Ideas for a city watch detective

[Klaus]

You could give your wolfhound a boost and be sort of a K9 unit. Pick a level of Beastmaster to add +4 (Beastmaster level +3) to your effective druid level. You'll need Handle Animal and Skill Focus (Handle Animal) for that, though. But your effective druid level will be 7, matching your character level.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another good (if funny) one to look at would be Sam Rimes, commander of the Ankh-Morpork city watch.

I'll also second the concentration on disarms, trips, etc. Flails do this wonderfully, but don't overlook the value of Improved Unarmed Combat! I did a Bounty Hunter as a straight-up Ranger, and the flail was his weapon of choice.

 

[BullMarkOne]

To chime in on the non-lethal damage option, Book of Exalted Deeds, has a feat which allows non-lethal damage with _any_ weapon. It also includes stats for a Truncheon, basically a club which inflicts non-lethal damage.

 

[nittanytbone]

(1) If you plan on taking any levels of rogue, ever, take them first. You get more skill points.

(2) Check out the Urban Ranger variant from UA.

(3) A PrC like Bloodhound or Justiciar might be handy for you. Usually underpowered, but could be good in this case.

(4) If you plan on being a serious dual-wielder -- which you are, as you're investing in 6 levels of ranger -- you need more bonus damage. SA+1d6 and Favored Enemy (humans) +4 helps a lot, but it will be nice to have a bard around (inspire courage), pick up more SA dice (PrCs), get elemental damage on your weapon, etc.

 

[Scharlata]

(3) A PrC like Bloodhound or Justiciar might be handy for you. Usually underpowered, but could be good in this case.

... or now, the Crimson Scourge from Cityscape, p. 92:

Any nongood. BAB: +4. B Fort S: +3. GaIn: 4 rks. HaAni: 8 rks. Heal: 1 rk. Inti: 3 rks. Feat: Urban Tracking.

Enjoy

 

[Pielorinho]

Thanks, everyone, for some great ideas! I really like the idea of a level of beastmaster (although it'll have to be from Masters of the Wild), and will look into that. Unfortunately, I have very few 3.5 books, so PrCs are pretty much limited to the class splatbooks from 3.0 and whatever's in the basic 3.5 books.

The cost in feats of getting into PrCs is a big problem: the character only has three optional feats to spend, and I've currently sunk those into Weapon Focus (Quarterstaff), Combat Expertise, and Improved Disarm. I really want to be able to disarm, which means that WF is the only one I can get rid of, which is a painful thing to lose.

Daniel

 

[Klaus]

Daniel,

PM me and I'll send you everything you need for your Beastmaster.

Another option is trade WF (staff) (hey, it's just a +1 ) for Nature Bond (which adds +3 to your effective druid level (making it Ranger level /2 +3, isntead of only Ranger level /2).

 

[Perun]

Have you though tabout trying to adapt the Eberron PrC Master Inquisitive.

That's a solid Noir styel PrC and with a rogue/urban ranger buld it'd be well easy to qualify for...

Just a thought

I'll second that. It's a neat little 5-level PrC that one can qualify for at 3rd level. It gives some magial abilitiey (zone of truth, discern lies, true seeing), a couple of bonus feats, and contacts (NPCs that provide you with services and/or information). Definitely worth looking into, if you have acces to the ECS.

ECS also has the Investigate feat that lets you analyze a crime scene (look for clues and analyze clues).

Regards.

 

[Pielorinho]

Daniel,

PM me and I'll send you everything you need for your Beastmaster.

Another option is trade WF (staff) (hey, it's just a +1 ) for Nature Bond (which adds +3 to your effective druid level (making it Ranger level /2 +3, isntead of only Ranger level /2).

Actually, that feat looks pretty cool, and might be worthwhile. Where's it from?

I've been playing a druid for many years, though, and I'm kinda hoping to go away from the druid schtick. On the other hand, it turns out the other PCs will include an enchanter wizard, an archery-rogue, and a bard, so it looks like I might be it in terms of frontline fighters (in, admittedly, a low-combat game); having a backup in the form of a wolf sure wouldn't hurt.

Daniel

 

[Hypersmurf]

I've been playing a druid for many years, though, and I'm kinda hoping to go away from the druid schtick.

I think a druid makes one of the best investigative types in the game. By high levels, you can talk to animals, plants, and sidewalks. You can use fingernail scrapings as a focus for scrying on a victim's attacker. Take Leadership for a cleric cohort, and you can now talk to dead people and gods.

Via a bit of creative house-ruling, my last druid (originally conceived in exactly this vein) had a Cat Swarm as his animal companion - lots of fun for eyes all over the city

-Hyp.