New group, high power, my ranger/scout needs to catch up.

[Quartz]

The point of Swift Hunter is that you get full skirmish and full Favored Enemy.

I'm not familiar with that prestige class, but what I do see is that the character is losing his distance damage options.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm not familiar with that prestige class, but what I do see is that the character is losing his distance damage options.

Swift Hunter is a feat from Complete Scoundrel; your levels in Ranger and Scout stack for determining Skirmish and Favoured Enemy progression. In addition, your favoured enemies are subject to Skirmish damage even if they aren't subject to criticals.

-Hyp.

 

[Kat']

If you need high BAB, I'd suggest heading for Swift Hunter Scout 3/ Ranger 6/ Shadowdancer 1/ Ranger +10 in the long run. It gets nearly full Skirmish and Favored Enemy, uncanny dodge, evasion, HiPS, nice spellcasting, and 18 BAB. Drop the Shadowdancer eventually. Regarding stats, I'd say 10/18/15/10/14/8. Your main damage comes from Fav Enemy + Skirmish, not from the composite bow; OTOH, you can use high Con like anyone, and high Wis will do good to your spellcasting, Listen/Spot/Survival (important skills for a scouting guy), and low Will save. Regarding Feats, Swift Hunter is a must have. Other good choices are PBS, Precise Shot (don't select Improved Precise shot, you get it anyway), Dodge/Mobility/Shot on the Run (and throw in Elusive Target while you're at it, you already meet the prerequisites...), WF (Light crossbow)/Rapid Reload/Crossbow Sniper, Woodland Archer... I believe there is also a Skill trick somewhere allowing you to take two 5' steps in a round, or cover 10' with a "5' step", thus triggering the condition for your Skirmish.

 

[Darklone]

Nice summary Kat... yet I wouldn't want to play an archer with str lower than 14. Your main damage may come from skirmish, still our archer uses Rapid Shot rather often, depending on the situation (granted, no Greater Manyshot yet). Not to neglect: Our hobgoblin has a greataxe and some daggers for melee if anything goes wrong and he has the strength to use them (I'm the DM, there's always something going wrong).

In case you use point buy, str 15 and dex 16 is as cheap as str 10 and dex 18. For an archer who's going to buy bracers of archery anyway (thus hitting like hell), I'd know what I would take!

 

[szilard]

How about?

Shadow Template 2/Scout 1/ Fighter 1/Ranger 6

Feats:
Track (Ranger bonus)
Endurance (Ranger bonus)
Rapid Shot (Ranger bonus)
Manyshot (Ranger bonus)
Point Blank Shot (Human Bonus)
Precise Shot (Fighter Bonus)
Darkstalker Lvl 1 (I don't know the prerequisites)
Swift Hunter Lvl 3
Improved Skirmish Lvl 6

Some thoughts:

Why take Scout past level 1 when you have Swift Hunter? Ranger has a better BAB. Ranger 7 gives you access to two things that a lower level Ranger wouldn't have: (1) An animal companion - pick up something that is as mobile as you are. A hawk would work. Use it to distract opponents and soak up attacks - and to flank if you're forced to melee. (2) Ranger spells - look at the Spell Compendium - it has some great swift action low-level Ranger spells.

--

What was this spriced up from, anyway?

If you keep getting knocked into the negative, I'd worry about your defenses. The Shadow template is hurting your hit points. Is there an alternative?

What about Scout 1/Ranger 6/Swordsage 3? Pick up some Shadow Hand - and look at maneuvers that can be used with ranged attacks. In addition to the maneuvers and nifty Swordsage tricks, you'd be adding your Wis bonus to AC and increasing your hit points and BAB. Taking the Swordsage levels later will increase your initiator level and allow you to get better maneuvers.

-Stuart

 

[Zurai]

Why take Scout past level 1 when you have Swift Hunter?

Because Swift Hunter requires Scout level 3 as a pre-req? (Skirmish +1d6/+1AC)

 

[akbearfoot]

If the fighter in your party has like 130 hitpoints, and its a 28 pt buy game, are you a few levels behind everyone else?

A level 10 fighter would have to have a 16 con and roll max on EVERY dice roll to have 130 hps. Normal would be more like 90hp for a 10th level fighter with 16 con.

How far behind are you?



I also think the shadow template isn't worth it for you...If you are close enough to be getting hit, then you or your group is doing something wrong. How do the monsters get past your fighter, and or pass the squishy arcane casters and healers by to beat on you?

Also, if your DM favors exotic monsters so he can punish your group, then no template will save u. He will just find something else to punish you with. So you're better specializing your character to better round out your group...in this case it's apparently ranged firepower.

 

[Kat']

Why take Scout past level 1 when you have Swift Hunter? Ranger has a better BAB.

As someone poinetd out, you have to, Scout 3 being the minimum level to meet the prereq's for Swift Hunter. Also... better skills and awesome class abilities? Evasion, Camouflage and HiPS much earlier than Ranger, Blindsense, Blindsight, bonus to movement, Free Movement?

Ranger 7 gives you access to two things that a lower level Ranger wouldn't have: (1) An animal companion - pick up something that is as mobile as you are. A hawk would work. Use it to distract opponents and soak up attacks - and to flank if you're forced to melee.

Ranger's animal companion sucks. It's incredibly underpowered for its level, being based on HALF your class level. At best, take a horse and use it as a mount.
BTW, Hawk has a Reach of 0', thus you can't use it to flank (Eagle would be OK).

(2) Ranger spells - look at the Spell Compendium - it has some great swift action low-level Ranger spells.

That's a point. PHB Ranger's spell selection is somewhat limited, but Complete Arcane and Spell Compendium do add huge options. I'd say it's a style of playing. Either the Scout's class abilities, or the Ranger's spellcasting. Both have their advantages.

 

[Quartz]

Swift Hunter is a feat from Complete Scoundrel; your levels in Ranger and Scout stack for determining Skirmish and Favoured Enemy progression. In addition, your favoured enemies are subject to Skirmish damage even if they aren't subject to criticals.

Thanks. Regardless, he's mixing his archery attack ability with the scout's skirmish ability. This would be fine for a campaign of balanced characters but I'm getting the vibe that the campaign is aimed at focussed characters.

I'm not getting the vibe that the OP's character is at least a level behind. He says the party tank has over 130 HP. Assume CON 16 to start, +2 from levels, +4 enhancer for CON 22 or +6. Max HP at L1, so that's 114+ HP over 10+ levels for an average roll of 4. That's a bit below average.

 

[Zurai]

Thanks. Regardless, he's mixing his archery attack ability with the scout's skirmish ability. This would be fine for a campaign of balanced characters but I'm getting the vibe that the campaign is aimed at focussed characters.

Skirmish is useable with archery just fine. In fact, Greater Manyshot allows him to fire a full attack as a standard action and get full skirmish damage to each arrow. Add a splitting bow for hilarity.