Author Topic: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?  (Read 6628 times)

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JaronK

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Re: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?
« Reply #20 on: July 09, 2008, 04:38:44 PM »
Though looking at the prestige ranger description, I don't think you get a second companion, so it'd really a wasted level and feats

You don't get a second companion.  The point is that it progresses your Animal Companion fully, and then Halfling Outrider stacks your levels of Paladin, Druid, and Ranger.  This means that all the stuff that counts as Druid is increased (Fey Bard, Beastmaster), and seperately your Paladin stuff is increased, and seperately your Ranger stuff is increased, and then they're all smushed together into one thing.

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Strongheart Halfling Savage Fey Bard 1/Cloistered Cleric 1/Savage Fey Bard 2-5/Prestige Ranger 1/Prestige Paladin of Tyranny 2/Beastmaster 1/Halfling Outrider 10

PoT is Lawful Only.  Fey Bard is Chaotic or Nuetral only.  You need to use either Paladin of Slaughter or Paladin of Freedom.

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1st Halfling: Track
1st char: Mounted Combat
1st vile: ?
2nd cleric bonus: Point Blank Shot (Ugh...Elf Domain)
3rd char: Rapid Shot
5th vile:
6th char: Endurance
8th bonus paladin: Mounted Archery (Spell-less paladin variant from CC)
9th char: Skill Focus (Handle Animal)
12th char: Precise Shot
15th char: Improved Precise Shot

You can't have Elf Domain on a Halfling!  Also, without Devoted Tracker you can't combine the mounts into one.

JaronK

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Re: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?
« Reply #21 on: July 10, 2008, 05:36:13 AM »
Gah, wrapping the math around for adding it all up makes my head hurt.

Let's see...the final is "druid" 5 + 4 Beastmaster +1 Ranger +10 Halfling Outrider for a 30th druid (or 40th if Halfling Outrider double-progresses it from Prestige Ranger)
Ranger 1 + 10 Halfling Outrider for an 11th ranger
Paladin 2 + 10 Halfling Outrider for a 12th paladin

Does that look right?

Good catches on the others, though I knew about the Elf domain being a big stretch :P  Perhaps still usable in a campaign world where the racial deities for friendly races are combined (Like how Dragonlance has Reorx for kender, dwarves, and gnomes), or a character with a wildly implausible backstory.  Or re-flavor the domain so that it applies to forest-living halflings. 

Anyhow, my conclusion is that you need flaws to make it a decently playable character unless you start at a very high level.  Too bad :(

Strongheart Halfling Savage Fey Bard 1/Cloistered Cleric 1/Savage Fey Bard 2-5/Prestige Ranger 1/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 2/Beastmaster 1/Halfling Outrider 10
1st flaw: Point Blank Shot
1st flaw: Precise Shot
1st Halfling: Track
1st char: Mounted Combat
3rd char: Rapid Shot
6th char: Endurance
8th bonus paladin: Mounted Archery (Spell-less paladin variant from CC)
9th char: Skill Focus (Handle Animal)
12th char: Devoted Tracker
15th char: Improved Precise Shot
18th char: Hey, an open feat slot!  Maybe that Theurgistic Companion thing from Dragon Magazine JaronK mentioned.


JaronK

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Re: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?
« Reply #22 on: July 10, 2008, 06:43:49 AM »
Gah, wrapping the math around for adding it all up makes my head hurt.

Let's see...the final is "druid" 5 + 4 Beastmaster +1 Ranger +10 Halfling Outrider for a 30th druid (or 40th if Halfling Outrider double-progresses it from Prestige Ranger)
Ranger 1 + 10 Halfling Outrider for an 11th ranger
Paladin 2 + 10 Halfling Outrider for a 12th paladin

Does that look right?

PrC Paladin adds PrC level +3 to your paladin level, so it should be 15th level Paladin, not 12th.  You counted PrC Ranger twice, and shouldn't do so (once as Ranger, once as Druid), so you're a little high there, plus you did something weird to get to 40, I think you counted Halfling Outrider triple!

So it counts up like this, and yes, Halfling Outrider stacks twice if you have both Ranger and Druid levels (yehaw!)

Druid Companion:  Fey Bard 5+Beastmaster 4+PrC Ranger 1+Halfling Outrider 20 = level 30.
Paladin Mount:  PrC Paladin 5+Halfling Outrider 10= level 15.

If you take the Thuergic Mount feat, the Paladin mount goes up to 20.

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Anyhow, my conclusion is that you need flaws to make it a decently playable character unless you start at a very high level.  Too bad :(

Sadly, I found the same thing.  I'd recommend dropping those archery feats (except for what you need to get into PrC Ranger) and make sure to get one of the feats that turns your mount/companion into a dragon.  He's going to have a ton of HD, and Dragon HD are far better than animal HD (full BAB, great skills, great saves, and so on).  Also, don't forget your mount gets feats.  Basically, you become a pet class, and your mount does the real fighting.  You can just hang on for the ride and maybe shoot something sometimes.

But as a fun varient:  Fey Bard 17/Cleric 1/PrC Paladin of Freedom 2 with Theurgic Mount gives you the animal companion of a 17th level Druid and the mount of a 22nd level Paladin.  That means you don't actually need to be a Halfling.  You might still want that level of Beastmaster though.

JaronK

Akalsaris

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Re: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2008, 11:22:00 AM »
True...this might be a good example of a character that would really benefit from re-training feats every level.  Start with archery-heavy feats and retrain them to prereq feats and mount-centric ones as you level.

For the variant, I wouldn't bother with the level of beastmaster...at that point, a feat slot and caster level is probably worth more than another 3 levels of druid tacked onto pet =P

Operation Shoestring

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Re: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2008, 07:06:44 AM »
where is fey bard from?

Eldariel

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Re: Prestige Ranger- Is there any way to make it even remotely optimized?
« Reply #25 on: July 11, 2008, 08:35:13 AM »
Unearthed Arcana