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Starting Packages
A collage banner of a number of figures, including a kobold riding a dire weasel, a martial artist woman with fire around her fist, a monstrous white tiger, a cloud of flying red flowers, a handful of magic arrows, and Soveliss facing a red slaad with two swords.

Appendix 1: Example Builds

As is tradition for D&D guides, this is where I’m giving example builds for people to use. This time though, I’ve also made a set of really fleshed out 1–20 progressions that I’m calling “starting packages.” The idea behind these is that if you haven’t read the entirety of the guide or don’t want to deal with the immense complexity of 3.5 as a whole, they provide a “plug and play” option you can pick up and use or modify for your home game.

Starting Package Builds

There are seven of these, focusing on different archetypes and niches that I felt underscored what the ranger is good at. I’ve listed the names of various feats and ACFs in these builds, all of which are rated in this guide. You can use ctrl+F to find their sourcing and details in earlier chapters. As for spells, refer to Chapter IV for the true standouts of the ranger spell list.

I’ve listed these builds in ascending order, arranged by their complexity in play:

  1. Generic Melee TWF Ranger: A proof-of-concept for a 20-level single-classed two-weapon ranger, fighting with a two-handed weapon and unarmed strike TWF combo. Includes a variant progression for a sword-and-board setup.

  2. Generic Archer Ranger: A proof-of-concept for a 20-level single-classed archer ranger, fighting with a longbow and no consumable items or special ammunition.

  3. “Raptor’s Talons”: A build combining Swift Hunter (scout + ranger multiclass) with Greater Manyshot and a quiver full of raptor arrows. Requires being a frostblood half-orc, and requires flaws to be in play.

  4. “Enemy-to-Surface Missile System”: A thrown weapon build combining ranger’s chassis with dungeon crasher fighter, throwing javelins that knock enemies into walls for significant damage. Requires flaws to be in play, and includes a variant progression for possible houserules around thrown weapon Power Attack feats.

  5. “Firebird”: A mounted charger build that uses the urban companion ACF to get access to an intelligent, flying mount that scales with your hit points as you level. Instead of sticking to ranger, this build enters the flame steward prestige class to become half a martial, half a blaster. Requires being a kobold, and requires flaws to be in play.

  6. “The Cooler Duskblade”: The ‘dragon kicks’ build mentioned in the spellcasting chapter; uses a unique combination of feats to flexibly cast spells while continuously attacking in melee. Interestingly, this build doesn’t have to be a ranger; if you want, you could take the core chassis and use it on any given martial character. I just wanted to make use of Swift Hunter in melee with it, and so that’s what I did. Note: uniquely among the starting package builds, this build actively uses consumables.

  7. “Catch ‘Em All”: A build that progresses both an Improved Familiar and an animal companion, bringing a swarm familiar and combat monster pet to fight alongside it. Possesses powerful offensive, supportive, and debuffing abilities, but is extremely mentally taxing to manage. Do not play this build unless you are capable of handling three relevant combatants on each of your turns in a timely manner. If you can do that, however, it provides a very unique spin on the beastmaster archetype.

After these seven builds, you'll also find a longer list of less fleshed-out build concepts, ranging from powerful to niche to silly.

Generic Melee TWF Ranger Build

Optimization Level: Medium
Play Difficulty: Low
Required Rulings: This just needs content to be open.
Race: Any.

This build is less of an optimized build and more of a proof-of-concept that even playing ranger all the way to 20 is Fine, Solid Even. My recommendation isn’t necessarily playing it straight (though doing so is alright), but using it as a starting point to create your own build.

Ability Scores

This build wants to have a more even spread than most characters; prioritizing Strength for offense is par the course, but since the build has high attack and damage already, we can afford a spread of 12s and 14s to shore up defensive and noncombat parts of the character. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Str to 18 at 4th level). You lose out on some skills points in the 32-pb array, but gain faster-scaling offensive stats

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 16 13 12 10 12 8
32 Point Buy 16 14 14 14 12 8
25 Point Buy* 17 10 12 10 12 8
32 Point Buy* 17 13 14 12 12 8

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

Extremely Normal Ranger Build

Level Class Feats Notes
1 Ranger 1 Power Attack FE (arcanists) +2, solitary hunting, trap expert, spiritual connection
2 Ranger 2 Two-Weapon Fighting Two-weapon style
3 Ranger 3 Combat Reflexes, Endurance (rgr);
4 Ranger 4 1st-level spells
5 Ranger 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
6 Ranger 6 Favored Power Attack, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr);
7 Ranger 7 Immune to light rubble (crowd-walker)
8 Ranger 8 2nd-level spells
9 Ranger 9 Double Hit Feign death
10 Ranger 10 FE (evil creatures) +6, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2
11 Moon-Warded Ranger 11 Immunity to hostile mind-affecting effects, 3rd-level spells
12 Ranger 12 Robilar’s Gambit
13 Ranger 13 Camouflage
14 Ranger 14 4th-level spells
15 Ranger 15 Power Lunge FE (evil creatures) +8, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2, FE (aberrations) +2
16 Ranger 16
17 Ranger 17 Hide in plain sight
18 Ranger 18 Superior Unarmed Strike (qualifies with item)
19 Ranger 19
20 Ranger 20 FE (evil creatures) +10, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, FE (constructs) +2
ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Solitary Hunting, Trap Expert, Spiritual Connection, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Survival for Sense Motive, loses Ride for Tumble), loses Track and wild empathy.
  • 4th: Loses animal companion for Solitary Hunting earlier.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
  • 7th: Crowd-Walker, loses woodland stride.
  • 8th: Lost swift tracker for Trap Expert earlier.
  • 9th: Feign Death, loses evasion.
  • 11th: Moon-Warded Ranger substitution level, loses final combat style for immunity to mind-affecting (against enemies only, allies can affect you fine).
  • 13th: Hidden Stalker, loses camouflage.
Skill Point Priorities

You are your party’s trapfinder and perception specialist. You also have access to useful Knowledge skills for identifying enemy creatures. With a base assumption of 6 skill points per level (plus Int mod, which ranges from +0 to +2 with this build), you can start with maxed out Disable Device, Search, Spot, and Tumble, 2 cross-class ranks in Balance, 1 cross-clank rank in Knowledge (arcana), and then splitting the rest of your ranks across Listen, Hide, and Knowledge skills. If your DM likes having NPCs lie to you, Sense Motive is also an option.

Until 7th level, you’ll continue boosting Balance as a cross-class skill, as well as the same skills you started with. After 7th level, you don’t need more Balance ranks (you hit the requisite 5 to not be flat-footed while balancing), and you can add any further extra ranks to your secondary priorities. If you have extra skill points from Intelligence, use those to shore up your stealth skills before maxing Knowledge skills.

Spellcasting

Unless you spring for wands, your main usage for spells is going to be downtime utility or self-buffing in combat. Of major note is lion’s charge, getting you pounce at later levels and letting you start combats with a full attack.

Build Adjustments

Generally, the best adjustment you can make for this build is to slot in a level of barbarian at some point to get your hands on pounce, rather than having to use lion’s charge for it later on. Alternatively, you can take Travel Devotion repeatedly instead of the Combat Reflexes/Double-Hit/Robilar’s Gambit suite, if swift movement is more your speed than charging. Obviously, prestige classes are also very good, even if the build functions all the way to 20 already.

If your game allows flaws, then your two extra feats at 1st level let you do an adjusted, faster progression for getting both damage and core options online. In addition, you could swap the AoO subtheme for shield-focused feats if you want to do sword-and-board, using Loadout 3 for your items instead. In that case, you almost certainly want to dip barbarian for pounce as shield builds massively reward charging.

The following spoiler has a table of variant feat progressions for this build:

TWF Ranger Variant Progressions

Level Flaws Version Shield Version Shield with Flaws
1 Combat Reflexes, Power Attack (B), Great Teamwork (B) Power Attack Power Attack, Improved Shield Bash (B), Parrying Shield (B)
2 Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr)
3 Power Lunge, Endurance (rgr) Improved Shield Bash, Endurance (rgr) Shield Charge, Endurance (rgr)
4
5
6 Favored Power Attack, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Favored Power Attack, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Favored Power Attack, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr)
7
8
9 Double Hit Shield Charge Shield Slam
10
11
12 Robilar’s Gambit Shield Slam Power Lunge
13
14
15 Superior Unarmed Strike (qualifies with an item) Power Lunge Brutal Strike
16
17
18 Snap Kick (qualifies with an item) Parrying Shield Leap Attack
19
20

Magic Items

This build uses Loadout 2 (the two-handed weapon + unarmed strike one) from Chapter IV: Prelude to Fiddlyness. As it doesn’t need gloves of the balanced hand, replace them with a pair of gloves of object reading (3,000gp) for utility.

Generic Archer Ranger Build

Optimization Level: Medium
Play Difficulty: Low
Required Rulings: This just needs content to be open. Note, however, that unlike the melee builds, there are enough feat taxes to make archers viable that you really strongly want to have flaws or a race that grants a bonus feat.
Race: Any.

Like the other “generic” build, this is less of an optimized build and more of a proof-of-concept that even playing ranger all the way to 20 is Fine, Solid Even(TM). My recommendation isn’t necessarily playing it straight (though doing so is alright), but using it as a starting point to create your own build.

Ability Scores

This build wants to have a more even spread than most characters; prioritizing Dexterity for to-hit, but putting 12s and 14s in the other stats for defenses, extra damage, and utility. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Dex to 18 at 4th level). You lose out on some skills points in the 32-pb array, but gain faster-scaling offensive stats

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 13 16 12 10 12 8
32 Point Buy 14 16 14 14 12 8
25 Point Buy* 10 17 12 10 12 8
32 Point Buy* 12 17 14 13 12 8

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

Extremely Normal Archer Build

Level Class Feats Notes
1 Ranger 1 Point Blank Shot FE (arcanists) +2, solitary hunting, trap expert, spiritual connection
2 Ranger 2 Rapid Shot (rgr) Archery combat style
3 Ranger 3 Precise Shot, Endurance (rgr)
4 Ranger 4 1st-level spells
5 Ranger 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
6 Shadow Sword Ranger 6 Woodland Archer Can make your weapon bane a few times per day
7 Ranger 7 Immune to light rubble (crowd-walker)
8 Ranger 8 2nd-level spells
9 Ranger 9 Weapon Focus (longbow) Feign death
10 Ranger 10 FE (evil creatures) +6, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2
11 Moon-Warded Ranger 11 Immunity to hostile mind-affecting effects, 3rd-level spells
12 Ranger 12 Dead Eye
13 Ranger 13 Camouflage
14 Ranger 14 4th-level spells
15 Ranger 15 Knowledge Devotion FE (evil creatures) +8, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2, FE (aberrations) +2
16 Ranger 16
17 Ranger 17 Hide in plain sight
18 Ranger 18 Extra Divine Power (bane weapon)
19 Ranger 19
20 Ranger 20 FE (evil creatures) +10, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, FE (constructs) +2
ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Solitary Hunting, Trap Expert, Spiritual Connection, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Survival for Sense Motive, loses Ride for Tumble), loses Track and wild empathy.
  • 4th: Loses animal companion for Solitary Hunting earlier.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
  • 6th: Shadow Sword Ranger substitution level, loses second combat style for the ability to make your weapon bane a few times per day. If you’re modifying the build to use relics, this is mutually-exclusive with the various archery-related ones.
  • 7th: Crowd-Walker, loses woodland stride.
  • 8th: Lost swift tracker for Trap Expert earlier.
  • 9th: Feign Death, loses evasion.
  • 11th: Moon-Warded Ranger substitution level, loses final combat style for immunity to mind-affecting (against enemies only, allies can affect you fine).
  • 13th: Hidden Stalker, loses camouflage.
Skill Point Priorities

You are your party’s trapfinder and perception specialist. You also have access to useful Knowledge skills for identifying enemy creatures. With a base assumption of 6 skill points per level (plus Int mod, which ranges from +0 to +2 with this build), you can start with maxed out Disable Device, Search, Spot, and Tumble, 2 cross-class ranks in Balance, 1 cross-clank rank in Knowledge (arcana), and then splitting the rest of your ranks across Listen, Hide, and Knowledge skills. If your DM likes having NPCs lie to you, Sense Motive is also an option.

