The Ranger is one of the most versatile classes, able to excel in exploration and combat, with a knack for healing, utility, and battlefield control magic to boot. A Ranger can safely guide the party through a hot desert or the grim Underdark, be a durable frontline combatant, and quickly eliminate enemies from afar. But their feats will dictate where their specialties lie.
In this article, we’ll look at feats well-suited to the Ranger in the 2024 Player's Handbook. As Rangers have such a varied skill set, we’ll note where feats will work best for ranged, magic, exploration, or melee-focused builds.
- Alert
- Magic Initiate
- Skilled
- Defensive Duelist
- Piercer
- Speedy
- Sharpshooter
- Archery
- Two-Weapon Fighting
- Boon of Combat Prowess
- Boon of Dimensional Travel
- Boon of Skill
Feats Are Now Standard in the 2024 Player’s Handbook
Feats are now a standard part of the 2024 core rules, with four different types of feats to help bolster your characters. Origin feats are granted by your background and can be taken whenever you get a feat; General feats are unlocked at class level 4 and again as you progress your character; Fighting Style feats are available as part of specific class features; finally, Epic Boon feats are bestowed as powerful, game-changing gifts for characters who reach level 19.
Best Origin Feats for a Ranger
Associated Backgrounds: Criminal, Guard
“An alert Ranger is an alive Ranger,” or whatever Drizzt said. With the Alert feat, your Ranger can add their Proficiency Bonus when they roll Initiative, so pick up this feat if you want uncannily quick reflexes in combat. The updated Alert feat also allows you to swap your Initiative roll with a willing ally’s Initiative roll.
So if you and your party agree that you should cast Silence before the enemy mage’s turn or Barkskin on an ally before they run into danger, this feat lets you potentially trade your spot in the Initiative order to make that happen.
Magic Initiate (Cleric, Druid, or Wizard)
Associated Backgrounds: Acolyte (Cleric), Guide (Druid), Sage (Wizard)
If you’re anything like me, you may find it difficult to decide between a Fighting Style feat or the Druidic Warrior benefit when Rangers gain the Fighting Style feature at level 2.
It’s easy to yearn for cantrips, especially as a half-caster like the Ranger, who doesn’t usually get access to them. But a Fighting Style feat is an excellent asset to increase your martial prowess. Now that every background comes with an Origin feat, you can choose a background that provides the Magic Initiate feat to have both!
The Magic Initiate feat grants you two cantrips from the Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell lists, plus one level 1 spell from that list. You can choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting modifier for these spells, so naturally, your Ranger will choose Wisdom. You also can cast the level 1 spell without a spell slot once per day, which is a huge boon for the Ranger because of their limited spell slots.
You have a valuable opportunity here to broaden your skill set with these spell choices. Pick up Healing Word and some cantrips from the Cleric spell list to ensure you can help your party members from a distance, or Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade (both from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything), and Shield from the Wizard spell list if you want to use magic to empower yourself in close-quarters combat. Or grab Find Familiar because every Ranger deserves a little animal friend!
If you want to continue expanding your magic as you level up, consider the Fey-Touched or Shadow-Touched feats.
Associated Backgrounds: Charlatan, Noble, Scribe
Everybody can benefit from a few extra skill proficiencies, and the Skilled feat grants you proficiency in three skills or tools of your choice.
You’ll want to tailor your selections to your campaign and to the role you want to play in your party. If you’ll be spending a lot of time in the Underdark, you might choose Perception, Stealth, and Survival. If your campaign is combat-heavy, you can use this opportunity to ensure you’re proficient in Acrobatics, Athletics, and Intimidation. Rangers in an intrigue-laden campaign will want to grab proficiency in Deception, Insight, and perhaps the Disguise Kit or Forgery Kit.
If you want to continue investing in your skills as your story progresses, consider the Skill Expert feat later on.
Best General Feats for a Ranger
Prerequisite: Level 4+, Dexterity 13+
When you are wielding a Finesse weapon and another creature hits you with a melee attack, this feat allows you to take a Reaction to add your Proficiency Bonus to your AC, potentially causing the attack to miss you. After you take this Reaction, this bonus to your AC applies against all melee attacks until the start of your next turn.
If your Ranger is a frontline combatant, you’ll probably be using this feat’s Reaction on most rounds of combat. Increasing your AC by at least +2 (and up to +6 at higher levels) for an entire round of combat could easily be the difference between life and death, especially when you’re surrounded by enemies!
The Defensive Duelist feat also now increases your Dexterity score by 1, which is great news for nimble Rangers.
