I have a 2nd Level Wood Elf Ranger....

[jarlaxlecq]

I just leveled up. I'm debating if i should keep going to lvl 3 ranger. Or if i should spice things up and Make him a Lvl 2 ranger / lvl 1 Sorcerer. I like the idea of a fighter mage, however since my guy is a nature boy wood elf i figure that a Ranger/Sorcerer makes more sense. In either case i'm 3rd lvl so that means a new feat and i'm not sure which to take. Here is my character so far


Ranger 2
Wood Elf
CG

Str: 19
Dex: 18
Con: 13
Int: 11
Wis: 15
Chr: 13

( Yes i realize that the stats are rediculously High, Our DM had us roll 5D6 6 times and drop the 2 lowest score. I rolled pretty good )

HP: 11

(Stoped rolling good at this point )

Feats
---------
Weapon Focus: Long Sword
Track
Two Weapon Combat

He Typically Fighters with both a Long Sword and a Short Sword. Though for tougher opponents he'll put away the short sword and use the long sword two handed. He has a long bow for ranged combat.

So what do you think? Sorcerer and add stuff like Shield, Protection from evil etc to compliment his melee abilities or just keep going Ranger.

 

[Antoine]

Beware of arcane spell failure if you go for sorcerer. Always happen at the worst times.

 

[jarlaxlecq]

I wear studded leather, hopefully wont be an issue. i can always start wearing leather (or use mage armor) if it starts being a problem.

 

[DarkMaster]

What are your plan : take only a few level of sorcerer 1-4 and the rest in Ranger
balanced the two class level
or take only sorcerer level from here?

 

[jarlaxlecq]

I'm not exactly sure. since my charima score isn't the greatest and since i'm already 2 levels behind i'd probaby just keep like a half dozen levels in Sorcerer to add some utlities spells. In a meta game sense a cleric would be "more powerful" but i'm not as interested in that as in makign him fun to play.

 

[Li Shenron]

In a meta game sense a cleric would be "more powerful" but i'm not as interested in that as in makign him fun to play.

Kudos to you for this

I have actually never seen a Ranger/Sorcerer combination (Ranger/Druid would be much more popular), it could be quite interesting to see what comes out of it.

You already know that your Charisma score is mostly going to keep your DC low, and if you don't take many Sor levels the spell limit won't come into play, so the idea of learning mostly defensive or utility spells is the way to go.

ASF is IMXP not to be overlooked, even 15% from studded leather is not a little... but this is up to you, after all you'll have quite a few spells per day so you can afford to occasionally miscast here and there. You could look for the few feats which improve AC (Dodge, Two-Weapon Defense) so that you can actually afford to wear lighter armor and the net benefit would be less ASF.

If you are going to plan ahead, remember that not late you're also going to cast spells as a Ranger. While per day they are very very few, a Ranger still knows quite a good number of utility spells so take a look at the list and don't learn duplicates as Sorcerer. Otherwise you can make a deal with the DM to let you later change some spells known as sorcerer if they became available as ranger.

 

[DarkMaster]

Problem is I don't know of any PrC that allow you to rise as a Ranger/Arcane Caster. If I were your DM I would create one. Maybe you can ask your DM to create one, it doesn't have to improve your caster level every level.

The current system do not support well multi-class for the Arcane caster without a PrC. But if you don't care about power level then go for it.

 

[Abraxas]

Are classes/feats from the Miniature's Handbook and Complete Divine available to you? If so:

Favored Soul might not be a bad choice to pick up some more utility/combat useful spells that can be cast without a problem when armored.

Pick up the Practised Spellcaster feat (probably at 6th level because of prereqs) to get a bit more oomph out of the spells you can cast.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I recommend only taking 1 level of sorcerer. You'll get some useful cantrips and two great spells you can blast out time and again. Potentially opens the door to Arcane Archer prestige class later on if you are so inclined BTW.

For spells, I'd probably be inclined to go for one that is good for offensive capacity for your whole life (e.g. truestrike) and one that is good for defensive capacity for your whole life. Protection from evil is superb (nix mind control and keep out summoned creatures) but it has a limited duration. Mage Armour is nice and has a decent duration but can be superceded by magic bracers or magic armour before too long. Featherfall is another one that could be good.

Of course, another plan would be to get truestrike and get enlarge - you lose a bit of AC but remain nuetral on "to hit" bonus, do more damage and gain 10ft reach with your longsword for 1 minute.

 

[jarlaxlecq]

I brought this up with my DM to see if he had any opinions or feedback. In the end I went cleric.

It was his idea but he sold me on it. In our current low level campaign the group consists of the following

Me (Lvl 2 Ranger/Lvl 1 Cleric)
Lvl 3 Halfing Rogue
Lvl 3 Elven Wizard
Lvl 2 Human Rogue/ Lvl 1 Sorceress
Lvl 3 Psion
Lvl 3 Fighter
Lvl 3 Cleric

Now the cleric was a PC but due to his player leaving teh group he has become a NPC that as slowly started to fade from the group as a viable character.
Because of that we dont really have any real sorce of healing, not to mention that our main goal is to kill a evil Cleric of Nerull who has been terrorizing the countryside with is undead minions (ie the rogues are having trouble with undead) All this convinced me that a cleric would be good for the group

In having a Roleplaying reason for going Cleric i have this. A few sessions ago while on the trail of the Evil Cleric we came around a bear and her cubs that my character was familar with (could have eventually been a candidate for animal follower) .... unfortunalty they had all been killed and zombified by the cleric and left to attack me. That had a profound impact on my ranger and caused him to reflect on his faith. (the cleric has a beef against me specifically since i nearly took off his hand when we first encountered him ) In this most recent session even though i haven't manifested any of my cleric powers (since he doesn't really know he has them yet) i've been alot more religeous praying over the mutilated bodies we've found as well as destroying an alter to Nerull.

So thats what happened, what do you think?