It isn’t surprising that a poll like this that puts paladins in the top place of the results would not be interested in the handbook ranger. Everything is talking about damage and healing. LOL! What a joke.
Rangers have spell casting and it's martial only so of course they win a versatility poll.
Any class with spell casting >> no spell casting when it comes to having versatility.
Also the poll literally calls them "The Tashas Enjoyers" and comments are all about their spell casting and ranged damage.
No one is praising them for the PHB options from what I can see.
Even your own statment shows that PHB rangers still do well because "all they care about is spellcasting and ranged damage". The name "The Tashas Enjoyers" is more meme than it is function.
But in a party like that you do need to be able to switch tactics (such as use melee even if you prefer range) rangers can do that usually quite well.
but the other thing for adventuring versitility of skills. some times you just need skills to by pass encounters or some such. sometimes valuable magic loot is just locked behind a skill check. The fact that str rangers can function as well as dex says alot. now we even have wisdom S.A.D rangers. A party of 4 rangers have most of thier bases covered skill wise which is harder to do with several other classes in that list.
Rangers have spell casting and it's martial only so of course they win a versatility poll.
Any class with spell casting >> no spell casting when it comes to having versatility.
Also the poll literally calls them "The Tashas Enjoyers" and comments are all about their spell casting and ranged damage.
No one is praising them for the PHB options from what I can see.
Even your own statment shows that PHB rangers still do well because "all they care about is spellcasting and ranged damage". The name "The Tashas Enjoyers" is more meme than it is function.
But in a party like that you do need to be able to switch tactics (such as use melee even if you prefer range) rangers can do that usually quite well.
but the other thing for adventuring versitility of skills. some times you just need skills to by pass encounters or some such. sometimes valuable magic loot is just locked behind a skill check. The fact that str rangers can function as well as dex says alot. now we even have wisdom S.A.D rangers. A party of 4 rangers have most of thier bases covered skill wise which is harder to do with several other classes in that list.
I'm saying that nobody really argued those were the features that underperformed on ranger.
And they work as a party of 4 because each ranger can pick different spells and avoid overlap.... Which fixes the major issue with Ranger and spells known vs. prepared.
Overall the PHB features (as compared to Tashas) are not mentioned really at all. Favored terrain and enemy are not the reason they think a 4 ranger party functions well....
None of the ranger's abilities outside damage, healing, and ranged attacks are mentioned. That group of people are only focused on those and "tanking", which is why paladins are rated so high, and why the results are so silly.
The PHB options are really useful and mixing and matching can produce interesting results. Today I was building a cleric/ranger who was going to be using his concentration on spells a lot. Well with that in mind, Favored Foe becomes less useful. Favored Enemy on the other hand offers more languages and some utility. So I went that route. The damage offered by favored foe is relatively small, and probably not the optimum use of your concentration
The PHB options are really useful and mixing and matching can produce interesting results. Today I was building a cleric/ranger who was going to be using his concentration on spells a lot. Well with that in mind, Favored Foe becomes less useful. Favored Enemy on the other hand offers more languages and some utility. So I went that route. The damage offered by favored foe is relatively small, and probably not the optimum use of your concentration
My typical Ranger loadout nowadays is Favored Enemy, Deft Explorer, Primeval Awareness, and Nature's Veil.
Though I have been known to take Natural Explorer and Primal Awareness instead depending on the campaign or character concept.
Mechanically, I do tend to prefer Primal Awareness as well. I just find it doesn't really fit most of my character ideas. So I go with Primeval as my default instead.
I will admit to Primeval Awareness needing some DM understanding to function at its highest level, but when its working, its fantastic!
Primal Awareness is pretty good. I don't see a lot of folks making great use of those spells that aren't able to make great use of Primeval Awareness too, but it seems like a much less involved choice for most players with most DMs at most tables.
Coming in late after a busy week, all my older rangers are straight PHB, my new rangers are various mixes. But I’m coming to agree with a lot of the comments. I like both primeval and primal awareness, each has its place mostly based on campaign and character idea/backstory. I’m finding I’m not really impressed with favored foe - the damage is too little and I’m finding better uses for my concentration. Natures veil and hide in plain sight are both good when you and the DM agree on how they work. The Tasha’s versions fit better in a really combat have game, PHB ranger does better in a game with real travel and exploration.
