Ranger stay help

[Vorttex™]

Hi,
I'm very new to pathfinder and the way it works.
I'm looking into playing an Archer build.
Got about 2 hours in game time and still haven't made my character, lol.
Do I need to raise both STR and DEX as a ranger using bows?
Any tips on what I should go?
I read that Elves would be the way to go for a ranger.

[Memnarch]

If you want to focus on Composite bow, yes strength is important

[Khaltzane]

You should only need dex. Stength is good if you plan on using composite bows though.

[Carpe Noctem]

I would go with the premade elf ranger unless you really are set on making your own, it's already built well for it. I'm not by the game right now but I would pump more dex but put some points into strength. If you combine ranger with the hunstman Inquisitor subclass you'll get an animal companion and I can't tell you enough how much my leopard/mammoth/monitor lizard have saved the day and keep enemies off of you as an archer.

[axi]

You also need Wisdom if you want some ranger spells later. Strength is not really important, unless you're going for composite bows or want a hybrid melee-archer Ranger.

[Grymm]

Composite Bows are needed if you want to add your +Str bonus. Dex characters should keep an eye on Str still, you can run into issues with weight affecting your Max Dex for AC if you progress into Medium or higher encumbrance. At 8 Str you'll be right on the edge just by wearing armor.

Thematically Ranger = Elf, no question, but mechanically they're not amazing. +2 Dex (good) +2 Int (useless) and no racial feats that help with Ranger. Human gets bonus feat and the +Dex, Aasimar have better stats (depending which variant) a spell and Wings (Flight, + Ac, ignore terrain).

[wulfster42]

lots of ways to play rangers. They are not the best bow users though by far (Fighters are).

Rangers can specialize in tons of different ways though. They also get a animal companion at level 4 I think it is (need to get boon companion to make it = to their level though).

Rangers get...I believe it's 5 feats that focus on a weapon type or combat type (you have to choose one). They also get favored enemies, I took human initially and that worked out really well, Fey is also very good. This helps balance out your damage a bit as otherwise rangers do much less then the other fighter classes (the animal companion helps a bit as well).

Honestly though I did find the ranger a bit underwhelming compared to barbarian or fighter (or multiclasses of either) and unlike either of them, i don't find that ranger multi-classes very well, as you pretty much need to stay pure to get alot out of favored enemies and the fighter style specialization.

Fighter is very, very useful with 4 levels, and great with 13 or 20 as well.

Rangers...I don't see much point to multiclassing with a ranger honestly...it's pure or go home from what I saw at least.

As far as your bow damage, you want both dex and strength, and you'll be using a composite bow for sure for the strength bonus to damage.

Finally elves give no advantage at all to archers unless you are a class that doesn't get weapon proficiency in bows (both fighters and rangers do). That is the advantage an elf gets...they can use them automatically.

Human can get +2 to any stat (dex or str) and +1 feat and skill point meanwhile (elves get int + dex i think, but -2 con...so not as good as human even close stat wise).

Asimar looses the feat and skill point but can get +2 to two stats, along with energy resistance 5. I don't believe dex/str is choice though (this it's either wis or Cha as one of the options, the others are str/dex/con pretty much.

You....might be able to get dex/con though...which could be a good combo if possible...but yeah, human is pretty awesome over all tbh. The additional bonus feat, especially as a fighter, just gets you that much sicker, that much faster with bows. Think a human fighter gets 1 normal feat, 1 human feat, 1 level 1 fighter feat at start and a bonus fighter feat at level 2 as well. So by level 2 a human fighter can have point blank shot/rapid shot/weapon focus bows/precise shot.

Weapon focus bows offsets the -2 penalty for rapid shot mostly (so it's only -1), giving you 2 attacks per round already.

fighter 3 you get another feat (toughness maybe...shrug) and then fighter 4 you get weapon spec bows (+2 more damage).

By level 4 fighter your doing as much damage as a ranger against a favored enemy to all enemies, and you already have 2? Think it's 2 more feats then a ranger, and it just gets better from there.

[Grymm]

Rangers can cast / buff though, which helps even things out. Both are decent at Range DPS.

[Graygan]

Fighter can dip 1 level into ranger and use those lovely wands and scrolls.

I actually like to do a two-handed weapon fighter with a single level dip into ranger so I can use Lead Blades. Nasty and insane amounts of damage when you do that... especially with Enlarge, Power Attack, and Bull's Str.

Who needs AC when you can one shot kill most things and have a party to back you up when you need 2 or 3 hits to kill something?

[Balkoth]

I woudl seriously consider hitting the "Premade character" button and look at what the developers made. That should help you in the future.

[Vorttex™]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, much appreciated