Until 7th level, you’ll continue boosting Balance as a cross-class skill, as well as the same skills you started with. After 7th level, you don’t need more Balance ranks (you hit the requisite 5 to not be flat-footed while balancing), and you can add any further extra ranks to your secondary priorities. If you have extra skill points from Intelligence, use those to shore up your stealth skills before maxing Knowledge skills.

Spellcasting

Unless you spring for wands, your main usage for spells is going to be downtime utility or self-buffing in combat. Of major note are exacting shot, arrow storm, and arrowsplit, each being swift action buffs for archery. If you have a party wizard or sorcerer, or take Sword of the Arcane Order, flame arrow is also a good source of cheap damage for you.

Build Adjustments

This build is fairly complete in theory; the best adjustments you can do are more complicated things like using consumable ammunition and using flaws, or multiclassing to make things show up faster. Dipping cleric 1 will get you Point Blank Shot and Knowledge Devotion early. Dipping targeteer fighter can get you extra Dex to damage with your bow, though it’ll require slight adjustments to your item build. Sword of the Arcane Order adds complexity to your build but makes you much more powerful due to additional spell access. Unusually, since most of the archery prestige classes are somewhat underwhelming, you might be best off just sticking mostly to ranger levels in practice for the favored enemy advancements unless you’re making a build with a specific goal beyond just “archery.”

If your game allows flaws, then your two extra feats at 1st level let you do an adjusted, faster progression for getting both damage and core options online. Using a race that grants a bonus feat (human, strongheart halfling, or declining elf are the go-tos here) is also extremely good. Ideally, of course, you probably want both.

The following spoiler has a table of variant feat progressions for this build:

Archer Ranger Variant Progressions

Level Racial Feat Version Flaws Version Flaws + Race Version
1 Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) (B) Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) (B), Dead Eye (B) Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) (B), Dead Eye (B), Precise Shot (B)
2 Rapid Shot (rgr) Rapid Shot (rgr) Rapid Shot (rgr)
3 Precise Shot, Endurance (rgr) Precise Shot, Endurance (rgr) Knowledge Devotion, Endurance (rgr)
4
5
6 Woodland Archer Woodland Archer Woodland Archer
7
8
9 Dead Eye Knowledge Devotion Extra Divine Power (bane weapon)
10
11
12 Knowledge Devotion Extra Divine Power (bane weapon) Touchstone (Oxyrhynchus)
13
14
15 Extra Divine Power (bane weapon) Touchstone (Oxyrhynchus) Ranged Disarm
16
17
18 Touchstone (Oxyrhynchus) Ranged Disarm No Threat To Me
19
20

Magic Items

This build uses Loadout 5 (the archery one) from Chapter IV: Prelude to Fiddlyness, entirely stock.


“Raptor’s Talons” Swift Hunter Archer Build

Optimization Level: High
Play Difficulty: Low
Required Rulings: This build requires flaws to be in play to actually work in most games, due to the heavy feat costs. It also makes use of the Player’s Handbook II’s retraining rules and a quiver full of raptor arrows (but the only ruling needed for those is the “sanity check” handling of splitting alongside them). In a game where favored classes are enforced, this build needs to spend a feat to not get an experience penalty; I’ve included a variant progression at the end for that.
Race: Frostblood half-orc. Without this race, the build is delayed significantly.

This build is a pretty optimized Swift Hunter setup. That feat has always fascinated me, but actually making it work has been a struggle, especially compared to just full attacking normally. In this case, I choose to focus on Greater Manyshot instead of a Travel Devotion or other swift movement plan, giving us greater utility and defensive capabilities but painful feat taxes. Frostblood half-orc is necessary for the build to come online at a reasonable level; without it you basically have to wait until 9th level to even start doing the trick, much less properly have it function.

Ability Scores

Like the other archer build, this one goes the route of shoring up secondary and tertiary stats instead of just maxing its primary stat. Frostblood half-orc's racial adjustments aren't ideal for an archer, but the race brings enough that it's worth it regardless. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Dex up to 18 at 4th level). You lose out on some skills points in the 32-pb array, but gain faster-scaling offensive stats

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 10 (+2 race) 16 12 12 (–2 race) 12 9 (–2 race)
32 Point Buy 14 (+2 race) 16 12 14 (–2 race) 14 8 (–2 race)
25 Point Buy* 8 (+2 race) 17 12 12 (–2 race) 12 8 (–2 race)
32 Point Buy* 12 (+2 race) 17 12 14 (–2 race) 12 9 (–2 race)

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

“Raptor’s Talons” Build

Level Class BAB Manyshot Attacks Feats (requires Flaws) Notes
1 Ranger 1 1 – Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) (B), Dead Eye (B), Endurance (race) FE (arcanists) +2, FE (humans) +2, solitary hunting, trap expert, spiritual connection, half-orc ranger ACF (penalizes social skills against humans)
2 Ranger 2 2 – Rapid Shot (rgr) Archery combat style
3 Scout 1 2.75 – True Believer (Ehlonna) Skirmish +1d6, trapfinding (again)
4 Scout 2 3.5 – Battle fortitude +1, uncanny dodge
5 Scout 3 4.25 – Fast movement +10ft, skirmish (+1d6, +1 AC), trackless step
6 Ranger 3 5 2 Manyshot; Endurance (rgr) becomes Swift Hunter due to racial ability FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (humans) +2, skirmish (+2d6, +1 AC)
7 Scout 4 6 2 Precise Shot [scout]; Endurance from Shadahkar’s swift wind becomes Greater Manyshot Skirmish (+2d6, +2 AC), important item gained (Shadahkar’s swift wind)
8 Ranger 4 7 2 1st-level spells
9 Ranger 5 8 2 Improved Skirmish Skirmish (+3d6, +2 AC)
10 Ranger 6 9 2 Manyshot (rgr); retrain earlier Manyshot to Undo Resistance, Shadahkar’s swift wind is still granting Greater Manyshot FE (evil creatures) +6, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (humans) +2, FE (constructs) +2
11 Ranger 7 10 2 Skirmish (+3d6, +3 AC), immune to light rubble (crowd-walker)
12 Ranger 8 11 3 Ranged Disarm 2nd-level spells
13 Ranger 9 12 3 Skirmish (+4d6, +3 AC), feign death
14 Ranger 10 13 3
15 Moon-Warded Ranger 11 14 3 Knowledge Devotion FE (evil creatures) +8, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (humans) +2, FE (constructs) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, skirmish (+4d6, +4 AC), immunity to hostile mind-affecting effects, 3rd-level spells
16 Ranger 12 15 3
17 Ranger 13 16 4 Skirmish (+5d6, +4 AC), camouflage
18 Ranger 14 17 4 Flyby Attack 4th-level spells
19 Ranger 15 18 4 Skirmish (+5d6, +5 AC)
20 Ranger 16 19 4 FE (evil creatures) +8, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (humans) +2, FE (constructs) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, FE (oozes) +2
Ranger ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Solitary Hunting, Trap Expert, Spiritual Connection, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Survival for Sense Motive, loses Ride for Tumble), loses Track and wild empathy.
  • 4th: Loses animal companion for Solitary Hunting earlier.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
  • 7th: Crowd-Walker, loses woodland stride.
  • 8th: Lost swift tracker for Trap Expert earlier.
  • 9th: Feign Death, loses evasion.
  • 11th: Moon-Warded Ranger substitution level, loses final combat style for immunity to mind-affecting (against enemies only, allies can affect you fine).
  • 13th: Hidden Stalker, loses camouflage.
Skill Point Priorities

You are your party’s trapfinder and perception specialist. You also have access to useful Knowledge skills for identifying enemy creatures. With a base assumption of 6 skill points per level (plus Int mod, which ranges from +0 to +2 with this build), you can start with maxed out Disable Device, Search, Spot, and Tumble, 1 cross-clank rank in Knowledge (arcana), and then splitting the rest of your ranks across Listen, Hide, and Knowledge skills. If your DM likes having NPCs lie to you, Sense Motive is also an option.

Balance is a class skill for scout, so make sure to take 5 ranks of it during your scout levels rather than your ranger levels. If you have extra skill points from Intelligence, use those to shore up your stealth skills before maxing Knowledge skills.

Spellcasting

Unless you spring for wands, your main usage for spells is going to be downtime utility or self-buffing in combat. Of major note are exacting shot, arrow storm, and arrowsplit, each being swift action buffs for archery. If you have a party wizard or sorcerer, or take Sword of the Arcane Order, flame arrow is also a good source of cheap damage for you. Also keep in mind that you have access to resist energy for mitigating your fire vulnerability.

Build Adjustments

The main adjustments you might make to this build are dipping cleric 1 to get Point Blank Shot, Travel Devotion, and Knowledge Devotion as bonus feats, dipping targeteer fighter 1 to swap your Strength for Dexterity with damage on a composite bow, or if your group uses the favored class rules, in which case you need to spend a feat on avoiding the experience penalty for multiclassing. I don’t recommend multiclassing, honestly; delaying the double-advancement of skirmish and favored enemy hurts.

Below is a variant progression for if your game enforces favored class rules.

“Raptor’s Talons” (Additional Favored Class Version)

Level Additional Favored Class Version
1 Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) (B), Dead Eye (B), Endurance (race)
2 Rapid Shot (rgr)
3 Additional Favored Class
4
5
6 Manyshot; Endurance (rgr) becomes True Believer due to racial ability
7 Swift Hunter [scout]; Endurance from Shadahkar’s swift wind becomes Greater Manyshot
8
9 Precise Shot
10 Manyshot (rgr); retrain earlier Manyshot to Undo Resistance, Shadahkar’s swift wind is still granting Greater Manyshot
11
12 Improved Skirmish
13
14
15 Ranged Disarm
16
17
18 Flyby Attack
19
20

Magic Items

This build has its own loadout due to having different needs than normal archers. It emphasizes getting enough raptor arrows, upgrading its bow, and defensive items, in that order. It assumes a starting Strength modifier of +2 for its composite bow; if your archer has a lower Strength then just cut the price by 100gp per point.

