I think their abilities are situational because their abilities are very powerful. All classes have situational abilities/spells. People create their own issues with rangers by not using the parts of the game that rangers enhance. Then they complain that rangers "don't work".
ranger needs a 2nd level spell that does something in combat. At level 1, you get Zephyr Strike (great,) and Ensnaring Strike (mediocre, at best,) Fog Cloud (to situational,) Hail of Thorns (honestly just not as good as Z Strike by a healthy margin,) Hunter's Mark (Z Strike better.) And at level 2....you can upcast some of those. But other than Spike Growth (which is fun, but very situational) Rangers' dont have a level 2 spell combat option that's new and fun.
Then it jumps to level 3, with Conjure Barage, Flame and Lighting Arrow (neither of which I'd ever use. And Of the two, Lighting Arrow is just better even if it is only one use.
At 4th level spells, nothing but summons. So, needs something there. And then at 5th level (which as a main ranger player I will never see in my life time... ) Conjure Volley , Steel Wind Strike, and Swift Quiver are all pretty good.
BUT at second level, it needs something like "Arrows of Many Targets" from BG3, or knockback arrow, or something.
Cordon of arrows exists and Tasha's added Magic Weapon. Cordon of arrows has always felt a little weak for my tastes, but it isn't concentration. I have also seen it backfire spectacularly since it can hit friends.
Magic weapon is a very interesting 2nd level spell in campaigns where magic items are rare. Magic bows can be rare and the +1 to hit can be very nice on a sharpshooter build. It also works interestingly if you have a non concentration bonus action to play with like cross bow expert or horizon walker or monster slayer since it works more efficiently than hunter's mark. Obviously its also great for enemies that require magic weapons. Sadly, as soon as you have a magic weapon it becomes mostly useless.
rangers are fine, maybe a better capstone, something like enemies in your favored terrain count as favored enemies and the other way around, or maybe just a fourth choice for the both of them. I just hope they keep the original hunter and beastmaster, and have the beast attacks and multiattack count as attack actions, maybe even make it mean one bestial attack or multiattack per attack you get from the attack action, not including attacks from something that isn’t extra attack. hunter also needs an anti-large multiattack(maybe something like 1 attack for every size up from medium) gloomstalker can stay 5e
I love hail of throrns. My Gloom stalker usually has initative and leads with bonus action cast Hail of Thorns. I upcast it so it does up to 30 damage to my target and any minions with in 5 feet. All three of my attacks typically are Sharp Shooter so my target often takes 30 from Sharpshooter, 3d10 Thorns, 3d8 for the attacks, 1d8 dread ambush, 3*7 for my damage bonus and those around the target save against 3d10.
Obviously I dont always find npc's grouped but attacking first I often do. My main target is often dead in a round or two and the party loves going after the already injured. All spells in my opinion are good if used in the right situations.
I love hail of throrns. My Gloom stalker usually has initative and leads with bonus action cast Hail of Thorns. I upcast it so it does up to 30 damage to my target and any minions with in 5 feet. All three of my attacks typically are Sharp Shooter so my target often takes 30 from Sharpshooter, 3d10 Thorns, 3d8 for the attacks, 1d8 dread ambush, 3*7 for my damage bonus and those around the target save against 3d10.
Obviously I dont always find npc's grouped but attacking first I often do. My main target is often dead in a round or two and the party loves going after the already injured. All spells in my opinion are good if used in the right situations.
The up casting of some very potent spells is a big part of how Rangers do so well with the "small number of spells known". Several of their best spell serve multi functions as well. Fog cloud gets much larger than people might assume it does when upcast. Starting at level 13 Rangers are by a huge margin the best out of combat healers of all of the non-full casting classes.
just fix level one natural explorer and favored enemy
I absolutely love BG3 ranger and the fixes. I used to hate how horrible the class is, but TCoE did fix ranger pretty well! A lot of the subclasses are still garbage but that’s a trend with most 5e classes. Gloomstalker dishes out crazy damage, plus horizon walker and monster slayer being great for combat. Feywanderer is also really fun and good in campaigns, and I’ve heard great things about swarmkeeper.
I see a lot of people talking anout ranger spells? I honestly don’t see why you would need to cast many spells because if you’re looking for big number damage, your weapons are absolutely going to outclass your spells with pure consistency. Always pick up hunter’s mark, it’s a necessity, spike growth is really strong, and a solid healing spell is sort of all you need. Your utility should come from your skills, and I think ranger does best when paired with another class like rogue or fighter.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
just fix level one natural explorer and favored enemy
I absolutely love BG3 ranger and the fixes. I used to hate how horrible the class is, but TCoE did fix ranger pretty well! A lot of the subclasses are still garbage but that’s a trend with most 5e classes. Gloomstalker dishes out crazy damage, plus horizon walker and monster slayer being great for combat. Feywanderer is also really fun and good in campaigns, and I’ve heard great things about swarmkeeper.
