The Ranger of the 2024 Player’s Handbook is our beloved sword of the wilds, now with more magic, greater martial prowess, and new opportunities to gain Expertise. They can prepare more spells, cast Hunter’s Mark for free several times per day, and receive bonuses to the iconic Ranger spell at higher levels. Several other new features, such as Roving, Tireless, and Nature’s Veil, will look familiar from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
Read below as we cover what’s new with the 2024 Ranger. If we don’t cover a feature, such as your Ability Score Improvements or Extra Attack, that’s because it remains unchanged from 2014.
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is Now Available!
Buy the 2024 Player’s Handbook today and dive into revised rules, enhanced character options, and exciting gameplay innovations.
Get your copy on the D&D Beyond marketplace and seamlessly integrate your new content with D&D Beyond's library of digital tools built to make D&D easier, so you can focus on the fun!
|
Class Feature |
Level |
What's New |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
|
9 |
|
|
|
10 |
|
|
|
Hide in Plain Sight |
10 |
|
|
13 |
|
|
|
14 |
|
|
|
17 |
|
|
|
18 |
|
|
|
19 |
|
|
|
20 |
|
2024 Ranger Class Features Overview
The 2024 Ranger can prepare more spells than the 2014 Ranger could learn. For example, the 2014 Ranger learned their 6th spell at level 9, and the 2024 Ranger can prepare their 6th spell at level 5.
Spellcasting looks a little different in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. All spellcasting classes prepare their spells now, although some classes still change their spells when they level up, just like you’re used to. Spellcasting classes are no longer distinguished by who prepares spells and who learns them, but rather how often a class can change their prepared spells and how many they can change at a time. For example, now the 2024 Ranger prepares its spells when they complete a Long Rest, just like the Druid, but can only swap out one spell per day.
You can also now use a Druidic Focus, an optional class feature from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything that has been made a part of the new Ranger’s Spellcasting feature.
The 2024 Ranger and Hunter’s Mark
The 2024 Player’s Handbook strengthens the Ranger class’s relationship with its trademark spell, Hunter’s Mark. Several of the 2024 Ranger’s base class features—Relentless Hunter, Precise Hunter, and Foe Slayer—all power up your Ranger while Hunter’s Mark is active. Also, the spell now deals Force damage on a hit.
Favored Enemy has seen some significant changes. This feature no longer focuses on tracking and recalling information about certain creature types, or learning their language (though you can learn two new languages with the Deft Explorer feature below). Instead, you can now cast Hunter’s Mark twice per Long Rest without expending a spell slot, and you always have it prepared. This will make it much easier to keep up with the Barbarians, Fighters, and Paladins in damage output without having to spend your precious spell slots to do it.
With the new Spellcasting feature, you could already prepare more spells than before; with the new Favored Enemy, you also prepare the Ranger’s trademark spell for free. You’ll get more free castings of Hunter’s Mark as you level up.
At level 1, you’ll get access to the Weapon Mastery feature, which allows you to use the mastery property of two weapons, which you can swap out during a Long Rest. Mastery properties make combat as a martial character more exciting, more tactically interesting, and—if you take them as an opportunity to get creative with your battle scenes—more cinematic.
Let’s look at the mastery properties for two of the most common Ranger weapons, the Longbow, the Scimitar, and because I want to show Strength-based Rangers some love, the Battleaxe:
- Battleaxe (Topple): I’m a simple guy—the only thing I like better than rolling to attack an enemy is doing it with Advantage. With Topple, you can force enemies to make a Constitution saving throw or be knocked Prone. This can also help protect your allies if you Topple an enemy who was intending to chase after them.
- Longbow (Slow): Use Slow to buy your party some time before the second wave of enemies arrives. Aim for the leg or wing with your Longbow and reduce the target’s Speed by 10 feet. A creature can only suffer from one Speed reduction via the Slow ability at a time.
- Scimitar (Nick): Nick allows you to use the Light property’s extra attack as part of your Attack action instead of your Bonus Action. This keeps your Bonus Action available for spells like Ensnaring Strike and Hunter’s Mark, or for subclass features like the Beast Master commanding their Primal Companion.
Natural Explorer is not a feature of the 2024 Ranger. Instead, if you’d like to be an expert navigator through the woods, the Ranger now gains access to spells that could help with travel (such as Alarm, Goodberry, and Speak With Animals) at level 1 and you can select Expertise in Survival with Deft Explorer at level 2.
