Woody the Woodland Archer (Ranger 60)

[whatriot]

This was the next logical step for me from Woody the Woodland Assassin. I would still have no problem recommending the previous build to anyone not double demi and looking for an easy to obtain bur race build (Furchin, the great unloved!). However, once you have double demi you can dramatically improve many aspects of the build:



The attack progression numbers are edited to reflect the true numbers. Called Shot is DC 64, which can now be boosted to DC 66 with Foe Bane (affects the first called shot to land in the following minute - useful to cast pre-spawn).

Race: Human
Subrace: Anarch
Alignment: NE (not important)

Starting stats:
Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 8
Int: 12
Wis: 18
Cha: 8

Take Wisdom at every stat gain:
1 Blooded, Outsider, Strong Soul (!charedit at level 1 and switch this to dauntless)
3 PB Shot
5 Aberrations
6 Zen archery
9 Called Shot
10 Elementals
12 WF: Shortbow
15 GWF: Shortbow, Magical Beasts
18 IC Shortbow
20 Giants
21 Wis 1
23 Epic Prowess
24 Wis 2
25 Bane of Enemies
26 Shape Changers
27 Wis 3
29 Vermin
30 Wis 4, Animals
32 Monstrous Humanoids
33 Wis 5
35 Reptilian Humanoids, Beasts
36 Wis 6
38 Fey (optional, pick something else if you fancy)
39 Wis 7
40 EWF Shortbow
42 LSA Tumble
45 Epic Reflex
48 Wis 8
51 Wis 9
54 Wis 10
57 LWF: Shortbow
60 Leg Valor

Max Tumble(60), hide, listen, discipline, grab some concentration (20 is fine) and do as you wish with the leftover.

I'm currently using the Asmo belt as it gives +4 to str and dex checks, allowing you pretty free movement in the outer UUU radius. And it gives you an unlimited source of GS - very useful for a build that cannot use scrolls. Also it is not an ego item, because you WILL want to wear the Ranger DC ego item to max that CS.

The new Ranger wisdom bows now let you do some sort of damage as well as insta kills, although you will still spend 90% of your time on trash removal. The super high DC 64 is very effective, noticeably better that the DC 62 on the previous build.

Remember to cast Foe Bane before known spawn points and don't press the CS button until you have picked out a really nice target (Random, Raja etc). Keep Invisibility Purge up.

I know the reflex save is a little low, but I have been through Abos 1 without any problem, you do have the advantage of being pretty fast, so try to launch your attacks from out of harm's way.

Edit: Obvious Points - Wisdom Arti, Read Abjuration Tome, wear PoM gloves.

[bort]

Why Abjuration tome?
I'm sure i was considering reading one with mine at some point but can't remember why...
Found it

Resist Elements
- At CL21, grants DR (4 + (Abjuration foci * 4))/- against all elemental damage, with no limit.

At 16/- i suppose that could plug gear holes in lower levels but i'd be tempted to go for Conjuration to boost Grease (which ignores SR) as you have high Wisdom anyway, so something might fail their save... i've found the spell useful on mine even with only gsf conj (Rilmani).

[whatriot]

Unless I have made an error interpreting my imms, I think that Resist Elements stacks with normal elemental DR, so you end up with 35/- (from typical gear) and 16/- = 51/- which is pretty attractive. I usually cast this + the ranger mini-shunt on recently dead players to give them some boosted imms. I agree that if this does not stack it is useless, so someone please correct me if I am wrong.

I think your logic with Grease is good, but I normally see mages laying it down and due to the 2 per area limit, I don't want to be accidentally annoying by replacing their's with mine.

[gren]

I've a similar build to this one (currently at lvl 54), maxing out the DC makes for fun play. Certainly once you know which enemies to target.

Had given up on reading a book (no bladethirst!) but this means I can now add a little more. Thanks!

[Lythe Featherblade]

Been casually playing a similar version (single demi only so far) but with same final DC planned, only big difference being elf for active search, intuitive attack for meleeing option (some enemies there is a huge increase in damage vs ranger bows) at the cost of mainly a few saves.

[phalthallus]

Nov 30, 2009 9:48:08 GMT @whatriot said:

Unless I have made an error interpreting my imms, I think that Resist Elements stacks with normal elemental DR, so you end up with 35/- (from typical gear) and 16/- = 51/- which is pretty attractive. I usually cast this + the ranger mini-shunt on recently dead players to give them some boosted imms. I agree that if this does not stack it is useless, so someone please correct me if I am wrong.

I think your logic with Grease is good, but I normally see mages laying it down and due to the 2 per area limit, I don't want to be accidentally annoying by replacing their's with mine.

