The Definitive Guide to Why You (Yes, You) Should Play the Ranger.
First thing first, this is by no means definitive, I just made that part up.
So, let's discuss the Ranger, there are lots of arguments as to why the Ranger is underpowered, and lots of arguments why they aren't, but that's not really what we're here for, let us discuss the good points (and I guess the not so good, in my personal experience a lot of people are dissatisfied with 5e's take) of the Ranger for all to admire.
Theme
Thematically the ranger is meant to be a master of the wilderness, fighting evil on the frontiers of civilisation, in tune with nature and all its marvels, able to commune with beasts and plants alike, a master of stealth and a survivor par excellence. This sounds pretty awesome, actually, this is exactly why you should play the Ranger, because thematically the Ranger (in my incredibly biased opinion) is the absolute best class, the bee’s knees of D&D.
But, the Ranger's theme can be a problem as well, because quite often the Ranger evokes a feeling of being a tough loner. Someone who is off by themselves because the Ranger is so awesome, so good at what they do, that they don’t actually need anyone else. Why is this problematic? Because D&D at its core, in my opinion, is designed to be a social game. You always have at the back of your mind that classic party of four archetypes - Fighter (Ranger), Rogue (another Ranger), Cleric (Ranger with healing spells), and a Wizard (Ranger who has splashed out into 19 levels of Wizard). The classes don’t matter so much as the number four. This means that a lot of what the Ranger is thematically good at doesn't necessarily always translate into a party. I'm not by any means saying that they don't mechanically fit in, but they're often playing the role of forward scout and that silent brooding character in the corner who is wondering why they're caught up in this fiendish (if I have favoured enemy fiend can I destroy this faster?) hovel of a tavern and could the Paladin please stop waffling on about whatever righteous cause they're on about now, the bar staff really have better things to do like advance the damned plot. Sometimes you just might feel constrained by the boundaries of the party and the game. Yes, you can play solo or duo campaigns with a willing DM, but often you want your friends involved because you're human, and that's ok, you can't help that.
Mechanics
Enough of that though, let us look at the core mechanics of the Ranger and discuss what makes the Ranger great.
Favoured Enemy
Favoured enemy allows one choice of favoured enemy (two specific choices if you're hating on humanoids {you probably should, they're terrible people}) at levels 1, 6, & 14. You get bonuses to tracking these enemies, bonuses to recalling information about them, and you learn a language. Thematically this is great, you grew up as a young bugbear where humans repeatedly attacked your home, murdering your loved ones, just because some unimaginative deity of the rules branded you Chaotic Evil. This lead your tribe deeper into the caves and tunnels in the mountains where you had to contest with the equally maligned orcs, so your formative years were spent studying humans and orcs, defending your peaceful tribe from their predations. As a result, you chose them as your favoured enemy, and you learnt to speak the orc language to better understand your enemies (you already knew common, the language of the prejudiced humans). At level 6 and 14 this doesn't stack up as well, but consider what you've been encountering in your adventures and you can easily justify new favoured enemies.
The problem with favoured enemy is that for a signature ability it is quite niche, and if you're not facing your enemies it doesn't do anything. It does require a DM who is conscious of the threats they're throwing at you to make it worthwhile. If you're playing a premade campaign mileage will vary, playing a campaign with a curious number of giants and you didn't take giant? Cheer up, there's always level 6. But if you did take giant, well now we're cooking with magic!
Probably one of the most overlooked aspects of this is the ability to eventually learn three languages, which can put you to the forefront of social aspects if no-one else is able to communicate, and can be excellent for listening to enemy plans or deciphering their maps/puzzles/traps.
Natural Explorer
Natural explorer allows you one choice of natural environment at levels 1, 6, & 10. You get bonuses when travelling within this environment to tracking other creatures, moving through difficult terrain, you can't get lost, you're always alert, you can find more food, and best of all when you're travelling alone you are able to be stealthy and not move at a crawl. Plus, when you're making certain checks related to your chosen environment your proficiency bonus is doubled. Once again this is thematically spot on for the Ranger because all that time you spent tracking and foraging in the underdark for your tribe as the humans laid waste to your ancestral home above ground actually has some real payoff. Even better is that the Ranger grows into other environments as they level, and it is a very natural flow on effect. You've left the underdark to claim back the mountains and now you get benefits when within them. Very neat.
Natural explorer does unfortunately suffer at being niche again, so it does need your DM to be aware of where you are. Just like favoured enemy if the campaign is in desert and you chose underdark, well you always have level 6. But if you already have it, you'll be indispensable to the party (you already are because you're a Ranger, but you'll be more indispensable).
Fighting Style
By the time you're a seasoned adventurer with many sessions under your belt you'll ascend to the heady heights of level 2. It is at this point that you obtain a fighting style. This is not a unique feature to the Ranger, however as a warrior without equal it is expected that you will specialise somewhat in one type of combat. Due to portrayal of, what we’ll loosely call, Rangers in more popular media, two choices tend to be more prevalent. You’re either an archer, or you’re a two-weapon wielder (5e action economy makes it far less common to see Rangers dual-wielding). There are other choices in the PHB and some more interesting ones in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which I highly recommend. Pick the style that best suits your vision of the character, don’t worry about the maths. In the twisting tunnels of the underdark you rarely have clear shots to utilise a bow, so instead you’ve mastered throwing weapons such as javelins and hand axes to strike from the shadows and utilise your natural strength.
Spellcasting
As if a fighting style wasn't enough you also manage to learn some spells at level 2, which is an amazing boon. I’m not going to go into spellcasting in depth but suffice to say a lot of your spells are nature related, which stands to reason, and there are some very cool picks in there. Your spellcasting ability is based on your wisdom score, so it is useful to keep in the back of the mind whilst creating the character.
Two things which are important to remember here though are the aforementioned dreaded 5e action economy (a lot of spells have a cast time of a bonus action, which prevents you from using other bonus action features you may have), and concentration (much like your bonus action spells, a lot of the “cooler” combat spells require concentration, and as we all know you can only concentrate on one spell/feature at a time). Your spell slots are limited, however, and you’re already a beast in combat, so take something fun and creative, don’t be constrained by the need to do that extra damage in combat. Play with utility in mind, and don’t be afraid to burn spell slots, often it is better to cast a spell than to hold onto it and at end of day still have spells remaining. Every spell slot uncast is a wasted opportunity.
Primaeval Awareness
At Level 3 you gain the ability to expend a spell slot to gain the ability to sense the presence of certain types of creatures within 1.6 kilometres (1 mile), or 9.6 km (6 miles) if within a terrain you’ve chosen with Natural Explorer, for one minute per level of spell slot. You don’t know their numbers or location, just that they are there, somewhere, within that 1.6km radius.
This ability is once again a niche ability which doesn’t see a huge amount of opportunity for use, and even when it is used it isn’t necessarily going to give you the answer you seek. However, it can be incredibly handy if used in the right situation, and may give you important information that you wouldn’t have garnered otherwise. The humans you’ve been stalking recently have been talking about a new threat, even greater than them, and you sensed something amiss but couldn’t quite put your finger on it. Using your connection with nature you sense something very unnatural, an aberration, in your domain. You know it is time to prepare for this newer, greater threat, time to track it, discover why it is here, and put an end to it.
This ability definitely reads underwhelmingly at first, but the more you use it and familiarise yourself with its intricacies (e.g., it lasts for a minute per spell slot used, so movement in this time changes the centre of the radius, which can narrow down the location of any stationary creatures) the better use you will get out of it.
Ranger Archetype
In addition to Primaeval Awareness at level 3, you also get to choose your Ranger archetype. I won’t go into these here, although maybe a later post will expand on them in detail.
I think the archetypes are a very personal thing, some of them appeal to me not at all thematically or mechanically, whilst some do. There is no right or wrong choice here, pick what you like best and what suits your character.
One thing to note about the Ranger archetypes is that they often are quite potent when picked, offering a slew of abilities. You also gain additional features at levels 7, 11, and 15.
Ability Score Improvement
At 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19 levels you gain an Ability Score Improvement (just like pretty much every other character). Wherever possible I try to pick a feat to lean into my character more, but taking two improvements to bump up a bonus is perfectly acceptable.
Extra Attack
At 5 level you gain the ability to make two attacks when taking your action as an attack, rather than one. Remember that you can move before and after attacks so don’t be afraid to manoeuvre around the battlefield to make the most of these. This just makes you deadlier in combat, which fits nicely with a defender of wilderness, fighting evil on the frontiers theme. You’ve come across a band of raiders, preparing to invade your tribe’s homes, but with your increased combat ability they will not stand against your terrible might.
