Starting a Ranger

Overview
Every ranger gets free training to be effective both with a bow, and with paired melee weapons, although most choose to concentrate on one of the two specialities using one of the two powerful Ranger enhancements.

The Ranger Tempest's training in using two weapons at once, progressively reduces the normal handicaps for this style, and eventually ensures that the off hand is attacking 100% of the time. The Arcane Archer learns dedicated archery skills, and in particular the ability to generate magically imbued arrows.

However, even an Arcane Archer knows how to pull out a pair of swords when when their enemies are too close, while the meanest Ranger Tempest can still be relied on to target a distant boss or enemy casters with some well placed arrows when required.

Minimum recommended stats
Rangers get all of their class feats even if they don't meet the Dexterity requirements. However, there are optional feats (and enhancements requiring feats) that do have minimum requirements. The only way to meet these requirements are by starting with the required characteristics or by increasing them with Tomes and level up bonuses to increase characteristics. Items, spells and enchantments NEVER count for satisfying Feat requisites.


 * Strength: No minimum requirement but Strength increases melee damage and ranged damage (because of the Ranger Feat: Bow Strength)so it's always good to have more Strength. Str 13 is required for Power Attack
 * Dexterity: 13 is required for the Tempest prestige class. This is because Tempest requires Spring Attack, Mobility and Dodge; and dodge requires a Dexterity of 13. Many people take much higher dex for more armor class along with the feat weapon finesse.
 * Constitution: 14 is required for the bonus hit points. Only ignore this advice if you don't plan on running end game content where hit points are more important, or if you have some way to overcome the problem of too few hit points.
 * Wisdom: No minimum requirement but you must increase your Wisdom to 14 to cast the highest level ranger spells. This can be done quite easily with bonuses from items, spells and guild airships -- even if your Wis is only 8.
 * Intelligence: No minimum requirement but you will need to increase your Int if you want to take feats that have Combat Expertise as a requisite. For example Improved Trip. Int also increases your skill points.
 * Charisma: No minimum requirement but arguably the most important skill Use Magic Device is based on Cha.

Race

 * Dwarf: Dwarf rangers are hard to kill thanks to their high Constitution, racial toughness enhancements, and improved saves vs. magic. Their racial weapon feats and enhancements to axe combat do synergize well with Tempest builds.
 * Elf: Elves have great Dexterity but comparitively few hitpoints due to low Constitution and fewer racial toughness enhancements. Racial bonuses to bows are great for archer builds. Racial bonuses to longswords, rapiers and scimitars are okay.
 * Halfling: Save and AC bonus, great if you are built for defensive purposes. Strength penalty, not so.
 * Human: Good fit to any class.
 * Drow: Drow is a poor fit to many many classes. I don't recommend you to roll a drow ranger just because you are excited with your 400 favor reward.
 * Half-Elf: Good fit, especially for archer build.
 * Half-Orc: Their racial bonuses to Two-Handed Fighting does not synergize well with ranger, which is a Two Weapon Fighting oriented class.
 * They do, however start with very high base Strength, which could synergise well with the Bow Strength feat, as well as providing more damage with their melee weapons.
 * Half-Orcs have close to (but not exactly) the same base amount of Constitution as Warforged, without the Warforged healing penalty.
 * Half-Orcs also get an optional +20 hit point (racial toughness) bonus.
 * Orcish Fury (+morale to Strength when health is below 50%) can keep you alive in a pinch, as well.
 * On the negative side, Half-Orcs start with -2 to base Intelligence, which may prove a problem.
 * Warforged: Warforged have natural resistances, good constitution, good melee enhancements and increased hitpoints but are partially immune to their own ranger healing spells.

Skills
Skills can vary greatly for a ranger as they are a very flexible class capable of specializing in a number of different directions.

Important Skills
In alphabetical order, these should be maxed out when possible:
 * Balance How embarrassing if a ranger keeps getting tripped by a dog and getting his ass eaten.
 * Use Magic Device Reaching as high as 20 makes most restricted items usable. With 30+, raising people from the dead is possible! Keep in mind that you can (temporarily) boost this score with Ranger Skill Boost enhancements.