Deft Explorer and its benefits from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything have been broken out into their own features for the 2024 Ranger. Now, a level 2 feature, the new Ranger’s Deft Explorer grants you Expertise in one skill plus proficiency in two languages. Overhear the softest twig snap during watch with expertise in Perception, or help the tricksters of the group on their next scheme by picking up Deception.
Fighting Styles function largely the same as before. They are now a type of feat, however, so when you get access to the Fighting Style feature, you can select a feat with the Fighting Style feature as a prerequisite.
The biggest change here is that the optional class feature Druidic Warrior from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is now available to all Rangers. If your Ranger is more magically focused, you can choose Druidic Warrior to learn two Druid cantrips instead of selecting a Fighting Style feat. (Consider the new Starry Wisp spell!)
You also are no longer limited to Archery, Defense, Dueling, and Two-Weapon Fighting. So, now your Ranger can grab a Shield and focus on protecting their allies in the frontlines if they want.
- Beast Master: The Beast Master’s signature feature, Primal Companion, looks very similar to the optional feature from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. However, most of its stats (AC and Beast's Strike damage) now scale with your Wisdom modifier instead of your Proficiency Bonus. With Exceptional Training, whenever you command your companion, it can take the Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action using its Bonus Action. Lastly, Bestial Fury shares some of the benefits of Hunter’s Mark with your Primal Companion once per turn.
- Fey Wanderer: The Fey Wanderer is almost entirely unchanged from its appearance in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. At level 9, Summon Fey is always prepared instead of Dispel Magic. But Dispel Magic now appears on the Ranger spell list, meaning any Ranger can prepare it.
- Gloom Stalker: The Gloom Stalker saw some moderate tweaks. Instead of an extra attack on the first round that deals additional damage, the Gloom Stalkers’s Dread Ambusher now allows them to add extra damage to a hit a few times per day. Stalker's Flurry at level 11 was also tweaked slightly to build off of this change, increasing the damage of Dread Ambusher and allowing you to apply an additional effect when you use it: You can make an extra attack on a nearby enemy or Frighten your target and creatures within 10 feet of it. In addition to imposing Disadvantage on another creature's attack roll, Shadowy Dodge now takes your Reaction and lets you teleport up to 30 feet.
- Hunter: The Hunter has become more streamlined, with Hunter’s Prey and Defensive Tactics granting you two options instead of three. However, you can change those selections every time you take a Short or Long Rest, making you much more adaptable. My favorite change is the new Hunter’s Lore at level 3: You automatically know the Immunities, Resistances, and Vulnerabilities of creatures marked by your Hunter’s Mark spell!
Primeval Awareness is not a feature of the 2024 Ranger. You can still gain greater awareness of the world around you by picking up Expertise in Perception at level 2 with Deft Explorer. You also have more spells now and can swap them more often, so you can access magic like Beast Sense and Locate Animals or Plants more easily.
Formerly a part of the Deft Explorer feature in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Roving has been split off into its own class feature with a slight buff. It now grants an additional 10 feet of movement instead of 5. But it does require you not to wear Heavy armor. It still grants the Climb speed and Swim speed as before.
This situational feature is no longer present in the 2024 Ranger. The increased Speed now found in Roving effectively replaces Land's Stride's avoidance of Difficult Terrain—and does so at an earlier level.
The Ranger gains Expertise in two additional skills! Now you have Expertise in three skills, and can better keep up with Bards and Rogues, who have four.
With Tireless, you can use an action to grant yourself Temporary Hit Points. I love using this feature as soon as literally anything seems "off," because you get several uses per day, and the Temporary Hit Points don’t fade until you complete a Long Rest. As soon as I hear a weird noise, I’m drawing my Scimitar and using Tireless.
This feature is nearly identical to its appearance in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, except now the number of uses is tied to your Wisdom modifier, not your Proficiency Bonus. (As an aside, I like this tweak. The power represents your connection to primal forces, and so does your spellcasting ability modifier.) Just as in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Tireless also allows you to reduce your Exhaustion by one level when you take a Short Rest.
This feature replaces 2014's Hide in Plain Sight (though Rangers who want extra sneakiness can now gain Expertise in Stealth at level 9).
