Hi, I'm new to the forum. Just want to get some suggestions on building/changing my character. I started with a concept and want to stick with concept while making the character as efficient as possible. i have been playing the character in LFR but am starting a home campaign, so essentially, I can change him in anyway I want. I believe we will be starting at level 2 or 3 since some of us have characters that level.
The concept is a halfling(from Chondalwood) who was raised by wolves as a child, no one knows what happened to his original family and then found by wild elves who brought him up as a hunter/archer. The reason i have beyond this is that he has a special birthmark( which I hope the Dm will somehow relate to his original family). So I have a primarily ranged ranger who is pretty feral, and as a result darts in and out of melee, often shooting arrows and point blank range, always gets prime shot, etc. I was inspired by artwork of dark sun halflings, but adapted the image to LFR. I RP him not speaking common too well, to account for his upbringing, and speaking of himself in 3rd person. He's quite articulate in elven though. He grunts and howls during combat and refers to enemies as squirrels, ie "here little squirrel"...
Here's my character and I will list play strategies and some other ideas i thought about as well.
LVL 1 snapshot
Race: Hafling
Class: Ranger
Fighting Style: Hunter
Bonus Feature: Prime Shot
STR-10
CON-13 +1
DEX-20 +5
INT-10
WIS-14 +2
CHA-8 -1
Background: Auspicious Birth(birthmark), also thought of possibly taking chessenta background as he would excel when using speed, acting quickly, wolf-like abilities...
HP:32
bloodied- 16
surges- 7
surge value-8
AC-18 10+5(dex) +3(armor)
Fort- 12
reflex-16
will-12
Initiative- +7 10+5(dex) +2(quickdraw)
speed-6
Racial Powers- Second Chance, +5 vs fear, +2ac on oa
At wills-
Twin Strike, Fading Strike
Encounter-
Two fanged strike
Daily-
Sure Shot
Skills-
Acrobatics- +11-+5(dex)+5(skill)+2(halfling)-1(armor)
Athletics- +5
Nature-+7- +5 +2(wis)
Perception- +7- +5 +2(wis)
stealth-+9- +5 +5(dex)-1(armor)
Feats:
quick draw(ranger bonus feat)
Halfing shortbow hunter- 20/40 range 1d8 brutal 2 damage
+4 oa provoked by ranged attacks(hunter fighting style)
Gear:
Shortbow
90 arrows
Longsword
Climber's kit
Hide armor
standard adventurer's kit
Level 2 Changes-
+5HP
+1 to attacks, defenses, and checks
magic items found - sylvan armor- +1 ac, +1 athletics, +1 Stealth
cloak of resistance- +1 to all defenses, resist 5 as daily for 1 turn
potion of healing(1)
new feat- weapon Focus- Bow- +1Damage
new utility power- unbalancing parry
retrained daily to- skirmishing stance( to go along with mobility, give defenses for getting in close, extra damage for whole encounter instead of 1 strike)
Basic strategy is like this, he naturally uses quick draw to switch to longsword to be able to make oas with longsword after each attack.
First round he will attack quarry with ranged twin strike at point blank. target gets an oa back at +6 ac(he's at 26 for the roll) after the likely miss he can then instead(using quick draw) use unbalancing parry to slide the opponent and gain combat advantage for next attack to use two fanged strike. Should this work, or is that abusing quick draw? If not I suppose i could take invigorating stride or yield ground, but i like the idea of an offensive acting utility. Then at the final encounter he uses skirmishing stance and darts around the battlefield form opponent to opponent twin striking with an additional d8 on first strike, capable of doing 3w damage each turn, with a base ac on 22 during the encounter.
I also thought that maybe bow expertise would be better to try and land more hits with twin strike, but i'm not sure. I've also noticed most enemies seem to be frequently not adjacent to allies, so maybe I'd get +1 damage anyway? what's your opinion?
Another strategy I had was to take manticore's fury instead of weapon focus and alternate between ranged and melee for + 2dam each round( if I can keep hitting). It might also befit me, then, to take commanding confrontation as my daily instead of skirmishing stance, though I could certainly keep it this way as well.
I could have also just stuck to sure shot as a daily as well, but overall the play seemed kind of boring. Although I could get plusses to each roll if I had the chessenta background, and then I reroll all 1s or 2s anyway with shortbow hunter featm plus I can then reroll any 3s or 4s( once each) If i wanted to...
As for the future I think I am leaning toward either dark strider or sharp shooter as a paragon path, darkstrider since he is rather stealthy for a ranger, but only if he has plenty of dungeon adventures and learns dungeneering to justify it storywise. Sharpshooter, kind of self-explanatory.
