D&D (2024) What type of ranger would your prefer for 2024?

[Ruin Explorer]

Aragorn's abilities are ranger spells and D&D had FIFTY YEARS under 2 companies to change that and NEVER DID.

Other Media abilities being Spells is D&D's MO under TSR and WOTC.

Give Rangers spells, Give rangers infusions, or create the item/herbalogy/crafting/woodcraft subsystem.

Put smokebombs and bola in the game or Rangers cast Darkness and Fog Cloud and Entangle.

The bolded bit is the correct answer here. The rest an extremely weak and silly argument. And you're dead wrong to say "NEVER DID". 4E absolutely did. QED mate. The issue is that both 3.XE and 5E are intentionally backwards-looking editions, which are intentionally aping the peculiarities of older editions.

Further, both editions suffered a bit of an intellectual failure with their Ranger designs, something which has been commented on frequently since both came out.

 

[CleverNickName]

All still trivial. 5E is not very complex. I don't know why you feel it's hard, but as a game developer who has been in D&D since the 90s I assure you it's not.

I think the best explanation is at the top of the page, in the poll results.

 

[Incenjucar]

Rangers could certainly make smoke bombs out of puff ball mushrooms and toad farts, but could also know how to splash mud or smack a tree just right to make a confusing mess of falling leaves.

 

[Minigiant]

The bolded bit is the correct answer here. The rest an extremely weak and silly argument. And you're dead wrong to say "NEVER DID". 4E absolutely did. QED mate. The issue is that both 3.XE and 5E are intentionally backwards-looking editions, which are intentionally aping the peculiarities of older editions.

Further, both editions suffered a bit of an intellectual failure with their Ranger designs, something which has been commented on frequently since both came out.

4e rangers didn't start with Ritual casting nor could heal others with their powers.
A lot of rangery abilities were still siloed off to "magic".

All still trivial. 5E is not very complex. I don't know why you feel it's hard, but as a game developer who has been in D&D since the 90s I assure you it's not.

Then why has almost no D&D or D&D like developer do it if it's so easy?

Especially if like the poll suggests, both the spell and spell-less rangers are popular?

 

[Incenjucar]

4e rangers didn't start with Ritual casting nor could heal others with their powers.
A lot of rangery abilities were still siloed off to "magic".

Then why has almost no D&D or D&D like developer do it if it's so easy?

Especially if like the poll suggests, both the spell and spell-less rangers are popular?

I dunno, you'll need to ask those designers. I'm not aware of how they make their business or design decisions. Maybe they fear backlash or are mostly wizard ranger fans or don't think it will sell well.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

4e rangers didn't start with Ritual casting nor could heal others with their powers.

Are you trying to prove my point here????

The big thing in 4E was that, out of combat, nobody needed magic to heal up, because Healing Surges existed.

 

[Shardstone]

This discussion brings up an interesting idea. Really, a lot of spells in the game could be turned into items and equipment, and that'd do wonders for martials.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Problem is, most of the spellcasting ranger's spells are just to do things normal people can do that has to be a spell because D&D players and designers have a horrifically limited experience pool.

The 'class fantasy' of the spellcasting ranger is 'to do what normal people can do, only with artificial limits on how often you can do it', or 'things you would be able to do with skills if they weren't terribly designed out of feat of adding more than two numbers together'.

The D&D spell-slot magic system is a great, efficient system does a number of things that is important for story, pacing, and functionality:

1. You get to do things FAST, often as an action, where if you did it in a a mundane fashion, it could take an hour or days to do.
2. You get to bypass a lot of mundane physical material components if the act requires construction.
3. The effect is usally very accurate and/or efficient, not requiring a skill check for failure.
4. It is a system that allows multiple classes get access to these abilities as an option.
5. Spell slots introduce a limit for how often you can perform those actions in a day. Because they are slots rather than dedicated to each specific concept, you get to mix and match. If the DM has a subsystem that also lets you do this stuff in a mundane fashion, that would be on top of the spellcasting slots.

And regarding your comment about "just a thing normal people do," I will contest that claim. Let's look at the level 1 Ranger spells:

• Absorb Elements: Pure magic. Not just a normal thing.
• Alarm: Casting time is 1 minute and lets you set an alarm that covers an entire 20-ft. cube that is smart enough to not trigger from allies, and awakens you with an inaudible ping if you're within a mile. Not just a normal thing. Sure, you can do something different, like letting the ranger ask if they create a mundane tripwire/clattertrap, but that all needs context for location, materials, and time. That is too much bookkeeping for designing accurate, meaningful system that I don't think is worth creating. Therefore in my game a player doesn't need an "class ability" so much as a player asking to do it and as long as they have the means, I give a timeline and ask for an ability check, and I'd likely allow Survival proficiency to apply.
• Animal Friendship: Can magically charm one beast per spell level for 24 hours, pending a Wisdom save, using only an action. Not just a normal thing.
• Beast Bond: Telepathy. Not just a normal thing.
• Cure Wounds. Magical healing. Not just a normal thing.
• Detect Magic. Pure magic. Not just a normal thing.
• Detect Poison and Disease. An action to determine the hazardness of everything within 30 feet at a glance, without a touching it? Not just a normal thing.
• Ensnaring Strike. Magical attack. Not just a normal thing.
• Fog Cloud. Big magical AoE. Not just a normal thing.
• Goodberry. Magical healing food. Not just a normal thing.
• Hail of Thorns. Magical attack. Not just a normal thing.
• Hunter's Mark. Not just a normal thing due to the divinatory aspects that work even if the creature is unfamiliar to you. I suppose it could have been a mystical primal-energy-powered class ability useable X times per long/short rest. But we're already past that point.
• Jump. Not just a normal thing, despite the boring name that matches an act that anyone could do.
• Longstrider. Magical movement enhancement. Not just a normal thing.
• Snare. Not just a normal thing, because it only takes a minute to cast, doesn't care about terrain (doesn't need trees) and is "nearly invisible" no matter the terrain. A mundane snare trap requires all those things. That said, it still sucks. I say make it cost an action to cast so you can use it while you are being pursued. That fixes it for me.
• Speak With Animals. Pure magic. Not just a normal thing. I suppose you can make this a class ability, but would bards, rangers, and druids all get this class ability?
• Zephyr Strike. Magical attack. Not just a normal thing.

So... Alarm and Snare are the ones that are the most mundane. Sure, someone can make a subsystem for traps. Maybe I'd take a look at it. But these spells do it quick and reliably, near invisibly, compared to a mundane option.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So... Alarm and Snare are the ones that are the most mundane. Sure, someone can make a subsystem for traps. Maybe I'd take a look at it. But these spells do it quick and reliably, near invisibly, compared to a mundane option.

It seems like you're intentionally missing the point.

The vast majority of spells you described are stuff D&D characters do without needing magic.

 

[Incenjucar]

This discussion brings up an interesting idea. Really, a lot of spells in the game could be turned into items and equipment, and that'd do wonders for martials.

100% Magic is great for the crazy stuff like programmed illusions and such, but a ton of it could easily be replaced with mundane or fantastic items or techniques.