Ranger Class Details
| Primary Ability | Dexterity and Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Hit Point Die | D10 per Ranger level |
| Saving Throw Proficiencies | Strength and Dexterity |
| Skill Proficiencies | Choose 3: Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, or Survival |
| Weapon Proficiencies | Simple and Martial weapons |
| Armor Training | Light and Medium armor and Shields |
| Starting Equipment | Choose A or B: (A) Studded Leather Armor, Scimitar, Shortsword, Longbow, 20 Arrows, Quiver, Druidic Focus (sprig of mistletoe), Explorer’s Pack, and 7 GP; or (B) 150 GP |
Far from bustling cities, amid the trees of trackless forests and across wide plains, Rangers keep their unending watch in the wilderness. Rangers learn to track their quarry as a predator does, moving stealthily through the wilds and hiding themselves in brush and rubble.
Thanks to their connection with nature, Rangers can also cast spells that harness primal powers of the wilderness. A Ranger’s talents and magic are honed with deadly focus to protect the world from the ravages of monsters and tyrants.
Becoming a Ranger...
As a Level 1 Character
- Gain all the traits in the Core Ranger Traits table.
- Gain the Ranger’s level 1 features, which are listed in the Ranger Features table.
As a Multiclass Character
- Gain the following traits from the Core Ranger Traits table: Hit Point Die, proficiency with Martial weapons, proficiency in one skill of your choice from the Ranger’s skill list, and training with Light and Medium armor and Shields.
- Gain the Ranger’s level 1 features, which are listed in the Ranger Features table. See the multiclassing rules to determine your available spell slots.
| —Spell Slots per Spell Level— | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Class Features | Favored Enemy | Prepared Spells | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 1 | +2 | Spellcasting, Favored Enemy, Weapon Mastery | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | +2 | Deft Explorer, Fighting Style | 2 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | +2 | Ranger Subclass | 2 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 2 | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | +3 | Extra Attack | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 6 | +3 | Roving | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 7 | +3 | Subclass feature | 3 | 7 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 8 | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 | 7 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 9 | +4 | Expertise | 4 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 10 | +4 | Tireless | 4 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 11 | +4 | Subclass feature | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 12 | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 13 | +5 | Relentless Hunter | 5 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 14 | +5 | Nature’s Veil | 5 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 15 | +5 | Subclass feature | 5 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 16 | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 17 | +6 | Precise Hunter | 6 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 18 | +6 | Feral Senses | 6 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 19 | +6 | Epic Boon | 6 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20 | +6 | Foe Slayer | 6 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Ranger Class Features
As a Ranger, you gain the following class features when you reach the specified Ranger levels. These features are listed in the Ranger Features table.
Level 1: Spellcasting
You have learned to channel the magical essence of nature to cast spells.
Spell Slots. The Ranger Features table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your level 1+ spells. You regain all expended slots when you finish a Long Rest.
Prepared Spells of Level 1+. You prepare the list of level 1+ spells that are available for you to cast with this feature. To start, choose two level 1 Ranger spells.
The number of spells on your list increases as you gain Ranger levels, as shown in the Prepared Spells column of the Ranger Features table. Whenever that number increases, choose additional Ranger spells until the number of spells on your list matches the number in the Ranger Features table. The chosen spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, if you’re a level 5 Ranger, your list of prepared spells can include six Ranger spells of level 1 or 2 in any combination.
If another Ranger feature gives you spells that you always have prepared, those spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare with this feature, but those spells otherwise count as Ranger spells for you.
Changing Your Prepared Spells. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can replace one spell on your list with another Ranger spell for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your Ranger spells.
Spellcasting Focus. You can use a Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus for your Ranger spells.
Level 1: Favored Enemy
You always have the Hunter’s Mark spell prepared. You can cast it twice without expending a spell slot, and you regain all expended uses of this ability when you finish a Long Rest.
The number of times you can cast the spell without a spell slot increases when you reach certain Ranger levels.
Level 1: Weapon Mastery
Your training with weapons allows you to use the mastery properties of two kinds of weapons of your choice with which you have proficiency, such as Longbows and Shortswords.
Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can change the kinds of weapons you chose. For example, you could switch to using the mastery properties of Scimitars and Longswords.
Level 2: Deft Explorer
Thanks to your travels, you gain the following benefits.
