Level Up (A5E) Rangers, strangers, dangers...The good, the bad and the ugly of LU5E's rangers.

[CapnZapp]

The core ranger suffers from the same problem.

That is, IIRC every single high level Ranger ability can be safely handed out at, like, half level.

There's just nothing there that requires high level.

As to why this keeps happening, I really have no idea. My best guess is that the devs cannot or will not accept that at above level 10 or so, mundane abilities just don't cut it anymore.

That, or a reluctance to just hand out combat goodies.

The high-level Ranger just keeps getting stuck between a rock (The Ranger is not a Fighter!) and a hard place (The Ranger is not a Wizard!)... leaving it with abilities only the most exploration-heavy of games will consider powerful.

But truly, I do not know.

My solution would be to just accept the awesomeness latent in the Ranger concept and give it truly great stuff like the 3E Arcane Archer and Horizon Walker. (I think. Real fuzzy on twenty year old deets...)

 

[Faolyn]

The high-level Ranger just keeps getting stuck between a rock (The Ranger is not a Fighter!) and a hard place (The Ranger is not a Wizard!)... leaving it with abilities only the most exploration-heavy of games will consider powerful.

A5e is pretty exploration heavy--and more importantly, has a ton of exploration challenges for even high-level groups. They released the table of contents for the starter adventure and it includes a list of encounters, some of which I recognized as exploration challenges (others were monsters and some, presumably, were social encounters). This means it's expected that if you're running a game, you should be using exploration challenges, even if only the ones in the book, in addition to monsters and the like.

Now, obviously, we haven't seen a full list of exploration challenges (or if we did, it was ages ago and has likely changed), but presumably some of them are also for dungeon crawls and urban environments, not just for wilderness adventures--after all, A5e also has a list of Adventure Environments (with how they can be used in combat) that includes "Cavernous" and "Furnished" environments.

 

[CapnZapp]

The solution to the Ranger's problems isn't to force exploration upon the group just to justify keeping the class' exploration niche.

The solution is instead to provide powers that work in campaigns with regular levels of exploration (i.e. next to none that matters) - to realize the regular 5E Ranger paid a very steep price for the very secondary exploration focus it got.

That is why I would prefer a Ranger that gets exclusive access to stuff like Arcane Archer and Horizon Walker; making a Ranger a great addition to every high-level party, not just those with a DM that's into exploration challenges

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

The solution to the Ranger's problems isn't to force exploration upon the group just to justify keeping the class' exploration niche.

The solution is instead to provide powers that work in campaigns with regular levels of exploration (i.e. next to none that matters) - to realize the regular 5E Ranger paid a very steep price for the very secondary exploration focus it got.

Though you could also warn people against using a class in a campaign where many of its features won't be utilized.

EDIT: I mean I'd normally agree, but recently it sounds like whether a separate ranger class is needed any more needs to be considered.

 

[CapnZapp]

Though you could also warn people against using a class in a campaign where many of its features won't be utilized.

EDIT: I mean I'd normally agree, but recently it sounds like whether a separate ranger class is needed any more needs to be considered.

Well, thanks, but...

It is the notion that the Ranger must be exploration-heavy I oppose. Or rather, let me reverse that to be more precise: that the Ranger somehow should be less combat capable than other martial classes just because it can find its way through a forest... when 99% of existing adventures just assume you walk through the forest; any challenge being served by various monsters. Shelter, hunger and bad weather? D&D just skips that (and rightly so, since you can never rely on having a Ranger or other Nature-trained hero).

The time when D&D offered classes with various amount of focus on combat is long past. The idea to leave combat to certain characters died a long time ago. Now every class is geared towards adventuring, meaning combat. Ability outside combat is balanced as something of a ribbon ability. Nice to be sure, but not something you deserve getting a reduced combat ability for. Even Rogues and Bards; two notoriously late arrivals to the party.

But then we have the Ranger.

 

[Satirical Bard]

The expansion and re-centralisation of the exploration pillar is fundamental to the design of a5e though.

 

[VanguardHero]

The best way to make the Ranger the best of both worlds would've been to design it along the same lines as the Adept and Warlock. Then it'd only be as exploration focused to the detriment of combat as you wanted it to be.