Generalist Ranger - spread too thin?

[Thaago]

Hi everybody,

I've put together a Ranger thats supposed to be a flexible generalist - a ranged, melee, or mounted threat. I'm worried that its just going to be kind of 'meh' at all three however. Do you think its ok? Suggestions?

Half-Elf Ranger:
Str: 16+2
Con: 12
Dex: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 14
Cha: 8

SF: Stealth
1: Power Attack
2 (Combat style): Rapid Shot
3: Mounted Combat
4: Animal Companion: Horse
5: Ride by attack
6 (combat style): Many Shot or Improved precise shot
7: Spirited Charge

Battle strategy: flexible. Arrows for range or ambush - from horseback if I can bring the horse there. Greatsword in melee, lance for charges.
Each combat style is missing feats though - is it just going to be bad with all 3?

I may want to go human, drop SF stealth and pick up boon companion (reshuffle a bit so its at the right place). But I do like the low light vision, +2 perception, and +3 stealth - makes for a good scout who can ambush.

[Michael Sayre]

So, your concern that he'll be a little 'meh' at all three isn't unfounded.

Note that the fact that you get to jump into Improved Precise Shot with your combat style feat doesn't actually give you the benefits of the base Precise Shot, so you're still looking at a -4 penalty to firing into melee.

Mounted archery is one of the most powerful combat styles in Pathfinder, so I'd consider building a character who instead of trying to effectively fight in ranged, mounted melee, and unmounted melee, instead focuses a little more tightly on mounted archery with a greatsword as his melee back-up. That lets you drop the Ride-by Attack and Spirited Charge feats, which you can use to grab Precise Shot and another feat to maximize your effectiveness. One of my favorite tricks for mounted archery is to bump your mount's INT to 3 and then both you and it spend a feat on Escape Route, which effectively prevents either of you from ever provoking attacks of opportunity for movement again.

[Thaago]

Oh wow, Escape Route is excellent! I hadn't seen that one.

I wasn't all that interested in Precise Shot because I didn't plan on firing into melee - I was thinking that if a melee broke out I would be picking off the enemy casters/outliers or wading into it myself - call it a 50/50 archer/melee split. But now that I think about it, that conflicts with spirited charge etc anyways: If I'm picking off spellcasters with my bow, I won't be charging them.

Modified:
I might still pack a lance on the horse in case the opportunity arises, but no need to sink 3 feats.

SF: Stealth
1: Power Attack
2 (Combat style): Rapid Shot
3: Furious Focus? Deadly Aim?
4: Animal Companion: Horse
5: Boon Companion
6 (combat style): Many Shot
7: Escape Route

[Treantmonk]

This build seems more weighted to mounted/melee than ranged. That's OK, but I would remember that in combat (archery will end up being more of a backup than a primary role)

I also should point out that the bloating of the game has largely reduced the effectiveness of the "switch hitter" build I recommended in my (core-only) guide. The issue is that there are SO many archery/melee feats available now.

[Michael Sayre]

I like Deadly Aim for your 3rd feat over Furious Focus. If you enter melee mounted you get the +1 high ground bonus to attacks anyways, and if not you'll start getting spells pretty soon to bring your Favored Enemy bonuses to bear more often anyways.

I think that layout is going to work a bit better for you and be a little more cohesive.

[Gregory Connolly]

Skill Focus: Perception is better than Skill Focus: Stealth. You cannot get your horse's stealth high enough to matter. I think that you don't really have the feats to add a mount to a switch hitter build. Boon Companion eats up a feat you need for archery/melee as does Escape Route. I would either make a lancer or a horse archer, you will not be able to do both well.

1 Skill Focus: Perception, Point Blank Shot
2 Rapid Shot
3 Precise Shot
5 Boon Companion
6 Manyshot
7 Clustered Shots

or

1 Skill Focus: Perception, Power Attack
2 Mounted Combat
3 Furious Focus
5 Boon Companion
6 Ride-By Attack
7 Spirited Charge

You want more feats than you get as a ranger, not getting the extra feat from being human is hard for archers, you really want Improved Precise Shot and Escape Route in there as well and they just don't fit.

EDIT: Treantmonk somewhat ninja'd me. There are definitely more feats than you can fit on a build now.

[Michael Sayre]

Gregory Connolly wrote:

Skill Focus: Perception is better than Skill Focus: Stealth. You cannot get your horse's stealth high enough to matter.

This is one statement that I would disagree with. Your mount automatically shares all of your Favored Terrain bonuses, so there's definitely some ways to boost its stealth to reasonable levels. If he gets access to a wand of Terrain Bond (or when he learns the spell himself) he's basically got at least 5 hours of treating wherever he currently is as his Favored Terrain, which can provide a reasonable bonus. If his mount invests in Stealth as well there's no reason it can't have a very viable Stealth score.

[Thaago]

Thanks for the advice!

@Ssalarn:
I think I agree with you on deadly aim over furious focus - being mounted and having the mounts attacks should help that I just invested 1 feat in melee. Of course if I'm going to be close to the enemy, I might want point blank shot instead? Hrrmph.

@Gregory
Well I was thinking that while scouting ahead in dungeons or if we knew to expect danger I would leave behind the horse - you are right that as a large creature it gets -4 anyways. I'm leaning towards stealth still because I like the idea of being able to scout ahead fairly well.

I do want to try to switch hit rather than being pure mounter archery or pure mounted.

One way:
SF: Stealth
1: Power Attack
2 (Combat style): Rapid Shot
3: Deadly Aim? Point Blank Shot?
4: Animal Companion: Horse
5: Boon Companion
6 (combat style): Many Shot
7: Escape Route