I'm going to be playing Dungeon of the Mad Mage soon, and I was wondering if there was any advice to be given on my character I've made. Its Horizon Walker Ranger 4/Fighter 1 currently. It's also using Favorite Foe and Deft Explorer from UA Class Feature Variants, Favorite Foe giving me Hunter's Mark and Deft Explorer giving me double proficiency in perception and dwarvish. I'm kind of going for a night crawler vibe here, so let me know what you all think!
The gist for combat right now is try and get Hunter's Mark out before combat starts, and then use Zephyrs strike to go in and out of combat, and if I run out of slots for it then I use my bonus attack from Double-bladed scimitar, unless my enemy is resistant to slashing, then I'll use Planar Warrior to make all of the damage of one of my attacks Force Damage.
Haven't ever played Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but it looks like you are very heavily optimizing for combat, and not picking up much in terms of rp spells, which because I haven't played DotMM I don't know if those are going to be helpful, you shouldn't pigeonhole yourself though.
From what I can tell, first level ranger spells don’t have a whole ton of variety, and with only 3 spells known it’s quite limiting. What spells would you recommend I take however? For general use we’ll say
If you're starting at level 5, you get 4 spells (You're allowed to have 2 level 1 and 2 level 2. So, since you're using the UA you don't have to pick up Hunter's mark and Zephyr Strike is a good choice, but for your other level 1, you should consider one exploration pillar spell. (If you have a druid in the party you only really need one of your spells (2nd level) to be exploration based, but otherwise I'd consider half of your spells being exploration). You could metagame around being in a dungeon, but you could do so in character if beforehand he/she was a dungeoneer. Alarm (for dungeon environments) or one of the Detect spells could come in handy, I also am not sure how much food is in DotMM, but if your character is a dungeoneer you should consider goodberry. I also like speak with animals for most adventures, but if you're going dungeoneering it doesn't seem like that'd be too useful. For 2nd level spells, Find Traps, Darkvision, lesser restoration, locate object, & pass without trace are all great options for dungeons. Next you should try out combat utility spells since you already have a lot of offensive options. Consider fog cloud, cure wounds, healing spirit, protection from poison, & absorb elements.
double blade scimitar and horizon walker don't really go well together. You're straight giving up planar warrior every time you want to bonus action attack with the DBS. You're going to lose it every time you kill something and have to move hunter's mark as well. I think you have too much competition for your bonus action. There's nothing necessarily /wrong/ with that, it's just lost potential.
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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.
I’m actually starting with Ranger 4 Fighter 1 rn instead of full ranger, so I only have 3 slots for first level. I have Zephyr Strike, and then Cure Wounds and Goodberry, two of the spells you said would be good..
I do agree that there’s a lot going on with my bonus action, but I more see it as different choices for different scenarios. - Planar Warrior if i have an enemy that is resisting/immune to slashing, to change all damage of the first attack to Force
- Zephyr Strike if I’d like to spread out the damage between multiple enemies/need to go in and out of a dangerous situation
- DB Scimitar bonus attack if neither of those situations apply and I can just throw out the bigger damage, as 1d4+4 averages much more relative to 1d8
Honestly, I made the choice to do this first for it being something I think is really cool thematically, and just kind of went with the results of the mechanics :P
For a ranger build that is two weapon fighting I actually like to take the dueling fighting style. Hear me out. Holding a weapon in one hand and the dueling fighting style will get you good consistent damage output without relying on your bonus action all the time. However when you do have your bonus action free and your hunter's mark is up on a target you can pull out a second weapon, like a dagger or a second scimitar, and get a little mini nova damage in. The bonus action attack won't get the ability modifier added to the damage, but it will do the weapon damage and the hunter's mark damage. You more than make up for the lack of bonus action ability modifier damage with the two attacks (with the extra attack feature) that each get +2 to damage. This is true 100% of the time until your attack and damage modifier is +5, and even then more often than not a better route as it is consistent and not interfering with your bonus action economy. If you use a second scimitar for the bonus action attack just drop it or leave it "sticking in your last target" so you can get the dueling bonus damage on the next turn. You can always pick it up off the floor, or out of the last target, next time you need it. If you use a dagger for the occasional bonus action attack than you gain the ability to have a ranged attack while being a melee build. Then you can make use of hail of thorns, (ranged) ensnaring strike, conjure barrage, etc.
For a ranger build that is two weapon fighting I actually like to take the dueling fighting style. Hear me out. Holding a weapon in one hand and the dueling fighting style will get you good consistent damage output without relying on your bonus action all the time. However when you do have your bonus action free and your hunter's mark is up on a target you can pull out a second weapon, like a dagger or a second scimitar, and get a little mini nova damage in. The bonus action attack won't get the ability modifier added to the damage, but it will do the weapon damage and the hunter's mark damage. You more than make up for the lack of bonus action ability modifier damage with the two attacks (with the extra attack feature) that each get +2 to damage. This is true 100% of the time until your attack and damage modifier is +5, and even then more often than not a better route as it is consistent and not interfering with your bonus action economy. If you use a second scimitar for the bonus action attack just drop it or leave it "sticking in your last target" so you can get the dueling bonus damage on the next turn. You can always pick it up off the floor, or out of the last target, next time you need it. If you use a dagger for the occasional bonus action attack than you gain the ability to have a ranged attack while being a melee build. Then you can make use of hail of thorns, (ranged) ensnaring strike, conjure barrage, etc.
