"There lie the woods of Lothlórien!' said Legolas. 'That is the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood say. My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it were springtime!'"
-------------------------- FINAL BUILD --------------------------
Race Elven ( neutral good or chaotic good ) CLASSES: - Ranger (23) - Shadow dancer (16) - Bard (1)
Ab unbuffed ( longbow ): 43/38/33/28 Ab buffed +1 from bardsong +1 Aid +3 cats grace ( +2 against favored enemies ) = 48/43/38/33 ( 50 against favored enemies )
If you get caught in melee, either use hips to keep on attacking with your bow, or dual wield 2 daggers or short swords while waiting for some reinforcments; your ab with dagger should about 38...Not that great, but still better than nothing.
Ac 29 + 3 ( cat's grace ) + 4 ( shadow evade 12/+4 ) = 36 without gear
Hide unbuffed 54 Move silently 54
Hide buffed +3 ( cat's grace ) +10 camouflage +3 ( one with the land ) = 70 Move silently buffed +3 +3 = 60
Spells : Level 1 : Camouflage, Grease Level 2 : Cat's grace, One with the land, Protection from elements Level 3 : Aid, Invisibility purge, Greater Magic Fang Level 4 : Freedom of movement
Animal Companion : Panther ( rogue lvl23 )
+ : Epic dodge, SC5, fair ab once buffed, can use magic scrolls - : Extremely weak against spells, the dmg will only be acceptable against favored enemies; choose them wisely ^^
- : Extremely weak against spells, the dmg will only be acceptable against favored enemies; choose them wisely ^^
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Im not so sure about the weakness against spells.
Fortitude save should be reasonable due to pre epic ranger levels. Reflex saves should be reasonable due to high dex and improved evasion. Making any reflex save spell half damage at worst and no damage. Will save is weak but is backed up by slippery mind allowing a reroll against mind affecting spells.
Syrath _________________ It's SHADOWDANCER, dammit, shadowdancer!!!
I couldnt test properly the save part as in the novice to epic mod, the wizard just rushed me in melee without casting anything . I tried first to go harper scout, since the needed feats were doing nice with this build( iron will & alertness ), but i couldnt solve the lack of feats...
The main problem of this build remains the dmg part ( 1-8+2d6 against favored enemies ), which basically will all depend of the available gear. An alternative would be to go rogue instead of bard to have an extra d6 sneak btw. But I think it makes a nice buddy for your shadow archer, Syrath
Edited By Anglashell on 05/12/05 17:32
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't favored enemy bonuses stack? For each favored enemy feat=+1/+1. So 5 would give you +5/+5 +2d6Bane+base+any other goodies.
Also, at the risk of compromising your Lothlorien concept, you could always drop Ranger and take Fighter. You'd be able to get all the same feats and them some. You could have, with WS/EWS, +6damage vs everything instead of conditional opponents, you could then, of course, take 3 more levels of Shadowdancer for 1 more bonus feat, and the fighter levels would even allow you to take the ALertness/Ironwill prereqs for the Harper Scout. This would give you 2 Great Dex bonus feats in Epic, allow you to take Epic Dodge at 21st lvl, and start picking up your SC Feats by around lvl 29. You could still maintain the integrity of the "Scout" concept because, well, he would be a Harper "Scout". _________________ Homer: Lisa, would you like a donut? Lisa: No thanks. Do you have any fruit? Homer: This has purple in it. Purple is a fruit.
Quote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't favored enemy bonuses stack? For each favored enemy feat=+1/+1. So 5 would give you +5/+5 +2d6Bane+base+any other goodies.
According to the grimoire, favored enemy "just" gives +1 in dmg, spot, listen & taunt which stack. Only Bane of enemies gives a +2 to hit and 2d6 extra dmg. So in this case, the dmg output for a favored enemy would be 1-8+5+2d6. Good point, i forgot the extra damage during the calculation.
Quote: Also, at the risk of compromising your Lothlorien concept, you could always drop Ranger and take Fighter. You'd be able to get all the same feats and them some. You could have, with WS/EWS, +6damage vs everything instead of conditional opponents, you could then, of course, take 3 more levels of Shadowdancer for 1 more bonus feat, and the fighter levels would even allow you to take the ALertness/Ironwill prereqs for the Harper Scout. This would give you 2 Great Dex bonus feats in Epic, allow you to take Epic Dodge at 21st lvl, and start picking up your SC Feats by around lvl 29. You could still maintain the integrity of the "Scout" concept because, well, he would be a Harper "Scout".
True, it could be a good alternative, even less in the concept, but you can actually take epic dodge only after your 10th lvl of shadow dancer which gives improved evasion. You could still take it a bit earlier than in this case, but with a light loss of ba. But the problem of the damage output would remain the same even if less important as you could have a better strength from the beginning. It would be something like 1-8+6+2 from st for example vs a 1-8+5+2d6. It's true that favored enemy is quite restrictive, but I thought by choosing human, elves, dwarves, undead, and dragon for example, you would cover most of the encounters, as you dont really need extra dmg vs orcs or weaker creatures. Ranger26/sd13/bard1 would have been a bit more efficient, as it would have given same extra dmg as weapon specialization and another favored enemy, unfortunately, the sc feat isnt on the list of the ranger bonus feat.
Edited By Anglashell on 05/12/05 23:29
Well said, and therein lies the rub that I face with all my builds: I want offensive but yet I want defensive. I think no matter what, you want to keep SC V in the build. That, with Epic Dodge, is what will win your encounters. I think that as long as you can hit your opponent and do damage, then you'll win 9/10. However, I fear this guy would be dead meat against things with medium to high DR or quick healing.
I wouldn't worry about it, though. He's a Lorien Scout, not Gil-galad himself! _________________ "Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace 'accidentally' with 'repeatedly,' and replace 'dog' with 'son.'" ----Lionel Hutz
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't favored enemy bonuses stack? For each favored enemy feat=+1/+1. So 5 would give you +5/+5 +2d6Bane+base+any other goodies.
According to the grimoire, favored enemy "just" gives +1 in dmg, spot, listen & taunt which stack. Only Bane of enemies gives a +2 to hit and 2d6 extra dmg. So in this case, the dmg output for a favored enemy would be 1-8+5+2d6. Good point, i forgot the extra damage during the calculation.
Actually, the grimoire makes it quite clear that the bonuses do go up every 5 levels. From the feat description for Favored Enemy:
"The character gains a +1 bonus to any damage delivered to his favored enemy. He also receives a +1 bonus on Listen, Spot, and Taunt checks against the favored enemy. These bonuses improved by +1 for every 5 levels that the ranger gains, but they do not improve for the Harper Scout."
Steve
yeah, seems they really made everything they could to make the harper scout class unusable or useless at best...
Oh, I just realized I totally misread your previous posts. I thought you were saying the bonuses don't go up when you were really just pointing out that it doesn't apply to AB. My bad, .
Steve
Quote: Posted 05/13/05 01:34:56 (GMT) -- grizzled_dwarflord However, I fear this guy would be dead meat against things with medium to high DR or quick healing.
That is true, but it's also imo the general problem of all archers builds who dont rely on sneaks for damage...
@Steve : Np . english isnt my native language, so I guess sometimes my sentences arent very clear, even for me
