My name is Beregon Frostwood, and I am a Battle Ranger.
Among my people, we who wander among the mountains and claim the entire North as our home, I am the only one who survived. There is only one who can take vengence. Only one who can set in order the blood debt of over three hundred North Beards. My friends. My family. All gone.
And so I dedicated myself to Moradin, aimed to turn myself into his champion. Through the visions granted me, through living alone in the wild, I learned what which I seeked. I became a master of Axe and Shield. I learned the divine secrets of the Forests. I studied the arts of stealth. I became a Battle Ranger. The only Battle Ranger.
After five years of training, it had all come down to one event: collecting the debt owed to my family and friends: debt owed to me.
I prepared my spells, and selected the right magic scrolls. My shield was secure on its sling over my shoulder, and my axe was in hand. I readied myself to enter the cave.
Divine words flowed over me. I crept inside the opening, my eyes quickly adjusting to the dark. I kept to the shadows, looking for my foes. I didn't need to look long. I found the orc chieftain, not far from the entrance, sleeping on his crude throne in some sort of gruesome trophy room. Heads of human, elf and dwarf alike were mounted on the walls. Anger flared deep inside me. I barely kepy my hand still, my axe shaking with anticipation.
Out I crept, setting traps in front of the guard quarters, several of them at the narrow neck of the tunnel just before the cave led down to larger and darker spaces. I crept back to the chieftain, and came out from the shadows. I raised my axe, and remembering my dead clan, removed his head in one stroke. The gurgle of his headless corpse alerted his guards, who promtly ran into, and died upon, my well laid traps. The sounds of arcing electricity and the smell of burned flesh filled the air. Down below, the sounds did not go unnoticed. More soldiers poured up the stairs, also failing to notice the traps. Sticky bags exploded, spikes shot out, and the horde was temporarily stoppered like a wineskin full to bursting.
I turned to make my way out, and found myself face to face with three skeleton lords, summoned by the orc shamans trapped just behind the first stupid soliders on the stairs. I let loose a low whistle, removed my shield and charged. My training had taught me the weaknesses of the undead. While immune to surprise attacks, they were not immune to my special attacks. The first fell, and then the second. I was too slow, as the third was about to bring his great sword down upon me. Then my companion, a direwolf, whom I haf left outside, grabbed the undead's arm, tearing it off easily. The creature was shortly no more.
I turned. Cursed. This had given the horde time to extricate themselves from my traps. I turned, planted my feet, and began to utter more divine words. I grabbed arcane scrolls and spoke their words upon my wolf. Together we braced ourselves for the storm, knowing that this would be our last stand.
Arms flew, entrails spilled, all the while my feet never moved. My training proved to be worth every second of life I had. Arrows bounced off me, my shield deflecting the short curved swords of the orcs. I had no time to check and see if my friend fared as well. But even through my armour and my hardened skin the fight began to take its toll. Suddenly, after what I thought was the next wave approaching, the attacks stopped. The horde seemed to be held back.
A single lone orc, possibly female underneath the hood and robes, came forward.
"You are a tireless fighter. You have slain our chief. I recognize your beard. Is the blood debt not cleaned? Will you stop?"
I was left at a loss for what was to my ears an eloquent speech. Never had I heard an orc speak in the common tongue as well as this one just had.
I glanced to the pile of dead, choking the stairs, obscuring the doorway into the throne room and the nearest, under my feet. The piles were much larger than I had realized. Given the respite, I looked and found my wolf, still on guard, looking tired yet ready for more. But the end was near, that much I could tell, from the tension in the powerful furry shoulders. My own were not faring much better. The piles were large, and I had no wish to completely end my line.
I shifted my feet closer together, relaxing slightly. "I think that the debt has been paid. You will allow us to leave, and never come again to our...my domain." "Agreed. We feel no need to try to battle you. You are clearly too much for us. Please, just leave us alone, and we will never again attack you." The note in her voice caught my heart.
