I may be joining a level 3 3.5 game soonish...

[Burpcycle]

I would like play a wildshape ranger/master of many forms, but obviously this only becomes useful at level 5. What can I do to be useful up to level 5? I don't know much about rangers. I've heard about some kind of build that lets you cast wizard spells?

[wotmaniac]

well, you lose your combat forms; so I'd say Power Attack + 2-handed weapon ....
* you really only need to rely on it for 3 levels; and at those levels, it's not that hard
* the feat is still useful once you hit MoMF
I was in this exact situation, and it worked out just fine.

/2cp

[ksbsnowowl]

The Knight of the Arcane Order feat from Champions of Valor allows you to prepare wizard spells from a spellbook using your ranger spell slots.

Also look into the Shooting Star Ranger substitution level from the same book.  It trades your animal companion for an extra spell slot of each spell level, as if from a high wisdom score.

The two are explicitly compatible, as Shooting Star Rangers are members of the Arcane Order.

[Burpcycle]

well, you lose your combat forms; so I'd say Power Attack + 2-handed weapon ....
* you really only need to rely on it for 3 levels; and at those levels, it's not that hard
* the feat is still useful once you hit MoMF
I was in this exact situation, and it worked out just fine.

/2cp

The problem is that I'm dumping strength and dexterity because I'll be shapeshifted most of the time.

[muktidata]

Wild Cohort
Mystic Ranger
Shooting Star
Magical Training
Sword of the of the Arcane Order

[Burpcycle]

The Knight of the Arcane Order feat from Champions of Valor allows you to prepare wizard spells from a spellbook using your ranger spell slots.

Also look into the Shooting Star Ranger substitution level from the same book.  It trades your animal companion for an extra spell slot of each spell level, as if from a high wisdom score.

The two are explicitly compatible, as Shooting Star Rangers are members of the Arcane Order.

This looks interesting, but does this not leave you with a ranger who will presumably have poor int and spell slots based on his awful ranger spell slot progression?

[jywu98]

Take the Mystic Ranger variant from Dragon Magazine 336. They have better spell progression.

[Jackinthegreen]

The Knight of the Arcane Order feat from Champions of Valor allows you to prepare wizard spells from a spellbook using your ranger spell slots.

Also look into the Shooting Star Ranger substitution level from the same book.  It trades your animal companion for an extra spell slot of each spell level, as if from a high wisdom score.

The two are explicitly compatible, as Shooting Star Rangers are members of the Arcane Order.

This looks interesting, but does this not leave you with a ranger who will presumably have poor int and spell slots based on his awful ranger spell slot progression?

Many wizard spells tend to trump ranger spells (and class features), though there are definitely some gems on the ranger list.  Int isn't an issue of you select spells that don't allow a save, and you can still cast the spells with an Int of 14.  If you go with the Mystic Ranger setup (don't know if Dragon Mag is allowed, but just in case it is) then you'd still only need a 15 int max, and items can help with that.

If items are iffy due to wild shaping, remember that Wilding Clasps do exist from Masters of the Wild.  MotW is a 3.0 book, but the Clasp itself needs no updating.  It allows wearing a necklace and/or vest slot item, though it can be used for a cloak or other shoulder item from the description.

[ksbsnowowl]

Wilding clasps were reprinted (no changes) in MIC.

[muktidata]

Wild Cohort
Mystic Ranger
Shooting Star
Magical Training
Sword of the of the Arcane Order

[Scottzar]

Sword of the Arcane Order Mystic Ranger is crazy good. You get sorcerer level casting on your full BaB chasis, and while I think your class features are delayed, you can still swap them out for wildshape and stuff.

SofAO Wildshape MR with shooting star is equivalent to a full BAD, animal companion-less druid, basically, for the first 10 levels. I'd suggest going ranger10 MoMF 10 instead of 5/10/Warshaper 5 or whatever build you are using, because level 5 wizard spells is great.

[muktidata]

Wild Cohort gets you your animal companion.