I once wrote a little mod to upgrade Rangers to roughly match the so-called "Monte Cook" Ranger. (You can Google "Monte Cook Ranger" if you want to look at the details of this version of the ranger class.)
These are the basic elements that define the official "Monte Cook" ranger.
A. 1d8 instead of 1d10 for Hit Points
B. Improved Reflex Save bonuses
C. Slightly improved spell progression
D. More skill points
E. Bonus Feats (from a list of specific feats)
F. Tracking ability at level 1
G. New and more ranger specific spells and feats
H. The removal of the virtual dual-wielding feat
My minimalist mod included:
Slightly improved spell progression
More skill points (a base of 3 sp per level-up instead of 2)
Bonus Feats (a general feat point every 4th level starting at level 1; i.e. 1, 5, 9, etc.)
Not as focused (i.e. on a limited choice of feats) as the "monte cook" or 3.5e calls for, but workable within the limitations of the engine.
Tracking ability (automatically gave the ranger the Forester feat and 1 sp in Wilderness Lore at creation)
This was a fairly easy mini-mod to create, since it only relied on changing 5 2DA files. It ended up making pure rangers a little more fun to play.
BTW, pure rangers can be surprisingly useful in HOF, since by that time, they have the ability to cast some useful summoning spells, while remaining effective tanks.
Jelaweb,
I've also been slowly working on a mod that would incorporate some 3.5e stuff, as well as some other stuff ... new stores, new items, etc.
Trying to emulate that list of 3.5 ranger stuff is extremely difficult or impossible with normal IE modding methods. I've actually spent a fair amount of time thinking about it.
I've been able to write code that would make rangers
effectively be a 1d8 class and have the Reflex saves, both as defined by the 3.5ed rulebook. Also, setting rangers to start with only light armor prof and a base of 3 sp/level was also easy (just modifying 2DA files).
Domi,
The closest that I think that one can come to creating an animal companion special "ability" would be to create a special ability button that would cast a summoning spell for a specific creature, probably usable once a day, but with a decent duration. However, like any other summons, it would not be able to pass from area to area. There would be limitations on the types of companions possible. That is, you'd probably be limited to whatever animations already exist in the game. The simplest would probably be some sort of wolf companion, since there are some wold animations, and various incarnations of wolves and dire wolves in the game's CRE files.
Giving Rapid Shot at creation is uber-easy. Just a modification of the FEATS.2DA file.
Allowing weapon specialization (i.e. 3 points) in Bow is not doable without a DLL, since to my knowledge, this is a hardcoded limitation.
"Improved" dual wielding? According to the 3.5e manual, IDW lets you get a 2nd extra attack with your offhand weapon. Since IWD2 already limits the maximum number of attacks at 5, I don't really think that this feat would matter much, as is. Furthermore, it would require some sort of DLL to implement. Even if one wanted to go your suggested route of "to hit bonuses when dual-wielding", without a DLL, I don't really think that there's any way to code this sort of bonus, since I don't think that there's anyway to know if you are dual-wielding.
Let's face it. When it comes to modifying classes, unless you can write DLL's to modify the base IWD2-IE program, you are limited to whatever changes can be done with changes thru the 2DA files.
3.5e basically sets to possible paths for rangers... an archer path and a dual-wielding path. Unfortunately, modifications to support any sort of improved dual wielding path are not do-able without DLL's. I suppose that one could widen that thought to say that the dual-wielding path could be a general melee path. But even that, other than just giving rangers extra feats to spend any way they chose (which is a doable thing), there's no real way to make them get better in only one path.
Perhaps the "best" (such as it is) way to "improve" rangers is to go the Monte Cook direction, since much of it is implementable. And just give the rangers extra feat points to use as they choose. If they choose to be archers, fine. If they choose to be melee warriors, fine. And if they choose to spend those feats on other things, oh well.
Geeez, enough rambling on my part.
