Going To The Dark Side (D&D For The First Time, Need Help)

[Halloween Jack]

For years I scoffed at Dungeons & Dragons (mostly back in the days of AD&D when it all looked so ridiculously complicated) but now I'm finally getting involved in a Forgotten Realms campaign. After much deliberation I decided to play a ranger, since my character's basic concept was that of a puritanical crusader.

Little did I know, though, that this is the class that been the most screwed around with in every edition. I have some questions:

1. I decided I would go the two-weapon fighting route rather than the archery route, and I don't understand the changes that have been made from 3rd edition to 3.5. What's the deal with Ambidexterity? Was it eliminated, or combined into something else?

2. My character is an aasimar. Does this mean I can't take Lawful or Good outsiders as a favored enemy? Can I take humans? Can I take human racial feats, or only aasimar racial feats?

3. Part of my character's background is that is father was an angel. Does that jive, or would that make me a half-celestial? Do I need to change my background?

3. This isn't something that's really going to come up any time soon, but I was curious: In the Epic Level Handbook, it says that a ranger can take Perfect Two Weapon Fighting without having taken the prerequisite feats. Does this mean that you can take the archery route for your whole career as a ranger, then suddenly take Perfect TWP at epic-level and have the benefits of both combat styles? And is the dexterity prerequisite waived for rangers, too?

4. Are the various regional languages-Damaran, Chondathan, etc. in the Forgotten realms all just dialects of Common, or are they totally different languages? And is there still Common in the Forgotten Realms?

[Shining Dragon]

2: Why would you want to take Lawful / Good outsiders as a favored enemy with your background? It would be more sensible to take Demons or Evil Outsiders (if indeed you can define a Favored Enemy in such "loose" terms). Being an Aisimar means you probably are mostly human so Human racial feats should be available to you (but this is up to your DM, who may have different ideas). Your DM may also be violently against you taking "Human" as Favored Enemy (I believe Aisimar would fall into this category) because it smacks of gross twinkery at its finest with regards to Rangers.

3 (the 1st one): I believe an Aisimar is one with celestial ancestry. If your character's background has an angelic father in it, a half-Celestial template would be more accurate.

[zcthu3]

Originally posted by Halloween Jack
For years I scoffed at Dungeons & Dragons (mostly back in the days of AD&D when it all looked so ridiculously complicated) but now I'm finally getting involved in a Forgotten Realms campaign. After much deliberation I decided to play a ranger, since my character's basic concept was that of a puritanical crusader.

Little did I know, though, that this is the class that been the most screwed around with in every edition. I have some questions:

1. I decided I would go the two-weapon fighting route rather than the archery route, and I don't understand the changes that have been made from 3rd edition to 3.5. What's the deal with Ambidexterity? Was it eliminated, or combined into something else?

2. My character is an aasimar. Does this mean I can't take Lawful or Good outsiders as a favored enemy? Can I take humans? Can I take human racial feats, or only aasimar racial feats?

3. Part of my character's background is that is father was an angel. Does that jive, or would that make me a half-celestial? Do I need to change my background?

3. This isn't something that's really going to come up any time soon, but I was curious: In the Epic Level Handbook, it says that a ranger can take Perfect Two Weapon Fighting without having taken the prerequisite feats. Does this mean that you can take the archery route for your whole career as a ranger, then suddenly take Perfect TWP at epic-level and have the benefits of both combat styles? And is the dexterity prerequisite waived for rangers, too?

4. Are the various regional languages-Damaran, Chondathan, etc. in the Forgotten realms all just dialects of Common, or are they totally different languages? And is there still Common in the Forgotten Realms?

Okay here are MY answers - don't take them as the gospel.

1. Ambidexterity has been rolled into the Two Weapon Fighting feat - it no longer exists as a separate feat.

2. As an Aasimar you can take humans as a favoured enemy without being human (as you are not human) as about L or G outsiders that is open to debate. I would tend to rule you could take a type of lawful or good outsider - although as an Aasimar why would you?

3a. If your father is a celestial then technically you would be a 1/2 celestial - however, it's really up to the DMs ruling. Personally why can't your father be a 1/2 celestial and you are an Aasimar (effectively a 1/4 celestial)

3b. The Epic Level Handbook was written for the 3.0 Ruleset. IMC I would make this change to an equivalent archery feat if you had taken the archery path.

4. They are different languages - Common is a actually a form of Tradetalk - a pigeon of multiple language influences (like English in a way :) ) made so that people with different languages could talk to one another. The regional tongues are all separate languages.

[Belphanior]

In my answers, I shall assume you're playing 3.5 since you never did quite specify.

