I like the idea of having a sword and bow, but dunno if I'm going to lose a lot of DPS from melee attacks if I choose that road.

I've read in a character-building guide that doing melee with bow specialization is viable in NWN2. But what's the trade-off?

I would mostly use melee in combat, but I like the idea of having the bow there to be used.



I want to have both the specializations, but have to choose one. I don't want to throw away any melee power since that's what I expect to be primarily playing with.

A character-building guide for ranger class says this:


https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/922154-neverwinter-nights-2/faqs/50406


For 2-handed:

***EPIC NOTE*** In epic levels, this advantage becomes even more pronounced,
as Rangers who take TWF style get Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting for free with
21 class levels. It sets the number for off-hand attacks equal to main-hand
attacks. And with the new way Epic BAB progression goes (continuing the regular
pattern), this means that a 30th-level Ranger build can get 6 main-hand attacks
and 6 off-hand attacks for a total of 12 attacks per round. Perfect TWF
normally has the exorbitant DEX 25 requirement, so for a Ranger to boost STR
all the way while getting this regardless of DEX is quite an advantage. Namely,
it makes a character with 21 Ranger levels the only worthwhile dual-wielder
without either a Sneak Attack or self-buffs out the yin-yang.


For bow:

***EPIC NOTE*** A Ranger who selected Archery style gets the feat One Shot for
free with 21 class levels, regardless of metting any prerequisites. One Shot,
which normally requires a maddening 27 DEX, is a bow attack that ignores all
concealment and cannot be deflected. If it hits, it deals maximum damage and
inflicts a critical hit ... *even if the target is normally immune to crits.*
One Shot has a cooldown period of 60 seconds (or 10 rounds). For Aragorn-types
and dedicated archers alike, this is at the very least a great way to start
out a battle, especially if you're at a good distance from the enemy.

The thread title mentions Rogue, but your post talks about a Ranger. I'll assume you are talking about the Ranger.

(Also, Buyer Beware: I haven't played NWN2 myself, so I'll mostly be theory crafting here.)

If you're mostly going to be using melee, then choose the melee path. Maximize the option that you'll be using most often. You can hold on to a bow in case you need to shoot something, but I suspect that won't be an issue; other party members can take care of shooting things if it comes up.

When looking at Epic progression notes, make sure that you're actually going to get to Epic levels. The original NWN campaign apparently caps out at level 20, so those Epic feats won't be available at all.

I have played a large number of Rangers in NWN2. It's my favorite class.

IMO if you want to fight with two weapons, absolutely choose the Two Weapon Combat style. It lets you be strength based and get all the two weapon feats you absolutely need for free. They are both better and more necessary than the bow feats IMO. On top of that Archery is decidedly 2nd rate in both NWN games.

On pure or mostly pure Rangers, I go for Two Weapon Combat style, to get Perfect Two Weapon Fighting when I hit Ranger level 21.

Only specialize in Archery if you are NOT going to use two weapon fighting. When would you do that? When you are going to fight with big Two Handed weapons(or, ugh, pure Archer).

When playing more multi-class Rangers meaning I won't hit Ranger Level 21 for perfected form, then my Melee style is usually Big Two-Handed weapons (Greataxe, Greatsword) mixed in with some Frenzied Berserker. Then I choose Archery Combat Style, since Two Weapon feats pointless, take archery and get some free bow feats.

All my Rangers are Strength based. So much good gear that you don't need Dex for good AC, and if Two Weapon fighting you get all the feats for free from combat style.

Yup. I typed the wrong class in the title. If going with 2 weapons style, and making a strength-based character, doesn't that restrict the character to light or no armour (otherwise the feats don't apply), and then shouldn't the character be dexterity-based? I want to use 1-handed melee (no shield), and maybe wear medium armour. Is that viable with a Ranger class? It would make the 2-handed feats useless. The bow feats would be for fun, and I'm guessing not a focus of the playthrough. So, maybe that's wasting too much of the class' benefits.

Conversely, I'd like to use 2-handed style for a melee character (who uses bow as a backup), but to get the 2-handed feats I'd have to use light or no armour. With light armour, would the character be too vulnerable for a gung-ho melee fighter? So, with your two-weapon fighting style chars, you use light armour, and focus on strength?

Unless you are using a tiny 1 hand finesse weapon, NWN2 will automatically hold a 1 hand weapons in 2 hands for more damage like big two handed weapons. So this would be like my Ranger/FB builds, and I take Archery path on these builds. Absolutely, even my Greataxe/Greatsword/Falchion wielding Ranger/Frenzied Berserkers wear light armor.

