What style of ranger-fu do you use?

[Sejs]

My current ranger is a bow-slinger, because:

A) It feels more 'huntery' than a two-weapon fighter. I think if I ran up to a deer swinging two blades, the deer would just laugh at me. Then run away. Then I'd cry.

B) Woodland Stride + Improved Precise Shot + decent hide skill + Camoflage spell + Camoflage ability + Hunter's Mercy = winning.

 

[Capellan]

A honkin' big barrel full of beer.


Oh ... you mean for combat? Archery, then. But it's all about the barrel, really.


(image (c) Games Workshop)

 

[Kelleris]

I only make rangers as NPCs, having never actually played one. For hunters, I go with the archery style, but almost all adventuring rangers I've statted up are TWFers, since I see the melee ability as more useful to the scouting/adventuring type ranger.

Besides, with (evil, humanoid) rangers, they almost always have humans and/or elves as favored enemies, which neatly makes up for any power issues with TWFing. Besides, fighting something in melee is more interesting (usually) than being randomly shot at by some guy you can't find.

 

[SteelDraco]

My last ranger used two-weapon style. He was a ranger/rogue, and TWF is incredibly useful for sneak attack. He started with a pair of short swords. Over the course of time, he started following an evil god of the hunt, and turned into something like a werejaguar, so he started using his TWF feats with his clawed bracers. His only favored enemy was human.

Archery is okay, just not something I find myself doing very often. I haven't played an archer in... ages.

 

[Agamon]

I'll let you guess my vote. My Living Greyhawk PC is an wood elven Rgr3/Ftr2/Wiz1, will be mutli-ing into both Arcane Archer and Order of the Bow Initiate PrCs, and just had Shock added to his +1 Mighty Composite Longbow.

 

[fba827]

no preference really.. depends on the mood when i'm making the character

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I voted "other" because there was no vote for "that depends on the character."

I've played Rangers who were nasty elven archers and brutal half-orcish manhunters, and both have their appeal.

I've played Rangers who multiclassed to pick up both combat styles.

I've even played Rangers who are book-loving spelunkers who barely fight at all.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Interesting how many paired shortswords there are!

My 11th Sorcerer has a 9th Ranger cohort. An elf, for the alertness and good nightwatchman qualities. If he had been a human he would have picked up combat expertise

Uses a quarterstaff, he has power attack and it makes a great 2H weapon when you only get a standard attack, as well as being great for full attacks too.

Favoured enemies human +4, magical beasts +2. At 10th level he is likely to be adding evil outsiders +4 because we've been fighting them a lot recently.

He is often on the recieving end of an Enlarge Person which does him plenty of favours with the reach and slightly improved weapon damage.

Spot and Listen are maxed out, he maintains pretty good ranks in hide, sneak, survival, search etc, and has 5 ranks in the each of the knowledge skills available to him. He even has 1 rank (cross class) of tumble, because that gives him a 55% chance of making a DC15 tumble check and sometimes its useful to be able to try it

Cheers

He's great fun to play and should my primary character die I'm likely to promote the cohort to being my new primary character.

 

[Li Shenron]

I don't play a Ranger myself, but all the 3.5 Rangers that we have had at the gaming table chose Archery. As a matter of fact, also all the 3.0 Rangers I have seen had taken some archery feat...

I think that it's more common to imagine an archer ranger than a dual-wielding ranger, at least the latter has no reason to be more common than a single-weapon ranger. Also, the archery feats come in handy for everyone, as even melee-oriented PCs occasionally engage in a necessary ranged combat, while TWFing requires more dedication.

 

[jinx crossbow]

I prefer the Dual-wielding because:
I am able to eat chicken with fork and knife and dont need to use
my hands like a barbarian.

@Myrddin ap Taliesen
My ranger is a halfling with shortsword and dagger and he wants to have
a diremantis as his pet.