Elven Warder (60 ranger)

[gruntgruntson]

Not having any of the races mentioned, I built this in the test chamber with a Human Erinyes.
After subrace I can have:
STR: 8
DEX: 20
CON: 14
INT: 16
WIS: 20
CHA: 6

Drop Dodge and Epic Dodge, take Strong Soul at 1st lvl and Hardened Soul in LL.
Sneak in Epic Prowess.
I think this still leaves one or two LL feats, and pre-epic. Could use these to boost a save.
Am I missing anything by using this race?

What weapons are recommended? Rapier is not the best dual-wield, and I may have a spare feat for Exotic (kukri). Is it worth an off-hand sai?

[Lythe Featherblade]

erinyes str (0) 8 dex (6) 20 con 6 (14) int (10) 16 wis (10) 20 cha (0) 6

You're laughing with that subrace. kukri would make a great weapon against crit vulnerable enemies, but by the same token your called shot works against crit vulnerable, and you have the ranger positive damage against crit immunes, so anything small or tiny works (I reincarnated with light maces, originally did dagger but needed those for my rogue).

Not sure if sai is worth it, depends if you want that extra parry?, with your ac it may not be worth losing the damage output because you're already avoiding most blows

One thing you should seriously consider with erinyes free feats is dropping 2 ranger levels and getting 1bard and 1aa for the dusty bows, then taking legendary weapon focus Longbow. Keep in mind you can drop dex by 6 points without losing AC (but you do lose AB). Your called shot DC drops to 56, (a specialized zen archer would still be better with a DC of 59-60 or so), but you'll have an AB of 77ish (plus bow enhancement) and an AC of 125 with bow, and you'll be a decent archer that is still keeps all the good melee stuff from this build. Also because you're human base and your int is unmodified by subrace, you'll have 70 more skillpoints to spend, so can get more ranks in craft armor/weapon for better ac/ab. The cost to all this is losing improved evasion and 1 dual wielding ac. More rogue/aa levels aren't recommended as your called shot DC drops by 1 for every extra non-ranger level you take.

As you are human if you don't need those 70 extra skillpoints feel free to drop int by 2 and bump dex up to 22 starting, the main reason I started with 16 int is because stargazer gets a +4 and I don't have those extra human skill points.

[Lythe Featherblade]

whoops forgot AA has to be elf/half elf, but still quite workable, half-elf means you get no xp penalty

[oropher987]

I like positive damage in many areas, but it seems that it is rather useless in (at least the upper levels of) hells. For example, my wisdom threader does around 140 or so damage if the monster saves and before any resists/reductions. Such amounts of positive damage seemed to be reduced to 0 against most or all of the monsters. (Gripe: seems threading is only useful for healing in hells). Positive should help in most other areas though -- nice against devarials for instance.

[gruntgruntson]

lythefeatherblade said:

you have the ranger positive damage against crit immunes,

?
What ranger Positive damage?

[Tonkers]

You get 1 positive dmg when you cast blade thirst onto your wep is what i think he means

Edit: i really should read before typing i think he is trying to say the positive dmg on weps are useless in hells although positive dmg in cania is nice and does help from what i have seen i could be wrong am sure someone will correct me

[dapperdave]

Bladethirst:
duration is now 3 rounds/casterlevel;
at casterlevel 20 the +3 bonus doubles to +6, and at casterlevel 40 it doubles again to +12; can be used on bludgeoning or piercing weapons if the caster has Greater Spell Focus Transmutation; grants the keen property at casterlevel 20 and up; grants vampiric regeneration at casterlevel 40 and up at 1 point /4 casterlevels; at casterlevel 20 and up, adds an onhit property that does 1d4 + 1/ 2 casterlevels of positive damage to the ranger's favored enemies, up to a maximum of 1d4 + 30 at casterlevel 60; this property is only added if the weapon targeted is the ranger's own

Dave

[Lythe Featherblade]

edit - bumped favorite enemies 'up' to get a little better bonus on the later ones

Update - just hit 60, been itching for a hells run since about 56 (never on the right time it seems). Damage wise even with light maces I'm making my old kukri-wielding halfling-death look like a pansy, as called shot works on crit vulnerable and that extra positive damage plus the extra offhand attacks is really nice for crit immune mobs.

Tanking wise it's great fun, between the high AC, and having 58.5% (down to 34% against blindfighters) conceal without any +hide on items is really nice. Dusted off my old tin can last night on a dustybone run, and (aside of missing a few rings which was covered by shunt) the tin can wasn't half the fun.. the ranger has a much easier time, doesn't get stoned or dominated, can cover all the immunities except piercing on the devils, though called shot makes short work of them so it doesn't matter. Tin can had a bastard sword and dev crit (14-20x4 crits), the ranger has 15-20x2 crits, dual wield, 30+1d4 positive damage added, and called shot, and while 400+ crits were nice on the can, side by side I doubt he could keep up to the ranger either in damage output.

