Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Drow ranger build - thoughts?

I probably shouldn't do another playthrough of patch 8, but I haven't yet tried a ranger run on any patch so am going to at least start one.

I want to try a Lolth-sworn Drow Ranger, with obligatory spider pet so chose the Beast Tamer option. I've also picked Keeper of the Veil and Charlatan background for roleplay reasons, as well as given him a starting 16 DEX and 12 WIS (because I've "wasted" points on CHA to make him decent at deception).

So I'm clearly not a min-maxer but at the same time I don't want him to be totally useless, and was wondering where it's best to go from here? Specifically:

1. Obviously I'm going to have him dual-wielding hand crossbows - but at level 2 which is better, the Archery fighting style (+2 with ranged weapons) or two-weapon fighting (adding ability modifier to offhand attacks presumably with both the hand crossbows and any light finesse weapon he might have if enemies get into melee range), or something else entirely?
2. What spells are best for a low-wisdom ranger? I was thinking Hunter's Mark, and Hail of Thorns to give some AoE capablity and because it looks like it's a DEX save rather than WIS, but I don't know if that means that the opponent gets a DEX save against my WIS modifier, which wouldn't be very good. I'm guessing Ensnaring Strike (Ranged) is out because it' a STR saving throw and takes concentration which would be better used on Hunter's Mark. Cure Wounds, Goodberry, Speak with Animals and Animal Friendship aren't thematically appropriate for this ranger, regardless of their utility. Fog Cloud may be slightly useful for hiding and ducking in and out of, but longstrider and jump sound more helpful positionally, especially jump as my ranger is relatively low STR.
3. What's the best subclass to pick at level 3? Is it worth picking Beast Master and getting a choice of different sizes of spider, or is Hunter better and if so which prey? Should I have picked something other than Beast Tamer at character creation (Wasteland Wanderer: Poison for example)?
4. What feat am I best taking at level 4? Pumping DEX up to 18 or WIS to 14? Or taking one of the other feats? Recognising that the answer to this question will be different once we're able to progress beyond level 4.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Is this solo or group character? Also, does dual wielding hand crossbows work properly yet? I think in 5e you need the Crossbow Expert feat to make this work, not sure about BG3.

For solo I would definitely go with Archery because you may need your bonus action to hide rather than make a second attack.

For subclass I would go Beastmaster for the big spider that can cast Web

For character creation I prefer Urban Tracker for the Sleight of Hand proficiency it gives (and I take Criminal background for Stealth and Deception proficiency). The fire resistance one can be useful too, since you want to have the Charlatan background I would probably take this. Although thematic, the poison resistance one isn't that good because you can get a ring for this in the Goblin Camp. Beast Tamer only gives you a familiar and I tend to not find them that useful (others will most likely disagree.)

Your crowd control spells aren't going to be that good with 12 Wis so you probably will end up in melee range more than you might want. Jump and Hunters Mark are always good. Any spells that have the enemy make a save will be against your Wis, so if you use any of those, it may be better for chokepoints and weaker enemies only. You can set things like Web (from the spider) and Spike Growth on fire if you are not opposed to using the flame arrows. Fog Cloud and Longstrider have situational use.

For the level 4 feat I would go with Dex +2.

With group play, you could go with mostly the same build but Hunter: Colossus Slayer could be more useful than Beastmaster for more damage. You may not have to worry about hiding as much depending on your playstyle and who you have with you. I would still get Dex up to 18 at level 4.

I like your choice of the beast tamer, wasteland wanderers are not particularly useful if you go for the ranged approach.

I find Keeper of the Veil a lackluster tbh., for you specific situation at least. As you've justly mentioned, you don't want concentration spells if you stick with the Hunter's mark.

Archery seems a superior choice, but I am not sure that it applies to the off hand crossbow. I am not also a fan of 2 hand crossbows when going the Hunter's mark style. I think it is either all in on Hunter's mark or not picking it at all. Archery is very good if you stick with the heavy crossbow though.

