Level Guide 1 Ranger1, Blindfighting, Weapon Focus: Scimitar, FE I 2 Fighter1, Knockdown 3 Ranger2, Called Shot 4 Ranger3, Str17 5 Ranger4 6 Ranger5, Iron Will, FE II 7 Assassin1 8 Ranger6, Str18 9 Ranger7, Improved Knockdown 10 Ranger8 11 Ranger9 12 Assassin2, Str19, Improved Crit: Scimitar 13 Ranger10, FE III 14 Ranger11 15 Ranger12, Stealthy 16 Ranger13, Str20 17 Assassin3 18 Ranger14, Toughness 19 Ranger15, FE IV 20 Ranger16, Str21 21 Fighter2, Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar, ESF: Move Silently 22 Assassin4 23 Fighter3 24 Fighter4, WeaponSpecialization/Epic WS: Scimitar, Str22 25 Ranger17 26 Ranger18 27 Assassin5, Epic Reflexes 28 Ranger19, Str23 29 Ranger20, FE V 30 Ranger21, Bane of Enemies 31 Ranger22 32 Ranger23, Epic Prowess, Str24 33 Ranger24, Great Str I 34 Ranger25, FE VI 35 Ranger26, FE VII 36 Ranger27, Great Str II, Str27 37 Assassin6 38 Ranger28 39 Ranger29, FE VIII, Armor Skin 40 Ranger30 FE IX, Str28
Combat Vitals AC: 30 (Full Plate/Shield) AB: 42/37/32/27 FE AB: 44/39/34/29 Base Damage Output: 1-8+15(15-20/x2)+3d6sneak Base FE Damage: 1-8+24 +2d6Bane +3d6Sneak Base Max HP: 484
Preferred Spells 1st(4): Ultravision, Camouflage, Resist Elements 2nd(4): Cats Grace, One with Land, Protection from Elements 3rd(3): Aid, Greater Magic Fang, Invisibility Purge 4th(3): Freedom, Mass Camouflage, Cure Serious Wounds
Other Powers Ghostly Visage (x1 day, 1turn/level duration) Darkness (x1 day, 1 round/level duration) Use Magic Device Called Shot:(Arm: Enemy suffers –2AB /Leg: Enemy suffers –2Dex and 20% movement) Improved Knockdown Uncanny Dodge
The Power of Stealth The Journeyman’s natural Hide is 45. His Move Silently is 55. Now, add Trackless Step (assuming Outdoors) for +4 to each. Then add +2 to each for Cats Grace. Then add +10 to Hide for Camouflage. Then add +4 to each for One with Land. Then add +10 more to Hide for Mass Camouflage. This brings his Final Hide skill, without items, to 75. His Move Silently skill, without items, would be 65. Then, add -10 for Full Plate and Large Shield, and your character still has a 65 Hide and 55 Move Silently. Indoors and dungeons, these scores were 60 and 50 respectively.
Thus, using these tremendous stealth skills, he is able to attack unseen, catch enemies flatfooted, and inflict devastating damage upon them, especially if they are a Favored Enemy. And, to add insult to injury, the Black Panther, buffed with Cats Grace, Aid and Greater Magic Fang, will also attack from a sneaked position and deliver 30d6 sneak damage per round. Even the direst of opponents will turn to mush under such conditions.
And the icing on the cake is that he can do it in Full Plate and Large Shield.
Defense Against the Dark Arts Make no mistake, the Journeyman can be ripped apart by a good caster. His saves are mediocre, he has no slippery mind, no evasion, and no mind immunities. The only thing in his favor is UMD. One must make it a continual side quest to seek items and scrolls that can give him spell protection. Clarity, Protection from Alignment, etc. will mitigate his weakness against casters. Also in his favor are spells like Aid, Freedom of Movement, and Resist/Protection from Elements.
Making the Most of Ranger Spells With 30 levels of Ranger, you will not need to worry about duration. All of your spells/buffs will last a very long time. Always buff your Panther. Magic Fang/Greater Magic Fang will turn him into a beast. Casting Cats Grace on him will also raise both his AC and his AB. But don't use him as a meat shield. He is 100% more efficient if he is flanking while you engage your opponent dead-on. Use your UMD skill to give him additional buffs as needed. Between Ranger spells and your UMD scrolls, the Panther will become a character unto his own right. Also, don't forget to cast Cat's Grace on yourself. This will raise your AC by 1, increase your reflex save, and increase all of your Stealth skills.