I take it this is your first play through? Because you can build some awesome light armor, for strength based rangers.

In particular, If you craft a Mithral Breast plate, it is classed as light armor.

It has base AC of 5, Dex bonus up to 5 more and only has -1 armor penalty.

Meaning all Ranger abilities are active, and you can use stealth. Furthermore you can even craft bonus to stealth.

See attached image of my Ranger/FB from SoZ.

Hey, sorry for not replying sooner.

I realized I may have to restart my character after putting some hours into it, so I just stopped playing, lol.

This would be the first time I play NVN2 all the way through, if I get all the way through. I played around 18 hours into it ages ago.

My character has strength and dexterity around 15 or 16. I should probably focus on one and not the other.

What is the incentive to making a strength-based character, when there's the feat that lets dexterity be counted as strength in damage rolls? If the dexterity-as-strength feat is taken, then can't the character benefit more from being dex-based and so good at both range and melee combat?

Nice character build. I see that you have high strength and dexterity. What is the reason to do that instead of just pumping everything into dexterity and having the fear that surrogates the strength stat with the dexterity stat for melee attack rolls?

My Dex isn't that high. I just found a big dex boost item.

You are talking about "Weapon Finesse".

There are significant limitations to Finesse.

First: it only applies to tiny light weapons, so example it doesn't work with Longsword, Scimitar, Bastard Sword, Katana and a great many other popular weapons.

Second: It only applies to the "hit" bonus, NOT the damage bonus.

Strength is way better, it boosts hit and damage, and works with all weapons, and doesn't require wasting a feat.

And as I pointed out you can build some awesome light armor so you don't need very high dex.

Attached is my dual weapon ranger from the end of the Original Campaign (I edited photo to remove weapon name, as it was a spoiler).

Cool. So, maybe I don't have to restart my game after all. I can leave Dex at 15 and just build Str up from here on. I plan to also increase constitution once more at some point.

Here's my character. The custom portraits stretch vertically, unfortunately. I looked around for a fix but didn't find one. I guess I could edit the picture to have bars on the top and bottom of the portrait so that it fills up the portrait space without stretching.

You should be fine. Why boost constitution? 14 is usually where I stop.

Strength is a good place to put stat points. Dead enemies don't deal damage. ;)

Exactly. I always lean closer to a good offense is the best defense.

Basically my point allocation strategy is to only put points into secondary stats where they don't cost more than one point at creation time, and then never raise those.

For Rangers I usually go Wood Elf, since they get +2 Str and +2 Dex. I usually start with 18Str/16Dex and only raise Str.

Humans. I start either 16Str/14Dex, or 16Str/16Dex and only raise Str.

I treat Wisdom as something of a dump stat, as I don't care much about casting spells, and in NWN2, you can use items to boost Wisdom to cast spells.

What feats can you suggest for a dual-wield range? I'm at level 6 and don't really notice anything particularly important for my character other than 2 weapon defence - but then I read that 2 weapon defence is more of a filler feat and I should be getting the more important stuff I want first. I just don't see anything noticeable key to my character right now.

Skill focus (Diplomacy) is attractive, as I want to be able to use that dialog discussion. Though, I wonder if it's a waste because the ranger is impaired in that so it costs 2 skill points per skill level (which isn't a problem for me) and it can only level up half as often as other skills (which might be a bigger problem).

If it's a viable thing to do, I still want to level up diplomacy for my ranger whenever I get the chance. I don't know if I should be spending a feat on that, though.


I already have blind fighting, dodge, that hero's defence or whatever at level 1, and the automatic 2 weapon fighting feats that the ranger gets for free... not sure what else.

The only "skill" feat I regularly take is "Able Learner", which means all the cross class skills take only 1 point instead of 2. I pretty much always take this feat unless very feat starved. This is an awesome feat if you add a level of Rogue, as it enables you to take any Rogue skill to max, at normal cost. Much better than skill focus IMO.

If I have spare feats I often take Power Attack/Cleave combo, since it leads to extra free attack when you kill an enemy, and auto switches enemies when you drop one. More beneficial at low levels than high levels.

Other than that, are you going 100% Ranger. If thinking about adding a prestige class, look at prerequisites. I added "Shadow Dancer", so I needed "Dodge" and "Mobility".

I don't know yet if I'm doing 100% Ranger. I might like something that lets me boost the diplomacy skill to its max level.

I haven't looked into what I might gain from other classes.