Ranger Question

cory5694

I am planning on playing a Ranger for my first play through of BG:EE and i am curious what would be the best kit to go with.

Archer- This is what i was originally thinking but from what I have been reading around the forms short bow is the only viable option for late game (late SOA ToB) and Long bows become weak. And honestly i cant see my ranger using a short bow, but that is probably just me.

So my question is for a ranger class what would be the ideal one for a class (kit or no kit) that would be able to use melee, as well as ranged weapons while they are still effective?

Thanks for any input

CaptRory

If you wanna play an archer, play an archer. You could max out Longbows in the first game then work on crossbows after that. Then you'll have your pick of two classes of ranged weapons that NPCs don't use so much. (Slings are used by every Cleric and single class mage. Shortbows are used by thieves mostly, but there are quite a few of them, and by Thief/Mage Multi and Duel classes. Crossbows by comparison aren't really used in the first game and aren't used much in the second from my recollection, but I'm hardly a font of knowledge.)

I would also be willing to bet that the guys are working on adding more magic items to balance out the distribution. Fifteen years of play and tweaking and modding are behind this new edition. I think we'll be happily surprised as to how much things are improved.

Also, your PC is part of a party of as many as six characters. He doesn't have to do everything. I'm really thinking of rolling an Elven Archer for my first Enhanced Edition character.

The archer IS able to use melee weapons, just not that well. You can grab an Elven Archer and really stack some nice bonuses if you wanted. Elves get: A Bonus to Longswords which will help in melee at low levels if you get caught having to go hand to hand. A bonus to Longbows which stacks with everything else. A bonus to Dexterity which boosts ranged combat and armor class. And various resistences for being an elf. The downside is a Constitution Penalty but as a ranged guy, archers don't wanna be getting hit anyway.


That being said, if you wanna play a ranger and not an archer, I'd look at a normal ranger. They're pretty awesome what with Dual Wielding. They have quite a bit of variety. You can build them to do different things.

reedmilfam

Long bows aren't bad in BG2. Some of the better magical bows are short bows, but I promise you can bring the pain with the long bows, too. I think an archer would be really cool and it's high on my list of characters I want to play.

The limitations to melee weapon proficiencies aren't a big deal to me, as I intend any would-be attackers to be riddled with arrows before they reach my archer.

Aegir_Fellwood

The most useful kit depends on your party composition, and it depends on your playstyle - that being said, the archer is probably the most powerful choice.

Pantalion

Frankly, the difference to a specialised Ranger using two weapons versus an Archer that is proficient is comparatively small; you're losing 1/2 an attack per round (meaning 2 instead of 2 1/2), 1 THAC0 and 2 damage. Yet the Ranger is still a full THAC0 progression class, meaning that you have 2 attacks before Dual Wielding anyway, and your THAC0 still reaches 0 before Strength bonus at 21 anyway.

Meanwhile, at range you just keep getting better and better, by level 12 or so, you've basically ameliorated the penalties for firing in melee, and since you can Grand Mastery in bows, you're attacking 3/2 more times with a bow than a blade, and no matter what weapon you use, you're hitting for an easy +12 damage per arrow by the end of BG2, no matter what bow you're using.

Marric

I'd actually prefer Longbows for BG2, yeah sure Gensen (shortbow) is nice with its no ammo, and electric damage to hit through stoneskin, but Imoen/Nalia are limited to short bows anyway, so let them use it. The +3 damage from The Strong Arm really adds up if you've got the extra attacks of a proper grandmastered fighter. And if you're adding mods for unlimted ammo stack the no ammo ability is much less useful. I guess I'd say, in unmodded BG2 shortbows have the edge, but through in mods and my preference would shift to longbows.

I'm also a big fan of the Stalker kit, I love me some backstabbing, lol. And there aren't any theif NPCs that can do it worth a damn. Also last time I played through with stalker, he got up to 5x backstabs. I don't know if that was from a mod or not, but it sure was nice to chunk mages/archers before they had a chance to do anything. Feels very "lord of Murder"ey

cory5694

Thanks guys for all the input!! This is making me consider the archer kit even more now that I realized it is still versatile if i wanted to use melee weopens because of the good THAC0 progression it still has.

Oxford_Guy

cory5694 said:

Thanks guys for all the input!! This is making me consider the archer kit even more now that I realized it is still versatile if i wanted to use melee weopens because of the good THAC0 progression it still has.

It's a pity bows are just not very good in the later parts on BG2, though...