I have a ranger now and am thinking of making him into a shadow dancer. I plan on playing a ranger in my multiplayer game, but I will probably be the only fighter type. Do you guys think I'll still be able to be a good tank with a ranger/shadow dancer? Or maybe an arcane archer? Any suggestions?

Thanks a bunch.

p.s. I basically want a good tank with some cool abilities.

[ December 31, 2003, 10:36: Message edited by: Shadow Druid ]

Although his abilities are somewhat geared towards a backstabbing playing style, I think the Shadowdancer can tank pretty well thanks to Shadow Evade. This gives him an AC bonus, damage reduction and a concealment bonus, hence you'll take less damage. Couple this to tumble as a class skill which increases his AC and (Improved) Evasion to shrug off trap and spell damage and there isn't that much that can hurt him.

I basically want a good tank with some cool abilities.
If that is really what you want, my advise would be Monk. They have more attacks than the game engine can draw on screen (at least in my case), they have incredible AC, alot of really cool items and feats.

The problem with a monk is that they make awful tanks early on.

I think a ranger/shadowdancer would be pretty good, as if you get in trouble while tanking, you can just hide in plain site, heal, and get back into it. At the same time you'll be versatile and a good scout.

Im planning on doing the samething with the ranger/shadowdancer. I wanted some opinions on what level I should go out of the ranger class.

I think you should try to take advantage of the Ranger dual-wielding so at least level 9. But since then it's only one level to get your next favorite enemy go for level 10. Shadowdancer should be level 10 also. Then it depends what you want to do.
So the order to take the levels:
Ranger to level 7
Shadowdancer to level 2
Ranger to level 10
Shadowdancer to level 10
That's how I would take it (and have taken it). Afterwards you have to choose what you want to maximise, the Ranger's favorite enemies and casting or the Shadowdancer's Shadow Evade and summoned Shadow. So choose one of both (I suggest not trying to maximise both) and get that class to level 30.