Whistling to my companion, I slung my shield once again over my shoulder, fitting my axe to my belt. The two of us left, to protect my, our, realm. Now, that the debt was cleared, I could shift my life back to living, away from the art of death. A quick prayer to Moradin for another day to live. For the Battle Ranger, from the North. _________________ "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 christian.schnabel on 11/16/05 23:08
Basically this dwarf is a pretty versatile and fairly tough warrior. With damage reduction, high hitpoints, use magic device, trap setting and stealth skills, he can deal with pretty much anything. He makes use of his animal companion to lure away enemies and engage them when and where he chooses. He can damage most enemies with Sneak Attack thanks to knockdown and stealth. Sneak Immune are just as damageable thanks to Ranger training. Basic Ranger buffs are all available. Being a dwarf makes him more resistant to spells. Saves aren't great but not too shabby. Decent AC thanks to tumble.
Dwarf
playable 1-40, PvM
Lawful alignment... (XP penalty)
STR 16 to 26 DEX 13 CON 16 to 18 WIS 13 to 14 INT 12 CHA 6
Using Camo and OwL Hide is 51, Move Silently is 51, Set Traps is 26 which allows deadly traps to be set.
Spells: Ranger 1: Camouflage x 2, Resist Elements, Ultravision 2: One with Land x 2, Protection from Elements x 2 3: Aid x 2, Blade Thirst 4: Cure Serious Wounds x 2, Polymorph Self
AC: 21 naked, 32 in armour and shield HP: 608 max
Combined with 9/- Damage Reduction, makes him last longer. Defensive Stance boosts AC and HP nicely.
Can self buff with Blade thirst, aid and UMD scrolls of Flame Weapon/Darkfire and cleric buffs via scrolls Also has Animal companion which can be buffed with GMF and scrolls of Impr Invis, Flame Weapon and Stoneskin
21 Ra8 Epic Weapon Focus: Battleaxe 22 Ra9 23 Ra10 24 Ro4 Epic Skill Focus: Move Silently 25 Ra11 26 Ra12 27 Ra13 Armor Skin 28 Ra14 29 DD11 30 Ra15 Great Wisdom I 31 Ra16 32 DD12 33 Ra17 Great Constitution I 34 Ra18 35 DD13 36 Ra19 Great Constitution II 37 Ro5 38 Ra20 39 Ra21 Bane of Enemies 40 DD14 Epic Prowess _________________ "Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
Edited By griphook on 11/18/05 21:46
Love the story.
Intriguing build. I need to play around with it to comment intelligently but it looks fun. Certainly a winner in PvM, wondering if it couldn't hold it's own in PvP.
Cheers, nice all around.
Ithacan
Thanks Ith. I was kinda inspired by your build, the Pally/DD dwarf. I have also been trying to create a Ranger/DD melee combo that was reasonably powerful. I feel pretty happy about the end result.
I am unsure about its effectiveness in PvP, but it might be alright.
Also, I should mention that if you choose the FE's to coincide with common enemies, like Humans, you can do a lot of damage using BoE all the time and with Sneaks and KD/Stealth. This stodgy little bugger can dish out a pretty nice amount against almost anyone, if the FE's are crit/sneak immune. Not as much as rogue/wm's against normal enemies, but still decent.
Thanks for the response. No one seems to care much about what I post anymore. I should write some naughty things and see if anyone notices.
-c _________________ Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
for PvP, I really like the idea of Human as a favored enemy. With the two feats at creation and "quick to master" it is definitely the favored race. Use that to your advantage. Nice touch if you go PvP.
Don't know what to say on the other, but I do notice that most people comment when you have buggered the build, not when you've nailed it.
Thanks for the response. No one seems to care much about what I post anymore. I should write some naughty things and see if anyone notices.
-c
I care. Though sometimes good builds and concepts get drowned in the myriad of Bard/RDD/WM builds that have run amuck lately.
But I always like your concepts, Christian, as you always are stretching your imagination and attempting to try something new and different.
