I love this build for it's versatility and viability in most roles, it can be a replacement for your vacant rogue, your now dead because of overextending fighter, ammunition empty archer (if you put a bit attribute points in dex), or your lacking barbarian tank (with a bit of points in con). It's also one of the few builds I know of that can go strength, still have enough dex for lighter armors and still be good on the go, I guess there's builds that can do that with buffs, but not others that can mix strength and lighter armor without buffs.
21Ranger/5Master Scout/4 Fighter
Any*
Starting Stats:
Str: 17 or 19 for an even score at the end of the build, this is where the races are a bit restricted
Wis: 14 is recommended for all of the ranger spells, though to get that could be hard.
Int: minimum 12 is recommended
*The strength is the most important stat for dev, so it may be hard to make this build on halfling and gnome based characters. Humans and elves should do fine, depending on the subrace, I haven't looked too closely at Half orcs and dwarves, but they should do fine as well.
When it comes to the other attributes do as you wish, keep a high con for decent hp, as the build will lack it a bit because of the 5 Master Scout levels, or go for a higher dex so you can run around with a greataxe in your undies
You can focus con and drop the hide/ms and remain in your plate armor, or put more points in dex and become a decent sneak. So anyway: here's the lvl progress:
Ranger: 1-21
1: power attack or favoured enemy:
2:
3: weapon focus
4: +1 Str
5: favoured enemy:
6: Cleave, animal companion: panther (suggested*)
7:
8:+1 Str
9:improved critical
10:Favored enemy
11:
12: greater cleave +1 str
13:
14:
15: Favored enemy, skill focus: spot
16: +1 str
17:
18: Skill focus: listen
19:
20: +1 str, favored enemy
21: Bane of Enemies, remember to take the skills required for Master Scout:
Craft Trap 2 ranks, Set Trap 2 ranks, Discipline 8 ranks, Spot 2 ranks, Listen 2 ranks, Search 2 ranks and Lore 6 ranks
22 (fighter1): Weapon Focus
23-27 (Master Scout 1-5):
23: Great Strength 1
24: Overwhelming critical, +1 str
25:
26:
27: Armor skin, great strength 2 (tumble drop!)
28 (fighter): +1 Str, devestating critical
29 (fighter):
30 (fighter): Weapon specialization, epic weapon specialization
You strength should be 26 or 28
Personally preferred favored enemies: human, elf, outsider, giant, undead
Animal companion: I don't know all the different companions stats, but for this build I'd suggest one meant to deal damage, because you'll just take 21 ranger levels even tanky companions will be on the squishier side, but at least a dps one has other uses.
NOTE: skills: you constantly want to lvl up discipline and tumble once you reach Master Scout. Despite having 5 skill points each level at average, the amount of skill points you have to use to get Master Scout, and the 2 skillpoints each level for 4 fighter levels means that you won't be able to max out more than 4 skills, discipline and tumble are mandatory.
Pros:
Situationally high ab (+2 against favoured enemy, +2 in natural areas)
Situationally high unbuffed damage each hit (against favoured enemies: +5+2d6) while generally having high damage each hit because it's strength based
a lvl 21 ranger companion
Ranger spells, especially purge invisibility, mass camouflage, camouflage, bladethirst and polymorph are useful at epic levels aswel
it's a viable stealth build, despite being strength based
It's a build with a lot of viable solutions when it comes to skills
It has the surprising arsenal of the Master Scouts, and also has it's own eternal supply of str/dex/con potions
perma-freedom
Cons:
Weaker companion than it's ranger 25/Fighter 4/Rogue 1 counterpart, also weaker bonus against favoured enemies.
Less hp than the mentioned build
no umd
no dodge
no blindfight
It's power is rather situational
no kd
featstarved
For drow, or strongheart halflings, just ignore the last 2 levels of the build, you'll lose the weapon specialization feats, but can get all of the other nice things.
PS: If you're rolling this build and got concerns or questions, don't be afraid to send me a pm or a tell IG!