Ranger/Rogue

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What are your opinions on this combo? I'm thinking of taking him in my MP campaign and wanted to know what you guys thought. I think I might go either Human or Halfling and at ranger level 6 start working on the rogue portion. I was also thinking of dual-wielding daggers. Any suggestions?

 

Ranger/rogue should be fun, it should have a nice strong stealth skill because you can raise in both classes, and you'll get the benefit of sneak attacks and the free dual-weilding, as well as the "use magic item" skill. Not bad.

Dual-wielding daggers isn't a suggestable tactic. In order to get the most out of your bonuses the weapons should be one size apart - so a short sword and a dagger should do the trick (small weapon and tiny, I think...).

 

Ultimate sneaky combo...

Tho i would suggest getting 9 ranger levels... (Improved Dual-Wield fighting, a stronger animal companion)

But it sounds like a good char.

 

Those two classes definitely fit together well. One suggestion tho. Take Rogue first, then pump your Ranger classes if you like. I say this because the huge amount of skill points you get as a starting Rogue are not to be missed. Take Rogue at level 1, pump the important skills, then go to Ranger for however long you so desire.

BTW, for the Improved Two Weapon fighting. I don't know if three more Ranger levels are worth this, IMO. It's true a 9th level Ranger gets it free, but it should only take you a couple more levels and one Feat to pick it the normal way anyways, if you even care. That way your able to start really powering up your Rogue (and getting better backstab) sooner.

Just my thoughts!

 

The problem with doing it the "regular" way is that you first need to waste a feat on two-weapon fighting. The Ranger doesn't get this feat but one that equivalents to a combination of it and Ambidexterity so the Ranger feat doesn't count towards the requirements for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting. So it's your call whether you take two less Rogue levels but get every dual-wielding feat for free or you take less Ranger levels but then you need to spend two feats to get the additional off-hand attack which means you'd better not have taken the Ranger levels at all. So take that Ranger to level 9 (I would even suggest taking him to level 10 to get an extra favorite enemy and an extra bonus against all of them + you'll be able to cast second level spells (can you say Cat's Grace)).

 

Ranger gets an equivalent to Improved Two Weapon Fighting at level 9.

If you're anything but a human, halfling, or half-elf, you'll suffer a large xp penalty with this combo if you care about such things. It's a pretty nice combo, especially if you combine it (maybe?) with Shadowdancer.

 

@ Rastor
They don't get something equivalent, they get the "real" Improved Two-Weapon Fighting. But they get only something equivalent to Two-Weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity, hence they don't get the requirements to take Improved Two-Weapon Fighting as a regular feat. That's why it states that they get ITWF at level 9 regardless of the fact that they may not meet the requirements.
You also don't get an xp penalty if you advance equaly between Ranger and Rogue. And after reaching the desired level in Ranger (or Rogue) you can switch to Shadowdancer (or Assassin) and not get an xp penalty at all.

@ Everybody
Rastor's point was why I said to take Ranger to at least level 9.

 

Meatdog, your original post makes it sound as though the ranger does not get ITWF at level 9, hence the confusion. Sounds like we agree that he should be a 9 ranger/x rogue though.

 

Indeed we do The confusion probably came from the use of the worth regular. With that I meant taking ITWF as one of your once-every-three-levels-feats. What I meant with my post was to point out to Xindell that he couldn't take ITWF as one of those feats without first wasting one feat by taking Two Weapon Fighting. The Ranger feat Dual-wield doesn't count as a prerequisite for ITWF.

Hope this post is less confusing than my previous one.