Race: Human
Alignment: Non-Lawful, Non-Evil
Playable 1 - 40 PvM

Ranger, Bard, and Harper Scout are likely the three most commonly misunderstood/ underestimated classes, so why not exploit all of them at the same time?

Ranger heavy builds abound, but those bearing closest resemblance to this version are probably Harper Ranger /Ranger 31/Fighter 4/HarperScout 5 by Aligory and
Rogue’s Companion /Ranger 31/Fighter 4/Harper Scout 5 by christian.schnabel

Starting/ Ending:
Str 14/ 30
Dex 14/ 15
Con 14
Wis 14
Int 14
Cha 8

Leveling

1 Ranger (1): Weapon Focus (Handaxe), Toughness, FE I
2 Ranger (2):
3 Ranger (3): $Called Shot
4 Ranger (4): +1 str (15)
5 Ranger (5): FE II
6 Ranger (6): Blindfight
7 Ranger (7):
8 Ranger (8): +1 str (16)
9 Ranger (9): Iron Will
10 Ranger (10): FE III
11 Ranger (11):
12 Ranger (12): +1 str (17), Alertness
13 Ranger (13):
14 Ranger (14):
15 Ranger (15): Empower Spell, FE IV
16 Ranger (16): +1 str (18)
17 Ranger (17):
18 Bard (1): $Extra Music
19 Ranger (18):
20 Ranger (19): +1 str (19)
21 Ranger (20): %Epic Weapon Focus (Handaxe), Great Str I (20)
22 HS (1): $#Great Dex I (15)
23 Ranger (21):
24 Ranger (22): +1 str (21), Great Str II (22)
25 Ranger (23): %Bane of Enemies
26 Ranger (24):
27 HS (2): Great Str III (23)
28 Ranger (25): +1 str (24), %Epic Prowess
29 Ranger (26): FE V
30 Ranger (27): Armor Skin
31 Ranger (28):
32 HS (3): +1 str (25)
33 Ranger (29): Great Str II (26), FE VI
34 Ranger (30): FE VII
35 Ranger (31):
36 Ranger (32): +1 str (27), Great Str III (28), FE VIII
37 Bard (2):
38 Ranger (33):
39 Ranger (34): Great Str VI (29)
40 Ranger (35): +1 str (30), FE IX, FE X

$ - Optional Feat, replace as desired
# - HS Bonus Feat
% - Ranger Bonus Feat

Skills (301 total):
Discipline: 43
Hide: 43
Listen: 43
Lore: 6
Move Silently: 43
Perform: 7 (6)
Persuade: 8
Search: 4
Spellcraft: 38 (40)
Tumble: 40
UMD: 26 (25)
0 left over

Max HP: 506
Average HP (no rerolls): 417
AC (mundane hide armor): 25
AB (dual wielding mundane handaxes): +42/ +37/ +32/ +27/ +42/ +37

Saves (+8 vs spells): Fort 23 Ref 20 Will 22

Advantages
10 Favored Enemies
Bane of Enemies
Full Ranger Spellcasting
High Damage
Pretty good HP

Disadvantages
Low Saves (made up for partially with Spellcraft)
Not enough skill points

Comments
Not much to this, really. The basic idea is to use Ranger Empowered Cat's Grace stacked with Harper Scout Cat's Grace to fill out the dex bonus of light armor, allowing for a strength Ranger who can stealth and dual wield without relying on gear and without letting AC fall too far behind the Fighters in full plate. By my math, with self buffing only, he will fill out hide armor 100% of the time, leather armor 81.25% of the time, and padded armor 18.75% of the time. With just +2 dex from some other source, he can fill out leather armor 100% of the time, and padded armor 50% of the time.

Variations
It may seem strange to end Dex on an odd number, but half the time you'll be rolling an odd bonus from Cat's Grace(s), so the +1 will actually be useful. Nonetheless, if it bothers you more than it bothers me ( ), it is possible to take two extra HS levels to get an extra Great Dex and even things out, though you lose two Favored Enemies and one AB/ Damage to those you have.