2 weapon fighting style for now would only be useful for your melee weapons, because off hand crossbows already get the stat modifier for whatever reason. I think defense or dueling for a rapier + shield build is your best option in terms of effectiveness.

For the subclass I like both options. They are both good, but I think hunter is better for Hunter's mark builds, which focus on dealing the most damage, while Beast Master focuses more on controlling the battlefield. There is a very neat combo you can do as a Lolth Spider ranger - take fog cloud and combo it with the web skill of your spider on a group of enemies if you happen to be in the same turn.

For the lvl 4 feat I think good options are DEX +2 in general, dual wielder if you've chosen to go with the dual weapons fighting style, so you could dual wield rapiers.

Also ranger is one of the only classes that can make use of true strike. With the addition of hand crossbows, you can go 17 dex with dual weapons fighting style (for melee bonus) then don't take Hunter's mark, but utility spells, then go for a colossus slayer. You will spend your action on true strike to get advantage each turn, but this would be compensated by the 1d8 damage from your bonus attack's colossus slayer and it is spammable and doesn't require any spell slots when compared to Hunter's mark

Thanks, both, for the thoughtful replies. I’ll ponder them and adjust my build plans accordingly.

I think I’ll run this character with a party, though one of these days I should try a solo run.

there is only one magic hand crossbow so the damage output of this guy isn't great so pumping points into Dex is a waist imo
with 12 or 14 dex and at least 12 str he will hold his own in melee

I’ve completed this run now, and those that pointed out that hand crossbows probably weren’t the best bet were of course absolutely right. It was far more effective as was advised to use my bonus action to use Hunter’s Mark or stealth and get more damage from a magical heavy crossbow or longbow.

I also tried out the True Strike option with an off-hand crossbow and it does work, but obviously still not as well as a more damaging weapon in the main hand and stealth/Hunter’s Mark.

I also copped out and dumped a bit of CHA and CON to pump up WIS but not sure that really helped as I mainly just used hunter’s mark at these low levels. And while it’s perfectly okay to dump CON for early access, especially on a ranged character immune to sleep that’s part of a party (and I feel honour bound to play squishy elves anyway), the full game may not be so forgiving.

I did really enjoy the RP aspects of having both a small spider familiar and a large spider companion, using the small spider for recon and where something small is needed and the large for battle. Though I did find all sorts of bugs caused by NPCs reacting to my spiders rather than doing what they should!

In general, I also thought the Lolth-born dialogue choices were pretty good, with only a few places where I really wanted to be able to say something that wasn’t an option.

I might try the character in the full game with hand crossbows for RP reasons, but I’ll have to get more creative with tactics to make him effective, or hope for some better hand crossbows.

In defence of hand-crossbows, consider this:

- Making a single attack with a hunters mark with a flat 70% (lets say) chance
or
-Making 2 attacks that do a little less damage but you roll this 70% chance twice

In the last case you have a higher chance to land a hit, which is better when you want to finish off a low hp enemy.
Also you can do a combo of peircing shot + off hand shot, which you can't do with a big crossbow. And lastly, you can use a defensive/utility action and still make an attack in 1 turn.

I like both setups honestly. I find the big crossbow better for the builds that utilize some bonus action package, this can be hunter's mark package, goodberry package (when you have a khaga's amulet, the aid/comfort boots and a bless ring equipped) or positioning package (like rogue's dash or misty step). Also big crossbows/bows have +1 enchantment versions, while little crossbows don't, so the first are better for battlemasters imo, because of better hit chance on your maneuver attack.

I am glad you had some fun playing your build, I'd be glad to hear more from you in the future in terms of builds and gameplay discoveries - I like this stuff.