Expertise. Choose one of your skill proficiencies with which you lack Expertise. You gain Expertise in that skill.
Languages. You know two languages of your choice.
Level 2: Fighting Style
You gain a Fighting Style feat of your choice. Instead of choosing one of those feats, you can choose the option below.
Druidic Warrior
You learn two Druid cantrips of your choice. The chosen cantrips count as Ranger spells for you, and Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for them. Whenever you gain a Ranger level, you can replace one of these cantrips with another Druid cantrip.
Level 3: Ranger Subclass
You gain a Ranger subclass of your choice. A subclass is a specialization that grants you features at certain Ranger levels. For the rest of your career, you gain each of your subclass’s features that are of your Ranger level or lower.
Level 4: Ability Score Improvement
You gain the Ability Score Improvement feat or another feat of your choice for which you qualify. You gain this feature again at Ranger levels 8, 12, and 16.
Level 5: Extra Attack
You can attack twice instead of once whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Level 6: Roving
Your Speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing Heavy armor. You also have a Climb Speed and a Swim Speed equal to your Speed.
Level 9: Expertise
Choose two of your skill proficiencies with which you lack Expertise. You gain Expertise in those skills.
Level 10: Tireless
Primal forces now help fuel you on your journeys, granting you the following benefits.
Temporary Hit Points. As a Magic action, you can give yourself a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to 1d8 plus your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1). You can use this action a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Decrease Exhaustion. Whenever you finish a Short Rest, your Exhaustion level, if any, decreases by 1.
Level 13: Relentless Hunter
Taking damage can’t break your Concentration on Hunter’s Mark.
Level 14: Nature’s Veil
You invoke spirits of nature to magically hide yourself. As a Bonus Action, you can give yourself the Invisible condition until the end of your next turn.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Level 17: Precise Hunter
You have Advantage on attack rolls against the creature currently marked by your Hunter’s Mark.
Level 18: Feral Senses
Your connection to the forces of nature grants you Blindsight with a range of 30 feet.
Level 19: Epic Boon
You gain an Epic Boon feat or another feat of your choice for which you qualify.
Level 20: Foe Slayer
The damage die of your Hunter’s Mark is a d10 rather than a d6.
Ranger Subclasses
A Ranger subclass is a specialization that grants you features at certain Ranger levels, as specified in the subclass.
Hunter
Protect Nature and People from Destruction
You stalk prey in the wilds and elsewhere, using your abilities as a Hunter to protect nature and people everywhere from forces that would destroy them.
Level 3: Hunter’s Lore
You can call on the forces of nature to reveal certain strengths and weaknesses of your prey. While a creature is marked by your Hunter’s Mark, you know whether that creature has any Immunities, Resistances, or Vulnerabilities, and if the creature has any, you know what they are.
Level 3: Hunter’s Prey
You gain one of the following feature options of your choice. Whenever you finish a Short or Long Rest, you can replace the chosen option with the other one.
Colossus Slayer
Your tenacity can wear down even the most resilient foes. When you hit a creature with a weapon, the weapon deals an extra 1d8 damage to the target if it’s missing any of its Hit Points. You can deal this extra damage only once per turn.
Horde Breaker
Once on each of your turns when you make an attack with a weapon, you can make another attack with the same weapon against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target, that is within the weapon’s range, and that you haven’t attacked this turn.
Level 7: Defensive Tactics
You gain one of the following feature options of your choice. Whenever you finish a Short or Long Rest, you can replace the chosen option with the other one.
Level 11: Superior Hunter’s Prey
Once per turn when you deal damage to a creature marked by your Hunter’s Mark, you can also deal that spell’s extra damage to a different creature that you can see within 30 feet of the first creature.
Level 15: Superior Hunter’s Defense
When you take damage, you can take a Reaction to give yourself Resistance to that damage and any other damage of the same type until the end of the current turn.
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Posted Jan 25, 2025Great spot, this is pretty annoying.
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Posted Jan 25, 2025Hunter’s Lore should have given you the creatures type. Especially since they are changing a bunch of monster types.
