Playable 1-40 PvE, the real offensive punch develops late however.

When Elven armies advance, special squads of elite warriors act as the shock units. They are known as the Battlechasers, and they are first in advance, last in retreat. Total mastery over their weapon allows them to strike down even a mighty opponent in a single blow, while their skill at fighting their chosen foes is unmatched. Moving swiftly in light equipment and with the aid of nature magic their unique combination of speed, stealth, skill, and spells makes them a force to be reckoned with.

Elf, Non-Lawful, Non-Evil

Str 15
Dex 16
Con 10
Wis 14
Int 14
Cha 8

1 Bbn (1): Weapon Focus (Rapier)%
2 Rgr (1):
3 Bbn (2): Power Attack
4 Rgr (2): +1 str
5 Rgr (3):
6 Rgr (4): Cleave
7 Rgr (5):
8 Rgr (6): +1 str
9 Rgr (7): Toughness
10 Rgr (8):
11 Rgr (9):
12 COT (1): +1 str, Dodge
13 COT (2): Improved Critical (Rapier)
14 COT (3):
15 COT (4): Expertise*, Called Shot*
16 COT (5): +1 str
17 COT (6): Improved Expertise*
18 COT (7): Blind-Fight
19 COT (8): Great Cleave**
20 COT (9): +1 str
21 COT (10): Epic Weapon Focus (Rapier), Epic Prowess
22 Rgr (10):
23 Rgr (11):
24 Rgr (12): +1 str, Great Str 1
25 Rgr (13):
26 Rgr (14):
27 Rgr (15): Great Str 2
28 Rgr (16): +1 str
29 Rgr (17):
30 Rgr (18): Great Str 3
31 Rgr (19):
32 Rgr (20): +1 str
33 Rgr (21): Bane of Enemies
34 COT (11):
35 COT (12):
36 COT (13): +1 str, Overwhelming Critical (Rapier)*
37 COT (14): Devestating Crtical (Rapier)**
38 Rgr (22):
39 Bbn (3): Armor Skin*
40 Rgr (23): +1 Str, Epic Toughness 1+

Skills - Max Discipline, Cross-Class Tumble to 20. Max Taunt at 39, use leftover points as you see fit (stealth or counter stealth are in-character choices).

Suggested Favored Enemies: Undead, Outsiders, Elementals, Dragons, Constructs.

% Rapier is chosen for threat range and elf RP reasons
* Optional Combat Feat
** Used for Dev Crit Purposes
+ Epic Ranger Bonus Feat

Ending Vitals:

Str 28

AC 19 naked, 22 in Studded Leather, 25 Studded & Tower Shield, +10 improved expertise
468 Max Hitpoints

+43 AB single wielding rapier, +39 AB dual wielding rapiers

Fort 33, Reflex 29, Will 30

The FAQ:

Q: This build is, uh, weird. I don't know where to start. Where the heck did you get this idea?
A: I noticed there were no Barbian/Ranger/COT builds at all. That made me want to make one but originally I'd favored Barbarian over Ranger and used Ranger only to get dual wielding. That build didn't turn out the way I'd wanted so I tried another tack and this came out of it.

Q: Why those starting stats? They seem more than a little weird for a strength melee.
A: I decided the extra skillpoints from 14 int outweighed the extra hitpoints from 12 con. Since the character can only use light or medium armor (and is intended to wear light armor) I wanted Dex high enough to get at least a +4 dex bonus with Cat's Grace. 14 wis is for casting 4th level ranger spells - if you don't like ranger spells you can scale it back, but I think it's better to have the ability than not.

Strength, of course, is to make damage and qualify for dev crit.

Q: You usually don't build in Dev Crit. Why this time?
A: It fit my concept of the build, of a warrior so skilled and precise with his or her attacks that they can instantly kill an enemy. Further, it provides an offense boost that I think the build can use. Bane of enemies covers what can't be critted.

Q: Why 3 levels of barbarian? Why not more?
A: I wanted the barbarian levels for the runspeed increase and uncanny dodge. Rage is a nice side effect once a day. You could leave it at 2 levels but the 3rd level lets you max taunt at 39.

Q: You mention dual wielding rapiers. Why use rapiers instead of shortswords?
A: Rapiers are an 'elven traditional weapon' for RP purposes, and have a larger threat range. The character is meant to swap between "sword and board" and dual wield depending on the situation. If you want to purely powergame it, you can go shortswords easily enough. +39 AB dualling medium weapons isn't bad, though.