In addition, save most of your spell slots for your Stealth spells, i.e. Camouflage, One with Land, and Mass Camouflage. The latter two have durations of 1 hour/per level, while Camouflage still has 1 turn per level. And don't forget that One with Land will raise your Set Traps skill by 4. Throw in Cat's Grace and a mediocre Dex item, and it will be the bump needed to set Deadly Traps earlier than you could normally. The DC for most Deadly Traps is 30 or 35, so even with a skill of 10 in Set Traps, you can comfortably lay them against your enemy.
The 3rd Tier of Ranger spells are of particular use: Greater Magic Fang will give the Panther claws and fangs a +5 Enhancement by the time you reach Ranger15(achieved in pre-epic). It has a solid duration of 1 turn per level.
Aid is also invaluable. It grants an instant +1AB, +1 saves vs. Fear, and an extra 1-8 Hit Points. With a solid duration of 1 turn/level, it too is particularly useful when cast on the Panther.
Invisibility Purge will remove all invisibility effects that any troublesome spellcasters or stealthers might be using. With a 1 turn/level duration, you can cast this and leave it on for a long while, and provides a good 1-2 punch with the Blindfighting Feat and the high Listen skill against Favored Enemies.
A final note on spells: a few Wisdom enhancing items can be assigned a double-duty: they will increase his spell slots and his Will Save. Keep that in mind (no pun intended).
Your Dark Side The Assassin brings a few nifty tricks to the table. In addition to Tumble, UMD and Uncanny Dodge, it also grants Ghostly Visage (acquired Lvl12), and Darkness (acquired Lvl27). Darkness—a poor man’s HiPS— in particular can be useful, though beware of its short duration. Still, 5-6 rounds of Darkness, coupled with your Ranger's Ultravision, might be enough to give you and the Cat an even greater edge in combat. One trick that I like to use is to cast Darkness in a particular area, then run through it and have your enemy follow you into it. If you are out of Ultravisions, you just exit the Darkness, reenter Stealth Mode (since enemy has lost line of sight), and then wait for them to come out of the Darkness, and then just shred and rend them to tiny pieces.
Combat and Survival Since most of his attacks are tantamount to a sneak attack, that is, launching from a stealthed position and potentially catching the opponent flat-flooted, I recommend always leading your first attack sequence with 1-2 Called Shots to the Arm. This will immediately (assuming a failed Discipline check) give them a –2 to –4 AB and put you in the driver’s seat for the rest of combat.
Regarding Dualwielding: yes, you can dualwield. If you wish, you could dualwield scimitars at a 38AB (40 vs FEs), or dualwield scimitar and a light weapon for a 40 mainhand / 37 offhand. There are situations where this might be beneficial, but here is my take on it. In a tough, hard-nose PvM setting, or even PvP Setting, 484 max base hit points is decent, but it is not great. Further, he has no Damage Reduction. He already has inherent vulnerability against casters, so the Journeyman has made the choice to yield to the shield. The shield offers and affords protection, and gives him the needed AC to survive while he delivers maximum potential damage with his scimitar, chosen for highest crit range, and his Panther, chosen for 10d6sneak. Keep a shield in hand. It works. The steady damage that the single-wielded scimitar offers will pay off, I assure you.
Customization As with any build, these are free for tweaking to your environment and are highly recommended. I know my environment, and, through experience, have a general feel for typical environments, and thus make my builds accordingly. I understand the importance of saves, of hit points, of damage reduction and of Armor Class. Thus, you see a strength-based ranger using a shield, and taking Feats like Iron Will and Epic Reflexes. Balance. Above all, balance is the key. It would be easy to have taken Shadowdancer (or even Monk) over Assassin, and Evasion, Defensive Roll and even Slippery Mind, if I pushed it far enough, could be attained. But even in spite of these attractive abilities, I still felt UMD outweighed the good Shadowdancer could bring. One could choose Rogue as well and get the best of both worlds—but that required more careful leveling to avoid XP penalty. But, as in all things, your environment will determine your fate.
