Creative builds for Outwit Ranger

[Peat]

On its face, Outwit reads as the most non-combat/skill centric of the paths which isn’t a bad thing to have options. That said, any interesting interactions with other Feats that folks have found beyond the obvious bonus to Monster Hunter chain to get it in the ballpark of the dual wield path (seems more well-balanced against the precision damage path trading damage for utility)

[Arachnofiend]

I don't think Outwit is very good right now, but I think it could be very good in the future; it really needs some more reliable benefits to using Recall Knowledge on enemies, even ones who's bestiary entry your character is already well familiar with. Monster Hunter is just... not very good.

That being said, the bonus to Intimidate is intriguing. Once we get some better knowledge-related skill feats I could definitely see a build coming around with a 16 CHA/16 INT Ranger that doesn't attack at all, and who's usual routine is Recall Knowledge -> Demoralize -> Order your wolf to knock the enemy prone.

[Kyrone]

I would make something with Dex>Wis>Cha so I could get advantage of the bonus in knowledge and intimidation checks.

Halfling with 8str/18dex/12con/10int/16wis/14cha would do for me, maybe Hunted Shot at lvl 2 for some pain, so I could Hunter Prey for knowledge check, demoralize in the second action and Hunted shot in the last.

Would need intimidation glare for creatures that don't speak.

[Ventnor]

Building on the "Intimidation" theme, if there's one particular kind of enemy you really want to freak out, pick up the Favored Enemy class feat and the Battle Cry skill feat.

Favored Enemy lets you use Hunt Prey against one particular kind of enemy as a free action at the start of the encounter, and Battle Cry lets you demoralize enemies as a free action at the start of an encounter. I think you should see where I'm going with this.

[Siro]

Just one small thing to consider about going down the Intimidation route, that is a change from the playtest. Any creature you try to Demoralize is them immune to your future Demoralize attempts for 10 mins (basically the whole battle). So it’s not as spamable as it was in the playtest, and you may have to consider when is the right time to attempt it. However, against a large group of foes, it should still get plenty of uses, and against the Big Boss monster it can be the setup for the nuke turn.

[Arachnofiend]

Siro wrote:

Just one small thing to consider about going down the Intimidation route, that is a change from the playtest. Any creature you try to Demoralize is them immune to your future Demoralize attempts for 10 mins (basically the whole battle). So it’s not as spamable as it was in the playtest, and you may have to consider when is the right time to attempt it. However, against a large group of foes, it should still get plenty of uses, and against the Big Boss monster it can be the setup for the nuke turn.

Uh... Huh. Not sure how I hadn't noticed this. This makes it way weaker as "your thing" and cannot be seen as a reliable way to spend your third action. Your expected result is going to be 1 round of Frightened (less than that, actually, since it decreases to 0 on the target's turn) and if you roll low you end up with zero value out of your Intimidate investment.

I'm surprised I hadn't been called out on this already with how much I've been singing the praises of Demoralize. Now I feel bad...

[Siro]

Don’t feel so bad, it was like that during the playtest, so we have months of how awesome that version was drilled into our heads. (Myself, I only noticed after building a Demoralize bard last week. At least Scare to Death immunity is only a min now, although it did get the Incapacitation trait.)

Plus I saw more attention given to the fact Demoralize no longer causes the target to flee on a Crit fall on its own, requiring a skill feat. (And even then the Creature does not flee if it’s equal to or higher then your level.