So for our next campaign I want to build a Ranger/Sorcerer but I’m not really sure how I should go about it. I want to start as a Ranger and get some sorcerer levels in before (total) level 10 (the campaign goes up to lvl 20) Any suggestions how to build it?
Ranger and Sorcerer really don't fit all that well together.
At minimum you'll want 5 levels in Ranger, for extra attack. And 5 in Sorcerer to get Haste - which will also want Quicken Spell as one of your Metamagic choices, so you can haste as a BA in Round 1, and get an extra attack and repositioning speed.
But beyond that, I have no idea what a Ranger-Sorc would look like. A very MAD class, and very sub-optimal.
I would probably reduce either wisdom or charisma to minimum requirements and then pick spells that don't require saves for the lower stat. If you dump wisdom you could take phb beastmaster and your pet could do all your wisdom checks instead. Otherwise fey-wanderer is a fun charismatic ranger.
As for sorcerer I love "divine soul" as I like it's spell selection(bless) and "favoredby the gods". But it really depends on what you want from sorcerer.
I would probably stay ranger at least till 5 or 6th for extra attack.
The combination of sorcerer and ranger means you will likely have both a poor wisdom and charisma.
Decision 1: level 1 Ranger or Sorcerer. Easy answer is sorcerer. Con saving throws, and when you multi into Ranger you get basically everything you wanted (medium armor, shield, skill prof, martial weapons).
Decision 2: How to fight Ranged or Melee Melee you have booming blade at low level (or green flame blade) and can use firebolt to manage distance instead of switching to a bow. You also have access to the shield spell which will really help. You could go with a shadow blade build. Not bad. Ranged is just better but is feat intensive. I would probably go melee, but I prefer melee despite it being worse.
Decision 3: Subclass I LOVE divine soul and getting to spirit guardians would be awesome. Shadow would also work really well. Ranger side I would probably opt for something that gives easy damage without requiring actions, Fey Wanderer/Swarm/Hunter are probably the best here. Gloom stalker is always great.
Initial point buy stats: Str 9, Dex 15, Con 13, Wis 14, Int 8, Cha 13 (1,9,5,7,5) or something like that. I would strongly consider a half elf to get an extra point to something.
What's the goal of the MC? It /can/ be done, but the stats are going to suffer. What are you looking for out of ranger, and what are you looking for out of sorcerer? Then you can decide how you're going to lay it out, if you decide it's actually a good idea to do it.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
realistically the point of the sorcerer - ranger MC is either give the sorcerer some real combat ability or to give the ranger access to evocation/combat damage spells. Which of those you are after will determine which class you do first. both ranger and sorcerer are, in fact, strong classes when played properly so a MC isn't really suboptimal. It might not be superoptimal but it's not a bad mix. You will want to run Ranger up to L6 (and maybe 7) but depending on what you want it may not need to go any higher. by then you will have the ASI, extra attack, solid armor and weapons and a decent set of Ranger spells. For sorcerer you want quickened and subtle spell for metamagic with distant and twinned as later additions. while booming blade and green flame blade are useful spells in tier 1 once you get extra attack they lose much of their utility as you now get either 2 martial attacks or 1 spell attack. the other thing is that most ranged spells (not all by any means) have a shorter range than a long bow - cantrips especially. However, the damage scales pretty much equally as you get 2 dice damage with the cantrip at PC level 5 and 2 attacks with the bow at Ranger 5. distant spell solves the range problem and the cantrips continue to scale all the way up while number of attacks needs spell help to go past 2 or 3 shots/rd. which subclass you choose for each is really up to you but there is the charisma synergy between fey wanderer and any sorcerer subclass because of the charisma the fey wanderer typically has. my personal typical design goal is ranger 6 with deft explorer (from Tasha's) and then sorcerer for the rest of the campaign. typically, I actually go ranger 1 then sorcerer 1 to get the cantrips and spells then finish ranger for the HP and martial abilities before continuing on with sorcerer. Rangers tend to transition from martial first to cast er first in tier 2 anyway this changes the focus somewhat form control and damage to more damage (and maybe some control).
Yeah, my main idea is to start with ranger, and get 4-6 levels in it (getting Fey Walker) and then do sorcerer. As for stats I'm thinking Dex and Charisma, then wisdom (or even dropping wisdom, I'm not going to be casting many ranger spells but idk). Also the campaign is going up to lvl 20 so the general consensus I'm hearing is 5 levels in Ranger then 15 in sorc.
Fey Wanderer could work -- if you're only taking 5ish levels, then you could select primarily Ranger spells with Target: Self, which will help counteract low WIS. Do keep in mind that your spell slots and progression will be a little wonky due to the multiclass. Rangers and Sorcerers both only swap spells at level up, so unless your DM is flexible about that, keep that in mind when picking what spells to take. Technically, once you switch to leveling up Sorc instead, your Ranger spells are set in stone. I know you said you probably wouldn't be casting many Ranger spells, but if there are spells both classes have, and you'd prefer one stat over the other, keep it in mind.
An interesting twist on this is to go variant human taking magic initiate warlock for Eldritch blast as a cantrip. That gives a scaling missile weapon (1 attack at 1d10 very 5 levels)with nearly the same range as a long bow. Then do your normal ranger/ sorceror thing without having to worry too much about missile weapons. Take distant spell and either subtle spell or transmuted spell for metamagic.