I'm not sure if you mentioned it anywhere, but there is an XP penalty associated with the build. It also seems that you might be able to achieve the same DR if you went for more Con and took Fighter over DwD. For instance, you could add 5 levels to Ranger for 3 more Epic Feats (and an earlier Bane), and then take 10 Fighter levels, with 6-10 coming in Epic. You would have to drop Rogue5 to 4, but not crucial at all. For a more evil slant, and perhaps to avoid XP penalty, one could take Assn over Rogue.
Finally, I wonder about your choice of Dodge feat. I notice you raised your Dex to 13 to qualify for it. And then I also noticed you raised your Wisdom by one point as well. Would it not be wiser to just start Strength at 15, and then use those two points to raise those other stats where you want them to end at, and thus only have to raise your Strength score once as opposed to the once each for the other two ability scores? _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
I care. Though sometimes good builds and concepts get drowned in the myriad of Bard/RDD/WM builds that have run amuck lately.
oooooooo, burn.
Only like half of those are mine.
They will roll off soon enough and then will be available on the character search mechanism. I promise not to bump BadBoy's builds anymore, he is impervious to suggestion anyway.
Damn, Kal! That's twice you schooled me on the simple basics today. Perhaps I've been away from building too long. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Nice build, very usefull PvM character; as always if you don't make mistakes no-one notices you.
Strange how themes come and go; I was looking at creating a Ranger/DD/Assassin or Thief yesterday. I was looking at a two-bladed sword for the weapon . It's pretty similar to this one, perhaps I'll keep working on it.
First to grizz.
Thanks. I just sometimes think that what I built is so ridiculous that no one even wants to bother touching it with a 10 foot axe shaft.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that XP penalty thing. With any luck, the all great griphook may see this and add that in. ***** ***** griphook ***** ***** Oh, and I have tried to play DD's without much dex and end up screwed when building. i keep forgetting about dodge until then...actually i remembered this time, but othertimes i keep forgetting.
But the idea of taking fighter is good. boosting con some more, taking EDR III, and then also getting EWS perhaps? not too shabby. the only bad part is losing a sneak die going rogue 4 from 5. i think this char needs the extra damage.
To kal,
I was thinking after the fact about assassin, but i am not a good evil char builder. i just haven't gotten the nack of being truly evil. but in terms of powergaming, it makes a load of sense. Thanks
to mphacon,
it seems that everyone gets the same ideas at around the same time. this doesn't seem to coincide with threads either. just seems to happen. i would love to see your build. dual wielding is great fun, but i opted to ignore it for this build.
Thanks to everyone for responding. Comments and suggestions are all gladly acknowledged and contemplated.
Thanks again,
-c _________________ "You cannot pass!"
Edited By griphook on 11/18/05 21:52
Nice concept. Nice work on making it work
Quote: cs But the idea of taking fighter is good. boosting con some more, taking EDR III, and then also getting EWS perhaps? not too shabby. the only bad part is losing a sneak die going rogue 4 from 5. i think this char needs the extra damage.
EWS equals +6 damage on each hit - one sneak dice equals 1 to 6 damage on a successful sneak attack. So I don't think it's a bad deal even if you lose that one Rogue level for EWS
I'll be waiting for a Fighter version _________________ Now is my day's work done; I'll take good breath: Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of blood and death.
it seems that everyone gets the same ideas at around the same time. this doesn't seem to coincide with threads either. just seems to happen. i would love to see your build. dual wielding is great fun, but i opted to ignore it for this build.
Turned out to be a Ranger/Figher/DwD in the end. Elfbane.
Quote: I care. Though sometimes good builds and concepts get drowned in the myriad of Bard/RDD/WM builds that have run amuck lately.
But I always like your concepts, Christian, as you always are stretching your imagination and attempting to try something new and different.
What he said. I have had builds with only one comment here, but that don't get to me. At least I don't start posting 4 or 5 similar builds instead.
I like Rangers, I like Dwarves and I don't like dex builds without rogue or similar classes. In short: I like this build. Seems very fun and playable. The fighter thing was sound advice, it yields many feats.
I should write some naughty things and see if anyone notices. 
. It's pretty similar to this one, perhaps I'll keep working on it.
First to grizz.