Further with the Ranger side acquiring so many feats in Epic, it’s tempting to start burning them for things like EWF, Epic Prowess, Bane of Enemies, etc... But hold your ground! Collect Favored Enemies. With each Favored Enemy collected you revisit that damage and thensome back upon the previous FE. It is worth it. I wanted to stick with a minimum of 9 FE’s, because that, combined with EWS, Bane, a good Str modifier, 3d6 sneak +10d6 sneak from the Panther, it comes out to be a bucketload of damage. I took on my Mod’s 40th Fighter, who out-ABed by 12+ points, out-ACed my by 10, out-attacked me by 5 to 4, and out-HPed by 150+, and the Journeyman felled him, without any items at all. Mundane everything. And the Panther, the caliginous cat, was at his side, purring at full hit points. No heals, no respawns, just straight up “fight me with just this bloody plain scimitar and shield!”
So, I know he works, and works well. ______ Cheers, lads! Up the Irons! _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Edited By Kail Pendragon on 10/14/07 13:47
Nice build, Grizz. Solid. Excellent write up on this build as well. Kudos!
P.S. Good to see another build from you! _________________ Wave upon wave of demented avengers marched cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream...
Human?
I suppose he's acceptable.
Nice write up Grizz. Looks like a mean Ranger. Do we get a story too?
Kaliban. _________________ Intelligent design is neither. Science over superstition please.
Interesting build, it's pretty rare to see such an effective character with so many ranger class levels but it works out nicely.
Did you explore the 26 ranger 4 fighter 10 assassin option, Grizz? You'd lose a ranger bonus feat and a FE, but gain improved invisibility and bump your death attack to 5d6. It's a tradeoff, but I think it would result in a slightly stronger character (simply because imp invis is just that good) rather than being a purely lateral move. The last two FEs you pick - aberrations and magic beats - are certainly useful, but tend to be less common than the others in my experience. So, losing one and possibly using another to cover the lost bonus feat seems feasible. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
That's certainly an option, Xylo, but I've got to think you could grab Imp Invis from a scroll in almost every environment out there, so gaining it from level 9 Assn wouldn't be an imperative, especially since it would be late in the build (granted it would be a great thing to have in reserve).
You'd also lose +1 damage on your FEs (no biggie), end up with a slightly weaker animal companion, and lose some duration on your spells. I guess this route would fall under Grizz's "Customization" category. _________________ Wave upon wave of demented avengers marched cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream...
The Power of Stealth The Journeyman’s natural Hide is 45. His Move Silently is 55. Now, add Trackless Step (assuming Outdoors) for +4 to each. Then add +2 to each for Cats Grace. Then add +10 to Hide for Camouflage. Then add +4 to each for One with Land. Then add +10 more to Hide for Mass Camouflage. This brings his Final Hide skill, without items, to 75. His Move Silently skill, without items, would be 65. Then, add -10 for Full Plate and Large Shield, and your character still has a 65 Hide and 55 Move Silently. Indoors and dungeons, these scores were 60 and 50 respectively.
...
first off, wow grizz. this one has some nice punch to it. like a better version of what i was trying to accomplish. i seea use for assassin here that doesn't mean the char is evil, just not the goody two shoes pally. i like it.
also, a few questions. the UMD skill seems awfully high. 26 boosted to 35 without skill foci? unless i missed them above, i think you meant 25 on the UMD score.
and does mass camo really stack with regular camo? i did not know this! this allows for some good use of the 4th level spells.
i like that you gave a very detailed breakdown of the powers of the ranger side. as well as the part about buffing your animal for some good umpf. don't forget that umd scrolls can also buff the panther to give it some fire damage thanks to flame weapon. also, giving the panther some improved invisibility wouldn't hurt the survivability either. potions/scrolls of endurance as well. although, as you mentioned, this one isn't a melee machine, so keep the little one to the shadows.
all around, i would say nicely done. and interesting build concept.