“Raptor’s Talons” Gear
Level 2 (900gp)
  • Weapon: Composite longbow [+2] (300gp), spiked gauntlet (5gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp)
  • Remaining Money: 120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 3 (2,700gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (900gp)
  • Armor: Masterwork chain shirt (150gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 955gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 4 (5,400gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 705gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 5 (9,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 555gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 6 (13,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,455gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 7 (19,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 105gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 8 (27,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 405gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 9 (36,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), cold iron raptor arrow (8,100gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,305gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 10 (49,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), cold iron raptor arrow (8,100gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Dex, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,805gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 11 (66,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft composite longbow [+2] (2,900gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), cold iron raptor arrow (8,100gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Dex, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp) Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,555gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 12 (88,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (3,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 2 cold iron raptor arrows (16,200gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Dex, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp)
  • Remaining Money: 9,655gp; saving money for next level
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 13 (110,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (33,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 2 cold iron raptor arrows (16,200gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Dex, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,655gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 14 (150,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (51,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 2 cold iron raptor arrows (16,200gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt (2,100gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Dex, 16,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 3 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 6,300gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,655gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 15 (200,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (51,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 2 cold iron raptor arrows (16,200gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt of freedom (37,100gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Dex, 16,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp) Raptor’s mask (3,500gp)
  • Neck: 3 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 6,300gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), arm of Nyr (12,800gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,855gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 16 (260,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (51,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 3 cold iron raptor arrows (24,300gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt of freedom (37,100gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Dex, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Raptor’s mask (3,500gp)
  • Neck: 3 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 6,300gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), arm of Nyr (12,800gp)
  • Remaining Money: 3,755gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 17 (340,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking fierce elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (98,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 3 cold iron raptor arrows (24,300gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt of freedom (37,100gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Dex, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Raptor’s mask (3,500gp)
  • Neck: 3 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 6,300gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), arm of Nyr (12,800gp)
  • Remaining Money: 3,755gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 18 (440,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking fierce spireshard elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (201,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 3 cold iron raptor arrows (24,300gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt of freedom (37,100gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Dex, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Raptor’s mask (3,500gp)
  • Neck: 3 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 6,300gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), arm of Nyr (12,800gp)
  • Remaining Money: 755gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 19 (580,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking fierce spireshard elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (201,700gp) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 3 cold iron raptor arrows (24,300gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of freedom (38,400gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Dex, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Shadowy diadem (4,400gp)
  • Face: Raptor’s mask (3,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), arm of Nyr (12,800gp), manual of quickness of action +4 (110,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 155gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 20 (760,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 splitting seeking fierce spireshard elvencraft bow of the wintermoon (201,700gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp) and attached standard of heroism (40,000gp, qualifies via elvencraft); raptor arrow (6,100gp), 3 cold iron raptor arrows (24,300gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of freedom (38,400gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, Dex, 72,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Helm of vision (91,600gp)
  • Face: Raptor’s mask (3,500gp)
  • Neck: 5 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 10,500gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: Armbands of reduction (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Shadahkar’s swift wind (8,350gp); even though it penalizes Dex by –2, it’s worth it
  • Ring 1: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), arm of Nyr (12,800gp), manual of quickness of action +4 (110,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,455gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

“Enemy-to-Surface Missile System” Javelin Thrower

Optimization Level: High
Play Difficulty: Medium
Required Rulings: This build requires flaws to be in play to actually work in most games, due to the heavy feat costs. It also requires that your DM consider the javelins made by a glove of endless javelins to have weight (which, RAW, they should, but they’re made of force so it’s worth clearing up). There is also a variant feats progression at the end for if your DM rules that you can use the thrown weapon Power Attack feats with Favored Power Attack.
Race: Any Medium-sized. If your group uses favored class rules, pick one with fighter or ranger as a favored class.

The goal of this build is to knock enemies into walls and later on, floors, by throwing javelins at them in the main hand and throwing hammers in the off-hand. It does significant amounts of crowd control and damage against anything it can shove around, but has to deal with the many hurdles of throwing. Outside of that, it’s primarily built as a Strength-based TWF thrower who’s going to full attack and stack what damage it can onto these things. This build intentionally eschews higher-level magic weapons, opting to center around a glove of endless javelins and spending the money that would have gone towards a main weapon upgrade on other gear. In lieu of taking Quick Draw, we use a druid’s satchel full of light hammers (drawable as a free action) for our off-hand attacks.

Ability Scores

Strength is our goal here, to the expense of nearly everything else. We need Dexterity at 11 to start with so we can take Rapid Shot later though. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Str to 18 at 4th level).

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 16 11 14 10 12 8
32 Point Buy 18 11 14 10 12 9
25 Point Buy* 17 10 12 10 12 8
32 Point Buy* 17 10 14 14 12 9

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

“Enemy-to-Surface Missile System” Build

Level Class Feats (requires Flaws) Notes
1 Ranger 1 Point Blank Shot, Windup (B), Brutal Throw (B) FE (arcanists) +2, solitary hunting, trap expert, spiritual connection
2 Fighter 1 Precise Shot (ftr) Hit and run tactics
3 Fighter 2 Rout Dungeon crasher
4 Ranger 2 Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr)
5 Ranger 3 Endurance (rgr)
6 Ranger 4 Woodland Archer 1st-level spells
7 Ranger 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
8 Ranger 6 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr)
9 Ranger 7 Rapid Shot Immune to light rubble (crowd-walker)
10 Ranger 8 2nd-level spells
11 Ranger 9 Feign death
12 Ranger 10 Initiate of Korn FE (evil creatures) +6, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2
13 Moon-Warded Ranger 11 Immunity to hostile mind-affecting effects, 3rd-level spells
14 Ranger 12
15 Ranger 13 Tactical Advantage (evil creatures)* Camouflage
16 Ranger 14 4th-level spells
17 Ranger 15 FE (evil creatures) +8, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (magical beasts) +2, FE (aberrations) +2
18 Ranger 16 No Threat To Me
19 Ranger 17 Hide in plain sight
20 Ranger 18

*Tactical advantage doesn’t stack for attack bonuses with Solitary Hunting, but being able to add your bonus on the bull rush opposed checks is huge.

Ranger ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Solitary Hunting, Trap Expert, Spiritual Connection, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Survival for Sense Motive, loses Ride for Tumble), loses Track and wild empathy.
  • 4th: Loses animal companion for Solitary Hunting earlier.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
  • 7th: Crowd-Walker, loses woodland stride.
  • 8th: Lost swift tracker for Trap Expert earlier.
  • 9th: Feign Death, loses evasion.
  • 11th: Moon-Warded Ranger substitution level, loses final combat style for immunity to mind-affecting (against enemies only, allies can affect you fine).
  • 13th: Hidden Stalker, loses camouflage.
Skill Point Priorities

You are your party’s trapfinder and perception specialist. You also have access to useful Knowledge skills for identifying enemy creatures. With a base assumption of 6 skill points per level (plus Int mod, which ranges from +0 to +2 with this build), you can start with maxed out Disable Device, Search, Spot, and Tumble, 2 cross-class ranks in Balance, 1 cross-clank rank in Knowledge (arcana), and then splitting the rest of your ranks across Listen, Hide, and Knowledge skills. If your DM likes having NPCs lie to you, Sense Motive is also an option.

Until 7th level, you’ll continue boosting Balance as a cross-class skill, as well as the same skills you started with. After 7th level, you don’t need more Balance ranks (you hit the requisite 5 to not be flat-footed while balancing), and you can add any further extra ranks to your secondary priorities. If you have extra skill points from Intelligence, use those to shore up your stealth skills before maxing Knowledge skills.

Spellcasting

Unless you spring for wands, your main usage for spells is going to be downtime utility or self-buffing in combat. You don’t have any specific main spells to worry about, but do check the shortlists in Chapter IV when building your loadout. Of particular note are battlefield control spells, as you’re able to abuse them much more readily due to knocking foes around. The loadout of items I’ve made for this build picks up a lesser metamagic rod of Quicken Spell at high levels for this purpose.

Build Adjustments

So, there are a few paths you can take here. The biggest adjustment would come if your DM allows Windup, which is functionally Power Attack for thrown weapons, to count as that feat for prerequisites and for Favored Power Attack. Since Windup adds a 1:1 penalty:damage bonus, using it with Favored Power Attack would thus be a 2× multiplier comparatively. Plus, it’d let you access Improved Bull Rush. Other adjustments you could make would be to be a bonus feat race (such as human) and shift your feat progression up a stage, or to be a frostblood half-orc and take pugilist fighter dungeon crasher instead of normal fighter. If your DM allows Favored Power Attack to work with Windup, then there is also genuine merit to taking five levels of master thrower for the ability to make all your throws touch attacks. It would take Weapon Focus, but at that point you just TWF javelins and go to town with full-penalty throws applying your Power Attack bonuses and the dungeon crashing bull rushes as well. Master thrower would slot into the build at any point after 5th level, and should be prioritized before continuing taking ranger levels to boost your favored enemy bonuses and varieties.

One other adjustment you can make is to take Khanduran barbarian in order to stack its “bash” ability onto your throws in addition to bull rushes from Rout. If you have a foe already next to a wall, you then get both the dungeon crasher damage and the stun proc from bash, and if they aren’t next to a wall yet, you functionally have double the pushes (and can choose between damage or stunning depending on which you resolve first). It’s a pretty good combo and ups your viability in combat environments with more spread-out obstacles.

Anyway, the following spoiler shows variant progressions for both a race-agnostic and a frostblood half-orc variant of the build for the case where your DM lets you count Windup as Power Attack. This build goes into master thrower and takes “Two With One Blow” at 1st level, “Defensive Throw” at 3rd level, and “Weak Spot” at 5th level. The frostblood half-orc variant can also skip the goring horn graft in the gear section, since it gets ahold of Improved Bull Rush early.

“Enemy-to-Surface Missile System” Variant Builds

Level Class Feats (Any Race) Feats (Frostblood Half-Orc)
1 Ranger 1 Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (javelin) (B), Brutal Throw (B) Point Blank Shot, Windup (B), Brutal Throw (B), Endurance (race)
2 Fighter 1 (pugilist for half-orc version) Precise Shot (ftr) Improved Bull Rush (ftr), Improved Unarmed Strike (ftr); Endurance becomes Weapon Focus (javelin) (ftr)
3 Fighter 2 Windup Precise Shot
4 Ranger 2 Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr)
5 Ranger 3 Endurance (rgr) Endurance becomes Rout (rgr)
6 Master Thrower 1 Rout, Quick Draw (B) Favored Power Attack, Quick Draw (B)
7 Master Thrower 2
8 Master Thrower 3
9 Master Thrower 4 Favored Power Attack, Snatch Arrows (B) Rapid Shot, Snatch Arrows (B)
10 Master Thrower 5
11 Ranger 4
12 Ranger 5 Rapid Shot Initiate of Kord
13 Ranger 6 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr)
14 Ranger 7
15 Ranger 8 Initiate of Kord Tactical Advantage (evil creatures)
16 Ranger 9
17 Ranger 10
18 Moon-Warded Ranger 11 Tactical Advantage (evil creatures) Woodland Archer
19 Ranger 12
20 Ranger 13

Magic Items

Obviously, this build has some very nonstandard item needs. You want to boost your Strength as high as possible. You want to get your hands on any other boosts to those checks. You need a couple of enabling items like a druid’s satchel (substitute for Quick Draw with many mundane weapons) and gloves of endless javelins. Plus, you have a lot more gold than others due to not having a properly-enhanced weapon, so you can spend more on utility and defensive items. Note that, since you’re still heavily-invested in Strength and, you still are, yanno, a ranger with solitary hunting plus a dungeon crasher fighter dip, you can absolutely fight in melee when needed (though you should nonetheless play to your strengths whenever possible). Sadly, none of the items that increase size in a convenient way are usable without item combinations due to the slots we otherwise needed. Still, this build never fills its arms slot, so I recommend asking your DM if you can get an enlarge person equivalent to the 2,000gp armbands of reduction if you can’t get size increases from allied buffs or your own spells.

