Ranger Class Details
Rough and wild looking, a human stalks alone through the shadows of trees, hunting the orcs he knows are planning a raid on a nearby farm. Clutching a shortsword in each hand, he becomes a whirlwind of steel, cutting down one enemy after another.
After tumbling away from a cone of freezing air, an elf finds her feet and draws back her bow to loose an arrow at the white dragon. Shrugging off the wave of fear that emanates from the dragon like the cold of its breath, she sends one arrow after another to find the gaps between the dragon’s thick scales.
Holding his hand high, a half-elf whistles to the hawk that circles high above him, calling the bird back to his side. Whispering instructions in Elvish, he points to the owlbear he’s been tracking and sends the hawk to distract the creature while he readies his bow.
Far from the bustle of cities and towns, past the hedges that shelter the most distant farms from the terrors of the wild, amid the dense-packed trees of trackless forests and across wide and empty plains, rangers keep their unending watch.
Deadly Hunters
Warriors of the wilderness, rangers specialize in hunting the monsters that threaten the edges of civilization—humanoid raiders, rampaging beasts and monstrosities, terrible giants, and deadly dragons. They learn to track their quarry as a predator does, moving stealthily through the wilds and hiding themselves in brush and rubble. Rangers focus their combat training on techniques that are particularly useful against their specific favored foes.
Thanks to their familiarity with the wilds, rangers acquire the ability to cast spells that harness nature’s power, much as a druid does. Their spells, like their combat abilities, emphasize speed, stealth, and the hunt. A ranger’s talents and abilities are honed with deadly focus on the grim task of protecting the borderlands.
Independent Adventurers
Though a ranger might make a living as a hunter, a guide, or a tracker, a ranger’s true calling is to defend the outskirts of civilization from the ravages of monsters that press in from the wild. In some places, rangers gather in secretive orders or join forces with druidic circles. Many rangers, though, are independent almost to a fault, knowing that, when a dragon or a band of orcs attacks, a ranger might be the first—and possibly the last—line of defense.
This fierce independence makes rangers well suited to adventuring, since they are accustomed to life far from the comforts of a dry bed and a hot bath. Faced with city-bred adventurers who grouse and whine about the hardships of the wild, rangers respond with some mixture of amusement, frustration, and compassion. But they quickly learn that other adventurers who can carry their own weight in a fight against monstrous foes are worth any extra burden. Coddled city folk might not know how to feed themselves or find fresh water in the wild, but they make up for it in other ways.
Creating a Ranger
As you create your ranger character, consider the nature of the training that gave you your particular capabilities. Did you train with a single mentor, wandering the wilds together until you mastered the ranger’s ways? Did you leave your apprenticeship, or was your mentor slain—perhaps by the same kind of monster that became your favored enemy? Or perhaps you learned your skills as part of a band of rangers affiliated with a druidic circle, trained in mystic paths as well as wilderness lore. You might be self-taught, a recluse who learned combat skills, tracking, and even a magical connection to nature through the necessity of surviving in the wilds.
What’s the source of your particular hatred of a certain kind of enemy? Did a monster kill someone you loved or destroy your home village? Or did you see too much of the destruction these monsters cause and commit yourself to reining in their depredations? Is your adventuring career a continuation of your work in protecting the borderlands, or a significant change? What made you join up with a band of adventurers? Do you find it challenging to teach new allies the ways of the wild, or do you welcome the relief from solitude that they offer?
QUICK BUILD
You can make a ranger quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. (Some rangers who focus on two-weapon fighting make Strength higher than Dexterity.) Second, choose the outlander background.