Secondary Skills
In alphabetical order, improve these skills when you can:
 * Jump Don't invest too much on this. You can cast Jump spell buff.
 * Hide and Move Silently Allows you to move through lots of enemies undetected.
 * Search Allows you to find hidden doors when a rogue isn't available (and also traps, for easier avoidance).
 * Spot Allows you to spot hidden creatures, and also lets you know when a trap is nearby when a rogue isn't available.
 * Tumble

Favored Enemies
Possible Favored Enemy choices, you get five eventually.
 * Undead (essential at low level)
 * Giant (useful at mid level)
 * Elemental (useful at mid and high levels)
 * Evil Outsider (essential at high level)
 * Construct (occasionally useful at mid and high levels)
 * Aberration (useful at higher levels - you may choose to drop say Undead or Giant to switch to it then)

Spells

 * Level 1
 * Camouflage Good for when you're feeling all sneaky.
 * Jump Rich high places more easily!
 * Longstrider Gets you where you want to go faster.
 * Ram's Might +2 STR and damage (effectively +3 damage), and stacks with Bull's Strength/+STR items!
 * Resist Energy Protection from 10-30 points of energy damage per hit
 * Level 2
 * Barkskin More AC is always good, you'd be barking mad if you don't have this memorized all the time. NEVER remove it from your spell list for any reason.
 * Camouflage, Mass One person is good; everyone is better.
 * Cure Light Wounds Primarily for self-healing when a cleric isn't available.
 * Protection from Energy See: Resist Energy, although it directly absorbs it instead (up to 120 points of damage).
 * Level 3
 * Cure Moderate Wounds See: Cure Light Wounds, but better.
 * Neutralize Poison Obviously enough.
 * Remove Disease Ditto.
 * Level 4
 * Freedom of Movement The MUST-HAVE spell of this level. Finally, all those pesky kobold shamans won't be Holding you as their pals gang up to stab you in your kidneys!  (Nor will anybody else, including elementals with Earthgrab)
 * Cure Serious Wounds - See: CLW & CMW, but even better.
 * Longstrider, Mass - Everyone gets speedy!

Tempest Ranger (Pure Class)

 * Race
 * Human - The human race gives an extra feat, which outweights the vast majority of other racial advantages, and the extra skill point are very helpful.


 * Stats
 * Strength: 14 Increase strength at levels 4 and 8.
 * Dexterity: 14 Enough to satisfy all the dexterity requirements of the feats Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack.
 * Constitution: 14 Nobody likes to die, and until your character becomes immortal, having more hitpoints makes your character harder to be killed.
 * Intelligence: 12 Rangers have a healthy supply of skill points, and a good selection of them to choose from too, I just can't choose some, so I chose all!
 * Wisdom: 14 will allow you to cast all ranger spells as they become available, and extra will save is also handy.  Extra WIS will also give extra spell points.  Note that this can be easily raised using items
 * Charisma: 8


 * Feats
 * Dodge
 * Mobility
 * Spring Attack
 * Improved Critical
 * Favoured Enemies
 * Undead Undead is a fairly common enemy at all levels.
 * Evil Outsiders One of the more common, yet tough group of enemies at high levels.
 * Aberrations Great for soloing beholders, and beating up rust monsters.


 * Enhancements
 * Ranger's Action Boost Skill boosts are wonderful for a skills based class such as the ranger.
 * Energy of the Wild More spellpoints allows you to buff yourself, and your companions too if they are too tight to buff themselves.
 * Human Strength With this enhancement and other spell boosts, this build can open up locks that requires 25 strength.
 * Human Versatility Since you have alot of skills, why not give them all a boost.

Final Comments
The vast majority of people that I have grouped with think that this character build is insane since it is the opposite of what they perceive a ranger to be, although not in a negative way, once they recognise the considerable number of advantages of this build, as compared to a stereotypical ranger.

Having 25 strength is excellent if your guild does not have a lot of high strength characters and they need a certain 25 strength lever opened; the damage from arrows benefits from a high strength as well, at the expense of an average to hit due to an average dexterity.

