OHE/Shield *and* Archery. Possible or pointless?

[Dhe'nar Witch]

Re-acquainting myself with my characters, I come across this one -

Race: Dark Elf Profession: Ranger
Expr: 318382 Level: 16
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 90 (20) ... 65 (7)
Constitution (CON): 70 (5) ... 48 (-6)
Dexterity (DEX): 83 (26) ... 60 (15)
Agility (AGI): 80 (20) ... 58 (9)
Discipline (DIS): 75 (2) ... 54 (-8)
Aura (AUR): 74 (22) ... 54 (12)
Logic (LOG): 64 (7) ... 47 (-1)
Intuition (INT): 68 (14) ... 49 (5)
Wisdom (WIS): 85 (22) ... 62 (11)
Influence (INF): 28 (-16) ... 21 (-19)
Mana: 58 Silver: 0

(at level 16), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 82 18
Shield Use.........................| 50 10
Combat Maneuvers...................| 78 17
Edged Weapons......................| 120 30
Ranged Weapons.....................| 128 34
Ambush.............................| 70 15
Physical Fitness...................| 74 16
Dodging............................| 50 10
Harness Power......................| 74 16
Survival...........................| 78 17
Stalking and Hiding................| 105 25
Perception.........................| 117 29
Climbing...........................| 35 7
Swimming...........................| 15 3
First Aid..........................| 45 9

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 16
Training Points: 13 Phy 1 Mnt
(Use SKILLS BASE to display unmodified ranks and goals)


I like the idea of being able to use a Bow or Sword and Board, depending, but is it realistic or an exercise in frustration? I don't recall having any particular problems, but then again the character is only level 16. If there is a certain threshold at which attempting both will really turn out as mediocre at both, any ideas at what level that might be expected to become pronounced?

[cwolff]

I would think that the shield and OHE are not able to be 1x and 2x so I would expect that you will reluctantly switch from ranged to sword and board while hunting.

Is it possible to drop shield and hold your bow in the off hand while use an OHE and retain roughly same DS as holding a shield? If so that would free up some points to get OHE to 2x. All in all, I do not believe that a ranger will be able to fully capitalize on two weapon styles like Sword/Board and Ranged effectively, but I understand the desire to do it, because I'm sticking with my Voln Fu build. In any case, I think that shield is the place to look for saving tp's. You are running at almost .5x right now so the big benefit is going to be from holding a 4x shield and taking advantage of that enchant. Maybe even 1 rank of shield would be a good compromise because you've got good bonuses for str and dex. FE; with your current build I calculate, with a tower shield (I figure that since your dodge is low, might as well get a big shield) the difference while holding a 4x shield is 54 vs 49 where 49 is the ds from only one rank of shield use.

Obviously you are sacrificing some power that you would normally get from shooting while hidden by 1x ambush. Depending on what you hide from you may want to invert that to 2x ambush and 1x s/h and rely on 608 more.

Cmans are running at 1x which is great for a physical build like this. It is also an area where a ranger can save some points for other skills though.

[Warriorbird]

Don't.

[Divinity]

I wouldn't do both.

[BriarFox]

It's possible, but it is not generally worth it. Unless you 1.5x-2x shield, your DS will be better with a bow than with a shield. The major advantage of a dual build is that you do get better bolt DS with a shield, but honestly, the best defense in this case is an arrow in the eye.

[Dhe'nar Witch]

Thanks, folks. As much as I don't care for it, looks like one path or other is the way to go.