I was thinking about just playing a Dwarf Ranger with the pc's as my hunter's bond, what do you think?
that would work splendidly for you:-)
I would think it would work quite well. Just make sure you read the players guide for suggestions for your favored enemy, and at some point grab yourself a horn of the huntmaster.
Well, RotRL came out during 3.5. The 3.5 ranger was weaker than the PF Ranger, even just the vanilla option.
So yes, you'll do fine.
We have a vanilla ranger in the party heading into the home stretch of the adventure path and she carries the team in many encounters. A solid pick.
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Definitely pick giant as one of your favorite enemies, ideally your first one. You will encounter them frequently in the campaign, not at first, but around the halfway mark and all the way to the end.
Also, the AP has a nice balance between close quarters fighting and more open maps, so feel free to pick between Melee and ranged types, but consider picking up at least some ranged weapon of some kind early on. Granted, that is sound advice for any game.
I disagree with Lock-Os on choosing Giant as a first favored enemy.
There's really two choices for your first FE - Goblinoids, or Humans. The former makes sense as there are goblins in the region. The latter makes sense seeing you will face humans several times in the AP (and don't forget - half-orcs and the like are considered human for the FE).
By the time you get around to choosing your second FE, you will likely be encountering something that fits for RP reasons. And that choice will still be valid at later points. Likewise, when you get your third FE, you will finally be encountering giant-sized foes and thus Giant could be a valid RP choice for FE at that time.
Thank you all. I was thinking a 2hand reach ranger.
Btw what does horn of the huntmaster do for you?
Horn of the huntmaster: This elongated horn curves sharply at the end, almost making it seem more like an enormous pipe than a tool for the hunt. Once each day, a person with the hunter's bond (companions) class feature may blow the horn as a standard action; this grants his full favored enemy bonus (instead of half) against a single target to all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear him. The effect lasts for 1 minute.
Once you get high enough levels it pairs well with the instant enemy spell for Bosses and mini bosses.
Also I am with Tangent on favored enemies, I would start with Human, then have giant for my second one. Not sure about the third though. Maybe Monstrous humanoid or evil outsider.
The player's guide is pretty good about the advice for favored enemies.
Runelords works just fine with vanilla Core classes.
I would agree that you should follow the Player's Guide advice for just about any character options.
This is a great information, thank you.
This is a great information, thank you.
A vanilla Ranger is an outstanding choice for RotRL. Goblinoids then Giants then maybe Dragons for your favored enemies. Forest then Mountains probably for favored terrain.
A Dwarven Ranger is probably the strongest martial choice out there for this AP actually.
To be honest, it depends on if you want to roleplay it, or powergame it.
From an RP perspective, there isn't a significant reason to choose Giants at level 5. There IS another option fairly early into the AP - Undead. At level 10 then you take Giants - you won't be running into a significant number of giant-sized foes until you're level 7 or 8.
Thus if you're using what you're running into to choose your Favored Enemy, then you could go Humans or Goblinoids/Undead (x2)/Giants (x2)/Whatever else you want at level 15.
Power gaming I'd pick one type of favored enemy and stick with it, it makes instant enemy a great spell later on.
I might suggest an archery based ranger, I think a lot of parties are really heavily melee based because archery is so feat intensive, but rangers can do this very effectively with their combat style talents.
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Power gaming I'd pick one type of favored enemy and stick with it, it makes instant enemy a great spell later on.
I might suggest an archery based ranger, I think a lot of parties are really heavily melee based because archery is so feat intensive, but rangers can do this very effectively with their combat style talents.
This is true, however the DM's Wife always plays an archery based character. In fact for the last 3 games, everyone of her characters was a cookie template of the first one.
She doesn't do anything else. If I played an archer, I would be stepping on more than one person's toes because even if I played a weak build, I would out shine her character. I don't want to do that. The majority of the characters really do not play front line characters. So that leaves me.
I also tip my hat to you, way to go:-)
Thanks! I don't have fun unless everyone is enjoying themselves. We just started a Saga SW game, and she is a little iffy because it is out of her comfort zone. Hopefully she will find a niche that will become comfortable for her in this as well. My wife also plays, and I sometimes cater to her as well. (not always) She likes it when I play a character that would be appealing to her character. Well the problem there is that she only plays elves or humans. Where as I like to play the entire gamut of the racial spectrum. So every other game, I play to cater to her desires. Must keep the wife satisfied you know? She likes playing spontaneous spellcasters. Well she likes to play any Spellcaster, but she plays them all like spontaneous spell casters. she doesn't like preparing her spells.
yeah, if Amirii the barbarian was a ranger, I think her favored at level 1 would be giant....
Well there is the Giant Slayer trait that's specifically called out in the Player's Guide. It seems Giant's are troublesome in the wilds of Varisia. And Dwarves like them even less per the racial description. So I do see a lot of RP reasons to take Giants. I do wish there was a way to make the hunter's bond ability a swift action though.