D&D (2024) One D&D Expert Classes Playtest Document Is Live

The One D&D Expert Class playest document is now available to download. You can access it by signing into your D&D Beyond account at the link below. It contains three classes -- bard, rogue, and ranger, along with three associated subclasses (College of Lore, Thief, and Hunter), plus a number of feats.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Faolyn]

Ranger with a spell list means they have dozens of different nature-based abilities and features to choose from and use to be whatever type of ranger they wanted. Rangers without it would get like only 6 different features at various levels across the entire 20-level span.

Personally, I'd much rather have more options available to me than less, even if I had to get that "Ew! Magic!" stench on my PC. (And just in case you didn't get it... that "Ew! Magic!" was sarcasm.)

Have you seen the Level Up ranger? No magic (except for a third-caster archetype) and chock fulla abilities.

 

[OB1]

I like it except for the Critically Hit one. That seems extra brutal for melee folks who already take more attacks from enemies than their ranged companions.

Good point. Maybe instead it's

Negate a Critical Hit against yourself - 1 Level of Exhaustion

Depending on the enemy and your current HP, could be a good choice to make.

 

[Olrox17]

The 4e ranger can't heal nor talk to animals and a cleric or druid had better Wis skill checks.

Your definition of who's good at wilderness exploration is very...specific? Again, 4e rangers get 5 skills, with Nature, Acrobatics, Athletics, Dungeoneering, Perception, Heal and Stealth among them.

For comparison, the cleric gets 4 skills, 1 of which is locked to religion, and they only get access to Heal, of the skills I listed above. The druid is better, getting automatic Nature training, and 3 other skills, with Perception, Heal and Athletics available as options. So what? Why wouldn't the druid be good at wilderness exploration?

About wisdom, the difference between an archer ranger and a cleric is probably going to be one point of modifier, two at most, and the ranger will have far better stealth. Yeah I'll take the ranger any day.

Maybe you're judging the 4e ranger simply for the lack of ritual casting? Ritual casting can be easily acquired with a feat...and feats are a dime a dozen in 4e. It's not even needed, you generally only need one ritualist in each party, but if you really want ritual casting, it's cheap as hell.

In short: we played 4e A LOT back in the day, and had plenty of rangers PC in the role of wilderness scouts for the party. They were highly effective.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Have you seen the Level Up ranger? No magic (except for a third-caster archetype) and chock fulla abilities.

No I haven't, and it's Level Up... a game specifically written to be an "Advanced" 5E. If WotC wanted to make their own game more complicated or have more systems in place they could, but they choose not to. So if using the singular spell system means we get more stuff as it's the easiest way to make sure the default game is understood by the most players... then I'm fine with it.

Plus, the whole "there's too much magic" complaint is overrated.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Good point. Maybe instead it's

Negate a Critical Hit against yourself - 1 Level of Exhaustion

Depending on the enemy and your current HP, could be a good choice to make.

I like that. I hope you get a chance to try them soon.

 

[Haplo781]

You miss the most important part.

The 4e ranger wasn't that especially great at wilderness exploration. It didn't have rituals and other classes has higher Wisdom or Dexterity. The 4e ranger is a fighter in 5e.

They had a bunch of cool utility powers that could be used for exploration. The problem, of course, was that these powers were competing for the same slots as utility powers that helped you in combat.

 

[Hatmatter]

When someone refers to you as a phantom, wouldn't you get upset? It has nothing to do with not agreeing. Many people disagree, but to be dismissive of a person is another thing.

So you responded with an ad hominem attack about him? First, he bothered to respond. Second, if you did not like his (presumably emailed and therefore person-to-person) response, why translate it into an attack against him as a person in a public forum and, thereby, derail the ongoing discussion about ideas?

 

[Minigiant]

Your definition of who's good at wilderness exploration is very...specific? Again, 4e rangers get 5 skills, with Nature, Acrobatics, Athletics, Dungeoneering, Perception, Heal and Stealth among them.

For comparison, the cleric gets 4 skills, 1 of which is locked to religion, and they only get access to Heal, of the skills I listed above. The druid is better, getting automatic Nature training, and 3 other skills, with Perception, Heal and Athletics available as options. So what? Why wouldn't the druid be good at wilderness exploration?

About wisdom, the difference between an archer ranger and a cleric is probably going to be one point of modifier, two at most, and the ranger will have far better stealth. Yeah I'll take the ranger any day.

Maybe you're judging the 4e ranger simply for the lack of ritual casting? Ritual casting can be easily acquired with a feat...and feats are a dime a dozen in 4e. It's not even needed, you generally only need one ritualist in each party, but if you really want ritual casting, it's cheap as hell.

In short: we played 4e A LOT back in the day, and had plenty of rangers PC in the role of wilderness scouts for the party. They were highly effective.

The point is that the 4e ranger wasn't automatically the best at it and that is the point of the class. The druid, cleric, shaman beat it at wisdom checks and only the archer competed in Stealth. And it didn't get rituals.

A similar problem happens in 5e as the druid was a better ranger than the ranger due to full casting and Wild shape.

Making the ranger potentially share spells fully with druid exasperates the issue more. Especially since WOTC refuses to give ranger exclusive spells.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Have you seen the Level Up ranger? No magic (except for a third-caster archetype) and chock fulla abilities.

The work apparently doesn't count unless WotC does it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Plus, the whole "there's too much magic" complaint is overrated.

Meaning you don't agree with it?