What are the good multiclass options for a ranger?

[Lord Pendragon]

Heyo folks. A bit of background on my character:

Fundamentally, he's a ranger in a 4e game, set in the Iron Kingdoms. The concept is a bit unusual. I wanted to play a young boy in control of a steam jack. After a lot of wrangling, I decided to model it by using a beastmaster ranger. The actual character is the steamjack, a dual-wielding melee ranger with a bucket of feats spent to get plate armor. The "pet" is the boy who controls the jack.

Reading through various forum posts, I'm wondering if there are any good multiclassing options. There aren't a huge number of feats that interest me once I hit mid-paragon so I'm looking for interesting and/or strong options to consider. Rogue maybe? Unfortunately I do not know all the class' various powers and synergies well enough myself, so I'm looking for a bit of forum direction.

 

[Nail]

"Steamjack?" Can you say that in public?

 

[Stalker0]

I'm assuming your second highest stat is strength?

The warden might be useful, as there dailies can allow to create a truly tough powerful character, and I think there are a few of those that might work for your character.

In the same respect, the barb offers a lot in that respect with its rages. Even though strength isn't your primary, both classes have effect based dailies where the attack roll doesn't matter as much. Also I think the daily power of the multiclass feat is solid.

I don't see any flavor synergy with the rogue for your concept, so I would leave that one out.

 

[mneme]

Depends. Hmm. Beastmaster melee range, so I assume that 13+ stats are what? Str, Dex, Wis?

Actually, almost certainly your best choice is Battle Awareness, the Fighter multiclass from Martial Power -- requires Str&Wis 13+, no other prereqs, but gives you a fighter skill -and- lets you 1/enc make an immediate basic attack on an adjacent opponent who shifts or makes an attack that doesn't contain you as a target.

Other possibliites include a leader feat (Student of Battle (Warlord) or Initiate of the Faight (cleric) -- grants a daily heal), a defender feat (student of the sword: fighter skill, +1 to an attack and mark for 1 turn; defender of the wild: warden skill, mark all adjacent enemies for one turn), or a striker multiclass (rogue: sneak attack once, Discipline of Divine Wrath (Avenger) Oath of Emnity til end of next turn (if only adjacent to target, roll twice on all attacks and take the best). There are even odd ones like shaman multiclass (you can call a spirit and move it around on the battlefield to block squares your boy companion isn't (a secondary clank?); once per fight it can even shield or attack someone, Invoker Multiclass (gain a wis-based controller attack power usable 1/encounter). If you have con 13+, you could even take Berserker's Fury, the barbarian multiclass from ph2 -- 1 encounter/day, +2 to damage rolls as a free action(kinda good for a dual-wielding ranger).

Best are probably Battle Awareness for defender-ness, Berserker's Fury or Discipline of Divine Wrath for striking (unless you get a wraithblade for sneak attack cheese, the "roll twice on all attacks" or "+2 on damage for entire combat" are usually going to be better than a flat dx you get to add to one attack per combat), and Battle Awareness or the Shaman multiclass for control and secondary defender-ness.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

"Steamjack?" Can you say that in public?

...is there some sort of trademark issue I should be aware of? Or is IK just not that popular anymore?

I'm assuming your second highest stat is strength?

Strength is actually my highest stat. His race is (mechanically anyway) human, with the boost put into Strength. He's all about melee. He also, as a machine, has no mental stats. Currently he's got: 20 strength, 14 con, 15 dex.

The warden might be useful, as there dailies can allow to create a truly tough powerful character, and I think there are a few of those that might work for your character.

In the same respect, the barb offers a lot in that respect with its rages. Even though strength isn't your primary, both classes have effect based dailies where the attack roll doesn't matter as much. Also I think the daily power of the multiclass feat is solid.

Awesome, thanks. I'll see about getting a solid look at those classes. Barb makes a lot of sense even without looking at the powers. A steamjack releasing a massive buildup of steam and just going wild on its foes is very evocative. I hadn't considered warden at all, but I'll now be taking a look at it.

 

[Klaus]

...is there some sort of trademark issue I should be aware of? Or is IK just not that popular anymore?

Strength is actually my highest stat. His race is (mechanically anyway) human, with the boost put into Strength. He's all about melee. He also, as a machine, has no mental stats. Currently he's got: 20 strength, 14 con, 15 dex.

Awesome, thanks. I'll see about getting a solid look at those classes. Barb makes a lot of sense even without looking at the powers. A steamjack releasing a massive buildup of steam and just going wild on its foes is very evocative. I hadn't considered warden at all, but I'll now be taking a look at it.

Either Warden (for extra Defender goodness) or Warlord (for healing goodness).

 

[Caliber]

I'd second the recommendation for Battle Awareness, a Fighter multiclass. Note that with the Tempest build Fighters now have a fair shake of powers involving dual-wielding. And since all Fighter powers use Str you're already setup to use them effectively. If you use a light blade, spear, or flail I'd definitely say check out Rain of Blows, a Fighter 3.

 

[mneme]

I think the "steamjack" reference was a double endendre or something.

I'm not sure how closely you're sticking to the rules, given "he's a machine, so doesn't have mental stats" (but doesn't the -boy- have mental stats/skills as part of the partnership? I'll note that even constructs have mental stats in 4e; there's no "undead don't have fort/int" as in earlier editions), but some of my recommendations do have Wis 13 requirements (though I correctly divined that melee ranger = Str as highest stat) -- I mentioned Battle Awareness, and the Invoker thing, but also the shaman thing (though I love the idea of the kid's giant robot also having a robot dog it can rebuild when it gets broken [but mostly only out of combat] and send around the battlefield) and the cleric multiclass.

OTOH, Barbarian just requires Str and Con -- requirements you make with ease. Plus the Barb dailies are great -- scaling -much- better than ranger dailies (eg, they have an effect that lasts all fight, wheras ranger dailies tend to do "one cool thing" and go away, something that only gets better and better as you level), and even the multiclass feat itself gives you a nice little "rage" that autoscales to the length of the fight and works really well with two-weapon builds. So I agree that that's your best bet.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I'm not sure how closely you're sticking to the rules

As close as possible, while tweaking things occasionally when they don't fit. Beastmaster Ranger seemed the closest mechanical fit to the concept I wanted, so we're sort of shoehorning it in.

given "he's a machine, so doesn't have mental stats" (but doesn't the -boy- have mental stats/skills as part of the partnership? I'll note that even constructs have mental stats in 4e; there's no "undead don't have fort/int" as in earlier editions)

The boy does have mental stats. And if the boy is dominated/stunned/etc. then he can't give directions to the steamjack, so the character is still vulnerable to such attacks. But the 'jack itself does not.

Thanks for the tips so far. Fighter and Barbarian are looking very appealing.

 

[Nifft]

Wait, he has no mental stats?
That's an odd character indeed.

I was about to suggest Cleric -> Warpriest (for Marking via Twin Strike + Heavy Blade Opportunist with twin Bastard Swords), but you'd need some Wisdom for that.

Come to think of it, you need some Wisdom for quite a few Ranger powers.

Hmm, -- N