Taking damage can no longer break your Concentration on Hunter’s Mark. If you want to focus on dealing damage, nothing so pedestrian as a Fireball can stop you. You can now only lose Concentration on Hunter’s Mark if you become Incapacitated, you die, or you cast another spell or activate another effect that requires Concentration.
Replacing 2014's Vanish, Nature's Veil lets you turn Invisible as a Bonus Action! This invisibility lasts until the end of your next turn, granting you Advantage on any attack rolls you make during that time.
This feature is nearly unchanged from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, but the number of uses now equals your Wisdom modifier instead of your Proficiency Bonus. Just as with Tireless, I personally like this tweak; turning Invisible is presumably an act of magic, and the Ranger uses Wisdom for their spellcasting.
If a creature is marked by Hunter’s Mark, you have Advantage on attacks against them. By this level, you have six free castings of the Hunter’s Mark spell, so if you want to focus on dealing damage, Precise Hunter will help you slay your enemies.
You now have Blindsight out to 30 feet. Enemy mages slinging spells from behind the cover of Invisibility aren’t safe from you any longer. This isn’t new per se—the 2014 Ranger could also perceive Invisible creatures within 30 feet—but the 2014 Player’s Handbook’s language wasn’t quite as streamlined or easy to understand. These types of tweaks are designed to make players’ lives easier.
Gain an Epic Boon feat! Epic Boons are feats that require you to be at least level 19. You will have twelve to choose from. You can select any Epic Boon you like, but the 2024 Player’s Handbook recommends:
- Boon of Dimensional Travel: Increase one ability score by 1 (up to a maximum of 30), and immediately after you take the Attack or Magic action, you can teleport up to 30 feet.
Hunter’s Mark now deals 1d10 Force damage on a hit instead of 1d6. Between Favored Enemy giving you free castings of this spell, Relentless Hunter protecting your Concentration from being broken, and Precise Hunter giving you Advantage on marked targets, the level 20 Ranger is now a master combatant.
Dominate the Battlefield with Primal Magic
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!
The 2024 Player’s Handbook makes it easier for your Ranger to feel like a primal warrior, a guardian of the wild places, and a deadly hunter. You’ll have Expertise in more skills, more prepared spells, new tactical options in martial combat, and your Hunter’s Mark will benefit from additional bonuses. The 2024 Ranger is versatile, skilled in exploration, utility, melee and ranged combat, and primal magic.
We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!
Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerûn, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.
This article was updated on August 13, 2024 and August 28, 2024 to issue corrections or expand coverage for the following features and subclasses:
- Deft Explorer: Fixed typos and clarified that Natural Explorer's primary benefit of doubling your Proficiency Bonus for certain checks has been absorbed in Deft Explorer's Expertise benefit.
- Ranger Subclass (Beast Master): Clarifed scope of changes between Tasha's Cauldron of Everything's Primal Companion and the new Primal Companion.
- Ranger Subclass (Gloom Stalker): Fixed typo. Also added that Shadowy Dodge allows you to teleport up to 30 feet after the attack hits or misses.
- Roving: Clarified that Land's Stride avoidance of Difficult Terrain is effectively replaced by Roving's increased Speed.
- Hide in Plain Sight: Clarified that this was replaced by Tireless, and the extra stealthiness can be granted by Expertise in Stealth and level 9.
- Relentless Hunter: Clarified that you can still lose Concentration on Hunter's Mark if you cast another spell that requires Concentration.
- Nature's Veil: Clarified that this absorbed the primary benefit of 2014's Vanish.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 31, 2024I would agree, but after the loss of sharpshooter -5/+10, the loss of primal awareness and the new focus on hunter's mark I cant. Damage goes to the toilet, exploration utility spells cost you extra resources that you would use for combat, and you don't get class features if you concentrate on a better spell. On the bright side if you play the way WOTC intended for 2024 by solely concentrating on hunter's mark, you can fill your spell list with rituals and at least be useful for exploration.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 1, 2024Reading this new ranger hurt me more than a pinkerton stamping on my head.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024Word on the street is some spells changed for the better.
Hail of Thorns – A bonus action cast immediately after hitting a creature with a weapon rather than before. Now an instantaneous effect that doesn’t require concentration.
Barkskin – Now a bonus action, doesn’t require concentration, and gives you an AC of 17 rather than 16.
