Welcome to TD! It sounds like you had as much of a blast on your first TD run as I did. Well, it only gets better.<br />I hope that I can help with some of your questions.<br /><br />1. Is it known yet of the new '08 weapons which ones the Ranger can wield in the off-hand?<br />The official 2008 Token Guide isn't out yet but we can take an educated guess. In general Rangers cannot use medium one handed weapons in their off-hand, so while they can use a longsword in their main hand slot, it must be a smaller weapon in the off hand.<br />Known approved off hand '08 weapons:<br />Orcish Dirk<br />Short Sword<br />+1 Short Sword<br />and the awesome<br />+1 Mithral Long Sword<br /><br />2. Are there any reds and lower from '07 that I should try to get? <br />I may get kicked out of the Tokeners Union for saying it but, no, unless you eventually feel the primal call of the tokens in your dreams as many of us do (I swear that I dreamed that I was in the dungeon with my tokens the other day. I'll save it for Tokenholics anon) you really don't need anything as a ranger from the 2007 or lower block. For all practical purposes, you can get pretty much excellent gear for most any character you play with the right combination of a few rares that suit you.<br />No, wait, I take that back. Looking over the token list for 2008 I notice that there is not a rare ranged weapon that rangers can use (Thunderstones excepted). It seems pretty strange that rangers can use the uncommon Heavy Crossbow and not the rare Heavy Repeating Crossbow. Are the Rangers allergic to the repeating mechanism or something? You might consider trying to get a +1 Longbow from the 2007 block. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone willing to trade one.<br /><br />3. Do you generally take more than the minimum amount of items for a slot to switch in-between in a dungeon? (Are there slots you cannot switch out during in the dungeon?)<br />For the most part... no. Since most of the stats that you have a tabulated at the beginning of the game there is no reason to switch out most things. If you had better armor to swap into, wouldn't you be wearing it? Mostly people swap weapons and rings as the different situations arise. It is sometimes nice to have a gadget for every occasion that could occur within a dungeon but mostly people bring things like:<br />A switch between their range and melee weapons so that they can do damage on that first attack, even if a cleric with a sling feels lame doing it, it may be 1 more point or damage towards victory, or give another player's puck that extra nudge to the crit if you are good.<br />Hopefully some potions of healing, maybe some potions of bull str or water breathing, maybe frost resistance.<br />Lastly, some random equipment. Nothing says "Dedicated Adventurer" more than seeing someone carry 2,700 ft or rope into the dungeon "just in case". Twine, a grappling hook, flint and tinder, hammer and spike, vial of ink, 183 slings jumbled in one HUGE knot. Stuff like that.<br /><br />Equipment suggestions for Ranger:<br />The next step from Reinforced Leather AC 4 is Elvin Chainmail AC 5. Your choice if you want to try for one.<br />+1 Longbow. See above.<br />+1 Heavy Mace Rawks! Stay the course.<br />Dagger... not so much. A short sword should be easy to get but you could consider aiming for the +1 short sword, it should be pretty easy to trade for or buy with minimal gold (50gp maybe). If no +1 Short Sword is available, get a Ring of the Serpent, a 2008 uncommon. Next best thing.<br />Sigh, I lied again about the '07 or lower tokens, you may want to try to find three or four Masterwork Arrows for when you really need to kill something. As a common and useful consumable item that wasn't printed this year they might not be as thick on the ground (in several places in the dungeon quite literally,) as they were last year.<br />You don't need Bracers of Archery but they do seem to be quite suited for Rangers.<br />You don't need a cloak of curses but it couldn't hurt (you).<br />You don't need a Ring of Protection +1 but in general, the more AC you have, the more alive you stay.<br />You don't need Gauntlets of Ogre Power but as you do two attacks at once they really are twice as useful to you.<br />You don't need a Faceted Amber Ioun Stone but it would probably help you take less damage if you want to keep attacking with your ranged weapon.<br /><br />I hope that I answered most of your questions but please keep asking them if you have any more.<br /><br />Have fun this year and good luck with your tokens!<br />
You can't spell slaughter without laughter.
).<br /><br />This year I'm working on getting them to go in on a a token purchase so we won't be so skimpy on gear. I'm wanting to get gear primarily for a Ranger and secondly a Paladin and had a few questions since I noticed that not all of the tokens from '07 are in '08. <br /><br />1. Is it known yet of the new '08 weapons which ones the Ranger can wield in the off-hand?<br />2. Are there any reds and lower from '07 that I should try to get? <br />3. Do you generally take more than the minimum amount of items for a slot to switch in-between in a dungeon? (Are there slots you cannot switch out during in the dungeon?)<br /><br /><br />If you can think of any more gear suggestions for me that I may not be asking please let me know. Thanks and I'm looking forward to TD again this year. <br /> 