If you know you'll be able to get more than +2 Dex from gear without skipping over str gear, then I'd lower starting dex by 2 or 4 in favor of str, and exchange the selected HS bonus feat for an extra Favored Enemy. You'll lose any chance of being able to use padded armor's full benefits, but leather armor will still work just fine at only 1 less AC. If such is the case, you may even wish to drop Empower Spell in favor of something else.

For a straight level 40 build, or if you don't mind an XP penalty, Dwarf is a pretty good choice instead of human. Rogue can also be used instead of Bard, but the lack of Spellcraft in the Rogue skill list makes Bard a better choice, imo.

For 1 extra AB, Bard can be delayed until Epic, but it should be noted that Bard Song will make up that AB with +1 damage to boot, not to mention the earlier use of UMD. Also, taking Extra Music in exchange for an epic feat is probably not advisable.
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(I enjoy writing parenthetically (a lot)). The Extra Music feat is wasted - without a bardsong of at least 11th level, there's no point. I'd have to say Empower Spell is a waste, too. Cats grace is stackable, and you can get plenty of dex between the stackability and items and HS - thus, no need to waste those two feats. Get KD and IKD instead.

Also, because extra music is wasted, you can move that bard level into epic - or drop it altogether. Bard is fine and dandy for meeting the HS requirements, but you don't need two bard levels. If you replace it with ranger, you can grab another bonus feat, which you can use for Armor Skin and grab a great strength, which would legitimize shifting that point over from dex. You'd end up with two more AB and slightly stronger ranger spells - at the cost of two skillpoints.
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CATS!
Quote: Posted 09/21/06 13:13:53 (GMT) -- avarielo

The Extra Music feat is wasted.

Contrarily, I'd say with a lot of Bard levels is when the feat becomes wasted. As it is, I get to use it three times more often than I would otherwise, and +1 to AB and Damage for everyone in your party is nothing to scoff at. Nonetheless, I understand it doesn't fit everyone's taste, which is why I listed it as optional. Knockdown, on the other had, I've grown rather tired of, and considering module builders frequently hand out knockdown immunity to anything important, I consider it nice, but optional for anything without Sneak Attacks.

Quote:  I'd have to say Empower Spell is a waste, too. Cats grace is stackable, and you can get plenty of dex between the stackability and items and HS - thus, no need to waste those two feats.

For environments where you can easily get max/ near max dex to more than one ability score from items (presumably an environment you play in), yes, empower spell is a waste, but this build isn't meant for those environments. If you play in one of those, forget stacking Cat's Grace entirely and play Nature's Executioner /Ranger 35/Fighter 4/Bard 1 by Grimnir77.

Also, I think you may be forgetting that for every item you wear that boosts dex, you aren't wearing something else that boosts AC, strength, or provides an immunity of some type. Finding a piece of gear or two that grants something you like and boosts dex is nice (boots of the Sun Soul and Dragon Slippers come to mind), but not something that should be expected (unless you know for a fact you will have access).

Quote: Also, because extra music is wasted, you can move that bard level into epic - or drop it altogether. Bard is fine and dandy for meeting the HS requirements, but you don't need two bard levels. If you replace it with ranger, you can grab another bonus feat, which you can use for Armor Skin and grab a great strength, which would legitimize shifting that point over from dex. You'd end up with two more AB and slightly stronger ranger spells - at the cost of two skillpoints.
Moving Bard to epic is fine if you don't want Extra music, as is knockdown, but it was not taken to meet the HS requirements. Not having to cross class Persuade was nice, but Bard was taken for spellcraft and UMD, and not taking a 2nd level to max out Spellcraft is just bad advice, imo. Also, unless I'm missing something, you screwed up your numbers a bit. First, I took Armor Skin as a general feat because Ranger doesn't have Armor Skin as a bonus feat, 2nd, two more Ranger levels won't get an extra feat (not until Ranger 38), 3rd, the Great Dex feat can't be replaced with Armor Skin, and 4th, all classes involved get 4 skill points/ level, so no matter how you shift things, you get the same skill points. I see the 1 AB from moving Bard levels around, but I don't think you can get any more without changing starting abilities.