Good point that there are benefits beyond gross damage dealt, also including the ability to potentially divide your damage between two enemies which can be handy to finish off a couple of low HP characters, deal with mirror-imaged foes or Ethel's illusions, or want a couple of goes to disrupt concentration. I can definitely see this build coming into its own with more magic hand crossbows and a couple more levels, or just better tactics. The bow we get does extra damage to burning targets as you'll know, so I played around a bit with Lae'zel using the everburn blade and the gloves of flint and steel to set them alight, then shooting them with my bow. But I just didn't feel like I had a whole lot of luck with hitting compared to stealth and shoot, though perhaps while I missed more with hand crossbows I also took more shots and it balanced out more than it felt like. I keep meaning to pay more attention to the detail in the combat log but then I just get carried away playing the game!

call me a drizzt fan but in my mind Ranger is melee... i'm currently trying halberds on a true evil halfelf run and yes the best thing about hand crossbow is you can explode objects with reliability + it just looks right for a drow imo

I can go either way on rangers, either melee (probably but not certainly dexterity based) or the more hunter bow-and-arrow archetype like Kivan in BG1. I’ll definitely do at least one melee ranger as well at some point, and have a rough concept for a halfling bounty hunter/urban tracker that’s still coming together.

But I agree hand crossbows seem right for drow, so it felt right that a drow version of a hunter ranger should use them. Though I did give him a couple of scimitars for the rare occasions he was in melee range as a nod to Drizzt

Not sure those are bugs...people react to all your pets. Kids all want to pet the raven for example and touch its pretty feathers. The name of the Tiefling leader escapes me, but his wife is not a fan of bringing a wolf to their house. And yes, there seems to be a universal hatred of spiders.

What "bugs" did you find?

Most of them were related to things not auto-triggering when they should. Many could be worked around by finding the character that was meant to auto trigger some dialogue or event and manually clicking them, which I could do but would be a really poor experience for a new player. And there were some times where I actually had to kill my companion (as I can’t dismiss them) to get something to trigger that should or to prevent my spider interrupting what should happen.

For example, after successfully intimidating the two tieflings looking at Lae’zel in her cage, rather than leaving as they should have, they hung around commenting on my spider only to be attacked by Lae’zel if I freed her. If I killed my spider they’d walk away.

And on entering the Myconid village, even if I found the right character who should trigger the mental conversation with the king, it didn’t give any option to say why I wanted to enter and the king just told me I couldn’t come in. I couldn’t enter the village until I killed my spider. (And there was no indication that the problem with getting in was my spider - if I hadn’t known what normally happened I’d have been completely stumped.)

I have a longer list of things I found weird that I supplied to Larian already for their consideration, that I can dig out and share here if you’re particularly interested.

By the way, are you talking about the female tiefling in the cave with Zevlor? I thought she was a fellow Hellrider rather than wife. The two aren’t exclusive, of course, but doesn’t she call him “commander” or something like that?

she is his 2nd not his wife... what they do to relax is none of ours so maybe they do get in the mood, who knows?

bugs = the pets don't follow as they should and the [big] spider is the worse with its extra size it will follow you up a lader then have to jump down manully [offen taking damage]... most of the hagging around bugs are because larian cuts corners with their patches and its not just the pets: Raphael is super easy to bug out just by skipping camp-rests until level 3

My bad on assuming she's Zevlor's wife. LoL.

So as far as "bugs" like with the tieflings hanging around...I looked at it as they stayed as long as there was danger and considered the spider a threat. There needs to be a way to dismiss them...until then you can summon another creature that is less threatening.

And yes there are bugs with the pathing of the big spider.

But I’ve just successfully intimidated them, and told them to get away if they want to live and they’ve agreed! They know there is danger - me and Lae’zel - and are running away from it. It makes no sense at all for them to decide to hang around after all just because there’s a spider … that was there already when they were intimidated anyway.

I’m afraid I’m going to stick with my opinion that things like this are bugs, and that Larian should revisit how NPCs prioritise reacting to familiars vs other scripted behaviours in a number of cases.