Ranger advice

Hi all, I'm a fairly new player, currently going through HotDQ. My ranger (revised - beast conclave) will likely hit level 4 next session and I'm looking for some advice as to what to do with my ASI.

I'm a mountain dwarf, dual wielding hand axes. Stats are:

STR: 14
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 9
WIS: 11
CHA: 8

I'm currently considering three options for the ASI.

A - put two points in STR primarily to increase my chance to hit & damage
B - Dual Wielder feat for +1 to AC and the ability to wield non-light weapons (slight damage boost)
C - Resilient (Wis) feat for proficiency in Wisdom saves, and getting a +1 bonus to wisdom skills and spell save DC etc.

For my boar companion, I was going to put a point each into STR and DEX raising them to 14 and 12 respectively.
I'm assuming this will raise the DC of the boar's charge attack and its AC. Have I got that right?

For context, the rest of the party comprises a dwarven war cleric, a high-elf moon druid, a half-elf GOO warlock, and a tiefling rogue.

All suggestions / opinions greatly received!

Healer feat. That way, you can patch up you and your beast between fights (and the party, if they ask nicely).
Otherwise +2 Str. Your party is fairly tanky, so more damage would be good.

And yes, your boar will increase it's attack and AC.

Those stats seem low, if you did point buy, that is only 19 points! (Mtn Dwarf +2 str, +2 Con is included, right?)

If dual wielding, increasing your Strength is better than taking the feat. (+1 to hit and d6+1 is better than d8)

If your Wisdom was at least 13 I would recommend a few levels of Barbarian or Fighter. Since your character is likely taking the brunt of the melee attacks, focusing on survival is important.

Here's one trick to help you out. When you level up, make sure to learn the Goodberry spell. Every night (or morning), use your left over spell slots to cast Goodberry. Once you finish the rest you get all your spell slots back anyway. They last for 24 hours, so they will persist until the next time you take a long rest. You can have a sack full of Goodberries for eating outside of combat, or if your DM uses alternate rules, you could eat or administer one as a bonus action in combat.

At level 4, that's up to 30 Goodberries you can start each day with if you never expended spell slots. At 5th level, you can have up to 60.

Vulf said:

Those stats seem low, if you did point buy, that is only 19 points! (Mtn Dwarf +2 str, +2 Con is included, right?)

Click to expand...

We rolled for stats. Unfortunately, I didn't roll so well. In fact I rolled so badly, the DM let me reroll my worst stats, until I got the array above. And yes, the mountain dwarf stat increases are included.

Thanks for the Goodberry suggestion. It's not a spell I'd really considered before. I'm actually reconsidering my spells as I don't thonk I made the best choices. I'd deliberately avoided any spells that require a save or a spell attack roll as my Wis modifier is 0. My current spells known are Hunter's Mark, Absorb Elements, and I picked up Beast Bond last level as I thought it'd synergise well with the animal companion. The trouble is HM and BB are both concentration so I can't keep both up and HM competes with my off hand attack for my bonus action. AE has never seen any use.

I've been thinking about swapping one of them out for Longstrider to get me to the front lines quicker and to bring closer to the boar's speed of 40ft. I'll now add Goodberry to the maybe pile.

That's pretty tough man. He's probably still playable, though.

If you aren't attached to him, play him recklessly brave, and you may find yourself rolling a new character!

I'd be tempted by the Dual Wielder feat, as it would define your character amongst the party early in the campaign.