New Ranger Combat Styles

[hero4hire]

What book could I find those in?

In both the Miniature's Handbook and Eberron Campaign Setting.

 

[Ferret]

Any idea on a spell based one? With Combat casting as the starter?

Also what about some kind of skimish one? Lightweight combat, speed, and defence.

 

[LazerPointer]

Any idea on a spell based one? With Combat casting as the starter?

Also what about some kind of skimish one? Lightweight combat, speed, and defence.

Spell-based would be cool. I'd make it

Magical Aptitute,
Spell Penetration,
Spell Focus: [chosen school]

 

[A2Z]

Spell-based would be cool. I'd make it

Magical Aptitute,
Spell Penetration,
Spell Focus: [chosen school]

It wouldn't really be of much use to a ranger though. At least a non multiclassed one and perhaps not even then.

The only problem I have with some of the styles really is that the higher level feats should be something no lower level character could get. By the time the ranger reaches 11th level you need to give them something every 6th level fighter won't already have.

 

[LazerPointer]

It wouldn't really be of much use to a ranger though. At least a non multiclassed one and perhaps not even then.

The only problem I have with some of the styles really is that the higher level feats should be something no lower level character could get. By the time the ranger reaches 11th level you need to give them something every 6th level fighter won't already have.

Yeah, to do an effective spell-based ranger you'd have to make changes to the class.

 

[Staffan]

One thing to keep in mind is that the existing combat styles aren't just "three feats in a chain". They're three feats with increasingly harsh prerequisites, which the ranger bypasses. I don't have the book in front of me, but I think Manyshot and Improved Two-weapon fighting both require something along the line of BAB +6 and Dex 17, and Improved Precise Shot and Greater TWF both require something like BAB +11 and Dex 19. Bypassing those prereqs is part of what makes the ranger's combat style cool. Having something like Cleave or Improved Sunder as a second feat in the combat style would feel pretty weak - those aren't really something you get excited by at 6th level.

I realized this when I was trying to make a Mounted Combat style for rangers, and realized that all the mounted combat feats in the PHB could be taken at 1st level.

 

[Nellisir]

Spencer "The Sigil" Cooley's pdf book on rangers ("Enchiridion of Elided Enduements of the Expanse"; at RPGNow) includes "Weapon of Choice" and "Hurling" styles.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[MadBlue]

Here's another two handed style that would be fun I think.

Breaker
Quick Draw
Power Attack
Improved Sunder

The problem is that a human Fighter can get all of those Feats at 1st level. Like Staffan suggested, the combat style Feats that a Ranger gets at levels 6 and 11 should have prerequisites, such as BAB, that would require a Ranger taking the Feats as normal Feats to be around the same level he is when he gets them as combat style Feats.

 

[jshelky]

As a quick side note, there were also new combat styles for Rangers in Dragon 326. Don't have the issue handy so I can't detail the styles but it's another point to reference for ideas.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

S&SS Player's Guide to Fighters and Barbarians has Riposte. Prereqs BAB +4, Combat Expertise. Whenever you use Combat Expertise to improve your AC and an opponent misses you you may immediately make an AoO. Normal restrictions on AoO apply to this attack. It can be taken as a Fighter bonus feat.

I haven't seen a good replacement for the ranger's two-weapon fighting style. The main problem being, as others have pointed out, the fact that fighters can get most of what the ranger can get much earlier. The extremely high prereqs for the TWF chain prevent most fighters from getting them.