At 40AC, a highly mobile playstyle, and a decent amount of damage, changing tactics in the middle of a fight can be done very easily; in my regular group, my role is the the tank, whilst my fighter friend deals the damage.

With aberrations as a favoured enemy, soloing them is not much of a challenge.

When fighting spellcasters that fling fireballs, lightning bolts and anything that evasion works on, I am the one taking the lead to ensure they are not targetting the crispy tin cans or squishies while they all take them down one at a time. Fighting mobs in a trapped room is no problem either, when a rogue gets spotted when disabling a trap, I will leap to their rescue so they can try the box again.

In conclusion, the Ranger is a generalist class and this character build epitomises this fact with the ability to do just about anything in the game.

Tempest Ranger (Multiclass)
The Tempest is a fast hitting killer concentrating on attack rather than defence. While having good Constitution and enough hitpoints to survive life in the front line, she prefers not to be the focus of attention for too long. She thinks shields are for wimps and uses Two Weapon Fighting to maximise her Damage Per Second. She also has minor spellcasting abilities, giving a few useful buffs and some healing ability. With her keen senses she can detect traps, secret doors or enemies before anyone else. The Tempest wears only light armor but may be dexterous enough to get a high armor class. She is quick in her movements and can sneak past enemies when necessary.

This specialization is recommended to those players who are happier attacking the foe from the edges of the melee, rather than being in the thick of it. The Ranger Tempest's training in used two weapons at once, progressively reduces the normal handicaps for this style, and eventually ensures that the off hand is attacking 100% of the time. Even so, like any ranger she gets certain bow feats for free, so archery is always an alternative for those special situations when her enemies are at a distance.

Tempests need high Strength for melee attacks, but also need Dexterity for the Ranger Tempest prestige enhancement line. This is because Tempest requires Spring Attack, Mobility and Dodge; and dodge requires a Dexterity of 13. Many people take higher Dex to increase their armor class, and some take it higher than STR to use the feat Weapon Finesse with rapiers and shortswords. However, although the attack for these weapons will then be based on DEX, the damage is still based on STR, so this should never be neglected.

No ranger should use a crossbow because the free Bow Strength feat applies the ranger's strength bonus to their damage rolls with a longbow or shortbow, and negates the crossbow's higher damage class.

Note, this is not a pure ranger build.


 * Level Progression
 * Level 1-3 - Ranger
 * Level 4 - Fighter
 * Level 5-7 - Ranger
 * Level 8 - Fighter
 * Level 9- - Ranger

The fighter levels are taken for the two extra feats, as well as an improved choice of armours the ranger can wear.


 * Race
 * Human:


 * Stats
 * Strength: 16
 * Dexterity: 14 Enough to satisfy all the dexterity requirements of the feats Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack.
 * Constitution:
 * Intelligence: 10 Rangers have a healthy supply of skill points, and coupled with the extra skill points that humans get, the extra points are likely to wasted on useless skills.
 * Wisdom: 12 (14 needed to cast all ranger spells, but any additions count so this is easy to achieve.)
 * Charisma: 8


 * Feats
 * Dodge
 * Mobility
 * Resilience
 * Spring Attack this feat helps a lot against monsters that runs around. Having longstrider allows you to catch up with runaway monsters so you can attack them.
 * Iron Will Hold Person, Hold Monster, and other stunning or mind affecting spells are an all too common reason for the death of a melee combatant, get this to prevent it from happening to you!
 * Improved Critical select this with a weapon of your choice, or if you prefer, a different feat. I chose Slashing weapon since there are alot of slashing weapons to be found in the game, and helps to trigger the burst effects on weapons.
 * Precision There are certain monsters with an insanely high AC, such as the drow in Tempest's Spine, use this feat to hit them.

Final Comments
Although this build was originally designed for damage, in practice, it is quite defensive and the feat selection reflects this. This build is most effective against spellcasters type monsters.

I hope you will enjoy playing a melee ranger in the future, as well as dissolving the stereotype image of a ranger as an archery specialist. The majority of the warriors I have partied with are often shocked at how quick my character can mow through hordes of mobs taking little to no damage, and spellcasters are often thankful when I leap over monsters to their rescue.

