I never said AoO DC was 10, nor did I ever say that tumble was a class skill.
Every dex based tank is going to put points into tumble anyway, because it gives AC and AoO protection. (and rangers have an easier time doing so than fighters, because they get 2 more skills per level than fighters do) I also wouldn't use skill focus for tumble, because (again) you're going to be raising your dex and putting ranks into tumble anyway. This way you have no wasted feats, and while the skill is cross class you're still getting valuable ac and AoO immunity from it. You could get to +14 effective tumble as early as lvl 8 or 9. (If you're a little short, it's not hard to wear +tumble gear to keep your character at 14 till you eventually have it naturally)
It is not difficult to have decent int on a ranger if you start with 16 dex. I think I posted it earlier in this thread, but you can go with:
str:10
dex:16
con:10
int:13
wis:14
cha:8
and you still have 5 points to play around with to make your character unique. (personally I'd always go with 14 int at least for tanky classes to get expertise and skill points)
You start talking about ranger vs rogue pvp balance, which I personally don't care about. Rogue's are great at pvp, sure, but that doesn't make them any better at tanking for a party, which is what I was talking about earlier.
Then pick your choise which skill you wish to leave behind. Parry? Spot? Hide? MS? Discipline?
Because that is what tumble focus will grant you, and these 5 are a must for a ranger. Not to mention some points in healing and aemp as i see the class are a necessity as well.
Also your str will not be enough. You will need to carry a LOT of items, and even with 60%-er bags you will not manage.(i currently use 21, but i would need 6!!! more, to be comfortable, but 21 is allready a limit, i think i have allready passed)
And i simply replied about your rogue vs ranger pvp. A rogue in most cases will even in a normal PVM outshine a ranger, simply because of the power of the UMD.
And on this server, UMD is a huge addition. Also actually a rogue can easily have higher AC than a ranger, and it can easily get quite a good hp as well.
A ranger when he gets a party together in your account will need to have all the buffers available to him, so all he gives in is his HP. For which you are better off with a barbarian then.
It is not the fighting capabilities, that are the major problem. It is that a ranger, cannot fullfill his role. He simply cant, because he lacks feats and/or skills.
He lacks saves. He lacks usefull spells. His animal companion is now more a hindrance than an advantage.
Anyway currently i think rangers instead of bow should go with throwing axes. However it is just the seer weight of those that make them hindered in their use.
So i dunno, is steel throwing axes available? Or not, if not then some throwing axes, that are restricted to the ranger class only, and would have a d6 damage with at least 40% but preferably 60% weight reduction would be good for them.
(Like Woodman's throwing axes +1 d6 blunt, and 60% weight reduction class restriction rangers only)
