I searched with Pulse Cap's wonderful little search engine and found nothing at all like this, which somewhat surprises me. Anyhow, this came about while I was thinking about the old 2nd Edition Cleric/Ranger and also while reading (and responding to) a couple threads on the boards about Ranger and HS FEs. Without further ado, I present the Harper Lumberjack (that was Grizzled_Dwarflord's suggestion for the name, and it tickled me fancy!)

Ranger 23/CLC 12/HS 5

Playable from level 1, PvM.

Human, any non-evil

STR 16 (30)
DEX 12 (14)
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 14 (16)
CHA 8

1 )RGR1: Weapon Focus/ Iron Will/ Favored Enemy:Undead
2 )CLC1
3 )CLC2: Extend Spell
4 )CLC3: STR (17)
5 )CLC4
6 )RGR2: Lightning Reflexes
7 )RGR3
8 )RGR4: STR (18)
9 )CLC5: Empower Spell
10)RGR5: Favored Enemy:Constructs
11)CLC6
12)RGR6: Improved Critical/ STR (19)
13)RGR7
14)RGR8
15)RGR9: Toughness
16)RGR10: Favored Enemy:Elementals/ STR (20)
17)CLC7
18)RGR11: Alertness
19)RGR12
20)CLC8: STR (21)

21)RGR13: Epic Weapon Focus
22)HS1: GRT DEX I (13)
23)HS2
24)CLC9: GRT STR I (22)/ WIS (15)
25)CLC10
26)RGR14
27)HS3: GRT STR II (23)
28)RGR15: Epic Prowess/ WIS (16)
29)RGR16
30)RGR17: GRT STR III (24)
31)CLC11
32)HS4: STR (25)
33)RGR18: GRT STR IV (26)
34)RGR19
35)RGR20: Favored Enemy: Aberration
36)CLC12: GRT STR V (27)/ STR (28)
37)HS5: GRT DEX II (14)
38)RGR21
39)RGR22: GRT STR VI (29)
40)RGR23: Bane of Enemies/ STR (30)

Max HPs: 476

Naked AC: 20
In mundane plate and tower shield: 29
Fully buffed with stacking Cat's, Empowered Cat's, Magic Vestment on armor, and wearing Padded Armor (for dual-wielding): between 28 and 32.
With the stacking Cat's spells, there are a ton of armor combos that will give him good AC, even when dual-wielding.

AB: +42 (+40 dual-wielding)

Saves (vs spells):
Fort: 26 (34)
Refl: 20 (28)
Will: 25 (33)

+2 vs traps (Deneir's Eye)
+2 vs mind-affecting (LLiira's Heart)
+2 boost on all saves for 5 turns 1x/day (Tymora's Smile)

Skills (234 skill points)

Discipline: 43
Tumble: 40
Persuade: 8
Lore: 6
Search: 4
Spellcraft: 39
Set Trap: 42
Disable Trap: 1
Listen: 43
Open Lock: 1
5 points left over.

Cleric spells will serve well for boosting AB and for defense. The Ranger spellbook is just a bonus on top of that.

He gets 4 FEs with Bane for a total of +2 to hit, and 5+2d6 damage from these feats alone. I suggest any crit-immune creatures for the FE feats.

His damage output can be quite effective as well, even against non-favored enemies:

+10 STR bonus, Darkfire, base weapon damage, various Cleric boosts.

AB can be augmented with Empowered Bull's, Bless, Aid, Divine Power, Battletide, etc. to reach quite respectable heights.

A couple of suggestions for options with this build:

You could trade Imp Crit for KD. You could also drop Imp Crit altogether, move Iron Will up slightly and take Exotic at level 1. This will allow you to use any weapon in the game (and I have an image in my head of this character with a Dire Mace). Drop Imp Crit and Toughness and take Exotic and Called Shot. There are a ton of options.

In epic, if you think you need more AC, drop 2 GRT STR feats and move Epic Prowess into a regular feat slot, pick up Armor Skin in another. This will give you one less on AB and damage, but give +2 to AC and allow a fifth FE.
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It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!!

Edited By griphook on 09/22/05 13:56

Oh no you did'n't!
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Quote: Posted 09/08/05 03:43:30 (GMT) -- grizzled_dwarflord

Oh no you did'n't!

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It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!!
Quote: Posted 09/08/05 03:40:37 (GMT) -- Cinnabar Din


Naked AC: 20
In mundane plate and tower shield: 29
Fully buffed with stacking Cat's, Empowered Cat's, Magic Vestment on armor, and wearing Padded Armor (for dual-wielding): between 28 and 32.
With the stacking Cat's spells, there are a ton of armor combos that will give him good AC, even when dual-wielding.

