The Trapper

So, this build is all about being a hunter. A master trapper, who will use both brute strength and clever traps placed strategically on the battlefield to absolutely destroy its enemies. We will be taking the Trapper Archetype and the Horizon Walker Prestige Class. Our leveling should look like the following:

Class

Ranger 6/Horizon Walker 10/Ranger +4

Race

Half-Orc, put that floating +2 into Strength. Take the Sacred Tattoos Alternative Racial Feature.

Ability Scores

15Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 12/Cha 13 Increase your Cha by 1, then everything else in Str

20Point-Buy

Str 17/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 13/Cha 14 Put everything in Str

25Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 14 Put everything in Str.

Traits

Unnatural Presence will allow intimidating animals and vermins, Armor Expert will reduce our Armor Penalty which is nice.

Favored Class Bonus

We will predominantly be in melee, so yeah, HP.

Skills

Stealth, Perception and Survival are no-brainers, and we need Knowledge(Geography), Intimidate and Disable Devices.

Feats by Level

1-Power Attack

Combat Style

2-Intimidating Prowess

3-Dirty Fighting

Ranger Bonus 3-Endurance

5-Companion Boon

Combat Style

6-Shatter Defenses

7-Cornugon Smash

9-Heavy Armor Proficiency

11-Improved Grapple

13-Greater Grapple

15-Weapon Focus(Greataxe)

17-Skill Focus(Intimidate)

19-Improved Initiative

Combat Style

20-Dreadful Carnage

Yep, the ranger too can be a Cornugon Smash build. They also can get, via the Menacing Combat Style, Shatter Defenses by level 6 which is stupid. Power Attack and Improved Grapple take care of the rest.

Animal Companion

Just take a Wolf and be done with it. Have it focus on the Trip maneuver.

Traps

So, we learn a handful of traps throughout our career. I recommend traps that will enhance our Snare Trap or our Wounding Trap which will be our starting two.

Horizon Walker

So the question here becomes “why are we taking all 10 levels of Horizon Walker” for this build?

Terrain Dominance is my answer. See, all three terrains we will choose Dominance for, we will be able to add its Favored Terrain Bonus as a Favored Enemy bonus.

And if this isn’t clear enough, our bonus here can become downright gigantic. Pick the Favored Terrains that your campaign most heavily focus on. In doubt, Mountain, contains almost 1/3rd of all creatures in the game. You can get a bonus here as massive as +18 on Attacks and Damage. Let that number alone sink in for a moment. That bonus applies on all your attacks, all your damage, all your traps… That’s crazy.

Equipment

Pick a good old Greataxe and the best armor you can afford and go to town. Eventually upgrade to a full plate armor. Make sure to choose enchantments that will help your Stealth as you do remain a ranger.

Final Thoughts on the Build

Okay, so, you have downright bullshit attack and damage bonuses from your Terrains, which can be anywhere between +4 and +18 depending on how you chose them, which means some colossal amounts of damage with that greataxe of yours (by lvl 18, we are talking, with a +18 Terrain, an attack routine of +35/+30/+25/+20 for 1d12+42 per attacks before including Traps and your Wolf Companion, nor buffs or magic items).

That is terrifying. And you still have two more levels to go. And that’s on top of Shatter Defenses+Cornugon Smash. Downright good build.