Monte Ranger: Epic Progressions

[jester47]

Hi all. I saw a post from Monte that stated that he was out of the Rnager biz. So I figured I would take it upon myself to hash out the epic level progressions for the Monte Cook Ranger.

While doing this I kept some things in mind about Monte's Ranger. The first was it doesn't have virtual feats (reference to another thread elsewhere). Second, the favored enemy rules dont change. Third Spells get shut down for the ranger at 20th level but the ranger (both versions) still has spells to improve on with certain feats. Fouth the Monte Ranger begins with bonus feats. Here are the changes:

Bonus feats: The Monte Ranger's progression of bonus feats continues unhindered. Using the Ranger as published in the ELH, Monte's ranger would have a four level gap in the frequency of the bonus feats. Since this is a new epic progression, I have made them consistent.

The only other big change is on the epic level from the ELH ranger is that the monte one gets Combat reflexes added to his bonus feat list. This keeps the epic levels consistant with the non-epic levels.

Also, be aware that there is an error in the rangersection in the ELH. p. 14 under Favored Enemy. It reads "The epic ranger gains one additional favored enemy (...) every three levels after 20th (...)." "Three should be changed to "five."

So without further ado, here is my two hours of work!

EPIC MONTE COOK RANGER

Hit Dice: d8.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Spells: The ranger’s caster level is equal to one-half his class level, as normal. The ranger’s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level.

Favored Enemy: The epic ranger gains one additional favored enemy (and his bonuses against all existing favored enemies go up by +1) every five levels after 20th (25th, 30th, and so on).

Bonus Feats: The Epic ranger gains a bonus feat at 22nd level and every three levels after.

Epic Ranger Bonus Feat List: Bane of Enemies, Blinding Speed, Combat Archery, Death of Enemies, Distant Shot, Epic Endurance, Epic Prowess, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Fast Healing, Improved Combat casting, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Favored Enemy, Improved Many Shot, Improved Spell Capacity, Improved Whirlwind Attack, Legendary Climber, Legendary Rider, Legendary Tracker, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Permanent Emanation, Swarm of Arrows, Storm of Throws, Tenacious Magic, Uncanny Accuracy, Two-Weapon Rend.

21
22 Bonus Feat
23
24
25 6th Favored Enemy, Bonus Feat
26
27
28 Bonus Feat
29
30 7th Favored Enemy

If you want to download a Word version of this (not nearly as pretty as the monte ranger PDF!) I will be posting it to the web in a couple of days.

Aaron.

 

[Crothian]

Looks pretty good.

 

[mikebr99]

Looks pretty good.

I'll second this.. and bookmark it for later use!!

 

[Crothian]

One of the cool things about epic levels is the feats. Since all characters are going to be different it's important to develope feats that will fit in with the different character types. So, you might want to develope some unique feats that would apply to someone taking this class to epic levels.

 

[CRGreathouse]

So it's just like the normal epic ranger, but with 2 more skill points per level, a larger feat list, and bonus feats a level sooner? Oh wait, it has a d8 to balance that... I'm sure the 1 hp/level is better than 2 skill points and faster feat access.

 

[Crothian]

So it's just like the normal epic ranger, but with 2 more skill points per level, a larger feat list, and bonus feats a level sooner? Oh wait, it has a d8 to balance that... I'm sure the 1 hp/level is better than 2 skill points and faster feat access.

Which is still better then below epic where the MC version also had more bonus feats and better saving throws.

As for the feat a level sooner, he's just keeping it every 3 levels from the reguliar version. Bumping that up to start at level 23 like the reguliar ranger would not be out of line.

 

[mikebr99]

So it's just like the normal epic ranger, but with 2 more skill points per level, a larger feat list, and bonus feats a level sooner? Oh wait, it has a d8 to balance that... I'm sure the 1 hp/level is better than 2 skill points and faster feat access.

It is an extension of Monte's Ranger... it models all the other epic classes. If you don't like this version, you probably don't like Monte's version of the non-epic Ranger.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

Looks fine to me. I don't think it needs any "custom" feats, as it can just use the PHB/ELH ranger custom feats.

 

[jester47]

Actually the only difference in the feat list is the Improved Combat Reflexes and Tenacious Magic. I added ImpCR because Monte lists combat reflexes as a bonus feat for his ranger. Tenacious Magic seemed to make sense when I looked at the other spell based feats that were in the ELH list. In anycase I would have reprinted it here.

Aaron.

 

[CRGreathouse]

It is an extension of Monte's Ranger... it models all the other epic classes. If you don't like this version, you probably don't like Monte's version of the non-epic Ranger.

Monte's ranger fixed the 'frontloading' problem. Also, individual hit points mater more on lower levels, both because they're fewer and because they're maximized on level 1.