Advice leveling Ranger from 8-12 on GM credit in PFS

[Thrawn007]

Since I have been GMing more than playing, I find myself in the position to level my Elf Ranger (Skirmisher/Demonhunter) several levels to level 12 in Prep for Playing in the Eyes of Ten for PFS. It's not a well optimized character up to this point, but I'm trying to figure out if I'm making enough suboptimal choices it's going to make me not carry my weight for a 4 part level 12 quest which I hear has some brutal fights in it.

The obvious route would be to just go to Ranger 12 and be done with it. However, I find myself wondering if a dip into another class for a level or 2. Here are the options I'm looking closely at (I had a monk option I'd have liked, but I'm chaotic, so it's not a fit.) Comparisons below assume ranger 10, so the questions are the last 2 levels.

Ranger 12 (used as baseline for comparison)
Note: Due to the Boon Companion feat, I don't lose any animal progression on a 1 level dip, but a 2 level dip would cause a 1 level progression lag.

Single Level Dips
Ranger 11/Brawler 1
HP -1 (lose 1 favored class level)
Skills -2 (but gain Acrobatics, Escape Artist, Knowledge Local, Sense motive as in class, basically giving an additional 12 points)
BAB even
Saves +1/+1/-1
Unarmed Strike Feat (which is a prereq for Kirin style, which I'd like to go with.)
Unarmed Strike d6 damage
Martial Training 3/day (Which would go great for choosing critical feats most effective for the situation, right not between sick or bleeding)
Negative: Lose Camouflage and 1/day hunter trick

Ranger 11/Fighter 1
HP -1 (lose 1 favored class level)
Skills -4
BAB even
Saves +1/-1/-1
Bonus Feat: Assumed to be Unarmed (for Kirin chain)
Negative: Lose Camouflage and 1/day hunter trick

Ranger 11/Rogue (Thug) 1
HP -2 (lose favored class and smaller die)
Skills +2 (acobatics, appraise, bluff, disable device, disguise, escape artist, knowledge local, linguistics, sense motive, slight of hand, and UMD become class skills, giving up to 33 effective points)
BAB -1
Saves +1/-1/-1
+1d6 sneak attack
Bonuses to intimidate others (this could be big as I use both Cornugon Smash and Dreadful Carnage, and is the real reason I look at this as an option.)
Negative: Lose Camouflage and 1/day hunter trick

2 Level Dips
Ranger 11/Brawler 1
HP -2 (lose 2 favored class level)
Skills -4 (but gain Acrobatics, Escape Artist, Knowledge Local, Sense motive as in class, basically giving an additional 12 points)
BAB even
Saves +2/+2/-1
Unarmed Strike Feat (which is a prereq for Kirin style, which I'd like to go with.)
Unarmed Strike d6 damage
Bonus Feat - Probably bleeding or sickening critical
Martial Training 4/day (Which would go great for choosing critical feats most effective for the situation, right not between sick or bleeding)
Negative: Lose Quarry, Camouflage, 1 hunter trick and 1/day hunter trick, -1 level on Animal Companion

Wild Child Option: Keeps animal companion up at the cost of Bonus Feat

Ranger 10/Fighter 2
HP -2 (lose 1 favored class level)
Skills -8
BAB even
Saves +2/-1/-1
Bonus Feat: Assumed to be Unarmed (for Kirin chain)
Bonus Feat: Probably combat reflexes?
Negative: Lose Quarry, Camouflage, 1 hunter trick and 1/day hunter trick, -1 level on Animal Companion

Ranger 10/Brawler (Wild Child) 1/Rogue (Thug) 1
HP -1 (lose 1 favored class level)
Skills even (acobatics, appraise, bluff, disable device, disguise, escape artist, knowledge local, linguistics, sense motive, slight of hand, and UMD become class skills, giving up to 33 effective points)
BAB -1
Saves +1/+3/-1
Unarmed Strike Feat (which is a prereq for Kirin style, which I'd like to go with.)
Unarmed Strike d6 damage
Martial Training 3/day (Which would go great for choosing critical feats most effective for the situation, right not between sick or bleeding)
+1d6 sneak attack
Bonuses to intimidate others (this could be big as I use both Cornugon Smash and Dreadful Carnage, and is the real reason I look at this as an option.)
Negative: Lose Quarry, Camouflage, 1 hunter trick and 1/day hunter trick (Animal companion kept up due to wild child)

Any advice, or anything I'm obviously overlooking?

[Zedorland]

It would help to know more about the character first. What fighting style did you choose? Are you primarily ranged or melee, and using what kind of weapons? What animal companion did you choose, and what is its role? Would you be up for swapping the type of animal for something else?

[Thrawn007]

Elven Ranger

I'm very much a skill monkey, covering a wide array of skills already (including the Breadth of Knowledge feat for a boost to knowledge and profession skills).

For combat, I'm a finesse elven curve blade melee fighter (Damage comes from power attack as a ranger combat skill and agile/keen on the blade). Despite high dex, I don't have a high AC, so I'm more of a support fighter than the main front liner (although through level 8 I found myself being the main front liner as often as not.)

I have absolutely no ranged feats through level 8, and still only use a masterwork bow with cold iron arrows. (Range is a last resort or situational thing. With that said, with the Brawler dip option, I'm highly considering Point Blank Shot and Combat Expertise over the Kirin style feats, just because of the possibilities it opens up.)

