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

Okay. The Hunter Ranger gameplay seems very different in that you want to mainly be laying traps in stealth for kills and or pull enemies over them via ranged weaponry.

How about level 8 warlock with invisibility and haste as well as it's first tier spells in that gameplay. Take master crossbow for Dex to damage. How does a level 22 Hunter Ranger compare to full 30 levels. Is it worth taking Warlock? Also what would the level up look like? Finally I'm not real clear on what Ranger stuff stays during those Hunter levels. Do you need to take all ten levels or is okay to stop with the speed boost. Do you have access to HIPS and the other ranger stuff.

Thanks in advance.

a possibly better version of a similar idea might be a lock26/R4 build. able learner to boost the trap laying and spear blasts with RI to draw the enemies into your traps. the blasts will be much more powerful than the crossbow and can even boost up Cha to get some controller into it if you want. i would want the str to be around 13-15 so you can carry all the traps and loots. dex at 16. no more no less. 16. build it up to see what you will need out of your int. wis is dump stat.

aaron22 wrote:a possibly better version of a similar idea might be a lock26/R4 build. able learner to boost the trap laying and spear blasts with RI to draw the enemies into your traps. the blasts will be much more powerful than the crossbow and can even boost up Cha to get some controller into it if you want. i would want the str to be around 13-15 so you can carry all the traps and loots. dex at 16. no more no less. 16. build it up to see what you will need out of your int. wis is dump stat.

How would the damage look like with only 4 levels of Hunter Ranger? Or do you mean normal traps - as Hunter Ranger traps progress through levels of Ranger and 4 of Ranger does not make it seem the whole trap-laying endeavor as worth it. Especially as you can lay only one trap a round. What am I missing here?

trap laying is slow and you would use it when you needed to. with that said. trap laying is one of the most underutilized and very effective aspects of the game. likely it is due to it being slow. players typically want to smash/bash through everything and cannot be slowed down by laying traps.

i do not have any experience with the hunter and only take what i read. underwhelming if you ask me. laying traps with what you can get off chests holding on to a few special ones is a better trap layer from what i can read.

i like your idea and just think the lock26/r4 is better. your simple blasts will do more damage then a fully invested hunter/ranger.

aaron22 wrote:
i like your idea and just think the lock26/r4 is better. your simple blasts will do more damage then a fully invested hunter/ranger.

Just curious. It sounds as if epic warlock is a better ranged combatant with their simple blasts than other ranged specced characters. Why even bother with damage of Assassin archer and EDM throwers if the warlock has easier to come by ranged damage and good survivability. Or are you just saying master sniper builds are the exception?

different play style for sure. true archer build F/EA/OOBI/Rang will out DPS any of the others but will be more vulnerable to spells w/o hips. Hips archer hit hard but has to kite and hips alot. pretty versatile though. good off and good def if played well. better player can do more with a hips archer. blaster lock is pretty decent damage and is fast hits often plays defense well. versatile as well, but different.

they are just different. EDM pali does the same thing as a FB/WM. just do it different.

For those of us who might be considering such a build ( F/EA/OOBI/Rang), could you link an example? I'm at a loss as to where to go with my ranger PC.

aaron22 wrote:different play style for sure. true archer build F/EA/OOBI/Rang will out DPS any of the others but will be more vulnerable to spells w/o hips. Hips archer hit hard but has to kite and hips alot. pretty versatile though. good off and good def if played well. better player can do more with a hips archer. blaster lock is pretty decent damage and is fast hits often plays defense well. versatile as well, but different.

they are just different.

Just so I understand what you are saying. When I mentioned Master Sniper Hunter Ranger you say it does mediocre damage as the "decent damage" of 26 warlock outpaces it for point-to-point of damage. In regards to the other Ranged damage builds such as HIPS assassin Archer and mini-gun of F/EA/OOBI/Rang, you say the damage is on-par or better than Warlock blasts so those are just as good (but different) than 26 warlock.