[ilovedietpepsi]

any reason why you get favored enemies undead and constructs?
it seems like you cannot do mortal strike to critical immune targets and undead and constructs are always immune to critical

[ilovedietpepsi]

ah nvm, i see its to do bonus damage from blade thirst.. heh

[wodgard]

could probly drop the blind fight feat .. if your maxing your listen skill

43 listen skill +bonus from 20 base and 12 item wis 16 bonus to the skill =59 listen

you will get +2 listen bous as trikreen's free alertness
elves get a bonus with the stargazer version dobelganvers get the same alertness feat for general 61 listen

60 listen is the equilivelent of the blind fight feat...

dont know your call
Wodgard

[Lythe Featherblade]

listen would only give the offensive benefits of blindfight, not the defensive, considering you can drop 4-6 dex without affecting AC (only reflex and AB) you can easily free up 2 feats at minor cost to include whatever you may desire

[chirikov]

now that katanas can be finessed, would it be worth the extra feat? you get a larger crit range and can bladethirst without needing to use trans book

epic dodge also does not require dodge, even though the description says it does. you may be able to drop dodge for something else

if you dont use trans book to bladethirst non-slashing weapons, what book would you use? i was thinking enchant for the +1 on bladethirst

[Lythe Featherblade]

mostly you should consider the damages on DB/Dis weapons between katana and kukri before you decide, and then decide if katana is worth the -2ab over the kukri (though katana is probably easier to get). The main areas (after 55) where a bigger crit range comes in handy is against mobs that aren't your favorite enemies (not too many of those), and at times when it is too crowded (usually due to massing and casters) to target enemies for called shot. Personally if I were to redo mine I'd go with short swords, just because I have more options there for nice looking weapons (via crafting).

Enchant for +1 on bladethirst might be nice in LL runs, but most runs I find myself on now I get a better GMW from a caster already, and just use bladethirst for the extra positive damage and vampiric regen. It all depends for what level of gameplay you want your ranger, if you will mostly be doing LL levels (and taking your time to 60) the -ab from katanas won't hurt, the extra crit range will help because called shot takes a bit to become effective, and the +1 on bladethirst will help as well because often you will only have a +10-11 GMW.

[Lythe Featherblade]

Someone wanted a treant melee build, was bored so tweaked for that

Treant variant

"Treant" (secret UltraRare; changes Appearance)
- STR +2, DEX -4, CON +3, WIS +5, +5 Spellcraft, +10 animal empathy, free feat: Armor Skin, 25% vulnerable fire, 50% immune cold, increases character size to large, reduced base movement rate - slow, speaks Animal, speaks Sylvan, speaks Treant, is able to change between small and large appearances at will

Starting points treant
dex17 wis13 con14 int14
Stats after mods str10 dex13 con17 int14 wis18 cha8
final stats dex52 con34 wis30

Choice of weapons - pick anything you want, prefferably something you can easily get hold of. Being large sized, you won't be able to use kukri/dagger, but you can finesse and dual wield scimitars bastard swords and the like. If you want an exotic weapon, you can always drop dodge for exotic weapon proficiency, your ac is high enough that you won't even notice.

Feats
1 strong soul, blooded,
3-18 dodge,Finesse, Weapon focus, Improved critical, blindfighting, toughness
1,5,10,15, 20 favored enemy each time
21 great con 1
23 @ Favored Enemy*
24 Great dex 1
25 @ Favored Enemy*
26 @ Favored Enemy*
27 Great dex 2
29 @ Favored Enemy*
30 Great dex 3
30 @ Favored Enemy*
32 @ Favored Enemy*
33 Great dex 4
35 @ blinding speed
35 @ epic prowess
36 epic will
38 @ epic weapon focus
39 called shot
40 @ bane of enemies

42 LSA tumble
45 Hardened Soul
48 legendary weapon focus
51 Great dex 5
55 Great dex 6
57 great dex 7
60 free feat*

Final stats str 22, dex 52, con 32, int 14, wis 30, cha 8
Final saves - fort 64 reflex 61 will 60
Final AB will be around 72ish at +0 (92 at max buffs), and your haste attack will be 2 higher, with called shot that's more than enough, though you will miss a lot in your 40's
AC will be 139 at 60 in UR gear
HP will be 1230

For the free feat you have a few choices..
I'd really recommend extended spell if you plan to hit the hells, because BUR +slot gear is near non-existant, and both invisibility purge and bladethirst could be bumped to 4th circle (you just won't have as many mass cammo spells for the group, no huge loss unless you have assassins with hide trained who'll want your conceal)
focus in hide, either epic (for +10) or legendary (for +20 but under the 50 cap) because every 4 hide is 1% conceal, and you'll easily be in the 55-60ish range to begin with where every % helps a lot even against blindfighting mobs

Enemies and skills see the first posts