The Ranger Table
Level |
Proficiency |
Features |
Spells |
—Spell Slots per Spell Level— |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | ||||
1st |
+2 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
|
2nd |
+2 |
2 |
2 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
|
3rd |
+2 |
3 |
3 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
|
4th |
+2 |
3 |
3 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
|
5th |
+3 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
— |
— |
— |
|
6th |
+3 |
Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer Improvements |
4 |
4 |
2 |
— |
— |
— |
7th |
+3 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
— |
— |
— |
|
8th |
+3 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
— |
— |
— |
|
9th |
+4 |
— |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
— |
— |
10th |
+4 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
— |
— |
|
11th |
+4 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
— |
— |
|
12th |
+4 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
— |
— |
|
13th |
+5 |
— |
8 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
— |
14th |
+5 |
8 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
— |
|
15th |
+5 |
9 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
— |
|
16th |
+5 |
9 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
— |
|
17th |
+6 |
— |
10 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
18th |
+6 |
10 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
|
19th |
+6 |
11 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
|
20th |
+6 |
11 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
Class Features
As a ranger, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per ranger level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per ranger level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
Skills: Choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) scale mail or (b) leather armor
- (a) two shortswords or (b) two simple melee weapons
- (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
- A longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows
Favored Enemy
Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy.
Choose a type of favored enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs) as favored enemies.
You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.
When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all.
You choose one additional favored enemy, as well as an associated language, at 6th and 14th level. As you gain levels, your choices should reflect the types of monsters you have encountered on your adventures.
Natural Explorer
You are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favored terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.
While traveling for an hour or more in your favored terrain, you gain the following benefits:
- Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
- Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
- Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
- 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, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.
You choose additional favored terrain types at 6th and 10th level.
Fighting Style
At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options.
You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.
Archery
You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.
Defense
While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.
Dueling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
Spellcasting
By the time you reach 2nd level, you have learned to use the magical essence of nature to cast spells, much as a druid does. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the ranger spell list.
Spell Slots
The Ranger table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your ranger spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
For example, if you know the 1st-level spell animal friendship and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast animal friendship using either slot.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the ranger spell list.
The Spells Known column of the Ranger table shows when you learn more ranger spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the ranger spells you know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability
Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your ranger spells, since your magic draws on your attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a ranger spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Ranger Archetype
At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate: the Hunter that is detailed at the end of the class description or one from another source. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.
Primeval Awareness
Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend one ranger spell slot to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot you expend, you can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile of you (or within up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn’t reveal the creatures’ location or number.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Land’s Stride
Starting at 8th level, 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.
In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such those created by the entangle spell.
Hide in Plain Sight
Starting at 10th level, you can spend 1 minute creating camouflage for yourself. You must have access to fresh mud, dirt, plants, soot, and other naturally occurring materials with which to create your camouflage.
Once you are camouflaged in this way, you can try to hide by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or wall, that is at least as tall and wide as you are. You gain a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as you remain there without moving or taking actions. Once you move or take an action or a reaction, you must camouflage yourself again to gain this benefit.
Vanish
Starting at 14th level, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. Also, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.
Feral Senses
At 18th level, you gain preternatural senses that help you fight creatures you can’t see. When you attack a creature you can’t see, your inability to see it doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it.
You are also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn’t hidden from you and you aren’t blinded or deafened.
Foe Slayer
At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against one of your favored enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.
Ranger Archetypes
The ideal of the ranger has classic expressions. These are detailed below.
Hunter
Emulating the Hunter archetype means accepting your place as a bulwark between the people you protect and the terrors of the wilderness. As you walk the Hunter’s path, you learn specialized techniques for fighting the threats you face, from rampaging ogres to towering giants and terrifying dragons.
Hunter’s Prey
At 3rd level, you gain one of the following features of your choice.
Colossus Slayer
Your tenacity can wear down the most potent foes. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, the creature takes an extra 1d8 damage if it’s below its hit point maximum. You can deal this extra damage only once per turn.
Giant Killer
When a Large or larger creature within 5 feet of you hits or misses you with an attack, you can use your reaction to attack that creature immediately after its attack, provided that you can see the creature.
Horde Breaker
Once on each of your turns when you make a weapon attack, you can make another attack with the same weapon against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target and within range of your weapon.
Defensive Tactics
At 7th level, you gain one of the following features of your choice.
Escape the Horde
Opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage.
Multiattack Defense
When a creature hits you with an attack, you gain a +4 bonus to AC against all subsequent attacks made by that creature for the rest of the turn.
Steel Will
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Multiattack
At 11th level, you gain one of the following features of your choice.