In other words, non-divine Crossbow Ranger with haste and trap-laying skills of Hunter is a no go since the ranged damage is mediocre.

I am okay with that, just trying to understand how this type of build fits in the power play of top-notch builds of similar playstyle.

This is how I understood our conversation.

ok master sniper ranger is not really a thing. (i would want that to be able to drop ~500dmg/rd to be in that class) would want PrCs and fighter to boost up the damage and AB. 11 levels of ranger/hunter makes the build not really work. you could run a true archer build or hips archer build and put points is set trap skill to be your trap setter, but it will not be using hunter or lock so it was a completely different idea. hunter might need to be reworked to be better. not sure. havent tried it in game. anyway. you will do less damage with an xbow ranger than you would a lock. you will do less damage with a lock and x bow ranger than a hips longbow archer. you will do less dps with a hips archer, lock, and x bow ranger than you will with a true archer. the defense and versatility are a completely different order. some of that depends on the player's skill with the toon too.

aaron22 wrote:ok master sniper ranger is not really a thing. (i would want that to be able to drop ~500dmg/rd to be in that class) would want PrCs and fighter to boost up the damage and AB. 11 levels of ranger/hunter makes the build not really work. you could run a true archer build or hips archer build and put points is set trap skill to be your trap setter, but it will not be using hunter or lock so it was a completely different idea. hunter might need to be reworked to be better. not sure. havent tried it in game. anyway. you will do less damage with an xbow ranger than you would a lock. you will do less damage with a lock and x bow ranger than a hips longbow archer. you will do less dps with a hips archer, lock, and x bow ranger than you will with a true archer. the defense and versatility are a completely different order. some of that depends on the player's skill with the toon too.

Thank you; a most excellent response.

Dragonslayer wrote:For those of us who might be considering such a build ( F/EA/OOBI/Rang), could you link an example? I'm at a loss as to where to go with my ranger PC.

i totally winged my archer build and it turned out both awesome and expensive. like stupid expensive. like "hey ac81 and karond, can you guys lone me all of your dough?" expensive. any way, think it was 12,20,12,10,12,8 stats wood elf with all points into dex.

it went ranger 6 then fighter 4 then EA5 followed by OOBI 10. one more ranger then finish with 4 fighter. i took anything that increased my damage and AB. took 3 dex in epics to end at 30 making cloth armor better than MFP with +4 dex item/spell.

UMD and lots of gold... lots and lots of gold. you will want more wands than J.K. Rowling's novel.

fun trick. there are items that give immunity to Dispel magic. they wont cast it at you or the ground near you if you wear it.

aaron22 wrote:

Dragonslayer wrote:For those of us who might be considering such a build ( F/EA/OOBI/Rang), could you link an example? I'm at a loss as to where to go with my ranger PC.

i totally winged my archer build and it turned out both awesome and expensive. like stupid expensive. like "hey ac81 and karond, can you guys lone me all of your dough?" expensive. any way, think it was 12,20,12,10,12,8 stats wood elf with all points into dex.

it went ranger 6 then fighter 4 then EA5 followed by OOBI 10. one more ranger then finish with 4 fighter. i took anything that increased my damage and AB. took 3 dex in epics to end at 30 making cloth armor better than MFP with +4 dex item/spell.

UMD and lots of gold... lots and lots of gold. you will want more wands than J.K. Rowling's novel.

fun trick. there are items that give immunity to Dispel magic. they wont cast it at you or the ground near you if you wear it.

How important is it to go all the way to 10 in OOBI? In comparison to 12 fighter rather than 8 fighter.

Thanks! I'll have to play around with that concept. I really wish OOBI worked well, because doing sneak attack damage from 120 feet away would have been stellar.

+2 ab and damage on every attack.. pretty good to me.

you do not get extra range from OOBI anymore its all plusses to damage

so with EWS you would end with the same bonus damage +4 and -2 ab if you took more F instead of completing oobi. good idea though. could drop 3 levels of ranger and get more fighter and just take manyshot in the bonus feat. that is a better build i think unless i am missing something.