Ultimate self-sufficiant char.

I'm the DM now but I'm itching to play so one of the players offered to do a solo camp. for me.
He'll be making it up and say that I can expect a little of everything (dungeon crawl, politics, investigation, wilderness, planar travel, underdark, and all the ones I missed) So my Q is : What would be the best choice for a "ready for anything" loner char. (preferably with ranger in it)

The Factotum from Dungeonscape. It can literally do ANYTHING. There's a feat that is on the Wizards site to give it more Inspiration points, too, so it rocks even harder.

Straight up Druid.

If you want to mix things up a bit, a little scout mixed in wouldn't be the worst thing.
-blarg

Wilderness Rogue also if you want to be more effective in combat as a Rogue, you can go the Martial Rogue route (dropping sneak attack for fighter bonus feats). Follow the link and scroll all the way down, you'll see the Martial Rogue on that page too.

Sounds fun! I believe the Chameleon is perfect for you, if you play at levels 6+.

This is what I would do:
Human Paragon1/Cleric1/Paladin(Of Freedom)2/Human Paragon3/Chameleon10

Human Paragon allows for a lot of customization in skills, Chameleon is a jack-of-all-trades type of character. Cleric gives Domains and Turn undead for Divine feats, Paladin2 give Divine Grace for survivability.

EDIT:
Possibly
Human Paragon1/Cleric1/Barbarian1(or Fighter)/Human Paragon3/Chameleon10
is a good build too

Depends on what kind of sidekick you're going to have.

You ARE going to have a sidekick, right? I DM a solo campaign and sidekicks are pretty important to both role-playing and combat

rawgt3 said:

I'm the DM now but I'm itching to play so one of the players offered to do a solo camp. for me.
He'll be making it up and say that I can expect a little of everything (dungeon crawl, politics, investigation, wilderness, planar travel, underdark, and all the ones I missed) So my Q is : What would be the best choice for a "ready for anything" loner char. (preferably with ranger in it)

Click to expand...

Of the core ones, Bard is the most versatile (decent attack/AC, good skills, damage/information/healing spells, good catch-all knowledge ability and buffing songs).

For sheer survivability? Monk. Add in either a couple of levels of Rogue + Ascetic Rogue, or levels of Ranger + Ascetic Hunter.

Either way, taking either the Wild Cohort feat or the Beastmaster Prestige Class adds an effective minion in the form of an animal companion (Beastmaster is taken later, but you get a more powerful one).

Bard/Druid heading for Fochlucan Lyrist. You have the bards versatility and you can reach druid level 9 spells with a pretty good BAB.

Druid? Either way, I'll echo the sidekick query, as it bears repeating. I've always added in an NPC companion for solo campaigns. . . not that I've run very many, so 'always' is pretty strong language.

If you have an NPC companion, it's not quite so crucial (the PC class or mix thereof.) I've run PC Cleric-ish + NPC Wilderness Rogue, which worked fine. I've also run PC Paladin-ish + NPC Bard/Swashbuckler-ish. Some other combos. Anyway, it really depends on the style of campaign.

Given it's a 'kitchen sink' campaign. . . well, it still comes down to the 'sidekick' question.

general - solo play

My suggestion would be play what you want to play. You might be able to brew up some go anywhere, do anything character. But if it is not something you particularly want to play, why play it?

Part of the challenge of the game can be pulling together the resources your character needs. Establish some connections in the character background that potentially gives your character access to resources they may be able to call on, sometimes in return for a fee or favour, sometimes not. A side kick is also something to consider.

That said, if it were me, I would go for a paladin, ranger, monk, druid or rogue. Probably because they are the type of characters I like playing anyway. My final choice would depend a lot on the setting and the style of game we are shooting for. Clerics are good all rounders as well. I don't tend to play them much. But their ties to their church and god do make for good plot hooks and connections.

doghead
aka thotdgeneral - solo play

My suggestion would be play what you want to play. You might be able to brew up some go anywhere, do anything character. But if it is not something you particularly want to play, why play it?

Part of the challenge of the game can be pulling together the resources your character needs. Establish some connections in the character background that potentially gives your character access to resources they may be able to call on, sometimes in return for a fee or favour, sometimes not. A side kick is also something to consider.

That said, if it were me, I would go for a paladin, ranger, monk, druid or rogue. Probably because they are the type of characters I like playing anyway. My final choice would depend a lot on the setting and the style of game we are shooting for. Clerics are good all rounders as well. I don't tend to play them much. But their ties to their church and god do make for good plot hooks and connections.

doghead
aka thotd