Ranger with 8 strength

[Relenthe]

I recently made a ranger and i put in 8 strength, 20 dex, 14 wisdom and 12 con with a drow elf.

Will the 8 strength make my hits not hit very high in later game? so far I havent noticed anything.

When i made this build i thought all i was sacrificing was carrying capacity, but ive been looking around these forums and ive seen that everyone has their build at 12-16 strength.

Does the bow's strength feat stack with the damage that you already get from your dexterity modifier?

[Raath]

It will effect your damage output with a bow, and will effect your hit when you melee.

Im not sure if it stacks or not.

[Gol]

Does the bow's strength feat stack with the damage that you already get from your dexterity modifier?In the sense that there is no bonus damage from your dex modifier, so that bonus is always 0 no matter what, yes, they would stack.

[Relenthe]

for melee i have weapon finesse. When i highlight over my heavy repeating xbow though it says attack:dex and damage:dex. So right now i have 24 dex and 8 strength, so is my bonus for damage +7-1=6? I didn't understand what you said about in the sense that your dex modifier is 0.

This next question may seem stupid, but the feat is bow strength, so does it not apply to xbows?

[Gol]

So right now i have 24 dex and 8 strength, so is my bonus for damage +7-1=6? I didn't understand what you said about in the sense that your dex modifier is 0.I can't speak to the UI ingame, but your bonus damage will be -1. Dex is never applied to damage. Ever.


This next question may seem stupid, but the feat is bow strength, so does it not apply to xbows?No, it does not apply to xbows.

[Relenthe]

ok ty, but since the strength modifier doesnt apply to xbows, is it the dex modifier or no modifier at all for xbow damage?

[Blazer]

ok ty, but since the strength modifier doesnt apply to xbows, is it the dex modifier or no modifier at all for xbow damage?

There is no damage modifier for Xbows.

[Relenthe]

hmm that sucks, is heavy repeating xbow pretty useless in late game then?

[Blazer]

hmm that sucks, is heavy repeating xbow pretty useless in late game then?

In the hands of a ranger? Yes. Keep in mind I am heavily biased against crossbows, especially in the hands of rangers. Normally I would say "you've got that bow strength feat -- use it!", but in your case, Mr. 8 STR ranger, I can't say that, now can I? :D

So, kinda curious, why 8 STR anyway? I think you would have been much better off dropping DEX down to 18 (only -1 modifier) and putting all 6 points into STR, starting you with a 14 (a +3 shift from -1 to +2).

[sigtrent]

I'll lay it out....

Melee attacks: Strenght to hit, strenght to damage
Bows: Dex to hit, str penalty only to damage (no bonus, only penalties)
X-Bows: Dex to hit, no stats effect damage at all

Bow Str: Lets you get a str bonus to damage

Bows are better for rangers because their feats do not effect crossbows (ok a tiny bit but not much). A repeating X-bow might be better at lower levels.

8 str.. you will find ways to take that up to 12 or 14 eventualy giving you a bonus to bow damage, although not much.

[Relenthe]

I made 8 strength because i thought that your strength ony added to your dex damage, but after reading what all you guys have said im going to have to reroll my ranger. Thanks for the input.

[Tavok]

Bow strength allows you to apply your str mod to BOWS (no xbow, no repeaters). The damage for your repeaters are calculated as just the enchantment bonus on the repeater, plus any external buffs. Your str nor dex matters in terms of damage for the repeater.

[richieelias27]

I think what he is failing to completely understand is that there is absolutely no such thing as DEX DAMAGE in dungeons and dragons. Your DEX will never add damage (directly) to a weapon, any weapon... ever.

[JelloMold]

When you reroll, you can probably drop your wis a bit. (I'm pretty sure) YOu only need a 14 to cast the nice ranger spells. You may want to double check that WIS advice. It should say something about the score needed on the character creation screen. You can definitely get by with a 10 or 12 and count on some stat enhancement items coming along. I'd also drop your DEX to 18 at creation. That is still pretty good for starting out.

[Soul-Shaker]

I made 8 strength because i thought that your strength ony added to your dex damage, but after reading what all you guys have said im going to have to reroll my ranger. Thanks for the input.

Since you still may be confused

Normal all Melee Weapons use STR for TOHIT and DAMAGE.

Weapon Finesse allows you to use MELEE light weapons and rapiers applying your DEX BONUS TO HIT instead of using STR for TO HIT. Damage is still used by STR.

Bow Strength allows you to apply Strength MOD for damage to only BOWS

XBows is a mechanism so it cant get apply strength to it.(unless your using it as a club).

