Dragon 373 - Party Building
- Thread starter Shroomy
- Start date
It's not a mistake, per se; the article is only rating them by ability score synegies, and strictly speaking, Elves are only "advantaged" by that criteria. In practice, Elves are "optimal" because their features and racial options mesh extremely well with Rangers. Another example of this is Eladrin not being rated as "optimal" (Tactical) Warlords; Eladrin are only "advantaged" by their ability bonuses, but their racial options are what make them arguably the best TacLord race around right now.
It goes the other way, too. For example, it calls Half-Orcs optimal Rangers because of their bonus to both Strength and Dexterity, but in practice, that's probably only "advantaged", given that most Rangers don't really need both so much as they need one or the other.
Basically, the article's assessment of each combination is more-or-less accurate, but it does whitewash over some of the finer details which can make a difference. Overall though, I quite like this article, because it's basically solid advice, and a good primer for anybody building a new party.
Yeah, the article treats the ranger as a "V" class when in practice it is really two "A" classes rolled into one. A TWF ranger isn't going to be interested in ranged-only attacks, and an archer ranger isn't going to be interested in TWF-only attacks. Whereas a paladin or cleric might be interested in powers from both stats (and a star-pact warlock is almost forced to invest in both attack stats).
fissionessence
First Post
Also, they put gnolls as having no optimal class options, but +2 Str, +2 Dex is exactly perfect for a brutal rogue, which is what my girlfriend plays.
I suppose they assumed rogues were Dex/Cha, but a Strength build is the other half of the V.
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No class has BOTH Dex/Con, but Rogues have Dex as a primary, and Infernal Locks have Con.
Which is "advantaged" in the context of the article, not "optimal." And gnolls have those classes listed under "advantaged."
fissionessence
First Post
Wow. My girlfriend's character was built around the time of the article coming out, and she even took the claw fighter feat at 1st level, so I'm surprised that we accidentally still used the ability score bonuses from the Monster Manual version.
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Even the MM gnoll gets +2dex/con. Are you sure you are not confusing the gnoll with the bugbear or something?
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