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

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

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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.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

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.

I like the rangers capstone from C7's Adventure in Middle Earth:

Against your favored foes, you did not roll for damage, you just take the maximize all your damage dice.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Our expectations were low, but holy....

 

[el-remmen]

A spell-less magic-less ranger is pointless and redundant if you design the fighter class right.

I didn't say magic-less.

 

[Minigiant]

Possibly. But Volley was never terribly useful if you only had two or three enemies on the field, and if the splash happens every time you hit the target, then you can end up dealing a free, automatic, 3d6 damage to a nearby enemy. Which isn't terrible.

In terms of raw numbers against 3 or more targets, sure.

But that doesn't tell the whole story when you consider that it's typically better in practice to focus down one enemy with multiple attacks than to spread them out, since you want to kill at least one target faster. 2014 Multiattack's big problem was that it deliberately encouraged tactically suboptimal play.

Sure
But it was an option

Volleys problem was only that most fights didn't have 3+ foes withing a 10 ft radius.

But if you didn't use it, you could still attack 1 target twice or thrice with XBE.

1d6 splash damage at level 11 is frankly ignorable and just wastes time. It'll only be tolerated because it's free. It's Long range worse Graze.

The main benefit of Volley is it carried your buffs from feats, magic, and magic items. Now with Weapon Mastery, Volley with a melee ally would been so annoying to DM.

The free HM splash damage is indicative of the 2024 Ranger.

Free effective but boring flavorless buffs.

 

[ECMO3]

Multiclassing before level 5 is a self nerf for 90% of builds.

I generally multiclass before level 5 if I am building a multiclass character (usually at level 2 or 3). It has never seemed like an overall nerf for me, but I am almost always playing a PC with spells and Cantrips scale with Character level.

You do miss out on extra attack or 3rd level spells on most of those, but if you are multiclassing that is usually made up for by the multiclass option.

For example Wizard 4/Tempest Cleric, Death Cleric or Order Cleric 1 is generally more powerful than Wizard 5. They have the same number of slots, 3 more cantrips and at least 2 more spells prepared. While he can't cast Fear or Counterspell he can upcast Cause Fear, Bless and can cast Healing Word, he has a much better AC and his cantrips are objectively more powerful due to the subclasses: Death gets medium armor, can twin his Wizard Chill Touch and martial weapons make his blade cantrips more powerful. Order gives heavy armor and better weapons than the base Wizard along with Voice of Authority. Tempest gives martial weapons and heavy armor both.

Similarly, a strength-based Fighter 4/Warlock 1 does not get extra attack, but he generally is doing more damage with a Blade cantrip and Hex than he would with extra attack and no Hex. Meanwhile he has a much better ranged attack option with Eldritch Blast and an awesome Warlock subclass ability if he takes Undead or Hexblade as a subclass.

These are just two examples, but there are lots. If you are looking at a multiclass build you are generally going to be better, all things considered, if you multiclass early and this will generally hold at level 5.

I find where it generally "hurts" the most is not the level 5 class abilities, but some of the higher level subclass abilities. For example on the multiclasses combos above delaying War Magic by 1 level on your EK fighter because you took a 1-level Warlock dip is going to hurt at level 7 and taking a 1-level Cleric dip is going to hurt an Enchantment Wizard at level 10 because you don't get split enchantment at level 10.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Volleys problem was only that most fights didn't have 3+ foes withing a 10 ft radius.

But if you didn't use it, you could still attack 1 target twice or thrice with XBE.

So, a feature you wouldn't have the chance to use much to begin with, and even if you had the chance to, it still likely wasn't tactically better than just using your regular attack twice on one enemy.

Yeah, that was exactly the problem with 2014 Volley. It really won't be missed.

1d6 splash damage at level 11 is frankly ignorable and just wastes time. It'll only be tolerated because it's free. It's Long range worse Graze.

And it's still better because it doesn't encourage you to use suboptimal tactics just so you can use it at all.

 

[mellored]

Splash HM is officially my least favorite thing of 2024. Even if it is mechanically better than Volley.

...



Cut HM however... could be pretty fun on ranger...

 

[Stalker0]

For Fighter and Barbarian, yes, but not for Rogue, Ranger, or Paladin.

which for all but a handful of builds will mean exactly 0 in terms of power. Most people are going to pick a melee weapon one, a ranged weapon one, or maybe two melee ones if they are feeling frisky and go TWF with two different weapons. And that will be their style for the rest of the game.

Yes getting to switch up weapons with different masteries every once in a while is cool, but in terms of a real source of power its basically 0.

 

[Minigiant]

So, a feature you wouldn't have the chance to use much to begin with, and even if you had the chance to, it still likely wasn't tactically better than just using your regular attack twice on one enemy.

Yeah, that was exactly the problem with 2014 Volley. It really won't be missed.

The issue is your level 11.

If you DM is using mooks to boost the enemy's action economy, Volley will trigger a lot. And with the high damage of bow archers by level 11, a few Volleys might wipe the add at no resource cost.

1d6 splash damage is more consistent and better overall damage. But as a whole does nothing the the 11 HP hobgoblins taking 4 12 damage potshots at your party from the back.

1-2 Sharpshooter, Magic Bow, Volleys, they scatter, advance to the frontline, or die.

1d6 splash HM is just 3.5 damage to someone you aren't shoot. At best, someone else is also engaging it and you are speeding its demise. But if no one is attacking your splash target, you really aren't speeding up much.

 

[mellored]

The issue is your level 11.

If you DM is using mooks to boost the enemy's action economy, Volley will trigger a lot. And with the high damage of bow archers by level 11, a few Volleys might wipe the add at no resource cost.

The resources cost is your level 11 features that you might not use most of the game.

Also, Rangers have Conjure Barrage which does half on a miss and covers a larger area.