“Enemy-to-Surface Missile System” Gear
Level 2 (900gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 10 javelins (10gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 95gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 3 (2,700gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 10 javelins (10gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,145gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 4 (5,400gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 10 javelins (10gp), 5 cold iron light hammers (10gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 3,835gp; saving money for next level
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 5 (9,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 10 javelins (10gp), 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp); note that, as we cannot put javelins in the druid’s satchel, most of your full attacking at 5th and 6th level will be TWF’d light hammers
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 405gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 6 (13,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 10 javelins (10gp), 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp); note that, as we cannot put javelins in the druid’s satchel, most of your full attacking at 5th and 6th level will be TWF’d light hammers
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,105gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 7 (19,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 10 javelins (10gp), 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 115gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 8 (27,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 115gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 9 (36,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,015gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 10 (49,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,015gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 11 (66,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 915gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 12 (88,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp) Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,665gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 13 (110,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Str, 16,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 15gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 14 (150,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom mithralmist shirt (38,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Str, 16,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 815gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 15 (200,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom mithralmist shirt (38,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp), 2 arms of Nyr (25,600gp; these don’t stack with each other but you need two, one for each arm ideally)
  • Remaining Money: 5,215gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 16 (260,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom mithralmist shirt (38,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp), 2 arms of Nyr (25,600gp; these don’t stack with each other but you need two, one for each arm ideally)
  • Remaining Money: 1,215gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 17 (340,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom mithralmist shirt (38,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp), 2 arms of Nyr (25,600gp; these don’t stack with each other but you need two, one for each arm ideally), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), lesser metamagic rod of Quicken Spell (35,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 10,815gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 18 (440,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom mithralmist shirt (38,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp), 2 arms of Nyr (25,600gp; these don’t stack with each other but you need two, one for each arm ideally), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), lesser metamagic rod of Quicken Spell (35,000gp), manual of gainful exercise +4 (110,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 815gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 19 (580,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom mithralmist shirt (38,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 soulfire dastana (25,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, Con; 72,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp), 2 arms of Nyr (25,600gp; these don’t stack with each other but you need two, one for each arm ideally), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), lesser metamagic rod of Quicken Spell (35,000gp), manual of gainful exercise +4 (110,000gp), tooth of Agares (43,200gp), rod of disenchantment (50,000gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,615gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 20 (760,000gp)
  • Weapon: Any melee weapon, 20 cold iron light hammers (40gp)
  • Armor: +1 freedom anti-impact magnetic bane blind mithralmist shirt of energy immunity and mirror image (139,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 soulfire dastana of energy immunity and planar tolerance (74,175gp) w/ lesser crystal of glancing blows (3,000gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, Con; 72,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Scout’s headband (3,400gp)
  • Face: Goggles of foefinding (2,500gp)
  • Neck: 6 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 12,600gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of endless javelins (7,000gp)
  • Feet: Quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), druid’s satchel (3,000gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), goring horn graft (8,000gp), 2 arms of Nyr (25,600gp; these don’t stack with each other but you need two, one for each arm ideally), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), lesser metamagic rod of Quicken Spell (35,000gp), manual of gainful exercise +4 (110,000gp), tooth of Agares (43,200gp), rod of disenchantment (50,000gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 415gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

“Firebird” Mounted Kobold Ranger

Optimization Level: Medium
Play Difficulty: Medium
Required Rulings: This build requires flaws to be in play to actually work in most games, due to the heavy feat costs. It otherwise requires no rulings to function, though it may give you and your DM some headaches due to the mounted combat rules being a mess. Your DM may not allow this if they don’t allow unupdated-but-still-rules-compliant 3.0 content; check with them first. If they don't want to allow flame steward, then just take another PrC or stick to ranger 20. Note that flame steward has an awkward text issue; in the original printing it was written in such a way to imply that the blasting abilities were at-will, but WotC later issued a correction. See the entry earlier in the guide for more details on that. This build assumes that the blasting abilities are at-will.
Race: Earth kobold with web enhancement buffs.

This build is designed to be a mounted combatant with minimal but nontrivial investment (both build and mental stack) into getting a useful mount that scales with you. We use kobold for slight build, allowing us to ride an eagle urban companion (available at 4th level and scaling in hit points with us) and skip the need for any Handle Animal skill points at all. The build comes online at 4th level and is probably painful to play below that, requiring a mundane mount like a mule or pony and slightly different build considerations. Ranger provides us an excellent base chassis and our mount, so I’ve chosen flame steward as the main build path here; you could replace it with basically any 10-level prestige class, but flame steward’s inherent Strength bonuses help reduce the penalties you take from being a kobold, and the spells and flame strike SLA give solid versatility in situations where lance charging isn’t viable. Most of your damage comes from Favored Power Attack being tripled on Spirited Charge lance charges, and using enemy spirit pouches to make sure you almost-always have access to that boost.

Ability Scores

In spite of being a kobold, we basically only need Strength. Luckily, Dragonwrought means we can dump as many points as possible into it and let the mental boosts from venerable age deal with the other side of our stats. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Str to 16 at 4th level).

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 18 (–2 race) 10 14 (–2 race) 8 (+3 race) 9 (+3 race) 8 (+3 race)
32 Point Buy 18 (–2 race) 10 16 (–2 race) 9 (+3 race) 11 (+3 race) 8 (+3 race)
25 Point Buy* 17 (–2 race) 10 14 (–2 race) 9 (+3 race) 11 (+3 race) 8 (+3 race)
32 Point Buy* 17 (–2 race) 10 16 (–2 race) 9 (+3 race) 13 (+3 race) 9 (+3 race)

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

“Firebird” Build

Level Class Feats (requires Flaws) Notes
1 Ranger 1 Dragonwrought, Education (B), Ride-By Attack (B) FE (arcanists) +2, trap expert, spiritual connection
2 Ranger 2 Power Attack (rgr) Mounted-combat style
3 Ranger 3 Mounted Combat, Endurance (rgr)
4 Ranger 4 1st-level ranger spells, urban companion (eagle familiar)
5 Ranger 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
6 Flame Steward 1 Favored Power Attack +1 Str, +3 hp, 1st-level flame steward spells
7 Flame Steward 2 At-will burning hands
8 Flame Steward 3 +1 Str, +3 hp, 2nd-level flame steward spells
9 Flame Steward 4 Spirited Charge Boost to cure spells
10 Flame Steward 5 +1 Str, +3 hp, 3rd-level flame steward spells
11 Flame Steward 6 At-will flame strike
12 Flame Steward 7 Tactical Advantage (evil) +1 Str, +3 hp, 4th-level flame steward spells
13 Flame Steward 8 1/day atonement, restoration, remove curse, or heal
14 Flame Steward 9 +1 Str, +3 hp, 5th-level flame steward spells
15 Flame Steward 10 Saddleback 1/day firestorm
16 Ranger 6 Improved Sunder (rgr)
17 Ranger 7 Immune to light rubble (crowd-walker)
18 Ranger 8 Combat Brute 2nd-level ranger spells
19 Ranger 9 Feign death
20 Ranger 10 FE (evil creatures) +6, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (aberrations) +2
Ranger ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Trap Expert, Spiritual Connection, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Survival for Sense Motive), loses Track and wild empathy.
  • 4th: Urban Companion (eagle familiar, Dr277), loses animal companion.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
  • 7th: Crowd-Walker, loses woodland stride.
  • 8th: Lost swift tracker for Trap Expert earlier.
  • 9th: Feign Death, loses evasion.
Skill Point Priorities

As usual, you are your party’s trapfinder and perception specialist, and you also have access to useful Knowledge skills for identifying enemy creatures. However, unlike the earlier starting packages, you have to worry about skill ranks prerequisites for your prestige class entry, and likewise are taking 10 levels of a 2 + Int mod class (for whom some of your main skills aren’t class skills). For this reason, instead of giving a priority list, I’ve instead made a proper table for your skill progression, where I display an attempt to keep your main skills at usable levels in spite of the significant drop in skill point efficiency. I’ve also presented the Knowledge skills (class skills thanks to Education) separately to make the table a little easier to read.

Level Skill Points Skill Ranks Knowledges
1 (6+1) × 4 Disable Device 4, Heal 4, Search 4, Spot 4, Ride 4 Arcana 4, Religion 4
2 6+1 Disable Device 5, Heal 5, Search 5, Spot 5, Ride 5 Arcana 5, Religion 5
3 6+1 Concentration 2, Disable Device 6, Heal 6, Search 6, Spot 6, Ride 6 Arcana 5, Religion 5
4 6+1 Concentration 4, Disable Device 7, Heal 7, Search 7, Spot 5, Ride 5 Arcana 5, Religion 5
5 6+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 8, Heal 8, Search 8, Spot 8, Ride 8 Arcana 5, Religion 5
6 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 8, Heal 8, Search 9, Spot 8, Ride 8.5 Arcana 5, Religion 5
7 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 9, Heal 8, Search 9, Spot 8, Ride 9 Arcana 5, Religion 5
8 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 9.5, Heal 8, Search 9, Spot 8, Ride 10 Arcana 5, Religion 5
9 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 10, Heal 8, Search 10, Spot 8, Ride 10 Arcana 5, Religion 5
10 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 10.5, Heal 8, Search 10, Spot 8, Ride 11 Arcana 5, Religion 5
11 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 11, Heal 8, Search 11, Spot 8, Ride 11 Arcana 5, Religion 5
12 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 11, Heal 8, Search 12, Spot 8, Ride 11.5 Arcana 5, Religion 5
13 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 11.5, Heal 8, Search 12, Spot 8, Ride 12 Arcana 5, Religion 5
14 2+1 Concentration 6, Disable Device 12, Heal 8, Search 12, Spot 8, Ride 13 Arcana 5, Religion 5
15 2+1 Concentration 7, Disable Device 12, Heal 8, Search 13, Spot 8, Ride 13 Arcana 5, Religion 5
16 6+1 Concentration 7, Disable Device 13, Heal 8, Search 16, Spot 8, Ride 16 Arcana 5, Religion 5
17 6+1 Concentration 7, Disable Device 13, Heal 8, Search 16, Spot 15, Ride 16 Arcana 5, Religion 5
18 6+1 Concentration 7, Disable Device 15, Heal 8, Search 16, Spot 15, Ride 21 Arcana 5, Religion 5
19 6+1 Concentration 7, Disable Device 15, Heal 8, Search 22, Spot 16, Ride 22 Arcana 5, Religion 5
20 6+1 Concentration 7, Disable Device 20, Heal 8, Search 23, Spot 16, Ride 23 Arcana 5, Religion 5

Spellcasting

You have 1st-level ranger spells (solid, particularly rhino’s rush which adds another multiplier to your charges) and 1st- through 5th-level flame steward spells. Most of your spells as a flame steward aren’t, objectively, good (and indeed, in the magic items section I take options to expand your list), but as far as the things worth preparing, keep these in mind:

  • 1st-Level Spells: Bless, summon monster I (fire only; RAW this doesn’t summon anything except perhaps, if you squint, celestial giant fire beetles)
  • 2nd-Level Spells: Resist energy (listed as resist elements; resist energy is the updated name), cure moderate wounds (if you have nothing else for your slots, you may as well have one for emergencies)
  • 3rd-Level Spells: Protection from energy (listed as protection from elements; protection from energy is the updated name), remove blindness/deafness, remove disease
  • 4th-Level Spells: Searing light (only relevant against undead), cure critical wounds (if nothing else is worth it)
  • 5th-Level Spells: Fire shield, healing circle (solid, updated to 3.5 in Complete Champion), wall of fire

As you can see, the flame steward spell list isn’t that good. In the magic items section I take domain icons keyed to Kurtlemak (the god of kobolds, which you can probably swing worship of even as a good-aligned character since you are a kobold, after all), which each let you, 3/day, burn a prepared spell to cast a spell of that level or lower from the domain. Don’t forget that self-buffing effects can be shared to your mount, boosting both of your stats and defenses! The domains whose icons show up in this build, and their first five levels of spells, are as follows:

  • Competition Domain: Remove fear, zeal, prayer, divine power, and righteous might. You get this domain icon at 10th level.
  • Trickery Domain: Entropic shield, aid, protection from energy, freedom of movement, and break enchantment. You get this domain icon at 14th level, primarily for access to freedom of movement.
  • Kobold Domain: Create trap, gnome blight, fire trap, stone sphere, and transmute rock to mud. You get this domain icon at 16th level, primarily for access to transmute rock to mud as a battlefield control spell.

Build Adjustments

The final five levels of this build are basically a blank slate. In my version, I returned to ranger to get more favored enemy, skill points, and eventual access to 2nd-level ranger spells. In your version, you might take a second prestige class or even another base class. There is room for one feat to be taken for PrC prerequisites before finishing flame steward at 15th level, so if there’s a PrC you have your eye on for the last stages of a campaign, you can probably make it in.

Magic Items

This build has unique item needs due to both having a special style of attacking and needing to, to some degree, also gear its eagle familiar (mostly defensively; on a logistical level, if your eagle dies it sucks but it’s not the end of the world because you can summon a new one the next day, but it can nonetheless mess you up heavily for the rest of the combat and the rest of the adventuring day).

