Ranger



Ranger is a base class in NWN2.

DnD 3.5 Ranger
Description: A ranger can use a variety of weapons and is quite capable in combat. His skills allow him to survive in the wilderness, to find his prey, and to avoid detection. He also has special knowledge about certain types of creatures, which makes it easier for him to find and defeat such foes. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw upon natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does.

Alignment restrictions: None

Class features progression
Spellcasting: Divine (Wisdom based, armor-related chance of spell failure is ignored). Must have a Wisdom score of 10 + the spell’s level to cast a spell.

Track
A ranger has the ability to find and read tracks, but he moves slowly when doing so. This will be displayed on the mini-map. The feat also depends on ranks in the survival skill.

Favored enemy
At 1st level, a ranger may select a type of creature as his favored enemy. The ranger gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Spot, and Taunt checks, and also a +1 bonus on weapon damage rolls against their favored enemy. At 5th level, and every five levels after that, the ranger can choose an additional favored enemy and gains +1 to all favored enemy bonuses.

Combat style
At 2nd level, a ranger must select one of two combat styles to pursue: archery or two-weapon combat. He loses all benefits of his combat style when wearing medium or heavy armor.

Basic

 * At 2nd level, if the ranger selects archery, he is treated as having the rapid shot feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for that feat.
 * If the ranger selects two-weapon combat, he is treated as having the two-weapon fighting feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for that feat.

Improved
At 6th level, a ranger’s aptitude in his chosen combat style (archery or two-weapon combat) improves.
 * If he selected archery at 2nd level, he is treated as having the manyshot feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for that feat.
 * If the ranger selected two-weapon combat at 2nd level, he is treated as having the improved two-weapon fighting feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for that feat.

Mastered
At 11th level, a ranger’s aptitude in his chosen combat style (archery or two-weapon combat) improves again.
 * If he selected archery at 2nd level, he is treated as having the improved rapid shot feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for that feat.
 * If the ranger selected two-weapon combat at 2nd level, he is treated as having the greater two-weapon fighting feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for that feat.

Toughness
At 3rd level the ranger gains toughness as a bonus feat.

Animal Companion
At 4th level, a ranger gains an animal companion.

Woodland Stride
Starting at 7th level, a ranger gains a +10% movement increase when in outdoor, natural environments.

Swift tracker
At 8th level, a ranger can use their tracking skill and move at normal speed.

Evasion
At 9th level, a ranger can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a red dragon's fiery breath or a fireball), he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the ranger is wearing light armor or no armor.

Camouflage
At 13th level the ranger does not suffer a movement penalty for using stealth mode when in outdoor areas.

It should be noted that this ability may cause PW servers to crash during online play. This will be fixed in either the 1.05 or 1.06 patch. Sherincal420 3/07/07

Hide in Plain Sight
When outdoors, a 17th level ranger has the ability to use the Hide skill even when being watched and in combat.

Spellcasting

 * Ranger spell list
 * Ranger spell progression: Rangers have the same spell progression as paladins.

Beginning at 4th level, a ranger gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the ranger spell list. A ranger must choose and prepare his spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, a ranger must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ranger’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the ranger’s Wisdom modifier.

A ranger's caster level is one-half his ranger level.

Spellcasting is unaffected by armor-related failure.

NWN comparison

 * The discipline skill that was created for NWN was removed in NWN2 and combat feats relating to it now function closer to 3.5 rules.
 * NWN used a skill called animal empathy instead of the class feat wild empathy.


 * Ranger specific changes:
 * Reflex as a primary saving throw
 * d8 Hit die instead of d10
 * 6 skill points per level instead of 4
 * Optional archery path (NWN rangers were always given two-weapon fighting)
 * No longer gain medium armor proficiency for free.
 * Gain hide in plain sight in outdoor areas and evasion for free.
 * The Ranger's role has been strengthened as a more skilful wilderness Fighter, whereas the differences under 3.0 rules were relatively small
 * Gain track and swift tracker in NWN2. These feats were not implemented in the original NWN.
 * Animal companion is gained from level 4 instead of at level 6.

DnD 3.5 comparison

 * The wild empathy feat has yet to be implemented in NWN2.
 * The parry skill was created by NWN and is not a feature of DnD 3.5. It has returned in NWN2 for the same reasons it was in NWN.
 * The skills climb, jump and swim are not implemented in NWN2.
 * Lore was used in NWN as a collective version of knowledge and other information skills. NWN2 will include it for the same reasons.

External resources

 * NWNWiki:Ranger