Quote:
Originally posted by Assassin:
SixOfSpades, notice that although you say 'maximum proficiency', reality is that Grand Mastery versus Specialization is nothing that big. I mean, who really care about 1 to damage and 1 to hit.
Really, Rangers are just as good as Fighters. However, IMO, Fighter kits are better than Ranger kits (except for the Archer).
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If you download the Grand Mastery fix (the one that resets it to the true 2nd edition values), then it does make more difference. But even then, the ranger ends up being more versatile than the fighter does. The fighter can be good with a couple of weapons, while the ranger can easily do more than that. Thus, if you want your fighter to be good with bastard swords later in the game (after level 1), you can put 5 stars in it, but that is 15 levels of advancement to get that good, as compared to 6 levels for the ranger to "max out" on the skill; the ranger can max out 2.5 weapons for every one the fighter (though this does not take into account the slower advancement or the lower max level; considering those it should be more in the range of 1.5:1 or even 2:1). The fighter will be better overall with their one weapon, but the ranger can be better at multiple weapons. I guess my point is that I have always considered the fighter to be right there with the sorcerer as classes better to play after going through the game at least one time. If you put 5 stars in a weapon where you will not find many good weapons until near ToB, then you are shooting yourself in the foot. Meanwhile, you can make this mistake with the ranger and then "recover" (get max slots in another weapon more "useful") much more quickly than the fighter. They also can wield a greater variety of the good weapons you come across, and are easier to switch weapons with when better ones come along. Combining that with the two slots in dual-wield, and they can hold their own right along with the fighters.
Oh, and I think your consideration of the fighter kits are clouded by how good they are
when dualed with another class. Admittedly, I think the beast master sucks, but both the archer and stalker are great kits. The kensai pure class is very hard; great offense, but major downside on the defense. Same with the wizard slayer; great abilities, but not using much in the way of magical items hurts. The berserker is probably the best rounded kit, with the least downside. Thus, I actually think that the ranger kits are about even with the fighter kits, if just evaluated as a pure class character. However, there is no comparison with a dual class , as the ranger can only dual with cleric, while the fighter kits have great dualing (i.e. kensai/mage, kensai/thief, berserker/cleric, wizard slayer/thief, etc. etc.).
Final point: I think Paladins wipe the floor with both if they belong to one of the kits. All 3 kits are solid, and since the game really doesn't implement the "law v.s. chaos" aspect in the game, it is easy enough to do the "good path" through the game and face no real moral dilemmas. Of course, if you are roleplaying correctly, you will still follow up on those things (no pickpocketing good items or stealing from shopkeepers
). But even then, I think paladins kits have very few downsides as opposed to the other two classes.
[ 09-25-2003, 11:00 PM: Message edited by: Nerull ]