“Firebird” Gear
Level 2 (900gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork lance (310gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), warpony (100gp),
  • Remaining Money: 15gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 3 (2,700gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork lance (310gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), warpony (100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp)
  • Remaining Money: 425gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 4 (5,400gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork lance (310gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp)
  • Remaining Money: 365gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp)
Level 5 (9,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork lance (310gp)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 615gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp)
Level 6 (13,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 lance (2,310gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 315gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp)
Level 7 (19,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous lance (8,310gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 315gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp)
Level 8 (27,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous lance (8,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 215gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp)
Level 9 (36,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous lance (8,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,715gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 studded leather barding (1,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
Level 10 (49,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous lance (8,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 715gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 studded leather barding (1,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
Level 11 (66,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous lance (8,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp) Belt of battle (12,000gp); this build eschews a girdle of hate because it doesn’t have solitary hunting (and takes Tactical Advantage late)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 65gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp)
Level 12 (88,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,755gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp)
Level 13 (110,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: 2 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 4,200gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,755gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp)
Level 14 (150,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Str, 16,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp),
    horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,855gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp)
Level 15 (200,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), resistance +3 (saves, 9,000gp)
  • Head: Circlet of rapid casting (15,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye clarity (3,000gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 855gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp)
Level 16 (260,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +3 (saves, 9,000gp)
  • Head: Circlet of rapid casting (15,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye clarity (3,000gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the righteous (5,400gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), domain icon (kobold, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp),
  • Remaining Money: 1,455gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp), skin of movement (40,000gp)
Level 17 (340,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor (6,400gp), +1 death ward dastana (4,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Circlet of rapid casting (15,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye clarity (3,000gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the righteous (5,400gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), domain icon (kobold, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,455gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp), skin of movement (40,000gp)
Level 18 (440,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting lance (18,310gp) w/ attached knight’s banner (5,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor and energy immunity (14,400gp), +1 soulfire dastana (36,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +4 (Wis, 16,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Circlet of rapid casting (15,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye clarity (3,000gp)
  • Neck: 6 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 12,600gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the righteous (5,400gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), domain icon (kobold, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,455gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 soulfire studded leather barding of mindarmor (39,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp), skin of movement (40,000gp)
Level 19 (580,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting suppression lance (50,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp), attached knight’s banner (5,500gp) and attached standard of heroism (40,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor and energy immunity (14,400gp), +1 soulfire dastana (36,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, Wis; 72,000gp), , resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Circlet of rapid casting (15,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye clarity (3,000gp)
  • Neck: 6 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 12,600gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of Speed (12,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the righteous (5,400gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), domain icon (kobold, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,655gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 soulfire studded leather barding of mindarmor (39,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp), skin of movement (40,000gp), cloak of resistance +5 (25,000gp)
Level 20 (760,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 valorous hunting suppression charging intercepting vicious magebane spell-storing lance (200,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp), attached knight’s banner (5,500gp) and attached standard of heroism (40,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt of mindarmor and energy immunity (14,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 soulfire dastana (36,175gp) w/ lesser crystal of adaptation (1,500gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Circlet of rapid casting (15,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye clarity (3,000gp)
  • Neck: 6 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 12,600gp)
  • Shoulders: Mantle of second chances (12,000gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Belt of battle (12,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of fortunate striking (2,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of Speed (12,000gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of the righteous (5,400gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the white wyrm (64,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 4 charms of perfection (Concentration, Disable Device, Search, Spot; 640gp), adamantine hacksaw (600gp), domain icon (competition, 10,000gp), domain icon (trickery, 10,000gp), domain icon (kobold, 10,000gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), horn of plenty (12,000gp), enervating arm graft (40,000gp), skin of power damping (10,000gp), standard metamagic rod of Extend Spell (11,000gp), minor schema of primal instinct (2,400gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,755gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Eagle’s Armor: +1 soulfire studded leather barding of mindarmor (39,200gp)
  • Eagle’s Gear: Military exotic saddle (60gp), pearl of speech (600gp), healing belt (750gp), chronocharm of the horizon walker (500gp), quicksilver boots (3,500gp), +1 revealing steel talons (8,310gp), greatreach bracers (2,000gp), skin of movement (40,000gp), cloak of resistance +5 (25,000gp)

“The Cooler Duskblade” Dragon Kicks Build

Optimization Level: High
Play Difficulty: High, with the addendum that this build makes active use of spell trigger items.
Required Rulings: This build requires flaws to be in play if you want to get it online at any reasonable pace. In addition, since your only spellcasting stat is Wisdom and your only caster level is ranger, staves should be using those stats to determine their function by RAW (even for wizard spells that you use the magic domain power to spell trigger, arguably). Talk to your DM about that—the later levels want you to be getting this function out of magic staves, but it isn’t strictly necessary.
Race: Human, exiled dwarf, or strongheart halfling. In order to have viable save DCs later, this build wants to go all-in on Wisdom, which means it needs the extra bonus feat at 1st level to get Intuitive Attack. You can be any race if you use Strength instead, though. Note that in spite of silverbrow human having the dragonblood subtype, you don’t get any benefit from it; you still have to take Dragontouched to access Draconic Heritage without a multiclass.

This is a very unique build that gets to cast spells alongside both moving and making multiple attacks per round. Once it comes online at 6th level, your turns become one of the following:

  1. Move up to your speed, cast a touch-range spell (probably from a wand), and attack four times in two pairs; the first is a touch spell delivered through unarmed strike and a Snap Kick attack (both at –2 to hit), and the second is a claw attack as a swift action from Draconic Claw and a Snap Kick attack (both at –4 to hit due to using Snap Kick twice this turn).
  2. Move up to your speed, cast a non-touch spell (probably from a wand), and attack two times; you use Draconic Claw to make a swift action attack and then Snap Kick off of it (both at –2 to hit).

Needless to say, this is pretty good. Though the feat costs and build constraints mean it won’t match raw damage with most full attackers, it’s a gish build that actively uses spells at the same time as attacking, rather than alternating turns (or primarily using buff spells and then full attacking). As ranger’s base spellcasting doesn’t give enough slots to cast in every turn of every combat in a given day, the build uses consumables (mainly wands, but also staves at high levels) to fill the gap. You can actually take this build chassis and apply it to most spellcasters (or non-spellcasters, if using consumables as in this case). This doesn’t actually require being a ranger to make it work, but nonetheless I’ve built it with ranger in order to take advantage of things like solitary hunting, Favored Power Attack, and Swift Hunter for extra attack and damage bonuses.

Ability Scores

Wisdom is our primary stat, due to wanting to scale our DCs with staves in the lategame. We use Intuitive Attack to make attack rolls with it, and so the priority goes to that ability score. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, you won't ever get staves and thus just focus on Strength like a normal melee. Since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can also get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Str to 16/18 at 4th level).

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 10 10 14 10 16 11
32 Point Buy 12 14 14 10 16 12
25 Point Buy* 15 10 14 10 12 11
32 Point Buy* 17 12 14 10 12 11

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

“The Cooler Duskblade” Build

Level Class BAB Feats Notes
1 Ranger 1 1 Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage (B), Draconic Claw (B), Intuitive Attack (race) FE (arcanists) +2, solitary hunting, trap expert, spiritual connection
2 Ranger 2 2 Power Attack (rgr) Strongarm style
3 Ranger 3 3 Touchstone, Endurance (rgr) Uses Touchstone feat to get Catalogues of Enlightenment (magic domain)
4 Ranger 4 4 1st-level spells
5 Ranger 5 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
6 Shadow Sword Ranger 6 6 Snap Kick (qualifies with item) Can make your weapon bane a few times per day
7 Scout 1 6.75 Skirmish +1d6, trapfinding (again)
8 Scout 2 7.5 Battle fortitude +1, uncanny dodge
9 Scout 3 8.25 Favored Power Attack, Swift Hunter (B) Fast movement +10ft, skirmish (+3d6, +2 AC), trackless step
10 Scout 4 9 FE (evil creatures) +6, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (constructs) +2, can make your weapon bane a few times per day
11 Ranger 7 10 Skirmish (+3d6, +3 AC), immune to light rubble (crowd-walker)
12 Ranger 8 11 Practiced Spellcaster (ranger) 2nd-level spells
13 Ranger 9 12 Skirmish (+4d6, +3 AC), feign death
14 Ranger 10 13
15 Moon-Warded Ranger 11 14 Improved Skirmish FE (evil creatures) +8, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (constructs) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, skirmish (+4d6, +4 AC), immunity to hostile mind-affecting effects, 3rd-level spells
16 Ranger 12 15
17 Ranger 13 16 Skirmish (+5d6, +4 AC), camouflage
18 Ranger 14 17 Flyby Attack 4th-level spells
19 Ranger 15 18 Skirmish (+5d6, +5 AC)
20 Ranger 16 19 FE (evil creatures) +10, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (constructs) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, FE (oozes) +2
Ranger ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Solitary Hunting, Trap Expert, Spiritual Connection, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Survival for Sense Motive, loses Ride for Tumble), loses Track and wild empathy.
  • 4th: Loses animal companion for Solitary Hunting earlier.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
  • 7th: Crowd-Walker, loses woodland stride.
  • 8th: Lost swift tracker for Trap Expert earlier.
  • 9th: Feign Death, loses evasion.
  • 11th: Moon-Warded Ranger substitution level, loses final combat style for immunity to mind-affecting (against enemies only, allies can affect you fine).
  • 13th: Hidden Stalker, loses camouflage.
Skill Point Priorities

As usual, you are your party’s trapfinder and perception specialist. However, as you’re casting in the middle of combat very often, you really need Concentration ranks as fast as possible to hit the “cast defensively” breakpoints (DC 15 + spell level). You also have to get 4 cross-class ranks of Spellcraft before 12th level, for Practiced Spellcaster. Because of this, and because we multiclass, I’ve made a table for your skill points rather than just giving priorities. I’ve presented the Knowledge skills separately to make the table a little easier to read. The table assumes a base Int modifier of +0; extra ranks from higher Intelligence can shore up your established skills or go to skill tricks. Skills marked with an asterisk are taken as cross-class ranks. Scout has Balance as a class skill as well, which means we can dump ranks into the skill at 7th level and skip the normal cross-class scaling issues.

Level Skill Points Skill Ranks Knowledges
1 6 × 4 Concentration 4, Disable Device 4, Listen 4, Search 4, Spot 4, Tumble 2 Arcana 1*
2 6 Concentration 5, Disable Device 5, Listen 5, Search 5, Spot 5, Tumble 3 Arcana 1*
3 6 Concentration 6, Disable Device 6, Listen 6, Search 6, Spot 6, Tumble 4 Arcana 1*
4 6 Concentration 7, Disable Device 7, Listen 7, Search 7, Spot 7, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*
5 6 Concentration 8, Disable Device 8, Listen 8, Search 8, Spot 8, Tumble 6 Arcana 1*
6 6 Concentration 8, Disable Device 9, Listen 9, Search 9, Spot 9, Tumble 8 Arcana 1*
7 8 Balance 5, Concentration 8, Disable Device 10, Listen 9, Search 10, Spot 10, Tumble 8 Arcana 1*
8 8 Balance 5, Concentration 8, Disable Device 11, Listen 11, Search 11, Spot 11, Tumble 10 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
9 8 Balance 5, Concentration 8, Disable Device 12, Listen 12, Search 12, Spellcraft 1.5*, Spot 12, Tumble 11 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
10 8 Balance 5, Concentration 10, Disable Device 13, Listen 12, Search 13, Spellcraft 3*, Spot 13, Tumble 11 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
11 6 Balance 5, Concentration 11, Disable Device 14, Listen 12, Search 14, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 13, Tumble 12 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
12 6 Balance 5, Concentration 14, Disable Device 15, Listen 12, Search 15, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 14, Tumble 12 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
13 6 Balance 5, Concentration 15, Disable Device 16, Listen 13, Search 16, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 16, Tumble 12 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
14 6 Balance 5, Concentration 17, Disable Device 17, Listen 14, Search 17, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 17, Tumble 12 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
15 6 Balance 5, Concentration 18, Disable Device 18, Listen 15, Search 18, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 18, Tumble 13 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
16 6 Balance 5, Concentration 19, Disable Device 19, Listen 16, Search 19, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 19, Tumble 14 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
17 6 Balance 5, Concentration 20, Disable Device 20, Listen 18, Search 20, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 20, Tumble 14 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
18 6 Balance 5, Concentration 21, Disable Device 21, Listen 20, Search 21, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 21, Tumble 14 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
19 6 Balance 5, Concentration 22, Disable Device 22, Listen 22, Search 22, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 22, Tumble 14 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1
20 6 Balance 5, Concentration 23, Disable Device 23, Listen 23, Search 23, Spellcraft 4*, Spot 23, Tumble 15 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 1, Nature 1

Spellcasting

This build makes a lot of use of wands and staves. If this were one of my personal builds I would also be using a lot of scrolls and runes, but since this is meant for a more all-purpose usage, I’ve refrained from that. Instead, it uses a handful of specific spell trigger items at any given level, set up so that it can afford to use at least one charge every round for 13 combat encounters (the amount needed to level up on average assuming every encounter is combat). If we assume that each combat lasts 4 rounds on average, you’d need 52 charges per level. That’s… fine? A wand will, under that assumption, last a full level in most cases. Or if you’re using two different wands, they each end up half-empty at the end of a level. The gear section of this build is designed under that assumption as well.