All RANGED WEAPONS use DEX for tohit. And only bows with bow strength feat and throwing weapons can apply their STR to DMG

[QuantumFX]

I'm sure in the month and a half that the OP's been playing his character that he's finally figured out how STR/DEX and Finesse play together. :)

[CSFurious]

better starting stats for a drow ranger elf would be:

14 str
18 dex
12 con
12 int
12 wis
10 cha

at 6ranger/4fighter, my stats are:

str 20
dex 28
con 16
int 13 (for combat expertise)
wis 17
cha 10

now, i used +1 tomes of str, dex, con, int & wis (i guess this is a 37-point build) & you may not have access to all of those so feel free to modify the base stats, i.e., you can take the dex down to 17 & get more build points, the wis & chr can also be lower

but, you need more strength than a base of 8, you will be in poor shape at later levels IMO

additionally, i took levels of fighter to be better in combat & to have more hitpoints via the toughness feat & fighter enhancements so you may want to consider that

an old guildie of mine form khyber showed me how to build like this, you may be able to seach for his builds, "reflection" & "perfection" in the ranger threads, but since Turbine purged the forums his builds could be lost


I recently made a ranger and i put in 8 strength, 20 dex, 14 wisdom and 12 con with a drow elf.

Will the 8 strength make my hits not hit very high in later game? so far I havent noticed anything.

When i made this build i thought all i was sacrificing was carrying capacity, but ive been looking around these forums and ive seen that everyone has their build at 12-16 strength.

Does the bow's strength feat stack with the damage that you already get from your dexterity modifier?

[JelloMold]

I'm sure in the month and a half that the OP's been playing his character that he's finally figured out how STR/DEX and Finesse play together. :)

OOps, I guess we should look at those dates. Heck, if this guy is like a lot of you, he's already rerolled, capped, got 1750 favor, made a new guy, and capped him while I'm still goofing around. :D

[Roguewiz]

I think what he is failing to completely understand is that there is absolutely no such thing as DEX DAMAGE in DDO. Your DEX will never add damage (directly) to a weapon, any weapon... ever.

fixed

Actually there is. However, it requires a Prestige Class. Corallethian Guardian or something like that.

[Vinos]

The 8 str would hurt you most with carrying capacity. Going through life at medium encumbrance is no fun.

[Meriadeuc]

The 8 str would hurt you most with carrying capacity. Going through life at medium encumbrance is no fun.

As a non-halfling, he'd probably be OK with respect to carrying capacity most of the time if he could get a +1 tome and a +5 item for an adjusted strength of 14 (for a halfling, this would still be too low, however). The real danger would be from things that cast ray of enfeeblement or otherwise do strength damage. Being much easier to hit, slowed by half, or even so overloaded that you're helpless and can't do anything at all - now that REALLY is no fun.

[Xirxx]

It will effect your damage output with a bow, and will effect your hit when you melee.

Im not sure if it stacks or not.

I am sure he is going with Finesse.

[xberto]

My Elf Ranger also went with a low strength (11) and high dex (20). My thought was that I would benefit the party, with a higher wisdom (15 wis + tome + stat) by having more buffing power. As for my loss of damage output, I rely on using weapons with debuffs (curspewing, paralyzing, etc..) or stat damage weapons. One could argue that, these weapons benifit most from the extra dex hit bonus. I think an 8 strength Ranger can still be a huge benefit to the party without being a leader in kill counts.

[bandyman1]

Since you still may be confused

Normal all Melee Weapons use STR for TOHIT and DAMAGE.

Weapon Finesse allows you to use MELEE light weapons and rapiers applying your DEX BONUS TO HIT instead of using STR for TO HIT. Damage is still used by STR.

Bow Strength allows you to apply Strength MOD for damage to only BOWS

XBows is a mechanism so it cant get apply strength to it.(unless your using it as a club).

All RANGED WEAPONS use DEX for tohit. And only bows with bow strength feat and throwing weapons can apply their STR to DMG


Edit. NM. Just noticed that's what you were saying anyway. It's too-early, lol :D

[Olaff]

My Elf Ranger also went with a low strength (11) and high dex (20). My thought was that I would benefit the party, with a higher wisdom (15 wis + tome + stat) by having more buffing power. As for my loss of damage output, I really on using weapons with debuffs (curspewing, paralyzing, etc..) or stat damage weapons. One could argue that, these weapons benifit most from the extra dex hit bonus. I think an 8 strength Ranger can still be a huge benefit to the party without being a leader in kill counts.

Just keep in mind that most of those types of weapons (stat damaging / debuffing) require that you actually damage the target for the effect to trigger. Penalizing your strength by starting with an 8 isn't the best way to go about doing that.

[Jaysensen]

Just keep in mind that most of those types of weapons (stat damaging / debuffing) require that you actually damage the target for the effect to trigger. Penalizing your strength by starting with an 8 isn't the best way to go about doing that.

Only Wounding, Weakening, and Maladriot need to beat the DR to proc/work. All the other stuff doesnt need to deal any damage to go off.

[Olaff]

Only Wounding, Weakening, and Maladriot need to beat the DR to proc/work. All the other stuff doesnt need to deal any damage to go off.

Really? I thought it did. My mistake.

I still think 8 strength is too low, even with a +6 item to make up for it. :)

[Shade]

Yea 8 str just sucks on any character, your always at medium load if you like to carry lots of good likes wands and such. Even with a +4 str item.

Not too bad once u get to 16 tho, with a +2 tome and +6 item or +4 +2 rage.

Dunno why repeaters say that in the UI, think thats fixed in mod5.
It should say Hit: Dex Dmg: Nope.

Only different thing is thrown weapons, which give you dex to hit and str for dmg, even if your not a ranger.