D&D 5E The Ranger: You got spellcasting in my peanut butter!

[Andor]

I see several people saying theyd like an option for the Ranger that does not involve spell casting.

I have no problem with that idea.

I am however not sure how it differs from a fighter with maybe the archery combat style and the Grizzly Adams background. (Or whatever gives you Survival and Animal Handleing.)

I mean to say, what feature would you want in such a ranger that the fighter with appropriate skills lacks? An Animal Companion? Tracking? A trusty halfling sidekick?

 

[variant]

I mean to say, what feature would you want in such a ranger that the fighter with appropriate skills lacks? An Animal Companion? Tracking? A trusty halfling sidekick?

The non-spellcasting things rangers have always done in fantasy. Track, skirmishing abilities, the ability to move through wilderness unhindered, unseen, and without being tracked., etc.

 

[Agamon]

The non-spellcasting things rangers have always done in fantasy. Track, skirmishing abilities, the ability to move through wilderness unhindered, unseen, and without being tracked., etc.

That looks like it could be done with skills from background and fighter abilities for the most part, no?

 

[variant]

That looks like it could be done with skills from background and fighter abilities for the most part, no?

No.

 

[Mercurius]

I've never loved the (weak) spell-casting abilities of a ranger and would have preferred them excised totally. If someone wants some spellcasting, why not just multiclass into druid for a level here and there.

In place of spells, I'd like to see something akin quasi-mystical nature abilities - passing without trace through the woods, camouflage, moving at unearthly speeds, "listening to the wind," etc. Take all the tracking, naturalist stuff and accentuate them with a mystical flavor. Then give either the option for a melee or ranged focus and, voila, you've got a real ranger that is different from a fighter with nature skills.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I wouldn't be against a non-spell casting ranger, but for it to be worth making it's own class it'd probably need a unique mechanic or resource system, which they've been leery of handing out.

For example, I could see a ranger built around "skill tricks" that build extra mechanical benefits into skill checks. But if you just take the playtest ranger, cut out his spells, and add in more class abilities like "camouflage" and whatever, it risks being too mechanically boring for a lot of players.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Track

Survival skill.

skirmishing abilities,

Fighter class.

the ability to move through wilderness unhindered, unseen, and without being tracked., etc.

Survival skill.

If you really want that auto-succeed on tracking, take the first level of Ranger.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

The non-spellcasting things rangers have always done in fantasy. Track, skirmishing abilities, the ability to move through wilderness unhindered, unseen, and without being tracked., etc.

Another concern: the more of these things you hard-wire into the ranger class, the more you block other classes from doing that sort of thing, restricting gameplay for everyone. Like, for moving unhindered through the wilderness to be a cool ability for the ranger, then getting hindered by the wilderness has to really suck for everyone else.

 

[Agamon]

No.

I'll assume you ran out of time before you could expound. I have some time though.

Track = Survival

Skirmish = Depending on what you mean by this, Fighters Fighting Style or Rogue's Cunning Action would work

Move through wilderness = Survival

Move unseen = Stealth

Move without being tracked = Survival

Edit: Darn, ninja'd

 

[Thaumaturge]

Edit: Darn, ninja'd

Ninja probably works best as a monk or rogue.

Thaumaturge.