13th Age 2E Pregenerated Character Builds: Endless Volley Ranger

By Jay Godden

In this series, I’m presenting two different pregenerated builds for every 13^th Age Heroes’ Handbook character class, at all levels. My goal is to present complete mechanical builds using only standard elements and rules from the Heroes’ Handbook, ready for you to apply your own backgrounds, icon relationships, and One Unique Thing.

In this pair of articles, we look at two potential builds for the Ranger.

The Ranger is a (mostly) martial skirmisher that excels at reliable and sustained damage against choice targets. With lots of abilities to allow them to attack more often than anyone else, and often at little cost, a ranger will continue to kill monsters effectively even after wizards and paladins are all out of spells and smites. Rangers can be built with or without animal companions and as effective archers (like this build) or as melee skirmishers, or even with some expertise at both ranges.

All ranger talents are split up into three categories, Hunter, Warrior and Caster talents. Having at least one talent from a category affords you a related bonus. In this way the best rangers are usually diversified rangers. Because they don’t get powers, rangers gain an additional talent at 5th and 8th levels, so even rangers with a very narrow vision can end up quite diverse in talents by epic tier. Having a Hunter Talent gives you the Lethal Hunter power, which you declare before making a (non-double) attack, dealing significantly extra damage on a hit or a miss. Similarly, having at least one Warrior talent gives you the Skirmisher bonus power, which allows you to take a second turn later in the round (with some limitations), which you will usually use to make more attacks. Having a Caster talent gives you a passive +2 bonus to MD instead of a power (but all those talents give you powers of their own).

Compared to 1e, some old talents now exist as class features (Tracker) or feats (Terrain Stunt), freeing you up to invest your talents into direct combat buffs. Rangers in 2e also get to choose whether their melee attacks are based on Strength or Dexterity, picking a high strength rewards you with better recoveries and proficiency with shields, though picking dexterity (like this build) will tend to mean better ranged attacks, with higher initiative and defences.

ENDLESS VOLLEY RANGER

Download the Endless Volley Ranger character sheets here. These sheets make use of the class-specific character sheets designed for second edition by Miguel Friginal.

Focussing on archery and other powerful ranged attacks, the Endless Volley Ranger is able to target and eliminate enemies more freely than most other ranger builds. They are bolstered with a huge number of extra attacks due to Skirmisher turns and Twin Arrows, and the occasional bit of choice Druidic Magic when needed. It is on the complicated end of the scale for rangers, ending up with a lot of spells and special attacks by epic tier.

This build does something I avoid in the rest of these guides: swapping a talent choice out as higher level options become available. At 5th level this build drops Combat Archery to learn Fey Queen’s Enchantments, then uses its newly granted 5th level talent to buy the champion tier talent Storm of Arrows, thus maintaining at least one Warrior talent to keep access to Skirmisher. I think this should be the most fun to play at all levels, but you can just keep Combat Archery, learn Storm of Arrows, and avoid the extra spellcasting if you don’t want to mess around like that and you’ll be absolutely fine.

As usual magic item choices are left out of the character sheets, check with your GM to see if they will be granting you any. You might be the best placed character to make use of magical ammunition (ideally fired from a magic bow). Magic boots will also help you to stay unengaged and free to make ranged attacks, especially from 5th level if you lose the Combat Archery talent. Consider whether you want an arcane and/or divine implement to help with the accuracy of your spells.

Talents

Twin Arrows (Hunter)

This talent gives you your default ranged attack option. You attack twice, though your damage die drops to a d6 and you have a chance to deal only half damage. This still deals much more expected damage than just shooting once, and you can split the two arrows to different targets across the map (since you can target far away enemies with a longbow).

Lethal Hunter

Because you have at least one Hunter talent, you gain this power that you can use to add damage to an upcoming attack. You cannot use this power when making double attacks, but it is a good choice to use on your spell attacks. Lethal Hunter basic attacks do have a higher expected damage than an unaugmented double ranged attack and so are worth using on dangerous single enemies too.

Combat Archery (Warrior)

Without mobility powers, or an animal companion to play defence, you are fairly likely to end up engaged with an enemy while wanting to shoot your bow. This talent allows you to do so with much lower risks from opportunity attacks. Mostly we take this to access Skirmisher, since it’s one of the only Warrior talents before champion tier that’s useful to archers.

Skirmisher

Because you have at least one Warrior talent, you gain this power you can use to get additional turns during a battle.

Elemental Nature (Caster)

This magical talent gives you access to four druidic-themed spells, from which you can cast one every arc. From 5th level you gain an extra use of these spells each arc.

Kin Power

Queen’s Eye is the obvious choice for an archer, and Wood Elf is a classic kin for this archetype. Consider saving a use of Queen’s Eye to ensure a hit with your higher damage spells or Lethal Hunter bow shots, rather than smaller damage double ranged attacks. The Fire and Air spell choices both offer especially high damage ranged attacks to improve your damage output. At 10th level we take the feat to gain an extra kin power, Elven Grace.

Attributes

Your attacks rely on Dexterity, except for your spells which all rely on Wisdom: Str 10 (+0) Dex 19 (+4) Con 15 (+2) Wis 16 (+3) Int 12 (+1) Cha 13 (+1).

1^st level

Attributes: Str 10 (+0) Dex 19 (+4) Con 15 (+2) Wis 16 (+3) Int 12 (+1) Cha 13 (+1).

Kin Power: Queen’s Eye

Talents: Twin Arrows, Combat Archery, Elemental Nature

Powers/spells: Double Ranged Attack, Lethal Hunter, Skirmisher, Flame Blossoms, River Teeth, Thunder Strike, Wild Heal.

Class features: Dexterity Melee, Tracker

Feat: A: Elemental Nature

2^nd level

New feat (A: Terrain Stunt).

3^rd level

New feat (A: Combat Archery).

4^th level

+1 to three attributes (Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma), new feat (A: Lethal Hunter).

5^th level

New talents (Fey Queen’s Enchantments replaces Combat Archery, Storm of Arrows), new spells/powers (Arrow Storm, Energetic Auras, Catastrophic Blast) (You can change your spells freely when you have a full heal-up, these spells are just suggestions for a default arc), new feats (A: Fey Queen’s Enchantments replaces A: Combat Archery, C: Skirmisher).

6^th level

New feat (C: Twin Arrows).

7^th level

+1 to four attributes (Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma), new feat (C: Storm of Arrows).

8^th level

New talent (Cunning Aim), new feat (E: Storm of Arrows).

9^th level

New feat (E: Skirmisher).

10^th level

+1 to five attributes (Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma), new feat (E: Powerful Kin), new kin power (Elven Grace).

Zenith feat

New feat (Z: Zenith Adventurer, E: Cunning Aim, A: Precise Shot).