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.

 

[Horwath]

Can my fighter who is never going to use a simple weapon trade that out for a skill or hp?

this is a bad argument and you know it.

Martial weapons are improvement over simple weapons. and you can have one without the other.

same way medium armor is improvement over light and heavy is improvement over medium.
there is an argument here for shields but honestly shields should me incorporated with simple weapons and have everyone proficient with them.

How about my wizard who is never going cast necromancy?

are you forced to take necromancy spells the same way that the fighter is forced into heavy armor?

Maybe my rogue can swap out poison cunning strike for better armor?

why not?
or sacrifice 1d6 sneak attack permanently for better armor.

We could make a whole supplement where characters can exchange Skills and Powers for other things. We could give Players Options to customize their characters to the inch. I wonder if such a system would be lauded by the community? Too bad they never tried it...

there can be always some middle ground between;
here are your features, take or leave it! or complete buy in system for every feature that you can pick.

Tasha implemented some part to help with bad/useless racial proficiencies.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, I'd rather get a stable bonus than risk rolling a 1 on a big dice.

Eh, I don’t care about that part, it balances out in the long-term. My point is even if it were a static bonus, it’s still a terrible capstone ability.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

this is a bad argument and you know it.

Martial weapons are improvement over simple weapons. and you can have one without the other.

same way medium armor is improvement over light and heavy is improvement over medium.
there is an argument here for shields but honestly shields should me incorporated with simple weapons and have everyone proficient with them.


are you forced to take necromancy spells the same way that the fighter is forced into heavy armor?


why not?
or sacrifice 1d6 sneak attack permanently for better armor.


there can be always some middle ground between;
here are your features, take or leave it! or complete buy in system for every feature that you can pick.

Tasha implemented some part to help with bad/useless racial proficiencies.

What you describe is a point buy classless game. There are games out there that do what you want.

 

[Remathilis]

Sounds awesome to me.

I remember playing an elf ranger using S&P. He used the split ability score to boost his Aim to 19, took every bonus to hit with missile weapons my class and race afforded me, and then took weapon specialization with a longbow. It was a hefty cost, but I paid for it by sacrificing followers and armor proficiency in all but "light armor". His Thac0 with his bow was a 13 at level 1 and he attacked twice per round. It only got better from there.

Yeah, the system had some kinks to work out.

 

[Remathilis]

there can be always some middle ground between;
here are your features, take or leave it! or complete buy in system for every feature that you can pick.

Tasha implemented some part to help with bad/useless racial proficiencies.

Skills and Powers WAS that middle ground: you were given all the abilities of your class, but could swap them out for points to buy different ones tailored to your class. A fighter could only spend points on learning certain weapons, a wizard could get points for getting additional forbidden schools, or a thief could sacrifice his backstab to get additional skills.

Of course, the big problem was that 2e was never built with that kind of granular design, so it was trivially easy to sacrifice things that wouldn't help your main focus (like followers) to hyper specialize in the things that were.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I remember playing an elf ranger using S&P. He used the split ability score to boost his Aim to 19, took every bonus to hit with missile weapons my class and race afforded me, and then took weapon specialization with a longbow. It was a hefty cost, but I paid for it by sacrificing followers and armor proficiency in all but "light armor". His Thac0 with his bow was a 13 at level 1 and he attacked twice per round. It only got better from there.

Yeah, the system had some kinks to work out.

That was about our experience with that system. So we went back to more basic.

 

[Chaosmancer]

divine smite doesn't hold your concentration hostage though, you use it quick as and when opportunities arise for it, hunters mark doesn't let you do that.

Okay, "at high levels I don't want to lose my concentration to uphold Hunter's Mark" is an actual critique that we can actually come up with solutions for. Mine is that casting the spell using a 3rd level slot makes it last 8 hrs concentration free. Gives some resources to use, avoids the concentration issue, it seems like a good solution to me.

"This is Hunter's Mark the class!" is just a sound-bite that has no solution, other than removing one of the few unique spells ranger's get just because people don't like that Rangers get it.

 

[Remathilis]

That was about our experience with that system. So we went back to more basic.

Same here. That game was goofy busted in a way only 2e could be. We also went back to traditional 2e after that, keeping some of the quality of life changes (in particular the rebalancing of priest spheres and the new classes and spells) but ditching much of the variant rules.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Okay, "at high levels I don't want to lose my concentration to uphold Hunter's Mark" is an actual critique that we can actually come up with solutions for. Mine is that casting the spell using a 3rd level slot makes it last 8 hrs concentration free. Gives some resources to use, avoids the concentration issue, it seems like a good solution to me.

"This is Hunter's Mark the class!" is just a sound-bite that has no solution, other than removing one of the few unique spells ranger's get just because people don't like that Rangers get it.

8 hours and concentration free seems too much. 1 hour and concentration free seems better balanced. So under normal circumstances you use your free ability amd if you really have to make it stick. Use a 3rd level slot.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Paladin has the same problem but most paladin fans just like being smite monkeys.

Some people just care about damage and stealth buffs, I just want more.

I'm waiting for..
Scent magic
Echolocation magic
Tracker magic
Animal augmentation into weapons
Plant augmentation into weapons
Earth/Rock augmentation into weapons
Language magic
Resistance and Adaption magic

Okay. Getting more spells is a nice thing. That doesn't mean the class design is an utter failure and the company should burn for all eternity.

I've got some homebrew spells I've picked up for rangers that cover some good thematic ground. Also, I'm really not seeing a big niche for a lot of these. You want to turn animals into weapons? That is hyper niche. What does scent magic even mean? Additionally, some of these exist. Comprehend Languages, Tongues, Absorb Elements, Protection from Elements... all spells that can cover "language magic" or "resistance magic"

But, again, "I want more spells to cover these effects" is an actionable thing people can work on.