Ranger levelling advice.

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by MrPhil, Nov 7, 2021.

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  1. MrPhil

    MrPhil Member

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    I currently have an archery based ranger. I took a look at the ranger levels beyond 11 and aside from an additional favoured enemy at level 20, there doesn't seem to be any reason to make it worth sticking with ranger.
    At level 12, I switched to fighter and stayed there quite happily until level 11/4 = 15.
    Full BAB progression and the extra feats are great. However, with weapon specialisation, weapon focus and ranged mastery in the bag, I don't think there's any archery based feats left to take.
    I already have rapid shot, many shot, improved critical, improved precise shot from the ranger training.

    I am not concerned with multiclass xp penalties, my wizard and cleric are so far behind due to crating, its not an issue.

    Question, then, is where next?
    - Back to ranger to boost the animal companion?
    - A different full-BAB class? Barbarian seems useless to this build. Does Paladin offer anything?
    - Rogue for some sneak attack? Worried about dropping BAB, as there's a later quest with some very high ac opponents. And potentially it would help first round
    - Something crazy like wiz1/rog3/x1 with the idea of casting greater invisibility from a scroll, then enjoying sneak attack bonus. Is that really worth a full round, when I could be firing off 4 or five arrows?

    Interested to see what you guys think.

    Thanks
    Phil.
     
  2. sigofmugmort

    sigofmugmort Established Member Supporter

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    with shot on the run, try 1 level of barbarian for movement increase then 3 levels of scout, you only lose 1 from bab, and get a skirmish die.
     
  3. hammyh

    hammyh Established Member

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    As you noted, you can also take at least 1 level of rogue and then the somewhat OP craven feat. Or if you don't approve of this particular feat, just take more levels of SA.

    In the arena of gods, the only way an archer can do consistent and significant damage, other than indirectly via a crafted wounding bow, is to get a lot of sneak damage added in order to push through the damage reduction. With greater invisibility. In the case of Iuz or St. Cuthbert.

    Iuz also takes extra damage from holy and axiomatic crafting, of course. And he only has DR 15. So it's not so bad as it is with Cuthbert. Where every tiny bit of damage is needed to get through his DR 25.

    (The Balors are not so formidable and have many DR holes, so this is not needed for them.)

    You can compensate the BAB loss via other feats such as flanking AB bonus feats. There are also wands of true strike. Even with a full BAB character, most of the time it will be trying to hit on 20s without various exta spell help via wands (divine favor, divine power, true strike, etc).

    For using Greater Invis, you can just pump UMD and get wands, as well. Or cast it with someone else.

    So...I guess TLDR is depends on who you are fighting in the end and what crafting is available to you.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2021
  4. MrPhil

    MrPhil Member

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    Hammyh,
    Your plan for rogue, sneak attack and one barbarian level for the movement sounds really good.
    If I knew I was going this route earlier I'd have started buying cross-class UMD, but I should be fairly close to the 20 required for UMD wands.
    Good call on the wands rather than scrolls - the DC is lower.
    My ranger has charisma penalty and no int to speak of so I can probably get UMD to 17 or so and with an Ioun stone for +2, that'll give me 19 ranks, so I will only fail on a roll of 1. Which will be about half the time!

    My levelling up plan has hit a massive road block. I've finished (i think) all of the new content and my guys are only level 17.
    Most random encounters give no xp - the massive nightcrawler who doesn't always turn up gives about 100 each.
    How do I get my troops to level 20? I'm not keen on console cheating, is there somewhere I can rest / run about to provoke an xp-worthy fight?
     
  5. hammyh

    hammyh Established Member

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    UMD for wands is 20 (19+d20); you'll never fail with 19. However, with various spells (gr Heroism, prayer, etc.) you can also bump that score to a lower commitment. For example, you can likely get GR Heroism going (potion or wand or other) => 19-4 = 15 UMD is good enough for no failure. Even a small % chance of failure will not make or break the battle.

    IIRC, the best random encounter for xp at high levels is the large lizard group of various character classes.

    Lvl 17 is [imho] good enough to do the end arena challenge. Unless you need crafting xp, it seems a bit of a slog to try to get to 20.

    After the first round of surprise, the rest of the combat is very controllable and it's just a matter of getting buffs going and setting up your combat. It could take a while, as most unbuffed hits will need 20s. (Or you can use Fragrach - which would trivialize the fight).
     
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