Here is a table detailing what spells and items are your primary approach at any given point, once the build is fully online at 6th level and onwards. This build gets Practiced Spellcaster (ranger) at 12th level and an orange prism ioun stone at 17th level. Some of these spells are prebuffs (like freedom of movement and primal instinct), but most of them are battlefield control or combat self-buffs. Especially in the first round of combat, you may find yourself preferring to cast a buff and attack fewer times (or cast a buff and use a swift action item activation instead of attacking at all), so it’s worth keeping them in mind.

“The Cooler Duskblade” Spellcasting

Level Ranger Spells Notable Ranger Spells Consumable Spell Available
4 1sts (CL 2) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Wand of parching touch (CL 2)
5 1sts (CL 2) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Wand of parching touch (CL 2)
6 1sts (CL 2) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Wand of parching touch (CL 2)
7 1sts (CL 2) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Wand of parching touch (CL 2)
8 1sts (CL 2) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Wand of parching touch (CL 2), wand of grease (CL 3)
9 1sts (CL 2) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Wand of parching touch (CL 2), wand of grease (CL 3)
10 1sts (CL 3) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Custom staff (combust 1 charge; CL 8), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1)
11 1sts (CL 3) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st) Custom staff (combust 1 charge; CL 8), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1)
12 2nds (CL 8) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd) Custom staff (combust 1 charge, frost breath 2 charges; CL 10), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1)
13 2nds (CL 8) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
14 2nds (CL 9) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
15 3rds (CL 9) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd), find the gap (3rd), haboob (3rd), plant growth (3rd) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
16 3rds (CL 10) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd), find the gap (3rd), haboob (3rd), plant growth (3rd) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
17 3rds (CL 11) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd), find the gap (3rd), haboob (3rd), plant growth (3rd) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
18 4ths (CL 12) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd), find the gap (3rd), haboob (3rd), plant growth (3rd), foebane (4th), freedom of movement (4th), slipsand (4th) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
19 4ths (CL 12) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd), find the gap (3rd), haboob (3rd), plant growth (3rd), foebane (4th), freedom of movement (4th), slipsand (4th) Custom staff (frost breath 1 charge, storm touch 2 charges; CL 9), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)
20 4ths (CL 13) Entangle (1st), impeding stones (1st), bottomless hate (2nd), predator’s cry (2nd), primal instinct (2nd), wind wall (2nd), find the gap (3rd), haboob (3rd), plant growth (3rd), foebane (4th), freedom of movement (4th), slipsand (4th) Custom staff (imprisonment 1 charge, storm touch 1 charge, frost breath 1 charge; CL 17), wand of grease (CL 3), wand of benign transposition (CL 1), wand of fly (CL 5)

Build Adjustments

This build is fairly complete, and hard to adjust as a result (it already needs flaws and wants a bonus feat race, after all). If you want to focus on Strength, you can shift your ability score priorities around that and drop Intuitive Attack. Notably though, you can apply the “dragon kicks” build concept to any martial; the core feats are Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage, Draconic Claw, Touchstone, and Snap Kick; you can get Improved Unarmed Strike for Snap Kick’s prerequisite via an item (bracers of striking is the most convenient). If you do a more spellcasting-heavy build you can also skip Touchstone and consumables, just casting spells normally for the ability triggers.

Magic Items

This build’s item needs are similar to a Loadout 4 from Chapter IV (the TWF unarmed one), but it’s Wisdom-based and instead of building for two-weapon fighting, builds for its consumable-hungry wand setup. As with the other loadouts, this list assumes you’re starting at a given level and spending WBL for a new character, so it won’t map perfectly one-to-one with most campaign level-up experiences. This is even more important than usual because of the use of consumables. Still, as mentioned in Chapter VII, some amount of consumables are intended to be extrinsic to your normal WBL in most cases. Go read the introduction to the consumables section in that chapter and talk to your DM about that if you’re going to play this build, because it will affect how you progress at later levels. At higher levels, this build also uses the default rules for creating staves of any spell.

Note that due to its unique gear needs, the build starts to actually function at all at 4th level, and only really comes into its own at 6th level. In rusty dagger shanktown, you’re going to play like a rogue, not a frontliner.

This build makes heavy use of a spell that isn’t otherwise mentioned in the guide (due to rangers not having access to it at all): storm touch, a 5th-level wizard spell from Magic of Eberron, p. 103. It deals 9d6 damage as a multitouch spell and also inflicts a save-or-stun on each hit. It’s really darn good and the main way the build stays strong at the higher levels when full attackers get more attacks when it.

“The Cooler Duskblade” Gear
Level 2 (900gp)
  • Weapon: Quarterstaff (free),
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 105gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 3 (2,700gp)
  • Weapon: Quarterstaff (free),
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Arms: Bracers of striking (1,310gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 595gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 4 (5,400gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of parching touch (CL 2, 1,500gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Arms: Bracers of striking (1,310gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp)
  • Remaining Money: 995gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 5 (9,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of parching touch (CL 2, 1,500gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Arms: Bracers of striking (1,310gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 95gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 6 (13,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of parching touch (CL 2, 1,500gp)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of striking (1,310gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 80gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 7 (19,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of parching touch (CL 2, 1,500gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (5,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of striking (1,310gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,080gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 8 (27,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of parching touch (CL 2, 1,500gp), wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (5,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of striking (1,310gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 230gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 9 (36,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of parching touch (CL 2, 1,500gp), wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,130gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 10 (49,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp) that is also a custom magic staff (combust for 1 charge; CL 8, 12,000gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 11 (66,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp) that is also a custom magic staff (combust for 1 charge; CL 8, 12,000gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp) Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,870gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 12 (88,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp) that is also a custom magic staff (combust for 1 charge, frost breath for 2 charges; CL 10, 20,625gp)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 245gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 13 (110,000gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (800gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), masterwork buckler (165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,620gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 14 (150,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (16,800gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Wis, 16,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,320gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 15 (200,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (16,800gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Falcon cloak (10,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp, use on bracers of striking)
  • Remaining Money: 720gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring
Level 16 (260,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff w/ 2 wand chambers (16,800gp) and standard of heroism (40,000gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp) note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithral chain shirt (4,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Falcon cloak (10,000gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Spellguard ring (4,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp, use on bracers of striking)
  • Remaining Money: 5,720gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 17 (340,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff of battle w/ 2 wand chambers (36,800gp) and standard of heroism (40,000gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithral chain shirt (25,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +3 (saves, 9,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Falcon cloak (10,000gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Spellguard ring (4,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp, use on bracers of striking), orange prism ioun stone (30,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 14,720gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 18 (440,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff of battle w/ 2 wand chambers (36,800gp) and standard of heroism (40,000gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithral chain shirt (25,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +3 (saves, 9,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Falcon cloak (10,000gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 bracers of striking (5,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Spellguard ring (4,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp, use on bracers of striking), orange prism ioun stone (30,000gp), tome of understanding +4
  • Remaining Money: 4,720gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 19 (580,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff of battle w/ 2 wand chambers (36,800gp) and standard of heroism (40,000gp) that is also a custom magic staff (frost breath for 1 charge; storm touch for 2 charges; CL 9, 27,000gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithral chain shirt (25,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +3 (saves, 9,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Falcon cloak (10,000gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 suppression spireshard bracers of striking (144,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Spellguard ring (4,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp, use on bracers of striking), orange prism ioun stone (30,000gp), tome of understanding +4
  • Remaining Money: 5,720gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 20 (760,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 eager/+1 warning quarterstaff of battle w/ 2 wand chambers (36,800gp) and standard of heroism (40,000gp) that is also a custom magic staff (imprisonment for 1 charge; storm touch for 1 charges, frost breath for 1 charge; CL 17, 175,312.5gp); note that a held charge on storm touch lasts for CL touches (can deliver four in the first round, and then full attack in the second round for the rest)
  • Spell Trigger Items: Wand of grease (CL3, 2,250gp), wand of benign transposition (CL 1, 750gp), wand of fly (CL5, 11,250gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire bane blind mithral chain shirt of mirror image (60,100gp), +1 greater blurring dastana (16,175gp), +1 buckler (1,165gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Wis, 36,000gp), resistance +3 (saves, 9,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye freedom (2,600gp)
  • Neck: 4 enemy spirit pouches (for swapping as needed, 8,400gp)
  • Shoulders: Falcon cloak (10,000gp)
  • Torso: Fiery tunic (5,000gp)
  • Waist: Girdle of hate (16,000gp)
  • Arms: +1 suppression spireshard bracers of striking (144,310gp) w/ greater crystal of acid assault (6,000gp)
  • Feet: Vanguard treads (3,100gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Spellguard ring (4,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork thieves’ tools (100gp), masterwork tool of Search and Spot (fancy glasses; 100gp), 2 charms of perfection (Disable Device, Search; 320gp), skeleton key (4,500gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp, use on bracers of striking), orange prism ioun stone (30,000gp), tome of understanding +4
  • Remaining Money: 2,407gp and 5 sp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

“Catch ‘Em All” Double-Companion Build

Optimization Level: High
Play Difficulty: Extreme.
Required Rulings: This build assumes that Natural Bond combined with the beastmaster prestige class cannot push your animal companion’s effective druid level past your character level. If your DM rules that they do stack past your level… it actually doesn’t matter much, you just get an extra +1 to your EDL later on.
Race: Frostblood half-orc (build comes online fully at 7th level) or any (see the variant version of the build that comes online at 9th level).

So it turns out that, due to some oddities in how rangers scale with animal companions, you actually have very little reason not to also get a familiar as well if you’re doing a full animal companion build. Beastmaster grants you an animal companion if you don’t already have one (at EDL 4 to start with), and you can take the Theurgic Bond feat at that point to stack your EDL with the 2 effective master levels ranger 5 gives you. This build represents, functionally, the pinnacle of what rangers can do with companion creatures in the absence of a full ubermount build (which I am not bothering to set up a starting package for). Ranger 5 gives you a strong foundation as a martial, and abolisher continues to progress ranger class features. You even get access to wild shape, though this build would generally rather you fight in humanoid form than wild shape form.

The opportunity cost of this build is fairly significant, though: you’re going to have a massive mental stack in combats (controlling not only your PC but a familiar and an animal companion), and equipment being split between you and your animal companion gets expensive. Plus, there are a number of feats needed to bring the build online that cannot be taken before level 6, meaning Favored Power Attack gets delayed pretty far. Until that point, you will be playing second fiddle in combat to your animal allies… which is, yanno, probably fine. It’s a beastmaster build. That’s the point.

Ability Scores

It's fairly straightforward. Strength, Constitution, and for once frostblood half-orc's racial stats actually benefit us. We take a higher Con than usual in the 32 point-buy array because our familiar's hit points scale with outs. The second set of ability scores (marked with an asterisk) is for if you expect your campaign to end before or at level 8. In that case, you won't ever get staves and thus just focus on Strength like a normal melee. Since you’re only getting a single ability score adjustment, you can also get more benefit than usual out of an odd-numbered high score (bumping Str to 16/18 at 4th level).