-c _________________ "Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." - Miyamoto Musashi
Quote: Posted 11/21/05 02:59:52 (GMT) -- Cinnabar Din
That's certainly an option, Xylo, but I've got to think you could grab Imp Invis from a scroll in almost every environment out there, so gaining it from level 9 Assn wouldn't be an imperative, especially since it would be late in the build (granted it would be a great thing to have in reserve).
You'd also lose +1 damage on your FEs (no biggie), end up with a slightly weaker animal companion, and lose some duration on your spells. I guess this route would fall under Grizz's "Customization" category.
All true - scrolled buffs are nice but are dispel-bait, and I hate being in the midst of a crowd when their cleric or wizard dispels off the best defense buff you can get without 21 wizard levels
It certainly depends on where you're coming from though. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Quote: Posted 11/21/05 02:17:04 (GMT) -- Kaliban99 Do we get a story too? Kaliban.
I had a few in the works. But there was a-- how do the French say? a carte blanche appeal about him. I think it works.
Did you explore the 26 ranger 4 fighter 10 assassin option, Grizz? You'd lose a ranger bonus feat and a FE, but gain improved invisibility and bump your death attack to 5d6. It's a tradeoff, but I think it would result in a slightly stronger character (simply because imp invis is just that good) rather than being a purely lateral move.
Actually, I did consider it. It's not a bad move, but it delays the Ranger aspect of the build no matter which way you slice it (unless we're talking straight Level 36-40 builds.) It postpones spells, it postpones FE's, it postpones Bane, it postpones Panther lethality(a sneak source) and could even postpone or lower AB. For me, the big one was postponing Bane. Level 27 was my goal, but 30 was the best I could manage. I further made the presumptious leap that some sort of Concealment scrolls might be available in a good portion of environments. I think if I were making this for PvP, then I would take the 9 Assassin and spend my 7 FEs on all the subraces. That would be quite effective given his arsenal. In PvM, I would structure it thus, though it should be said that he won't be inherently weaker by going for the that 9th Assassin level.
i seea use for assassin here that doesn't mean the char is evil, just not the goody two shoes pally.
Precisely. He's self-serving.
Quote: also, a few questions. the UMD skill seems awfully high. 26 boosted to 35 without skill foci? unless i missed them above, i think you meant 25 on the UMD score.
Spot-on. In one of my rewrites he had a 36 UMD score and it was a modified 35. It was subsequently changed back and forth, but the final modified should read 25. I offer a pile steaming pile of Harpy droppings to our dear Grip to remedy.
Quote: and does mass camo really stack with regular camo? i did not know this! this allows for some good use of the 4th level spells.
I had no idea either, until I started foolong around. It did stack, and I was quite pleased. Thus, you will note that I found it unncessary to take an ESF: in Hide. His Hide Skill soars above and beyond mortal kind.
Quote: don't forget that umd scrolls can also buff the panther to give it some fire damage thanks to flame weapon. also, giving the panther some improved invisibility wouldn't hurt the survivability either.
Oh no, I didn't forget. Trust me. The third class had to be either Rogue, Bard, or Assassin becuase of this. In fact, I may have mentioned this explicitly somewhere. But when I play characters, I take pride in keeping my party members not only alive, but keeping them deadly. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Edited By grizzled_dwarflord on 11/21/05 04:18
Thanks for the explanation Grizz, I didn't really think hard about any tradeoffs beyond the obvious.
If it weren't for II, I'd never have considered it worthwhile - the extra sneak attack dice and poison saves definitely aren't worth sacrificing FE-ey goodness for in a Bane build. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Tsk. I would call it Grim The Journeyman. Mostly because this goes so far up my alley he is almost home. 9 FE's give you such a bonus to damage you can take on "better" builds, you even have EWS on top. Pure delight. The offhand gives off very good damage in a fighter/Ranger build, compared to others. It's nice to use when combat starts to get off as many attacks as possible in the first flurry, then quickly equip the shield. This would be a tempting build to tune to PvP with FE's for me, who love PvP.
So with Grim the Journeyman i think you have done well. But why the h... he isn't Dwarf is well and beyond me. In the incarnation you play, I bet he is.
Like in Grim the Journeyman ( ), I to tend to end up getting Bane around lvl 30.
), I to tend to end up getting Bane around lvl 30.