by Michael Strauss

Created on: December 04, 2009

Made popular by Drizzt Do'Urden, the two weapon ranger is one of the most effective damage dealing strikers in 4th edition D&D. A two weapon ranger deals high damage through the use of multiple attacks and focused, stacking damage bonuses. A two weapon ranger has enough mobility to strike at vulnerable or critical targets. The one major flaw of a two weapon ranger is a general lack of AC, hit points, and healing surges, compared to most front-line combatants. When building your two weapon ranger, the following optimizations will serve to make you an effective damage dealing character.

Ability Scores - Two weapon rangers use strength as their primary attack and damage attribute and this score should always be either 18 or 20. The secondary attribute of a two weapon ranger will depend on the direction you want your build to take. Dexterity will provide a reasonable AC and will make the <Storm> paragon path an excellent choice. Wisdom provides attack, damage, and movement bonuses to the majority of ranger powers and without a good wisdom score, ranger utilities are pretty bad until level 16. Splitting the difference does not work and makes both scores too low to be effective. The only other ability score that might matter is constitution, which should be at least 13 if you choose wisdom as your secondary attribute and otherwise provides more hit points and healing surges.

Race - If you choose to be a strength/dexterity ranger, half-orc is by far the best racial choice. This will allow you to have a score of 18 in both strength and dexterity and the racial features of half-orcs work well with front line strikers. If you choose to be a strength/wisdom ranger, longtooth shifter is a very good choice, as is warforged. As a longtooth shifter, you gain regeneration while bloodied and can build a character with a 20 strength and a 16 wisdom. Due to the regeneration, you can afford to not have a 13 constitution. If you want the 13 constitution, then take a 18 strength and 18 wisdom. As a warforged, you should take an 18 strength, 16 wisdom and at least a 13 constitution (14 is better). This will allow you to get proficiency in chain mail. If you are limited to PHB classes, choose either an elf or a dragonborn, though both are substandard options.

Skills - Rangers have a wide range of skill choices, though only one skill in the game is based off of strength: Athletics. The rest of your skill choice should be based off of your secondary attribute and possibly

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