I am starting a new campaign (currently lvl 2) where I will be playing a ranger.
I opted for HW over gloomstacker due to its flavor and abilities which I find much more interesting. currently thinking of going at least 11-12 lvls of Ranger ( the adventure will be till around 14-15) so I might just stay pure ranger ( unless you have any good suggestions)
My main Q is: should I opt for longbow + Archery OR rapier/shield and Dueling style. My goal is to be as effective as possible ( dmage and presence wise) - my team has a paladin, rouge and a divine soul sorcerer ( not sure where the Paladin and Rouge go build wise)
ANy advice on the matter+ any fear advice would be great
If you're going VHuman, you can take Sharpshooter as a free feat, which combines with Archery and your longbow to give you way more bang for your buck than Dueling.
Alternatively, you can do both Archery and Dueling. Take the Fighting Initiate Feat as your bonus feat to give yourself one of the two Fighting Styles and then choose the other at level 2. That way, you can switch seamlessly from melee to range depending on the situation.
I personality prefer an archery build, however. That's just me. I'd also consider taking Skill Expert or Fey Touched as your free feat to boost one of your ASI's and either get Hunter's Mark for free or a skill expertise of your choice.
With all that being said, depending on your Rogue's build, helping out the Paladin in melee might be the more practical play.
Is damage going to be super important in the campaign? I mean like top end optimized amounts of damage? If so, you’ll want sharp shooter to stay with the pack. If that level of optimization isn’t needed or wanted, I’d say take the dueling fighting style and wield a versatile one handed melee weapon and a longbow. Play the role of switch hitter. Ranged when needed. Melee high AC when needed.
P.S. Make sure you carry a couple one handed versatile melee weapons to throw to trigger your ranger spells like hail of thorns. P.P.S. You bet the +2 to damage with thrown weapons if it is one handed when using the dueling fighting style.
In terms of optimization, Archery is better because ranged combat is really powerful in D&D. The common weakness of ranged combat is cover... which you can mitigate by getting Sharpshooter feat as mentioned. Just be careful to use the -5/+10 bonus. Entangle is a good spell to improve your battlefield control.
If you want to play melee, it’s super fine. You’ll expose yourself more, so I recommend Resilient CON in order to keep your Concentration. Zephyr Strike is a nice spell for melee, but Hunters Mark is a must damage-wise.
Is damage going to be super important in the campaign? I mean like top end optimized amounts of damage? If so, you’ll want sharp shooter to stay with the pack. If that level of optimization isn’t needed or wanted, I’d say take the dueling fighting style and wield a versatile one handed melee weapon and a longbow. Play the role of switch hitter. Ranged when needed. Melee high AC when needed.
P.S. Make sure you carry a couple one handed versatile melee weapons to throw to trigger your ranger spells like hail of thorns. P.P.S. You bet the +2 to damage with thrown weapons if it is one handed when using the dueling fighting style.
Not Sure how optimized damage is NEEDED- I just like to min max ( to an extent)
If you're going VHuman, you can take Sharpshooter as a free feat, which combines with Archery and your longbow to give you way more bang for your buck than Dueling.
Alternatively, you can do both Archery and Dueling. Take the Fighting Initiate Feat as your bonus feat to give yourself one of the two Fighting Styles and then choose the other at level 2. That way, you can switch seamlessly from melee to range depending on the situation.
I personality prefer an archery build, however. That's just me. I'd also consider taking Skill Expert or Fey Touched as your free feat to boost one of your ASI's and either get Hunter's Mark for free or a skill expertise of your choice.
With all that being said, depending on your Rogue's build, helping out the Paladin in melee might be the more practical play.
Oh... I like the idea of getting both! Q is - should I give up SHarpshooter?
My states are 8/16/15/8/16/8
so I was thinking to go resilient con on LVL 4 ASI to bump con and get them sweet proficiency to con saves ( for concentration and such)
If I dont get sharpshooter- Than I guess I wont- cause later I think I should bump DEX
In terms of optimization, Archery is better because ranged combat is really powerful in D&D. The common weakness of ranged combat is cover... which you can mitigate by getting Sharpshooter feat as mentioned. Just be careful to use the -5/+10 bonus. Entangle is a good spell to improve your battlefield control.
If you want to play melee, it’s super fine. You’ll expose yourself more, so I recommend Resilient CON in order to keep your Concentration. Zephyr Strike is a nice spell for melee, but Hunters Mark is a must damage-wise.
I planned resilient con at lvl 4- to bump my con to 16 and get that con goodies.
I took zephyr already but opted for goodberry as 2nd spell- as I only have 1 attack now and can use my favored foe for now and later I will get the HW ability which is also a bonus- so not sure if its worth it
If you're going VHuman, you can take Sharpshooter as a free feat, which combines with Archery and your longbow to give you way more bang for your buck than Dueling.
Alternatively, you can do both Archery and Dueling. Take the Fighting Initiate Feat as your bonus feat to give yourself one of the two Fighting Styles and then choose the other at level 2. That way, you can switch seamlessly from melee to range depending on the situation.
I personality prefer an archery build, however. That's just me. I'd also consider taking Skill Expert or Fey Touched as your free feat to boost one of your ASI's and either get Hunter's Mark for free or a skill expertise of your choice.
With all that being said, depending on your Rogue's build, helping out the Paladin in melee might be the more practical play.
Oh... I like the idea of getting both! Q is - should I give up SHarpshooter?
