AA question.

[goodspeed]

Ok built a ranger with average points all around. I went helf for the human enhancements, as well as the elfs double dex.

Started with 16 str con and dex with all lvs going into dex. Right now with his buffs he gets around 22 str dex is I believe 24 and he's lv 9. Everything seems fine but he really sucks with a to hit on those long swords.

Ended up taking toughness instead of weapon finesse or ranged crit for the extra hp with enhancements, but I was thinking of taking a lv of fighter to round em out for better melee. Would 1 or 2 lvs of fighter kill anything later on? Ive heard the capstone isn't that thrilling, and slayer arrows are at 18 I think?

What ya think?

[smithtj3]

Here's my two cents:

If you are after melee DPS, you could probably stand to do a lesser reincarnation at some point down the road to reinvest build points into strength. Dexterity just isn't as important if you aren't looking at ranged combat, you want it high enough to get your reflex save where you want it, that's about it. Where as on a non finesse melee build you need to have a high strenght both for attack bonus and damage.

If you want to remain on the top end of ranged DPS, your stat point distrubition is good but you will absolutely want to take Point Blank Shot + Rapid Shot, Improved Critical: Ranged, Improved Precise Shot, and quite possible Weapon Finesse (and Mental Toughness if you plan on taking the Arcane Archer enhancements) over the course of your build. I'd argue that you would want to go down the rapier route as far as melee weapons because they are a finesse weapon and have a 3x critical multiplyer compared to a longswords 2x critical multiplyer.

I would also strongly suggest that if you built this ranger to excel as much as possible with a bow that you keep to 20 levels of ranger so you can unlock the ranger capstone which grants a significant bonus to firing speed. If you cross class into fighter, or anything else for that matter, you will lose access to it and your ranged combat will suffer substantially.

However, if melee is your cup of tea, than cross classing in a couple levels of fighter isn't going to hurt you as the ranger capstone does nothing for melee combat.

[Fetchi]

Ok built a ranger with average points all around. I went helf for the human enhancements, as well as the elfs double dex.

Started with 16 str con and dex with all lvs going into dex. Right now with his buffs he gets around 22 str dex is I believe 24 and he's lv 9. Everything seems fine but he really sucks with a to hit on those long swords.

Ended up taking toughness instead of weapon finesse or ranged crit for the extra hp with enhancements, but I was thinking of taking a lv of fighter to round em out for better melee. Would 1 or 2 lvs of fighter kill anything later on? Ive heard the capstone isn't that thrilling, and slayer arrows are at 18 I think?

What ya think?

All level ups should be going into STR.

[Target-Practice100]

My Elven AA is Valenar (scims and rapiers). I often use a scim in main hand and a rapier in offhand, and the rapier often does the greater damage. One thing I noticed however, is when I use a pair of Vampiric Fury Shortswords, my to-hit bonus is higher than with any other blades.

My To-Hit are:

+35 for each hand using the Vamps,

+33 & +31 for pair of Scims,

+31 & +29 for Scim/Rapier combo,

+33 each hand when using a pair of Turbulent Epee Rapiers.

While the vamps may not always do the same damage output, they miss very little. Although, against the right target, they crit well into the 80's.

I should mention my ranger is a level 19 ranged specced Elven AA build, with a STR of 28 unbuffed, and has the full TWF line of feats. I don't know if the numbers above are good or not for a level 19 AA, but there they are anyway for you to compare to your own.

One thing to remember is longswords are full weight weapons, as are scims, while Rapiers and Shorties are not. Maybe using a light blade in the offhand might help to raise your to-hit? Although my numbers above appear not to do that, as I do not get the same to-hit bonus for using Rapiers, as you would if you are Aerenal weapon type, which I suspect you are as you are using longswords. I use Rapiers as I like the slashing / piercing damage combo of Scims and Rapiers together.

As for Slayer Arrows, they are indeed a Level 18 enhancement for the AA ranger. However, they only work on a natural 20 dice roll, which means as often as a vorpal weapon. While they can certainly kill things fast with their 500 HP base damage, depending on the target, melee will most times take a target down faster. On the other hand, Slayer Arrows can combine with a critical hit and take down a target for anywhere from 600 to 1000 HP. Its just a shame they don't work as often as I would like.

[Therigar]

Right now with his buffs he gets around 22 str dex is I believe 24 and he's lv 9. Everything seems fine but he really sucks with a to hit on those long swords.

Throw away the long swords.

I'm going to ignore the STR vs DEX debate. I'll just make note that if you are going to invest in DEX as you are doing then you might as well use it for both melee and ranged combat.

That means you ditch the long swords and instead take Weapon Finesse and use rapiers. Because rapiers have a higher threat range they do the same damage as long swords -- even though they have a lower damage die. Because they have that higher threat range rapiers do more damage for effects that proc on crits. And, rapiers are a finesse weapon but long swords are not.

So, throw away the long swords.

[Therigar]

One thing I noticed however, is when I use a pair of Vampiric Fury Shortswords, my to-hit bonus is higher than with any other blades.

That is because scimitars and rapiers are large weapons giving a -4 penalty to hit used TWF. Short swords are small weapons giving only a -2 penalty. OTWF will drop the -4 down to -2. However, most of the time your to-hit should be high enough without OTWF so that you aren't missing.

Also, scimitars are not a finesse weapon. If you rely on weapon finesse then you are not getting to use DEX for the to-hit numbers when you use scimitars. If you have a lower STR then the to-hit will also be lower.

[RenigadeWolf]

[snip]

1) a Rapier is not a light weapon, It is only considered a Light weapon for Finesse reasons. The only rapier that is light, is the Fell Rapier of Ice.

2) While never having played an AA, i know someone who has taken a char through 3 lives of AA, and another through 6 so far... (completionist AA) and they say best is Full Elf, with Scimitars, Str and Dex about even. the bonus to hit and damage with bows, Scimitars, will give you peak ranged DPS during manyshot, and effective DPS melee (which is more than Bow, except during Manyshot.)

[Letrii]

Throw away the long swords.

I'm going to ignore the STR vs DEX debate. I'll just make note that if you are going to invest in DEX as you are doing then you might as well use it for both melee and ranged combat.

That means you ditch the long swords and instead take Weapon Finesse and use rapiers. Because rapiers have a higher threat range they do the same damage as long swords -- even though they have a lower damage die. Because they have that higher threat range rapiers do more damage for effects that proc on crits. And, rapiers are a finesse weapon but long swords are not.

So, throw away the long swords.

Dex is only +1 above Str, pointless to go finesse on this build.

[Therigar]

Dex is only +1 above Str, pointless to go finesse on this build.

If OP started with 16 in both DEX and STR and puts stat increases and enhancements in DEX as was indicated in the first post then it is not pointless.

Started with 16 str con and dex with all lvs going into dex.

Again, I'll let others debate whether going DEX rather than STR is a good or bad decision. Nevertheless, it is the decision OP went with.

There are 5 stat increases and 5 DEX enhancements. Base DEX will end up 10 higher than base STR at L20.

Even though there is not much difference at OP's current level, there will be. So, weapon finesse is precisely the way to go with the build.