Most resists in NWN don't stack, and I never thought Resist Elements did either. But looking at the spell on the NWN wiki, it says it does stack with feat-based resists. I still don't think that applies to resists on items though, from the wording. I could be mistaken, but that's how I interpret it. I don't think the !list imm command shows it stacking either, but I guess I haven't paid real close attention.

[whatriot]

It seems strange that !list imm would show them as a second entry to the main imms if they did not stack - I have not seen anything else displayed that way.

For example:
just rested, no buffs, !list imm

cold 106%........60/-...............

Cast Resist Elements, !list imm

cold 106%........60/-........16/-..........

Why show them separately if they are not stacking? Acaos?

[bort]

Tested maximized firebrands on my ranger, with and without resist elements.
!list imm showed 35/- from gear and 4/- from resist elements..

In both cases i took the same amount of damage per brand, so it looks like resist elements doesn't stack with gear.

I'm guessing they are both shown to separate which resists are from gear and which are from spells.... highest applies, whichever that may be (60/- from energy buffer overrides anything lower from gear for example).

Based on that i'd think that either Conj(grease) or Trans(entangle & +12blade thirst for p/b/s) would be the best tome options.

[whatriot]

Thanks Bort that is great information.

Wish I hadn't just read a useless book :/ I'm going to post a suggestion that this changes as that spell is otherwise useless.

[starlandra]

on a pure ranger it gives /20 not /16. I thought it did stack... if not.. oye that sucks lol and that will quickly end my tradition of using abjur books on my rangers

[Yomi]

I made a version of this and have been enjoying it quite a bit. It's the same other than the FEs, and I don't have all the extra DC goodies yet.

I moved Bane of Enemies to 32 since called shot doesn't take effect until 35 (admittedly the regular effect takes effect at 21). FE's as follows:

Level	whatriot	Mine	Recommend
1	Outsiders	Outsiders	Outsiders
5	Aberrations	Aberrations	Aberrations
10	Elementals	Animals	Undead
15	Magical Beasts	Vermin	Dragons
20	Giants	Undead	Animals
25	Bane of Enemies	Dragons	Vermin
26	Shapechangers	Magical Beasts	Magical Beasts
29	Vermin	Rept Humanoids	Rept Humanoids
30	Animals	Monst Humanoids	Monst Humanoids
32	Monst Humanoids	Bane of Enemies	Bane of Enemies
35	Rept Humanoids	Elves	Elves
35	Beasts	Shapechangers	Shapechangers
38	Fey	Fey	Humans

From the original list, Giants and Beasts are definitely not worth it, and I question Elementals on a Zen Ranger. The difference between what I took when I made mine in early February and what I'd recommend now is a bit of reordering (not really important) and switching Fey to Humans. If you're leveling up from scratch, Fey is pretty nice for Feywild trips, but it's not currently very useful after that. I was hoping to CS some Fey in Abyss, but it turns out they're all immune.


I changed my LL feat order some also, mainly since having Epic Reflexes before Legendary Valor makes no sense. I went LSA Tumble, GW 8, Leg Valor, GW 9, GW 10, LWF Shortbow, Epic Reflexes. The ordering of the middle 5 feats depends on how you view the relative importance of called shot DC, saves, and AB during levels 45-56. End result is the same though.

Skills were Hide, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, 60 Tumble, 20 Concentration, 46 Parry. For Abyss it's nice to have the little bonus from CW to hit things, but certainly you could take something else.


My experience leveling from 0 to to 35ish was a bit meh. Yes I have a decent AB (not like an AA, but not bad) but damage output was really bad. There are the fancy ranger arrows in the grove, but they quickly run out of steam. Most of the quivers are AA only -- I never used any until Hunter's Points. Defense is pretty good. I took Elves as a FE, which made Drow really fun. In fact, this was the start of the Good Life. Lots and lots of called shots on run after run. I'd argue even that the DC is too high in these levels (35-55). Hive and Toyshop were good runs, but not many called shots on those. Uro, Ssith, Illithids, Desert, DB were all good.

It's done quite well in Hells and Abyss, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a Zen Ranger. Note that I'm 4 DC down from the max (no wis art, not demi, no ego item), and still getting stupid high kills on many runs (170 on first Tia run, 114 on Min, 91 Malbolge, 128 on Malad -- depends on rest of party and whether I get GR).


Another note: I read the Illusion tome. It gives +19 bonus to Hide skill instead of the regular +7, for 3% more conceal. That's 3% extra conceal to everyone if you use Mass Camo. I was slightly tempted to use Enchant or Transmute to make BT a little more useful for party members, but I think the Camo boost is better. Thanks Mish!

[whatriot]

Thanks for that info Yomi. I completely agree with your FE list (although I'm sure I found something elemental that I could CS, but maybe that was a mistake). I took giants and beasts as they were unused at the time and some new areas were due to be released, I was hoping to guess lucky, but I didn't - so they serve no purpose now.

