Ranger Thread.

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So I searched our forums and found no thread discussing Rangers as it's main topic. I know next to nothing about this class in IWD2.

I guess I'll start off with a couple of questions since I want to include one in my next party.

Races: I'm thnking human? Maybe elf for the extra dex (I want to roleplay him as a true Ranger with a bow, I know this isn't the most logical thing to do, but it's probably what i'll end up doing.) Any suggestions on stats for this kind of ranger would be helpful.

What Ranger builds have you guys used? Multi-classes? How did you use them? What role did they play in your party? What would you have done different with your Ranger? Pros/Cons? Feel free to add anything related to this topic.

Thanks in advance

 

I think that rangers haven't been covered because they aren't all that great...well, they're ok but I always end up twinning them with something because they're a little boring really. Plus, the 'bonus' you get for certain enemies is a bit pointless. By the time you can choose something like orcs (pretty basic), you're well past them AND the bonus isn't all that good really

 

What Silvery said. Most people just take one level to get free Two Weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity with a Rogue or a character who is not going to wear a heavy armour.

It's not a powergamer's choice but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't play one.

In IWD2 Rangers are not better than other characters with bows though. It's sad really because in the frozen wastes of Icewind Dale a Ranger should be an invaluable party member.

Anyway you should maximize Dex and put points in Con (always good) and Str (to carry loot and for the few times you'll be in melee, don't get carried away with Str because Weapon Finesse will help you out anyway, 14 or only 13 points to get Power Attack is sufficient but it's not a priority for a ranged character). Some points in Wis for spellcasting (14 should be enough iirc besides the Ranger spell selection is not fantastic either). Bear in mind that if you want to multiclass an Elf is not the best pick (unless you want a Ranger/spellcaster which can be fun).

If you want a bow specialist a Rogue multiclass won't help that much (sneak attacks only work in melee) you may want 2 Rogue levels for Evasion and Rogue stuff (meaning you'd have to put a few points in Int).

I'd suggest taking 4 Fighter levels to specialize in bows and the rest as a Ranger (consider 3 Rogue levels if you want that character to be your party Rogue). Fighter 4/Ranger X will allow you to get the bow specialization feats, just make sure you stack on magic arrows for the late game because ranged damage isn't that great later on if you use regular arrows. Have the Mage cast Cat's Grace and your Dex will be very high.

A less conventional build would be a Lawful character with a few Monk levels (one if you don't take Fighter levels, three if you take four fighter levels and want to avoid XP penalty, in that case you'll have to start as a Monk take three levels and then take a level as a Fighter and a level as a Ranger in order to avoid XP penalty until you get the four fighter levels). In that case you could consider lowering Str a bit in order to have a higher Wis to gain more AC without armour (just use bracers and stuff that won't negate your Monk bonus). There is no Zen Archery in IWD2 unfortunately.

Last but not least take Rapid Shot asap.

If you're interested you should try the Light of Selune mod by Crucis, there are some nice Ranger only items and even an optional component that changes a few things about the class. This mod also makes traps more dangerous.

EDIT: as far as favourite enemies are concerned take troll (plenty of those around and they can be really annoying) and big annoying monsters. Don't pick goblins because it won't help you much later on.
One more thing, don't bother with Animal Empathy it's pretty useless.

 

The most effective pure class ranger you can have for a normal party game is a half-orc ranger with stats (str-dex-con-int-wis-cha) 20-18-18-1-16-1. Raise only strength at level up, use a 2-handed weapon for melee and use a ranged weapon which grants strength bonus (all ranged weapons except bows and crossbows) with rapid shot for ranged combat.
I'd choose goblins or orcs as favored enemies, you meet a lot of them in the beginning and some near the end.

 

Rangers are a bit like choosing Lada/Yugo/Wartburg when you have access to BMW/Mercedes/Toyota. Both cars will get you to places, but the latter has more bling-bling.

Do a bit of forum digging and you'll find a great story of a solo ranger played through both Normal and HOF mode. They do have a toolkit to make it possible, it's just that in a party their abilities become superceded and/or redundant.

 

Rangers are pretty much the most useless class in Icewind Dale 2. You get totally useless skills like Animal Empathy and Wilderness Lore, hide and move silently are decent but are superceded by castings of invisibility(or better yet improved invisibility) by your arcane spellcasters (but are still pointless either way as rangers cant sneak attack), a totally useless spell list that you will forget even existed (not to mention the progression is ridiculously slow), and favored enemies, another useless ability that rarely comes into play as you don't really fight the same enemies a lot in IWD2, the enemy categories are too narrow (for example, the number of bugbears in the game can be counted on ones fingers), and the bonuses are barely any help anyway.

