Pure Zen Ranger 20

[NegInfinity]

Requesting Zen Ranger build.
Restrictions:
16 int.
Tiefling.
Surfacer.
Single Class.

Thank you.

[Valefort]

Not much leeway, is there ?

That's how I would do it : http://nwn2db.com/build/?290498

[Sun Wukong]

It is pretty pointless to go for Zen Archery without picking Natural Bond also. Your animal companion is merely an additional target to the enemies, at first. But it becomes a rather deadly tank the closer you get to level 20 and beyond.

The feats I would take, and actually took on my Zen Archery ranger:
1) Blindfight (For Combat Awareness)
3) Zen Archery
6) Natural Bond
9) Combat Focus
12) Combat Awareness/Vigor (I forgot which came first)
15) Combat Awareness/Vigor (I forgot which came first)
18) Combat Strike

With Combat Strike you get temporary +4 AB and Damage against all enemies, which works suprisingly well. The innate high wisdom of the build meant that I did not actually need the Extend Spell feat for spell book management and I have been able to buff myself, my animal companion, and even have the Reserve/Arrow Spells/Feats memorized at level 20.

As for for favored enemies:
1) Undead (Skeletons, Vampires, Zombies, wraiths)
5) Monstrous Humanoids (Gnolls)
10) Giants (Trolls, and well, Giants)
15) Dragons (Wyverns are such an easy source of experience for you, and dragons later)
20) Outsiders/Elementals/Whatever...

As for the animal companion, anything other than the Badger should work just fine. The Badger comes with Rage and a low base strength, which means it does not really work with the ranger's spell selection.

As for ability scores... all you really need is:
14 Dexterity and about 16 Wisdom. The rest can be whatever you fancy.

[NegInfinity]

Thanks for the responses.

It is pretty pointless to go for Zen Archery without picking Natural Bond also. Your animal companion is merely an additional target to the enemies, at first. But it becomes a rather deadly tank the closer you get to level 20 and beyond.

The feats I would take, and actually took on my Zen Archery ranger:
1) Blindfight (For Combat Awareness)
3) Zen Archery
6) Natural Bond
9) Combat Focus
12) Combat Awareness/Vigor (I forgot which came first)
15) Combat Awareness/Vigor (I forgot which came first)
18) Combat Strike

With Combat Strike you get temporary +4 AB and Damage against all enemies, which works suprisingly well. The innate high wisdom of the build meant that I did not actually need the Extend Spell feat for spell book management and I have been able to buff myself, my animal companion, and even have the Reserve/Arrow Spells/Feats memorized at level 20.

As for for favored enemies:
1) Undead (Skeletons, Vampires, Zombies, wraiths)
5) Monstrous Humanoids (Gnolls)
10) Giants (Trolls, and well, Giants)
15) Dragons (Wyverns are such an easy source of experience for you, and dragons later)
20) Outsiders/Elementals/Whatever...

As for the animal companion, anything other than the Badger should work just fine. The Badger comes with Rage and a low base strength, which means it does not really work with the ranger's spell selection.

As for ability scores... all you really need is:
14 Dexterity and about 16 Wisdom. The rest can be whatever you fancy.

PRetty much what I did, except the different FE selection.

Result felt squishy, that's why I posted this question.

[Sun Wukong]

Heavy Shield and a Sling can help with the feelings of squishyness.

But what works better is to make use of your high survival tracking and animal companion.

You set your animal companion to follow you at close distance so it doesn't wander off so easily. Then you use your minimap with tracking to approach enemies. I do not know about your key binds, but for me 'Tab' key cycles for next hostile target and 'Q' performs auto action, which for hostile is an attack. This way you can approach with care, and the moment an enemy is within range you can hit Q to attack. This helps you survive with a lower AC by limiting the number of enemies that you have to fight. (Currently my animal companion has far higher AC than I do.) Not to mention that when the single enemy gets close, you can command your animal companion to attack and it will actually block the enemy before it reaches you.

And, well, once you got high enough level, you basically just destroy favored enemies with that close range Manyshot boosted by Bane of Enemies.

Oh, I have Panther as my favored enemy, and it has 1d6 sneak attack dice. When I draw in the enemy, my Panther often gets that sneak attack dice too.


So yes, you can feel squishy, but there are ways around that. Currently my ranger has a Longbow, Shortbow, Sling, and a Heavy Crossbow in her inventory! A weapon to match all situations.

[mrm3ntalist]

Knowing how to play a character, doesnt make him less squishy and a wisdom based ranger is just that. Playable but squishy. Especially indoors against lets say frost giants, things get hairy pretty fast.

[NegInfinity]

Heavy Shield and a Sling can help with the feelings of squishyness.

But what works better is to make use of your high survival tracking and animal companion.

You set your animal companion to follow you at close distance so it doesn't wander off so easily. Then you use your minimap with tracking to approach enemies. I do not know about your key binds, but for me 'Tab' key cycles for next hostile target and 'Q' performs auto action, which for hostile is an attack. This way you can approach with care, and the moment an enemy is within range you can hit Q to attack. This helps you survive with a lower AC by limiting the number of enemies that you have to fight. (Currently my animal companion has far higher AC than I do.) Not to mention that when the single enemy gets close, you can command your animal companion to attack and it will actually block the enemy before it reaches you.

And, well, once you got high enough level, you basically just destroy favored enemies with that close range Manyshot boosted by Bane of Enemies.

Oh, I have Panther as my favored enemy, and it has 1d6 sneak attack dice. When I draw in the enemy, my Panther often gets that sneak attack dice too.


So yes, you can feel squishy, but there are ways around that. Currently my ranger has a Longbow, Shortbow, Sling, and a Heavy Crossbow in her inventory! A weapon to match all situations.

Is trying to use full sneak gear worth it? (I won't be able to get any hell gear) I mean... it is a ranger, and sneaking will be possible, but due to lack of high sneak investment (skill focus + stealthy) and wis focus it'll be suboptimal, and it is more suitable for being a tracker.

And yeah, I played crossbow snipers before so I know the drill with ranged targeting.

[Sun Wukong]

33 (Base Skill)
+ 4 (Buffed up dexterity)
+ 14 (+2 from Helmet, Chest, Belt, Boots, Left Ring, Right Ring, Amulet.)
= 51

A typical dexterity based build would get at least +8, a 59+ stealth skills with the same equipment.

This means that while you can sneak around in most areas, you will be detected in the highest CR areas. Having the best sneak gear available will make you better at stealth as you get at least +10.5~ to your skills depending on which items you get but that alone might not cut it.

But you should not forget that Rangers have access to these two level 1 spells:

Pass Without a Trace (+2 to Hide and +4 To Move Silently.)
Camouflage (+10 to hide)

I do not think Camouflage stacks with Mass Camouflage on this server. But if they do, you get another +10 to your Hide skills.

Thus our wisdom based sneak can expect to get something like:
63 (Hide)
55 (Move Silently)

Which means that when it comes to Hide skill, our Wisdom based ranger is pretty much toe to toe with the non-magical rogue of same level of equipment. I think most mobs use Spot skill, not sure, so I think you could actually find some usage out of your stealth skill.

[Sun Wukong]

Oh, and Ranger has access to Programmed Image. That too can make you less squishy.