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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zaruthustran" data-source="post: 1105299" data-attributes="member: 1457">I think skill focus feats can be worth it, for the right type of character. Persuasive and skill focus: bluff are great for a social bard because that's all he does--and bluff bonuses are hard to come by. But stealth... stealth skill bonuses are very easy to come by. You can use cover or concealment to give yourself Hide bonuses. You can get your DM to approve Masterwork footpads to give yourself a Move Silently bonus. You can make sure he knows about the significant penalties to Listen and Spot that come from distance. Or you can get cheap magic items: elven cloak and elven boots. At most go with Stealthy alone, just so you can say "My character is Stealthy" with conviction. But pass on the skill focuses.If you want to go commando--er, to go with a commando CHARACTER--then I recommend you spend your feats on Extra Favored Enemy. Commandos are sneaky killers, emphasis on killers. Take Extra Favored Enemy two times and you add two new favored enemies at +2, plus a total of +4 to any one or two favored enemies. Example of 11th level ranger who took Extra Favored Enemy twice:Favored Enemy Human +6Favored Enemy Aberration +4Favored Enemy Giant +4Favored Enemy Evil Outsider +2Favored Enemy Magical Beast +2Remember that a dead foe can't spot or hear you. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Only thing is that I'm not sure if Extra Favored Enemy can be taken multiple times. If it can't, then I'd spend your feats on Extra Favored Enemy, Stealthy, Combat Reflexes, and Expert Tactician. Expert Tactician is the feat from Song & Silence that gives you a free attack whenever a foe is denied their Dex bonus. Which means that if you sneak up to two guards and surprise them, you get two extra attacks (one on each) as well as your surprise partial action. If you then win Init, you get two more Expert Tactician attacks plus your full attack(s). Pretty brutal, especially if the guards are a favored enemy.11th level Str 18 two weapon fighting melee ranger (normal bastard sword used with two hands and normal armor spikes) and expert tactician attacking favored enemy (human, from example above) with surprise and winning init:Surprise round: Expert Tactician attack at +15 (1d10+6 +6); surprise round attack +15 (1d10+6 +6)First round (foe still flat-footed): Expert Tactician attack +15 (1d10+6+6); full attack with two-weapon fighting +13 (1d10+6+6) +13 (1d6+2+6) / +8 (1d10+6+6) +8 (1d6+2+6) / +3 (1d10 +6 +6) +3 (1d6+2+6).Bang. You sneak up, you do 6d10 + 72 and 3d6 + 24 damage, and the bad guy goes away before the end of round 1. Very Commando.-zPS: remember your party members! Invisibility, Silence, Fly, Etherealness, illusions, and other common spells can negate or reduce the need for stealth skills.</blockquote>

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