Prerequisite: Level 4+
Piercer belongs to a lovely subsection of feats that I recommend to any damage-focused martial build: Crusher, Piercer, and Slasher. Each of these feats grants you +1 to an ability score (in Piercer’s case, Strength or Dexterity), an effect you can apply once per turn when you hit a creature, and an ability that triggers when you score a Critical Hit against a creature. As their names suggest, each feat is concerned with dealing a specific type of damage: Bludgeoning for Crusher, Piercing for Piercer, and Slashing for Slasher.
If your Ranger prefers a Quarterstaff or Warhammer, look into Crusher, and if your Ranger prefers a Battleaxe or Scimitar, consider Slasher. I recommend Piercer here because it complements Shortswords, Daggers, Rapiers, and most Ranged weapons—which are standard fare for Rangers.
Once per turn, when you deal Piercing damage to a creature, Piercer allows you to reroll one of the damage dice. You must use that new roll, but you don’t have much to lose if you roll a 1 on your Longbow attack’s damage die. When you score a Critical Hit that deals Piercing damage, you can roll an additional damage die when determining the extra Piercing damage the target takes. If you’ve picked a weapon with the Vex mastery property, such as the Rapier or Shortsword, you’ll likely gain Advantage on attack rolls quite often, significantly increasing your chances of landing a Critical Hit and triggering this feature.
Prerequisite: Level 4+, Dexterity or Constitution 13+
The Mobile feat from the 2014 Player’s Handbook has gotten a bit of a makeover in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, revamping into the Speedy feat.
The 10-foot increase to your Speed will look familiar, as will ignoring Difficult Terrain when you use your Dash action. But now, instead of allowing you to avoid provoking Opportunity Attacks from creatures you made an attack against this turn, Speedy imposes Disadvantage on all Opportunity Attacks against you. The new Speedy feat benefits a wider variety of play styles by protecting your Ranger from Opportunity Attacks even if they haven’t made an attack that turn.
And finally, the new Speedy feat increases Dexterity or Constitution by 1, two ability scores that your Ranger probably values quite highly.
Prerequisite: Level 4+, Dexterity 13+
Sharpshooter is one of the best feats for any build focused on Ranged weapons, perfect for a Ranger who hangs back and provides cover fire. With Sharpshooter, neither attacking at long range nor attacking within 5 feet of an enemy will impose Disadvantage on your attack rolls with Ranged weapons, and your ranged attacks with weapons ignore Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover. Your Dexterity score also increases by 1.
Sharpshooter’s ability to ignore Disadvantage on long-range attacks can significantly benefit parties facing aerial creatures or who spot an ambush from far away. With a Longbow, Rangers with Sharpshooter can attack targets up to 600 feet away without suffering Disadvantage—even a Roc using the Dash action would have to take two turns' worth of your arrows before it could reach the party. Throw a Hail of Thorns or Lightning Arrow on top, and the Roc may change its mind about whether you’re a meal worth pursuing!
Best Fighting Style Feats for a Ranger
In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, Fighting Styles have been transitioned to feats, which Rangers can pick up at level 2 when they gain their Fighting Style feature.
Remember, the Ranger’s Fighting Style feature also offers the Druidic Warrior benefit, which you can select instead of a Fighting Style feat. Druidic Warrior allows you to learn two Druid cantrips of your choice, which count as Ranger spells for you.
Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature
Rangers can be frontline combatants, but if you’re inclined to perch in a tree or dip behind a pillar and fire arrows, take the Archery feat. You’ll gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls made with Ranged weapons. This bonus applies not just to bows but to crossbows and even firearms if your setting includes them.
Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature
If you want to wield weapons in both hands, pick up the Two-Weapon Fighting feat.
When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can use your Bonus Action to take an extra attack with a different Light weapon on the same turn. But, when you make an extra attack as a result of a weapon’s Light property, you normally cannot add your ability modifier to the attack’s damage unless it is negative. Two-Weapon Fighting allows you to ignore this restriction.
Seeing as Rangers tend to use their Bonus Actions to cast Hunter’s Mark or use a subclass feature (like a Beast Master commanding their Primal Companion to attack), Rangers who want to wield weapons in both hands should consider finding a weapon with the Nick mastery property.
The Nick mastery property allows you to make the extra attack of the Light property as part of your Attack action instead of a Bonus Action (once per turn). At level 5 (when the Ranger gets the Extra Attack feature), a Ranger that has chosen to learn the Dagger’s Nick mastery property with their Weapon Mastery feature can wield a Shortsword in one hand and a Dagger in the other, thus allowing them to make three attacks as part of their Attack action (two with their Shortsword and one with their Dagger thanks to the Nick mastery property). Plus, with the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, they can apply their ability modifier to the damage of their Dagger attack.