Just wanted to note that bit. I find builds like this quite useful when they have the flexibility and capacity to where any armour they want and still have the same AC. With an ending Dex of 14, he can effortlessly cap his AC at 26, wear some nifty enchanted padded armour, hoist up a tower shield, and have an AC that's just as fine as any high-dex build.
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Edited By grizzled_dwarflord on 09/08/05 13:17

i think i missed this in the post, but what domains would you take in this build. is there any one in particular that you find/found useful? its probably in there, but i couldn't see it, so please excuse my asking if it is in there.

i really like this build. rangers are good!

-c
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Quote: Posted 09/08/05 14:37:13 (GMT) -- christian.schnabel

i think i missed this in the post, but what domains would you take in this build. is there any one in particular that you find/found useful? its probably in there, but i couldn't see it, so please excuse my asking if it is in there.

i really like this build. rangers are good!

-c

No, you didn't miss it, so don't go running for your glasses just yet!

I was going to put them in, then thought better of it. They tend to be quite environment dependant as well as a personal preference, so I didn't bother.

I'd probably choose from among the following, depending on the needs of your PW:

Trickery
Strength
War*
Plant*
Travel
Healing

*Keep in mind these 2 domains give you a great level 7 spell, but you don't get level 7 Cleric spells. And War's other spell is Cat's Grace, which you get from the Ranger spell list, so it would be of very limited use as a domain.

If you're really into the roleplaying aspect, I'd go with Animal and Plant (just seems to fit the Ranger-centric character like the proverbial rabbit-skin glove).
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It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!!
Quote: Posted 09/08/05 03:40:37 (GMT) -- Cinnabar Din

...

He gets 4 FEs with Bane for a total of +2 to hit, and 5+2d6 damage from these feats alone.

...


just a quick question. i thought that the damage you gained from FE increased each time you take a FE feat. since you took only 4 FE, shouldn't you get +4 to damage, instead of +5. If this is not the case, than with many ranger levels and using epic FEs for other feats would not decrease the damage against previously selected enem - y/ies. Does any of this make any sense?

thanks.

-c
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"You cannot pass!" i keep asking questions, and since you are kind enough to answer i figure i will keep going.

actualy not so much of a question as a note on this build. casting bufss in combat is probably not a good idea, since you have no points in concentration. this is not a bad thing, it just means that you must buff ahead of time, and if something wears off or is dispelled in battle, you have to go without. not a big problem, but just an important note when facing baddies.

i am thinking of making a similar build to this, cin. thanks for posting this. rangers and HS just seem to meld together to me, as to ranger/clerics. something just seems right and works well.

-c
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"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."
Quote: Posted 09/08/05 15:30:11 (GMT) -- christian.schnabel

Quote: Posted 09/08/05 03:40:37 (GMT) -- Cinnabar Din

...

He gets 4 FEs with Bane for a total of +2 to hit, and 5+2d6 damage from these feats alone.

...


just a quick question. i thought that the damage you gained from FE increased each time you take a FE feat. since you took only 4 FE, shouldn't you get +4 to damage, instead of +5. If this is not the case, than with many ranger levels and using epic FEs for other feats would not decrease the damage against previously selected enem - y/ies. Does any of this make any sense?

thanks.

-c

Yeah, the bonuses run off your Ranger levels, not the amount of FEs you have. You get +1 at level 1 and it increases by 1 at level 5 and every 5 levels thereafter.
_________________
It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!!
Quote: Posted 09/08/05 15:52:17 (GMT) -- christian.schnabel

i keep asking questions, and since you are kind enough to answer i figure i will keep going.

actualy not so much of a question as a note on this build. casting bufss in combat is probably not a good idea, since you have no points in concentration. this is not a bad thing, it just means that you must buff ahead of time, and if something wears off or is dispelled in battle, you have to go without. not a big problem, but just an important note when facing baddies.

i am thinking of making a similar build to this, cin. thanks for posting this. rangers and HS just seem to meld together to me, as to ranger/clerics. something just seems right and works well.

-c

Most of his buffs are long-term and will be cast prior to battle. The short-term ones will hopefully be activated before the enemy closes. However, if you're really concerned about being interrupted, you can always dump Listen and max out your Concentration.

Yeah, I liked the Cleric/Ranger from second edition and I also think HS is a lock to go with Ranger. Enjoy your build!
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It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!!