I see a lot of people talking anout ranger spells? I honestly don’t see why you would need to cast many spells because if you’re looking for big number damage, your weapons are absolutely going to outclass your spells with pure consistency. Always pick up hunter’s mark, it’s a necessity, spike growth is really strong, and a solid healing spell is sort of all you need. Your utility should come from your skills, and I think ranger does best when paired with another class like rogue or fighter.
Agreed on most of those spells!! Though, since you brought up horizon walker, if youre takin that sub, Misty Step is another AMAZING tool the sub gives you to spend slots on
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NNCHRIS: SOUL THIEF, MASTER OF THE ARCANE, AND KING OF NEW YORKNN Gdl Creator of Ilheia and her Knights of the Fallen Stars ldG Lesser Student of Technomancy [undergrad student in computer science] Supporter of the 2014 rules, and a MASSIVE Homebrewer. Come to me all ye who seek salvation in wording thy brews! Open to homebrew trades at any time!! Or feel free to request HB, and Ill see if I can get it done for ya! Characters (Outdated)
just fix level one natural explorer and favored enemy
I absolutely love BG3 ranger and the fixes. I used to hate how horrible the class is, but TCoE did fix ranger pretty well! A lot of the subclasses are still garbage but that’s a trend with most 5e classes. Gloomstalker dishes out crazy damage, plus horizon walker and monster slayer being great for combat. Feywanderer is also really fun and good in campaigns, and I’ve heard great things about swarmkeeper.
I see a lot of people talking anout ranger spells? I honestly don’t see why you would need to cast many spells because if you’re looking for big number damage, your weapons are absolutely going to outclass your spells with pure consistency. Always pick up hunter’s mark, it’s a necessity, spike growth is really strong, and a solid healing spell is sort of all you need. Your utility should come from your skills, and I think ranger does best when paired with another class like rogue or fighter.
My ranger has Hunter's Mark, but I don't use it all that often - mostly only when we are fighting a big Boss monster. My go-to is Zephyr Strike, which solves my mediocre AC by letting me jump in and out of melee range (which means the enemies hit the raging barbarian instead). It's a very fun way to play, I find.
My ranger also speaks a ton of languages which I didn't think would be as useful as it's turned out to be.
My ranger has Hunter's Mark, but I don't use it all that often - mostly only when we are fighting a big Boss monster. My go-to is Zephyr Strike, which solves my mediocre AC by letting me jump in and out of melee range (which means the enemies hit the raging barbarian instead). It's a very fun way to play, I find.
My ranger also speaks a ton of languages which I didn't think would be as useful as it's turned out to be.
Zephyr’s strike is really only useful if you’re in melee, which as a ranger, you’re way better off from a distance. Hunter’s mark can be reapplied without using extra slots for an hour, and it adds a 1d6 to every hit, which is really good. The language stuff is also fun, I’m so glad rangers get expertise in Tasha’s.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
My ranger has Hunter's Mark, but I don't use it all that often - mostly only when we are fighting a big Boss monster. My go-to is Zephyr Strike, which solves my mediocre AC by letting me jump in and out of melee range (which means the enemies hit the raging barbarian instead). It's a very fun way to play, I find.
My ranger also speaks a ton of languages which I didn't think would be as useful as it's turned out to be.
Zephyr’s strike is really only useful if you’re in melee, which as a ranger, you’re way better off from a distance. Hunter’s mark can be reapplied without using extra slots for an hour, and it adds a 1d6 to every hit, which is really good. The language stuff is also fun, I’m so glad rangers get expertise in Tasha’s.
My ranger can do both melee and ranged as needed, but typically they are doing two-weapon fighting with shortswords and zephyr strike. It's super fun. And especially if the barbarian and I can flank on my turn, we are a very powerful combination.
Hunter's Mark only adds to every hit on the same foe, and you can only move it for free with a bonus action when the foe dies. For a big enemy this is helpful, but if I'm hitting smaller or already injured foes, sometimes I am hitting multiple targets in a single turn. It's also sometimes the case that the foe will move or otherwise become less important to hit than someone else before it dies. It's a good spell for sure, it's just that I often prefer to use other spells depending on the situation. Being able to nix opportunity attacks with Zephyr Strike has been helpful in ways I wouldn't have predicted. It's basically a longer running variation of Misty Step.
