no animal companion
* does not rage (I dont want to be a Barbarian)
Is there such a way to build this guy?
I might have other vision limits too but none are coming to mind.
Any suggestions?
Are you permitted 3rd party material?
Nope. No 3rd party.
why no skirmisher moves?
There's the Trapper.
Go Trapper as poc said. And choose your party instead of an animal companion. I think the traps listed are seriously limited so im talking with my DM to improve list of traps available.
I always forget about chosing allies as the boon companion, but the rules for it seem vastly inferior mechanically.
As for skirmish moves, and for that matter traps, I just dont want the extra fuss and bother of another sub-system.
If there were some official rule that the ranger companion was wotth 2 feats and spells were worth 3 feats then I would just take the five feats and call it done.
But thematically, the guy shouldnt cast spells or have an animal companion, and traps and tricks dont seem to fit either for me. I guess I should be more open-minded or maybe just alter my vision.
I guess part of the reason I have issues is that while he happens to be able to survive in the wilderness and track, I view him as a heavy hitter and not a tricky/trappy/skirmishy guy at all. "Yep, we are in the woods, and yep, I'm about to kill you."
Ask your DM to give you a feat at every spell level. Or take ranger to 3, fighter to x until you can pick up a PrC.
Fighters dont get enough skills long term for my tastes.
I could certainly do Ranger 3, Rogue 4 (losing just 1 BaB) and a few levels of Lore Warden. At some point I would get stuck tho. :)
But actually I do love the favored enemy stuff, the long term reflex saves, and long term number of skills of the Ranger. Just never did like spells or pets.
If you really just want him to murder things but dont want spells to be complicated, you could just have him prep lead blades and/or gravity bow in every slot and refluff it as focusing really really hard on his murdering, or something to that effect. Just because he has spells doesnt mean he has to KNOW he has spells.
The spells aren't bad, but can certainly be ignored until you really need them. Longstrider and lead blades are excellent spells to have just because you can, protection from energy is another great one to have just in case. Just because you have them doesn't mean you have to use them. As far as animal companions go, you can have a hawk who scouts for you, but is otherwise unobtrusive... These are tools in your kit, not the summation of your class.
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The list of Full BAB classes is fairly limited:
* Barbarian (no go because of rage)
* Cavalier (no go because of mount)
* Fighter
* Paladin (doesn't seem to fit thematically and has spells)
* Ranger (spells can be swapped out, but only for something already noted as undesirable)
There is one left that might work: Gunslinger.
Gunslinger has 4+int skills, survival is a class skill, has good fort/ref, full BAB and leans towards light armor.
+1 for the gunslinger if your DM permits!
Take Ranger to 6 (Freebooter and Guide have nice replacements for the Hunter's Bond), and you can just not take a high enough Wisdom to cast spells. Then take Horizon Walker the rest of the way. They're literally just a full BAB, "Oh, you're in the woods and now I kill you" class.
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Take Ranger to 6 (Freebooter and Guide have nice replacements for the Hunter's Bond), and you can just not take a high enough Wisdom to cast spells. Then take Horizon Walker the rest of the way. They're literally just a full BAB, "Oh, you're in the woods and now I kill you" class.
I think more people would appreciate horizon walker if they realized that Terrain Dominance allowed them to use their favored terrain bonus as a favored enemy bonus against those native to the terrain. Take Terrain Dominance (Forest) and suddenly a large chunk of the bestiary is dead before the fight even starts.
I need to try playing one of those guys some day.
EDIT: Don't mention Terrain Dominance (Urban), though, or your DM might try to banhammer you into last week ;).
Free hand fighter into duelist?
Take survival skills, flavor background as appropriate.
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Too bad you can't use 3PP material - it sounds like the Spell-less Ranger from Kobold Press might be just what you are looking for!
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8sdd/discuss?New-Paths-1-The-Expanded-Spellle ss-Ranger#1
(I'd link directly to it but I'm on my phone right now ... Maybe some other fine person could help out:)
Too bad you can't use 3PP material - it sounds like the Spell-less Ranger from Kobold Press might be just what you are looking for!
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8sdd/discuss?New-Paths-1-The-Expanded-Spellle ss-Ranger#1
(I'd link directly to it but I'm on my phone right now ... Maybe some other fine person could help out:)
Thanks for the replies. I will look over the options.