Flurry of Blades - Ranger 60

[nataani]

As per request im posting my ranger build, enjoy.

Halfling - Half-Kyton
All stat increases into DEX

Starting stats
STR 12
DEX 18(22)
CON 12(16)
WIS 12(16)
INT 14
CHA 8

Final stats with gear
STR - 24 (7 mod)
DEX - 64 (27 mod)
CON - 32 (11 mod)
WIS - 30 (10 mod)

Level - Class - Feat(s)
1 - Ranger - Blooded FE Animals
2 - Ranger -
3 - Ranger - Finesse
4 - Ranger -
5 - Ranger - FE Undead
6 - Ranger - Called shot
7 - Ranger -
8 - Ranger -
9 - Ranger - Exotic
10 - Ranger - FE Humans
11 - Ranger -
12 - Ranger - Wep focus
13 - Ranger -
14 - Ranger -
15 - Ranger - Improved critical FE outsiders
16 - Ranger -
17 - Ranger -
18 - Ranger - Iron will
19 - Ranger -
20 - Ranger - FE Vermin
21 - Ranger - Gr dex 1
22 - Ranger -
23 - Ranger - Bane of enemies
24 - Ranger - Gr dex 2
25 - Ranger - FE Elementals
26 - Ranger - Epic wep focus
27 - Ranger - Gr dex 3
28 - Ranger -
29 - Ranger - Epic prowess
30 - Ranger - Gr dex 4 FE Dragons
31 - Ranger -
32 - Ranger - FE Monstruous Humanoids
33 - Ranger - Gr dex 5
34 - Ranger -
35 - Ranger - FE Elves FE Reptilian humanoids
36 - Ranger - Gr dex 6
37 - Ranger -
38 - Ranger - FE Aberations
39 - Ranger - Gr dex 7
40 - Ranger - FE Magical beasts
41 - Ranger -
42 - Ranger - LSA Tumble
43 - Ranger -
44 - Ranger -
45 - Ranger - Leg. wep focus
46 - Ranger -
47 - Ranger -
48 - Ranger - Gr dex 8
49 - Ranger -
50 - Ranger -
51 - Ranger - Gr dex 9
52 - Ranger -
53 - Ranger -
54 - Ranger - Gr dex 10
55 - Ranger -
56 - Ranger -
57 - Ranger - Leg. will
58 - Ranger -
59 - Ranger -
60 - Ranger - Luck of heroes

Acheivable AB, AC and Saves calculations at level 60

AB
45 BAB (20 Pre-epic, 10 Epic, 15 Legendary)
27 Dex Mod
4 Focus (Wep focus, Epic wep focus, Epic prowess)
3 Leg focus
2 Bane of enemies
1 Halfling bonus
20 Cap
-2 Duel wield penalty
100

AC
10 Base
1 Padded armour
21 Dex
20 Dodge AC
17 Natural AC
17 Deflection AC
15 Shield AC (offhand)
16 Armor
12 Tumble
10 Wisdom bonus
1 Hafling bonus
1 Dodge feat
140

142 with girding.

Fort
10 epic
5 legendary
12 Ranger
7 Con
2 ranger con
1 hafling bonus
3 leg luck
20 cap
60

Will
10 epic
5 legendary
6 Ranger
10 wis
2 Pre-epic
7 Leg will
1 Halfling bonus
3 leg luck
20 cap
63

Reflex
10 Epic
5 Legendary
6 Ranger
27 Dex
1 Halfling bonus
3 leg luck
20 Cap
72

[tarrin]

Your dex bonus gets reduced in light armour. And Girding will give you +2 to your basic armour AC. So, you're probably looking at losing about 8AC from your dex calculations alone, and I have no diea how that imaginary 150 leapt up to 156.

Ranger builds are all the same anyway... You take some FEs, you take some Dex, you take a saving feat. And on that subject, I'd take Strong Soul for a dexer, always. Leg Hardened Soul in LL.

[nataani]

Sorry your right about the light armour, as far as I can see this build maximises AC and AB for a ranger while keeping saves 60+, I dont see how you can get much more from tweaking without sacrificing too much.

Re-reading the custom epic spell list Girding will only grant 2 ac, bringing to total to 149

[sabregirl]

Strong soul doesn't really help a ranger as much as luck of heroes since fort is a favored save for ranger. Also since he's using a halfling he doesn't have much choice. I don't really see any advantage in using halfling over human in this case, unless you're going for the sexy shoeless god of death

I think your AC and AB calculations are a bit off as I have almost the same build with a human HK. And the numbers you are quoting are more than could be explained by differences between the two base races.

-S

[tyranlthixis]

There's no point in going over 140 AC (in optimum gear). Anything over 140 looks good on paper but serves no functional purpose. Its like the difference between a 75 will save and an 80 will save. You might "feel good" about the "extra coverage" but it doesn't actually help you survive better. I would invest 2 to 4 wisdom points in strength to make your ranger a little more robust against strength checks. 4 would be the prefered number.