I know there are "supposed tos" that the internet is full of, but what I love about the Ranger is that there are just so many different ways to play. The subclasses can change what is possible quite a bit, such that you can have multiple Rangers in a party that have quite different skills and styles.
just fix level one natural explorer and favored enemy
I absolutely love BG3 ranger and the fixes. I used to hate how horrible the class is, but TCoE did fix ranger pretty well! A lot of the subclasses are still garbage but that’s a trend with most 5e classes. Gloomstalker dishes out crazy damage, plus horizon walker and monster slayer being great for combat. Feywanderer is also really fun and good in campaigns, and I’ve heard great things about swarmkeeper.
I see a lot of people talking anout ranger spells? I honestly don’t see why you would need to cast many spells because if you’re looking for big number damage, your weapons are absolutely going to outclass your spells with pure consistency. Always pick up hunter’s mark, it’s a necessity, spike growth is really strong, and a solid healing spell is sort of all you need. Your utility should come from your skills, and I think ranger does best when paired with another class like rogue or fighter.
I did quite well with rangers who didn't take hunter’s mark and more then once saved the party with entangle, fog cloud ,spike growth or silence. Absorb Elements is another spell that saved me at times,
What I see is rangers have several very good spells and it can be a very tough call which ones to take. I would prefer rangers getting a couple more known spells or some way of swapping out spells. If for example I want to learn fog cloud at level 4 I have to unlearn some other spell never made sense to me
I tried a game years ago where all casters were known casters and you could only learn new spells when you leveled however you never had to unlearn a spell to learn a new one. After that game trying known casters in 5e left something to be desired for me
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Make them like bg3 rangers ore something
just fix level one natural explorer and favored enemy
Loremaster, Achievement hunter, Elden Lord.
I have been playing dnd for untold eons.
Myrkridia Statistics here!
Like TcoE movement perks.
and knowing damage vulnerabilities and do extra damage
Loremaster, Achievement hunter, Elden Lord.
I have been playing dnd for untold eons.
Myrkridia Statistics here!
Rangers are my favorite I will be very mad if they are not in 6e.
Loremaster, Achievement hunter, Elden Lord.
I have been playing dnd for untold eons.
Myrkridia Statistics here!
Any ideas?
Loremaster, Achievement hunter, Elden Lord.
I have been playing dnd for untold eons.
Myrkridia Statistics here!
I think their abilities are situational because their abilities are very powerful. All classes have situational abilities/spells. People create their own issues with rangers by not using the parts of the game that rangers enhance. Then they complain that rangers "don't work".
ranger needs a 2nd level spell that does something in combat. At level 1, you get Zephyr Strike (great,) and Ensnaring Strike (mediocre, at best,) Fog Cloud (to situational,) Hail of Thorns (honestly just not as good as Z Strike by a healthy margin,) Hunter's Mark (Z Strike better.) And at level 2....you can upcast some of those. But other than Spike Growth (which is fun, but very situational) Rangers' dont have a level 2 spell combat option that's new and fun.
Then it jumps to level 3, with Conjure Barage, Flame and Lighting Arrow (neither of which I'd ever use. And Of the two, Lighting Arrow is just better even if it is only one use.
At 4th level spells, nothing but summons. So, needs something there. And then at 5th level (which as a main ranger player I will never see in my life time... ) Conjure Volley , Steel Wind Strike, and Swift Quiver are all pretty good.
BUT at second level, it needs something like "Arrows of Many Targets" from BG3, or knockback arrow, or something.
2014 5E mostly
3.5 maybe.
Cordon of arrows exists and Tasha's added Magic Weapon. Cordon of arrows has always felt a little weak for my tastes, but it isn't concentration. I have also seen it backfire spectacularly since it can hit friends.
Magic weapon is a very interesting 2nd level spell in campaigns where magic items are rare. Magic bows can be rare and the +1 to hit can be very nice on a sharpshooter build. It also works interestingly if you have a non concentration bonus action to play with like cross bow expert or horizon walker or monster slayer since it works more efficiently than hunter's mark. Obviously its also great for enemies that require magic weapons. Sadly, as soon as you have a magic weapon it becomes mostly useless.
rangers are fine, maybe a better capstone, something like enemies in your favored terrain count as favored enemies and the other way around, or maybe just a fourth choice for the both of them. I just hope they keep the original hunter and beastmaster, and have the beast attacks and multiattack count as attack actions, maybe even make it mean one bestial attack or multiattack per attack you get from the attack action, not including attacks from something that isn’t extra attack. hunter also needs an anti-large multiattack(maybe something like 1 attack for every size up from medium) gloomstalker can stay 5e
I love hail of throrns. My Gloom stalker usually has initative and leads with bonus action cast Hail of Thorns. I upcast it so it does up to 30 damage to my target and any minions with in 5 feet. All three of my attacks typically are Sharp Shooter so my target often takes 30 from Sharpshooter, 3d10 Thorns, 3d8 for the attacks, 1d8 dread ambush, 3*7 for my damage bonus and those around the target save against 3d10.
