D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook reveal: "New Ranger"

"More than any other class, the ranger is a new class."

​

It has been a year (less a day) since we last saw the Ranger in UA Playtest 6. There still could be a lot of change. My sense is that they are more or less happy with three of the subclasses (Fey Wanderer, Beastmaster, and Gloom Stalker), but many questions remain: Will anyone be happy with the favored enemy/relation to the land abilities? Will Hunter's Mark be foregrounded in multiple abilities? Will rangers at least get a free casting of the Barrage/Volley spells? For the Hunter, will the "Superior" abilties at levels 11 and 15 continue to be things you didn't choose at lower levels? For the Gloom Stalker, will they pull out 3rd level invisibility from "Umbral Sight"? Any chance for a surprise substitution of the Horizon Walker? Let's find out.

OVERVIEW

• "widely played, but ... one of the lowest rated"
• Spellcasting and Weapon Mastery at 1 (as with Paladin). Spellcasting can change spells after long rest (not every level)
• NEW: Favored Enemy: Hunters Mark always prepared, and X castings per day. (was level 2 in PT6, where it was WIS times/day)
• NEW: Fighting Style at 2 (no limits on choice). or you may choose two cantrips (again, like Paladin).
• NEW: Deft Explorer at 3: expertise in a proficient skill, +2 languages. NO INTERACTION WITH LAND TYPES. This is a nerf from PT6, where at least you got a bonus to Intelligence (Nature) checks.
• Extra attack at 5, Roving at 6 (+10' move, Climb Speed, Swim speed).
• Two more expertise options, at 9, presumably. Compared to the playtest, this is a nerf: PT6 gave 1 expertise, the spell Conjure Barrage always prepared, and +2 land types for Explorer. These had problems, but it's a lot to lose for one additional expertise.
• At 10, Tireless (as in PT6) -- THP and reduced Exhaustion.
• NEW: At 13, Damage no longer breaks concentration with Hunter's Mark.
• At 14, Nature's Veil -- invisibility. At 18, Blindsight.
• NEW: At 17, advantage vs person marked with Hunter's Mark.
• NEW: Damage of Hunter's mark increases to d10, not d6. (This too is a nerf from the playtest, which gave +WIS to hit, and +WIS to damage.)

The clear expectation is you are using Hunter's Mark, occupying your concentration and taking your first Bonus action every combat, from levels 1-20.

SUBCLASSES
Beastmaster

• command Primal Beast as a bonus action, and higher level abilities as in PT6, apparently.
• stat blocks level up with you (as in Tasha's and PT6). Beast gets Hunter's Mark benefits at 11.

Fey Wanderer

• vague on specifics; apparently just as in Tasha's.

Gloom Stalker

• as in PT6, Psychic damage bonus a limited number of times per day. +WIS to initiative (cf. Assassin and Barbarian)
• Umbral Sight, darkvision bonus, and invisible in the dark.
• NEW: psychic damage goes up at level 11. Mass fear option of Sudden Strike mentioned, nothing about Sudden Strike.

Hunter.

• Hunter's Lore at 3: know if there are immunities/resistances of creature marked by Hunter's Mark.
• NEW: Hunter's Prey at 3: you have a choice and can change your choice every short/long rest.
• NEW: Defensive Tactics at 7: you have a choice, and again can choose after a rest. The choices are Escape the Horde, Multiattack defense (not Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, and Hunter's Leap, as in PT6).
• NEW: At 11, Hunter's mark now "splashes" damage onto another target.
• NEW: you can choose to take resistance to damage, until the end of your turn.

 

[mellored]

Additionally, I still like the idea of altering the capstone to be "Hunter's Mark increases to 1d10 damage. You are considered to always have Hunter's Mark cast without concentration, and it applies to all enemies within 120 ft. You always have advantage on Survival and Perception checks" It is level 20, this seems fine to me.

Yea. The capstone is crap. IMO, something like...

When you use Hunters Mark, you target all creatures within 1 mile, even if you don't know they are there.

 

[Remathilis]

Your wizard wants to summon a creature? Here's a bespoke stat-block.
Your ranger wants a companion creature? Here's a bespoke stat-block.
Your druid wants to turn into a creature? Here's a monster stat-block you can kludge into a pseudo-template.

Bespoke Stat block:
Ranger animal companion
Summon spells
Paladin mount

Monster stat block
Familiars
Chain pact to familiar
Wild shape

 

[Marandahir]

Maybe, but more than a few classes also have end levels filled with stuff that isn't very compelling. In some cases, it's tough to justify going beyond level 12 or 13 in a class.

I multiclass a lot. Though, for me personally, it's less about power and more that a lot of concepts I have don't fit very well into one class.

Notable exceptions in 5E have been Oath of Ancients Paladin and Druid.

For Ranger, maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but there's not much that the Ranger offers that I haven't felt a different class or classes would do better, just with taking a nature-y or woodsy background.

And for you, that makes sense. I'm just saying that while WotC has to ensure that the game doesn't break from multiclassing, they can't ASSUME that players will be using multiclassing when accounting for access to classic archetypes, because multiclassing is a layer of complexity that is simultaneously complex (and thus creates options paralysis), keyed-in for players more interested in bells and dials and levers in their game, and also intimidating in the sense of setting you up for potentially an extremely different power scaling than your compatriots due to power progression between classes and from level to level not following a linear pattern.

 

[mellored]

Volley is better than 1d6 splash damage.

Splash is strictly better against 2 targets. And i expect that to be the most common situation.

Iffy with 3 targets. As volley is slightly more damage, but less focus fire.

And volley is better against 4+. But I don't think that happens very often.

