D&D 5E The Dual Wielding Ranger: How Aragorn, Drizzt, and Dual-Wielding Led to the Ranger's Loss of Identity

[Voadam]

The Ranger first appears in Volume 1, no. 2, of The Strategic Archive (TSR, get it?),

Quick correction.

The Strategic Review.

 

[Umbran]

4. That cover.

Cavaliers. shudder

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Cavaliers. shudder

The concept of Cavaliers as described was like the most exciting class for me by such a large margin when I heard D&D described to me and why I bought D&D (not knowing 2E didn't have them). To be fair to me I was 10.

Then I saw the rules compared to other classes in 1E, and then the various takes on them in other editions.

I have never played a Cavalier.

 

[billd91]

I'm not sure I'd attribute too much to the UA required proficiencies with respect to rangers turning into archers. My guess is the designers were trying to make sure a ranger actually knew how to use a weapon suitable for hunting since they spend so much time out in the wild. Most people playing rangers probably already knew this and made sure their rangers had an appropriate ranged weapon proficiency from the get-go.

 

[Umbran]

The concept of Cavaliers as described was like the most exciting class for my by such a large margin when I heard D&D described to me and why I bought D&D (not knowing 2E didn't have them).

I have never played a Cavalier.

Oh, yeah. The game could certainly use a good mounted knight. And nobility/chivalry, we can work with. No question.

But that implementation. Gah.

Oh, I did play that cleric/ranger multiclass Snarf mentions, back in the day. It didn't suck as badly as it may seem on paper.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Quick correction.

The Strategic Review.

I can't even.

(I mean ... not only did I do it correctly later on, but I actually made the acronym comment RIGHT AFTER the brain freeze. As they always say, "Lazy and illiterate is no way to go through life, Snarf." Well, 'they' being my mom.)

 

[Alzrius]

The concept of Cavaliers as described was like the most exciting class for me by such a large margin when I heard D&D described to me and why I bought D&D (not knowing 2E didn't have them). To be fair to me I was 10.

Then I saw the rules compared to other classes in 1E, and then the various takes on them in other editions.

I have never played a Cavalier.

Certainly, this guy didn't make them look good:

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Certainly, this guy didn't make them look good:

This isn't going to make me look great but as a kid I often sympathized with that guy. About half the time he was the voice of sanity and reason, and in a real D&D party people would have been fine with him!

 

[Voadam]

I always thought Drizzt was a 1e UA drow ranger who dual wielded because of being a drow. The fact that I read The Crystal Shard when it came out a year before 2e did (and that 2e drow PCs explicitly did not have special drow abilities that Drizzt had) may have added to that belief. Plus running a campaign with two dual wielding1e UA drow PCs at the time.

 

[Sacrosanct]

First, I love your posts like this, and your sense of humor.

but...

I have a hard time keeping focus to read the wall of text and making it all the way to the end. If it's just me, I'll admit my failings and feel free to ignore me.