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

This is a build that probably exists somewhere already, but I came up with the idea tonight and I'm curious what tweaks the community can suggest.

Aasimar that primarily levels in ranger until they have all the bonus Two Weapon Fighting feats (while not having to power stat into dex to get them). Splits attribute boosts on strength and charisma and selectively takes a handful of paladin levels until they have Divine Might, Divine Grace, and Divine Shield.

So far, that's most of what I got. Buys epic divine might at higher level and hits with a whirlwind of bonus attacks that are divine damage boosted...also, scimitars with improved critical scimitar...just to crit as often as possible with EDM.

You might as well go EDM ranger if you want to dip paladin.

I have a Wood Elf Ranger/Cleric that will eventually get EDM so it is definitely possible. Going Aasimar, my recommendation is 16 STR, 14 DEX, 11 CON, 10 INT, 11 WIS, 18 CHA. Remaining points, if any can be split between INT, WIS and CON depending on your play style and what is important to you. Biggest issue with my build is AC, which ends up at ~40 so you want to have UMD to utilize IMA and Shield Wands (or could rely on potions) and you want access to divine shield. 40 AC is ok when you are in natural outside area's so you can use HiPS, but in dungeons you really want to get in to the mid-high 40's at least. IMA and Shield puts you in the ~46 range and then you can pop on Divine Shield to get to 53 for 7 rounds when needed.

The reason I went Cleric instead of Paladin is Corellon give War and Magic domain. This give free WF: Longsword and the ability to cast Mage Armor (though it is easily dispelled). Idea is to use Mage Armor for Mobs and IMA wand when needed. Obviously for Aasimar this would have an XP penalty so Paladin is the better option. You also have 1 point higher BAB so the final AB for both builds would likely be the same.

i run an EDM ranger/cleric on a orc platform. no penalty for the cleric. it is pretty feat starved but considering i am getting PTWF, EDM and divine shield its pretty solid. im not into the epic levels yet with her, but so far it holds up pretty nicely. defense is her main problem. damage is not. saves are pretty solid, not amazing. i like the cleric for this set up better than the BG as saves are ok and i get free feats for no cost.

I once briefly played an aasimar ranger/paladin. The actual levels were 22 ranger, 4 paladin, 4 divine champion. There is an order of paladins of Chauntea in the lore called Field Guardians and paladins of that order can multiclass as divine champions, clerics and divine disciples, but not as rangers, which is surprising.

Honestly, I'm not married to being either an Aasimar or a Paladin. I just want to be a lvl21 ranger with divine might and high saves. I'm open to other formats, whether they involve other classes or other races. The main draw of paladin was the immunities to Fear/disease as well as Divine Grace adding my power statted CHA modifier to all my saves. Although I would have to take 5 full levels in it to get both DM and DS...

Sounds like cleric is both easier to fit in and more efficient for the build. Divine Champion was indeed one of the options I considered for a later prestige class, any others worth noting?

On a related note: I've never rolled a ranger before and I'm wondering how much to invest feats in the animal companion?

I'm hearing a lot of advice hear, which I love, but now my nooby brain is having difficulty deciding .

Here is a build for you to look at and work off of. Personally I don't think an EDM Ranger works unless you are either Aasimar or Wood Elf and overall Aasimar is better because no penalty to INT/CON. Feel free to change as you see fit since I put it together just now in about 5 minutes so didn't really consider potential optimization points. Note you will need a +3 WIS item to cast your ranger spells, a belt of growth for +3 STR/CON and a +3 CHA item to get 14 rounds of EDM and 7 rounds of Divine Shield.

http://nwn2db.com/build/?274348

EDIT: obviously Drow also works for EDM Ranger and is as good as Aasimar. However, in this case you either need to go Blackguard or take an XP penalty. The requirement of Cleave means you have to lose Luck of Hero's or Steadfast, but on the plus side the bonuses to saves makes that not such a big deal if you go LoH and Steadfast isn't that bad to lose since you're only talking about 5% chance of failure depending on the DC of the spell cast at you.