If you want to play it safe (and simplify your Ranger’s combat options), opt for the Defense Fighting Style.
Best Epic Boon Feats for a Ranger
Prerequisites: Level 19+
Missing an attack? Pfft, like you could be caught doing something so ordinary.
With the Boon of Combat Prowess, you can turn a missed attack roll into a hit once per turn. So whether you’re swinging with a Legendary sword, firing with an ordinary bow, or casting a spell like Steel Wind Strike, you can use this feat to ensure your attack hits its target.
In high-stress moments, when the enemy’s turn is next, and you want to land your Ensnaring Strike, the Boon of Combat Prowess will not let you down. This feat also allows you to increase one ability score of your choice by 1, up to a maximum of 30.
Prerequisites: Level 19+
This Epic Boon allows you to jump around the battlefield with unparalleled mobility. Immediately after you take the Attack or Magic action, you can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. If a foe has Grappled you, you no longer need to spend your action solely trying to escape. You can make a melee attack against your grappler or cast Cure Wounds on yourself and instantly teleport out of danger! Or use this feat to run up to an opponent, attack at melee range, then teleport away, hopefully behind cover of some sort. And do it all with stronger stats—the Boon of Dimensional Travel increases one of your ability scores by 1, up to a maximum of 30.
Prerequisites: Level 19+
If your Ranger specializes in diplomacy, exploration, or investigation, the Boon of Skill might be for you. This Epic Boon feat grants you proficiency in all skills, as well as Expertise in one skill of your choice. You also gain a +1 to any ability score of your choice (up to a maximum of 30), so if you have an odd-numbered ability score that applies to skills you frequently use, take this opportunity to boost it!
This feat’s most impressive quality may be its ability to make the party’s Bard think, “I thought I was the charming one…”
Customize Your Ranger
Rangers are flexible characters, able to sneak the party past a dragon with Pass Without Trace one moment and pick an enemy out of the sky with their Longbow the next. Feats present an opportunity to specialize your Ranger and focus on one particular party role or broaden your Ranger’s skill set and keep them well-rounded!
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.
Pretty decent selection.
These feat articles do a great job of pointing how little change there really is between 5.0e and 5.5e. Yeah, there are little tweaks everywhere, edge case changes. But only the rare change is significant.
I don't understand the appeal in having to learn all those insignificant changes if the game is still basically the same. Especially with how expensive it is to get content you have nearly identical version of.
5.5e seems great for new players though.
Sure, that's a fair take — many of the changes are relatively minor. But I do think there are several pretty impactful alterations: Weapon Mastery Properties, Origin Feats, Barbarians' Brutal Strike, Rogues' Cunning Strike, the Influence and Study actions, the Exhaustion condition, all the conjure spells, et cetera.
5.[4th-edition] has really brought the 4th-edition to the 2024 Ranger.
And once I realised that, I understood entirely what they'd done to the class.
Consider me a convert!
This interests me. I'm only vaguely familiar with 4e; would you mind elaborating a bit?
Poor, poor Ranger. Imagine building an entire class around a 1st-level spell.
Sure, Favoured Enemy is the new Ranger's core feature, but it's hardly their only one. Folks often forget that most Ranger subclasses are pretty powerful; almost all of them can give you an extra die of damage on many of your attacks — regularly attacking with 3 dice of damage (1 weapon die + 1 subclass die + 1 hunter's mark die) — or even more when you factor in Extra Attack and/or Two-Weapon Fighting — is nothing to sneeze at, for those who care so very much about competitive DPS.
It's not their only one, sure, but it sure does feel bad when their higher level features (13, 17, 20) revolve around a first level spell that hogs concentration and their bonus actions. They almost feel like the game is saying "Hey, you could cast Healing Spirit or Entangle or Summon Beast, or you could cast this other thing that we think you might like more".
It's kinda like how the Paladin got the free casting of Find Steed, and half of the player base went "hey that's cool" and the other half instead said "But I don't want to play as a mounted knight".
True, although, I believe that, realistically, most campaigns don't make it to levels 10+, so the features way up there aren't as important as the lower level ones characters will have for their entire careers. (This doesn't mean those features don't matter at all, of course. Just something to keep in mind.)