I decided I would go the two-weapon fighting route rather than the archery route, and I don't understand the changes that have been made from 3rd edition to 3.5. What's the deal with Ambidexterity? Was it eliminated, or combined into something else?

Ambidexterity's function was combined into Two-Weapon Fighting.


My character is an aasimar. Does this mean I can't take Lawful or Good outsiders as a favored enemy? Can I take humans? Can I take human racial feats, or only aasimar racial feats?

You can take any kind of favored enemy; race and alignment are irrelevant, though it might be necesary to come up with a solid reason just why you're an angel-hunter aasimar.
I think aasimar are unable to take human racial feats, but don't pin me down on that one.


Part of my character's background is that is father was an angel. Does that jive, or would that make me a half-celestial? Do I need to change my background?

Yes, this background would require a half-celestial human. The various planetouched (aasimar, genasi, etc.) are several generations down the line. It is made clear that the outsiders that sired the bloodline are invariably distant ancestors.


This isn't something that's really going to come up any time soon, but I was curious: In the Epic Level Handbook, it says that a ranger can take Perfect Two Weapon Fighting without having taken the prerequisite feats. Does this mean that you can take the archery route for your whole career as a ranger, then suddenly take Perfect TWP at epic-level and have the benefits of both combat styles? And is the dexterity prerequisite waived for rangers, too?

The ELH was written for 3.0, when rangers always fought with two weapons; they were unable to choose the archery route.
While it is up to the DM to make a specific ruling, common sense would dictate that this only goes for those rangers who fight with two weapons.


Are the various regional languages-Damaran, Chondathan, etc. in the Forgotten realms all just dialects of Common, or are they totally different languages? And is there still Common in the Forgotten Realms?

They are all different languages, though common still exists as a trading tongue between all cultures.
A parallel could be made of modern day continental western europe: the languages spoken there are german, french, spanish, dutch, but no country actually has english as its native language. Still, many people are bilingual and can speak english regardless.


Enjoy your little trip to the dark side. :D

[Stephenls]

Originally posted by Halloween Jack
For years I scoffed at Dungeons & Dragons (mostly back in the days of AD&D when it all looked so ridiculously complicated) but now I'm finally getting involved in a Forgotten Realms campaign. After much deliberation I decided to play a ranger, since my character's basic concept was that of a puritanical crusader.

Little did I know, though, that this is the class that been the most screwed around with in every edition. I have some questions:

Right-o.

1. I decided I would go the two-weapon fighting route rather than the archery route, and I don't understand the changes that have been made from 3rd edition to 3.5. What's the deal with Ambidexterity? Was it eliminated, or combined into something else?

The old Ambidexterity feat was folded into Two-Weapon Fighting. Characters in 3.5 who have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat (or a class ability that mimics it, like rangers) have the same mechanical advantages as characters in 3.0 who had both.

2. My character is an aasimar. Does this mean I can't take Lawful or Good outsiders as a favored enemy? Can I take humans? Can I take human racial feats, or only aasimar racial feats?

"Racial feats"?

By the letter of the rules, I believe it just means you can't take other Aasimar as your favored enemy (EDIT FOR CLARITY: And remain good. If you're evil you can take whoever you want), though you'll have to talk to your DM about it.

3. Part of my character's background is that is father was an angel. Does that jive, or would that make me a half-celestial? Do I need to change my background?

You'll have to talk to your DM about this one, too. Personally, I'd allow for a child of an angel with whom the celestial heritage didn't take a particularly strong hold, and who is "only" an Aasimar ("Your dad was an angel, eh? You don't look the part." "I take after my mother."), but your DM might have different ideas.

Something to look at for later might be the Aasimar/Half-Celestial Transition Class (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040319a) recently put up on the Wizards website -- it's a three level class that allows an Aasimar to explore its celestial heritage and become a full half-celestial.

3. This isn't something that's really going to come up any time soon, but I was curious: In the Epic Level Handbook, it says that a ranger can take Perfect Two Weapon Fighting without having taken the prerequisite feats. Does this mean that you can take the archery route for your whole career as a ranger, then suddenly take Perfect TWP at epic-level and have the benefits of both combat styles? And is the dexterity prerequisite waived for rangers, too?

That may be the literally correct interpretation of the rules, but it'd be against the spirit.

3e has a thing that developed called "virtual feats," which are class abilities that duplicate the abilities of feats. If a character has a virtual feat, he qualifies for feats that have the feat the virtual feat duplicates as prerequisites.