With MotM out now, are there any races that pair especially well with the Ranger chassis? Specifically, races that didn't pair quite as well before? Which ones? How so?
I'm personally partial to Eladrin and Aasimar right now
With MotM out now, are there any races that pair especially well with the Ranger chassis? Specifically, races that didn't pair quite as well before? Which ones? How so?
I'm personally partial to Eladrin and Aasimar right now
Bugbear makes an awesome Gloomstalker!
With their sneak attack thing they get 2d6 damage to anything that they beat in initiative.
Plus they get +1 to three which makes STR ranger easier.
With MotM out now, are there any races that pair especially well with the Ranger chassis? Specifically, races that didn't pair quite as well before? Which ones? How so?
I'm personally partial to Eladrin and Aasimar right now
I will say I am glad Kenku got some rework. As I no longer have to argue that Forcing players to roleplay "Not being able to create things" was not an intended part of the race design and made for bad narrative, and was un-necessarily restrictive on player agency.
I had little problem with the could talk "using the mimicry" feature but I know some people also had problems with it.
now that that is fixed, I expect to see a lot of kenku rangers. especially swarmkeepers.
Bugbear as mentioned above is great. For a melee Ranger, githzerai having shield spell is great.
The new trance mechanic giving you two tool proficiencies after a long rest could be very nice on a Ranger allowing you to become even more suited for a particular adventure.
I like the genasi and duergar as well. They generally got small buffs.
I've loved bugbears since I first read the 3e Monster Manual, and it has become somewhat of an obsession, so the rework has made me incredibly happy. They've always been my go to Ranger race (although, to be fair they're my everything else race too), but now they're just that much better.
If you're focusing damage, as mentioned above, gloomstalker and bugbear are disgustingly synergised, the wisdom to initiative means you'll be going before more enemies, and the 2d6 not being limited to once means your extra attack is going to be madness.
I will admit I haven't looked at the others because, well, they're not bugbears.
Do Rangers get anything fun from the new UA? I'm mostly talking about the feats, obviously.
Keenness of the Stone Giants gives them a way of accessing the Shield spell, which is neat. A Drow Gloom Stalker with this feat also has an absurd level of Darkvision.
Not Ranger specific, but a team-up between a Primeval Druid and a Beast Master/Drake Warden sounds cool as hell.
I don't know but I hope the future book its associated with has some beast and plant creature statblocks. any would be nice but Preferably implementing things that have gone underdeveloped like skills and save proficiencies and unique features and abilities{like every other creature type gets}
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Rangers have spell casting and it's martial only so of course they win a versatility poll.
Any class with spell casting >> no spell casting when it comes to having versatility.
Also the poll literally calls them "The Tashas Enjoyers" and comments are all about their spell casting and ranged damage.
No one is praising them for the PHB options from what I can see.
It isn’t surprising that a poll like this that puts paladins in the top place of the results would not be interested in the handbook ranger. Everything is talking about damage and healing. LOL! What a joke.
I never said anything about the PHB Ranger. Just that it was nice that the Ranger in general was actually being appreciated for once.
Fair point!
Even your own statment shows that PHB rangers still do well because "all they care about is spellcasting and ranged damage". The name "The Tashas Enjoyers" is more meme than it is function.
But in a party like that you do need to be able to switch tactics (such as use melee even if you prefer range) rangers can do that usually quite well.
but the other thing for adventuring versitility of skills. some times you just need skills to by pass encounters or some such. sometimes valuable magic loot is just locked behind a skill check. The fact that str rangers can function as well as dex says alot. now we even have wisdom S.A.D rangers. A party of 4 rangers have most of thier bases covered skill wise which is harder to do with several other classes in that list.
I'm saying that nobody really argued those were the features that underperformed on ranger.
And they work as a party of 4 because each ranger can pick different spells and avoid overlap.... Which fixes the major issue with Ranger and spells known vs. prepared.