And I don't have any rebuttle for the concentration point, besides "cast those neat other spells using your spell slots and then fall back on hunter's mark when you run out" which I know can be unsatisfactory due to Rangers being only half-casters. (One could ask their DM to let them replace the free castings of hunter's mark with similar but more flavourful spells like hail of thorns, zephyr strike, and entangling strike, but I am aware that it's a cop-out to bring up homebrew when discussing the merits of published material.)
As for it taking up a Ranger's bonus action -- yeah, it does, though probably usually only once per encounter, not every turn. And if my memory serves, Rangers don't have many uses for their bonus actions besides Two Weapon Fighting, which the new Nick Mastery Property of daggers, light hammers, scimitars, and sickles obviates, which should have you covered unless want to dual-wield clubs, handaxes, or shortswords.
As for find steed, if one doesn't want to use, one can just ... not use it. I wouldn't imagine that it's a very big portion of the Paladin's effectiveness budget, especially since the 2014 version didn't have it and the 2024 version doesn't seem to have lost anything in order to gain it.
Honestly, it's refreshing to see good-faith arguments like you've brought up.
I have a very similar stance on the upper-level features. It just shows (in my opinion) a weak design philosophy to see that they exist, even if they'll likely not be used at most tables.
HM requires another bonus action to reapply once its target has been downed, so it's not necessarily just the first turn in a combat. I went back and checked all of the ranger subclasses to see which ones were bonus-action reliant and found that of the 5e24 ones, it's just the Beastmaster (unless you sacrifice one of your own attacks), but from 5e14 there's also the Drakewarden, Horizon Walker, and Monster Slayer.
That last point was just tangential, but I'd like to point out the poor design of "We made this feature, it's on you if you don't use it".
Wrong.
Some of these are good feats for rangers. The best ones
Dual welder.... 4 attacks allows you maximize hunter mark damage
Sentinel... you're stuck here with me and getting more triggers for opportunity attack is great
Shadow touched - wrathful smite is a valid option and a way to boost damage
Fey touched - just good on any spell casters
Thanks! Right back at ya. : D
True about the target reapplication point. That issue can be mitigated somewhat by just placing it on the biggest, toughest bad guy in a fight who's likely to go down last, though that doesn't help in a fight against a horde of lowly minions, and one's concentration being broken and needing to recast the spell could eat up another bonus action. (But I guess that that's what Relentless Hunter is for.)
And yeah, I can see how having to use bonus actions on hunter's mark could interfere with the Horizon Walker's Planar Warrior damage, though it seems that the Monster Slayer is a bit better, as Slayer's Prey only needs 1 bonus action to set it up. (Though it has the same issue as hunter's mark with needing to use another to change the target.) (And I can't speak to the Drakewarden or 2024 Beastmaster as I don't have those books.)
The fact that a Ranger has no class features that allow it move in and out of melee without getting clocked is just sad. The reason why Rangers don't wear heavy armor and get DEX saves instead of WIS is because they're supposed to be more elusive than Fighters and Paladins in combat. Not this Ranger. It has to take a feat that any class can take to even have a hope of avoiding AoO if it decides to move away from an attacker. Just terrible design.
The gist is that Drakewarden and Beastmaster use their bonus action to command their pet. Now, beastmaster does have an additional stipulation that you can sacrifice one of your own attacks to command your beast to attack, but the flip side to that is that the beastmaster's pet doesn't benefit from HM until level 11 (when the Beast gets multiattack), but then it can only benefit from the HM damage once per turn.
To say something nice about the change, they lifted the Monster Slayer's core feature and put it instead on the Hunter subclass: you learn resistances, vulnerabilities, and immunities of your marked target. IMHO that should be built into the whole class or the spell itself, because the Ranger has always been the "I hunt things and I know things" class, so knowing about their prey should be in line with that, but I digress.
Not to be overly pedantic, but that's not true. Nature's Veil allows a ranger to use a bonus action to become Invisible for a couple of turns, and one can only make Opportunity Attacks against creatures that one can see. Granted, that feature is all the way up at 14th level, but it's still technically there. Also, the +10 ft. to one's Speed and the Climb and Swim Speeds granted by the Roving feature (6th level) make it so that, after one simply uses the Disengage or Dodge action to reposition, any pursuers are likely to have a hard time closing the distance again, unless they Dash (and maybe not even then).
And beyond the base class features, a Hunter can select the Escape the Horde option from the Defensive Tactics feature at 7th level to give all Opportunity Attacks against them Disadvantage.
Further, the Push, Sap, Slow, and Topple Mastery Properties can all either make give Disadvantage on the target's Attacks (including those made of Opportunity; Sap, Topple), make it harder for pursuers to catch you (Push, Slow, Topple), or move the target so that you're out of their reach (Push).
