Is This Do-Able?

[Kaithan Kanathar]

I have a half-orc character that I'd like to build with ranger/barbarian/rogue levels. His original class would be barbarian for story reasons and his main class would be ranger with only a few (maybe only one) level of rogue. I like the whole animal companion aspect of the ranger class, and would choose a bear. What I was wondering is how effective of a build would this be, and maybe some advice on how many levels of each I should take. I am not overly concerned with being an uber powerful character, I just want to be able to keep up at higher levels. Thanks.

[Cymric]

Anything is possible but it would help if you told us what your goal is. I dont generally recommend multi classing into three classes unless the third is a prestige class.

[Kaithan Kanathar]

Really my only goal is making a character that matches the story I have in my head for him, but mechanically is a character who can pull his weight at the higher levels and will still be fun to play. He doesn't have to be the best and baddest of the group or anything.

[Thomas Long 175]

The rogue will buff your reflex, but lower your HP and to hit. Furthermore a portion of your damage will be situational. The thug archetype could be helpful here.

First level barbarian will help your HP, and you can take the trait beserker of society to give you an extra 3 rounds of rage/day. Still if you don't take many levels your rage isn't going to be something you can really rely on, unless you take at least 3 levels and the elemental fury archetype or something.

Your ranger abilities, spell casting, animal companion, and favored enemy bonus will be lower than normal. Depending on your build it may take a very long time to get instant enemy, which is an enormous bonus. I might suggest, if you do take 1 level rogue and 3 barbarian, that you take the feat boon companion to reboost your bear by the 4 levels he lost.

Overall, solid BAB, Good HP, great fort and ref, I'd be leery of your will save when not raging, look for ways to boost that. Save your rage for the big battles and ask your GM what favored enemies will be good and you shouldn't be too badly off.

[Kaithan Kanathar]

He'd be a strength build with secondary ability being dex. I'd go with TWF with a bastard sword/short sword wield, maybe further down the line wielding two bastard swords.

[Kaithan Kanathar]

I should mention we only use the PFCRB as well. Sorry for not mentioning that up front.

[Joanna Swiftblade]

Three levels rogue will net you TWF, evasion, 1/3/1 saves, and 2d6 sneak attack. Taking a 4th level in Rogue, and using the scout archetype, will grant you the abilitiy to deal sneak attack damage on a charge which is good for the first round of combat when you're unable to take a full-round-attack.

Other than that, your next step is taking two level ranger to get you double slice. Finish off by stacking all of your levels into Barbarian (I recommend using the Urban Barbarian and Invulnerable Rager archetypes together for maximum defenses) If you happen to like the base class, at least consider the elemental kin archetype. It only replaces trap sense, which is situational at best.

Feats should look like this

Rogue 1 Exotic Weapon Prof (Bastard Sword)
Rogue 2 TWF (Rogue Talent)
Rogue 3 Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword)
Ranger 1
Ranger 2 Double Slice (combat style) + General Feat (Toughness, Iron Will, Dodge, Improved Initiative)
Barbarian 1
Barbarian 2 Improved TWF

Your stats should look like this

STR 16
DEX 14 +2 race +1 level (4)
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 10

Dropping Cha to a 7 would let you take a 17 STR and a +1 in either WIS or INT. You don't have to do it, but it's an option if you want to optimize.

[Thomas Long 175]

Joanna Swiftblade wrote:

Three levels rogue will net you TWF, evasion, 1/3/1 saves, and 2d6 sneak attack. Taking a 4th level in Rogue, and using the scout archetype, will grant you the abilitiy to deal sneak attack damage on a charge which is good for the first round of combat when you're unable to take a full-round-attack.

Other than that, your next step is taking two level ranger to get you double slice. Finish off by stacking all of your levels into Barbarian (I recommend using the Urban Barbarian and Invulnerable Rager archetypes together for maximum defenses) If you happen to like the base class, at least consider the elemental kin archetype. It only replaces trap sense, which is situational at best.

Feats should look like this

Rogue 1 Exotic Weapon Prof (Bastard Sword)
Rogue 2 TWF (Rogue Talent)
Rogue 3 Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword)
Ranger 1
Ranger 2 Double Slice (combat style) + General Feat (Toughness, Iron Will, Dodge, Improved Initiative)
Barbarian 1
Barbarian 2 Improved TWF

Your stats should look like this

STR 16
DEX 14 +2 race +1 level (4)
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 10

Dropping Cha to a 7 would let you take a 17 STR and a +1 in either WIS or INT. You don't have to do it, but it's an option if you want to optimize.

His main class is ranger. Why would he dump for high dex? just go with the two weapon style for rangers and bypass the dex requirements and he can kick up con and wisdom and strength.

I'd go

19 (16+2 race +1 level)
12
14
10
13
10

Then since invulnerable rager won't be that helpful here it might be in his best interest to go armored hulk to get heavy armor for free and increase his max move speed in it.

Edit: and yes dumping Cha to 7 would let you have a 20 STR or a 15 Con and 14 Wis

[Kaithan Kanathar]

Thanks to all who posted. I'm new to these PF boards and PF in general and I seem to keep forgetting to mention things. I'm old school, not having played much 3.x D&D and never PF before. All my experience comes from 2e D&D. One of the things I forgot to mention is that we create our characters old school by rolling them up (4d6 re-roll 1s, place as desired) and do not use a point buy system. I haven't actually rolled his stats yet, but what I am seeing here is along the lines of what I was considering. I am not familiar with Urban Barbarian or Invulnerable Rager however. Are these in the PFCRB?

[Thomas Long 175]

Kaithan Kanathar wrote:

Thanks to all who posted. I'm new to these PF boards and PF in general and I seem to keep forgetting to mention things. I'm old school, not having played much 3.x D&D and never PF before. All my experience comes from 2e D&D. One of the things I forgot to mention is that we create our characters old school by rolling them up (4d6 re-roll 1s, place as desired) and do not use a point buy system. I haven't actually rolled his stats yet, but what I am seeing here is along the lines of what I was considering. I am not familiar with Urban Barbarian or Invulnerable Rager however. Are these in the PFCRB?

Oh woops. No sorry. They're archetypes. Yes this can be done with standard.

[AndIMustMask]

sounds like a job for levels in scout or thug rogue and the wild stalker ranger AT.

[Thomas Long 175]

AndIMustMask wrote:

sounds like a job for levels in scout or thug rogue and the wild stalker ranger AT.

Its core only. No archetypes.