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.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I don't think so? Certainly not for me. But I don't want to generalize from a sample size of 1.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think so? Certainly not for me. But I don't want to generalize from a sample size of 1.

It just seems to me that it isn't likely to be a problem at most tables...and wouldn't be shocked if WotC had, like, playtest data on how it works at most tables.

 

[Gammadoodler]

The Ranger in one of our current games is using it to represent a sort of "weakness sight" which allows her to see the organs, weak points, ect of an enemy, highlighting them in golden magic.

I've seen similar things in some stories. The Hunter ability from UnOrdinary looks like that. Tower of Solmnus had the main character gain an ability that guided their strikes to critical points on enemies, even if she was unaware of them. You could argue the feature works by slowing down time and allowing a more perfect strike, seen that in Primal Hunter and Fallout just off the top of my head. Primal Hunter also had a magical ability where the guy dealt extra magical damage whenever he built, that he eventually evolved into an ability to build and release a magical charge inside the bodies of his opponents. You can also cover the idea of double impacts from some martial arts stories with this, the idea of striking an opponent, then your energy or magic striking them again as an echo, that shows up in dozens of places.

Tracking magic or tracking marks are also ubiquitous.

The counterpoint of this is that knowing and aiming for weaknesses and being good at tracking are things actual hunters do.

We could have, "Because I am good at hunting, I can track do more damage to the things that I hunt"

Instead we have.."I'm good at hunting..as long as I have enough magical energy and use the right words/gestures"

From a class fantasy perspective..

Woof.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sure.

You should be able to switch class features on downtime. Communing with a new animal spirit in the wild or going through a training montage is the trope.DMs should be allowing that.

Swapping combat techniques and animal spirits and energy types is simply out of line with any trope to the point that they disallow them.

I'm tired, so a single example is all I'm bringing to the table. Vixen from DC comics can channel animal totems to empower herself. She can channel different animals, but only one at a time. Exactly like the Wildheart is depicting.

The book series I am reading right now has a Prince whose special magical ability is muscle memory. Give him a little bit, and he can swap to any fighting style he knows and perform it, but it takes time to flip through too many.

So, no, the Tropes do not "disallow" this.

It hints to having inflexible DMs and passive players. And it also suggests that WOTC is unwilling to put DM advice in the games to allow for downtime. They're really should be a downtime section and the player's handbook that tells you how often you can switch and swap up class abilities.

"You can spend a week communing with nature and swap one of your favorite enemies or favored terrain to the another favorite terrain or favorite enemy"

Instead we get "Oh we can't balance. Player advice? DM advice? What's that? Here take more free uses of Hunter's Mark"

You know who else can swap their kit, beyond Hunter Rangers and Fighters? Wizards, Clerics and Druids. A wizard can alter what reality bending powers they have memorized for the day by spending a short rest, but somehow a Ranger is incapable of having two different sets of muscle memory they can interchange? And it must be that instead the designers are too stupid to write basic advice for DMs, and not that, I don't know, they thought that was a cool way to make the hunter seem more unique and powerful?

Not every design decision WoTC comes up with is because they are too inept to do what you think they should do. Sometimes, they have an idea and a vision they are working towards.

 

[Chaosmancer]

That's another thing.

What's the point of extra uses of Hunter's mark if you can upcast it for 8 hours.

WAIT A SECOND

Is this why this Ranger is getting extra uses of Hunter's Mark? To recast it after casting another concentration spell?

Most people don't bother to use a 3rd level spell for it, since an hour casting can cover multiple fights. But, yeah, that is a use for having free castings.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Real talk: how many tables are going to have someone playing the Scout Rogue, the intentional option for people who want a non-magical Ranger, alongside a Ranger? And competing for exploration limelight?

Fewer people than are going to multi-class a Rogue scout with a ranger, because Rogue-Ranger Multiclasses are generally pretty darn good.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The counterpoint of this is that knowing and aiming for weaknesses and being good at tracking are things actual hunters do.

We could have, "Because I am good at hunting, I can track do more damage to the things that I hunt"

Instead we have.."I'm good at hunting..as long as I have enough magical energy and use the right words/gestures"

From a class fantasy perspective..

Woof.

And what is the weakpoint of the undead stitched-together chimera created by the mad wizard Godendes?

Yes, a normal hunter has Survival and can track. A Ranger has Expertise in Survival and can magically enhance their senses to get advantage on tracking their quarry. A normal hunter knows that you should aim for the heart. A Ranger knows you should aim for the heart, and can magically enhance their senses to know that this creature has a torn ligament on their left side, and so an arrow into their left back leg's socket joint is going to be more debilitating than hitting their right front leg. Also they can see the heart through the fur and muscle, making it easier to hit than just "it is somewhere in that area".

Nothing a regular hunter can do is impossible for a ranger to do. This is like declaring that trained guard who can fight and ignore pain is better than a fighter who can only do that stuff if they have their second wind ability. The fighter has all that stuff AND second wind. They are additive.

 

[Incenjucar]

A ranger could be better at figuring out weak spots in things without hearts, just like a rogue doesn't have to cast a spell to backstab. It is strictly a decision on WotC's part to make rangers into huntress wizards, not any sort of logical outcome.

 

[Gammadoodler]

And what is the weakpoint of the undead stitched-together chimera created by the mad wizard Godendes?

Yes, a normal hunter has Survival and can track. A Ranger has Expertise in Survival and can magically enhance their senses to get advantage on tracking their quarry. A normal hunter knows that you should aim for the heart. A Ranger knows you should aim for the heart, and can magically enhance their senses to know that this creature has a torn ligament on their left side, and so an arrow into their left back leg's socket joint is going to be more debilitating than hitting their right front leg. Also they can see the heart through the fur and muscle, making it easier to hit than just "it is somewhere in that area".

Nothing a regular hunter can do is impossible for a ranger to do. This is like declaring that trained guard who can fight and ignore pain is better than a fighter who can only do that stuff if they have their second wind ability. The fighter has all that stuff AND second wind. They are additive.

Trade "magically enhance" from your post and replace it with "focus"

And you lose nothing. That's the point. The "magic" isn't carrying any weight.

I'm good with all sorts of other magic stuff the ranger can do.

But Hunter's mark, specifically, is dumb magic.

 

[Horwath]

On a positive note, at least Ranger doesn't have 'you can cast Conjure Barrage' as a class feature anymore.

Smell blessings...

I'm actually sad about the loss of Land's Stride. Ignoring difficult terrain wasn't much as a lv8 feature, but surely that is exactly something that suits a skirmisher running around wilderness?

that should be level 2 or max 3 for ranger