Just take one level of ranger for free ambidexterity and two weapon fighting. Also take fighter levels (at least four for weapon specialization, which you can take in the ranged weapon and melee weapon of your choice.I suggest any weapon which does X3 critical hits. Towards the end of the game those weapons become much more powerful as you can boost your luck/critical hit chance using luck, tymoras loop, neds lucky nucky, executioners eyes, improved critical and keen weapons.

These are bows, polearms, war hammers and axes. Axes are the best choice because there are both one handed and two handed axes in the game. Also, there is a powerful ranged two handed axe in the game, and the most damaging two handed weapon is also an axe(2d12+5, and additional flame damage). Lots of great one handed battle axes as well.

Then, you can level up in a number of different ways. Rogue for sneak attack damage and utility skills, barbarian for hp and resistances, fighter for more feats, perhaps some monk or paladin for some of the special abilities, or levels in a spellcasting class (druid and cleric are probably good choices because they dont compromise your fighting abilities too much). If you are taking spellcasting levels you will probably want to delay the fighter levels until much later, or perhaps even skip them entirely. If you are taking rogue levels, make sure to start as a rogue for the extra skill points at character creation (otherwise you lose out a LOT).

Also dont bother maxing out dexterity, even for a character that is primarily an archer. Max strength (put all level up points into STR, and perhaps chose half orc) All dexterity will give you is +1 missile attack bonus for every two points. But this is useless as every level up automatically gives you +1 to your base attack bonus, and I doubt that monster armor classes increase as quickly as your BAB. You will quickly find yourself hitting pretty damn often with ranged weapons.

On the other hand, strength gives you both attack bonus and damage with melee weapons, and you will want to maximize your characters damage output. Also, melee weapon attack bonus is much more important because it is penalized both by by power attack (-5) and dual wielding full sized weapons (-4 even with ambidexterity and 2WF).

Also, ranged weapons get attack bonus from BOTH the launcher and the projectile, and I'm pretty sure there are lots of ranged weapons which give much more attack bonus than the +5 max you will get from melee weapons.

 

Let's do some maths, shall we?

The best guaranteed melee weapon in the game is Massive Halberd of Hate +4. It does 2d8+4 damage (plus some inconsequential life leech).

The best bow is Golden Arch. Together with +5 arrows (almost infinite supply if abusing game engine glitch together with unlimited stacking) it does 1d6+11 damage.

The best ranged weapon is Flying Death. It does 1d10+1 damage, plus some extra slashing that won't get multiplied by criticals so let's ignore it for now.

Standard damage buffs (Emotion Hope, Aid, Prayer) give +4 damage and you get another +4 total from Weapon Specialization (feat + gauntlets). Let's further assume 30 STR, as Champion's Strength gets you there rather easily and Power Attack for the melee weapon and Rapid Shot for the ranged.

Thus damage per hit becomes 34-48 for melee, 20-25 for bow and 25-34 for Flying Death.

"Doesn't that mean that the ranged weapons suck?"

Well, both yes and no. Consider that both ranged weapons give you +1 attack (Rapid Shot, remember?) and you'll quickly realize that even the bow hangs with the competition rather long, ESPECIALLY considering you get an effective +12 (!!) to hit with it compared to the Power Attack boosted melee. Add the other miscellaneous advantages of ranged weaponry (concentrated firepower, no need for AC etc) and the ranged weaponry remains a solid competitor all the way through the game.

 

I agree with you that a maxed out Str character with a two hander is the most effective but that is not what Hootpad said he wanted ("a true Ranger with a bow"). Having 20 points in Str and using a bow is like having a Jaguar in your garage but being forced to drive around in a Volvo (to pick up Sir Rechet's metaphor).

The min maxing is pretty extreme too, 1 in Cha could make sense if the half orc was the less likable and the ugliest person ever but 1 in Int is just way too low. With 1 point in Int from an RPing perspective a character shouldn't be able to talk IMO.

I don't agree on the goblins though. Killing them is never a problem (except in HoF of course) so you don't necessarily have to pick them.

You're suggesting to max Str for an archer? What good will Str do to a character who uses a bow? I could understand the idea of a Half Orc with slings and bullets going for a maxed out Str but that is not what Hootpad was asking about. He wants to RP an archer. The fact that Str is useful for melee combat is not very enticing for a character who will be using a bow 90% of the time...

 

And 29-32 damage per hit with a sling +5 because of the +10 strength bonus to damage you get with 30 str.
For high strength characters bows are far inferior to slings which also get bonuses to hit and damage from both launcher and missile.

 

And they get to use Rapid Shot AND they get to use a shield. The best of both worlds.

 

Slings have an extra perk during Chapter Two in that the Aurilites drop various bullets like they grow on trees. Sure they can be sold, but you hardly need much more money by then anyway.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but bullets are more effective than arrows since they will damage foes like Ice (or is it Crystal?) Golems who are sensitive to blunt weapons.

