The big meta-question

[alsih2o]

My wife just finished her first year of playing. She has been playing a druid and now is playing a more combat-ish ranger. Greylock was over the other night and suggested I give her soem "Tactical advice" as she has become comfortable standing in the back and bringing down ice storms and lightning.

So I turn to you, ENWorld. Please leave sound tactical 3.5 hip battle knowledge and hints for my wife.

My quickie advice was "Tumble, flank, and an AoO is better to give than recieve"

Please expound upon tis for a relative noob.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What level is her druid?

Should be getting to the point where she's wildshaping into polar bears and whatnot.

 

[alsih2o]

What level is her druid?

Should be getting to the point where she's wildshaping into polar bears and whatnot.

Just hit 7th, but I think the advice is more for the 2nd lvl ranger.

 

[diaglo]

Run, run, run. Run, away.

 

[Ruined]

Is she going archer spec or two-weapon fighting style?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Archer-ranger or TWF ranger? What feats has she taken?

Not a lot of things at second level that are ranger specific.

1. For TWF, delay action till after the front-line fighter acts -- let the meatshield with the heavy armor soak up the AoOs and initial smacks.

2. Don't forget your favored enemy bonus - tattoo it on someone's forehead where you can see it at all times. Not just for combat, too -- for the non-combat bonuses as well.

3. Your animal companion will be useful for providing flanking bonuses.

4. At second level, I'd be wary of the tumble-flank routine. DC15 isn't that easy to make, and you can't take a lot of hits.

5. For archery, don't forget that Point-blank shot is within 30' only. Don't forget the -4 penalty if you don't have Precise Shot -- go after targets that aren't in melee already.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Ah, my bad. Didn't read the post closely enough.

First off, I'm one of the dozen or so people who thought the 3.0 ranger was a perfectly fine and balanced class. The problem was that people were playing their rangers like fighters, an invitation to failure and stupidity. Rangers are not a "tank" class.

But as long as she's tired of hanging out in back, I'd suggest two-weapon fighting with shortswords. A longsword-shortsword combo doesn't work out so great because if you get weapon-specific feats they'll only apply to the one weapon. The only two-weapon melee item out there is a quaterstaff (perfectly fine) but a shortsword does a little bit better damage (or the crits are better or something, I'll have to check out the equipment table again).

Her tactic when she is able to get the jump on the bad guys is to sneak into position, then go all Jet Li on their butts with the shortswords.

According to the WotC development forums, a possible build would be:
Ranger 7/ Ninja 5/Templar 1/ Watch Detective 3/ Guild Thief 4

Yes, this is cheesy.

A more palatable build might be:
Ranger 15/Barbarian 3/ Rogue 2


If there is another fighter in the group, her main job will be to flank. Tumble will be her friend. If there are no other fighters in the group ... well ... her only ally will be courage and that will be enough!!!!

 

[Pielorinho]

Is she going for the melee druid or the ranged druid? I'm guessing the melee, given the nature of the advice you're asking for.

My advice, culled from watching a tactics-poor player play a melee ranger:
-A suboptimal attack each round is usually better than an optimal attack every other round. Once you commit to a course of action, stick with it unless you've got an overwhelming reason not to: don't keep changing your mind mid-fight. (Ranged attackers can change their minds much more easily than melee attackers, since they don't have to move when they change targets).
-Always look for an advantage. The easiest ones to get are flanking and higher ground; looking for higher ground can make you all swashbuckly, too, as you leap up on tables and such. If you don't look for an advantage, you'll just be rolling to-hit and damage, which gets boring.

Daniel

 

[Mercule]

Hmm... This looks like a good time to involve my wife. She tends to play things like elven swashbucklers, and has never read a gaming book (in over a decade of gaming), so she might have something to say that'd make sense to a newer player. I'll see if I can coersce her into rendering an opinion.

 

[Greylock]

Alsih2o's wife is going the TWF route with her Ranger. As Mark has pointed out, she tends to hug the rear of the party. That serves her Druid very well, but this party needs her up front. She's not familiar with basic fighting tactics though. [The party consists of a Fighter/Thug type, the Ranger, a Wizard, and a bookish Cleric.]