I use an Axe Beak animal companion. It gets a trip attempt for it's charge, but after that it really doesn't do enough damage to be all that effective. It does have the bodyguard template and feats to be able to make the occasional save. I really don't want to swap out the animal, in spite of it being non-optimal.

[Argus The Slayer]

If you take your skill monkey role seriously, and want to boost your Knowledge skills, a single level of Lore Warden Fighter gives you all knowledge skills as class skills - a +3 bonus to most of those for you.

You didn't mention spells. 1oth level Ranger brings 3rd level spells like Instant Enemy - and you get an extra 3rd level spell per day at 11th level. Instant Enemy is a big spell for Rangers.

[CWheezy]

I would say stick with ranger. Kirin style is a trap mostly because nothing you target will live for 3 rounds.

Sticking with ranger is also good because of INSTANT ENEMY. at level 12 it can be +6/+6 for you and your companion

[Thrawn007]

I went smirmisher, so spells aren'the in the mix. Level 11 and 12 are one New hunter trick and one trick per day.

[Thrawn007]

Also, on knowledge skills, I have arcana, dungeon, geography, nature, and planes trained. Due to breadth of knowledge I'm rolling at +7 on the untrained ones. With that said, I did consider a lore warden dip if I went fighter.

[Gwen Smith]

Thrawn007 wrote:

Since I have been GMing more than playing, I find myself in the position to level my Elf Ranger (Skirmisher/Demonhunter) several levels to level 12 in Prep for Playing in the Eyes of Ten for PFS. It's not a well optimized character up to this point, but I'm trying to figure out if I'm making enough suboptimal choices it's going to make me not carry my weight for a 4 part level 12 quest which I hear has some brutal fights in it.

The obvious route would be to just go to Ranger 12 and be done with it. However, I find myself wondering if a dip into another class for a level or 2. Here are the options I'm looking closely at (I had a monk option I'd have liked, but I'm chaotic, so it's not a fit.) Comparisons below assume ranger 10, so the questions are the last 2 levels.

Ranger 12 (used as baseline for comparison)
Note: Due to the Boon Companion feat, I don't lose any animal progression on a 1 level dip, but a 2 level dip would cause a 1 level progression lag.

Boon Companion should handle a 4 level dip, not just 1 level. That might open up a lot of other options for you.

Do you have already have your group set up to do Eyes of the Ten? If so, look around the group and see what might be missing. Since you don't have a strong feeling of what you want to do, a level dip into something that fills the party gaps might be a good idea. For example, if knowledge skills are an issue, a dip into Investigator might be helpful (add a d6 to knowledge skill rolls). If you only have one divine caster, a Warpriest dip would get you access to the cleric spell and the ability to use divine scrolls along with several options to boosting your melee abilities. If your party needs more buffs, maybe a bard dip will work. And so on.

[lemeres]

Oh, a finesse 2hander. Too bad. If it had been TWF, I would have suggested a 2 level brawler dip so you could TWF with a single weapon (it would be a bit restricted, but cestus is perfectly fine with dagger like stats). Overall, useful for making your weapons cheaper.

And Gwen Smith, boon companion only gives room for a 1 level dip because the ranger's animal companion ability is at his level -3.

[Thrawn007]

Not sure on the party. Like to have multiple eyes tables in our area soon as there are probably a out two dozen characters waiting on so.eone to run it. At least half of those are characters I've never been at a table with. Save or duck casters and obscene damage martial types seem to be most common from what I'be seen At 7 to 11 tier in the area.

[lemeres]

Thrawn007 wrote:

Not sure on the party. Like to have multiple eyes tables in our area soon as there are probably a out two dozen characters waiting on so.eone to run it. At least half of those are characters I've never been at a table with. Save or duck casters and obscene damage martial types seem to be most common from what I'be seen At 7 to 11 tier in the area.

Maybe grab arcane strike and riving strike. Riving strike makes anything you hit with arcane strike take a -2 to saves against spells. Perfect little debuff to keep your SoS casters happy, and thus keep a niche in the party.

[Thrawn007]

Supporting SOS casters is definitely something of a niche for me. I hand out shaken conditions like crazy with two feats focused on that (and that's the attraction of the rogue/thug dip). On crit, I not only plan to trigger sickening critical, my crown of conquest also goes off, giving up to a -5 on saves for anyone with all three effects. (-3 is aoe with prayer and dreadful carnage.)

I'll definitely look at how this alternate way to hit saves fits.

[lemeres]

Well, penalties generally stack when they come from different sources like this (ie- not two sources that both give the sickened condition), so yeah.... see if it is a free action to give them the middle finger while you are at it.

You might have to spend your dip going into an arcane caster class at this point in the character though. Not that that is a bad thing, necessarily.

Or go with two levels of rogue. The minor magic rogue talent gives an SLA that counts for stuff like arcane strike.

[Thrawn007]

lemeres wrote:

Well, penalties generally stack when they come from different sources like this (ie- not two sources that both give the sickened condition), so yeah.... see if it is a free action to give them the middle finger while you are at it.

You might have to spend your dip going into an arcane caster class at this point in the character though. Not that that is a bad thing, necessarily.

Or go with two levels of rogue. The minor magic rogue talent gives an SLA that counts for stuff like arcane strike.

Back to this one...rogue just became much nicer with unchained.