Land’s Stride
Land’s Stride, which you gain at level 8, allows you to ignore non-magical difficult terrain, move through plants, and avoid taking damage from plants. On top of that (if it needed more) you gain advantage on saves against magical plants created to impede movement. This is very in tune with the Ranger’s overall theme, you can move through the wilderness almost as if it wasn’t there, and you can easily escape the clutches of enemies in combat by using this terrain to your advantage. You quickly strike against the raider’s archers before dashing off into the undergrowth, the heavily armoured foes unable to catch you with their clumsy swings.
Hide in Plain Sight
At 10 level you gain the ability to hide in plain sight by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or a wall, provided prior to this you have spent a single minute camouflaging yourself. This gives you a significant bonus to stealth checks provided you do not move or take actions, once you do in order to hide this way again you need to spend another minute preparing again. After ambushing the orc patrol, you race through the tunnels to what you know is a dead end, but you quickly apply soot and dirt and press hard against the wall, as the last straggler passes, oblivious to your presence, you reach out and silence it for good before racing back down the other direction.
The boost here is significant, which means it will need some bad luck on your behalf and good luck on the enemy’s in order for you to fail. The interesting thing about this ability is it doesn’t specify how long after the camouflage is applied that you need to attempt to hide. I have seen some interpretations be very liberal with the timeframe, which means that in the right circumstances you can easily use this once in most combats provided you have spent a minute preparing sometime prior, however it will most likely be something you need to discuss with your DM (if there is an official ruling somewhere could you please point me to it).
Vanish
At 14 level you gain the ability to take the hide action as a bonus action, and you cannot be tracked by non-magical means (unless you choose to be able to). This is excellent for Rangers who choose to play a hit and run game from range in the right environments, or even fast-moving melee Rangers. You quickly throw some javelins at the raiders from the rubble, then with a burst of speed run to the nearby trees and disappear from view, the skilled trackers employed by the raiders are unable to find any trace of your passage, you’re simply gone.
Yes, Rogue’s do get an arguably better ability at level 2, but Rogues need something to make them appealing. This has far more roleplay possibility because you can’t be tracked by mundane means, not even another Ranger can track you now. The biggest issue this really faces is if you’re already heavily invested in bonus action economy you will not get the use out of this that deserves in combat.
Feral Senses
At 18 level you gain Feral Senses, the ability to ignore disadvantage on attacks against enemies you’re unable to see, additionally you’re aware of any invisible creature within 30ft of you that isn’t hidden from you. Any foe that relies on invisibility, beware! This is great for the Ranger as it really hits home the theme that you’re a master hunter, even invisible enemies are no match for your skills or detection. The Alhoon tries to slip away from you by casting invisibility, but with your enhanced senses you track its movements and strike, there can be no escape from you.
This isn’t just a combat boon, but can be great for avoiding ambushes or even intrigue in a social setting, the ability to be aware of essentially most things within 30ft is amazing.
Foe Slayer
This is it, the crowning achievement, the pinnacle of Rangerness, the final ability you earn on your 20-level path, Foe Slayer! You can add, once per turn, your wisdom modifier to an attack or damage roll against a favoured enemy before or after the roll is made, but before effects are applied. You’ve tracked the orcs through thick and thin, and despite their heavy armour and numerical superiority your intense training, your dedication to hunting them down, your fanatic devotion to studying them, has allowed you to through force of will alone land blows that would otherwise have missed, and deal more damage than would normally be possible.
This is, once again a niche ability, and it does, if you want the most out of it, push you towards using those ASIs on wisdom, which in itself is not a bad thing, but it won’t always be relevant. Unfortunately, purely combat focused which is a little disappointing as the Ranger has so much going for it in non-combat situations and it would have been nice to see further utility, but it is hardly the worst ability, just uninspired.
Final Thoughts
The Ranger is very strong on theme, and has a great set of abilities that allow for a superior roleplaying experience. It can do a lot, and that’s not even counting its frontloaded archetypes which add even further to its playability.
The Ranger is a strong, capable, versatile warrior with great potential for fun combat encounters if you’re that way inclined. It can pack a punch as well as most and is not afraid to get down and dirty and take a hit.
An issue the Ranger faces is its niche abilities, and a lot of those abilities that don’t necessarily read well on paper, especially at a glance. This makes it daunting to new players or those who are looking for a flashy combat class as it doesn’t immediately jump out at you. Furthermore, you need a good DM to get the most out of the Ranger, and this is actually hard, probably as hard as finding a decent player group. As someone who has been DMing on and off for twenty years I can tell you I’m not good, maybe not terrible, but not a good DM either. This isn’t to say you can’t have fun with a mediocre DM whilst playing the Ranger, it just won’t be quite as fulfilling.
If you’ve never played a Ranger, I heartily recommend you try in your next campaign, build them a story, don’t be afraid to try something different, try to bring your strengths in exploration to the fore wherever possible. Ultimately you will discover what in your heart you already know to be true: nothing beats playing a Ranger.
Sorry that was such a long read, if I get a chance soon I’ll add some thoughts on the optional features available in Tasha’s (I tried to keep this as PHB friendly as possible, and mostly succeeded). Then I might run through a couple of archetypes if people are interested, although it is going to be harder to be impartial with those.
The problem with favoured enemy is that for a signature ability it is quite niche, and if you're not facing your enemies it doesn't do anything. It does require a DM who is conscious of the threats they're throwing at you to make it worthwhile. If you're playing a premade campaign mileage will vary, playing a campaign with a curious number of giants and you didn't take giant? Cheer up, there's always level 6. But if you did take giant, well now we're cooking with magic!
Favoured enemy has a lot of downsides in my opinion, the first being that you need to find enemies whom are the options you picked. It has 0 usage otherwise. Another major downside would be the fact that, sure you can pick a new one at level 6, but at that point the campaign has likely shifted focus from the enemies from previous levels to new ones? Now you got to wait for level 14. Even if you do run into your favoured enemies, you only gain 'advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favoured enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.' The tracking part is decent, but it makes no sense that you have no bonuses or anything against your 'favoured enemy'
Natural explorer does unfortunately suffer at being niche again, so it does need your DM to be aware of where you are. Just like favoured enemy if the campaign is in desert and you chose underdark, well you always have level 6. But if you already have it, you'll be indispensable to the party (you already are because you're a Ranger, but you'll be more indispensable).
Again, suffers if campaign changes through multiple terrains. Most of the benefits to natural explorer are pretty decent, except the 'If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.' This part does not see usage.
This ability definitely reads underwhelmingly at first, but the more you use it and familiarise yourself with its intricacies (e.g., it lasts for a minute per spell slot used, so movement in this time changes the centre of the radius, which can narrow down the location of any stationary creatures) the better use you will get out of it.
Primeval Awareness sucks big time. Sure it lasts a minute per spell slot used, but just how many of the few ranger spell slots are you willing to drop for this? Also, why is this feature WORSE in your favoured terrain? The main problem with this is that 'This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number.' The number part also means if there are say two fey, with one on each side of you, it would take a lot of spell slots to realise this.
I'm okay with land's stride cause it comes at level 8 with the asi boost. It is mainly flavour with some application with the ignore difficult terrain. '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.' This part is too niche to see usage, never seen this ever occur.
Hide in plain sight suffers from party members. It doesn't do anything if there are good hiding spots already, and if there are none, your party will cause it not to matter, since it is unlikely you would stay hidden while the party is fighting. Lack of movement is also an issue, since what happens when if the enemy decides to search? You end up caught between multiple enemies.
Lastly I will talk about the spellcasting. Rangers have so few spells known and cannot cast ritual spells. It doesn't make sense to me that a ranger can't ritually cast stuff. Spells like alarm, which are pretty thematic become useless.
Not going to talk about higher levels cause I personally have not played a campaign which reached those levels as a ranger. From what I can see though, it scales badly and multiclassing into rogue is just as thematic, especially scout rogue.
This was a mildly amusing read and a nice farce at playing up the Ranger. It genuinely says all of the good things about the Ranger and shows just how poor the Ranger is when you say nothing but the best things possible about them, overhyping the mechanics and either ignoring the glaring flaws or cleverly playing the flaws off as a boon. (Primeval Awareness isn't bad, you just have to use MORE spell slots to make it last longer and make sure you walk around. Isn't that great?!)
The opening paragraph is essentially saying they're going to ignore most of the bad and only talk about the good, so whether or not it is satire, it should not be taken seriously from a balance perspective.
This guide is ok for those who just don't care about the flaws and want to make the most out of their Ranger. I genuinely like this guide from that narrow perspective.
You are planting your personal opinions in this post. The ranger's are not bad. They aren't as bad the the original post made them our to be, and they certainly aren't as bad as the first response makes them out to be.
Many people don't like the ranger class. Most of those people (I think all of them) either don't know how to use the abilities or don't like or play the kind of game that uses those abilities.
