finished as ranger , kind of (spoiler)

[noname]

I finally finished the game as a ranger having tried just about everything else. Very good except it is impossible to do every quest as a pure ranger. To do some quests you need magic or at least a weapon that does magic damage. I cannot remember seeing anything for the bow that adds magic damage, so I had to be a ranger-mage or skip some of the quests. For example in Westwillow sp? you can only kill the Prospector with magic. I really didn't like this because as a ranger-mage you have access to a better weapon than the bow- fire dart etc. So I was tempted to throw away my bow and play as a mage, except that I've done the mage twice and found it to be the easiest of all characters. It is too bad you cannot play as any one pure character without adding magic,although the fighter does have some weapons that do magic damage. Some magic arrows would have been nice for people like me.

[Randomizer]

There is a discussion of this elsewhere for Westwillow, To kill the Prospector there are two ways: one is to position kegs of powder, lure him to them, and detonate to kill where two should do it and the other was to lure him back to the Mayor.

Ways to get around magic spells are to use rings or amulet that gives magic damage so normal weapons work. Save the soulslayer arrows for them, but Hammerlorne will use most of them. That still needs high elemental resistance items to walk through lava.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

I thought that the bow you get from the ranger trainer in the forest allows you to kill the Prospector, as well. I could be wrong. Warmoth, if I'm correctly recalling the bow's name.

[Randomizer]

Warmoth gives +3 to Bows, +1 poison. I don't remember if that works. Although alchemy could up grade it.

[Vroqren]

Wait - what? I never knew this... I have ALWAYS killed the prospector purely with melee. I never thought to bring him to the mayor, and while yes, I had to retry many times it certainly was possible to kill him with melee...

Or at least I thought... Maybe I used something else.

[noname]

There are no rings or amulets that give magical damage to bows. I used the Warmoth bow throughout the game because it was so light and no it will not kill the prospector. Tried it many times and got no damage at all, besides a message appears telling you that your weapon is not effective. As a ranger-mage I had little strength to carry around barrels of TNT. If Mithril arrows wouldn't hurt the prospector why would the barrels hurt him? And if the Mayor had the ability to kill the prospector,why didn't he go do it? This is why I didn't think of these two methods, Guess I was being too logical.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

A little alchemy to add +1 damage to Warmoth is a lot simpler than becoming a ranger-mage. I don't recall what I did in that section with my ranger, as it was a long time ago, but I certainly had no problem killing him.

[Lord_P]

And if the Mayor had the ability to kill the prospector,why didn't he go do it?

What a quest giver essentially is: a person too lazy to do something him/herself.

[palendrome]

I've played through Rangers too. I agree with you, my only option was enchanted weapon which brings us back to your main point. I'm hoping that book III expands on magic and alchemy. For example, you can buy weapons and armors with magic/element etc resistance strength/dex boosts etc. Magical damage, strength boosts and + the weapon boosts and all the other nice little extras you find in the shops. But, you can't add these things yourself via alchemy. I think that if your proficiency is high enough you should be able to add these things. The argument against this I imagine is that your character would then be just to damn powerful. So, bearing this In mind the alchemy requirement for magic resistance or damage might be 40/50. I'm starting to ramble now...

[noname]

Kreador, I'm pretty sure that I tried to enhance with alchemy an already enhanced weapon and you can't. The Warmoth bow comes with a plus 2 bows and a plus 1 poison stopping you from enhancing it further. But you are right, I could have enhanced another bow. I just didn't think of it. Also I hadn't sunk any points into alchemy. Of course you would still need magic for the invaluable "predator sight' or become a ranger-alchemist to be able to make the predator sight potions by the gallon. I'm sure the stores don't carry enough of that potion to ever finish all the underground places.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

You can have three enchantments on an item, so you can add a bonus to Warmoth and make it work, and that's how I did it I suppose. Looking at that character in my saves, Warmoth has +2 to hit on it.

[Dragonlady]

Hum...I thought I killed or contributed to his death using flasks of burning oil? I do recall running away from him once to try and find an area to heal up and got as far as the Mayor and and he killed the Prospector. But I can't recall whether I got xps for it or not. Too long ago. Good thing I started on a new game again a few weeks ago. Almost high enough to go underground to the ghost town. I'll see what happens, got my curiosity up now.

[SpottedShroom]

Ranger (with support magic, but no damage magic) is my favorite build. I don't use alchemy until the end of the game, but fortunately there's an easier way. There are two items that add magic damage to all your attacks, melee or ranged: Bloodlust Ring and Animal Rage Amulet. I always make sure to pick up one of these before going to Westwillow or Hammerlorne.

[Lord_P]

XP is only received when you deliver the killing blow. I have used that for my favor in many occasions, but this is my favourite: I camp in Sparrow's backyard long enough to get ambushed by Devilmanders. Then I'll lure them inside and to Sparrow. She will engage them and kill them, but she is wounded pretty badly in the process. After that you can kill her with one shot.

[palendrome]

Part of ranger training Is foraging which, lends itself to alchemy. The logical conclusion here is that the game suggests rangers make potions, sell herbs and imbue armors and weapons. Learning further magics is just character choice really. I like the idea of not using enhanced magics it's almost to easy. Keep to the script, use Robin Hood cunning and strategy

Totally of topic, with my last character which was a Mage, I decided to add +3 to hit and + 3 poison to all the Doom Stars (it took awhile to get the ingredients) The result? A set of glowing pink instead of purple special weapons. with a value of 7500 instead of 750...