New Ranger

[Timdog]

Hey all,

Starting a ranger in a new campaign, was planning on being a switch hitter, more focused on str, but able to take up a bow pretty well. Almost verbatim feat wise to the guide.

We rolled stats, and that's where my question comes in. Rolled as follows:

Str 16
Dex 12
Con 13
Int 13
Wis 12
Cha 12

I'm pretty happy except the dex, would really have liked a 14 there.

I'm being a half orc. I can put +2 anywhere. I really wanted to put it in Str, but now am wondering if I need to put it in dex.

(side note, taking half-orc because my DM is letting me pick an elephant pet with him as a sort of bonus feat from a good history, based loosely around the Beastmaster feat)

Party make up is a druid, a melee warrior of some kind, a ninja archer and me. My plan was to stay with the archer, fill the baddies full of lead, and then when they closed to step infront and make myself the target so the ninja can keep peppering away.

I don't know just how much I will rely on the bow having never played a character of this kind.

How bad will I miss that +1 to hit from Dex vs enjoy the +1 to damage from the str? :P

[alexd1976]

Boost the Dex, 16 STR is just fine.

Dex helps you hit, AND your AC, AND your saves... STR is just melee.

If you can swap stats around a bit, I would even trade INT with DEX.

[alexd1976]

Also, if you wanna stealth around, DEX again...

[Rerednaw]

Dex, Dex, Dex. You need it.

[LivingDedBoy]

You need more dex, go archery combat style and use your standard gained feats for some melee.

Bows tend to require a lot of feats and buffs to be viable in later levels just keep that in mind.

[Bandw2]

he rolled for stats... what would he swap it for?

[Charon's Little Helper]

If you want to go primarily melee - those stats are as good as you can do with your rolls.

If you want to go primarily ranged combat - switch the dex & str.

[Claxon]

For what it's worth, since Ranger's can get point blank master at level 6 from the Archery Style (as long as they have weapon focus) it's pretty unnecessary to be a switch hitter. The switch hitter ranger guide was written before being ranged only while still in melee range was an option.

Now you can stand in the middle of melee with a bow and you don't provoke when you fire your bow. Very little reason to actually ever put your bow down.

Unless you really want to make a switch hitter, you're better off making an archer following the basics of this guide.

[Drogos]

I'd put the +2 to STR and here's why. That 18 makes you capable in melee without any further investment,and you invest in a +4 STR bow and nothing further (Instant Enemy will more than make up for further investments into STR for Damage). A single feat for Quickdraw and a 2 handed weapon and you can dish out strong damage even without further feat investment; strong enough to serve as the distraction from the full attacking Ninja. You can choose to invest more feats into your ranged combat. I would put 4th & 8th stat increases to DEX, 12th to CON (+12 HP is not terrible) then any further into DEX. Focus your stat belt in DEX; add CON if you have the money just lying around. Your first combat feat would be Precise Shot and then Improved Precise Shot at 6. With a melee character and a Druid (who might also be summoning), you are going to want to be able to ignore all that cover your allies are providing your enemies, which essentially is a +4 to hit vs the Ninja at the same level. While Claxon is right about the feat option, it's nowhere near as helpful in my experience than Improved Point Blank. If all you cared about was using a Bow, I'd say just be a Zen Archer and be done.

If I were building the character you mentioned wanting to play, I'd do this:

1st - Quickdraw
2nd - Precise Shot
3rd - Point Blank Shot
5th - Rapid Shot or Deadly Aim (depends on how often I'm seeing my favored enemies crop up; Rapid if they are common, Deadly Aim if they are not)
6th - Improved Precise Shot
7th - Rapid Shot or Deadly Aim (whichever 5th ends up being)
9th - Improved Critical: Bow
10th - Manyshot
11th - Clustered Shots