Obviously I dont always find npc's grouped but attacking first I often do. My main target is often dead in a round or two and the party loves going after the already injured. All spells in my opinion are good if used in the right situations.
What level is your gloomstalker?
2014 5E mostly
3.5 maybe.
Looks to be at least level 9.
The up casting of some very potent spells is a big part of how Rangers do so well with the "small number of spells known". Several of their best spell serve multi functions as well. Fog cloud gets much larger than people might assume it does when upcast. Starting at level 13 Rangers are by a huge margin the best out of combat healers of all of the non-full casting classes.
I love playing my ranger. You want to make your ranger feel amazing, send the party on a walk through your ranger's favored terrain.
I absolutely love BG3 ranger and the fixes. I used to hate how horrible the class is, but TCoE did fix ranger pretty well! A lot of the subclasses are still garbage but that’s a trend with most 5e classes. Gloomstalker dishes out crazy damage, plus horizon walker and monster slayer being great for combat. Feywanderer is also really fun and good in campaigns, and I’ve heard great things about swarmkeeper.
I see a lot of people talking anout ranger spells? I honestly don’t see why you would need to cast many spells because if you’re looking for big number damage, your weapons are absolutely going to outclass your spells with pure consistency. Always pick up hunter’s mark, it’s a necessity, spike growth is really strong, and a solid healing spell is sort of all you need. Your utility should come from your skills, and I think ranger does best when paired with another class like rogue or fighter.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
making a smoothie for meta
——————| EXTENDED SIG |——————
Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Agreed on most of those spells!! Though, since you brought up horizon walker, if youre takin that sub, Misty Step is another AMAZING tool the sub gives you to spend slots on
NNCHRIS: SOUL THIEF, MASTER OF THE ARCANE, AND KING OF NEW YORKNN
Gdl Creator of Ilheia and her Knights of the Fallen Stars ldG
Lesser Student of Technomancy [undergrad student in computer science]
Supporter of the 2014 rules, and a MASSIVE Homebrewer. Come to me all ye who seek salvation in wording thy brews!
Open to homebrew trades at any time!! Or feel free to request HB, and Ill see if I can get it done for ya!
Characters (Outdated)
My ranger has Hunter's Mark, but I don't use it all that often - mostly only when we are fighting a big Boss monster. My go-to is Zephyr Strike, which solves my mediocre AC by letting me jump in and out of melee range (which means the enemies hit the raging barbarian instead). It's a very fun way to play, I find.
My ranger also speaks a ton of languages which I didn't think would be as useful as it's turned out to be.
Zephyr’s strike is really only useful if you’re in melee, which as a ranger, you’re way better off from a distance. Hunter’s mark can be reapplied without using extra slots for an hour, and it adds a 1d6 to every hit, which is really good. The language stuff is also fun, I’m so glad rangers get expertise in Tasha’s.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
making a smoothie for meta
——————| EXTENDED SIG |——————
Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
I agree with zephyr strike
it is amazing
Loremaster, Achievement hunter, Elden Lord.
I have been playing dnd for untold eons.
Myrkridia Statistics here!
My ranger can do both melee and ranged as needed, but typically they are doing two-weapon fighting with shortswords and zephyr strike. It's super fun. And especially if the barbarian and I can flank on my turn, we are a very powerful combination.
Hunter's Mark only adds to every hit on the same foe, and you can only move it for free with a bonus action when the foe dies. For a big enemy this is helpful, but if I'm hitting smaller or already injured foes, sometimes I am hitting multiple targets in a single turn. It's also sometimes the case that the foe will move or otherwise become less important to hit than someone else before it dies. It's a good spell for sure, it's just that I often prefer to use other spells depending on the situation. Being able to nix opportunity attacks with Zephyr Strike has been helpful in ways I wouldn't have predicted. It's basically a longer running variation of Misty Step.
I know there are "supposed tos" that the internet is full of, but what I love about the Ranger is that there are just so many different ways to play. The subclasses can change what is possible quite a bit, such that you can have multiple Rangers in a party that have quite different skills and styles.
I did quite well with rangers who didn't take hunter’s mark and more then once saved the party with entangle, fog cloud ,spike growth or silence. Absorb Elements is another spell that saved me at times,
What I see is rangers have several very good spells and it can be a very tough call which ones to take. I would prefer rangers getting a couple more known spells or some way of swapping out spells. If for example I want to learn fog cloud at level 4 I have to unlearn some other spell never made sense to me
I tried a game years ago where all casters were known casters and you could only learn new spells when you leveled however you never had to unlearn a spell to learn a new one. After that game trying known casters in 5e left something to be desired for me