The problem with favoured enemy is that for a signature ability it is quite niche, and if you're not facing your enemies it doesn't do anything. It does require a DM who is conscious of the threats they're throwing at you to make it worthwhile. If you're playing a premade campaign mileage will vary, playing a campaign with a curious number of giants and you didn't take giant? Cheer up, there's always level 6. But if you did take giant, well now we're cooking with magic!
Favoured enemy has a lot of downsides in my opinion, the first being that you need to find enemies whom are the options you picked. It has 0 usage otherwise. Another major downside would be the fact that, sure you can pick a new one at level 6, but at that point the campaign has likely shifted focus from the enemies from previous levels to new ones? Now you got to wait for level 14. Even if you do run into your favoured enemies, you only gain 'advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favoured enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.' The tracking part is decent, but it makes no sense that you have no bonuses or anything against your 'favoured enemy'
Natural explorer does unfortunately suffer at being niche again, so it does need your DM to be aware of where you are. Just like favoured enemy if the campaign is in desert and you chose underdark, well you always have level 6. But if you already have it, you'll be indispensable to the party (you already are because you're a Ranger, but you'll be more indispensable).
Again, suffers if campaign changes through multiple terrains. Most of the benefits to natural explorer are pretty decent, except the 'If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.' This part does not see usage.
This ability definitely reads underwhelmingly at first, but the more you use it and familiarise yourself with its intricacies (e.g., it lasts for a minute per spell slot used, so movement in this time changes the centre of the radius, which can narrow down the location of any stationary creatures) the better use you will get out of it.
Primeval Awareness sucks big time. Sure it lasts a minute per spell slot used, but just how many of the few ranger spell slots are you willing to drop for this? Also, why is this feature WORSE in your favoured terrain? The main problem with this is that 'This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number.' The number part also means if there are say two fey, with one on each side of you, it would take a lot of spell slots to realise this.
I'm okay with land's stride cause it comes at level 8 with the asi boost. It is mainly flavour with some application with the ignore difficult terrain. '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.' This part is too niche to see usage, never seen this ever occur.
Hide in plain sight suffers from party members. It doesn't do anything if there are good hiding spots already, and if there are none, your party will cause it not to matter, since it is unlikely you would stay hidden while the party is fighting. Lack of movement is also an issue, since what happens when if the enemy decides to search? You end up caught between multiple enemies.
Lastly I will talk about the spellcasting. Rangers have so few spells known and cannot cast ritual spells. It doesn't make sense to me that a ranger can't ritually cast stuff. Spells like alarm, which are pretty thematic become useless.
Not going to talk about higher levels cause I personally have not played a campaign which reached those levels as a ranger. From what I can see though, it scales badly and multiclassing into rogue is just as thematic, especially scout rogue.
Favored Enemy. It's not like you are picking a favored enemy of Larry, the 38 year old orc with a gimpy leg that lives at 123 Cherry Tree Lane. We are talking about ALL the creatures of a certain type. ALL monstrosities. ALL undead. ALL fiends. The monster manual has many creatures but they all fall into one type or another. Look here for the breakdown. If you choose monstrosities, undead, or fiends you are getting dozens of creatures to be an expert tracker of and all around knowledgable about, not to mention getting an extra language. The battle master has an entire subclass ability at level 7 that gives them two little pieces of information about a single specific creature after one minute of doing nothing. Any time you ask the DM "Does my character know anything about this BLANK?" a ranger has an ever increasing chance to know it better than anyone without needing proficiencies! Arcana, history, nature, and religion. Any of these checks regarding information about an ENTIRE type of monsters and the ranger has a mathematical +5 to the check. That's like a level 13 proficiency bonus, and if you are already proficient, it's like a level 13 expertise bonus.
Natural Explorer. Yes. The second half of this ability is turned completely off if you aren't actually traveling in your favored terrain. When you are in your terrain it is off the charts better than any other ability, skill, or combination of skills in the game. (This works in tandem with Primeval Awareness as well.) In your favored terrain you are hands down the best. If you aren't in your favored terrain you still get expertise on any wisdom or intelligence check that you are proficient in related to your favored terrain. Animal Handling, Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival are all possible candidates, and all get the bonus if the check is related to your terrain of choice, three choices by level 10! This is where a lot of player get all bent out of shape. You don't have to be in your favored terrain for this ability to work. Some terrains are related to others in many ways. Take survival, nature, animal handling, and perception. Some things from your favored terrain will show up outside of it. Take art, herbs and plants, animals, weather, and history. This isn't a bad ability. It is an ability that fosters creative thinking.
Primeval Awareness. This ability does not suck. But this ability is not about finding creatures. Many other of the ranger's abilities and spells are used for finding creatures. Primeval awareness is about verifying what ISN'T around you. It tells you what unnatural creatures are around. That's why humanoids and beasts aren't on the list of creatures that ping when you use this ability. When you use this you'll know if any strange and unnatural creatures are within a mile of you, even in your favored terrain if you choose to do so as the ability gives you the option to choose up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain. If you are in your favored terrain and choose to use the 6 mile option that is just fine as if you are in your favored terrain all of your other natural explorer abilities are active! You have (likely multiple instances of) expertise, know the exact number of creatures, their size, how long ago they passed the area, and likely the types of creatures and more, all from your natural explorer ability. If you happen to be looking for a favored enemy too now you have expertise AND advantage! On top of that, rangers have spells that further their ability to find things. Speak with Animals, Beast Sense, Locate Animals or Plants, Locate Object, Conjure Animals, Speak with Plants, Locate Creature, and Commune with Nature all help you to find things. The beast master can be even better at this for obvious reasons. Primeval Awareness is not about telling you what IS around you, it's about telling you what ISN'T around you.
Land's Stride. This ability is great on it's own. Most DMs don't use difficult terrain as much as they should, like the body of a fallen enemy, stairs, climbing a wall, rough water, and a jungle for examples. The magic advantage is great when it works out. The big combination here is Land's Stride and the 3rd level spell (gotten at level 9, by the way) Plant Growth. The combination of these two can shut down a combat encounter. Counterspell has a range of 60 feet. Plant Growth has a range of 150 feet and covers a 100 foot radius area! A small army of melee dependent soldiers (including paladins and barbarians) are rendered null and void.
Hide in Plain Sight. This is a two part ability. Part one is the setup. Spend a minute making your camo. Step two can happen later. Walking around scouting. In a battle. Whatever. You can hide with a +10 bonus simply by pressing yourself up against a surface larger than you. Lightfoot halflings and wood elves have a similar racial effect.The ranger could conceivably have this available for each combat. A ritual spell is at least 10 minutes. This, just like the two racial versions, break the normal rules for hiding regarding being seen by the person you are attempting to hide from. The ranger needs the 1 minute setup to do it, but they get a bonkers bonus for their efforts.
Spells. Ranger get more from their spells than most people think. Take the idea of what kind of ranger you want your ranger to be, and there are a few spells to make that happen. Damage dealer? Stealth? Healer? Hunting? Exploring? Battlefield control? They are known spell caster, yes. But they don't burn spell slots like a paladin to put out the same damage. Their spells make big changes to the game and are very impactful. Yet they don't step on the toes of druids. You won't need as many spells for a ranger as you'd think.
As for higher levels, all the martial kind of stay the same for large amounts of level ups. The paladin doesn't get much more after level 11. Rogues get a little more sneak attack. Just about every class is worth multiclassing out of at the later levels as all of the classes are front loaded in 5E.WHat's that you say? Spellcasters are great at later levels because of their spell slots and higher level spells? Guess what?! So are rangers! Levl 4 ranger spells are great and level 5 rangers spells are amazing!
Anyone who makes a blanket statement that the ranger is bad will get a response from me counterpointing and defending. I'm sorry, Korbin. The internet has enough hate, and if the ranger was so obviously bad, why does the internet need you pointing it out?
The only blanket statement I made was the one where I mocked your blanket statement.
This thread had no fallacious arguments until you jumped in. Even the OP doing their best to paint the Ranger in a positive light managed to at least acknowledge in passing areas where the Ranger is flawed managed to avoid fallacies.
Jeff went into a little more detail about the flaws and admitting things he liked and things he has no experience with.
If Dravaal or Jeff used any fallacies I missed them, but then a couple of fallacies that are missed aren't such a big deal, and it is clear the fallacies are not the crux of their argument.
I didn't feel like doing another long post, but I thought it was worth pointing out the merits of the OP's perspective and how much it amused me from the perspective of a satirical post. I can understand if my first post was misunderstood rather than taken as mirthful, but my clarifying post after should have done so.
You come in and completely derail a peaceful thread with "these are just your opinions and you're doing the Ranger wrong" and that is the crux of your argument. You even imply that the OP painted the Ranger in a bad light.
