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

[jayoungr]

Aragorn can heal (because he is a king) but he can't speak to animals, speak to plants, or survive extreme temperatures.

I'm not so sure about that. He is said to be "the hardiest of men"--not superhuman, but if the party's stuck in a glacier, he'll survive the longest.

Who TF is Rexxar?!

Half-orc* hunter/ranger from (World of) Warcraft; I think he first appeared in Warcraft III. He's a supreme hunter and has a bond with his animal companions so they follow his commands perfectly. I don't know if he ever does any of the other things.

*The other half is ogre.

***

To the OP: You say in your title that Aragorn and a few other things "led to the ranger's loss of identity." But the ranger's original identity was just ... Aragorn. Is that really an identity to lose?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm not so sure about that. He is said to be "the hardiest of men"--not superhuman, but if the party's stuck in a glacier, he'll survive the longest./

He is caught on the pass of Caradhras. Where he clearly outlasts the hobbits, but he doesn't fare any better than Boromir, and it is Legolas who is pretty much unaffected by the cold. Aragorn doesn't seem to have any special level of cold resistance. I would take "hardiest of men" to mean "has a high constitution score".

Throw him in a furnace and I don't think being a ranger would help him much.

 

[jayoungr]

He is caught on the pass of Caradhras. Where he clearly outlasts the hobbits, but he doesn't fare any better than Boromir, and it is Legolas who is pretty much unaffected by the cold.

Legolas is an elf, though, and even a minor elf is going to be tougher than a human in Tolkien's world. And I bet if they were stuck there longer, Boromir would freeze to death before Aragorn would. (This is one reason why I sometimes get annoyed with Aragorn, or at least the version of him presented by a particular sort of fan.)

Throw him in a furnace and I don't think being a ranger would help him much.

No, that's true. He isn't hardy because he's a ranger; he's a ranger because he's hardy.

ETA: Or maybe not--see quote in post 168 below.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Boromir would freeze to death before Aragorn would.

That's just opinion though. There is nothing in the text to suggest that. I seem to recall its actually Boromir who does most of the digging to rescue the hobbits.

he's a ranger because he's hardy.

That takes us back to ranger being a synonym for hero. Most heroes are hardy.

 

[jayoungr]

That's just opinion though. There is nothing in the text to suggest that.

Well, except for that bit in the appendix that says Aragorn is "the hardiest of men." And yes, that can be interpreted multiple ways, but one possible and popular reading is "No human in the world is hardier than he is."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, except for that bit in the appendix that says Aragorn is "the hardiest of men." And yes, that can be interpreted multiple ways, but one possible and popular reading is "No human in the world is hardier than he is."

So, he has a high constitution score. Which would give him more hit points. Which means he can take more damage. Which would include cold or fire damage (as well as any other kind of damage). Nothing class-related there, although it might relate to why 1st edition rangers got an extra hit dice at first level.

 

[Wolfram stout]

Well, except for that bit in the appendix that says Aragorn is "the hardiest of men." And yes, that can be interpreted multiple ways, but one possible and popular reading is "No human in the world is hardier than he is."

While true, I think that is because he is Dunadain. He would be the Hardiest of men regardless of class.

 

[jayoungr]

I went and looked up the exact reference, and it seems more linked to ranger-dom than I remembered. Here's an extended quote (this is from the "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" section of Appendix A):

For nearly thirty years he laboured in the cause against Sauron ... [H]e went in many guises, and won renown under many names. He rode in the host of the Rohirrim and fought for the Lord of Gondor ... and went alone far into the East and deep into the South .... Thus he became at last the most hardy of living Men, skilled in their crafts and lore, and yet was more than they....

This makes it sound like his "hardiness" was a feature of having gained quite a few levels over the course of his journeys, not just being born with a high constitution score.

 

[Undrave]

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.

I'm curious what you feel is missing in the current Cavalier options?

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!

That's the 80's for ya... the guy who doesn't get along with the group is always in the wrong...

 

[Mind of tempest]

Half-orc* hunter/ranger from (World of) Warcraft; I think he first appeared in Warcraft III. He's a supreme hunter and has a bond with his animal companions so they follow his commands perfectly. I don't know if he ever does any of the other things.

*The other half is ogre.

***

To the OP: You say in your title that Aragorn and a few other things "led to the ranger's loss of identity." But the ranger's original identity was just ... Aragorn. Is that really an identity to lose?

the WOW ranger is a direct descendent of the end one so it has much the same problem as the drow whose name I can't spell.