Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MadBlue" data-source="post: 848275" data-attributes="member: 7552">Well, actually, my point was that a 3.5 Ranger is not going to be as good in combat at 1st level as a 3.0 Ranger. I'm not talking about comparing the combat effectiveness to other classes.As far as being "more of a Ranger", the Ranger is being redefined in 3.5 - or rather, the focus is being shifted. In previous editions, the Ranger was a total wilderness warrior and total wilderness scout rolled into one. In 3.0, the scout part was taken up largely by the Rogue, so a Ranger/Rogue was the consummate "Wilderness Scout". In 3.5 the Ranger is getting the wilderness scout role handed back to him but losing out a bit on the warrior end. It's hard to say which role is "more of a Ranger" though. Also, I think the concept of "what a Ranger is" has been largely influenced by Rangers in other games. I mean, look at how many alt.Rangers don't use spells because people say "I don't picture the Ranger as a spell caster", when spell use has been part of the D&D Ranger since day one. That's not a criticism, just an observation.This is the part that concerns me the most. I think the changes favor taking archery over TWF, and they really should be equally valuable choices. I welcome the choice of the Archery combat style, but I'd like it to remain a choice, and not become the obvious choice. On a level battlefield though, TWF becomes more useful, especially against Favored Enemies, as the bonus is only applicable to ranged attacks within 30', and the enemies are going to be able to close that distance pretty quickly, at which point the TWF Ranger is going to be getting his bonus damage more often than the Archer Ranger who has to drop his bow and draw his sword. Two Weapon Defense looks interesting, though, although I imagine it's not on the TWF combat style tree, or at least, it's not on it early enough to make the difference to low-level Rangers. If it works like Off-Hand Parry but doesn't require a full-attack option, it'll be a "must-have" Feat for 3rd level TWF Rangers IMHO.MadBlue</blockquote>

Verification