 

[ECMO3]

"more than any other class, the ranger is a new class"
Ranger video today.


It has been a year (less a day) since we last saw the Ranger in UA Playtest 6. There still could be a lot of change. My sense is that they are more or less happy with three of the subclasses (Fey Wanderer, Beastmaster, and Gloom Stalker), but many questions remain: Will anyone be happy with the favored enemy/relation to the land abilities? Will Hunter's Mark be foregrounded in multiple abilities? Will rangers at least get a free casting of the Barrage/Volley spells? For the Hunter, will the "Superior" abilties at levels 11 and 15 continue to be things you didn't choose at lower levels? For the Gloom Stalker, will they pull out 3rd level invisibility from "Umbral Sight"? Any chance for a surprise substitution of the Horizon Walker? Let's find out.

OVERVIEW

• "widely played, but ... one of the lowest rated"
• Spellcasting and Weapon Mastery at 1 (as with Paladin). Spellcasting can change spells after long rest (not every level)
• NEW: Favored Enemy: Hunters Mark always prepared, and X castings per day. (was level 2 in PT6, where it was WIS times/day)
• NEW: Fighting Style at 2 (no limits on choice). or you may choose two cantrips (again, like Paladin).
• NEW: Deft Explorer at 3: expertise in a proficient skill, +2 languages. NO INTERACTION WITH LAND TYPES. This is a nerf from PT6, where at least you got a bonus to Intelligence (Nature) checks.
• Extra attack at 5, Roving at 6 (+10' move, Climb Speed, Swim speed).
• Two more expertise options, at 9, presumably. Compared to the playtest, this is a nerf: PT6 gave 1 expertise, the spell Conjure Barrage always prepared, and +2 land types for Explorer. These had problems, but it's a lot to lose for one additional expertise.
• At 10, Tireless (as in PT6) -- THP and reduced Exhaustion.
• NEW: At 13, Damage no longer breaks concentration with Hunter's Mark.
• At 14, Nature's Veil -- invisibility. At 18, Blindsight.
• NEW: At 17, advantage vs person marked with Hunter's Mark.
• NEW: Damage of Hunter's mark increases to d10, not d6. (This too is a nerf from the playtest, which gave +WIS to hit, and +WIS to damage.)

The clear expectation is you are using Hunter's Mark, occupying your concentration and taking your first Bonus action every combat, from levels 1-20.

SUBCLASSES
Beastmaster

• command Primal Beast as a bonus action, and higher level abilities as in PT6, apparently.
• stat blocks level up with you (as in Tasha's and PT6). Beast gets Hunter's Mark benefits at 11.

Fey Wanderer

• vague on specifics; apparently just as in Tasha's.

Gloom Stalker

• as in PT6, Psychic damage bonus a limited number of times per day. +WIS to initiative (cf. Assassin and Barbarian)
• Umbral Sight, darkvision bonus, and invisible in the dark.
• NEW: psychic damage goes up at level 11. Mass fear option of Sudden Strike mentioned, nothing about Sudden Strike.

Hunter.

• Hunter's Lore at 3: know if there are immunities/resistances of creature marked by Hunter's Mark.
• NEW: Hunter's Prey at 3: you have a choice and can change your choice every short/long rest.
• NEW: Defensive Tactics at 7: you have a choice, and again can choose after a rest. The choices are Escape the Horde, Multiattack defense (not Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, and Hunter's Leap, as in PT6).
• NEW: At 11, Hunter's mark now "splashes" damage onto another target.
• NEW: you can choose to take resistance to damage, until the end of your turn.

Not real happy with this compared to Tashas. I dislike is HM always prepared. I am not a fan of Hunters Mark generally and it is really awful at high level. I would prefer a spell of my choice in this spot or a subclass-based spell. For those cases where you are not concentrating on a better spell, I actually like the old Favored Foe better because it does not require a bonus action to activate it.

Also Nature's Veil 4 levels later is a bit of a downer too.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I find it interesting that Druidic Warrior is specifically NOT a Fighting Style here, but instead a Ranger class feature that can be taken instead of a Fighting Style.

I suspect that this is an idiosyncrasy that emerges because the Magic Adept feat gives 2 cantrips and a first-level spell. If Druidic Warrior were a fighting style, it would be a feat, and as a feat, it would be strictly weaker than Magic Adept. This avoids that outcome.

 

[Marandahir]

I suspect that this is an idiosyncrasy that emerges because the Magic Adept feat gives 2 cantrips and a first-level spell. If Druidic Warrior were a fighting style, it would be a feat, and as a feat, it would be strictly weaker than Magic Adept. This avoids that outcome.

And yet most of the other fighting styles are like half-a-feat in power, but WotC considers the opportunity of gaining them worth a full feat (not a feat +1 ASI).

 

[mellored]

Maybe, but more than a few classes also have end levels filled with stuff that isn't very compelling. In some cases, it's tough to justify going beyond level 12 or 13 in a class.

There is more incentive to stick with a class now.

Not the ranger 20. That's pretty bad except for a Hunter with 4 attacks + splash.

But advantage on all Hunters Mark targets at 17 is definitely better than before.

 

[mellored]

I suspect that this is an idiosyncrasy that emerges because the Magic Adept feat gives 2 cantrips and a first-level spell. If Druidic Warrior were a fighting style, it would be a feat, and as a feat, it would be strictly weaker than Magic Adept. This avoids that outcome.

Dunno.
Magic Adept and Druidic Warrior would both be fine as Origin feats.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Dunno.
Magic Adept and Druidic Warrior would both be fine as Origin feats.

You can either have two druid cantrips, or two druid cantrips and the ability to cast a level-1 spell. Are you really choosing just the cantrips?