You are planting your personal opinions in this post. The ranger's are not bad. They aren't as bad the the original post made them our to be, and they certainly aren't as bad as the first response makes them out to be.
The OP gave a very honest interpretation of good ways to play the Ranger, of how the Ranger CAN be good, with consideration to its flaws, and that still isn't good enough for you. It doesn't change that the flaws are still there, it just does its best to show how to work with the flaws.
Your more extensive follow-up post pretends the Ranger is flawless. You don't acknowledge a single drawback except for part of Natural Explorer not working outside of favored terrain and then you just blow that off as if it is no big deal.
When analyzing a class, you have to give a fair interpretation of what you lose vs. what you gain. Ten you compare these gains vs losses with other classes.
You frequently pretend as if the Ranger loses nothing significant or at all, and that the gains are so far and above or on par with features of other classes. Most people see that you lose too much and gain too little with the Ranger's features.
"You don't acknowledge a single drawback except for part of Natural Explorer not working outside of favored terrain and then you just blow that off as if it is no big deal."
Natural Explorer. Yes. The second half of this ability is turned completely off if you aren't actually traveling in your favored terrain. When you are in your terrain it is off the charts better than any other ability, skill, or combination of skills in the game. (This works in tandem with Primeval Awareness as well.) In your favored terrain you are hands down the best. If you aren't in your favored terrain you still get expertise on any wisdom or intelligence check that you are proficient in related to your favored terrain. Animal Handling, Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival are all possible candidates, and all get the bonus if the check is related to your terrain of choice, three choices by level 10! This is where a lot of player get all bent out of shape. You don't have to be in your favored terrain for this ability to work. Some terrains are related to others in many ways. Take survival, nature, animal handling, and perception. Some things from your favored terrain will show up outside of it. Take art, herbs and plants, animals, weather, and history. This isn't a bad ability. It is an ability that fosters creative thinking.
The bold part is you saying what you say you didn't say.
For the rest of the quote, you do nothing but praise Natural Explorer. Not a single acknowledgment as to WHY the flaw of over half of the feature's bonuses being useless outside of your terrain is such a bad design. This action which you took, your LACK of saying these things, is the act of blowing off the flaws as if it is no big deal.
Can you have an honest discussion just once? Make a single good-faith argument, even if just for kicks.
Very important point is I said the second half. VERY important.
I am the yin to your yang.
All you make is remarks pointing out the flaws of the ranger. I’ll make you a deal. You tell me some good things about the ranger’s hated abilities and I’ll tell you some the things I don’t like about them. Deal?
No, I don't only point out the flaws. I've made very long posts in other threads that you commented on which acknowledges where there are boons to the Ranger. I point out that the gains in most cases do not make up for the losses. You ignore flaws or act as if the gains of the Ranger are so good that they outweigh the losses.
You think it is so important that you mention the second half because you grossly exaggerate the benefits of Natural Explorer outside of your favored terrain and then act as if those overhyped bonuses make up for the drawbacks.
In this very thread, I praise the OP for how well they focus on the positives of the Ranger, and doing so in an honest fashion rather than ignoring the flaws that inherent. That is a vicarious acknowledgment of the positives of the Ranger.
Still waiting for you to be honest and act in good faith.
I am. I believe and think the ranger is great, fun, and works very well. The internet is full of haters. Haters that offer nothing other than that alone. I am pointing out all of the great things about the class and PHB subclasses. If I have one complaint it would be I wish more people would play a type of game of D&D 5E that didn’t just revolve around min/max combat focused romper room.
You are what? Being honest? Cause I already proved you are incredibly dishonest, in this and other threads.
Why do you also keep falling back to calling people who disagree with you haters instead of either admitting you are wrong or coming up with an argument that actually refutes honest criticisms?
Why bring up people who min/max? I have never expressed that the Ranger is bad due to min/maxing combat capabilities. You're not even arguing with me at this point, you're just making someone up and applying the characteristics of that person to me. Another dishonest tactic.
You are what? Being honest? Cause I already proved you are incredibly dishonest, in this and other threads.
Why do you also keep falling back to calling people who disagree with you haters instead of either admitting you are wrong or coming up with an argument that actually refutes honest criticisms?
Why bring up people who min/max? I have never expressed that the Ranger is bad due to min/maxing combat capabilities. You're not even arguing with me at this point, you're just making someone up and applying the characteristics of that person to me. Another dishonest tactic.
Stop with the personal attacks. You called the OP farcical, and now are accusing someone else of dishonesty. Enough is enough.
The opening paragraph is essentially saying they're going to ignore most of the bad and only talk about the good, so whether or not it is satire, it should not be taken seriously from a balance perspective.
This guide is ok for those who just don't care about the flaws and want to make the most out of their Ranger. I genuinely like this guide from that narrow perspective.
And then I said this. And everything I have said in support of the OP since. The OP is amusing in a narrow perspective, without clarification we don't know if it is satire or genuine, but it is a fine post from both perspectives.
You ignore personal attacks on me. I call someone dishonest when they are being dishonest. Did you miss the points I called out? It is not a personal attack to call out dishonesty.
I read the Ranger abilities and say "Here are some good things, here a lot of bad things that outweigh the good."
You read the Ranger abilities and say "There is nothing wrong with the class except people don't play it the way I play it."
Yeah...that reads like a back-handed compliment. And when you're talking something up, acting as a hype man, you're not going to talk about the things not to like. That's not how promotion works. And that's how I read the OP. Maybe it's satire. Maybe they thought to just drop a firecracker in the forums and run. I don't know, and I don't care. The discussion hasn't been great.
Now, you don't owe Frank a bone. You are 100% in your right to say that you won't offer up what you consider to be positives for him to offer up his negatives. It's also hypocritical of you to call for, "a single good-faith argument, even if just for kicks," and then not accept the offer to find common ground. You don't get to have it both ways.
I haven't seen an overt attack against you, but I don't think Frank is in the right, either.
I don't know what your complaints are in regards to my comments on the OP that I haven't already acknowledged and addressed.
I didn't ask for his version of common ground. Demanding honesty is not equivalent to "you say a good thing and I'll say a bad thing." If I say "torture is bad" you don't get to counter with "ok, say one good thing about sleep deprivation and I'll say one bad thing about waterboarding."
How can you not see attacks on me but then misconstrue my pointing out dishonest tactics as an attack?
The problem with favoured enemy is that for a signature ability it is quite niche, and if you're not facing your enemies it doesn't do anything. It does require a DM who is conscious of the threats they're throwing at you to make it worthwhile. If you're playing a premade campaign mileage will vary, playing a campaign with a curious number of giants and you didn't take giant? Cheer up, there's always level 6. But if you did take giant, well now we're cooking with magic!
Favoured enemy has a lot of downsides in my opinion, the first being that you need to find enemies whom are the options you picked. It has 0 usage otherwise. Another major downside would be the fact that, sure you can pick a new one at level 6, but at that point the campaign has likely shifted focus from the enemies from previous levels to new ones? Now you got to wait for level 14. Even if you do run into your favoured enemies, you only gain 'advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favoured enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.' The tracking part is decent, but it makes no sense that you have no bonuses or anything against your 'favoured enemy'
Natural explorer does unfortunately suffer at being niche again, so it does need your DM to be aware of where you are. Just like favoured enemy if the campaign is in desert and you chose underdark, well you always have level 6. But if you already have it, you'll be indispensable to the party (you already are because you're a Ranger, but you'll be more indispensable).
Again, suffers if campaign changes through multiple terrains. Most of the benefits to natural explorer are pretty decent, except the 'If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.' This part does not see usage.
This ability definitely reads underwhelmingly at first, but the more you use it and familiarise yourself with its intricacies (e.g., it lasts for a minute per spell slot used, so movement in this time changes the centre of the radius, which can narrow down the location of any stationary creatures) the better use you will get out of it.
Primeval Awareness sucks big time. Sure it lasts a minute per spell slot used, but just how many of the few ranger spell slots are you willing to drop for this? Also, why is this feature WORSE in your favoured terrain? The main problem with this is that 'This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number.' The number part also means if there are say two fey, with one on each side of you, it would take a lot of spell slots to realise this.
I'm okay with land's stride cause it comes at level 8 with the asi boost. It is mainly flavour with some application with the ignore difficult terrain. '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.' This part is too niche to see usage, never seen this ever occur.
Hide in plain sight suffers from party members. It doesn't do anything if there are good hiding spots already, and if there are none, your party will cause it not to matter, since it is unlikely you would stay hidden while the party is fighting. Lack of movement is also an issue, since what happens when if the enemy decides to search? You end up caught between multiple enemies.