Virtual feats, as a concept, came about after the publication of the 3e corebooks, so they ended up being explained a whole bunch in all the supplements that used the concept. The Epic Level Handbook was just explaining that rangers (who in 3e only got the Ambidexterity/Two-Weapon Fighting thing, with no option for archery) don't have to buy a bunch of useless feats to qualify for the epic ones. It may have been badly phrased.

Playing 3.5, I wouldn't let a ranger on the archery path take Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting. (EDIT: Well, I would if he went and bought the prerequisites with feat slots, of course.)

4. Are the various regional languages-Damaran, Chondathan, etc. in the Forgotten realms all just dialects of Common, or are they totally different languages? And is there still Common in the Forgotten Realms?

The separate languages are separate languages. "Common" is a trade tongue. I usually run it so that Common is explicitly not English, and has difficulty communicating complex concepts (thus giving a reason for people to learn the other languages), but your DM may not agree.

[Joe]

Originally posted by Halloween Jack

1. I decided I would go the two-weapon fighting route rather than the archery route, and I don't understand the changes that have been made from 3rd edition to 3.5. What's the deal with Ambidexterity? Was it eliminated, or combined into something else?

2. My character is an aasimar. Does this mean I can't take Lawful or Good outsiders as a favored enemy? Can I take humans? Can I take human racial feats, or only aasimar racial feats?

3. Part of my character's background is that is father was an angel. Does that jive, or would that make me a half-celestial? Do I need to change my background?

3. This isn't something that's really going to come up any time soon, but I was curious: In the Epic Level Handbook, it says that a ranger can take Perfect Two Weapon Fighting without having taken the prerequisite feats. Does this mean that you can take the archery route for your whole career as a ranger, then suddenly take Perfect TWP at epic-level and have the benefits of both combat styles? And is the dexterity prerequisite waived for rangers, too?

4. Are the various regional languages-Damaran, Chondathan, etc. in the Forgotten realms all just dialects of Common, or are they totally different languages? And is there still Common in the Forgotten Realms?

1) Ambidexterity was rolled into the Two-Weapon Fighting feat. If you have TWF, you're ambidexterious.

2) There are racial feats? Outside of a very small handful of feats that I"m aware of, no feat is restricted by your race, so you should be able to pick up anything you'd want, feat-wise.

If you're referring to the FR's "Regional Feats" system, it's almost entirely a function of where you were born and raised, not your actual race, so you should be fine there as well.

Being an aasimar does *not* prevent you from taking, for example, lawful or good outsiders as your favoured enemy, but you're likely going to have to come up with a damn good reason why (I can think of a couple, but they're a bit odd).

3) Aasimar are part celestial, so whether to go with Aasimar as your race or wit the Half-Celestial template is up to you. Pick whichever feels better, really. The Half-Celestial template means you've got a much stronger dose of your father's blood than being an Aasimar would, but it's an absolute requirement that you go with one or the other.

3a) Keep in mind that the Epic Level Handbook is 3.0 material, whereas you're working with the 3.5 Ranger. Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting hasn't been updated to fix that interesting little loophole, but I think any sane GM would simply specify that if you want to take PTWF, you either have to have taken the TWF combat style path, or have purchased the preqrequisites, since that's how Rangers ignore prereqs in the 3.5 edition.

4) IIRC, the regional tongues are a mix of both dialects and seperate languages, depending on which particular region you're talking about. There *is* still a common human tongue, however.

[mmadsen]

After much deliberation I decided to play a ranger, since my character's basic concept was that of a puritanical crusader.
If your character's basic concept is puritanical crusader, don't you want to play a paladin?

[tetsujin28]

No, I think his PC makes sense. If he doesn't want the wiz-bang spell-like abilities of a paladin, but would rather biff the enemy with skill, ranger makes perfect sense, IMHO. But I can see where the confusion of having LG as an enemy can confuse people. If you want to hunt down people who were formerly LG, whilst pretty narrow, that's certainly a category that I'd allow in play.

[Halloween Jack]

I decided not to be a paladin because paladins must be lawful good. The character doesn't hunt evil creatures because he's really an altruistic guy but because it gives him a sense of purpose; he's Lawful Neutral.

Also, I have no intention of taking lawful or good outsiders as a favored enemy, I was just curious. Edit: I decided to take humans because my character is from the Moonsea region, where most trouble is caused by human bandits, evil rangers, and the Zhent. He also has a bit of that Mr. E "I am the only pure one" thing goin' on. And also because The Quintessential Ranger told me to.

[tetsujin28]

Sounds cool! You should hunt chaotics. Damn chaotics. Always making trouble.

[Halloween Jack]

I figured I would pick up Evil Outsiders as a favored enemy, but not until the party is actually strong enough to make fighting them feasible. Likewise Aberrations.