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Optimizing Damok, Dragon Hunter

   
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight of Holy Wor View Post
Grab the swift hunter feat from complete scoundrel. Then just go Ranger 15/Scout 5. By the end you're going to have the skirmish damage of a 20th level Scout and every important ranger ability. Grab a bane weapon as fast as you can and you'll be good to go.

Additionally, you could grab the Dragon Stalker prestige class from draconomicon. Something like Ranger 3/Rogue 7/Dragon Stalker 10. The prestige class focuses on dealing sneak attack damage to dragons, gets bonuses to ignore their natural defenses and avoid detection from dragon senses. By the end, the prestige class alone gives you a handy +10d6 sneak attack damage against dragons on top of all the other abilities.
You are going to need one SERIOUS armor class rating to pull that off. Skirmish and Sneak Attack are going to require you to be within 30' of the target (60' if you take Crossbow Sniper, but that has its own issues).

Skirmish is ok for one shot wonders, but against a dragon's hp you need to do something like a pounce build to get the attacks out fast.

For me, when I played in a dragon hunter style campaign, I grabbed a retributive amulet (pre-MIC nerf). Nothing better than sending Half of the dragon's damage back at it with no save and no DR.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Raging Golem View Post
You are going to need one SERIOUS armor class rating to pull that off. Skirmish and Sneak Attack are going to require you to be within 30' of the target (60' if you take Crossbow Sniper, but that has its own issues).

Skirmish is ok for one shot wonders, but against a dragon's hp you need to do something like a pounce build to get the attacks out fast.

For me, when I played in a dragon hunter style campaign, I grabbed a retributive amulet (pre-MIC nerf). Nothing better than sending Half of the dragon's damage back at it with no save and no DR.
So what do you suggest then?

The difficulty with the Swift Hunter has nothing to do with AC (and AC problems are no worse than for meleers, and probably less so). Being able to get both a full attack and skirmish is where it gets more challenging, though there are many ways to do that and you can also go the Manyshot route. In fact there is a whole handbook about Swift Hunters - google it.

At L1, none of that really matters. To be honest, L1 is more about not dying than anything else. Archery especially is pretty hard to do as you get no or few damage boosts (need an expensive bow to add Str, even), you have cover, firing into melee and provoking to attend to, and you need a lot of feats to do it well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartmanhomer View Post
So what do you suggest then?
Solo? Not being a Ranger lol.

What you need is a good team and a solid tactic for making sure the dragon stays out of the fight as much as possible until it is dead or incapacitated. Keep it on the ground and unable to use its attacks. Up to juvenile you only have to deal with its ability to fly and many natural attacks (and a little reach for the bite), get the drop on it and either grapple it into a pin or trip it (yes you can trip a flying enemy).

Once it has the ability to cast spells things get a little dicey since the DM can load it up with what ever they think is a good spell to have on their dragon; Be Batman in this case: Divination the hell out of it to figure out what spells it can use before you walk into a dragon that likes to spam grease, has mage armor, and a nasty habit of casting invisibility on itself.

Remember: the older it gets, the smarter the DM should be playing up to great wyrm where it had super genius intellect.

Never fight it in its own lair. Seriously, it's like storming a castle...or should be if the DM is playing it right.

Never assume it is a solo encounter According to Dracanomicon a Dragon lives with other Dragons until it is a Young Adult, be it mom and dad, brother and sister, or just some roommates for the time being. After that it might be a mated pair. Heck, as mentioned above, at a certain age it might even be capable of summoning a big nasty into the fight or duplicating itself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartmanhomer View Post
Wow. Those dragons doesn't play around.
Yea, they get a reputation for being easy to kill because most DMs underplay their effectiveness since TPKs are shunned. In reality, an encounter with a dragon should be like fighting a Spell Caster with full BAB, a boat load of HP, high mobility, and lots of melee options... so a nightmare.

Do not choose Favored Enemy: Dragons. Choose Favored Enemy: Arcanists, which is a Ranger ACF from Complete Mage. Since Dragons are arcanists, you cover dragons and more besides.

Do not go into the Dragon Stalker prestige class. Become a Soulbow. This means that you are good at archery in general rather than being only good at killing dragons.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Solo View Post
Do not choose Favored Enemy: Dragons. Choose Favored Enemy: Arcanists, which is a Ranger ACF from Complete Mage. Since Dragons are arcanists, you cover dragons and more besides.

Do not go into the Dragon Stalker prestige class. Become a Soulbow. This means that you are good at archery in general rather than being only good at killing dragons.
That means I have to change my character name to Damok, Arcanist Hunter. And Soulbow sound like a good prestige class. That might something to think about.

Not all dragons are also arcanists, only the material-plane-native True Dragons (of sufficient age), and a few others.
If you also want to receive Favoured Enemy bonuses against wyverns, landwyrms, drakes, and the like, you'll need to stick to Favoured Enemy: Dragons.




 

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