Magic Weapon – Now on the Ranger spell list (like in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything) and no longer requires concentration.
Lightning Arrow – A bonus action cast immediately after hitting a creature with a weapon rather than before. Now an instantaneous effect that doesn’t require concentration.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024OK, and they mucked up so many other spells for no reason...making Spiritual Weapon Concentration, massively nerfing conjure spells, etc. Also, broke the Bard ability to learn spells from other lists. A couple crumbs of improvement doesnt outweigh the negatives I see.
Warlocks, except for the universal subclass at 3 moronic change, were buffed.
Monks got a lot of Quality of Life improvements, but they didnt address sufficiently the Ki issue, and the nerf to Stunning Strike is massive.
Rangers were literally decided to be the worst mechanical class. I dont even think it was that they forgot about it, I think this was an intentional choice to make it so terrible to make the other classes look good.
Druids and Paladins also got a lot of nerfs. Sorry, speaking in WS is not only dumb, its a distraction for how terrible the feature is now.
I just want people to stop being cheerleaders for everything Jeremy says and actually be objective. What others call spin, I call lies, and he lies when he tries to say these changes are improvements....yes occassionally he is forced to admit to a specific nerf, but even then he tried to sell it as a buff....
I WANTED their update to be good, but through the UA process and the fact that so many "influencers" where nothing but ra-ra'ing the nerfs this is the direction they went....the only positive is that since they are calling it all DnD, I am encouraging people to mix and match not just the classes but the FEATURES in the classes. Use the ones that you like, same with the spells. Dont like the new conjure spell, use the 2014 version. Because while I DO admit there are some good ideas here, there is a lot of watering down BS as well, and since we have all of this under the umbrella of DnD take the best parts and toss the crap on the floor. And if you LIKE the 2024 WS or Paladin Smite or Stunning Strike, fine. I just dont think people should feel locked in to terrible features.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024Meh, I like the changes and most the stuff you listed I think are fair balance changes for the better of the game. Objectively this is a better version than to 2014 version.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024Hail of thorns has average damage of 4.1. Not worth a spell slot+ bonus action
Barkskin - Useful until you can afford halfplate. -can be used to buff allies, but you have limited spell slots compared to a druid.
Magic Weapon - Useful if you have mean DM that has not given you magical weapon by level 5- better on full casters that can give you a +3 weapon by level 11
Lightning Arrow - Almost half as good as the Sorcerer's quickened fireball which they got at 5th level at 9th level
The best addition to ranger is probably conjure beasts which is like a spirit guardians with smaller radius but slightly better damage and scaling. ranger can get up to 5d10 per turn when upcasting.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024Hail of Thorns is an AOE. So you would only use it if it would hit at least two targets. It's damage to the target is normal damage (long bow 1d8+Dex) plus 1d10. Then the other target would take the 1d10. I'm not sure how you get 4.1 for Average damage.... assuming it hits and you have a longbow with DEX Mod of +3, I think the Average damage is 18.5 (4.5+3+5.5+5.5). Not including you can up cast it. Also being able to cast it after hit allows you to wait for a critical hit.
Agree with you're assessment of Barkskin and Magic Weapon.
Lightening Arrow is similar to Hail of Thornes, but much larger range and slightly better damage. Also can be triggered after a crit.
Agreed Conjure Beasts is a great add and one of the best spells on the list. The above spells can now be cast while Concentrating on Conjure Beasts too. I like it!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024The hail of thorns damage is just the 1d10 - average damage on a failed save is 5.5 average damage on successful save is 2.75 5.5+2.75 = 8.25 /2 = 4.1An Aoe with d10 damage will not be killing anything past level 1.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024So you don't account the weapon damage or that it hits 2 targets and accounted for hit or miss. Now I see your math. Still think you should account that it hits two targets, but meh.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 2, 2024Level 13 ability should remove concentration on hunters mark instead when cast using your Favored Foe or Foe Slayer ability (more on that in next).
Level 20 ability should increase the damage, enable you to cast hunter's mark at will, double your movement speed when moving towards a creature under the effects of your hunter's mark spell, AND make it where they can no longer benefit from the effects of spells/abilities that would mask its presence from you (such as non detection, invisibility, etc). That would be a DECENT capstone.