Overall the PHB features (as compared to Tashas) are not mentioned really at all. Favored terrain and enemy are not the reason they think a 4 ranger party functions well....
None of the ranger's abilities outside damage, healing, and ranged attacks are mentioned. That group of people are only focused on those and "tanking", which is why paladins are rated so high, and why the results are so silly.
The PHB options are really useful and mixing and matching can produce interesting results. Today I was building a cleric/ranger who was going to be using his concentration on spells a lot. Well with that in mind, Favored Foe becomes less useful. Favored Enemy on the other hand offers more languages and some utility. So I went that route. The damage offered by favored foe is relatively small, and probably not the optimum use of your concentration
My typical Ranger loadout nowadays is Favored Enemy, Deft Explorer, Primeval Awareness, and Nature's Veil.
Though I have been known to take Natural Explorer and Primal Awareness instead depending on the campaign or character concept.
The combo of favored enemy and deft explorer makes you an amazing linguist.
I prefer primal over primeval awareness, but probably because I never played much with primeval.
Mechanically, I do tend to prefer Primal Awareness as well. I just find it doesn't really fit most of my character ideas. So I go with Primeval as my default instead.
I will admit to Primeval Awareness needing some DM understanding to function at its highest level, but when its working, its fantastic!
Primal Awareness is pretty good. I don't see a lot of folks making great use of those spells that aren't able to make great use of Primeval Awareness too, but it seems like a much less involved choice for most players with most DMs at most tables.
Coming in late after a busy week, all my older rangers are straight PHB, my new rangers are various mixes. But I’m coming to agree with a lot of the comments. I like both primeval and primal awareness, each has its place mostly based on campaign and character idea/backstory. I’m finding I’m not really impressed with favored foe - the damage is too little and I’m finding better uses for my concentration. Natures veil and hide in plain sight are both good when you and the DM agree on how they work. The Tasha’s versions fit better in a really combat have game, PHB ranger does better in a game with real travel and exploration.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
With MotM out now, are there any races that pair especially well with the Ranger chassis? Specifically, races that didn't pair quite as well before? Which ones? How so?
I'm personally partial to Eladrin and Aasimar right now
Bugbear makes an awesome Gloomstalker!
With their sneak attack thing they get 2d6 damage to anything that they beat in initiative.
Plus they get +1 to three which makes STR ranger easier.
I will say I am glad Kenku got some rework. As I no longer have to argue that Forcing players to roleplay "Not being able to create things" was not an intended part of the race design and made for bad narrative, and was un-necessarily restrictive on player agency.
I had little problem with the could talk "using the mimicry" feature but I know some people also had problems with it.
now that that is fixed, I expect to see a lot of kenku rangers. especially swarmkeepers.
Bugbear as mentioned above is great. For a melee Ranger, githzerai having shield spell is great.
The new trance mechanic giving you two tool proficiencies after a long rest could be very nice on a Ranger allowing you to become even more suited for a particular adventure.
I like the genasi and duergar as well. They generally got small buffs.
I've loved bugbears since I first read the 3e Monster Manual, and it has become somewhat of an obsession, so the rework has made me incredibly happy. They've always been my go to Ranger race (although, to be fair they're my everything else race too), but now they're just that much better.
If you're focusing damage, as mentioned above, gloomstalker and bugbear are disgustingly synergised, the wisdom to initiative means you'll be going before more enemies, and the 2d6 not being limited to once means your extra attack is going to be madness.
I will admit I haven't looked at the others because, well, they're not bugbears.
Do Rangers get anything fun from the new UA? I'm mostly talking about the feats, obviously.
Keenness of the Stone Giants gives them a way of accessing the Shield spell, which is neat. A Drow Gloom Stalker with this feat also has an absurd level of Darkvision.
Not Ranger specific, but a team-up between a Primeval Druid and a Beast Master/Drake Warden sounds cool as hell.
I don't know but I hope the future book its associated with has some beast and plant creature statblocks. any would be nice but Preferably implementing things that have gone underdeveloped like skills and save proficiencies and unique features and abilities{like every other creature type gets}