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
25 Point Buy 16 (+2 race) 10 12 12 (–2 race) 12 9 (–2 race)
32 Point Buy 16 (+2 race) 10 16 12 (–2 race) 12 8 (–2 race)
25 Point Buy* 15 (+2 race) 10 14 12 (–2 race) 12 9 (–2 race)
32 Point Buy* 17 (+2 race) 12 14 12 (–2 race) 12 9 (–2 race)

Progression

You can find your progression in the following spoiler.

“Catch ‘Em All” Build

In the table, "F" refers to your effective master level for your familiar, and "EDL" refers to your effective druid level for your animal companion.

Level Class BAB F EDL Spells Feats Notes
1 Ranger 1 1 — — — Skill Focus (Handle Animal) Track [rng] Endurance [rac] FE (arcanists) +2, wild empathy
2 Ranger 2 2 — — Two-Weapon Fighting [rng] Two-weapon style
3 Ranger 3 3 — — — Martial Study (leading the attack), Endurance becomes Martial Stance (leading the charge) [rng]
4 Ranger 4 4 2 — Ranger 4 1st-level spells, urban companion
5 Ranger 5 5 2 — Ranger 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
6 Beastmaster 1 6 6 4 — Theurgic Bond Animal companion
7 Pugilist Fighter 1 7 6 4 — Improved Unarmed Strike (ftr) Endurance becomes Improved Familiar (ftr) Power Attack (ftr) Hit and run tactics, pugilist grants IUS, Endurance, and a normal fighter bonus feat at 1st
8 Abolisher 1 7.75 7 5 — FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, wild shape 1/day
9 Abolisher 2 8.5 11 9 Ranger 6 Natural Bond Winds of nature’s grace
10 Abolisher 3 9.25 12 10 Ranger 7 Pierce aberrant defense +1
11 Abolisher 4 10 13 11 Ranger 8 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (aberrations) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, wild shape 2/day, 2nd-level spells
12 Abolisher 5 10.75 14 12 Ranger 9 Favored Power Attack Crystals of nature’s rage
13 Abolisher 6 11.5 15 13 Pierce aberrant defense +2
14 Abolisher 7 12.25 16 14 Ranger 10 Waves of nature’s purity
15 Abolisher 8 13 17 15 Ranger 11 Tactical Advantage FE (aberrations) +6, FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, wild shape 3/day, 3rd-level spells
16 Abolisher 9 13.75 18 16 Ranger 12 Pierce aberrant defense +3
17 Abolisher 10 14.5 19 17 Ranger 13 Fires of nature’s rage; must get animal companion a swim speed by now (our choice is dire polar bear, to avoid issues of DM rulings)
18 Wavekeeper 1 15.25 20 18 — Wedded to the Light Masterful swimmer, mysteries of the sea
19 Wavekeeper 2 16 21 19 Ranger 14 Beast of the sea, wave master 1/day, 4th-level spells
20 Wavekeeper 3 16.75 22 20 Ranger 15 Mastery of breath, water breathing
Ranger ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Arcane Hunter, Skilled City-Dweller (loses Ride for Tumble)
  • 4th: Urban Companion, loses animal companion.
  • 5th: Great Worm Tribe origin’s favored enemy (evil creatures).
Fighter ACFs Taken
  • 1st: Pugilist variant class, Hit and Run Tactics.
Skill Point Priorities

Unlike the other builds I’ve made, this one cannot afford to take trapfinding. Instead, your priorities are first prerequisites for your prestige classes, then Tumble, perception skills, and Knowledges. Like with some of the others, I’ve made a table for your skill progression, where I display an attempt to keep your main skills at usable levels in spite of the significant drop in skill point efficiency. I’ve also presented the Knowledge skills separately to make the table a little easier to read. The table assumes a base Int modifier of +0; extra ranks from higher Intelligence can shore up your established skills or go to skill tricks. Skills marked with an asterisk are taken as cross-class ranks.

Level Skill Points Skill Ranks Knowledges
1 6 × 4 Handle Animal 4, Survival 4, Swim 4, Tumble 4 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 4
2 6 Balance 1*, Handle Animal 5, Survival 5, Swim 5, Tumble 4 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 5
3 6 Balance 2*, Handle Animal 6, Survival 6, Swim 5, Tumble 4 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 3, Nature 6
4 6 Balance 3*, Handle Animal 7, Survival 7, Swim 5, Tumble 4 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 4, Nature 7
5 6 Balance 4*, Handle Animal 8, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 8
6 4 Balance 4*, Handle Animal 8, Spot 3, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9
7 2 Balance 5*, Handle Animal 8, Spot 3, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9
8 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 4, Handle Animal 8, Spot 3, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9
9 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 8, Handle Animal 8, Spot 3, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9
10 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 8, Handle Animal 8, Spot 6, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9, the Planes 1
11 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 8, Handle Animal 8, Spot 10, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9, the Planes 1
12 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 9, Handle Animal 8, Spot 15, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9, the Planes 1
13 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 12, Handle Animal 8, Spot 16, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9, the Planes 1
14 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Handle Animal 8, Spot 17, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 9, the Planes 1
15 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Handle Animal 8, Spot 18, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 12, the Planes 1
16 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Handle Animal 8, Spot 19, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 15, the Planes 1
17 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Handle Animal 8, Spot 20, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 18, the Planes 1
18 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Handle Animal 8, Spot 21, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 21, the Planes 1
19 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Listen 2, Handle Animal 8, Spot 22, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 22, the Planes 1
20 4 Balance 5*, Concentration 15, Listen 4, Handle Animal 8, Spot 23, Survival 8, Swim 5, Tumble 5 Arcana 1*, Dungeoneering 2, Nature 23, the Planes 1

Spellcasting

Unless you spring for wands, your main usage for spells is going to be downtime utility or self-buffing (and/or sharing to your companion) in combat. Of major note are lion’s charge, as well as greater magic fang for your animal companion at higher levels. Also keep in mind that you have access to resist energy for mitigating your fire vulnerability.

Animal Companion & Familiar

The goal with this build is to keep a swarm familiar on hand to hinder and damage foes, while also having your damage output come from you in melee with a sword-and-unarmed-strike TWF combo being supported by a full progression animal companion. To that end, most good combat companions are viable here, but the magic items section for gearing assumes the following things:

  1. The animal companion has three or more natural weapons (and in fact, the feats chosen add another two plus unarmed strike). Magic item purchases will assume this in order to be more efficient with gold (i.e. erring on the side of an amulet of mighty fists over necklace of natural weapons).
  2. The animal companion has a good Strength score and is being upgraded as you hit EDL breakpoints. I intentionally chose the magebred ghost tiger as an option for most of the build because it will require less recalculation over time (it’s a competitive option until 16th level, rather than swapping out), but if you’re using less “all-in-one” companions you’ll probably want to change it up every 3 levels to keep pace.
  3. The animal companion either has pounce, or is being given pounce by you at higher levels via share spells lion’s charge. A fair amount of its damage is going to come from your leading the charge stance until higher levels.

As for the swarm familiar, you’ll want to upgrade that at certain breakpoints as well (this build goes for the dread blossom swarm over the ephemeral swarm at higher levels, in order to not lock you to a specific alignment). Consult the following table for my recommendations on both. This table assumes that you’re able to change the feats your companion creatures get. If you can’t, just use the default feats the creatures come with; it doesn’t really change what you’d want overall. Note that this build acquires Improved Familiar at character level 7th, so you’re delayed from getting a swarm until then.

“Catch ‘Em All” Companions Progression

Level F EDL Familiar
4 2 — Eagle w/ Weapon Finesse
5 2 —
6 6 4
7 6 4 Bat Swarm w/ Martial Study (any Shadow Hand; irrelevant), Martial Stance (island of blades)
8 7 5
9 11 9
10 12 10
11 13 11 Dread Blossom Swarm w/ Martial Study (any Shadow Hand; irrelevant), Martial Stance (island of blades), Ability Focus (poison pollen).

We require a way to grant the party immunity to poison at this point; my choice is the horn of plenty, mentioned in the loadout part of this build.

As an alternative, from effective master level 11th, you could take an Ephemeral Swarm w/ Fey Heritage, Martial Study (any Shadow Hand; irrelevant), Martial Stance (island of blades), Fey Legacy, Ability Focus (distraction).

This requires a nongood, nonlawful alignment and will be less powerful at locking down enemies vulnerable to poison, but bring more reliable combat utility (via its 1/day summon nature’s ally V and dimension door SLAs and Str damage swarm attack) at the cost of even more complexity managing your units in combat.
12 14 12
13 15 13
14 16 14
15 17 15
16 18 16
17 19 17
18 20 18
19 21 19
20 22 20

Level F EDL Animal Companion
4 2 — —
5 2 — —
6 6 4 Leopard w/ Multiattack, Weapon Finesse
7 6 4
8 7 5
9 11 9 Magebred Ghost Tiger w/ +2 HD, +1 Str, +2 nat. armor, and evasion from adjusted EDL; Mourning Mutate, Multiattack, Inhuman Reach, Run (B)
10 12 10
11 13 11
12 14 12 Magebred Ghost Tiger w/ +4 HD, +2 Str, +4 nat. armor, evasion, and devotion from adjusted EDL; Mourning Mutate, Multiattack, Inhuman Reach, Deepspawn, Run (B)
13 15 13
14 16 14
15 17 15 Magebred Ghost Tiger w/ +6 HD, +3 Str, +6 nat. armor, evasion, devotion, and Multiattack from adjusted EDL; Mourning Mutate, Inhuman Reach, Deepspawn, Improved Unarmed Strike, Superior Unarmed Strike, Multiattack (B), Run (B)
16 18 16 Dire Polar Bear w/ Mourning Mutate, Multiattack, Inhuman Reach, Deepspawn, Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike, Superior Unarmed Strike, Track (B)
17 19 17
18 20 18 Dire Polar Bear gets +2 HD, +1 Str, +2 nat. armor, and evasion from adjusted EDL (no extra feats)
19 21 19 If your DM allows it (requires houserule; see the templates section of Chapter V: Companions), apply the horrid template to your dire polar bear at this point in exchange for that +2 HD adjustment.
20 22 20

Build Adjustments

Even your game allows flaws, there aren’t many build-defining feats to take here. All of your good feats happen at level 6 or above (even Power Attack, thanks to the fighter dip), so your options are basically utility feats, defensive feats, or Travel Devotion. I recommend the latter, honestly. If your group plays with the favored class rules, you can drop Martial Stance for Additional Favored Class.