I totally agree, this sounds like a very efficient way to play, however I’m playing with the double-bladed scimitar, which is a two-handed weapon, rather than two separate weapons :P
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Character
I'm going to be playing Dungeon of the Mad Mage soon, and I was wondering if there was any advice to be given on my character I've made. Its Horizon Walker Ranger 4/Fighter 1 currently. It's also using Favorite Foe and Deft Explorer from UA Class Feature Variants, Favorite Foe giving me Hunter's Mark and Deft Explorer giving me double proficiency in perception and dwarvish. I'm kind of going for a night crawler vibe here, so let me know what you all think!
The gist for combat right now is try and get Hunter's Mark out before combat starts, and then use Zephyrs strike to go in and out of combat, and if I run out of slots for it then I use my bonus attack from Double-bladed scimitar, unless my enemy is resistant to slashing, then I'll use Planar Warrior to make all of the damage of one of my attacks Force Damage.
Haven't ever played Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but it looks like you are very heavily optimizing for combat, and not picking up much in terms of rp spells, which because I haven't played DotMM I don't know if those are going to be helpful, you shouldn't pigeonhole yourself though.
From what I can tell, first level ranger spells don’t have a whole ton of variety, and with only 3 spells known it’s quite limiting. What spells would you recommend I take however? For general use we’ll say
If you're starting at level 5, you get 4 spells (You're allowed to have 2 level 1 and 2 level 2. So, since you're using the UA you don't have to pick up Hunter's mark and Zephyr Strike is a good choice, but for your other level 1, you should consider one exploration pillar spell. (If you have a druid in the party you only really need one of your spells (2nd level) to be exploration based, but otherwise I'd consider half of your spells being exploration). You could metagame around being in a dungeon, but you could do so in character if beforehand he/she was a dungeoneer. Alarm (for dungeon environments) or one of the Detect spells could come in handy, I also am not sure how much food is in DotMM, but if your character is a dungeoneer you should consider goodberry. I also like speak with animals for most adventures, but if you're going dungeoneering it doesn't seem like that'd be too useful. For 2nd level spells, Find Traps, Darkvision, lesser restoration, locate object, & pass without trace are all great options for dungeons. Next you should try out combat utility spells since you already have a lot of offensive options. Consider fog cloud, cure wounds, healing spirit, protection from poison, & absorb elements.
double blade scimitar and horizon walker don't really go well together. You're straight giving up planar warrior every time you want to bonus action attack with the DBS. You're going to lose it every time you kill something and have to move hunter's mark as well. I think you have too much competition for your bonus action. There's nothing necessarily /wrong/ with that, it's just lost potential.
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
I’m actually starting with Ranger 4 Fighter 1 rn instead of full ranger, so I only have 3 slots for first level. I have Zephyr Strike, and then Cure Wounds and Goodberry, two of the spells you said would be good..
I do agree that there’s a lot going on with my bonus action, but I more see it as different choices for different scenarios. - Planar Warrior if i have an enemy that is resisting/immune to slashing, to change all damage of the first attack to Force
- Zephyr Strike if I’d like to spread out the damage between multiple enemies/need to go in and out of a dangerous situation
- DB Scimitar bonus attack if neither of those situations apply and I can just throw out the bigger damage, as 1d4+4 averages much more relative to 1d8
Honestly, I made the choice to do this first for it being something I think is really cool thematically, and just kind of went with the results of the mechanics :P
For a ranger build that is two weapon fighting I actually like to take the dueling fighting style. Hear me out. Holding a weapon in one hand and the dueling fighting style will get you good consistent damage output without relying on your bonus action all the time. However when you do have your bonus action free and your hunter's mark is up on a target you can pull out a second weapon, like a dagger or a second scimitar, and get a little mini nova damage in. The bonus action attack won't get the ability modifier added to the damage, but it will do the weapon damage and the hunter's mark damage. You more than make up for the lack of bonus action ability modifier damage with the two attacks (with the extra attack feature) that each get +2 to damage. This is true 100% of the time until your attack and damage modifier is +5, and even then more often than not a better route as it is consistent and not interfering with your bonus action economy. If you use a second scimitar for the bonus action attack just drop it or leave it "sticking in your last target" so you can get the dueling bonus damage on the next turn. You can always pick it up off the floor, or out of the last target, next time you need it. If you use a dagger for the occasional bonus action attack than you gain the ability to have a ranged attack while being a melee build. Then you can make use of hail of thorns, (ranged) ensnaring strike, conjure barrage, etc.
I totally agree, this sounds like a very efficient way to play, however I’m playing with the double-bladed scimitar, which is a two-handed weapon, rather than two separate weapons :P