Thanks for the comments.
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(I enjoy writing parenthetically (a lot)). A further note on Empower spell:

With Empower Spell and +4 dex gear, you have an 68.75% chance of hitting the stat cap with self buffing.

Without Empower Spell and the same +4 gear, your chances drop to 37.5%.

The point, Empower Spell drastically improves your chances of "filling out" leather, or even padded armor. My mistake for not including more detailed math in the write up.
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(I enjoy writing parenthetically (a lot)).
Quote: Posted 09/21/06 14:17:41 (GMT) -- koolthursday

A further note on Empower spell:

With Empower Spell and +4 dex gear, you have an 68.75% chance of hitting the stat cap with self buffing.

Without Empower Spell and the same +4 gear, your chances drop to 37.5%.

The point, Empower Spell drastically improves your chances of "filling out" leather, or even padded armor. My mistake for not including more detailed math in the write up.

But with ranger level 35, you have more than enough castings of cats grace to do without the empowerment. There's my point.
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CATS!
Quote: Posted 09/21/06 14:12:08 (GMT) -- koolthursday

Moving Bard to epic is fine if you don't want Extra music, as is knockdown, but it was not taken to meet the HS requirements. Not having to cross class Persuade was nice, but Bard was taken for spellcraft and UMD, and not taking a 2nd level to max out Spellcraft is just bad advice, imo. Also, unless I'm missing something, you screwed up your numbers a bit. First, I took Armor Skin as a general feat because Ranger doesn't have Armor Skin as a bonus feat, 2nd, two more Ranger levels won't get an extra feat (not until Ranger 38), 3rd, the Great Dex feat can't be replaced with Armor Skin, and 4th, all classes involved get 4 skill points/ level, so no matter how you shift things, you get the same skill points. I see the 1 AB from moving Bard levels around, but I don't think you can get any more without changing starting abilities.

Oops. My bad. You can still shift EWF for a ranger feat if you wanted to drop one favored enemy for 1 AB/damage, but that doesn't really fit the theme of having that many favored enemies.
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CATS! nothing i like more than a strong ranger. the only change that i would make would be to drop hide by 20 points. using spells you can make up for it. then put those points into set traps, or maybe into search. just gives you a few more options, without losing anything.

i think that dropping extra music is a good idea. can use almost anything...save boosting, stealthiness, metamagic (unusal for a ranger but not unheard of...crafting scrolls or wands might be handy in some cases, but i can't think of many ).

just my two cents.

-cs

Edited By christian.schnabel on 09/21/06 23:22

Quote: Posted 09/21/06 06:36:18 (GMT) -- koolthursday

Ranger, Bard, and Harper Scout are likely the three most commonly misunderstood/ underestimated classes, so why not exploit all of them at the same time?
...
The basic idea is to use Ranger Empowered Cat's Grace stacked with Harper Scout Cat's Grace to fill out the dex bonus of light armor.

Nice exploit. A pity none of the 3 classes give you uncanny dodge.
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The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan
Quote: Posted 09/21/06 06:36:18 (GMT) -- koolthursday

Ranger, Bard, and Harper Scout are likely the three most commonly misunderstood/ underestimated classes, so why not exploit all of them at the same time?

He he. Underestimated? Do a search and you'll see how mistaken you are about that statement...
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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 09/26/06 08:21:07 (GMT) -- Grimnir77

Quote: Posted 09/21/06 06:36:18 (GMT) -- koolthursday

Ranger, Bard, and Harper Scout are likely the three most commonly misunderstood/ underestimated classes, so why not exploit all of them at the same time?

He he. Underestimated? Do a search and you'll see how mistaken you are about that statement...

Commonly underestimated. It's true about the search, but we're also priveleged enough to be in rather uncommon company around here. Try telling someone on the non-RP server of your choice to consider using HS in one of their builds and see the kind of response you get.