Archer Fighting Tips
Other fighting classes can hide behind their heavy armor and extra hit points but Archers need to play smart. The point of using arrows is not damage, which over time is usually less than melee damage, but the enormous advantage of being able to hit enemies who cannot hit back at you because you are out of reach. Pick off vulnerable foes one by one to minimize damage from return fire, unless you are using a paralysing bow, in which case spread the affect around.

There are also explicit situations where the ability to hit the enemy from a distance means more than safety. The most obvious is in returning fire to ranged mobs standing out of reach, but even more useful is the ability to grab the 'aggro' of enemy casters or the boss from a distance. You may be able to destroy them from afar with manyshot, but if not, have a good plan for how to deal with them afterward.

The combination of Improved Precise Shot with Manyshot can be like a machine gun on a group of vulnerable foes. The technique needs practice, as you have to get the timing right, have them nicely lined up, and target the one at the back.

Lastly, don't forget those Two Weapon Fighting feats that you get for free. Consider leaping over the frontline fighters to attack high priority targets like casters, or the enemy archers standing at the back.

Kite wisely!
Kiting is getting a monster to chase you, while you run backwards firing at it. This is a common tactic for solo archers, and can work well in groups if you can kite them through a firewall, a blade barrier or a waiting group of your fellows. But careless kiting in a group will anger your fellow players since they will typically not be able to hit a monster while running after it and you. Tell them what you are planning, and if you are in trouble, run run towards your friends, not away from them.

Building an Archer
The Archer is an agile and skilled scout with minor spellcasting abilities. With his keen senses he can detect traps, secret doors or enemies before anyone else. Once combat starts the archer usually stays behind to support the party with his bow, but even in melee he has learned to wield two weapons with deadly precision. The archer wears only light armor but is quick in his movement and can sneak past enemies when necessary.

This specialization is recommended to those players who prefer smiting enemies from a distance rather than close up. Even so, any ranger can fight effectively with two weapons, so melee fighting is always an alternative when your enemies are within striking distance. Once Manyshot has run out, Rangers usually do more damage with two weapon fighting than using a bow, even if they have gained the Point Blank Shot feat.

Archers need high Dexterity for unfailing ranged attacks, and so may take the Weapon Finesse feat to enable attacks with rapiers and shortswords to enjoy the same bonus. However they should also keep their strength up because it improves the damage for both.

The Arcane Archer has dedicated archery skills, and in particular the ability to generate arrows with special effects.

No ranger should use a crossbow because the free Bow Strength feat applies the ranger's strength bonus to their damage rolls with a longbow or shortbow, and negates the crossbow's higher damage class.


 * Recommended enhancements
 * Ranger Action Boost
 * Ranger's Dexterity
 * Warforged only
 * Construct Thinking
 * Warforged Constitution
 * Elf only
 * Elven Dexterity
 * Elven Ranged Damage
 * Aerenal Elf Melee Damage
 * Elven Enchantment Resistance


 * Feats
 * Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapon
 * Point Blank Shot
 * Precision (Useful for high armor enemies and bows with special effects on critical hits)
 * Weapon Finesse (keep in mind only rapiers and light weapons are affected by this feat; resupply accordingly if investing in this feat)

Archer sample build
See also - I would like to create an Archer. Should I pick a Ranger or a Fighter?

Halfling Ranger
 * 12 str
 * 18 dex
 * 14 con
 * 14 wis
 * 8 int
 * 8 cha

Bonus stat points into str.

Favored Enemy:
 * Undead
 * Giant
 * Evil Outsider
 * Abberation (you may choose to switch when at higher levels, when usually-deadly abberations become frequent in quests)

Feats:
 * 1 Luck of Heroes
 * 3 Iron Will
 * 6 WFocus: Slash (Makes no sense unless you will be meleeing, if not, WFocus: Pierce)
 * 9 Improved Critical: Slash (Same idea from last line)

Enhancements:
 * Ranger Dex
 * Halfling Dex
 * Ranger Action Boost
 * Halfling Luck

Skills:
 * Concentration
 * Search
 * Spot
 * Heal
 * Tumble CC