Whither the Ranger?

[Deleted]

The news that Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will contain many of the Class Variant Features published in Unearthed Arcana last year gives me cause for hope that there'll be an official fix for the Ranger class. The main weakness of the PHB Ranger is that two of its signature features (Favoured Enemy and Natural Explorer) are very limited, the latter being of no use whatsoever except in "strategic" movement or when tracking. Having read Xanathar's Guide to Everything I find it ironic that the Scout subclass of Rogue in that volume is in many ways better in the wilds than the Ranger, and most of its features would have been a good fit for the Ranger class.

Looking at the UA class variant features for the Ranger I'm quite optimistic, as the features generally make sense and seem to have greater utility. The possibility of having expertise in a skill is welcome, and hardly overpowered when you consider a 6th level Scout has expertise in six skills. One thing I'm not sure about is the temporary hit points granted by the Tireless feature, since Rangers aren't exactly lacking in hit points. I'd prefer to see the class have advantage on CON saves to avoid exhaustion, which sits better alongside the ability to shed an exhaustion level with only a short rest. We'll just have to wait and see - I've already pre-ordered TCoE to support my local independent game shop!

[hamurai]

The Scout is a very powerful class, I agree. I'd have liked the Ranger to be more like the Scout, too, in some respects.

The (for me) iconic Ranger feature is the animal companion and that had been a rather weak feature until now. While the different Ranger sub-classes do have some interesting ideas, some are rather situational (Gloom Stalker and Horizon Walker) with limited abilities in some campaigns.

I'm not sure which UA Ranger you're talking about as I don't know any with a Tireless feature. Maybe you could link to the UA PDF?

[Deleted]

Oct 26, 2020 2:23:59 GMT -6 hamurai said:

The Scout is a very powerful class, I agree. I'd have liked the Ranger to be more like the Scout, too, in some respects.

The (for me) iconic Ranger feature is the animal companion and that had been a rather weak feature until now. While the different Ranger sub-classes do have some interesting ideas, some are rather situational (Gloom Stalker and Horizon Walker) with limited abilities in some campaigns.

I'm not sure which UA Ranger you're talking about as I don't know any with a Tireless feature. Maybe you could link to the UA PDF?

Here's the link: link

It's looks like a lot of this (not just the Ranger) will be in TCoE. I agree that the Beast Master needs improvements - I think WotC got it right with the 2016 variant, but they abandoned it.

[hamurai]

Ah, interesting, I had missed that one.

I agree, the 2016 Ranger version was the needed buff for the animal companions, but as you say, they never followed up on it. I guess it was a little too powerful?

I do like Ranger class, though, and I enjoy the role-playing opportunities you get with the animal companion.

[Deleted]

Well, Tasha's Cauldron Everything has been released, although I'll have to wait until December 1st for my copy as I live in the UK. Overall I'm very happy with the changes to the ranger. The 1st level features have been toned down, especially Favored Foe, presumably to avoid exploitation by multi-classers. This seems to have upset a very vocal group, but their claims that the ranger has been totally nerfed are way off the mark. The class is much stronger than before, with some useful once-per-day spells, increased movement (climbing and swimming speed, yay!), expertise in one skill, temporary hit points and a couple of interesting subclasses. I'm looking forward to our campaign restarting post-pandemic so I can try out the changes.

Numfar! Do the dance of joy!

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[hamurai]

Well, finally my copy arrived at my local store. I've checked the ranger first, since I was eager to see the changes you mentioned.

I'm torn on the new features. The Favored Foe is closer to the Favored Enemy feature I was used to from AD&D, but I can see it being used by power gamers in conjunction with Hunter's Prey (PHB, 3rd-level Hunter sub-class). There's no mention that it doesn't stack, so at 3rd level, every 1st attack (the only attack at that level), does [weapon damage] + 1d8 + 1d4 damage. The Favoured Enemy was more of a fluff feature, which I liked. I'd have preferred that with a small damage bonus against the designated enemy, like, + Proficiency Bonus to first damage roll per turn, or something like it. Less rules-y, keeping the fluff.

The Fighting Style additions are OK, but they're not my cup of tea. Blind Fighting is very situational.

I'm very happy about the new spell options, even if it pushes the ranger further into the spellcaster niche.
The rest is OK.

The new sub-classes are quite interesting.

The new Beast Master and Animal Companion rules are what I was waiting for. They're a great addition and finally make the Beast Master a good option, too.