Lastly I will talk about the spellcasting. Rangers have so few spells known and cannot cast ritual spells. It doesn't make sense to me that a ranger can't ritually cast stuff. Spells like alarm, which are pretty thematic become useless.
Not going to talk about higher levels cause I personally have not played a campaign which reached those levels as a ranger. From what I can see though, it scales badly and multiclassing into rogue is just as thematic, especially scout rogue.
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comments.
I agree that Favoured Enemy is flawed (I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate this ability game design wise, but it is a close run thing. It has strong theme, you can load backstory into it and build a really strong character from it, but it is really a flawed ability), and in many campaigns it will indeed not be helpful. It requires a good DM to make sure that you have an opportunity to use it, this is a recurring theme with the Ranger.
Spot on with Natural Explorer, especially the travelling alone part! In what is generally a party game it is exceedingly rare you'll travel long distances alone. Once again DM needs to be good enough to allow opportunities to use this ability to its fullest.
Primaeval Awareness, I wouldn't say it sucks big time, maybe it just sucks most of the time, but I do agree that this can be much worse in your natural terrain. You're absolutely correct that if there are fey on both sides then it doesn't necessarily help, and it is painful to lose a spell slot. The biggest problem it has is it requires creative use, and once again the DM has to be on the ball. However, I will argue that this can be very useful in some situations: Say you've arrived at a tower/dungeon without any prior knowledge and are yet to enter, say you've scouted your 1.6km in each direction, you can then use this and get an idea of what is and isn't inside. This gives you some knowledge of the threats you will encounter and can help the party immensely. This isn't always going to be usable this way, but it isn't entirely pointless either (which I will admit was my reaction upon reading it initially).
Land's stride once again relies on your DM to use difficult terrain, or for you at least to create some, and requires enemies to use those spells. DM dependent again, but it can be ever so useful in the right situation.
Upon first read I did not like Hide in Plain Sight, even now after seeing some creative uses I'd not thought of I still don't love it. This is definitely a better solo skill, it does have some interesting once off combat applications depending on your interpretation, and it can be good for ambushes/escapes, but hard to find scenarios where this will be used a hell of a lot.
Spellcasting and lack of rituals is a big point, which I'd not even considered (I don't find the spell casting classes in D&D interesting so I very rarely play them, my spell mechanics are weak), thank you for pointing this out.
Overall I think a lot of classes (especially the more martial ones) are frontloaded so multiclassing is more desirable in many instances, the Ranger especially, as you note, benefits a lot from multiclassing at later levels, and scout Rogue is very appealing.
The opening paragraph is essentially saying they're going to ignore most of the bad and only talk about the good, so whether or not it is satire, it should not be taken seriously from a balance perspective.
This guide is ok for those who just don't care about the flaws and want to make the most out of their Ranger. I genuinely like this guide from that narrow perspective.
I'm glad you liked it, I think this bolded comment really hits the nail on the head in many ways (you wrote a further comment in a later reply which I also appreciated, but I can't find it atm, too many replies to quote fully). With this guide I'm trying to encourage positive discussion of the Ranger, I'm not trying to ignore the bad, nor gloss over it, but also I'm not trying to beat the Ranger to death.
I don't feel the Ranger is a bad class, nor underpowered. They're definitely underappreciated though, and they suffer because they're on the higher end of requiring creativity to get the most out of, and possibly the class that is most reliant on DM. I'm not saying that if you choose underdark as natural terrain and orcs as enemies that the DM has to set everything in the underdark teeming with thousands of orcs, but if they are not conscious of your choices then yes, your mileage as Ranger will suffer. It is hard to be creative with a mediocre DM and party, so there is a lot (in my opinion) going against the Ranger for playability, especially to new players. I guess after writing this paragraph maybe the guide is more about getting people to actually try the Ranger, look at the flaws and get past them?
5e says there are three pillars of gameplay, which should take equal footing in a campaign. The Ranger has great strengths in Exploration, the stunted, oft ignored pillar. This isn't necessarily the fault of players or DMs, but of 5e itself not making it appealing to the majority of players.
They aren't as bad the the original post made them our to be, and they certainly aren't as bad as the first response makes them out to be.
It was not my intention to paint the Ranger in a bad light, if I did so I apologise. I was trying to praise the virtues of the Ranger whilst acknowledging that there are some flaws. Thanks for reading and any feedback is appreciated.
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The Definitive Guide to Why You (Yes, You) Should Play the Ranger.
First thing first, this is by no means definitive, I just made that part up.
So, let's discuss the Ranger, there are lots of arguments as to why the Ranger is underpowered, and lots of arguments why they aren't, but that's not really what we're here for, let us discuss the good points (and I guess the not so good, in my personal experience a lot of people are dissatisfied with 5e's take) of the Ranger for all to admire.
Theme
Thematically the ranger is meant to be a master of the wilderness, fighting evil on the frontiers of civilisation, in tune with nature and all its marvels, able to commune with beasts and plants alike, a master of stealth and a survivor par excellence. This sounds pretty awesome, actually, this is exactly why you should play the Ranger, because thematically the Ranger (in my incredibly biased opinion) is the absolute best class, the bee’s knees of D&D.
But, the Ranger's theme can be a problem as well, because quite often the Ranger evokes a feeling of being a tough loner. Someone who is off by themselves because the Ranger is so awesome, so good at what they do, that they don’t actually need anyone else. Why is this problematic? Because D&D at its core, in my opinion, is designed to be a social game. You always have at the back of your mind that classic party of four archetypes - Fighter (Ranger), Rogue (another Ranger), Cleric (Ranger with healing spells), and a Wizard (Ranger who has splashed out into 19 levels of Wizard). The classes don’t matter so much as the number four. This means that a lot of what the Ranger is thematically good at doesn't necessarily always translate into a party. I'm not by any means saying that they don't mechanically fit in, but they're often playing the role of forward scout and that silent brooding character in the corner who is wondering why they're caught up in this fiendish (if I have favoured enemy fiend can I destroy this faster?) hovel of a tavern and could the Paladin please stop waffling on about whatever righteous cause they're on about now, the bar staff really have better things to do like advance the damned plot. Sometimes you just might feel constrained by the boundaries of the party and the game. Yes, you can play solo or duo campaigns with a willing DM, but often you want your friends involved because you're human, and that's ok, you can't help that.
Mechanics
Enough of that though, let us look at the core mechanics of the Ranger and discuss what makes the Ranger great.
Favoured Enemy
Favoured enemy allows one choice of favoured enemy (two specific choices if you're hating on humanoids {you probably should, they're terrible people}) at levels 1, 6, & 14. You get bonuses to tracking these enemies, bonuses to recalling information about them, and you learn a language. Thematically this is great, you grew up as a young bugbear where humans repeatedly attacked your home, murdering your loved ones, just because some unimaginative deity of the rules branded you Chaotic Evil. This lead your tribe deeper into the caves and tunnels in the mountains where you had to contest with the equally maligned orcs, so your formative years were spent studying humans and orcs, defending your peaceful tribe from their predations. As a result, you chose them as your favoured enemy, and you learnt to speak the orc language to better understand your enemies (you already knew common, the language of the prejudiced humans). At level 6 and 14 this doesn't stack up as well, but consider what you've been encountering in your adventures and you can easily justify new favoured enemies.
The problem with favoured enemy is that for a signature ability it is quite niche, and if you're not facing your enemies it doesn't do anything. It does require a DM who is conscious of the threats they're throwing at you to make it worthwhile. If you're playing a premade campaign mileage will vary, playing a campaign with a curious number of giants and you didn't take giant? Cheer up, there's always level 6. But if you did take giant, well now we're cooking with magic!
Probably one of the most overlooked aspects of this is the ability to eventually learn three languages, which can put you to the forefront of social aspects if no-one else is able to communicate, and can be excellent for listening to enemy plans or deciphering their maps/puzzles/traps.
Natural Explorer
Natural explorer allows you one choice of natural environment at levels 1, 6, & 10. You get bonuses when travelling within this environment to tracking other creatures, moving through difficult terrain, you can't get lost, you're always alert, you can find more food, and best of all when you're travelling alone you are able to be stealthy and not move at a crawl. Plus, when you're making certain checks related to your chosen environment your proficiency bonus is doubled. Once again this is thematically spot on for the Ranger because all that time you spent tracking and foraging in the underdark for your tribe as the humans laid waste to your ancestral home above ground actually has some real payoff. Even better is that the Ranger grows into other environments as they level, and it is a very natural flow on effect. You've left the underdark to claim back the mountains and now you get benefits when within them. Very neat.
Natural explorer does unfortunately suffer at being niche again, so it does need your DM to be aware of where you are. Just like favoured enemy if the campaign is in desert and you chose underdark, well you always have level 6. But if you already have it, you'll be indispensable to the party (you already are because you're a Ranger, but you'll be more indispensable).
