Improving a Henchman: Crossbowman Fighter or Crossbow Style Ranger?

[SmiloDan]

My 5th level gritty 15 point build party (paladin, dark tapestries oracle/rogue(ninja?)/wannabe shadowdancer, Aldori dueling fighter, nomad psion, utility diviner) has a henchman, Milo the Ruffian, Warrior 2. His main schtick is using a heavy crossbow. He gets half XP, so is now on the cusp of 3rd, and has now qualified to get PC levels. He has Toughness and Iron Will, and his stats are 14, 12, 10, 10, 12, 8, I think.

Should we go Ranger or Fighter for him? I'm leaning towards Ranger.

We started out with an inquisitor (eaten by owlbear, replaced by paladin), dueling fighter, and oracle, with 3 henchmen warriors (2 died spectacularly!). Milo the Ruffian has been a survivor.

[Torchlyte]

I'd lean fighter since he's equally effective against most foes. Crossbows are also generally considered inferior to longbows, though.

[Nicos]

If you go ranger do not go for the crossbowman archetypes, it is horrible.

I suppose it depends on what do you want for him, I personally would go Lore warden.

[moon glum]

The trick to henchmen is keeping them in line, especially if you have not been giving him a full share of the treasure. So don't min/max him to the point where you fear his crossbow.

[lareman]

Ranger is much better, since they can get Crossbow Mastery already at 6th level.

[Athaleon]

Ranged character with 12 Dex? Ranger will be needed just to bypass Dex prerequisites on archery feats. Also, use a Longbow instead, it'll save some feats and take advantage of that 14 Strength.

[Trogdar]

I wouldn't worry about optimizing him, he isn't going to be hitting much anyway. Just throw the vital strike chain on him and hope that he has enough base attack to land his shots.

[SmiloDan]

Yeah, he's a henchman, so we don't want to min/max him. Also, it's not a very min/max party. Well, not an optimized party. The fighter and oracle in particular have some weaknesses, Low Wis fighter, Low Con oracle. :-( Their son made them for them (he's the new wizard). It might (semi-?)intentional parental abuse. ;-)

The PCs are 15 point, the Henchmen are 10 point, I think. So 12 Dex is pretty good for the henchman. We've been playing up his Xbow, especially since it really speeds up play when he full-round reloads every other turn. But that will change when he gets Rapid Reload at 3rd.

[sunbeam]

If you make him a ranger he might be able to help with some outdoor stuff.

Tracking, survival, that kind of thing. Also would be able to make some skill checks (and perception).

Since he is going to stay out of the way and plink, the lack of heavy armor shouldn't be a problem. He might get evasion and the ranger hide feature eventually too. Plus better reflex saves as opposed to fighter.

[SmiloDan]

And he could use CLW wands in an emergency. My paladin has 2 (his primary role is healer, secondary tank, htertiary Diplomacy). The oracle is a bit of a relunctant healer (he would rather murderous command and sound burst and use weird revelations and is a bit of a scoundrel), and I'm not sure if the psion can use CLW wands.

The fighter has Survival and has actually used Knowledge engineering!!!!! A LOT! :-O

PS--I LOVE murderous command!!!!!

Although the oracle needs to imitate Serpentor more.

THIS I COMMAND!!!!!!

;-)

[houser2112]

SmiloDan wrote:

nomad psion

Hi.

SmiloDan wrote:

Well, not an optimized party.

Speak for yourself. I'm as optimized as I can be with no dumping and 15 points. :)

SmiloDan wrote:

I'm not sure if the psion can use CLW wands.

DM has ruled that I can use spell completion/trigger items if I have a similar power on my class list. There's no obvious candidate for CLW, but there are similar powers.

Athaleon wrote:

Ranged character with 12 Dex? Ranger will be needed just to bypass Dex prerequisites on archery feats. Also, use a Longbow instead, it'll save some feats and take advantage of that 14 Strength.

If I had known Milo's Dex was so low, I'd have been more emphatic about suggesting Ranger if we want to keep him optimized for ranged combat for this reason. Otherwise, we should consider making him a switch hitter, maybe?

[SmiloDan]

Yeah, definitely going Ranger because of the low stats--and ability toa ignore bonus feat requirements.

My paladin in optomized for healing and taking hits--especially now that he has that Mystic Healer feat you told me about. Decent at hitting stuff (melee and ranged), and really good at resisting stuff. Str 14, Dex 14 (13+1@4th), Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16 (14+2 racial).

I'm kind of personally not reading up on the psionic stuff so it remains cool and mysterious to me. :-)

Milo will switch hit and use Reaver when necessary, obviously. It's just he's got that really cool Crossbow-using mini. :-D And he's survived so long since he's usually in the back....