Arut was awfully scared. It was not the fact that he was a small boy in a scary place which frightened him so much, as it was the fact that he was small body in a scary place filled with hungry undead. But all of these things mattered little to him, since his head was filled with mind-numbing visions of his own death, coming towards him slowly. Why he had been playing in the old forest he couldn't exactly remember, but again, he was awfully scared. If he had remembered, he would have learned that listening to older boys brag and trying to match them is not a good idea.
As the fiends moved in on him, he though he heard a muffled noises, followed by shadows moving behind the ghouls infront of him. He closed his eyes, awaiting his death. A great set of hands laid a hold of him, and lifted him into the air. He screamed. The final bite never came. He found himself, outside, sitting in the middle of a clearing in the woods, what little sun there was left in the day shining on him. He was no longer surrounded by monsters, but now by grim men and women. They were busy, cleaning their axes, flails and swords. Dressed in strangely dull armour, their cloth looked poor, yet there was something almost divine about this small group. One of them, the nearest, a woman, turned to Arut, and spoke.
"You were lucky, little one", she intoned in a quiet yet stern voice. "Another moment and you would have been another lost child and lunch in the bellies of many."
Arut shuddered. He wondered why he felt so safe amidst a group of such mean and dark strangers. Many wore hoods, hiding in vain the scars and injuries many of them shared.
"My name is Arut. Are you going to hurt me?"
"No, Arut. We will not hurt you. But there are those things which do hurt the innocent. It is our chosen path to defend against such things. What do you think of that?" asked the same woman. For the first time Arut noticed how tall she was.
"I think that is something which is needed."
"And would you choose such a path yourself, to face darkness, have it press against your very soul, and risk life or limb for another?" Her voice seemed to waiver as she mentioned the darkness.
"I don't know. I am too small to fight. But I want to help others."
The dark figures around him stopped what they were doing. They all looked at him. The few without hoods gave him a sort of smile, as if acknowledging him for the first time. After a pause, they set back to sorting out their gear, and the pile of items scavenged from the ancient barrows below them.
"That is all that any can do. Come, you will stay with us, if that is your wish. Among us Ranging Slayers you will learn the arts of combat. You will grow bigger, stronger, and with the help of Torm, you will come to battle the darkness, too. You will develop what seems impossible. Your mastery will begin with yourself and none know where it will end. This path is dark, filled with peril, but so it must be, to protect those who live in the light. What do you think of that?" The eyes of the tall, dark woman grew keen, seeming able to search Arut's soul with but a glance into his eyes.
"I would like to learn." Arut replied.
The lady smiled. Taking Arut by the hand, she led him off to the pile of equipment taken from the barrow. Arut's training was about to begin.
My take on a monter hunter. Makes use of traps, BoE or crits, and animal companion/summons to take out baddies. I am pretty happy with the end result. Also very easy to play, with a solid AB all through out the playing career. I assume a weapon like a longsword or battle axe for the better defensive option (tower shield), although with this much strength a good heavy flail makes for a nice wallop (best defense is a good offense). Couldn't find this class combo at all. Comments and suggestions are welcomed.
ab: 45, can fight in expertise and still maintain a 40 ab!
ac: 17 naked, 23 in chainmail and buffed with cat's grace. add another 5 from expertise
saves: fort 32 will 23 refl 27
ranger spells: (4) 1) camo, ultravis, resist elem (3) 2) cats grace, one with land, protect from elem (3) 3) blade thirst, invisibility purge, summon iii _________________ "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."
Edited By griphook on 10/07/05 22:00
Nice story! Really sets the introduction for the character.
And nice character - I'm surprised it hasn't been done before as those classes seem to blend well.
One thought is to take Heavy Armor Proficiency. Since you're going Strenth-based and not dual-wielding and not using a shield, it seems to me you could use the extra AC of Heavy Armor.
Nice job!
Kaliban _________________ The people he knew were less than golden-hearted Gamblers and robbers, drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers Like you and me
Nice story! Really sets the introduction for the character.
And nice character - I'm surprised it hasn't been done before as those classes seem to blend well.
One thought is to take Heavy Armor Proficiency. Since you're going Strenth-based and not dual-wielding and not using a shield, it seems to me you could use the extra AC of Heavy Armor.
Nice job!
