D&D 5E Question about Ranger's ability vs Hordes

[ScuroNotte]

Yeah, that's exactly it. Wading into the middle of melee and deliberately getting surrounded does not sound like a rangerish thing to do at all, whereas it sounds exactly like a barbarianish thing to do. An ability allowing you to bounce from target to target would fit the ranger's skirmishing theme much better.

Yes I agree.
I could see a Barbarian in the middle of a horde and dare them to attack him at their own peril; while the Ranger moves through them. And with them having the ability to bestow disadvantage on opportunity attacks, it further supports the idea of movement between attacks. Using half of your movement speed, you can attack each creature once as long as each creature is within 5 or 10 feet of each other.

 

[gyor]

I was always under assumption that Rangers excelled against fighting large number of creatures.
Hunter's Mark is vs only one creature. There are a couple of spells that are effective vs hordes that only work with thrown weapons or arrows/bolts. But the others focus on one creature.

The Hunter is the only one effective conclave that is consistent vs hordes, with Volley always available. And Whirlwind attack is great if you surround yourself with enemies which I wouldn't recommended..lol. And Two-Weapon fighting style and Horde Breaker allows you to attack 4 different creatures with movement (recommend Mobile feat).

And then any extra combat abilities are further narrowed to favored enemies. I know favored enemies is in the class's history, but still no other class has such a limiting feature when it comes to a special feature. Consider if sneak attack was only effective vs humanoids or paladins can only smite fiends.
In addition, A paladin's Divine Smite gives an additional 1d8 damage to each creature damaged which is beneficial when attacking multiple opponents.

The new Ranger conclaves that are being published and/or presented seem to focus against one creature with respect to attacking, damage, or special ability.

Back to original question. If the Ranger is supposed to excel vs large number of creatures, why does it appear that they fall behind in that category? Especially in melee?

Horizon Walker is pretty good against Hordes, but honestly being good against Hordes and Big creatures are the Hunters thing, humanoids, dragons, giants primarily, regular monsters mostly.

The Slayer on the other hand focuses on undead, fiends, fey, shapechangers, and spellcasters and other creepier creatures compared to the old fashioned brutal violent creatures the Hunter focuses on.

The Horizon Walker is a mix of the two, with a focus on extra planar threats.

The Gloom Stalker focuses on ambushes and anything with Dark Vision, but likely primarily Drow.

 

[EvanNave55]

Horizon Walker is pretty good against Hordes, but honestly being good against Hordes and Big creatures are the Hunters thing, humanoids, dragons, giants primarily, regular monsters mostly.

The Slayer on the other hand focuses on undead, fiends, fey, shapechangers, and spellcasters and other creepier creatures compared to the old fashioned brutal violent creatures the Hunter focuses on.

The Horizon Walker is a mix of the two, with a focus on extra planar threats.

The Gloom Stalker focuses on ambushes and anything with Dark Vision, but likely primarily Drow.

And if there /were/ any type of ranger that's meant to stand in the middle of a hoard and take their blows while dishing them out in return it would definitely be the Primeval Guardian. Healing every turn to mitigate damage taken, difficult terrain all around you to dissuade them from leaving you to try and go after others, plus preventing them from rushing past to the less melee inclined party members, increased reach to also hopefully prevent them from sneaking by you with your larger OA range. The whole thing screams tank.

So yeah, the Primeval Guardian is the one ranger that would make sense to be in the middle of a swarm of enemies, any of the others would be more skirmisher/archer based.

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[plisnithus8]

And if there /were/ any type of ranger that's meant to stand in the middle of a hoard and take their blows while dishing them out in return it would definitely be the Primeval Guardian. Healing every turn to mitigate damage taken, difficult terrain all around you to dissuade them from leaving you to try and go after others, plus preventing them from rushing past to the less melee inclined party members, increased reach to also hopefully prevent them from sneaking by you with your larger OA range. The whole thing screams tank.

So yeah, the Primeval Guardian is the one ranger that would make sense to be in the middle of a swarm of enemies, any of the others would be more skirmisher/archer based.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using EN World mobile app

Primeval Guardian was the one I was most looking forward to, but it didn’t make the cut.
And, with the Guardian of Nature spell added in XGtE, it looks like that subclass may have been scavenged for parts.

 

[EvanNave55]

Primeval Guardian was the one I was most looking forward to, but it didn’t make the cut.
And, with the Guardian of Nature spell added in XGtE, it looks like that subclass may have been scavenged for parts.

Primeval Guardian is one of my favourites and in my top three characters I want to build so I was quite disappointed when they didn't make the cut as well. Fortunately the groups I play with tend to be fine with UA so I can still play it, but it is sad for AL players and seeing how they would have further refined the subclass.

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[Sword of Spirit]

Aragorn cleaved through a horde more than once. I’m assuming that was inspiration. Like the OP, the horde breaker stuff in 5e seemed natural and not new to me, though I can’t say why. I’ve been familiar with rangers since 1e.