 

If they are powerful enough to get thru the DR(+2 i think...) of those types of creatures.

Hootpad - RP away and screw the slings. Bow wielding Rangers is what D&D is all about! You can get by with bows easily in this game. Lots of different arrows with effects for all the nasties you encounter.

 

I actually meant to show that despite all the bashing against bows and their missing STR bonus, they aren't really all *that* much behind in power since they still get the +1 attack from Rapid Shot.

Not to mention you don't NEED high STR to use a bow. A perfect match for anyone that needs to shave off points from STR such as most diplomat types.

Edit: Crystal golems require +4 weapons to damage them or you'll face 20 damage resistance when fighting them. Exception being blunt weapons, of course - you get 20 damage BONUS with blunt melee weapons and zero DR with sling bullets below +4 enchantment.

 

Thanks, my memory was a bit hazy on that point.

That's what I've been posting in this thread. A bow wielding Ranger only needs Str for loot and you can definitely have fun without a uber Str score especially since you don't want to use a two handed weapon anyway.

Actually a Monk/Ranger could get by with only 10 points in Str. Not a powergaming build but it would be a fun character to play in normal mode and his (or her) AC would be high enough with a high Dex and a good Wis. Not to mention Evasion and the Monk's bonus to saves that character would be quite at ease dodging fireballs and the like.

 

Ok, after reading this thread. Other than being discouraged from even building a ranger, in terms of them really not bringing anything new to the table I'm still going to make one. I'm really interested in this Mo build, because I want my next party to be roguish. What I understand is going mo(1)/ranger(x)? possibly human, 10 str max dex and decent wis/con?

 

That's pretty much the idea. Some of the guys may look down on such a build but it should be fun to play. IMO the Monk level will work nicely with the Ranger class.

The easier way is to take only one Monk level but like I said above if you want your character to be the better archer you'll need to give him or her 4 Fighter levels (for weapon specialization). Take three levels as a Monk and then alternate between Ranger and Fighter until you reach Fighter level 4. The major problem is that your levels will be spread out between three classes (Monk 3/Fighter 4/Ranger X) and you may not like that if you intend to play a character who is closer to a pure class Ranger.

The other option is to start as a Monk and then level up as a Ranger. It's rather straightforward. Take Rapid Shot asap of course.

One Monk level gives quite a few advantages most of which I've already listed above.

Stat wise I'd go for high Dex and good Con (Con never hurts). Wis should be good too for the Monk AC bonus which will compensate for the lack of armours.

Don't lower Str under 10 since you may want this character to be able to carry some loot and dual wield short blades (with Weapon Finesse) -incidentally there are some short swords that have special effects which can be somewhat effective even without an extra bonus to damage from Str- but a penalty to damage really suck so you really shouldn't lower Str.

Cha can be dumped unless you really want to put points into Animal Empathy (I'm not a big fan). It's better to have a Bard or a Sorcerer as the main speaker anyway since they need the Cha whereas your Ranger really doesn't. Besides a lower Charisma makes sense for a contemplative character who is more at ease in the wilderness than in crowded cities.

Int is not a priority especially for a human who will get extra skillpoints anyway. I'm trying to figure out if you will be missing some good feats by ignoring Int but I can't think of anything except Expertise and it may not be the best choice for that character anyway (unless you want this character to act as a decoy but it doesn't seem to be the case). You could even lower it a little depending whether or not you feel comfortable playing a character with a lower Int score (I really hate lowering any character's Int below 8 but that's just a personal bias).

One advantage is that since you'll have put points in Dex, Con and Wis your saves will be rather high especially with the +2 bonus from the Monk class.

Since neither Monk nor Ranger are the favourite classes of any race in order to avoid XP penalty you have to choose between Half Elf and Human.

Human is very good no matter what. You get an extra feat at first level and more skillpoints during the game. Half Elf is really a RPer's choice since it doesn't bring any real advantage except an immunity to sleep which won't help much (unless you solo the game and even then it's not that great).

 

Players should not have an intelligence lower than 3, intelligence of 1 or 2 is non-sentient while intelligence below 5 is non-verbal and intelligence under 9 is unable to speak properly.

I guess it's lucky for you IWD2 doesn't come with these limitations

 

Adding a monk level will cripple your ranger.

In regard to favored enemy, attack bonus, gaining extra attacks per round, available spells and casting level you'll be a character 1 level lower.

The monk benefits aren't worth the drawbacks. You get a wis bonus to AC and evasion, but only if you don't wear armor, armor can grant AC, extra HP, immunities or other benefits, while evasion isn't used often unless you bombard yourself and for the AC bonus to be effective you need very high wis and an armor spell cast all the time. The monk saving throw bonus is nearly evened out by the hit points you loose and when you find the monk only bracers your ranger can already shoot 5 times per round (rapid shot + haste).