L.14 TWF Longtooth Ruthless Ranger

[Nefarii]

Hey guys, I created this build last week and I am trying to get some tips and pointers, I would to get another set of eyes to look this over to see if I am missing better combos or if what I am doing just doesn't make sense.

I kind of see this character as being a Logan Nine Fingers type in that when he gets hurt and is about to die, that's when he does the most damage and he kills the most effectively.

He is a Longtooth Shifter with the Reaver background and the Ruthless Punisher paragon path.

Our DM wants us to be heros so he is letting us do a 30 point by system. Using the 30 point buy system I dumped all my stats for str (20) and wis (14) (stat 19 is 5 and 20 is 6 points per DM, which leaves me at 30 even)

[sblock=Build]
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Claw, level 14
Longtooth Shifter, Ranger, Ruthless Punisher
Build: Two-Blade Ranger
Fighting Style Option: Two-Blade Fighting Style
Ranger Option: Prime Shot
Auspicious Birth (Auspicious Birth Benefit)
Theme: Reaver

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 26, CON 11, DEX 11, INT 9, WIS 20, CHA 11

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 20, CON 10, DEX 10, INT 8, WIS 14, CHA 10
AC: 23 Fort: 28 Ref: 20 Will: 24
HP: 113 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 28

TRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +11, Athletics +21, Nature +17, Perception +17, Stealth +11

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +6, Bluff +7, Diplomacy +7, Dungeoneering +12, Endurance +8, Heal +12, History +6, Insight +12, Intimidate +7, Religion +6, Streetwise +7, Thievery +6

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Reaver Attack: Vicious Assault
Longtooth Shifter Racial Power: Longtooth Shifting
Hunter's Quarry Power: Hunter's Quarry
Ranger Attack 1: Twin Strike
Ranger Attack 1: Marauder's Rush
Ranger Attack 1: Off-Hand Strike
Ranger Attack 1: Jaws of the Wolf
Reaver Utility 2: Driven to Kill
Ranger Attack 5: Two-Wolf Pounce
Reaver Utility 6: Killing Menace
Ranger Attack 7: Claws of the Griffon
Ranger Attack 9: Attacks on the Run
Ranger Utility 10: Weathered Resilience
Ruthless Punisher Attack 11: Crippling Shot
Ruthless Punisher Utility 12: Named Dread
Ranger Attack 13: Armor Splinter

FEATS
Toughness
Level 2: Light Blade Expertise
Level 4: Power Attack
Level 6: Weapon Focus (Light blade)
Level 10: Wintertouched
Level 11: Called Shot
Level 11: Prime Quarry
Level 12: Lasting Frost
Level 12: Icy Heart
Level 14: Prime Punisher

ITEMS
Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1
Predator's Hide Hide Armor +2 x1
Lucky Charm +2 x1
Boots of the Fencing Master x1
helm of Seven Deaths x1
Elven Chain Shirt (heroic tier)
Frost Rapier +3 x2
Gloves of Ice (paragon tier) x1
Pale Tooth (heroic tier)
Siberys Shard of Merciless Cold (heroic tier)
====== End ======
[/sblock]
This makes twin strike look like this:

[sblock=Twin Strike]
Attack:
+8 strength
+7 half level
+3 prof bonus
+3 enhancement
+2 light blade
+2 prime shot
+2 CA (frost cheese)
-2 Power Attack
-------------------------------
+25 vs AC

Damage:
+3 Enhancement
+2 Iron Armbands
+2 Weapon Focus
+2 Gloves
+5 Frost Cheese
+3 Icy Heart
+5 Prime Punisher
+5 humanoid
+2 Light Blade exp (CA bonus)
+3 While your bloodied (reaver)
+2 While your bloddied (longtooth)
+4 Power Attack
+1 Pale tooth
+1 Siberys Shard
--------------------------
= 40 damage
[/sblock]
+25 vs AC 1d8 +40 damage + 2d6 for quarry = 88.56 DPR when im bloodied or 78.56 when Im not bloodied

Even crazier, if I can get a leader to give me just +1 more to hit the DPR moves to 92.95 when bloodied and 82.95 not bloodied (28 AC is the DMG guidelines for a level 14 creature, so a +26 hits 95% of the time)

This is just the standard at will action with no additional minors except for quarry.