Q: Isn't your AC low for a melee? What kind of setup are you supposed to use?
A: The build's meant to wear AC 3 light armor if dualwielding, or AC 4 medium armor and a shield if single wielding. This leaves you relatively stealthy and maximizes your dex bonus to skills and AC. Uncanny dodge keeps you from losing that bonus. You should keep Cat's Grace buffed all the time, since that makes your dex 18 at a minimum, and 20 or 21 if you're lucky.

Q: So what kind of tactics does this character use?
A: The character's meant to be a scout type with their speed and ranger spells. He can stealthily find targets, pull enemies back to the party with their superior speed and the ability to use entangle or grease to slow down pursuit, or use improved expertise to fight them off in place until help arrives.

*edit* Changed starting INT.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.

Edited By Cinnabar Din on 06/09/06 01:08

Hrm. This could be cool with a Human with Scimitars as well (though I realize that's dangerously close to a Drizzt build! Note that I did say Human).

You have a pretty big ECL penalty going for you there with an Elf.

I just looked, and I notice there really aren't many Ranger/Barb builds at all. Strange as they seem to go well together.

Edit: Just noticed this, did you mean to list 13 Int to start with? You'd need that for expertise and improved expertise and I don't see a stat bump for INT.

Edited By Ythaniel on 06/09/06 00:10

It's a multiclassing xp penalty, not an ECL penalty. I didn't note it, but you're right.

ECL means Effective Character Level and in stock NWN tends to refer to a bonus that arcane casters and bards get to their exp per kill at lower levels that is supposed to balance them out with warrior and priest characters. Until a certain level (6 for arcane casters and 8 for bards, IIRC), they gain more exp per kill.

ECL penalties are probably applied in NWN through subraces, if subraces exist in your environment - choosing certain subraces will give you a penalty to exp gained per kill. For example, drow have a +2 ECL penalty that makes them gain exp as if they were 2 levels higher than they are.

I think the character actually has 14 int, but I messed up the build writeup there. I can't remember now as this is an older one and it was something I was doing for amusement more than powergaming. I too think that barbarian and ranger make a great combo, especially as so many people with rangers want to go the dex route and use bows and dual wielding.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience. It's a great build, but you don't show us the main beauty of it, namely it's damage. With all those low- to no-damage builds people are so fond of floating around flaunt your stuff. It's what rangers do best. Hurt others badly. And noone can dish dual-wielding damage like a ranger either. Also note, at the cost of +2 to saves, Ranger 26/Barb4/CoT10 would bring you an extra feat, and 1 more damage vs your FE's. And an additional Barb skilldump somewhere really needed.

That was all, move along folks.
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I see the fear you have inside, you can run but never hide.
I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb.

I run the Pre-Epic Builders guild. Join and share your experience.
Quote: Posted 06/09/06 01:12:30 (GMT) -- Xylophone

It's a multiclassing xp penalty, not an ECL penalty. I didn't note it, but you're right.

ECL means Effective Character Level and in stock NWN tends to refer to a bonus that arcane casters and bards get to their exp per kill at lower levels that is supposed to balance them out with warrior and priest characters. Until a certain level (6 for arcane casters and 8 for bards, IIRC), they gain more exp per kill.

ECL penalties are probably applied in NWN through subraces, if subraces exist in your environment - choosing certain subraces will give you a penalty to exp gained per kill. For example, drow have a +2 ECL penalty that makes them gain exp as if they were 2 levels higher than they are.

My mistake. For some reason ECL and Multiclass XP penalties keep overlapping in my mind. It seems the terms are interchangable throughout the forums, as I know that more than once people I have seen people use ECL when they meant to say multiclass XP penalty. *shrugs*

I tried making an elf with the stats you posted, and if you only make 12 INT then you have 2 points left to spend. So more than likely you meant to place 2 more points into INT and fudged the numbers when you posted. I suppose if you could make this character a wild elf or wood elf you would avoid the XP penalty. I'll echo Grim's Sentiment, Ranger 26/Barb 4/Cot 10 would be stronger. It looks strong on offense, but I'd be a little worried about defense. I guess you have expertise/improved expertise to help there, but that would cripple your offense too. If you are playing in a devastating critical environment, that fortitude save might be a little low as well (unless you can get a con boost and a +saves item). With the extra feat you would get from the Ranger 26/Barb 4/CoT 10 split, I would recommend epic fortitude. Well I suppose I'm being overly critical, this isn't a PvP build. It is a good build, well done.
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Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do. Nice build indeed!

I'm with Grim and Mith for the Ranger 26/CoT 10/Barb 4 split and I'll add that I'd consider going sword and board only using a chain shirt (elven maybe?), which with a slight dex boost will be just one point worse than full plate and has just a -2 penalty to skills (great for stealth skills, especially the elven variant with its +6 Hide/MS).

Cheers,
Kail
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