So for our next campaign I want to build a Ranger/Sorcerer but I’m not really sure how I should go about it. I want to start as a Ranger and get some sorcerer levels in before (total) level 10 (the campaign goes up to lvl 20) Any suggestions how to build it?
Hi Chat
Ranger and Sorcerer really don't fit all that well together.
At minimum you'll want 5 levels in Ranger, for extra attack. And 5 in Sorcerer to get Haste - which will also want Quicken Spell as one of your Metamagic choices, so you can haste as a BA in Round 1, and get an extra attack and repositioning speed.
But beyond that, I have no idea what a Ranger-Sorc would look like. A very MAD class, and very sub-optimal.
2014 5E mostly
3.5 maybe.
You can mix them but it won't be optimized.
I would probably reduce either wisdom or charisma to minimum requirements and then pick spells that don't require saves for the lower stat. If you dump wisdom you could take phb beastmaster and your pet could do all your wisdom checks instead. Otherwise fey-wanderer is a fun charismatic ranger.
As for sorcerer I love "divine soul" as I like it's spell selection(bless) and "favoredby the gods". But it really depends on what you want from sorcerer.
I would probably stay ranger at least till 5 or 6th for extra attack.
The combination of sorcerer and ranger means you will likely have both a poor wisdom and charisma.
Decision 1: level 1 Ranger or Sorcerer.
Easy answer is sorcerer. Con saving throws, and when you multi into Ranger you get basically everything you wanted (medium armor, shield, skill prof, martial weapons).
Decision 2: How to fight Ranged or Melee
Melee you have booming blade at low level (or green flame blade) and can use firebolt to manage distance instead of switching to a bow. You also have access to the shield spell which will really help. You could go with a shadow blade build. Not bad.
Ranged is just better but is feat intensive. I would probably go melee, but I prefer melee despite it being worse.
Decision 3: Subclass
I LOVE divine soul and getting to spirit guardians would be awesome. Shadow would also work really well.
Ranger side I would probably opt for something that gives easy damage without requiring actions, Fey Wanderer/Swarm/Hunter are probably the best here. Gloom stalker is always great.
Initial point buy stats: Str 9, Dex 15, Con 13, Wis 14, Int 8, Cha 13 (1,9,5,7,5) or something like that. I would strongly consider a half elf to get an extra point to something.
What's the goal of the MC? It /can/ be done, but the stats are going to suffer. What are you looking for out of ranger, and what are you looking for out of sorcerer? Then you can decide how you're going to lay it out, if you decide it's actually a good idea to do it.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
realistically the point of the sorcerer - ranger MC is either give the sorcerer some real combat ability or to give the ranger access to evocation/combat damage spells. Which of those you are after will determine which class you do first. both ranger and sorcerer are, in fact, strong classes when played properly so a MC isn't really suboptimal. It might not be superoptimal but it's not a bad mix. You will want to run Ranger up to L6 (and maybe 7) but depending on what you want it may not need to go any higher. by then you will have the ASI, extra attack, solid armor and weapons and a decent set of Ranger spells. For sorcerer you want quickened and subtle spell for metamagic with distant and twinned as later additions. while booming blade and green flame blade are useful spells in tier 1 once you get extra attack they lose much of their utility as you now get either 2 martial attacks or 1 spell attack. the other thing is that most ranged spells (not all by any means) have a shorter range than a long bow - cantrips especially. However, the damage scales pretty much equally as you get 2 dice damage with the cantrip at PC level 5 and 2 attacks with the bow at Ranger 5. distant spell solves the range problem and the cantrips continue to scale all the way up while number of attacks needs spell help to go past 2 or 3 shots/rd. which subclass you choose for each is really up to you but there is the charisma synergy between fey wanderer and any sorcerer subclass because of the charisma the fey wanderer typically has. my personal typical design goal is ranger 6 with deft explorer (from Tasha's) and then sorcerer for the rest of the campaign. typically, I actually go ranger 1 then sorcerer 1 to get the cantrips and spells then finish ranger for the HP and martial abilities before continuing on with sorcerer. Rangers tend to transition from martial first to cast er first in tier 2 anyway this changes the focus somewhat form control and damage to more damage (and maybe some control).
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Yeah, my main idea is to start with ranger, and get 4-6 levels in it (getting Fey Walker) and then do sorcerer. As for stats I'm thinking Dex and Charisma, then wisdom (or even dropping wisdom, I'm not going to be casting many ranger spells but idk). Also the campaign is going up to lvl 20 so the general consensus I'm hearing is 5 levels in Ranger then 15 in sorc.
Hi Chat
Fey Wanderer could work -- if you're only taking 5ish levels, then you could select primarily Ranger spells with Target: Self, which will help counteract low WIS. Do keep in mind that your spell slots and progression will be a little wonky due to the multiclass. Rangers and Sorcerers both only swap spells at level up, so unless your DM is flexible about that, keep that in mind when picking what spells to take. Technically, once you switch to leveling up Sorc instead, your Ranger spells are set in stone. I know you said you probably wouldn't be casting many Ranger spells, but if there are spells both classes have, and you'd prefer one stat over the other, keep it in mind.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
An interesting twist on this is to go variant human taking magic initiate warlock for Eldritch blast as a cantrip. That gives a scaling missile weapon (1 attack at 1d10 very 5 levels)with nearly the same range as a long bow. Then do your normal ranger/ sorceror thing without having to worry too much about missile weapons. Take distant spell and either subtle spell or transmuted spell for metamagic.
here is an example: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/wcwilson82355_130725798.pdf
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.