Which means my daily is 6d8 + 96 + 2d6

What do you guys think, can this be improved? ... or is this even legal?

Thanks

 

[Ferghis]

Have not looked over all the details to check if any of the other bonuses are all different types, but Icy Heart and Weapon Focus are both feat bonuses to damage, so you only get one of those two bonuses. I would double check all the other sources of bonuses to make sure they are all either different or untyped (only untyped bonuses stack). So, no, the bonuses you calculated are not legal.

Also, if I were a DM, I'd consider Elven Chain a rare item due to its extraordinary untyped defense bonus (this item received a lot of press when MME came out), of which you should only have one per tier. You already have Pale Tooth and Helm of Seven Deaths, which are both rare items. I would discuss this with your DM.

On a party synergy note, he has only 6 surges and no defensive feats, so, after soaking most of the leader's heals (he's going to be hit often due to his defenses, and targeted a lot because his tactics are to be out in the open without any allies nearby - the regen isn't going to cover all that aggro), he'll be out of surges after the second or third encounter. That might become an annoying problem for the party and/or the DM (who may be trying to set a certain pace to the adventures).

Finally, I hate to say this, but there's a chance the character will be perceived as two dimensional. This depends a lot on how you play him, and the social dynamic at your table, but it's not a rare issue for killing-machine PCs. Conan the Barbarian looks good because a lot of people spend a lot of time and resources to make sure he does. Your character is going to have you and maybe your DM. So that could be a problem.

 

[Nefarii]

Touche about the feat bonus to damage, I completely missed that, good catch.

I havent showed this char to my DM yet so I will have to get a ruling on the items.

I do not know what the other people are playing so I have no idea about the synergy, I know there will be a cleric and possibly a bard. The prime shot feature just says that "no allies can be closer to the enemy". If I have a defender adjacent to me and the baddie, he is not closer to it, so I still get my prime shot. As stated here. My tactic was to be next to the meat shields and let them soak the damage.

I notice in playing dnd that the characters act a lot like their controllers. Im pretty social and outgoing, and though my character has a low int he has a high wisdom, so it wont be hard to play the "Street smart/In the thick of things guy"

Im not sure if anyone knows who Logan Nine Fingers is, but that's pretty much what I am picturing.

Instead of weapon focus do you think I should take the "Blood Thirst" feat? or do you think lethal hunter or TWF fighting would be better?

 

[bganon]

I'm not really sure that the starting STR is worth it... buy an 18 instead and you've got 11 points to play with, which is enough to raise your DEX from 10 to 16 and bump CON to 12. Two-weapon Rangers are already infamous for having AC problems. Your attack roll is sky-high, would you really turn down +3 to AC and Reflex at the cost of -1 to attacks?

It's great to have each party member focus on their strengths, but you're playing a melee guy whose AC gets hit by equal-level monsters 75% of the time. It's going to be hard to stay in the bloodied range without getting dropped constantly.

 

[Ferghis]

The issue bganon highlights is the biggest one, in my view.

My tactic was to be next to the meat shields and let them soak the damage.?

But your reaver power is not ally-friendly.

Instead of weapon focus do you think I should take the "Blood Thirst" feat?

Weapon Focus is way better than Blood Thirst, since it is an always-on + damage per tier. If anything, consider taking both so you can finish bloodied enemies quicker.

or do you think lethal hunter or TWF fighting would be better?

Lethal hunter is particularly valuable if you get off-turn attacks, which are usually prompted by a leader (bards, shamans, and especially warlords).