As for other changes, the main adjustment you might make to this build is not being a frostblood half-orc. If you do, you can skip pugilist fighter and will take a hunting weapon instead of a discipline (White Raven) weapon in the magic items sections. This version of the build is less good at supporting its companions and comes fully online later on, but is more powerful defensively (no fire vulnerability) and will likely have better skills. Use the following table for the race-agnostic version of the build:

“Catch ‘Em All” Build (Race-Agnostic Variant)

Level Class BAB F AC Rgr Spells Feats Notes
1 Ranger 1 1 — — — Skill Focus (Handle Animal) Track (rgr) FE (arcanists) +2, wild empathy
2 Ranger 2 2 — — — Two-Weapon Fighting (rgr) Two-weapon style
3 Ranger 3 3 — — — Power Attack, Endurance (rgr)
4 Ranger 4 4 2 — Rgr 4 1st-level spells, urban companion
5 Ranger 5 5 2 — Rgr 5 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2
6 Beastmaster 1 6 6 4 — Theurgic Bond Animal companion
7 Abolisher 1 6.75 7 5 — FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, FE (aberrations) +2, wild shape 1/day
8 Abolisher 2 7.5 8 6 Rgr 6 Winds of nature’s grace
9 Abolisher 3 8.25 9 7 Rgr 7 Improved Familiar Pierce aberrant defense +1
10 Abolisher 4 9 10 8 Rgr 8 FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (aberrations) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, wild shape 2/day, 2nd-level spells
11 Abolisher 5 9.75 11 9 Rgr 9 Crystals of nature’s rage
12 Abolisher 6 10.5 12 10 Favored Power Attack Pierce aberrant defense +2
13 Abolisher 7 11.25 13 11 Rgr 10 Waves of nature’s purity
14 Abolisher 8 12 14 12 Rgr 11 FE (aberrations) +6, FE (evil creatures) +4, FE (arcanists) +2, wild shape 3/day, 3rd-level spells
15 Abolisher 9 12.75 15 13 Rgr 12 Tactical Advantage Pierce aberrant defense +3
16 Abolisher 10 13.5 16 14 Rgr 13 Fires of nature’s rage; must get animal companion a swim speed by now
17 Wavekeeper 1 14.25 16 14 — Masterful swimmer, mysteries of the sea
18 Wavekeeper 2 15 20 18 Rgr 14 Natural Bond Beast of the sea, wave master 1/day, 4th-level spells
19 Wavekeeper 3 15.75 21 19 Rgr 15 Mastery of breath, water breathing
20 Wavekeeper 4 16.5 22 20 Rgr 16 Wave master 2/day

Magic Items

This build has unique item needs due to balancing both gearing itself, and gearing its companion. Luckily, the swarm familiar has no equipment needs, but your animal companion does, since it’s a good chunk of your combat functionality. As a result, you’re going to be less personally strong than similarly-leveled characters. This is fine, though; having a companion makes up for it, even if it takes much more effort to build and play. As this build gets Improved Unarmed Strike from class levels (for use with TWF), it doesn’t need bracers of striking or a similar item. You’re probably going to be using an unenhanced unarmed strike as your off-hand weapon for most levels, and that’s okay! The goal there isn’t to be primarily a TWF offensive build, but to have extra attacks and damage with a low opportunity cost (since you have the feats available regardless).

“Catch ‘Em All” Gear
Level 2 (900gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork alchemical silver weapon (480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: Chain shirt (100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp)
  • Remaining Money: 45gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 3 (2,700gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork alchemical silver weapon (480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: Mithral chain shirt (1,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: N/A
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp)
  • Remaining Money: 45gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 4 (5,400gp)
  • Weapon: Masterwork alchemical silver weapon (480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt (2,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp)
  • Remaining Money: 795gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 5 (9,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 alchemical silver weapon (2,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt (2,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,395gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings
Level 6 (13,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 alchemical silver weapon (2,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt (2,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp)
  • Remaining Money: 195gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (200gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: N/A
  • Companion’s Gear: Amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp)
Level 7 (19,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 alchemical silver weapon (2,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 mithral chain shirt (2,100gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp)
  • Remaining Money: 645gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
Level 8 (27,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 alchemical silver weapon (2,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger)
  • Remaining Money: 120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
Level 9 (36,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 alchemical silver weapon (2,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 mithralmist shirt (3,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger)
  • Remaining Money: 120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
Level 10 (49,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing alchemical silver weapon (8,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithralmist shirt (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger)
  • Remaining Money: 1,120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
Level 11 (66,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing alchemical silver weapon (8,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithralmist shirt (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Waist: Healing belt (750gp) Familiar’s belt (6,000gp; healing belt given to companion)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
Level 12 (88,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (18,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithralmist shirt (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,120gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: Masterwork studded leather barding (250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
Level 13 (110,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (18,480gp + base weapon cost)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithralmist shirt (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,620gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,250gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp)
Level 14 (150,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (18,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithralmist shirt (6,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, Wis; 8,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 620gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 1 ring

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,250gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, 4,000gp), resistance +1 (saves, 1,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp)
Level 15 (200,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (18,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 death ward mithralmist shirt of fire warding (30,400gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, Wis; 8,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on tiger), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 20gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,250gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +4 (Str, 16,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp)
Level 16 (260,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (18,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithralmist shirt of fire warding (54,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, Wis; 8,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on bear), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,920gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,350gp, now for huge creature) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), resistance +2 (saves, 4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), amulet of mighty fists +1 (6,000gp) shrink collar (10,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp), ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
Level 17 (340,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing suppression discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (50,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithralmist shirt of fire warding (54,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), masterwork dastana (175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +2 (Str, Wis; 8,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on bear), horn of plenty (12,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 7,920gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,350gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), shrink collar (10,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp), ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
Level 18 (440,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing suppression discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (50,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithralmist shirt of fire warding (54,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 dastana of freedom (36,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on bear), horn of plenty (12,000gp), 2 minor schemas of primal instinct (4,800gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 1,520gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 death ward studded leather barding (4,350gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), mask of fury (12,000gp), shrink collar (10,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp), ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
Level 19 (580,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing suppression discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (50,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithralmist shirt of fire warding (54,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 dastana of freedom (36,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on bear), horn of plenty (12,000gp), 2 minor schemas of primal instinct (4,800gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp)
  • Remaining Money: 10,520gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 soulfire studded leather barding (25,350gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), mask of fury (12,000gp), shrink collar (10,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp), ring of anticipation (6,000gp), manual of gainful exercise +4 (110,000gp)
Level 20 (760,000gp)
  • Weapon: +1 revealing suppression spireshard discipline (White Raven) alchemical silver weapon (128,480gp + base weapon cost) w/ lesser crystal of acid assault (3,000gp)
  • Armor: +1 soulfire mithralmist shirt of fire warding (54,400gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp), +1 dastana of freedom (36,175gp)
  • Common Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), enhancement +2 (Wis, 4,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Head: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp)
  • Face: Third eye dampening (2,500gp)
  • Neck: Enemy spirit pouch (2,100gp)
  • Shoulders: Transposer cloak (6,000gp)
  • Torso: Winged vest (12,000gp)
  • Waist: Familiar’s belt (6,000gp)
  • Arms: Bracers of blood rage (2,600gp)
  • Hands: Gloves of the balanced hand (8,000gp)
  • Feet: Boots of the mountain king (1,500gp)
  • Ring 1: Ring of anticipation (6,000gp)
  • Ring 2: Ring of the darkhidden (2,000gp)
  • Other Items: Masterwork tool of Spot (fancy glasses; 50gp), masterwork tool of Handle Animal (various training tools, 50gp), rune of planar familiar (3,625gp, used on bear), horn of plenty (12,000gp), 2 minor schemas of primal instinct (4,800gp), tooth of Leraje (21,600gp), manual of gainful exercise +4 (110,000gp)
  • Remaining Money: 2,520gp
  • Open Slots: Head, face, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arms, hands, feet, 2 rings

  • Companion’s Armor: +1 soulfire studded leather barding (25,350gp) w/ lesser crystal of mind cloaking (4,000gp)
  • Companion’s Common Item Bonuses: Enhancement +6 (Str, 36,000gp), resistance +5 (saves, 25,000gp)
  • Companion’s Gear: Dryad’s helm (4,000gp), mask of fury (12,000gp), shrink collar (10,000gp), banner of the storm’s eye (15,000gp), winged vest (12,000gp), healing belt (750gp), boots of the mountain king (1,500gp), ring of might (4,000gp), ring of anticipation (6,000gp), manual of gainful exercise +4 (110,000gp)

Other Builds

Here are a handful of the many build ideas that my coauthor and I came up with while researching this guide. Though we had probably a good 30, most of them were even less fleshed-out than these, so I've decided to present only the highlights.

The Cooler CoDzilla: Ranger 6/Abolisher 2/Divine Crusader 1/Primeval 1/Abolisher +8/Divine Crusader +2. This rollercoaster of a build gets us wild shape, ranger goodness, a dire lion form to fight in that adds its stats to ours instead of replacing them, as well as a single domain’s spells (expandable with items, and hitting 9th-level spells at level 20). Is it better than just being a druid 20? Probably not. But you’re definitely going to fight better due to Favored Power Attack, full BAB, favored enemy (evil creatures) +4, and primeval’s boosts to your physical ability scores. Another variant of this would be Ranger 5/Halfling Monk 1/Daggerspell Shaper 2/Divine Crusader 1/Primeval 1/Daggerspell Shaper +8/Divine Crusader +2, which is worse in combat due to your primeval form having to be within a step of your natural form’s size, but gets to actually use Daggerspell Shaper for something!

The Elocator: Frostblood Half-Orc Ranger 5/Chameleon 10/Ranger +5. You use the variant from Races of Destiny to allow human-blooded races to take human options, and use Flexible Mind to get your class skills. This is the one that I talked about in the Chameleon entry in this guide, getting access to multiple floating feats and stacking them onto the generally-good combat chassis of Ranger 5 with favored enemy (evil creatures) +4 and (arcanists) +2. Human characters can enter the PrC without Flexible Mind, but can’t float bonus Endurance feats they gain.

Wis-SAD Staff Fighter: Ranger 5/Wizard 1/Shiba Protector 1/Ranger +13. With Intuitive Attack and the imbued staff familiar option, we can take Imbued Strength to add Wis to damage, and then after entering Shiba Protector, all our attacks are using 2× Wis to hit and damage. Use bracers of striking to get Improved Unarmed Strike, take Snap Kick, and then at 12th level take Eilservs School. Take Greater Two-Weapon Fighting too, it’s worth it here! Your attack routine is now “full attack (making one off-hand quarterstaff attack then the rest as unarmed strikes), and cast a spell out of your staff against the target as a swift action, and also Snap Kick.” Tons of investment, but a ton of damage with absurd reliability. A variant version of this would be a dwarf with Ancestral Knowledge (Wis to Knowledge checks) and Knowledge Devotion, plus old age to get a further +2 to wisdom. Super aesthetic, too.

Untitled Swan Build: Ranger 5/Swanmay 2/Warshaper 5/Abolisher 8. We get Swanmay’s wild shape into swan form, and then focus on it completely. This build has high favored enemy bonuses and takes both feats and items to cover its swan form with natural weapons. The deadliest bird in the world.

Triple Threat: Though not that threatening. You can spend tons of feats to enter Prestige Paladin as a ranger, going Ranger 4/Prestige Paladin 1/Ranger +15, and then take Sword of the Arcane Order as well. Now your ranger spells can also be wizard spells and paladin spells! Is this good? Unlikely. But it’s kinda fun. I would probably play this myself, given the opportunity.

Generic Power Attacker Ranger: Frostblood Half-Orc Ranger 1/Warblade 1/Ranger +19. Our feats look like this:

  • 1st: Combat Reflexes (flaw), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (meteor hammer) (flaw), Endurance (race)
  • 3rd: Knowledge Devotion, Power Attack (ranger style)
  • 4th: Ironheart Aura (ranger’s Endurance becomes bonus feat)
  • 6th: Favored Power Attack
  • 7th: Improved Sunder (ranger style)
  • 9th: Stormguard Warrior
  • 12th: Robilar’s Gambit
  • 15th: Lady’s Gambit
  • 18th: Leap Attack
  • Locations: Iron Will (otyugh hole)

This was a theoretical build we came up with that’s just like. “Hey, what if we took basically only Power Attack and attack-boosting feats? Just for the memes?” And you know what? It works. It works really well. This build is simple and straightforward but is capable of putting out tremendous amounts of consistent, reliable damage, especially if your DM uses the liberal reading of Stormguard Warrior. Combine this with Loadout 1 from Chapter IV and you've basically got a character, honestly.

Forbidden Level 20 Mystic Ranger Gish: Courtesy of Anthrowhale on GitP, this build represents an answer to the inherent question of "what do you do after taking mystic ranger through its broken levels?" He proposed Mystic Ranger 9/Heartfire Fanner 1/Sublime Chord 1/Fochlucan Lyrist 9, which takes so many skill points but manages to get 9th-level spells with nearly-full BAB. I don't recommend this (for the same reasons I don't recommend taking mystic ranger at all), but it is an option.

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