Help with a Fighter/Ranger

[Dandu]

I'd put some points in Search if you want to dungeoncrawl.

You might want to put points into Survival for tracking if your adventure takes place in the great outdoors, or... well.... you could save yourself skill points by not doing it.

 

[RBolyar2]

I'd put some points in Search if you want to dungeoncrawl.

You might want to put points into Survival for tracking if your adventure takes place in the great outdoors, or... well.... you could save yourself skill points by not doing it.

That last part is funny, but a great point. So no points into track then.

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

How strict is your dm with the weight you are allowed to carry. Because an 11 str doenst go very far with holding equipment. in fact your basic gear can way you down. otherwaise Dandu is right on track with what should change. I get the wanting to not "max" your character thing, it's cool and all, but I would suggest changing the states anyways. If your wanting to go Ranger all the way eventually, why even take fighter? Is it part of your character history. Because an army has need of a ranger all the time. The ranger spell list isnt the greatest thing in the world, I would suggest against slowing down your progression in it. And def checking out the spell comp. for the better ranger spells. The phb isnt so great on ranger spells. Have fun gaming, Rangers are my fav class to play.

 

[RBolyar2]

How strict is your dm with the weight you are allowed to carry. Because an 11 str doenst go very far with holding equipment. in fact your basic gear can way you down. otherwaise Dandu is right on track with what should change. I get the wanting to not "max" your character thing, it's cool and all, but I would suggest changing the states anyways. If your wanting to go Ranger all the way eventually, why even take fighter? Is it part of your character history. Because an army has need of a ranger all the time. The ranger spell list isnt the greatest thing in the world, I would suggest against slowing down your progression in it. And def checking out the spell comp. for the better ranger spells. The phb isnt so great on ranger spells. Have fun gaming, Rangers are my fav class to play.

he's somewhat lenient(sp) with the weight, but it's part of my character back story to go from a fighter (royally trained knight, kinda)... to a ranger once he forsakes his kingdom

 

[Jeffrie]

Ok. I get it. You have a character concept. Still, you did ask for advice.

STR: 12
DEX: 18
CON: 14
INT: 16
WIS: 11
CHA: 10

You would still get the high Int you want, but if you take ranger first you will get many more skill points. Please. Do it for your self. Your uncle taught you rangering on summer vacation before you became a knight with your dad's old buddies. Then you decided you liked rangering better and went back to it.
If you take fighter at all, take two. You might as well get the feats out of it. Feats are very powerful tools in 3.5 character building.

There lots of options for adding Dex to attack and damage. There are also others that let you add Int to attack or damage. Here's a fun list of feats;
All Feats From All sources.
I search for feats on google with: 3.5 feat add Dex bonus to xxx, and it soon leads me to some forum where folks were optimizing.

Consider Leadership?

 

[RBolyar2]

Ok. I get it. You have a character concept. Still, you did ask for advice.

STR: 12
DEX: 18
CON: 14
INT: 16
WIS: 11
CHA: 10

You would still get the high Int you want, but if you take ranger first you will get many more skill points. Please. Do it for your self. Your uncle taught you rangering on summer vacation before you became a knight with your dad's old buddies. Then you decided you liked rangering better and went back to it.
If you take fighter at all, take two. You might as well get the feats out of it. Feats are very powerful tools in 3.5 character building.

There lots of options for adding Dex to attack and damage. There are also others that let you add Int to attack or damage. Here's a fun list of feats;
All Feats From All sources.
I search for feats on google with: 3.5 feat add Dex bonus to xxx, and it soon leads me to some forum where folks were optimizing.

Consider Leadership?

So you're saying take Ranger, Fighter, Fighter, Ranger, Ranger, ect?

Also, would you recommend taking TWF, or Archery first?

 

[Jeffrie]

yes, if i was going to take a fighter ranger i would consider progressing as you wrote.

I'm not really a combat feat specialist, but i always liked TWF. OTOH, i know more about feats than i used to, and i would look at my feats first;

If you could find a feat for INT to attack or Damage, and another to stack DEX on top of it, then the stats work for you.

Do a google 'advanced search'. Search inside wizards.com. Search for the phrase
'x to y bonus' (i think). There is good info there.

 

[Dandu]

Alternatively, harness the power of charop.

 

[Thanael]

If you could find a feat for INT to attack or Damage, and another to stack DEX on top of it, then the stats work for you.

Swashbuckler 3 gives you int to damage. Duellist 1 gives you int to AC. (see also the charop link by dandu above)


Another interesting resource is the Alternative Class Features III thread, which list all ACFs and what they do in detail. (Sadly these details are missing in the Ranger Handbook that dandu posted far upthread...)

 

[Thanael]

Without boring you with my characters past he starts as a human fighter, with my plan to multi class him to a ranger either next round, or wait until I've had 2 levels of fighter to do it.

His abilities are:
STR: 11
DEX: 16
CON: 12
INT: 18
WIS: 14
CHA: 10

Obviously not ideal for a fighter, but it's based of the idea I have of the character, not optimizing him generally speaking.

[..] but it's part of my character back story to go from a fighter (royally trained knight, kinda)... to a ranger once he forsakes his kingdom

So a knight-trained fighter but he hasn't even got above average str? The stats don't fit the concept imho. Either change the stats somewhat (doesn't have to perfectly optimized but at least they should fit the story). ...or change the backstory to fit the stats. It's like playing a highly muscled PC with a STR of 11.

In fact why don't you tell us more about the backstory/concept you have in mind? And/or the role that you want your PC to play tactically. It wouldn't bore me...

1.) When should I begin taking levels of ranger (and once I begin, I plan on continuing JUST taking levels of ranger)?

Ftr2 or Ftr 4 are good exit points. Though taking the first level as Ranger is to be recommended in 3E. (PF gets rid of the clunky 3x skill points at first level rule.)

3.) I was planning on taking Improved initiative, two weapon fighting, and two weapon defense to begin with, but persuing the archery tree once I've multiclassed to Ranger... What benefits would I gain from this vs. persuing bow skills as a fighter, and then learning two weapon fighting as a ranger.... ?

The difference is that as Ranger bonus feats you don't have to fulfill the prereqs (if you're wearing light armour), i.e. you can get Greater TWF without having Dex 19.

I do apologize for the newbie questions, but I'm excited to get my character concept up and running! Thanks in advance...

No need to apologize, we like to do this. Else we wouldn't.