The feat orders are a little odd as it was a reinc, so I didn't have to level it. I also agree that levelling a zen is not that much fun, but once you get to immo, it is great fun to play.

Illusion tome - great choice, I would definitely take it over the other two.

As a note on the CS - you will find that those last 4 points make a big difference (although the 2 from gear make gear set up a little painful). The main problem I had was that some bards weren't configuring their curse song's to reduce skill points enough to make things with high parry vulnerable to CS (e.g. cornies).

[Lythe Featherblade]

Apr 6, 2010 18:20:21 GMT @whatriot said:

Thanks for that info Yomi. I completely agree with your FE list (although I'm sure I found something elemental that I could CS

Maybe you're thinking of mephrits in Uroboros?

[Yomi]

I'll try to make a better list like this for the Wiki, including all the mobs that definitely can not be CS'd. This is generated from my logs, so isn't comprehensive.

Called shots in Hells (Outsider unless specified):

• Abishai + Chosen of Tiamat
  
• Cornugon
  
• Barbazu + Barbazu Razor
  
• Hamatula + Hamatula Scourge
  
• Amnizu + Ephasiarch
  
• Rakshasa + Raja (Shapechanger)
  
• Erinyes + Erinyes Vitiarch
  
• Lemure + Foul Lemure
  
• Spinagon + Spiniarch
  
• Kyton + Kyton Legionnaire
  
• Hell Hound + Cereberean Hound (Animal)
  
• Imp + Hellion
  
• Gelugon
  
• Nupperibo + Inchoate Baatorian (Shapechanger)
  
• Maelephant + Unbound
  
• Soul Shell
  
• Cinderscale + Cinderscale Broodmother (Animal)
  
• Ice Fiend + Hyperborean Fiend
  
• Bezekira + Bezekira Prideleader
  
• Nightmare + Elder Nag
  
• Sahuagin + Elder Saguagin (Monstrous)
  
• Swamp Devil
  
• Minauran Murkfiend (Animal)
  
• Ice Reaver + Algid Reaver (Animal)
  
• Brachina + Brachina Seductrix
  
• Hell Leech + Cloacal Leech (Animal)
  
• Excruciarch
  
• Falxugon + Vexiarch
  
• Dogai + Camizu
  
• Minibosses: (Tia) Baddabuz, Piraz, (Dis) Dazgud, Ca'ctiik, Veldavora, Sasyi, (Min) Fodorz, Ngdril, (Phleg) Zgdros, Ysgret, (Stygia) Drakiz'niz, (Malbolge) Galya
  

Called shots in Abyss, noting that I haven't done many runs and I don't have Human or Elemental on the ranger I've taken to Abyss:

• Ekolid Chitterer + para (Shapechanger)
  
• Ekolid Devourer + para (Shapechanger)
  
• Ekolid Reaver + para (Shapechanger)
  
• Ekolid Builder + para (Shapechanger)
  
• Vrock + Filthy Vrock
  
• Quasit + para
  
• Hezrou + para
  
• Babau + para
  
• Bulezau + para
  
• Mane + para
  
• Rutterkin + para
  
• Fiendish Otyugh + para (Aberration)
  
• Varrangoin Hurler + para (Magical Beast)
  
• Varrangoin Scout + para (Magical Beast)
  
• Varrangoin Arcanist + para (Magical Beast)
  
• Varrangoin Rager + para (Magical Beast)
  
• Golothoma + para (Shapechanger)
  
• Anzu + para
  
• Chelicera (Vermin)
  
• Skulvyn + para
  
• Fiendish Raptor (Animal)
  
• Fiendish Roc + para (Animal)
  
• Fiendish Barracuda + para (Animal)
  
• Fiendish Frog (Animal)
  
• Fiendish Render + para (Magical Beast)
  
• Uzollru + para (Shapechanger)
  
• Uridezu + para
  
• Zovvut
  
• Yuan-Ti Sorceress + para (Reptilian)
  
• Yuan-Ti Huntress (Reptilian)
  
• Jarilith
  
• Dretch + para
  
• Deadborn Vulture (Magical Beast)
  
• Succubus + para
  
• Giant Scorpion Stinger (Vermin)
  
• Giant Scorpion Flayer (Vermin)
  
• Gadacro
  
• Carcass Eater + para (Animal)
  
• Artaaglith + para
  
• Arrowhawk + para
  
• Armanite
  
• Wastrilith + para
  
• Incubus
  
• Bar-Lgura + para
  
• Brood Keeper? (Magical Beast)
  

I have a big list of called shots in LL areas, but I'll skip that. It does looks like Ice Mephits can be called shot, which are the only Elementals I have in my logs that have been CS'd. For Dragons, the Dragonkin's in Uro and Ely can be called shot.