Also, you should change your legendary luck feats for a legendary soul path. You don't need reflex saves. You do need the other two.

FE Animals is a valid choice, but I don't think its a good one. Things that are animals can be emp'd and/or are generally not big "problem" monsters. They are also not common. You either want something that is common and crit immune for improved killing speed, or something that is common and problematic to instant kill.

Tyran

[tyranlthixis]

nm....you're a halfling :/ you can't get hardened soul and blooded.

Tyran

[nataani]

I currently have this built as an elf at level 40 so far, I figured I would recarn to halfling cuz I get the free 'luck of heroes' from halfling subrace, plus one ab and ac, the halfling ability to take luck of heroes in legendary levels without prior feats allowed me to bump the dex by two by adding two gr dex feats (10 rather than 8).

Checking over my ab calculations I cant see anything wrong with them, ive listed the sources of ab there so if anyone can spot anything pls let me know I always welcome constructive critasism.

As for the Animal FE, I wasnt sure about it either, after just doing lolth/immo not more than an hour ago I get the feeling that constructs might be a better choice, though other than that im at a loss.

Cant argue at all with the suggestion to drop wis for str AC drops by 4 as a result (I think, does the x1.5 for wis round up?) though if 140 is indeed all you need then its worth it.

Sabre - The differences between the builds is pretty minor, the halfling route grants two more ab and a few other minor differences from what I can see. Overall after considering Tyran's suggestions the main benefit to hafling over human is that you can bump str for the str checks.

Ive been told that anything over 60 on all saves is good for all layers, though if higher numbers are needed for the later layers dex could be dropped by two to bump fort and will by 4 each. So far I havent seen the need for higher than 60, though I havent been past stygia.
Edit. Checked over ac and ab, realized that the armour ac granted by robes would be 14, not 16

[tyranlthixis]

Constructs are common and can be a difficult thing to kill as they are crit immune. Not a bad choice as the extra positive damage can help bring them down faster.

Tyran

[starlandra]

nataani said:

Edit. Checked over ac and ab, realized that the armour ac granted by robes would be 14, not 16

but if you go robes you lose your wisdom ac...

tarrin said:

Ranger builds are all the same anyway... You take some FEs, you take some Dex, you take a saving feat. ...

you could not be more incorrect... for pure dex rangers sure, but there are many options... my ranger I take to hell is just about a polar opposite as this build.

[tarrin]

I was of course talking about pure dex rangers, there seem to be a scary number of pure ranger genius builds that are all the same. Use stargazer, get epic dodge. Or go halfling for some reason. Or this subrace. Or that subrace. Either way, urgh, we have enough.

[Lythe Featherblade]

tarrin said:

I was of course talking about pure dex rangers, there seem to be a scary number of pure ranger genius builds that are all the same. Use stargazer, get epic dodge. Or go halfling for some reason. Or this subrace. Or that subrace. Either way, urgh, we have enough.

I couldn't agree with you more, and I even said so in my Elven Warder build thread before all the other ones started popping out of the woodworks. (which in itself isn't as much an original build as it is an optimalization of game mechanics).

Just the way rangers are designed, if you go pure dex, there is 1 solid foundation, and then a few options. In the end, the difference is a few points of ab, some saves, maybe something nifty like epic dodge (which'll only get utilized when flatfooted when you're buffed to 145 ac), but any ranger is like another, the only differences come from the players' abilities.

[nataani]

starlandra said:

but if you go robes you lose your wisdom ac...

Just checked this and yeah your right, very annoying, so it seems the optimum armour is padded if you can get your hands on it. Whats strange is that I was just playing around with padded vs leather.. and even with my lvl 44 version of this build the only difference between the two is AC, it seems that the max dex cap on the armour doesnt affect ab, saves or skills. Can anyone confirm this?

tarrin said:

I was of course talking about pure dex rangers, there seem to be a scary number of pure ranger genius builds that are all the same. Use stargazer, get epic dodge. Or go halfling for some reason. Or this subrace. Or that subrace. Either way, urgh, we have enough.

Maybe I should have made it clearer, though I didnt see the need... I posted this build on request, a total of three players asked me to post it and rather than refering them to another build and then listing the many changes I made I decided to rather post it. Sorry if this post annoys you. Anyone with the power to do so can feel free to delete this thread if they see fit.

EDIT: added question

[uncanny]

Whats strange is that I was just playing around with padded vs leather.. and even with my lvl 44 version of this build the only difference between the two is AC, it seems that the max dex cap on the armour doesnt affect ab, saves or skills. Can anyone confirm this?

AB and saves should be unaffected (reflex maybe?) - some skills (check armor penalty stat for this) and AC are usually affected