Fighting Style
By the time you're a seasoned adventurer with many sessions under your belt you'll ascend to the heady heights of level 2. It is at this point that you obtain a fighting style. This is not a unique feature to the Ranger, however as a warrior without equal it is expected that you will specialise somewhat in one type of combat. Due to portrayal of, what we’ll loosely call, Rangers in more popular media, two choices tend to be more prevalent. You’re either an archer, or you’re a two-weapon wielder (5e action economy makes it far less common to see Rangers dual-wielding). There are other choices in the PHB and some more interesting ones in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which I highly recommend. Pick the style that best suits your vision of the character, don’t worry about the maths. In the twisting tunnels of the underdark you rarely have clear shots to utilise a bow, so instead you’ve mastered throwing weapons such as javelins and hand axes to strike from the shadows and utilise your natural strength.
Spellcasting
As if a fighting style wasn't enough you also manage to learn some spells at level 2, which is an amazing boon. I’m not going to go into spellcasting in depth but suffice to say a lot of your spells are nature related, which stands to reason, and there are some very cool picks in there. Your spellcasting ability is based on your wisdom score, so it is useful to keep in the back of the mind whilst creating the character.
Two things which are important to remember here though are the aforementioned dreaded 5e action economy (a lot of spells have a cast time of a bonus action, which prevents you from using other bonus action features you may have), and concentration (much like your bonus action spells, a lot of the “cooler” combat spells require concentration, and as we all know you can only concentrate on one spell/feature at a time). Your spell slots are limited, however, and you’re already a beast in combat, so take something fun and creative, don’t be constrained by the need to do that extra damage in combat. Play with utility in mind, and don’t be afraid to burn spell slots, often it is better to cast a spell than to hold onto it and at end of day still have spells remaining. Every spell slot uncast is a wasted opportunity.
Primaeval Awareness
At Level 3 you gain the ability to expend a spell slot to gain the ability to sense the presence of certain types of creatures within 1.6 kilometres (1 mile), or 9.6 km (6 miles) if within a terrain you’ve chosen with Natural Explorer, for one minute per level of spell slot. You don’t know their numbers or location, just that they are there, somewhere, within that 1.6km radius.
This ability is once again a niche ability which doesn’t see a huge amount of opportunity for use, and even when it is used it isn’t necessarily going to give you the answer you seek. However, it can be incredibly handy if used in the right situation, and may give you important information that you wouldn’t have garnered otherwise. The humans you’ve been stalking recently have been talking about a new threat, even greater than them, and you sensed something amiss but couldn’t quite put your finger on it. Using your connection with nature you sense something very unnatural, an aberration, in your domain. You know it is time to prepare for this newer, greater threat, time to track it, discover why it is here, and put an end to it.
This ability definitely reads underwhelmingly at first, but the more you use it and familiarise yourself with its intricacies (e.g., it lasts for a minute per spell slot used, so movement in this time changes the centre of the radius, which can narrow down the location of any stationary creatures) the better use you will get out of it.
Ranger Archetype
In addition to Primaeval Awareness at level 3, you also get to choose your Ranger archetype. I won’t go into these here, although maybe a later post will expand on them in detail.
I think the archetypes are a very personal thing, some of them appeal to me not at all thematically or mechanically, whilst some do. There is no right or wrong choice here, pick what you like best and what suits your character.
One thing to note about the Ranger archetypes is that they often are quite potent when picked, offering a slew of abilities. You also gain additional features at levels 7, 11, and 15.
Ability Score Improvement
At 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19 levels you gain an Ability Score Improvement (just like pretty much every other character). Wherever possible I try to pick a feat to lean into my character more, but taking two improvements to bump up a bonus is perfectly acceptable.
Extra Attack
At 5 level you gain the ability to make two attacks when taking your action as an attack, rather than one. Remember that you can move before and after attacks so don’t be afraid to manoeuvre around the battlefield to make the most of these. This just makes you deadlier in combat, which fits nicely with a defender of wilderness, fighting evil on the frontiers theme. You’ve come across a band of raiders, preparing to invade your tribe’s homes, but with your increased combat ability they will not stand against your terrible might.
Land’s Stride
Land’s Stride, which you gain at level 8, allows you to ignore non-magical difficult terrain, move through plants, and avoid taking damage from plants. On top of that (if it needed more) you gain advantage on saves against magical plants created to impede movement. This is very in tune with the Ranger’s overall theme, you can move through the wilderness almost as if it wasn’t there, and you can easily escape the clutches of enemies in combat by using this terrain to your advantage. You quickly strike against the raider’s archers before dashing off into the undergrowth, the heavily armoured foes unable to catch you with their clumsy swings.
Hide in Plain Sight
At 10 level you gain the ability to hide in plain sight by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or a wall, provided prior to this you have spent a single minute camouflaging yourself. This gives you a significant bonus to stealth checks provided you do not move or take actions, once you do in order to hide this way again you need to spend another minute preparing again. After ambushing the orc patrol, you race through the tunnels to what you know is a dead end, but you quickly apply soot and dirt and press hard against the wall, as the last straggler passes, oblivious to your presence, you reach out and silence it for good before racing back down the other direction.
The boost here is significant, which means it will need some bad luck on your behalf and good luck on the enemy’s in order for you to fail. The interesting thing about this ability is it doesn’t specify how long after the camouflage is applied that you need to attempt to hide. I have seen some interpretations be very liberal with the timeframe, which means that in the right circumstances you can easily use this once in most combats provided you have spent a minute preparing sometime prior, however it will most likely be something you need to discuss with your DM (if there is an official ruling somewhere could you please point me to it).
Vanish
At 14 level you gain the ability to take the hide action as a bonus action, and you cannot be tracked by non-magical means (unless you choose to be able to). This is excellent for Rangers who choose to play a hit and run game from range in the right environments, or even fast-moving melee Rangers. You quickly throw some javelins at the raiders from the rubble, then with a burst of speed run to the nearby trees and disappear from view, the skilled trackers employed by the raiders are unable to find any trace of your passage, you’re simply gone.
Yes, Rogue’s do get an arguably better ability at level 2, but Rogues need something to make them appealing. This has far more roleplay possibility because you can’t be tracked by mundane means, not even another Ranger can track you now. The biggest issue this really faces is if you’re already heavily invested in bonus action economy you will not get the use out of this that deserves in combat.
Feral Senses
At 18 level you gain Feral Senses, the ability to ignore disadvantage on attacks against enemies you’re unable to see, additionally you’re aware of any invisible creature within 30ft of you that isn’t hidden from you. Any foe that relies on invisibility, beware! This is great for the Ranger as it really hits home the theme that you’re a master hunter, even invisible enemies are no match for your skills or detection. The Alhoon tries to slip away from you by casting invisibility, but with your enhanced senses you track its movements and strike, there can be no escape from you.
This isn’t just a combat boon, but can be great for avoiding ambushes or even intrigue in a social setting, the ability to be aware of essentially most things within 30ft is amazing.
Foe Slayer
This is it, the crowning achievement, the pinnacle of Rangerness, the final ability you earn on your 20-level path, Foe Slayer! You can add, once per turn, your wisdom modifier to an attack or damage roll against a favoured enemy before or after the roll is made, but before effects are applied. You’ve tracked the orcs through thick and thin, and despite their heavy armour and numerical superiority your intense training, your dedication to hunting them down, your fanatic devotion to studying them, has allowed you to through force of will alone land blows that would otherwise have missed, and deal more damage than would normally be possible.
This is, once again a niche ability, and it does, if you want the most out of it, push you towards using those ASIs on wisdom, which in itself is not a bad thing, but it won’t always be relevant. Unfortunately, purely combat focused which is a little disappointing as the Ranger has so much going for it in non-combat situations and it would have been nice to see further utility, but it is hardly the worst ability, just uninspired.
Final Thoughts
The Ranger is very strong on theme, and has a great set of abilities that allow for a superior roleplaying experience. It can do a lot, and that’s not even counting its frontloaded archetypes which add even further to its playability.
The Ranger is a strong, capable, versatile warrior with great potential for fun combat encounters if you’re that way inclined. It can pack a punch as well as most and is not afraid to get down and dirty and take a hit.
An issue the Ranger faces is its niche abilities, and a lot of those abilities that don’t necessarily read well on paper, especially at a glance. This makes it daunting to new players or those who are looking for a flashy combat class as it doesn’t immediately jump out at you. Furthermore, you need a good DM to get the most out of the Ranger, and this is actually hard, probably as hard as finding a decent player group. As someone who has been DMing on and off for twenty years I can tell you I’m not good, maybe not terrible, but not a good DM either. This isn’t to say you can’t have fun with a mediocre DM whilst playing the Ranger, it just won’t be quite as fulfilling.
