[3.P] Making a well-rounded Hunter

[ImperatorK]

I'm gonna start a new solo campaign soon. Together with my player we are going to make a character that's a Hunter (Ranger, Scout, Dragon Shaman and Dragonfire Adept combined). I need some ideas that I can suggest to him. The build is supposed to be well-rounded, which means no one-trick-pony, he should be able to reasonably handle most encounters and situations, not including social stuff (because that's not really essential for survival in wilderness). He will go against multiple opponents with CRs/levels equal to his, so he should be decent at combat, but he's mostly planning to defeat the overwhelming odds by using stealth, traps, smart tactics and his wilderness skills. Something like Rambo (the first movie, not the awful sequels).
His level will be 7-11 (I didn't decide yet what will be appropriate for this kind of game).

[Rebel7284]

All of those combined?  The classes seem to have fairly poor synergy with one another...

May I suggest simplifying to a Dragonborn Scout/Ranger with the Swift hunter feat.  If you want more power, you can also get wizard spells with sword of the arcane order or wildshaping with wildshape ranger.

[ImperatorK]

It's Ranger, Scout, Dragon Shaman and Dragonfire Adept combined together into one class. It's a quadstalt basically. Therefore Swift Hunter isn't needed.
My player isn't interested in spells.

[Jackinthegreen]

The main shtick for Swift Hunter is getting the Skirmish damage to favored enemies, which might not be possible any other way depending on interpreting effects that allow the character to deal crits to stuff.  For gestalt, the stacking shouldn't work but the skirmish should and for a feat might be well worth it if your player wants to skirmish a lot.

You may want to look through Alternate Class Features to see what ACF's you'd allow the player to have.  Since both the scout and ranger get evasion, it's recommended to swap one of them out.  Either can get Spell Reflection for example.  The ranger's wild shape variant would certainly be interesting too.

If the player isn't interested in spells, going spell-less and gaining bonus feats from Complete Champion's ACF would be reasonable.  The Complete Warrior ACF only grants fast movement and some piddly extras.

For stealth, the Darkstalker feat will be quite useful.

Entangling Exhalation will help thanks to DFA, if the player is so inclined.

You mentioned your player doesn't care for spells.  What about invocations?  DFA has invocations right up the stealth alley, including at will Invisibility through Walk Unseen.  Draconic Flight will help to get around and start hitting with the breath weapon while flying and invisible.  The technical wording on invisibility states that attacks will break it, including damaging spells.  Most don't include spell-like or supernatural abilities under that umbrella, and since the DFA's breath weapon is supernatural, it wouldn't apply.  If you think that's too much then you can nerf it so the breath weapon cancels invisibility.

Something I just thought of asking: What PF rules are in effect?

[ImperatorK]

By "isn't interested in spells" I meant he wouldn't want Sword of the Arcane Order. He knows that spells are useful, so it's not like he wants to swap Rangers spells for something, but he doesn't want this character to be too much of a caster.

PF rules? All, I guess, but I have houserules. What rules do you mind in particular?

[Jackinthegreen]

Mostly I'm asking whether you're using full 3.5 base classes or have gone with the PF versions.  Likewise, are you using the PF or 3.5 skill system?  Stuff like that.  The PF version of Power Attack is crap for example, although I don't think your player would be going the PA route anyway.

Going over some of your houserules might help in helping this player out.

[muktidata]

... The PF version of Power Attack is crap for example...

That's quite debatable.

It sounds like he'll need an Elvencraft Bow so he can switch-hit and focus on enchanting a single weapon. I feel like other than some basic guidelines that you'd already know, we'd need to know his race, starting level, and stats to know how to give specific advice.

[Jackinthegreen]

... The PF version of Power Attack is crap for example...

That's quite debatable.

Compared to the 3.5 version, it's weak.  It caps at -6 attack for +18 damage at level 20, while in 3.5 it could do -20 for +60, hence why I mentioned it specifically.  To be fair, it does play better with natural weapons and such because they actually added some rules.  Nixing the ability to PA on touch attacks is a bit annoying since stuff like Wraithstrike won't work even if it would work better.

Anyway, I do agree we need more info.  ImperatorK, are the player's race and stats set yet, or is that also the kind of advice you'd like for this player?

[ImperatorK]

Mostly I'm asking whether you're using full 3.5 base classes or have gone with the PF versions.  Likewise, are you using the PF or 3.5 skill system?  Stuff like that.  The PF version of Power Attack is crap for example, although I don't think your player would be going the PA route anyway.

Going over some of your houserules might help in helping this player out.

PF Power Attack isn't crap. It's just different. But I do prefer and allow 3.5 version.
We are using mostly PF rules with 3.5 material as addition, with some small exceptions. Almost everything should be in my houserules (link in my sig).

As for stats: at least 7th level (eventually he'll level up a few times). Race not set, but we'd prefer something non-monstrous, human or half-orc would be fine for example. Levels mostly in Hunter, but some dips are allowed, wilderness abilities are important. Ability scores are elite array plus the Advanced Template (for free) (which means 19, 18, 17, 16, 14, 12).