Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Sun Wukong wrote:As for Mithral Chainmail, you need to get your hands on one first. For a long time the only Mithral Armors that were worth something were Chain Shirt, Breastplate, and Fullplate, things have changed now... And in my experience Mithral Chainmail is hardest to find... Because it just became the ideal armor for a lot of 'low-dex' builds.

True, though in the interim you can still use Mithral Breatplate (it's only -1 AC), I've seen Mithral Scalemail, Breastplates, and chain shirts on Mudd's pretty much every time I have logged in -- though admittedly that's not very often -- and they are usually selling for ~35K.

Sun Wukong wrote:Um, what of Hunter and Animal Companion progression?

Animal Companion progression is same as un-kitted Ranger. However, without the Ranger Buff spells it's relatively useless unless you want to use wands to buff up your companion.

chad878262 wrote:Animal Companion progression is same as un-kitted Ranger. However, without the Ranger Buff spells it's relatively useless unless you want to use wands to buff up your companion.

The epic animal companion can be used as a meat shield without buffs. It is how most rangers used their animal companions before the ranger spell list buffs. Bears and Boars have 300~ HP and AC of 40~.

With just 20 or so levels of Ranger, the animal companion should have 150~ HP and AC of 30~.

Now, for some reason the BGTSCC wikis, old and new, do not list Blackguard's ability to summon undead. But you should have that weaker animal companion, the hell hound, and the undead warrior. Thus what they lack in individual numbers, they make up in their actual number.

Fair enough from a Mechanical standpoint...Though one would hope that a Ranger/Hunter would actually care about their animal friend regardless if they are evil or not and not want said buddy to be a meat shield. *shrug* as I said, point being they are not likely to last very long without buffs. ~40 AC is going to get hit quite a bit in epic areas. Might last through 2-3 encounters, but after that you are summoning your next meat shield. Likely go through them before you are able to rest again, assuming you are in a CR area appropriate for your level.

And if not pure Ranger, than it likely won't make it through the first encounter unless your first many shot death attack paralyzes the opponent.

Heal kit spam, it works on a high strength character that I am thinking off as I can carry dozen full sets, and Heal is a class skill for rangers.