NWN Ranger Class Analysis

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(Originally posted by Mollusken)

It's been a while now, but Neverwinter Vault has continued their class analysis and has written an article on the ranger.

The Ranger is one of the most debated classes whenever game balance rears its ugly head, and mostly because many people think of it as a weaker class than most. Considering that NWN will not be able to take advantage of many of the class skills or things like Track, it would seem to spell doom for one of the more interesting roles in the game for all but the more die-hard role-players. However, I think the Ranger often gets sold short as a warrior and only time will tell how they balance out the class within Neverwinter Nights. Lets take a closer look at the class that most exemplifies the outdoorsman.

The Ranger gets the same Attack Charts, HPs, and saving charts as the Fighter. In lighter or no armor, they receive the feats of Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting for free. They get a good boost to skill points to spend initially and at each level (8 more at 1st and 2 more per level) over the fighter, plus Tracking (or whatever NWN will offer in its stead) and Favored Enemies (one to start and one at every 5th level thereafter). What the Ranger doesn’t get is the feats. On the surface, it would appear that you are trading feats in for skills, not usually considered a good exchange, however remember that a Ranger starts out with three bonus feats (as opposed to the Fighter’s one). Granted, if you don’t plan on taking advantage of dual wielding, you are left with just the Track (or NWN replacement) feat, so keep that in mind. Beyond that, though, don’t sell short the use of skills as an aid to a role. Without Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Search, Listen and the other skills that will be new to NWN, the role of a deadly, silent fighter would be impossible. Skills can be very impacting on the success of characters that want to make scouting and stealth a part of their personality, an important task that is well filled by the Ranger.

Head over to NW Vault for the rest of the article.