Rangers can also prepare several spells that can help them avoid or mitigate the impact of Opportunity Attacks, like ensnaring strike, entangle, fog cloud, gust of wind, and conjure woodland beings.
1. You had to go to level 14 to find a class feature. I don't always play to level 14, and I'm not alone there.
2. Speed doesn't get you away from a creature that is faster than you even after Roving-and a lot of them are.
3. The fact that you are pulling a subclass ability as a good example of the Ranger's elusiveness is only telling me that this should probably be a base class feature. If it was, I would agree that the Ranger has good mobility in combat. I'm not asking for a lot here-just something that can be used so this half-caster class with limited spells can mitigate opportunity attacks without burning those spells.
4. Any class with Weapon Mastery can use these features to get mitigate opportunity attack hits. This doesn't represent the quickness of the Ranger class at all.
5. I never consider casting spells to fix missing abilities to be good design. Also, Conjure Woodland Beings is a level 4 spell so it is very late and very limited use.
I can also just take Speedy and get some relief from opportunity attacks, but again any class can take that feat so it does not show the agility of the Ranger. I appreciate that you detailed the ways to overcome this shortcoming and many of your suggestions are good ideas to get out of a spot of trouble occasionally, but I still feel the class needing to use these as a crutch when it is a Dex-based class is far less than ideal.
Yeah, you do certainly make some valid, reasonable points about Nature's Veil being way up in Tier 3, and that subclass features, spells, and mastery properties aren't quite the same thing as core class features.
Vis-Ă -vis Roving, yes, there are certainly many monsters with 40 ft. or higher speeds -- there are also quite a few that don't have that, though (man, I wish the DNDBeyond monster filter let you sort monsters by numerical values like speed) -- but Roving also gives you the Climb and Swim speeds, so if you're able to utilise those, it effectively halves your pursuer's speed unless they share those speeds (or another speed like Flying in some cases). Granted, those are both terrain dependant (most fights don't take place right next to a body of water), and so DM dependant.
Hmm, I think that I probably misunderstood your initial criticism. It wasn't that the Ranger has no possible way of disengaging from melee (which it does), but that it doesn't have a unique method to do so that makes it shine in this area compared to other classes.
If that is correct, I would imagine that the reason that that's so is because the designers viewed Rangers primarily as archers or marksmen who hang back at the back of the battlefield (which they can competently do; Roving's helpful there), rather than skirmishers or shock attacker who dart into melee and frequently reposition themselves to maximise their effectiveness.
I would have preferred if Roving also gave advantage on any Climb and Swim checks that might be called for from the DM-especially climbing because that is a common check. Not all Rangers boost STR and/or Athletics so they might have more climbing speed but they're stuck at the bottom of the wall because they can't make the check, or even worse they fall off.
Your observation of my intention is correct. Unless it burns some of it's precious few spells it plays just like a Fighter or Paladin in battle, and although I feel it should not be as nimble as a Rogue or Monk it should be more nimble than the heavy armor classes. It should also be a base feature-all Rangers should have it. The Ranger can get feats to shore this up the issue instead, but no class I know is more multi ability score dependent so that doesn't help either. Push weapons do solve the issue also, but that the only one-handed push weapon is the warhammer so that just makes all melee Rangers want to use the same melee weapon and weapon juggle to get it into their attacks. If the designers really don't want the Ranger to have this kind of mobility then I do have the option of just picking up Rogue for a few levels. Maybe that's what I'm really looking for anyway.
Wizards of the Coast: Rangers get Hunter's Mark! But also they still need concentration to use it. >:(
Also Wizards of the Coast: Paladins get Divine Favor, no concentration needed :) also Vengeance Paladins get Hunter's Mark too :)
Also Wizards of the Coast: Clerics can use their channel divinity without maintaining concentration. We didn't want them to feel so constrained between making the choice of using their spells or channel divinity as a class feature. :)
Wizard of the Coast's conclusion: "The Ranger is one of the most versatile classes, able to excel in exploration and combat, with a knack for healing, utility, and battlefield control magic to boot."
what the heck are you people smoking over there?? why do you hate Ranger so much T_T I can play other classes re-flavored as a Ranger and be more effective as a Ranger, so why should I play a Ranger?
For flawed design that defines the Ranger base class, there was some effort put into those subclasses, enough effort to change how you play the class.
Paladins are on the opposite side of the boat where their subclasses have no impact on how they play the game at any tier of play, except Oath of Vengeance.