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.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Do you really think there are people who require a ton of explanation for why a great hunter (the ranger class fantasy), should be able to be great at normal hunting activities, without needing to memorize a spell?

They can. Shock and horror! Turn out normal hunting activities are not actually that hard for a DnD character to pull off.

Let us remember, the DC for going into the forest and getting food and water is 10. A ranger with proficiency in Survival is likely looking at a +5. That is an 80% hunting success rate. Using this list here from Wikipedia Hunting success - Wikipedia that makes them better than MOST PREDATORS. Wolves have a success rate of 20%, leopards have a rate of 38%. Jump down in the article to the section talking about humans, and you see this little gem "Hunters who hunted with bows and arrows had a hunting success of only 5%" So, a ranger, is doing SIXTEEN TIMES BETTER than modern day hunters with modern day bows and arrows.

This is without expertise which they get at level 2. This is without spells which they get at level 1.

A ranger hunting a deer with a bow? Deer have 4 hp. They can sink a shot and kill a deer with a single arrow. Consistently. Without magic!

But when you want to kill a Wyvern, a deadlier predator than just about anything on the planet Earth? Turns out a little magic is helpful in hunting those. Shouldn't really be surprising, since most humans don't use a bow and arrow to hunt tigers or bears either.

Ranger's don't need magic to hunt normal animals and track people. They use magic to hunt monsters and be BETTER at tracking than normal.

 

[Incenjucar]

This is an argument that fighters and rogues should be spellcasters.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Knights like fighters?

Hmmm... so would a non-magical hunter be... a fighter? And a magical version of that.... could be.... a ranger!

 

[Incenjucar]

Hmmm... so would a non-magical hunter be... a fighter? And a magical version of that.... could be.... a ranger!

A rogue could be a fighter.

 

[Chaosmancer]

i think i mentioned something similar earlier but i think it would be better if the damage portion of HM was removed from it and let it focus on being a utility spell, replace the damage by adding a damage boosting spell like arcane weapon to ranger's spells but i'd rather a HM like:

HUNTER'S MARK
-1 bonus action
-self
-V
-1 hour, (no concentration)

You choose a creature you can see or name and mystically mark it as your quarry. Until the spell ends you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it, you become aware of [basically the generic statblock], information on unique creatures may be incomplete.
upcasting increases duration.

this gives it strong thematic purpose without cornering players into a long duration concentration spell or feeling like they're wasting significant resources by not using it.

The name part might make it worthwhile, but the problem with the tracking part has always been... how often do enemies run away? And how often can you find them in less than an hour?

I also generally don't find the statblock information useful. HP total is about the only thing you generally can't figure out and can be tactically useful, everything else is a struggle to actually do anything with mid-fight.

So, overall, I think this change would relegate the spell to being rarely if ever prepared. Most of the time, it won't do anything.

 

[Chaosmancer]

A rogue could be a fighter.

Sure, so could the monk and the barbarian.

But we tend to give them other abilities. Something about a class fantasy, instead of just saying that them having those extra abilities is insulting to the archetype they are representing.

 

[Incenjucar]

Sure, so could the monk and the barbarian.

But we tend to give them other abilities. Something about a class fantasy, instead of just saying that them having those extra abilities is insulting to the archetype they are representing.

Gonna just let the irony sit there.

 

[CreamCloud0]

The name part might make it worthwhile, but the problem with the tracking part has always been... how often do enemies run away? And how often can you find them in less than an hour?

I also generally don't find the statblock information useful. HP total is about the only thing you generally can't figure out and can be tactically useful, everything else is a struggle to actually do anything with mid-fight.

So, overall, I think this change would relegate the spell to being rarely if ever prepared. Most of the time, it won't do anything.

i'm looking at the spell from the perspective of something the class will be giving you free castings of, it might not be something you typically pick but it's nothing you'll complain about having,

an hour might not always be enough to track something down but it'll manage to give you a good headstart or pinpoint the exact location near the end, plus there's always the option of upcasting(maybe being able to expend multiple of your free uses to upcast without wasting slots), and a quick way to identify potential weaknesses, resistances or abilities you might want to prepare for.

 

[Horwath]

Some charops types complained how it was basically free damage without concentration, there was no penalty to using it or having it up constantly. This was the second time WotC tried this (remember that favored foe in Tasha was also concentration free in the UA and uses concentration in Tasha) and I believe it was for the same reason; it was stacking with other concentration buff spells and basically has no cost to use.

I will not agree or disagree with that analysis; I didn't crunch the math and my knowledge of it is second hand at best. I do know that WotC did try twice with a concentrate-free bonus damage ability and twice they backed off of it. I'm not sure why they keep getting cold feet about it, but apparently there is enough internal or playtest feedback that keeps putting it back.

true.

however, they backed off from concentration-less HM in Tasha's.but they did give us Twilight cleric in the same book and that was not overpowered to them.

They lost me there that they are even remotely competent to do even basic math.

Good ideas for design, but they need to outsource they math department

 

[jmartkdr2]

i think i mentioned something similar earlier but i think it would be better if the damage portion of HM was removed from it and let it focus on being a utility spell, replace the damage by adding a damage boosting spell like arcane weapon to ranger's spells but i'd rather a HM like:

HUNTER'S MARK
-1 bonus action
-self
-V
-1 hour, (no concentration)

You choose a creature you can see or name and mystically mark it as your quarry. Until the spell ends you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it, you become aware of [basically the generic statblock], information on unique creatures may be incomplete.
upcasting increases duration.

this gives it strong thematic purpose without cornering players into a long duration concentration spell or feeling like they're wasting significant resources by not using it.

If you go this route, it also opens up the option of letting subclasses build on it. IE the Hunter/ Monster Slayer conclave should get damage boosts to the marked target, but a Gloomstalker might instead get the ability to track the mark through dungeons more effectively, etc.