If you’ve never played a Ranger, I heartily recommend you try in your next campaign, build them a story, don’t be afraid to try something different, try to bring your strengths in exploration to the fore wherever possible. Ultimately you will discover what in your heart you already know to be true: nothing beats playing a Ranger.
Sorry that was such a long read, if I get a chance soon I’ll add some thoughts on the optional features available in Tasha’s (I tried to keep this as PHB friendly as possible, and mostly succeeded). Then I might run through a couple of archetypes if people are interested, although it is going to be harder to be impartial with those.
Favoured enemy has a lot of downsides in my opinion, the first being that you need to find enemies whom are the options you picked. It has 0 usage otherwise. Another major downside would be the fact that, sure you can pick a new one at level 6, but at that point the campaign has likely shifted focus from the enemies from previous levels to new ones? Now you got to wait for level 14. Even if you do run into your favoured enemies, you only gain 'advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favoured enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.' The tracking part is decent, but it makes no sense that you have no bonuses or anything against your 'favoured enemy'
Again, suffers if campaign changes through multiple terrains. Most of the benefits to natural explorer are pretty decent, except the 'If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.' This part does not see usage.
Primeval Awareness sucks big time. Sure it lasts a minute per spell slot used, but just how many of the few ranger spell slots are you willing to drop for this? Also, why is this feature WORSE in your favoured terrain? The main problem with this is that 'This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number.' The number part also means if there are say two fey, with one on each side of you, it would take a lot of spell slots to realise this.
I'm okay with land's stride cause it comes at level 8 with the asi boost. It is mainly flavour with some application with the ignore difficult terrain. '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.' This part is too niche to see usage, never seen this ever occur.
Hide in plain sight suffers from party members. It doesn't do anything if there are good hiding spots already, and if there are none, your party will cause it not to matter, since it is unlikely you would stay hidden while the party is fighting. Lack of movement is also an issue, since what happens when if the enemy decides to search? You end up caught between multiple enemies.
Lastly I will talk about the spellcasting. Rangers have so few spells known and cannot cast ritual spells. It doesn't make sense to me that a ranger can't ritually cast stuff. Spells like alarm, which are pretty thematic become useless.
Not going to talk about higher levels cause I personally have not played a campaign which reached those levels as a ranger. From what I can see though, it scales badly and multiclassing into rogue is just as thematic, especially scout rogue.
This was a mildly amusing read and a nice farce at playing up the Ranger. It genuinely says all of the good things about the Ranger and shows just how poor the Ranger is when you say nothing but the best things possible about them, overhyping the mechanics and either ignoring the glaring flaws or cleverly playing the flaws off as a boon. (Primeval Awareness isn't bad, you just have to use MORE spell slots to make it last longer and make sure you walk around. Isn't that great?!)
Wait, did I fall for satire?
The opening paragraph is essentially saying they're going to ignore most of the bad and only talk about the good, so whether or not it is satire, it should not be taken seriously from a balance perspective.
This guide is ok for those who just don't care about the flaws and want to make the most out of their Ranger. I genuinely like this guide from that narrow perspective.
You are planting your personal opinions in this post. The ranger's are not bad. They aren't as bad the the original post made them our to be, and they certainly aren't as bad as the first response makes them out to be.
Many people don't like the ranger class. Most of those people (I think all of them) either don't know how to use the abilities or don't like or play the kind of game that uses those abilities.
Favored Enemy. It's not like you are picking a favored enemy of Larry, the 38 year old orc with a gimpy leg that lives at 123 Cherry Tree Lane. We are talking about ALL the creatures of a certain type. ALL monstrosities. ALL undead. ALL fiends. The monster manual has many creatures but they all fall into one type or another. Look here for the breakdown. If you choose monstrosities, undead, or fiends you are getting dozens of creatures to be an expert tracker of and all around knowledgable about, not to mention getting an extra language. The battle master has an entire subclass ability at level 7 that gives them two little pieces of information about a single specific creature after one minute of doing nothing. Any time you ask the DM "Does my character know anything about this BLANK?" a ranger has an ever increasing chance to know it better than anyone without needing proficiencies! Arcana, history, nature, and religion. Any of these checks regarding information about an ENTIRE type of monsters and the ranger has a mathematical +5 to the check. That's like a level 13 proficiency bonus, and if you are already proficient, it's like a level 13 expertise bonus.
Natural Explorer. Yes. The second half of this ability is turned completely off if you aren't actually traveling in your favored terrain. When you are in your terrain it is off the charts better than any other ability, skill, or combination of skills in the game. (This works in tandem with Primeval Awareness as well.) In your favored terrain you are hands down the best. If you aren't in your favored terrain you still get expertise on any wisdom or intelligence check that you are proficient in related to your favored terrain. Animal Handling, Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival are all possible candidates, and all get the bonus if the check is related to your terrain of choice, three choices by level 10! This is where a lot of player get all bent out of shape. You don't have to be in your favored terrain for this ability to work. Some terrains are related to others in many ways. Take survival, nature, animal handling, and perception. Some things from your favored terrain will show up outside of it. Take art, herbs and plants, animals, weather, and history. This isn't a bad ability. It is an ability that fosters creative thinking.
Primeval Awareness. This ability does not suck. But this ability is not about finding creatures. Many other of the ranger's abilities and spells are used for finding creatures. Primeval awareness is about verifying what ISN'T around you. It tells you what unnatural creatures are around. That's why humanoids and beasts aren't on the list of creatures that ping when you use this ability. When you use this you'll know if any strange and unnatural creatures are within a mile of you, even in your favored terrain if you choose to do so as the ability gives you the option to choose up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain. If you are in your favored terrain and choose to use the 6 mile option that is just fine as if you are in your favored terrain all of your other natural explorer abilities are active! You have (likely multiple instances of) expertise, know the exact number of creatures, their size, how long ago they passed the area, and likely the types of creatures and more, all from your natural explorer ability. If you happen to be looking for a favored enemy too now you have expertise AND advantage! On top of that, rangers have spells that further their ability to find things. Speak with Animals, Beast Sense, Locate Animals or Plants, Locate Object, Conjure Animals, Speak with Plants, Locate Creature, and Commune with Nature all help you to find things. The beast master can be even better at this for obvious reasons. Primeval Awareness is not about telling you what IS around you, it's about telling you what ISN'T around you.
Land's Stride. This ability is great on it's own. Most DMs don't use difficult terrain as much as they should, like the body of a fallen enemy, stairs, climbing a wall, rough water, and a jungle for examples. The magic advantage is great when it works out. The big combination here is Land's Stride and the 3rd level spell (gotten at level 9, by the way) Plant Growth. The combination of these two can shut down a combat encounter. Counterspell has a range of 60 feet. Plant Growth has a range of 150 feet and covers a 100 foot radius area! A small army of melee dependent soldiers (including paladins and barbarians) are rendered null and void.
Hide in Plain Sight. This is a two part ability. Part one is the setup. Spend a minute making your camo. Step two can happen later. Walking around scouting. In a battle. Whatever. You can hide with a +10 bonus simply by pressing yourself up against a surface larger than you. Lightfoot halflings and wood elves have a similar racial effect.The ranger could conceivably have this available for each combat. A ritual spell is at least 10 minutes. This, just like the two racial versions, break the normal rules for hiding regarding being seen by the person you are attempting to hide from. The ranger needs the 1 minute setup to do it, but they get a bonkers bonus for their efforts.
Spells. Ranger get more from their spells than most people think. Take the idea of what kind of ranger you want your ranger to be, and there are a few spells to make that happen. Damage dealer? Stealth? Healer? Hunting? Exploring? Battlefield control? They are known spell caster, yes. But they don't burn spell slots like a paladin to put out the same damage. Their spells make big changes to the game and are very impactful. Yet they don't step on the toes of druids. You won't need as many spells for a ranger as you'd think.
As for higher levels, all the martial kind of stay the same for large amounts of level ups. The paladin doesn't get much more after level 11. Rogues get a little more sneak attack. Just about every class is worth multiclassing out of at the later levels as all of the classes are front loaded in 5E.WHat's that you say? Spellcasters are great at later levels because of their spell slots and higher level spells? Guess what?! So are rangers! Levl 4 ranger spells are great and level 5 rangers spells are amazing!
Anyone who makes a blanket statement that the ranger is bad will get a response from me counterpointing and defending. I'm sorry, Korbin. The internet has enough hate, and if the ranger was so obviously bad, why does the internet need you pointing it out?
The only blanket statement I made was the one where I mocked your blanket statement.
