13th Age 2E Pregenerated Character Builds: Woodland Warrior 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 multiple 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 either as effective archers or as melee skirmishers (like this build), 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 (like this build) rewards you with better recoveries and proficiency with shields, though picking dexterity will tend to mean better ranged attacks, with higher initiative and defences.

WOODLAND WARRIOR RANGER

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

This character fights alongside an animal companion (a loyal Boar, or possibly a dangerous Spiky Lizard) in melee combat, fighting alongside the beasts of the wilderness to protect the natural world. You don’t have a lot of powers, though you will have to track multiple possible turns, positions and attacks for yourself and your companion, and so this build is reasonably simple but still engaging. Your own attacks will often be able to deal good amounts of damage in melee. From 5th level you’ll also get some Cleric spells to help buff and heal yourself for particularly challenging combats. This ranger build makes use of the Strength option for rangers to wield a sword and shield like a true soldier of the wilds.

You can make good use of a magical weapon and shield, and are otherwise fairly lacking on defensive abilities (other than the extra HP your companion provides). With this in mind, be on the lookout for magic items that improve your defensive stats, like cloaks and armour. 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.

Talents

Animal Companion (Boar) (Hunter)

This talent costs two of your starting three talents, and counts as a Hunter talent for you. In exchange you receive an allied Boar which can help you to attack enemies engaged with you, and has a devastating special attack.

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.

Sword Way (Warrior)

When making melee attacks, this talent adds flat damage to any natural even attack roll.

Skirmisher

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

Kin Power

Silver Folk’s Devious Strike stacks yet another way to make additional melee attacks, on top of Skirmisher. It can also be triggered by misses by your animal companion, giving you more control over trying to trigger this than most Silver Folk would have.

Attributes

Your Strength determines your accuracy and damage in melee; this build tries to keep its other stats quite balanced to maximise defences across the board: Str 19 (+4) Dex 12 (+1) Con 16 (+3) Wis 15 (+2) Int 10 (+0) Cha 13 (+1).

1^st level

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

Kin Power: Devious Strike

Class features: Strength Melee, Tracker

Talents: Animal Companion (Boar), Sword Way

Powers: Lethal Hunter, Skirmisher, Gore and Slash

Feat: A: Devious Strike

2^nd level

New feat (A: Savage Companion).

3^rd level

New feat (A: Lethal Hunter).

4^th level

+1 to three attributes (Strength, Wisdom, Charisma), new feat (A: Sword Way).

5^th level

New talent (Ranger ex Cathedral (Caster)), new spells/powers (Hammer of Faith, Strength of the Gods) (these are suggestions for a standard arc, but remember you can swap out spells freely during full heal-ups), new feat (C: Constant Companion, A: Ranger ex Cathedral replaces A: Sword Way).

6^th level

New feat (C: Skirmisher).

7^th level

+1 to four attributes (Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma), new feat (C: Lethal Hunter).

8^th level

New talent (Blur of Blades (Warrior)), new feat (E: Lethal Hunter).

9^th level

New feat (E: Many Friends (suggestion: Bear)).

10^th level

+1 to five attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma), new feat (E: Sword Way).

Zenith feat

New feats (Z: Zenith Adventurer, E: Blur of Blades, A: Relentless Companion).