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.

 

[Minigiant]

You are not only able to but encouraged to flavor your spells as you see fit. Hunters Mark uses divination to help my ranger to find weak spots.

I am fine about rangers having spells because you can flavor most in got of all of their spells as enhanced skill tricks, potions, alchemical arrows, traps and things like that.

You can reflavor it all you what.

But you can't state that base interpretation of Hunter's Mark which is described and acts like a mark is somehow not a mark but just focusing and thus could be nonmagical.

Even if it helps you target weak spots,it still is a mystical highlight in order for the skill bonus to make sense.

 

[Stalker0]

I don't mind that WOTC wanted the ranger to have spells, but there was an option to have your cake and eat it too.

First, make hunter's mark mundane. Then work in a feature similar to smite (and I mean 2014 less spell-casty smite) or even wildshape....aka something that converts spells into X effect. This way a ranger that doesn't want to focus on magic can just convert their slots and move on with their day, and rangers that want to eek out all of the spell loving goodness can do so.... win win.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Nobody said "Chaosmancer's opinions on rangers make them a bad person". Are you the person who developed the ranger as a magic user? If so, I wish you hadn't.

Sure, no one said that. But I haven't really been able to discuss anything about the new ranger OTHER than whether or not it should have magical abilities for the past few days, now have I? In EITHER ranger thread.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I was thinking of stealing from rich people, but there are many situations where one could argue you should just use magic. If that's so, why bother with not-magic at all?

Because learning magic is a skill, and not everyone learns the same skills.

 

[Incenjucar]

Sure, no one said that. But I haven't really been able to discuss anything about the new ranger OTHER than whether or not it should have magical abilities for the past few days, now have I? In EITHER ranger thread.

I assure you that I will not stop you! Pinkie swear.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Okay... maybe Hunter's Marl isn't aiming for weak points. That is just one possibility that a fellow player in one of my games is using, that I thought was pretty cool. Maybe instead Hunter's Mark is like one of my other examples, and it is an explosion of force damage on the point of impact. Now it has nothing to do with aiming, so it should be fine, right?

Maybe you could. My question would, once again, be, "why is this necessary".

How does the ability to trigger little explosions of force serve or reinforce the class fantasy of the grizzled warrior of the woods?

I can draw a pretty straight line from experience in hunting creatures to knowing their weak spots to doing additional damage to those creatures.

What is the narrative line that goes from experience in hunting creatures to spellcasting to causing tiny force explosions as long as I hit a marked target with my weapon strikes?

It just seems, to me, like spellcasting for its own sake. And spellcasting that interferes with the class fantasy rather than supporting it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because learning magic is a skill, and not everyone learns the same skills.

But if magic is superior, why doesn't everyone learn it?

 

[Minigiant]

I don't mind that WOTC wanted the ranger to have spells, but there was an option to have your cake and eat it too.

First, make hunter's mark mundane. Then work in a feature similar to smite (and I mean 2014 less spell-casty smite) or even wildshape....aka something that converts spells into X effect. This way a ranger that doesn't want to focus on magic can just convert their slots and move on with their day, and rangers that want to eek out all of the spell loving goodness can do so.... win win.

I don't think Hunters Mark make sense as Mundane unless you dash to the border of the supernatural and accept it might be reality warping.

Or you heavily go into technical details

 

[Xeviat]

2. Hunter's mark, as above, plus Concentration?? Really? We are still doing this?
Let's give core class feature to the class, but that feature prevents bunch of other possible features(spells) to work together with it. And let's give it extra free usages so we make sure that other features are not being used.

how about we steal a good idea from SW5E?

Star Wars 5e

sw5e.com

Spoiler: Ranger's quarry

Ranger's quarry;
Scout: 1st, 5th, 9th, and 17th level
You learn how to effectively read and track your prey. Once on each of your turns, you can choose a creature you can see within 120 feet and mark it as your quarry (no action required). For the next hour, you gain the following benefits:

• Once per turn, when you hit the target with a weapon attack, you can deal 1d4 additional damage to it of the same type as the weapon’s damage. This die changes as you gain scout levels, as shown in the Ranger’s Quarry column of the scout table.
• You have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it while it’s on the same planet as you.

You can only have one creature marked in this way at a time. Beginning at 5th level, you can use your reaction to mark a creature when it enters your line of sight, provided it is within range of your Ranger’s Quarry.
The duration increases to 8 hours at 9th level and 24 hours at 17th level.

I really like this.

I just went and crunched some minor numbers, comparing a TWFing rogue to a TWFing ranger, not using hunters mark and assuming the 11th level subclass features are gonna be comparable to getting a 3rd attack.

The ranger is solidly behind the rogue at every level, and that's without working in all the other little tools rogues have to boost damage other than just using sneak attack (the rogue's damage is very consistent because attacking twice basically gives advantage on landing that sneak attack). So they do need their spell power to give them more oomph. The trouble with Hunter's Mark being that is that it's hard to see it and quantify it like Smite.

If smite hits for +2d8 damage, then 1d6 hunters mark has to hit 3 times to even out. Past that it's better. It gets better as you get extra attack too. It, like hex, is hard to balance.

Once per round like the UA playtest would actually work better in my mind. But if it's supposed to be their class ability, it shouldn't have concentration. No concentration, hitting only once per round, would be the same as taking a level of rogue for sneak attack, and that's not bad.

 

[Chaosmancer]

But if magic is superior, why doesn't everyone learn it?

If magic wasn't useful, why would anyone bother to learn it?