Adelroth - Request for Skill Swap

[Boxer]

Hello, I'm a beginner to TER, but I think I've struck a chord with Adelroth as of late, a pure-ranger I am hoping to play out fully. Unfortunately, I was unaware that the Balance skill would have to overcome the dexterity armor penalty to grant any sort of AC benefit outside of the Tumble skill (as I'm wearing chainmail for cool aesthetics) so I'd like to request to swap all the ranks I've put into Balance (only 4 cause I'm level 1), into Animal Empathy instead, a more ranger-like skill anyway. I also think being good with animal empathy would be cooler in roleplay, honestly.

[Aethereal]

Happy to support this decision, given the context. Approved and will be handled at the next opportunity.

[Krivoklat]

Sorry for the late addition, but also, Boxer, don't forget that "balance" contributing AC is not raw skill points alone. It also takes into accommodation DEX modifier. With the increased required limit to 10 (compared to Vanilla NWN 5 Tumble) ... if you max out your BALANCE skill to level 8, and wear Light Leather or even Cloth.. with a 20 DEX, that's +5 from your Dex Modifier, and 11 from your maxed Skill in Balance at level 8... giving a grand total of 18.

at 18, you are still 2 short of 20 needed for that +2 AC...

so, even if you have Chain Shirt... which limits your AC to +4 modifier, and brings a Armor Check Penalty of -2... you STILL will be above 10, which means you STILL get the +1 AC from Balance.

So it may be something to consider.

[Krivoklat]

... so I'd like to request to swap all the ranks I've put into Balance (only 4 cause I'm level 1), into Animal Empathy instead, a more ranger-like skill anyway. I also think being good with animal empathy would be cooler in roleplay, honestly.

just for clarity, Animal Empathy here is "Animal Handling"

I also wanted to add after thinking about it... I have a druid PC that invested heavily into Animal Handling. I put 2 feats into, and although only have a CHA of 12, at level 6, with the help of some magic to boost Animal Handling, I can get my skill to 26.

what does Animal Handling 26 accomplish? It basically opens up Magical Beasts.. reliably. This means being able to tame creatures like owlbears -with only small % of failure... I mean.. when it comes down to it, my character has only been killed by his own tamed wild creature once, which is pretty good! And although SOME party mates DID get swiped a few times by the claw of a Dire Tiger I had tamed, NOBODY DIED!! --and really that's the important part. right??

Animal options for Animal Handling are REALLY cool here. Unfortunately, the time you get to control them is very short. 1 minute per level.
so at level 3, you're talking about 3 min of control, before the animal turns hostile again and tries to eat you (or your party mates)

Unless you have pump Charisma, your Animal Handling skill isn't really going to start to pay off as a ranger until you get access to "One with the Land" spell which gives you that extra +4 Animal Handling... but you won't get until level 8, And you're going to need 14 wisdom to even see one spell level 2 slot.

Animal Handling as a ranger will be very good for small creatures and non-hostile animals. It can be very VERY useful, there are good options out there. You will be very restricted in what hostile creatures you can reliably tame.

for my druid with the 26 Animal Handling can halt charging aggressive creatures in their tracks. it is immensely useful at higher levels as a combat aid. I've even dragged owlbears and sabertooth tigers clear across the server with it (being careful to refresh taming them using an on-screen timer to remind me)

As a ranger, I would seriously consider what it will take to get 10 balance (for that +1 AC) and stop there.. and put the other points into Animal Handling, but just know that your not going to be SUPER powerful with the Animal Handling, but you will have some good fun with it, so I say go for it!!

My level 8 ranger has 11 ranks in Animal Handling... so, you know I'm not just trying to talk you into something I've not actually tried myself.

Good hunting, I hope to meet your ranger soon

[Aethereal]

The player has advised that this LETO won't be necessary, so this will be archived. Thanks for the feedback though.