My states are 8/16/15/8/16/8
so I was thinking to go resilient con on LVL 4 ASI to bump con and get them sweet proficiency to con saves ( for concentration and such)
If I dont get sharpshooter- Than I guess I wont- cause later I think I should bump DEX
What do you think?
To be honest, the two points of damage from Dueling are nice, but not absolutely necessary. The 2 points to hit from Archery will get you a lot further. So you could theoretically go sharpshooter and Archery and still switch from melee to range and back, provided you have the right equipment.
If you're going VHuman, you can take Sharpshooter as a free feat, which combines with Archery and your longbow to give you way more bang for your buck than Dueling.
Alternatively, you can do both Archery and Dueling. Take the Fighting Initiate Feat as your bonus feat to give yourself one of the two Fighting Styles and then choose the other at level 2. That way, you can switch seamlessly from melee to range depending on the situation.
I personality prefer an archery build, however. That's just me. I'd also consider taking Skill Expert or Fey Touched as your free feat to boost one of your ASI's and either get Hunter's Mark for free or a skill expertise of your choice.
With all that being said, depending on your Rogue's build, helping out the Paladin in melee might be the more practical play.
Oh... I like the idea of getting both! Q is - should I give up SHarpshooter?
My states are 8/16/15/8/16/8
so I was thinking to go resilient con on LVL 4 ASI to bump con and get them sweet proficiency to con saves ( for concentration and such)
If I dont get sharpshooter- Than I guess I wont- cause later I think I should bump DEX
What do you think?
To be honest, the two points of damage from Dueling are nice, but not absolutely necessary. The 2 points to hit from Archery will get you a lot further. So you could theoretically go sharpshooter and Archery and still switch from melee to range and back, provided you have the right equipment.
Mathematically sound advice. 100% To-hit calculations are a real and deceiving thing.
Also, focusing on ranged combat frees you up from persistent concentration checks, allowing you to take greater advantage of many of the wonderful ranger spells.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hey all
I am starting a new campaign (currently lvl 2) where I will be playing a ranger.
I opted for HW over gloomstacker due to its flavor and abilities which I find much more interesting. currently thinking of going at least 11-12 lvls of Ranger ( the adventure will be till around 14-15) so I might just stay pure ranger ( unless you have any good suggestions)
My main Q is: should I opt for longbow + Archery OR rapier/shield and Dueling style. My goal is to be as effective as possible ( dmage and presence wise) - my team has a paladin, rouge and a divine soul sorcerer ( not sure where the Paladin and Rouge go build wise)
ANy advice on the matter+ any fear advice would be great
If you're going VHuman, you can take Sharpshooter as a free feat, which combines with Archery and your longbow to give you way more bang for your buck than Dueling.
Alternatively, you can do both Archery and Dueling. Take the Fighting Initiate Feat as your bonus feat to give yourself one of the two Fighting Styles and then choose the other at level 2. That way, you can switch seamlessly from melee to range depending on the situation.
I personality prefer an archery build, however. That's just me. I'd also consider taking Skill Expert or Fey Touched as your free feat to boost one of your ASI's and either get Hunter's Mark for free or a skill expertise of your choice.
With all that being said, depending on your Rogue's build, helping out the Paladin in melee might be the more practical play.
Is damage going to be super important in the campaign? I mean like top end optimized amounts of damage? If so, you’ll want sharp shooter to stay with the pack. If that level of optimization isn’t needed or wanted, I’d say take the dueling fighting style and wield a versatile one handed melee weapon and a longbow. Play the role of switch hitter. Ranged when needed. Melee high AC when needed.
P.S. Make sure you carry a couple one handed versatile melee weapons to throw to trigger your ranger spells like hail of thorns. P.P.S. You bet the +2 to damage with thrown weapons if it is one handed when using the dueling fighting style.
In terms of optimization, Archery is better because ranged combat is really powerful in D&D. The common weakness of ranged combat is cover... which you can mitigate by getting Sharpshooter feat as mentioned. Just be careful to use the -5/+10 bonus. Entangle is a good spell to improve your battlefield control.
If you want to play melee, it’s super fine. You’ll expose yourself more, so I recommend Resilient CON in order to keep your Concentration. Zephyr Strike is a nice spell for melee, but Hunters Mark is a must damage-wise.
.
Not Sure how optimized damage is NEEDED- I just like to min max ( to an extent)
Oh... I like the idea of getting both! Q is - should I give up SHarpshooter?
My states are 8/16/15/8/16/8
so I was thinking to go resilient con on LVL 4 ASI to bump con and get them sweet proficiency to con saves ( for concentration and such)
If I dont get sharpshooter- Than I guess I wont- cause later I think I should bump DEX
What do you think?
I planned resilient con at lvl 4- to bump my con to 16 and get that con goodies.
I took zephyr already but opted for goodberry as 2nd spell- as I only have 1 attack now and can use my favored foe for now and later I will get the HW ability which is also a bonus- so not sure if its worth it
To be honest, the two points of damage from Dueling are nice, but not absolutely necessary. The 2 points to hit from Archery will get you a lot further. So you could theoretically go sharpshooter and Archery and still switch from melee to range and back, provided you have the right equipment.
Mathematically sound advice. 100% To-hit calculations are a real and deceiving thing.
Also, focusing on ranged combat frees you up from persistent concentration checks, allowing you to take greater advantage of many of the wonderful ranger spells.