D&D 5E Is it possible that the Revised Ranger is not dead?

Raunalyn · Jun 19, 2019

Article that discusses Baldur's Gate 3. Mearls (who still ruins everything) discusses the possibility of a revised Ranger and how we might be seeing a playtest this summer.

https://kotaku.com/the-ranger-class-is-getting-some-changes-in-d-d-and-ba-1835659585

Parmandur · Jun 19, 2019

Raunalyn said:
Article that discusses Baldur's Gate 3. Mearls (who still ruins everything) discusses the possibility of a revised Ranger and how we might be seeing a playtest this summer.

https://kotaku.com/the-ranger-class-is-getting-some-changes-in-d-d-and-ba-1835659585

Mearls work and musing on the Ranger in Happy Fun Hour last year was probably the fruit of these conversations with Larian. So, is the old revised Ranger still dead? Quite certainly. But maybe there will be a new alternate Ranger based on what he outlined in the HFH.

Mistwell · Jun 19, 2019

The Ranger stuff starts around the 18 minute mark.

BookBarbarian · Jun 19, 2019

I'm interested to see what happens. However, the Happy Fun Hour ideas were among my least favorite ideas tossed around for the Ranger since 5e was released. Edit: I was totally remembering wrong, there were lots of good ideas and I'm even more interested to see what happens.

Parmandur · Jun 19, 2019

BookBarbarian said:
I'm interested to see what happens. However, the Happy fun Hour ideas were among my least favorite ideas tossed around for the Ranger since 5e was released.

I really, really liked the Level 1 subclass concept, with the origin environment being the subclass choice. Don't know if that is what they will go with, but way more evocative than standard 5E Rangers for sure.

Mistwell · Jun 19, 2019

There is some very interesting 6e discussion, and game modularity discussion, that takes place after the 33.30 mark.

Some notes I took:

"[Emphasis that a 6e would be very far off and it gives him a headache thinking how hard it would be to even start] We could work on that intro experience…how could we on-board you with a little more emphasis on the storytelling experience of D&D…early on.

More playstyles. We talked about more modularity in the 5e development…we kind of hit on that in the 5e DMG but we could take it a lot further…it’s this engine that can be tweaked to without making it a lot more unrecognizable to someone who has tweak it a different way…especially with streaming you see there are a lot of ways people play…now we have something more concrete to aim at [by watching streaming examples]…here’s the group that really wants to role play…here’s the group their session is one big boss fight every session, they want tactical challenge, the big dramatic battle, and what can we do to support those different styles…"

BookBarbarian · Jun 19, 2019

Parmandur said:
I really, really liked the Level 1 subclass concept, with the origin environment being the subclass choice. Don't know if that is what they will go with, but way more evocative than standard 5E Rangers for sure.

Oh yeah I did like those. They would certainly make for a more meaningful favored terrain choice.

Actually on a re-read there was a lot more to like than I remember. I think a couple of things must have stuck in my mind and skewed my outlook.

Parmandur · Jun 19, 2019

BookBarbarian said:
Oh yeah I did like those. They would certainly make for a more meaningful favored terrain choice.

Actually on a re-read there was a lot more to like than I remember. I think a couple of things must have stuck in my mind and skewed my outlook.

Easy enough to do, particularly with a brainstorming session, so long before even Unearthed Arcana (yet to happen).

BookBarbarian · Jun 19, 2019

Parmandur said:
Easy enough to do, particularly with a brainstorming session, so long before even Unearthed Arcana (yet to happen).

Yeah I don't think I even read the transcript until right now.

Just a vague memory of listening to the video while I did other things.

lkj · Jun 19, 2019

I'm guessing they'll stick with their 'alternate class features' route to keep compatibility. From the transcript:

Mearls: "maybe play-testing this summer some new options that complement what’s there without overriding it. One of the hard things about working in tabletop is you can’t patch a physical book—unless you’re willing to break into everyone’s house and paste in new things."

So maybe we'll see the next attempt this summer? Or, given how scheduling always gets pushed back, maybe this fall.

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