Stats needed for Ranger: STR 50 INT 50 VIT 50 DEX 55 SEN 55

Now we have the nature loving, tights wearing, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor Robin Hood wannabe, the Ranger.

Most important stats:

DEX, SEN, SPD, STR, VIT

I think most people will agree that a Ranger is best in combat if he sticks solely to bows since that's the only way he gets critical hits. That being said DEX is up there on the list since it helps with accuracy and gives more swings per attack. SEN is next because it too helps with accuracy, and further helps be more accurate with a bow when you get the Eagle Eye personal skill, and hey, more initiative isn't bad either. SPD helps with initiative also (You want to try and get all critical strike people to go first so they'll score a critical at the beginning of the round instead of towards the end) and gives more AC, more swings per attack and more attacks per round. STR is near the bottom since it doesn't help nearly as much with more damage with melee weapons as it does with missle weapons. Maxed STR gives 100% more damage with melee weapons while only giving 50% more damage with missle weapons. VIT would be last because it isn't as important as other the other stats. PIE and INT isn't listed since the Ranger is more of a fighter type rather than a magic user type.

That being said...

Bonus points:

Human 25 9/7
Elf 10 4/2
Dwarf 0 0
Gnome 30 10
Hobbit 30 10
Faerie 0 0
Lizard -5 0
Dracon 15 5
Felpurr 15 5
Rawulf 10 4/2
Mook 40 14/12

Stats before bonus points:

DEX SEN SPD STR VIT
Human 55 55 45 50 50
Elf 55 55 45 50 50
Dwarf 55 55 35 55 60
Gnome 55 55 30 50 50
Hobbit 55 55 50 50 50
Faerie 55 55 60 50 50
Lizard 55 55 50 60 70
Dracon 55 55 40 55 60
Felpurr 55 55 60 50 50
Rawulf 55 55 40 50 50
Mook 55 55 35 50 50

Stats after bonus points:

DEX SEN SPD STR VIT
Human 64 64 52 50 50
Elf 59 59 47 50 50
Dwarf 55 55 35 55 60
Gnome 65 65 30 50 50
Hobbit 65 65 60 50 50
Faerie 55 55 60 50 50
Lizard 55 55 50 60 70
Dracon 60 60 45 55 60
Felpurr 60 60 65 50 50
Rawulf 59 59 42 50 50
Mook 69 69 47 50 50

Level at which stats would max out:

DEX SEN SPD STR VIT
Human 13 13 29 30 46
Elf 15 15 33 32 48
Dwarf 16 16 38 31 45
Gnome 13 13 36 30 46
Hobbit 13 13 26 30 43
Faerie 16 16 30 33 46
Lizard 17 17 34 31 41
Dracon 15 15 33 30 43
Felpurr 15 15 26 32 43
Rawulf 15 15 34 32 48
Mook 12 12 29 28 45

All stats: Lizard, Hobbit, Dracon, Felpurr, Dwarf, Mook, Human, Gnome, Faerie, Elf, Rawulf.

All except VIT: Mook, Human, Hobbit, Felpurr, Elf, Faerie, Dracon, Lizard, Rawulf, Gnome, Dwarf.

All except VIT and STR: Hobbit, Felpurr, Human, Mook, Faerie, Elf, Dracon, Lizard, Rawulf, Gnome, Dwarf.

Total stat points (DEX, SEN, SPD, STR, VIT and bonus points):
Hobbit 270, Mook 265, Human 250, Dracon 250, Felpurr 250, Lizard 245, Gnome 240, Rawulf 230, Dwarf 220, Elf 210, Faerie 210.

You know the Hobbit has to show on all of the lists, he is da man afterall (Or da woman if you prefer.)

With all stats being considered we once again have the not-so-bright Lizardman being first, followed closely by with the Hobbit. Without VIT however we have the Mook making the best Ranger with their already high SEN allowing them a great bonus point boost. But if we take VIT and STR out of the picture we of course have the Hobbit making the best Ranger. And all stats plus bonus points we have the Hobbit once again.

Let's not forget though that Rangers do learn spells, so a high starting PIE might be a good idea (A high INT is nice too but Rangers start with 50 INT anyways.)

The Lizardman only starts with 25 PIE, meaning he'll have very little spell points and his magic skills won't increase quite that fast. Same goes for the Mook with their 25 PIE. Hobbit isn't much better with only 30 PIE. Elves, Dwarves, and Rawulfs all start with pretty high PIE, 55 for the Rawulf and 50 for the Elf and Dwarf, however all three of them aren't nearly as good as the other races with their physical stats.

For maxing out all of the physical stats as soon as possible that would of course have to go to the Lizardman. Starting with the most PIE would be the Rawulf, while the Elf has slightly less PIE but is better than the Rawulf with the physical stats. While the Hobbit makes a good Ranger also and has 5 more PIE than the Lizardman and Mook. On the other hand a Dracon would make a pretty decent ranger and they have their breath attack.

I would really have to say that the Human would make the best Ranger. Except for VIT they are second only to the Mook in the physical stats department and start with 45 PIE, 20 more than the Mook and only 10 less than the Rawulf, while having much better physical stats than the Rawulf.

