Ranger as a Thrower

[Tetsubo]

It occurred to me last night at work that the Ranger would make a pretty good Whaler or general spear throwing hunter. To that end, does this sound balanced?

Combat Style replacement:

2nd: Precise Shot
6th: Far Shot
11th: Improved Precise Shot

Take your first favored enemy as Animal and you get a decent Whaler type character.

 

[Nifft]

You might want to put Quickdraw in there somewhere.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Lord Slaw]

Hunters are typically solitary, and not likely to be attacking an animal engaged in melee - rather, they would be stalking it for days on end, before scoring a lethal strike. As such, I'd say that Quick Draw (for the throwing aspect) would definitely take precedence over Precise Shot feats - in fact, I probably wouldn't use the Precise Shot feats at all. Maybe something like this -

2nd: Quick Draw
6th: Far Shot
11th: Other Throwing Feat (try Complete Warrior - Brutal Throw seems like a valid candidate).

I like the concept, though. "MOBY DICK!!!"

 

[Archade]

I like the idea of alternate ranger styles. I've already house-ruled a riding ranger and a skirmishing ranger, so a thrown weapons ranger would be good.

I'm not sure your feat choices get the right effect across. I'd start with Point Blank Shot though.

 

[Set]

I wrote up such a character for Xendrik Expeditions.

Halfling Ranger (Archery track, ACF to swap out Animal Companion for Distracting Attack from PHB2), with the Grenadier Feat (PHB2) and Shaped Splash feat (Races of Eberron). He had Craft (alchemy) and threw Alchemist's Fire, Acid, etc.

The RPGA has special rules for 'expendable' or 'consumable' items. Spend 5x the base price, but they are assumed to 'come back' at the end of an adventure / session, so he was designed to cruelly exploit that rule, flinging alchemist's fire with abandon, since it would all just 'come back' for the next game. But yeah, given the cost of his missiles, his entire focus was basically 'throwing money at people.'

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Eno of Q,barra, Blackwheel Company, Xendrik Expeditions
Halfling male Ranger 4 (archery track), N, Balinor
Str 10 (+0), Dex 18 (+4*), Con 14 (+2), Int 10 (+0), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 9 (-1)
(6 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 4 + 1 = 25, *+1 Dex at 4th, -2 Str & +2 Dex for Halfling)

HP 31, AC 20 (+5 armor, +4 Dex, +1 size), Spd 20 ft., Init +4, Saves: Fort +7, Ref +9, Will +2, BAB +4, Grapple +0, Atk: +5 Dagger (1d3 P or S, Crit 19-20/x2), +10 thrown Daggers (1d3 P, Crit 19-20/x2, 10 ft. range), +10 Darts (1d3 P, 20 ft. range) +10 Sling (1d3 B, 50 ft. range), all missile weapons are +1 Atk and +1 Dam within 30 ft., -2 Atk to take two missile attacks as a full attack action

Racial: Size Small (+1 AC, +1 Atk, ¾ CC, 20 ft. Spd, smaller weapons, +4 Hide checks), +1 Atk w/ thrown weapons and slings, +1 racial bonus to all saves, +2 to Climb, Jump, Listen & Move Silently, +2 morale bonus vs. fear

Class: Track, Rapid Shot & Endurance, Wild Empathy, Favored Enemy – Animals (+2 Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival & weapon damage vs. animals)

Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Track (B), Rapid Shot (B), Endurance (B), Shaped Splash (RoE p 111-112)

Languages: Common, Halfling
Skills (42): Climb 2 (+4, counting +2 racial), Concentration 0 (+1), Craft (alchemy) 7 (+7), Handle Animal 5 (+4), Heal 2 (+3), Hide 2 (+10, counting +4 size bonus), Jump 1 (+3, counting +2 racial), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 1 (+1), Knowledge (geography) 2 (+2), Knowledge (nature) 5 (+7, +2 synergy from Survival), Listen 2 (+5, counting +2 racial), Move Silently 2 (+8, counting +2 racial), Profession 0 (-), Ride 2 (+8, +2 synergy from Handle Animal), Search 2 (+2), Survival 5 (+6, +8 in aboveground natural surroundings), Spot 2 (+3), Swim 0 (+0), Use Rope 0 (+4)

Spells
1st: Entangle

Equipment: +1 Mithral Shirt (+5 armor, +6 MDB, 2100 gp, 10 lbs), small Sling (-,-), 10 small Sling Bullets (1d3 B, 50 ft. range, 5 sp, 2.5 lbs), 8 small Darts (1d3 P, 20 ft. range, 5 gp, 2 lbs), 2 small Daggers (1d3 P or S, Crit 19-20/x2, 10 ft. range, 4 gp, 1 lb), Monk’s Outfit (5 gp, 1 lb), Everburning Signet Ring (115 gp, -), Heward’s Handy Haversack (2000 gp, 5 lbs, full-sized),
5 flasks Alchemist’s Fire (500 gp, 5 lbs), 5 flasks Acid (250 gp, 5 lbs), Bedroll (1 sp, 1.25 lbs), Waterskin (1 gp, 1 lb), Rations x5 (2.5 gp, 1.25 lbs), 50 ft. Silk Rope (10 gp, 5 lbs), Flint & Steel (1 gp, -), Whetstone (2 cp, 1 lb), 10 small Cold Iron Sling Bullets (1 gp, 2.5 lb)

Encumbrance (Lt 24.75 lbs, Med 25-49.5 lbs, Hvy 47-75 lbs), 22 lbs carried, +19.5 lbs in Haversack

Cash Spent: 4995 gp, 1 sp, 2 cp (of 5200 gp, +240 gp, +70 gp), Cash Remaining: 514 gp, 8 sp, 8 cp, Cash on Hand: 77 gp

Favored Class: Rogue, Second Favored Class: Ranger
Expansions: Alternate Class Feature – Distracting Attack (PHB2 p 55, 3), Feat – Shaped Splash (Races of Eberron p 111-112, 2), Feat – Grenadier (PHB2 p 79, 2)

 

[Nifft]

Given how much thrown weapons suck, it could be balanced to give TWO feats at 2nd level, provided those feats are restricted to only thrown weapons (as well as the usual Light or no armor restriction).

So, given those restrictions:

2: Quickdraw, Rapid Shot
6: Far Shot, Precise Shot
11: Improved Precise Shot

Cheers, -- N

 

[milo]

If I wanted to be a thrower I would do the two handed tree and pick up quick draw and the point blank shot tree. That is just me personally though. If you wanted to change it I would say
2 Quick Draw
6 Far Shot
11 Precise shot w/ caveat of getting Improved Precise shot if you already have precise shot