So, what are your opinions on the character, how would you build/change for 2nd level, level up to third level(we might start at third due to another playing being near there), as well as plan for afterward? Please keep suggestions within my character concept. Thanks to all in advance and I hope I get some insightful advice.
The concept is a halfling(from Chondalwood) who was raised by wolves as a child, no one knows what happened to his original family and then found by wild elves who brought him up as a hunter/archer. The reason i have beyond this is that he has a special birthmark( which I hope the Dm will somehow relate to his original family). So I have a primarily ranged ranger who is pretty feral, and as a result darts in and out of melee, often shooting arrows and point blank range, always gets prime shot, etc. I was inspired by artwork of dark sun halflings, but adapted the image to LFR. I RP him not speaking common too well, to account for his upbringing, and speaking of himself in 3rd person. He's quite articulate in elven though. He grunts and howls during combat and refers to enemies as squirrels, ie "here little squirrel"...
Here's my character and I will list play strategies and some other ideas i thought about as well.
LVL 1 snapshot
Race: Hafling
Class: Ranger
Fighting Style: Hunter
Bonus Feature: Prime Shot
STR-10
CON-13 +1
DEX-20 +5
INT-10
WIS-14 +2
CHA-8 -1
Background: Auspicious Birth(birthmark), also thought of possibly taking chessenta background as he would excel when using speed, acting quickly, wolf-like abilities...
HP:32
bloodied- 16
surges- 7
surge value-8
AC-18 10+5(dex) +3(armor)
Fort- 12
reflex-16
will-12
Initiative- +7 10+5(dex) +2(quickdraw)
speed-6
Racial Powers- Second Chance, +5 vs fear, +2ac on oa
At wills-
Twin Strike, Fading Strike
Encounter-
Two fanged strike
Daily-
Sure Shot
Skills-
Acrobatics- +11-+5(dex)+5(skill)+2(halfling)-1(armor)
Athletics- +5
Nature-+7- +5 +2(wis)
Perception- +7- +5 +2(wis)
stealth-+9- +5 +5(dex)-1(armor)
Feats:
quick draw(ranger bonus feat)
Halfing shortbow hunter- 20/40 range 1d8 brutal 2 damage
+4 oa provoked by ranged attacks(hunter fighting style)
Gear:
Shortbow
90 arrows
Longsword
Climber's kit
Hide armor
standard adventurer's kit
Level 2 Changes-
+5HP
+1 to attacks, defenses, and checks
magic items found - sylvan armor- +1 ac, +1 athletics, +1 Stealth
cloak of resistance- +1 to all defenses, resist 5 as daily for 1 turn
potion of healing(1)
new feat- weapon Focus- Bow- +1Damage
new utility power- unbalancing parry
retrained daily to- skirmishing stance( to go along with mobility, give defenses for getting in close, extra damage for whole encounter instead of 1 strike)
Basic strategy is like this, he naturally uses quick draw to switch to longsword to be able to make oas with longsword after each attack.
First round he will attack quarry with ranged twin strike at point blank. target gets an oa back at +6 ac(he's at 26 for the roll) after the likely miss he can then instead(using quick draw) use unbalancing parry to slide the opponent and gain combat advantage for next attack to use two fanged strike. Should this work, or is that abusing quick draw? If not I suppose i could take invigorating stride or yield ground, but i like the idea of an offensive acting utility. Then at the final encounter he uses skirmishing stance and darts around the battlefield form opponent to opponent twin striking with an additional d8 on first strike, capable of doing 3w damage each turn, with a base ac on 22 during the encounter.
I also thought that maybe bow expertise would be better to try and land more hits with twin strike, but i'm not sure. I've also noticed most enemies seem to be frequently not adjacent to allies, so maybe I'd get +1 damage anyway? what's your opinion?
Another strategy I had was to take manticore's fury instead of weapon focus and alternate between ranged and melee for + 2dam each round( if I can keep hitting). It might also befit me, then, to take commanding confrontation as my daily instead of skirmishing stance, though I could certainly keep it this way as well.
I could have also just stuck to sure shot as a daily as well, but overall the play seemed kind of boring. Although I could get plusses to each roll if I had the chessenta background, and then I reroll all 1s or 2s anyway with shortbow hunter featm plus I can then reroll any 3s or 4s( once each) If i wanted to...
As for the future I think I am leaning toward either dark strider or sharp shooter as a paragon path, darkstrider since he is rather stealthy for a ranger, but only if he has plenty of dungeon adventures and learns dungeneering to justify it storywise. Sharpshooter, kind of self-explanatory.
So, what are your opinions on the character, how would you build/change for 2nd level, level up to third level(we might start at third due to another playing being near there), as well as plan for afterward? Please keep suggestions within my character concept. Thanks to all in advance and I hope I get some insightful advice.