Volley
You can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon’s range. You must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you make a separate attack roll for each target.
Whirlwind Attack
You can use your action to make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target.
Superior Hunter’s Defense
At 15th level, you gain one of the following features of your choice.
Evasion
When you are subjected to an effect, such as a red dragon’s fiery breath or a lightning bolt spell, that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.
Stand Against the Tide
When a hostile creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to force that creature to repeat the same attack against another creature (other than itself) of your choice.
Uncanny Dodge
When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
So, with the Swarmkeeper (UA) I can get a dog familiar and then make it shoot bees out of its mouth?
...(*starts writing their next character)
Also now if you don't command them they automatically use the dodge action.
With two different nets, yes definitely. With the same net... DMs discretion? I’d personally say just one enemy with one net
Question about horde breaker: If you used it with a net, could you theoretically restrain two targets with the same net?
Horde breaker is definitely good for targeting multiple enemies, it’s certainly not infinite damage. There’s no denying that it’s good crowd control, but they definitely lack the single target damage some of the near subclasses bring.
This will not happen, they have discussed this previously on the forums. Basically, those of us who play variant ranger will need to wait until they add custom classes so we can create the old Unearthed Arcana Revised Ranger.
A limited number of creatures can occupy a 5x5 space. Even according to the DMG only 4 Tiny creatures can fit in a 5x5 space. Since the range of a Hunter's Multiattack options are not unlimited, there is not a "theoretical infinite" amount of damage they can dish out.
A lot of the online complaints about Beast Master Ranger is the fact that the companion cannot do magical damage, and thus scales horribly later in the game. However, when I look at the subclass, under the level 7 perk "Exceptional Training", it states that "In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage." Was the Beast Master class edited in the past few years? Was anything else officially changed for the Beast Master Class, or the Ranger class as a whole?
Also it lacks single target damage as it has great AOE damage with volley, but can't hold up to the other classes in terms of single target damage.
Yeah but you don't get that till 11th level which sucks and you need to have enough arrows to do that also ranger just needs some buffs like the class variant features which I love to death and want to be released officially already as a lot of them are pretty balanced.
I really want to see the class variant features here come on D&D beyond hook a man up. Its not like you can't find them you just have to go to the same place we do.
Did you just say hunter doesnt have damage? Buddy you can target an infinite number of creatures within a certain range and attack them all. Theoretical infinite damage, is not lacking.
Evil min/maxer here. While the original subclasses (hunter and animal companion) tend to be rather lacking in terms of overall utility and damage, the newer ones like horizon walker more than pick up the slack. The expanded spell list and unique abilities make the class very fun to play. The base class is extremely good if it's in its element, but tend to lack power outside of its favored terrain and enemy. However these are issues that are very easily solved by talking to your DM.
Ranger also synergises very well with classes like rogue, cleric, druid, and monk, so it is also a very good multiclassing option.
Yeah well people want favored enemy to be more useful than just tracking. Put back in the increased damage rule for official D&D. I have that rule in my games for my rangers.
Favored Enemy
in my games the Ranger get +1 damage/Ranger level to his/her Favored Enemy
simple and it work
and the beast master use is companion as bonus action and at 7 th level it a free action
peace
They literally just released an Unearthed Arcana less than two months ago that showed a heavier focus on the Ranger than any other class. This isn't dead.
You clearly haven't seen a melee Goliath Ranger with a glaive, Sentinel, and Polearm Master, who can also shoot a bow, domination ensues, doing nearly more damage than the rest of the party, sadly the wizard I played with loved AoE and didn't care about friendly fire(particularly fireball).
Edit: Realized you were replying to someone else, am dum dum
Have you seen the Xanathar's Guide Ranger Archetypes? They're all great.
Rangers don't do anything though. If you want a bow sniper just play a rogue or fighter with a bow. Or play a druid if you want animals. Most of their features are situational and if your not in that situation you kinda feel useless. I mean you feel useless past 8th level anyway but even more so due to the abilities
thank you! Rangers are super-fun and if people go for "hurr durr, meme. I wanna be min-maxer" then I pity them.