Are there post-WotL stats for Tanis in any of the SP books? I know he's a 6th-lvl Fighter in the WotL book, but I'm wondering about later on...
Not yet! Tanis, like his wife Laurana, is a good candidate for legendary tactician and master ambassador, but there aren't any official 3rd edition stats for him in his later years. Dragonlance Adventures, for 1st edition AD&D, puts him at 12th level at the end of the War of the Lance (the Legends era), but 1st edition levels don't really mean anything after around 10th level when it comes to translation, simply because that's when most AD&D classes shifted into "name level" and relatively little changes. Most D&D characters of higher levels are incredibly powerful compared to their AD&D counterparts.
Cheers,
Cam
Thanks.
(edit: hmmm, the Legendary Tactician looks good as well! Choices, choices...)
I'd say at the beginning of the WOTL, Tanis is 3rd. level ranger, 2nd level fighter.
Afterwards, I'd say 3rd. Level ranger, 6th level fighter.
But, that's my opinion.
Fifth level fighter?
I'd say at the beginning of the WOTL, Tanis is 3rd. level ranger, 2nd level fighter.
Afterwards, I'd say 3rd. Level ranger, 6th level fighter.
But, that's my opinion.
Right. Not so much with the animal companion and wild empathy and other ranger traits. He can get all of the skills and talents he needs from fighter levels. You realize that wearing buckskin leathers and carrying a longbow doesn't automatically put you into the ranger club, right?
Cheers,
Cam
Right. Not so much with the animal companion and wild empathy and other ranger traits. He can get all of the skills and talents he needs from fighter levels. You realize that wearing buckskin leathers and carrying a longbow doesn't automatically put you into the ranger club, right?
Cheers,
Cam
Same can be said for having ranks in Survival or being 'woodscrafty'.
I don't have the WotL book, so I haven't actually seen his stats anyway. But good point nonetheless...
Really, though, Tanis is more of a "wildnerness fighter". He's got the Track feat, he can survive in the wilderness, etc.
The best example of a D&D ranger in DL are the Bundesphar, who fight with 2 weapons and have the Wulfbunde as animal companions.
We know he can track, is reasonably good at spotting, searching, hiding, moving silently and all the other stuff 6+ skill points per level can come in handy for.
As well Dragonhelm, the 3.5 revision offers a "archery" feat tree as an alternate path to two weapon fighting.
So you could make him a strict fighter, but not giving a few levels in Ranger seems needlessly complicated to me. Why not just give him the ranger levels rather than trying to make a fighter look like a ranger? Use the fighter levels to show his increased competance with a single sword, and the ranger levels to show his competence with a bow, plus his woodland skills.
I agree about Tanis having ranger levels, actualy. I think he got 1-4 levels as ranger, then went fighter. I'd say he got Legendary Tactician and maybe a level or two in Master Ambassador around the end of the War of the Lance. I'd put him over 10th level definately when he died(Ranger 2/Fighter 6/Legendary Tactician 4/Master Ambassador 2 possibly, landing him at 14th level)
I encourage people to give the various characters their own stats if they don't necessarily agree with the official versions. There's no reason not to do that if you'd rather do it differently, and gaming supplements, modules, and sourcebooks are all resources for your specific gaming experience, rather than being obstacles to your enjoyment.
But, well, folks asked, and we answered. There you go.
Cheers,
Cam
I encourage people to give the various characters their own stats if they don't necessarily agree with the official versions. There's no reason not to do that if you'd rather do it differently, and gaming supplements, modules, and sourcebooks are all resources for your specific gaming experience, rather than being obstacles to your enjoyment.
Remember as well that the Nexus is open for hosting variants, so feel free to send them our way.
1 level in Ranger, IF that, and the rest fighter. I might even toss a level of Rogue in there (obviously based on the Spot/Hide/Move/Listen type of skills, over the traps based) from his years with Flint, when he was younger.
I myself agree with about 2 levels of Ranger for Tanis. THe FIghters skill points are simply inadequate, IMO, to represent Tains(although I haven't yet seen his stats, so I'm not for sure). Actually, the Thug from Unearthed Arcana makes a much beter fit for Tanis, except I hate the name given to it.
The thug's not very appropriate for Tanis. It sacrifices medium and heavy armor for Bluff, Gather Info, Knowledge (local) and Sleight of Hand, and picks up Urban Tracking at 1st level instead of a bonus fighter feat. It's intended to be used for the type of rowdy rough-housing urban hired muscle, crime boss, or grunt that you see in urban fantasy novels, not conflicted half-elven leader types.
6th level Tanis has respectable skills, covering Gather Information, Survival, and Diplomacy, as well as the alertness-based skills he needs to handle himself independently. His real hallmark is that he's a natural leader and can take care of himself, in spite of his burdens. You'll note that in the seond half of Chronicles the leather-and-bow vision of him from early on is replaced by a competent (if deeply conflicted) commander who turns around and proves himself in the end by defeating Ariakas - with a sword, and in heavy armor.
Cheers,
Cam
I would say he dresses like a ranger mainly because of the fact that he was raised in qualinost and they tend to be closer to the woods than their more city inclined cousins the Silvinesti.
As far as how Tanis got his woodcraft skills I would lean more towards the Rogue class, sorta like a scout then a ranger. I mean let's think about this for a minute. He is a half-elf that is raised in an elven community. He was bound to be teased and picked on as a kid. I mean I know the kids he was raised around were elves but come on, kids will still be kids. So i could see him picking up a few levels of rogue in order to snag some of those important look-out skills (spot, search, listen, etc...) then you also got to remember that his guardians probably did not want him to go out in public too much as they would not want to publicize what happened to Tanis's father.
And speaking of which Tanis's father was a rogue so it is not like it would not fit. So let's see if we give Tanis 3 levels of fighter that should take care of all or at least most of his scout skills. Then just tack on some fighter levels specializing in bowcraft and there we have it.
Alright let's take a look at the heroes of the lance and see what we have
Tanis - Half-Elf (resident half-elf) - Fighter\ranger?\Rogue? (resident mulitclasser)
Sturm - Human - Knight (resident paladin)
Raist - Human - Wizard (resident wiz)
Caramon - Human - Fighter (resident fighter)
Flint - Dwarf (resident dwarf) - Fighter
Tasselhoff - Kender (resident Halfling\kender) - Rogue (resident rogue)
Riverwind - Human - Ranger (resident ranger)
Goldmoon - Human - Cleric (resident cleric)
Tika - Human - Fighter\Rogue -
Laurana - Elf (resident elf) - Fighter -
So everyone plays a role or fills a slot for a certain purpose, granted Tika and Laurana came later. Tanis is the Half & Half and this (at least in 2e) was who had typically portrayed the multiclass role. Yes I know tanis never seemed to have a backstab attack, at least not until he attacked Ariakus.