If you are going to base the class off of a level 1 spell, you have got to do far more to make it in-line with the power of other classes. Making a non-concentration hunters mark at level 13 means that even multiclassing with a 7th level caster won't give you too many broken combos.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 3, 2024All I really want is a few garunteed extra attacks for the class. Why do the creators keep people from wanting to play rangers. They're neat in concept but no ones going to want to play a class where they feel like they provide no value.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 3, 2024This is how I plan to address the new Ranger:
Favored Foe:
Level 1: On your turn you can select a target. All of your attacks made against that target do an additional 1d6 damage. (Note its not a spell and it doesnt require concentration.)
Level 3: If the target of you selected dies on your turn, you may select a new target.
Level 5: At levels 5, 9, 13, and 17 your additional damage is increased by 1d6.
Level 7: Targets selected can not easily evade your superior tracking skills. You double your profiency bonus in any tracking rolls made, and they do not gain the benefits of the Hide, Invisibility, or other effects that would obscure their positions.
Level 11: Your allies gain the additional damage bonus on the target you selected.
Level 15: You can select multiple targets up to your Wisdom Modifier.
Level 20: Vital Strike: You can land a critical strike on a target selected automatically. You can do so a number of times equal to your Wis modifier.
Or some version close to it.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 3, 2024Super powerful 👏 🙌.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 3, 2024I like what you thought of here. No Concentration on Hunters Mark is very powerful. This is a fair level to do it at though for all the reasons you listed.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 4, 2024Yup. And that is exactly the pt. If you are going to center a feature around this kind of base mechanic, make it good. Now sure, we can move things around, play with scaling, etc, but the overall shape of it should be good. Plus I am a HUGE advocate that there should be NO dead levels, and while the Ranger does get some spells, they dont have a great spell list. And HM needing concentration stops them from using some of the best options. This eliminates this. Again, the MOST powerful thing in the game is a toss be Simulacrum and Wish. Think the jury would agree....giving this to the Ranger does not compare to that level of power and flexibility. But it does help keep the class relevant at higher levels. And its team play friendly. Now if someone is opposed to powerful features well, ok...but this is the kind of direction I think all the sub tier classes should have gone and with the One DnD actually being improvements of raising up the lower ends not nerfing everything they thought was a problem.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 5, 2024To everyone saying they just made Ranger out of Tasha's, no they didn't. They also made the new Ranger out of Xanathar's. I give you Guardian of Nature.
1 BA, Concentration, up to 1 minute with 2 options.
Option 1; Primal Beast.
Option 2; Great Tree.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 5, 2024Saying that some spells are not good because you play in high magic and/or high magic item games/campaigns is not valid or fair. Spells like Goodberry and Magic Weapon exist for games where things are more grounded and realistic. Obviously a game that doesn't track rests or food intake makes Goodberry pointless. It doesn't make the spell pointless though. Plenty of horror games or low magic settings have use for these spells.
I find a lot of people are negatively commenting on the new classes because it doesn't allow them to power-build in THEIR specific game style. Most non-combat spells are pointless if all you do is get given everything easily by your DM and go from combat to combat.
The only negative thing about this Ranger is the over reliance on a rubbish spell that they've somewhat arbitrarily made into a class feature, and having really poor power-scaling compared to other classes.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 5, 2024I dont think Goodberry is a useless spell. There are a number of spells that become less useful over time, and that is fine. Goodberry at level 1 is great, at level 15 probably not that necessary. But there are trash spells and ones that should but do not scale up well. Those are reasonable to criticize. More importantly are the idiotic nerfs to spells. I think Wish got some clarification which probably was needed or not a big deal. but none of the other spells were needing a nerf, nor did the Wizard feature to be able to cast 1 level 1 or 2 spell need a nerf. the complaints are stem from the fact that the nerfs in classes, spells, etc seem to be unnecessary and to drive players to play in a way the DEVS want them to, not allowing a player to make choices they are happy with....hence why I say players pick the version of feature, spell, etc that you want...keep the good and toss the bad changes.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 5, 2024The writer of this article should focus more on describing the abilities instead of telling us twice to take expertise in perception and remind us on how this class gets kneecapped by not keeping up with the others in any metric.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Aug 5, 2024Hard to do when there isnt really anything good to say about the abilities....cant squeeze blood from a stone...lol.