Advice Needed - 18 Ranger, 1 Fighter, 1 ?

[therobb]

My current build is a Dwarven Tempest III, sitting at 18 ranger, 1 fighter. I'm still deciding which class to take at level 20.

This guy is versatile and fun to play. His biggest weakness is his to-hit chance, sometimes have to turn off power attack to hit certain mobs. With that in mind, I'm leaning toward the fighter level for the strength and weapon focus feat, but I'm not sure how big an impact those will make. A barb level would also give me short rages to help hit those hard to hit mobs. Would also be nice to have higher UMD...

Here are my questions:

1. Which class should I take and why?

2. If fighter, which feat and why?


Thanks in advance for your help!


Current Feats:
Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack
Power Attack
Toughness
IC - Slash
Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting
Maximize (CSW heals ~130 hp for 50 sp)

Class Options & their benefits:

• Monk - not an option due to alignment

• Ranger - no real benefit besides a few spell points

• Fighter - Bonus feat- either weapon focus, combat expertise, quick draw or IC - ranged. +1 strength from enhancements, gives me the option to have an even str if I pull a +3 tome

• Barb - 10% movement speed and short rage sounds very tempting

• Rogue - With my high int and already maxed (cross-classed) UMD, taking rogue at 20 would let me get near max UMD - 22 full ranks (Yes I know my int is stupidly high; I followed bad advice when rolling this guy up).

• Wizard - +160 spell points (translates into an extra full self-heal), arcane wand use, level 1 wizard spells, bonus metamagic feat means I could feat could swap maximize for any ranger feat and then take it again as a the wizard bonus.

[unbongwah]

Are you willing to Lesser Reincarnate? You could fix your base stats, maybe LR +1 to take rogue at 1st level and do a modified Exploiter (fighter instead of monk).

[grodon9999]

Monk

[Sweyn]

Monk

/facepalm

If you read the post he said not an option due to alignment

[grodon9999]

/facepalm

If you read the post he said not an option due to alignment

hit 20, immediately TR into an alignment that can take monk

[Sweyn]

hit 20, immediately TR into an alignment that can take monk

Hehe that would work

I know you are a great fan of the Ranger, Rogue, Monk and for a great reason. IMO the best of all Melee ranger builds

[Artos_Fabril]

Are you willing to Lesser Reincarnate? You could fix your base stats, maybe LR +1 to take rogue at 1st level and do a modified Exploiter (fighter instead of monk).

This

hit 20, immediately TR into an alignment that can take monk

Or this.

[therobb]

Great points. I hadn't even considered reincarnation.

I'm not too keen on the idea of re-leveling this guy as a TR so I'll probably lesser reincarnate to fix the stat distribution and then go 18 ranger 2 fighter for the highest possible strength. If I'm not happy with the end result, I can always TR him into the ever popular exploiter.

Thanks for the great solutions!