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Posted Jan 25, 2025The 'Heavy' property on RANGED weapons make it so it requires a 13 DEX to use it properly, not strength. When the 'Heavy' property is on a MELEE weapon is when it needs 13 STR. And you can change your Weapon Mastery choices at the end of a long rest. Those two points really aren't worth speaking about, the first being just wrong, the second being able to be changed.
They did however drop the ball with tying a lot of features to Hunter's Mark and still making it require concentration. I have a feeling a LOT of tables will make that change though.
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Posted Jan 25, 2025The ranger really reflects a lot about what I hate about the 2024 D&D rules... in particular going way back to having basic character archetypes and squashing originality or even basic flavour. Being wedded to Hunter's Mark was only one mistake. Requiring 13STR to use Heavy Weapons, pretty much makes a Longbow, the basic weapon of the ranger, a bad choice because now you have to sacrifice WIS or CON, especially if using a Standard Array for stats. Weapon Mastery further limits basic flavour by making weapon choice even more tied to mechanics. Sad WoTC didn't put more thought into this. I was honestly looking forward to the 2024 rules, but now that I've been playing with them for while... they suck.
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Posted Jan 23, 2025I want to know why the beastmaster has to still sacrifice one of it's own attacks to let the beast make an attack. Seriously what kind of improvement is that from 2014, besides that it no longer costs your action but still costs you your own attack? The entire point of having a pet is to have it support you, during your assault, not take it away.
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Posted Jan 23, 2025What about the other subclasses ? Like swarmkeeper ? Or Drakewarden ? Or even the plague of our existence, Beast master ?
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Posted Jan 20, 2025The description of the "Druidic Warrior" fighting style is missing from the level 2 feature, "Fighting Style."
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Posted Jan 15, 2025Could I Make up some subclasses that enhances the ranger if my DM allows it? because the Ranger is already not that good, i think it would be fair
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Posted Jan 15, 2025TL;DR: They made the Ranger more generally useable in all campaigns and the flavor and personality of the class is up to the player.
A lot of hate for the Ranger here. Look, ultimately it's up to the table, but since WOTC is in the business of game development and balancing, they have a different goal here. The OG Ranger in 5e was dog shit in many ways because so many of its abilities were very situational. They relied heavily on exploration encounters to actually be useful and tons of players reported never or rarely actually using some of the original abilities of the Ranger because it was so situational and didn't fit every campaign.
Since WOTC is in the business of game development here, and trying to make a game that is balanced and good for D&D tables in general, they had to make the class more generally useable at other tables. It's no fun having features you only use 3 times in a full blown campaign. Now for the flavor and it lacking any, yeah, a little bit of that but nothing too serious. Come on guys, how many times have players altered flavors to suit their characters or their settings. It happens all the time, and I'm speaking from experience here. It's kind of what WOTC wants us to do with the features that they give us. That's been the whole main point of these new rules and they have talked constantly about wanting to inspire the player into new stories, and fix balance problems.
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Posted Jan 2, 2025You need to own the 2024 PHB to see it. It's here.
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Posted Jan 2, 2025Worth noting that the Hunter's Lore feature works on not just damage resistances/immunities but (per the definition of immunities in the PHB) it also works on condition immunities.
Per the definition of resistances however it doesn't work on magic resistance or legendary resistance.
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Posted Jan 2, 2025Did they delete beast master and everything?
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Posted Dec 23, 2024Am I crazy or is the wording for fey wanderer lvl 11 ability the exact same wording they should have used for hunters mark under favored enemy ability?
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Posted Dec 14, 2024As a DM who's notorious for rebalancing classes (The 2024 Ranger is really the only updated class that I think needs it), I am curious if you think any of these would be acceptable modifications at your table, hopefully reviving this dead class.
Apex Predator (Level 1 - New Feature)
Choose two types of favored enemies: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, undead or a type of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs) as favored enemies. You gain the following features when interacting with your favored enemies:
* You gain a bonus to your Survival and Insight checks equal to your Intelligence modifier when trying to track or understand your target's behavior.
* You gain a bonus to your Investigation, Nature, and History skill checks equal to your Wisdom modifier when trying to locate or identify your target.
* You gain a bonus to Initiative rolls equal to your Wisdom modifier when a favored enemy is visible, or when you have determined that a favored enemy is present (Such as in an anticipated ambush).
When you or an ally that you can see is hit by a Critical Hit or reduced to 0 Hit Points by a creature, you may replace one of your favored enemies with the attacking creature's type.