Two Weapon Fighting is good because it's an untyped, always on, bonus. Overall, I would rate the utility of those four feats in this order:
1. Weapon Focus
2. Lethal Hunter
3. Two Weapon Fighting
4. Blood Thirst

 

[Nefarii]

I'm not really sure that the starting STR is worth it... buy an 18 instead and you've got 11 points to play with, which is enough to raise your DEX from 10 to 16 and bump CON to 12. Two-weapon Rangers are already infamous for having AC problems. Your attack roll is sky-high, would you really turn down +3 to AC and Reflex at the cost of -1 to attacks?

That -1 to hit makes power attack no longer useful. Currently without power attack I have a +27 to hit which will hit 95% of the time (should be 100 % but I always miss on a one), a +25 to hit hits 90% of the time only a 5% chance drop for 8 extra damage which is a DPR net win, unfortunately dropping 5% more makes the DPR lower then if I never used Power Attack at all. And Im not saying my only purpose is DPR, but I just want to let you know the thinking that I had when I moved his strength to 20 (though I didnt realize I might be able to get a +3 AC out of the deal).

Weapon Focus is way better than Blood Thirst, since it is an always-on + damage per tier. If anything, consider taking both so you can finish bloodied enemies quicker.

I was only looking to take out weapon focus because Icy Heart and weapon focus share the same damage type (feat). So I was going to keep the icy heart and drop the weapon focus as it does more damage, and switch it out for lethal hunter or TWF fighting.

But your reaver power is not ally-friendly.

Sorry I misspoke, I should of said that I will be using the defender as a meat shield so that he can mark and make everyone around him attack him instead of me. I didnt mean necessarily being next to him.

So if I drop the 20 down to 18 I would get +3 more to AC, but in total my DPR would drop from 88 to 77

 

[Ferghis]

8

That -1 to hit makes power attack no longer useful. Currently without power attack I have a +27 to hit which will hit 95% of the time (should be 100 % but I always miss on a one), a +25 to hit hits 90% of the time only a 5% chance drop for 8 extra damage which is a DPR net win, unfortunately dropping 5% more makes the DPR lower then if I never used Power Attack at all. And Im not saying my only purpose is DPR, but I just want to let you know the thinking that I had when I moved his strength to 20 (though I didnt realize I might be able to get a +3 AC out of the deal).

These are numbers that only really have traction on the charop boards. Actual gameplay has a very different yardstick: actual utility and fun in a game. If you drop all the time, you force your allies to keep picking you up, which is a drag on the party resources. Nobody is disputing your math here: we're just saying that it's a sacrifice worth making. 6 surges for a melee character with terrible defenses is horrible at mid paragon. I would not only move some points into Dex, I would also take the Improved defenses, at the very least. You might be able to get away without taking Resilient Focus, but I'm really not sure. At paragon, DMs start hitting PCs with quite a few action-denial effects, which will put a serious dent in you real-life "DPR."

And if you want your numbers to correspond a bit more to a real encounter, I suggest pitting them against an enemy of level 16 who grants CA. Those

I was only looking to take out weapon focus because Icy Heart and weapon focus share the same damage type (feat). So I was going to keep the icy heart and drop the weapon focus as it does more damage, and switch it out for lethal hunter or TWF fighting.

Oh, I didn't understand that. If you're taking Icy Heart, screw Weapon Focus. Take Lethal Hunter.

Sorry I misspoke, I should of said that I will be using the defender as a meat shield so that he can mark and make everyone around him attack him instead of me. I didnt mean necessarily being next to him.

I understood you. The reaver attack does damage to every creature adjacent to the target (except you). So if, for example, you are flanking the target with the defender, the reaver power will damage the defender. And you add all your bonus damage to that damage.

Again, tactics are heavily ally-dependent. If you have a sigil carver defender, you may want to stick next to your defender.

 

[Nefarii]

< clicked the post button twice >

 

[Nefarii]

Actually I take that back

25 + 40 = 88.36 with power attack

26 + 36 = 85.25 without power attack


I would only be losing 3 DPR for +3 AC, that actually sounds worth it.

And instead of power attack I could just put on TWF and it actually be nearly the same.

Are there any other recommendations?