NWN Ranger (11) / Shadowdancer (17)

A Ranger / Shadowdancer played in the the Shadows of Undrentide (SoU) plus Hordes of the Underdark (HotU) campaigns. This ranger is an archer using stealth to evade enemies or gain some distance if enemies get too close.

The character is build around Dexterity, Hide, Move Silently and Tumble. Dexterity is required to improve attack bonus with the bow. Some sacrifices to boost Wisdom are made to gain access to third level spells. There are however many items that boost Dexterity and starting from level 8 Cat's Grace is available as a spell. Hide, Move Silently and Tumble are used to prevent getting involved into melee battle. A henchman, Animal Companion or Shadow may also be used to keep the enemy busy. Haste (e.g. from Boots of Haste, Potions of Speed or the Copper Helmet) may help to outrun enemies if they come close. Do not underestimate the run and shoot strategy for ranged combat. When the arena allows to run behind cover or if Hide in Plain Sight is gained stealth can be used to gain some more distance and regain health. Regarding Favored Enemies Reptilian humanoids are chosen first to help fight the kobolds, followed by Humans and Outsiders, the last one useful for HotU. Robes and Cloaks that improve Hide and Move Silently are recommended even while they are maxed out.

Weaponry
The longbow is the main weapon, for close fights Point Blank Spot is used. Arrows with elemental damage or other bonuses can be chosen depending on the enemies. These arrows are rare though and most of the time standard arrows are used. For melee damage the Quarterstaff is an alternative,, the rangers default Dual Wield feat helps with this two-handed weapon. In the game it was however hardly used. A Longsword proved handy to bash in doors and chests though, but a Quarterstaff fits the character better role play wise.

A problem with ranged weapons is their limited damage. As opposed to melee weapons neither the Dexterity modifier (Strength modifier for melee weapons unless Weapon Finesse is selected) nor the Weapon Bonus is added to the damage output of ranged weaponry. Improved Critical Hit is a must to widen the Critical Hit range. Later in the game Mighty weapons become available for which the Strength modifier is added to the damage. Then, Belt of Strength and Nashers Ring of Strength are used to give an extra boost Strength. At that point belts and bracers become strong enough to almost reach the Ability Cap by themselves anyway, and it seems better to use them to boost two abilities. Other equipment with small bonuses, spells and potions can then be used to reach the Ability Cap.

Spells and Feats
Several spells are gained early in the game to improve evasion of enemies. Both Entangle and Grease will slow down enemies so they can be killed before they reach you. Later Protection against Elements is useful to prevent elemental damage and Cat's Grace to boost Dexterity. As a final spell Magic Fang is used to help the animal companion in combat. At Shadowdancer levels Shadow Daze might be handy to daze enemies. Overall this ranger doesn't rely too much on spells or potions for combat.

Companions
Companions are chosen to deal and catch the majority of damage. In SoU I chose Dorna Trapspringer throughout the game. In HotU, after a short trip with Deekin Scalesinger, Dealin Red Tiger joined the party as the main Henchman in Undermountain and Valen Shadowbreath in the Underdark and Cania. The Dire Wolf was chosen as Animal Companion as it can stand its ground in melee fights. The Dire Wolf was still useful at higher levels although sometimes the immunities of the Shadow come in handy.

Leveling and gameplay
Normally level 13 is reached in SoU and level 27 in HotU, hence a level 28 build is presented. In lower levels it might get though to evade enemies but with Haste and Hide in Plain Sight this becomes easier. There were a few fights that required a specific tactic or extra preparation. Hiding helped a lot in some key battles. Sometimes it was best to keep the rest of the party behind (Stand your ground) and sneak past an enemy. The character was well able to deal with all enemies in either way except for Mephistopheles for which the help of Valen Shadowbreath was required.

Possible improvements
The character has been played through SoU and HotU and several improvements were made since the original design. It appears that in some of the higher levels 8 skill points are given instead of 7 although I do not yet know why (maybe I just missed a skill) and didn't at them into the build scheme below. All extra skill points went into Tumble.

As with my other characters probably the skills could be more balanced as full points may not be required for each of them. Nevertheless, Hide and Move Silently still had to be boosted by equipment later in the game and even then Hide in Plain Sight wouldn't always work. Tumble is not available as a class skill and therefore uses double points to upgrade and upgrades can only done each second level. This leaves some points to divide between other skills which are Search and Listen. Maybe the initial points that go into Listen should be divided between these two skills too. As a Shadowdancer much more skill points are gained, 10 extra skill points are added to Lore and in the end the extra points go into Tumble. These points in Lore might not be necessary as they were added to identify the rotten items in SoU but didn't come in time (a Ring of Scholars saved a lot of money). Nevertheless, identification of cheap items is always useful. Maybe some points in Animal Empathy might be nice for a ranger.

An interesting variety might be to build a Ranger (21) / Shadowdancer (7) to gain access to Bane of Enemies feat for extra damage against Favored Enemies with the longbow.

Build

* Feats written in cursive and preceded by a + are gained automatically.

Equipment