Roving (Level 6 - Buffed Feature)
Your Speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing Heavy armor. You also have a Climb Speed and a Swim Speed equal to your Speed.
Additionally, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.
Peerless Hunter (Level 6 - Rebalanced Feature)
Your Hunter’s Mark no longer requires Concentration to be maintained.
Reliable Talent (Level 9 - New Feature)
Whenever you make an ability check that uses one of your skill or tool proficiencies, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.
Tireless (Level 10 - Buffed)
Primal forces now help fuel you on your journeys, granting you the following benefits.
* Temporary Hit Points. When you roll initiative, or as a Magic Action on your turn, you can give yourself a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to 8 plus your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1).
You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
* Decrease Exhaustion. Whenever you finish a Short Rest, your Exhaustion level, if any, decreases by 1.
Relentless Hunter. (Level 13 - Rewritten Feature)
Your study of countless creatures has made you a versatile combatant capable of exploiting any enemy’s weakness. You gain the following features:
* When using a Bonus action to move your Hunter’s Mark to a new creature that you can see within range, you may make a single Weapon Attack against that creature as part of that Bonus Action, provided that you are within range to do so. Hunter’s Mark is applied before any damage is dealt.
* When you hit a Favored Enemy with a weapon attack, roll an additional weapon die when determining damage.
* Additionally, when dealing weapon damage to a Favored Enemy, you may choose to deal Force damage instead of the weapon’s normal damage type.
Nature’s Veil (Level 14 - Buffed Feature)
You invoke spirits of nature to magically hide yourself. As a Bonus Action, you can give yourself the Invisible condition until the end of your next turn.
You can use a Magic action to extend the duration of your invisibility to the end of your next turn, provided you move no more than half your maximum movement speed this turn. Using your Magic action in this way does not expend another use of Nature’s Veil.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Level 20: Foe Slayer (Buffed)
The damage die of your Hunter’s Mark is a d10 rather than a d6.
When hitting a Favored Enemy with a weapon attack, you now roll two additional weapon dice when determining damage.
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Posted Dec 13, 2024Funfan12, thank you for posting this, this is much better than eithier ranger we have access to without buying tasha's cauldron. I will be using this at my table :D
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Posted Dec 13, 2024...this shit is worse than 5e ranger...
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Posted Dec 9, 2024I have a friend who abuses the level 3 ranger subclass. He gave himself something called 'Colossal Slayer" which meant that if an enemy was below their usual HP, he could do an extra d8 of damage. When his bow already did 1d12+1 damage. At level 3. And now he says that I am overpowered when I have 5 less HP than him and do less than half his damage.
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Posted Dec 8, 2024Swashbuckler is a rogue subclass
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Posted Dec 8, 2024What Happened to Swashbuckler?
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Posted Dec 8, 2024Changes to ranger to make them a bit more fun and usable. These are changes I have used at my table which make hunter's mark clash less with the class as a whole. In addition these changes add some of the flavor back and make the ranger the best at exploration, everything else with the class is fine enough.
Favored Enemy(Replacement)
At 1st level you always have the hunter mark spell and can cast it a number of times per day as shown by the hunter mark table. In addition, you can concentrate on 2 ranger spells at once as long as one of those spells is hunter's mark.
In addition, choose 2 creature types, you have advantage on all Wisdom(Survival) checks made to track that creature and Dexterity(Stealth) checks made to avoid their detection and you learn one language of your choice spoken by these creatures.
Deft Explorer(Replacement)
Starting at 2nd level you gain expertise in one skill of your choice and while traveling for more than an hour in the wilderness you gain the following benefits.
• Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
• You have advantage on Wisdom(Perception) Checks.
• If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
• When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
• While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number and size and how long ago they passed through the area.
Superior hunter(Replacement)
Starting at 9th level the target of your hunter's mark spell has disadvantage on any saving throws of your ranger spells.
Natural Camouflage(Replacement)
Starting at 14th level you can take the hide action as a bonus action and gain a +10 to your (Dexterity) Stealth checks while in the wilderness, using nature to conceal yourself.
Foe Slayer(Replacement)
At 20th level, when you miss an attack against the target of your hunter's mark feature you still deal the hunter's mark damage against that creature.