This thread had no fallacious arguments until you jumped in. Even the OP doing their best to paint the Ranger in a positive light managed to at least acknowledge in passing areas where the Ranger is flawed managed to avoid fallacies.
Jeff went into a little more detail about the flaws and admitting things he liked and things he has no experience with.
If Dravaal or Jeff used any fallacies I missed them, but then a couple of fallacies that are missed aren't such a big deal, and it is clear the fallacies are not the crux of their argument.
I didn't feel like doing another long post, but I thought it was worth pointing out the merits of the OP's perspective and how much it amused me from the perspective of a satirical post. I can understand if my first post was misunderstood rather than taken as mirthful, but my clarifying post after should have done so.
You come in and completely derail a peaceful thread with "these are just your opinions and you're doing the Ranger wrong" and that is the crux of your argument. You even imply that the OP painted the Ranger in a bad light.
The OP gave a very honest interpretation of good ways to play the Ranger, of how the Ranger CAN be good, with consideration to its flaws, and that still isn't good enough for you. It doesn't change that the flaws are still there, it just does its best to show how to work with the flaws.
Your more extensive follow-up post pretends the Ranger is flawless. You don't acknowledge a single drawback except for part of Natural Explorer not working outside of favored terrain and then you just blow that off as if it is no big deal.
When analyzing a class, you have to give a fair interpretation of what you lose vs. what you gain. Ten you compare these gains vs losses with other classes.
You frequently pretend as if the Ranger loses nothing significant or at all, and that the gains are so far and above or on par with features of other classes. Most people see that you lose too much and gain too little with the Ranger's features.
"You don't acknowledge a single drawback except for part of Natural Explorer not working outside of favored terrain and then you just blow that off as if it is no big deal."
That is not what I said at all.
The bold part is you saying what you say you didn't say.
For the rest of the quote, you do nothing but praise Natural Explorer. Not a single acknowledgment as to WHY the flaw of over half of the feature's bonuses being useless outside of your terrain is such a bad design. This action which you took, your LACK of saying these things, is the act of blowing off the flaws as if it is no big deal.
Can you have an honest discussion just once? Make a single good-faith argument, even if just for kicks.
Very important point is I said the second half. VERY important.
I am the yin to your yang.
All you make is remarks pointing out the flaws of the ranger. I’ll make you a deal. You tell me some good things about the ranger’s hated abilities and I’ll tell you some the things I don’t like about them. Deal?
No, I don't only point out the flaws. I've made very long posts in other threads that you commented on which acknowledges where there are boons to the Ranger. I point out that the gains in most cases do not make up for the losses. You ignore flaws or act as if the gains of the Ranger are so good that they outweigh the losses.
You think it is so important that you mention the second half because you grossly exaggerate the benefits of Natural Explorer outside of your favored terrain and then act as if those overhyped bonuses make up for the drawbacks.
In this very thread, I praise the OP for how well they focus on the positives of the Ranger, and doing so in an honest fashion rather than ignoring the flaws that inherent. That is a vicarious acknowledgment of the positives of the Ranger.
Still waiting for you to be honest and act in good faith.
I am. I believe and think the ranger is great, fun, and works very well. The internet is full of haters. Haters that offer nothing other than that alone. I am pointing out all of the great things about the class and PHB subclasses. If I have one complaint it would be I wish more people would play a type of game of D&D 5E that didn’t just revolve around min/max combat focused romper room.
"I am."
You are what? Being honest? Cause I already proved you are incredibly dishonest, in this and other threads.
Why do you also keep falling back to calling people who disagree with you haters instead of either admitting you are wrong or coming up with an argument that actually refutes honest criticisms?
Why bring up people who min/max? I have never expressed that the Ranger is bad due to min/maxing combat capabilities. You're not even arguing with me at this point, you're just making someone up and applying the characteristics of that person to me. Another dishonest tactic.
I am acting in good faith. You read the ranger abilities and say “Bad.” I read the ranger abilities and say “Good!” Why does that bother you so much?
Stop with the personal attacks. You called the OP farcical, and now are accusing someone else of dishonesty. Enough is enough.
Yeah...that reads like a back-handed compliment. And when you're talking something up, acting as a hype man, you're not going to talk about the things not to like. That's not how promotion works. And that's how I read the OP. Maybe it's satire. Maybe they thought to just drop a firecracker in the forums and run. I don't know, and I don't care. The discussion hasn't been great.
Now, you don't owe Frank a bone. You are 100% in your right to say that you won't offer up what you consider to be positives for him to offer up his negatives. It's also hypocritical of you to call for, "a single good-faith argument, even if just for kicks," and then not accept the offer to find common ground. You don't get to have it both ways.
I haven't seen an overt attack against you, but I don't think Frank is in the right, either.
I don't know what your complaints are in regards to my comments on the OP that I haven't already acknowledged and addressed.
I didn't ask for his version of common ground. Demanding honesty is not equivalent to "you say a good thing and I'll say a bad thing." If I say "torture is bad" you don't get to counter with "ok, say one good thing about sleep deprivation and I'll say one bad thing about waterboarding."
How can you not see attacks on me but then misconstrue my pointing out dishonest tactics as an attack?
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comments.
I agree that Favoured Enemy is flawed (I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate this ability game design wise, but it is a close run thing. It has strong theme, you can load backstory into it and build a really strong character from it, but it is really a flawed ability), and in many campaigns it will indeed not be helpful. It requires a good DM to make sure that you have an opportunity to use it, this is a recurring theme with the Ranger.
Spot on with Natural Explorer, especially the travelling alone part! In what is generally a party game it is exceedingly rare you'll travel long distances alone. Once again DM needs to be good enough to allow opportunities to use this ability to its fullest.
Primaeval Awareness, I wouldn't say it sucks big time, maybe it just sucks most of the time, but I do agree that this can be much worse in your natural terrain. You're absolutely correct that if there are fey on both sides then it doesn't necessarily help, and it is painful to lose a spell slot. The biggest problem it has is it requires creative use, and once again the DM has to be on the ball. However, I will argue that this can be very useful in some situations: Say you've arrived at a tower/dungeon without any prior knowledge and are yet to enter, say you've scouted your 1.6km in each direction, you can then use this and get an idea of what is and isn't inside. This gives you some knowledge of the threats you will encounter and can help the party immensely. This isn't always going to be usable this way, but it isn't entirely pointless either (which I will admit was my reaction upon reading it initially).
Land's stride once again relies on your DM to use difficult terrain, or for you at least to create some, and requires enemies to use those spells. DM dependent again, but it can be ever so useful in the right situation.
Upon first read I did not like Hide in Plain Sight, even now after seeing some creative uses I'd not thought of I still don't love it. This is definitely a better solo skill, it does have some interesting once off combat applications depending on your interpretation, and it can be good for ambushes/escapes, but hard to find scenarios where this will be used a hell of a lot.
Spellcasting and lack of rituals is a big point, which I'd not even considered (I don't find the spell casting classes in D&D interesting so I very rarely play them, my spell mechanics are weak), thank you for pointing this out.
Overall I think a lot of classes (especially the more martial ones) are frontloaded so multiclassing is more desirable in many instances, the Ranger especially, as you note, benefits a lot from multiclassing at later levels, and scout Rogue is very appealing.
Yes and No? I genuinely love the Ranger, I genuinely hate parts of fifth edition's interpretation of the Ranger.
I'm glad you liked it, I think this bolded comment really hits the nail on the head in many ways (you wrote a further comment in a later reply which I also appreciated, but I can't find it atm, too many replies to quote fully). With this guide I'm trying to encourage positive discussion of the Ranger, I'm not trying to ignore the bad, nor gloss over it, but also I'm not trying to beat the Ranger to death.
I don't feel the Ranger is a bad class, nor underpowered. They're definitely underappreciated though, and they suffer because they're on the higher end of requiring creativity to get the most out of, and possibly the class that is most reliant on DM. I'm not saying that if you choose underdark as natural terrain and orcs as enemies that the DM has to set everything in the underdark teeming with thousands of orcs, but if they are not conscious of your choices then yes, your mileage as Ranger will suffer. It is hard to be creative with a mediocre DM and party, so there is a lot (in my opinion) going against the Ranger for playability, especially to new players. I guess after writing this paragraph maybe the guide is more about getting people to actually try the Ranger, look at the flaws and get past them?
5e says there are three pillars of gameplay, which should take equal footing in a campaign. The Ranger has great strengths in Exploration, the stunted, oft ignored pillar. This isn't necessarily the fault of players or DMs, but of 5e itself not making it appealing to the majority of players.
It was not my intention to paint the Ranger in a bad light, if I did so I apologise. I was trying to praise the virtues of the Ranger whilst acknowledging that there are some flaws. Thanks for reading and any feedback is appreciated.