* - Optional Feat + - COT Bonus Feat % - FE's picked for common creatures that often have slashing resistances. Second FE can be replaced with a feat
Skills - Discipline, Crossclass Tumble to 20, Intimidate 42 at level 39; leftover points anywhere you want - should be enough for 3 more maxed skills. Hide/MS, Set Traps, Animal Empathy, Search, Heal are all quite useful.
Ending Vitals: 28 str 16 dex
AC 22 in mundane studded leather, 20 raging,+1 dodge vs current target, +3 with a shield 552 max hp, 672 raging DR 2/- F 36 R 30 W 25, F 39 W 28 raging, +1 vs death magic
FAQ: Q: This character sure has a low AC. Granted he's got a nice AB for a dual-wielder and is strength-based so he doesn't have the "dex character dilemma" of what to do for damage, but isn't he just a little too lightly defended? A: In some cases yes... luckily he's got a boat-load of hitpoints and good saves. You have to keep with light armor to use the ranger dual-wield feats, but with 16 dex you can get another +1 to your AC by buffing cat's grace from your ranger spells.
Terrifying rage is a good defense, though it only affects enemies that can be Feared. You get a pretty decent DC for it and if you can get +intimidate items it can be even better. You also take expertise, called shot, and improved knockdown for a reason with this guy
Additionally, you should carry around a tower shield and switch it in when you need it. Be flexible.
If you absolutely can't afford to have a low AC, however, it's probably not the best build for you. A plate-armor variant using fighter instead of ranger and getting the dual wield feats normally would probably be more up your alley then, but that's a build of a different theme.
Q: What tactics do you use with this character? A: Ideally, terrifying rage will spook your opponents into fear mode. At that point, you get free beats on them. Called shotting their legs to keep them from running away too fast can be useful. Knocking them down after two rounds is a good tactic in case the fear wears off from them.
If you are up against enemies who can't be feared, it's often a good idea to rage anyway and use the extra AB to absorb some of the minuses from Expertise mode. This bumps your AC up to a more respectable level and can go a long way towards keeping you alive.
Still having trouble keeping alive? Put on your shield.
Q: You use 12 wis so you can cast ranger spells, right? What ranger spells do you use? A: Cat's grace is basically assumed by the build. This pumps your dex to a minimum 18, so you get the full dex bonus from studded armor. The level 1 spell is up to you, however Grease or Entangle can be pretty nice, either to get knockdown chances on crowds who miss their saves, or to just slow things down so it's easier to chase them when they panic from terrifying rage.
Q: What other races can I use for this build? A: Half-orc is a feasible possibility: it will cost you in the skills department and prevent you from taking IKD, but you'll get an extra point of damage and AB from it, minimum.
If you don't mind the exp penalty or want to try rearranging the level progression to mitigate it, the Dwarf's con bonus would be very welcome to this character. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
You don't mention it specificly, but since you have +4 dex based AC, the Uncanny dodge from Barbarian helps a lot. The barbarian speed bonus also helps chasing down terrified enemies. _________________ I generally avoid temptation, unless I can't resist it...
Solid meleer build. I had a thought about your Epic portion and wondered your opinion. If you dropped the epic levels of CoT, you could put those 4 levels into Barbarian and get that class to 20. Doing so would allow TR to be taken much earlier, perhaps level 30 or 33, and you could use the Ranger10 feat to pick up the Epic Prowess you had initially acquired from CoT14. You'd also gain 2 more Damage Reduction, 8 more skill points and 8 more hitpoints. The only thing you lose is +2 to saves and FE: Constructs, which wasn't acquired till level40 anyway.
But the thought really stemmed from trying to take TR earlier. There are several feats in the game that I look on as class features that I try to get as early as possibly in Epic-- if you are playing from ground up-- such as Bane, Epic Dodge, EWS, and TR.
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Yes that's doable... I made a trade-off of DR and extra rages in return for higher saves, since this build has no other defense against magic but his saves. No evasion, etc.
Getting TR earlier would be nice and, technically, doesn't really require more barb levels. You can arrange it since you only need Barb 15 and intimidate 25 to get it - you can qualify for it at level 24 if you frontload barbarian instead of the other two classes. Then shift epic skill focus in intimidate earlier, to keep your DC up in the interim, and take barb 16 at 39 to max out your intimidate skill.
I chose to front-load the ranger and COT levels to get an early ITWF and a number of combat feats pre-epic. Changing the progression to more COT in epic and more barb in pre-epic is worth some consideration - you can still take the same bonus feats as a COT, you'll just get them later. Depending on the player's environment this could be a very, very good idea Grizz
Something like ranger 9/COT 3/Barb 8 in the pre-epic would set you up to have TR at your level 27 class feat, actually. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