MaxDruid

Bochser,

Very good analysis. IMHO the pure Ranger is not a good choice for a team. Starting any character as a Ranger and then switching them to a melee character at level 2 gives you the best of both worlds. You get the Ranger's starting bonus added to a front line melee character. Just spend some time fighting stand-off monsters (plants, Orbs, etc.) to build their archery skills and you will see that a pure Ranger is a rather weak choice. My second team (now level 13-14) started as 4 rangers, 1 Mage, and 1 Priest - then I switched all Rangers to melee oriented classes and this team is now pure mongo power.

btw: Pvt. Sparkle is the exception to the rule. She gets a significant number of criticals with her bow AND many criticals with a sword.

Krag_Gorn

Without a ranger how do you do for the missing Scouting ability?

Detect Secrets / X-Ray

vn_Bochser

>>IMHO the pure Ranger is not a good choice for a team. <<

Yeah, I personally don't like Rangers either This is just for those out there that like Rangers. They really aren't too bad if you build them right.

Kelson13

I would like my Ranger more if they actually started with decent melee abilities. A range-only class for my 3rd "figher type" slot is risky. But, I tried it anyway just because I didn't have any other really good ranged folks (just a couple mediocre ones). That, and I hope the Alchemy will help out later on.

Kelson

Krag_Gorn

Bochser:

Sorry, forgot to prefix my question with "Wiz8 newbie" .

I got the game early December but for various hardware reasons then later Sir-Tech's self-inflicted patch bug I haven't started a serious pary yet, so I've been mainly reading these forums to get an insight into a non-AD&D game! I've read over and over how essential a Ranger is and Scouting is touted as much as their bow ability.

[stage direction: reaches over to Wiz8 manual to read-up on Detect Secrets].

Hmm, okay, Detect Secrets is level 2 but X-ray is level 4. I presume you can spell-pick these otherwise you'll have to wait to find/buy books and from my incomplete run through the monastery I don't recall fnding them. Is not having them at the outset not a hindrance? Also, what's the difference between "hidden items" (Detect Secrets descriptions) and "unseen items" (X-ray)?

Cheers.

MaxDruid:

If I remember right, in one of your previous posts you said you swapped the fighters over at level 2 (first level-up), yes? I can't fire-up the game right now to test for myself so tell me, what skills boots did this starting-out as a Ranger give your characters when they changed over?

vn_Bochser

>>Is not having them at the outset not a hindrance? Also, what's the difference between "hidden items" (Detect Secrets descriptions) and "unseen items" (X-ray)? <<

You find some decent items in the Monastery but nothing too great, and most are in obvious places so you can just click search on when you're in the area the hidden item is. You do get a Detect Secrets book fairly early in the game, and most of the hidden items up until that point aren't that great, most are just potions or ammo.

Hidden items are items you can only find if you are searching or have Detect Secrets on. Unseen items are items that are like in the next room and you can't visually see. With X-Ray these items still show up on your radar screen as a white dot, if you don't have X-Ray cast than you won't see the item in the radar screen.

To my knowledge X-ray doesn't help see hidden items, but it is darn handy to have cast so you know where to go to get all of the unseen items

Krag_Gorn

Hmmm, okay, maybe I'll have to re-evaluate my use of a pure ranger

BTW, the comment about X-ray and unseen items comes from the short one-line description of the X-ray spell in the manual:

"Detect unseen monsters, items, etc."

MaxDruid

Krag_Gorn,

I don't remember exactly but it is something like +9 Ranged and +9 Bow plus you get a bow as a starting weapon (a big advantage in the monestary at low level).

Here is the team I started:

4 Rangers
1 Mage
1 Priest

At level 2 I changed to:

2 Fighters
1 Samurai
1 Rogue
1 Mage
1 Priest

At level 3 I made the last change to:

1 Fighter
1 Valkyrie (pre-requisites were not met at lvl 2)
1 Samurai
1 Rogue
1 Mage
1 Priest

Here is my team Right now:
(class/level/Ranged/Bow or Sling/Close/Melee weapon)

Sparkle/12/101/79/48/49(sword)
Vi/12/45/52/68/100(polearms)
Fighter/14/57/77/92/90(sword)
Samurai/13/79/82/71/103(sword)
Valkyrie/13/59/65/78/112(polearms)
Rogue/14/77/86/58/67(sword)
Mage/13/81/81/24/25(staff)
Priest/13/69/72/17/15(mace)

Notice that all of my characters (not counting RPC's) have very high ranged abilities for their level. That is the result of the changes I planned at level 2 and a lot of concentration on ranged battles.

btw the searching ability of the Ranger is not missed. Generally he only finds low level items like potions anyway. Also Sparkle usually finds all of the items.

This is definately a strong team to try. I just need to figure out what to do with my frequently useless Mage.

Krag_Gorn

So, you still put points into ranged and bow even after switching the front-line to melee?
Doesn't that seriously impact their other abilities, for instance isn't the Sam going to take a loooong time getting decent criticals?

I'm certainly interested in this strategy, I began to enjoy M&M6 when I read a suggestion to equip bows on everyone as soon as it was possible to get to the merchant which sold them, and I figure in Wiz8 it's even more likely to be my preferred method.