Wildshaping Mystic Swift Hunter

[Mushroom]

A friend of mine is joining our group at level 8+(we possibly leveled last session), she is wanting to play an archer. I immediately thought of a Mystic Ranger, but my DM has a thing about trying to kill us. He has been known to throw our ECLx2 CR monsters at us, so I also thought that adding wildshape would improve everything dramatically. Swift Hunters have always been great character builds and I discovered I could create one of these. However, I came into a few problems. Due to the fact Mystic Ranger should only be taken to 10, she would need to prestige class out. The problem is that it would stop wildshape and precision damage.


Any advice BG?

All books are cool(3.0-3.5 and 3rd party, including dragon)
Party consists of Racial Progression Nymph, home brewed race(pretty weak I guess)Fighter, and (me)Sunscorched Hobgoblin Cleric of Travel(with that "create your own domain" class feature) without an LA
Her race has already been decided, Lesser Fey'ri(with the Damage Reduction and Enervation included )

[Rebel7284]

Make sure to dip prestige paladin

You can also enter divine crusader if you wish.

edit: OR, actually.. Master of Many forms -> wildshape into arrow demon?

[Mushroom]

I'll probably work SOTAO into the build


MOMF was one of the 1st prestige classes that popped into my head, but I quickly discarded the idea due to no spellcasting or skirmish progression

[cru]

Hmm, perhaps reconsider the MoMF, at least two levels dip (large size, humanoid and giant forms) (for an archer, e.g. Jungle Giant form from Secrets of Xendrik); or 3 levels for fast wild shape and monstrous humanoid (e.g. War Troll, MM3).

BTW, without MoMF, abandoning ranger is not a problem; there are not (m)any small/medium animals with 10+ HD.

[KellKheraptis]

If you wanna run with the archer idea, snag the feat Dead Eye from AEG Feats.  Give up one attack at the end of the sequence, automatically crit if you hit with the first attack.  And it can be done more than once per round (4 iteratives = 2 autocrits).  Imagine this with greater manyshot and a source of sneak attack.  Ouch?  Ouch.  Also, from The Quintessential Elf, there are rules for creating custom arrows.  Precraft a bunch of Spinning Shot arrows, as each +2 above 17 adds a point of damage.  Craft check of 37 = +11 damage (you get +1 at DC 17).  And if he wants an archer turned up to 11, see if you can get the Arcane Archer from pathfinder okayed, then use my gish build with War Weaver.  It nabs full arcane and divine 9's, fractionally BAB 16 by level 20, and floating around here I have one that's got 2 free levels at the end that also nabs Imp Evasion and Imp Uncanny Dodge.  If you like that build, let me know (I don't think it has War Weaver though).  The War Weaver gish is either on my "Interest in a Gish Handbook" thread, or the War Weaver guide in "Handbooks" childboard.

[DerWille]

 I don't think it would be a good idea to try and be a swift hunter + wild shape + mystic ranger because wild shape eliminates the free ranger feats. Instead I would focus on being a type of gish archer. So how about we have the Sword of the Divine Shadowcraft Ranger? I'll give two builds both are MAD as hell. I also hope I got the racial stat adjustments stuff right. It's +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, and -2 Con right?

Lesser Fey'ri
Mystic Ranger 10/Divine Crusader 1/Contemplative 1/Shadowcraft Mage 5/Divine Oracle 2

32 point buy
Str: 10 [2 points]
Dex: 16 [6 points]
Con: 12 [6 points]
Int: 16 [6 points]
Wis: 16 [6 points]
Cha: 14 [6 points]

1) Point Blank Shot
3) Rapid Shot, Precise Shot
6) Sword of the Arcane Order (Mystra)
7) Manyshot
9) Weapon Focus: Shuriken (This is a burned feat for Divine Crusader. See if your DM will let Mystra's favored weapon to be a composite longbow)
12) Earth Sense
15) Heighten Spell
18) Earth Spell

Domains: Illusion, Competition, Oracle

 This guy combines the fun of a divine/arcane casting ranger with the joys of a Shadowcraft mage. Once she reaches level 14 she'll have complete access to Divine Power which makes up any BAB lost and gives +6 str. A 15th level she'll get Righteous Might which makes her big and does other fun stuff. Combine all of this with the fun of making 100% real figments that lets her use Silent Image for either blasting or summoning minions. Just make sure you use the adaptation for non-gnome races.

 Be sure to get the splitting enhancement on her bow. It'll greatly increase the number of attacks she'll be able to do. And then, when in doubt, she'll have polymorph. Might be able to turn into an Arrow Demon, not sure.