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]

Larger. 1d6 or 1d8 damage due to match the disadvantage of strength.

A war sickle or war club.

Like the Aztec club-sword

Well, you are never going to get a d8 Light weapon.

 

[mellored]

The ranger has a strong identity.

Which is?

 

[CreamCloud0]

Breadth is best covered by letting the player pick from a (spell) list.

And now you don't have to worry about casting Animal Friendship, since you still have Hunters Mark.

making all their variable class features take the form of spells is the worst outcome, there are tons of ways to express their design that do not need to take the form of spellcasting, and ways to express their design that can't take the form of spellcasting.

you don't need to figure out the right amount of uses of spider climb to give the ranger when they can just have a climb speed as a build option.

 

[Rocker26a]

Not losing concentration is basically giving you even more hunters marks enough that you should never need to use a spell slot on it.
A few more Zephyr Strikes, or Animals Friendships

Not untrue, but also they could've just made it flatly non-concentration at the baseline and I wouldn't have even blinked.

Always having advantage is a very good feature.

It is! But the fact that it's another feature that only does something for Hunter's Mark, without being actually a part of the feature that grants Hunter's Mark, irks me.

I completely agree with the capstone is crap. Crapstone.

That's a good one! Unlike the feature!
(But yeah honestly how could they think that was worth hanging on for.)

Enhance Ability is effectively a flexible expertise.

If you like, sure, but. That doesn't negate that two languages aren't equivalent to an Expertise in 90% of games, and probably aren't as strong an association with the Ranger's theming either, nevermind that it seems a bit weird to grant languages as a base class feature in the first place.
They could also just have actual Expertise, and access to Enhance Ability.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

They could also just have actual Expertise, and access to Enhance Ability.

Like Bards!

If only they'd kept the Arcane/Divine/Primal spell split. Bard making for a better Ranger would've been funny.

 

[Rocker26a]

making all their variable class features take the form of spells is the worst outcome, there are tons of ways to express their design that do not need to take the form of spellcasting, and ways to express their design that can't take the form of spellcasting.

you don't need to figure out the right amount of uses of spider climb to give the ranger when they can just have a climb speed as a build option.

Yeah, honestly. I don't even think it'd be that foreign a notion to them, they've had their fingers on that pulse in previous renditions, and even in this one for some of it. Roving genuinely is/was a good start with that logic. They could just do with expanding that general principle, and not granting the basic things so late on the levelling table.

 

[James Gasik]

I'm not sure the Ranger has a strong identity, I mean, is the Ranger:

Tarzan, Lord Greystoke?

Aragorn son of Arathorn?

Daniel Boone, King of the Wild Frontier?

Drizz't Do'Urden?

Robin Hood?

Simo Häyhä, The White Death?

A Druidic or Fey Knight, a counterpart to the Paladin?

What features do we want them to have? Dual-wielding? Archery? Peerless tracking? Camouflage? Trap and snare making? Herbalism? The ability to live off the land indefinitely? Monster Hunting? Animal Taming? Beast speaking? Terrain mastery? Fast movement? Ignoring difficult terrain and natural hazards? Ignoring exhaustion and extreme weather? Learning combat abilities from beasts? Are they aligned with Druids or Nature priests? Do they gain powers and boons from sylvan creatures and the fey? Shapeshifting (either as a Druid or something as transformative as turning into a Treant, like 2e's Limbant Ranger?). Do they have climbing and swim speeds? Can they call upon primal spirits, conjure and call protectors of the forests?

There's a lot of different things that's been thrown into this nebulous category we call "Ranger".

 

[mellored]

and ways to express their design that can't take the form of spellcasting.

I'm having a hard time imaging anything that can't be a spell. Since spells can litterally do anything.

Multi-Attack and Sneak Attack could be cantrips.

But I would also be very sad if they made a warlord a half caster. So I get wanting ranger to use skills over spells.

Unfortunately, it's a bit late to remove their spell casting. So that's where this list of features are being put.

 

[Corinnguard]

Well, you are never going to get a d8 Light weapon.

Unless someone decides to homebrew one and your DM allows it.

 

[Rocker26a]

What features do we want them to have?

I mean, generally speaking, yeah probably most of those listed. Though some of them I'd take as a given, you probably don't actually need to specify things like the ability to dual wield or use a bow and arrow.
And a decent few of those are definitely traits that some of those characters share. Can't speak for all of them, but.

Drizz't Do'Urden?

(As a sidenote from a non-Forgotten Realms fan; It's kinda funny that that guy's been folded into the class identity somewhat, doesn't he usually have majority Fighter levels? Think I remember hearing that recently.)