Kaliban
thanks kal. i tried my best to make an original story and give an idea of the charater. i was going for dark hero. not dark because of a past mistake, but dark due to the world in which they live. i got the slayer idea from the description of a CoT, combining it with a Rangers FE's. I also got the darker aspect from Batman, which is a build i have been trying to make without success.
i was debating getting heavy armor. it is definately a good idea if going with a large weapon. i think that ac should be ok though, since using expertise will help this and ab will still be reasonable. depends on oh hard you are getting hammered. the extra 2 points might be worth the drop in saves (i would drop Luck of Heroes for heavy armour, just to keep the other combat feats).
on a side note, i found that using a heavey flail as my chosen weapon, and then switching to a longsword and shield combo was helpful. using blade thirst almost made up for the difference in AB. just an idea for those looking to get the best of both worlds.
as i said, i couldn't find a similar character. the classes seemed to blend together well.
enough gloating on my part. thanks for the feedback!
-c _________________ "You cannot pass!"
Nice story Christian. I like the build as well. Just a suggestion that might increase the playability by a notch:
Take EWF as your level 21 feat. That will immediately increase your AB by 2, while the GRT STR does nothing for AB and damage until level 24, where your STR point raises STR to 22.
For your CoT bonus feat at level 22, take either Armor Skin (for the +2 AC right away) or Epic Prowess (for the +1 AB boost right away). Whichever one you don't take here, take at level 30.
At level 24, take your GRT STR I feat. This will directly jump your STR to 22 with the STR ability increase at level 24 and pay immediate dividends in AB and damage.
21) CoT9 Great Strength I 22) CoT10 EWF 23) Ranger13 24) WM1 WoC, Armor Skin 25) WM2 26) WM3 27) WM4 Great Strength II 28) WM5 29) Ranger14 30) WM6 Epic Prowess 31) WM7 32) Ranger15 FE:Construct 33) Ranger16 Great Strength III 34) Ranger17 35) Ranger18 36) Ranger19 Great Strength IV 37) Ranger20 FE:Dragon 38) Ranger21 39) Ranger22 Great Strength V 40) Ranger23 Bane of Enemies
One other point I'll make: if you replace CoT with FTR you get an extra feat and Heavy Armor proficiency for free. You'll lose out on +5 to your saves though. I'm not suggesting FTR would be better, but it's an option.
(You could also go Dwarf with this build. Drop LoH and start with 16 CON. You get +1 Fort saves, +2 on all saves vs spells, and 40 more HPs). _________________ Wave upon wave of demented avengers marched cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream...
Edited By Cinnabar Din on 10/05/05 16:37
Quote: Posted 10/05/05 16:36:01 (GMT) -- Cinnabar Din
...
One other point I'll make: if you replace CoT with FTR you get an extra feat and Heavy Armor proficiency for free. You'll lose out on +5 to your saves though. I'm not suggesting FTR would be better, but it's an option.
(You could also go Dwarf with this build. Drop LoH and start with 16 CON. You get +1 Fort saves, +2 on all saves vs spells, and 40 more HPs).
i totally agree with you Cin. after i posted, i gave some though to the leveling of feats, and that is what i thought. i think that your way is much more advantageous. just as a note to others, i wanted to keep AS early to make up for the lower AC compared to other melee builds.
again, fighter is good, but +5 in all saves versus +2 AC didn't strike me as terribly effective. but as you mentioned, it is an option for the die hard full plate maniacs.
dwarf is a good idea. extra HP ain't a bad idea. but LoH works with any situational saves, not just against spells, although that is the primary reason they are there. again, potayto, potahto.
i'm hungry now...
thanks for the feat-leveling fix. helpful as always.
-c _________________ "Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
Nice build and a wonderful story to boot... this build could be murder with a pair of scits but a ranger with scitmars is just played out...
I got to build this and then I'm give you some suggestions.
Going Dwarf COULD also, instead of 16 CON, give you 14 wis, for the not-to-useful ranger spells, and 14 DEX for more AC. Dwarves rock.
Nice character and tale. Enjoyed it. This is actually a pretty solid and balanced build, all things considered. Due to the spreading of the stats, and the lack of heavy armour, I would notice a difference in the amount of pain being delivered upon my person. 2 AC is actually a big deal, especially in pre-epic. I would instantly drop LoH for Heavy Armour. In going Dwarf, you don't have that luxury, but you can make Dex and Wis 14, which is equivalent to +1 AC and a bonus Cat's Grace spell. You really can't do that as human unless you were to drop his starting Strength down to 14.
But details schmetails. I give it a thumbs up. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
thanks grimnir and grizz. i think that the boost to ac by 1 is the most important factor. for this build, the 4th level spells aren't that important. boost to ac before cats grace is nice, but again by the time it comes you can get the +1 dex belt that you need. ah well, can't have it all i guess.
i guess dropping LoH for HA is the way to go, especially with a large weapon. but it you go with a medium weapon, you can do a tower shield, which sorta makes up for it. either way, its all good.
thanks for the good reviews, of the build and the story. i really tried on the story and it felt good. short but good. thanks for the help. i await theshadow's review...
-c _________________ Et Earello Endorenna utulien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta.
