My inexperienced player(s) would like some opinions

[Jon Potter]

My players are unfamiliar with the finer points of 3E rules and don't feel like they're necessarily getting the most from their characters. In particular, Finian Talteppe the Ranger 4/Rogue 1 wants help from any willing EN Worlders.

If anyone's interested in offering an opinion on what he can do to improve the character/make the most of the rules/possibly work toward a suitable prestige class you help would be appreaciated. His character (and the others in the party) can be found in the Rogue's Gallery right here.

Thanks in advance for any takers.

 

[Angcuru]

Depends on what he wants to work towards. Give us the basic laydown of what he wants out of this character and then we'll deal.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I'm going to assume that your players are looking for raw power and correct rules here, as none of us could possibly offer much else - the players style is his own, and therefore there can't be anything 'superior' to it.

He should probably have stuck with just the one level of ranger, and concentrated on melee weapons - or else he's missing out on using those two virtual feats he got. The powergamey reason to take rogue and ranger is that twf and ambi allow you to use sneak attack an extra time.

On the fighter, hand crossbow is a really weak feat for a fighter, especially one with a high strength - throwing darts or daggers will almost always be better for those situations where you must use a small, ranged weapon. Also, hand crossbows don't get strength bonus, so unless that +3 is coming from magic, it shouldn't be there.
Diplomacy, gather information, knowledge and sense motive aren't class skills for fighters.

I'm surprised the sorceror doesn't have prestidigitation on his list. I'm assuming that the 'eschew components[virtual]' feat is a house rule? Finally, true strike is, at present, not particularly useful for him, because he doesn't have access to any weapons which do a significant amount of damage (he's pretty much guaranteed to never cast it in favour of magic missile for a long, long while). It's still a solid choice for the future, however, providing he gets either spells or magical items which require to-hit rolls.

The cleric's attack bonus for his scimitars should be +5/+5. 3 for BAB, 3 for strength and 1 for weapon focus, -2 for twf/ambidexterity.
His warhammer should be at +6 attack bonus. If he wields it solo, and doesn't use a shield, he should use it two-handed for a +4 damage bonus.
Where do the twf/ambidexterity[virtual] feats come from?
I assume that since clerics automatically know every spell on their list, that the list given are the spells which are memorised? If so - clerics can convert any memorised spell into a cure spell, so there's no point in memorising a CLW up front.

The fighter: His bastard sword damage (assuming he uses it two-handed, which he has to as he has no exotic proficiency in it) should be 1d10+8 (5 for str, 2 for str and a half, +1 for being +1). His dagger only does 1d4+5. I wouldn't mind knowing how a 3rd level character gets 21 strength. His skill ranks in intimidate seem to be wrong (he should have 6 ranks, +2 from skill focus, for a total of +8). Again, sense motive isn't a class skill for fighters, nor is intimidate.

Oh, there's another set of stats later for the same characters... oh well. the same stuff probably still applies.

 

[Impeesa]

Try the WotC min/max boards too.... so long as you give them lots of information and make your goals clear, you can get some really good advice there.

--Impeesa--

 

[Bagpuss]

If he's gone Ranger 4/Rogue 1 he might as well continue with ranger a little longer, its probably not worth going past 10th level. There he'll have two first and two second level spells, a a combination of 5HD worth of companions and 3 favoured enemies.

If he wants to stop sooner on ranger then its not going beyond 6th (for the second spell and favoured enemy, and an extra HD of companion).

With 4 levels of Ranger already I would however focus on Rogue for now, getting Evasion, then Uncanny dodge and an extra dice of sneak attack. For the next three levels your getting +1 BAB per level anyway so Ranger isn't offering as much.

Next level is 6th so he's getting a feat. So far he's got Exotic Weapon Proificency (bola), Point Blank Shot.

I'd go for Rapid Shot myself, as a Ranger/Rogue you probably want to avoid melee ideally as you won't have the armour class or the hit points of single class fighter types. Maybe Improved Initiative (a generally overrated feat IMHO) it is useful for getting sneak attacks on flat-footed opponents.

The other option is Dodge -> Mobility -> Spring Attack as this allows you to get into position to get sneak attacks more often than using a ranged weapon, unfortunately as a Ranger/Rogue it will take you a long time to get there.

I'm confused by this...
Medium Ranger 3 / Rogue 1 / (Male Half-Elf)
Attacks: (1) Longsword +6 / Dagger +5 / Longbow +5 /
Damage: Longsword 1D8+3 / Dagger 1D4+3 / Longbow 1D8+3 /
Abilities: STR 17, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 13, WIS 14, CHA 6

If he's using the longsword alone he should use it two handed for +4 damage, and if he's using it with the dagger then the dagger is only +1 damage. He should make better use of two weapon fighting by getting a short sword instead of a dagger. If you don't use a shield or a two handed weapon then you should really use two weapon fighting nearly all the time its worth it.

Also a Longbow does add strength bonus to damage so I assume he's shelled out the cash for a Mighty Composite Longbow. (I'ld spend the extra for +4, even though at the moment he can only add +3, as at 8th level I'ld boost Str by 1).

 

[Jon Potter]

I wouldn't mind knowing how a 3rd level character gets 21 strength.

He was converted over from 2E using WotC's Conversion Manual. In 2E he had Exceptional Strength (18/76 to be precise). According to the rules, his Strength in 3E is 21.

That's the mechanical reason; there's an in-game reason that I'm not yet revealing.

His skill ranks in intimidate seem to be wrong (he should have 6 ranks, +2 from skill focus, for a total of +8).

Using the variant put forth in WotC's "Masters of the Wild" which uses Strength as a modifier for Intimidate, he should be okay.

Again, sense motive isn't a class skill for fighters, nor is intimidate.

But Sense Motive is needed to resist the effects of the Bluff skill - in particular against the Feinting in Combat use for said skill.

More clarifications later, perhaps.

 

[Bagpuss]

The cleric's attack bonus for his scimitars should be +5/+5. 3 for BAB, 3 for strength and 1 for weapon focus, -2 for twf/ambidexterity.
His warhammer should be at +6 attack bonus. If he wields it solo, and doesn't use a shield, he should use it two-handed for a +4 damage bonus.
Where do the twf/ambidexterity[virtual] feats come from?

Acutual I think your wrong with the attack calculations and he's right.

BAB +2 (not +3 as you calculated), Str +3, gives a standard attack of +5, which is correct for the Warhammer.

He has Weapon Focus (Scimitar) so the attack bonus for one scimitar is +6, but for two you have the following modifiers.

-6 for the main hand, -10 for the off hand, ambidexterity means they are both -6, TWF means they are both reduced by 2 so they are -4 to each, remember the second weapon isn't like so he gets no further reduction.

So the attacks should be +2 / +2 as he said originally.

 

[Bagpuss]

For the animal companion the Ranger can now get at 4th level I'd either go with a Dog and Hawk/Eagle or a Riding Dog.

The riding dog has reasonable hit points and scent tracking so can be used to get flanking opportunities, the hawk is great for scouting.