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]

There is a cost. As I said: you have a useless free offhand.

you can always dual wield after dropping a bow

 

[Chaosmancer]

and why is this wrong?

I do not hate dex builds, I like them.
However, I do realize that that flexibility should come at a cost. Cost is less melee damage of STR.

Because you are trying to resolve the problem from the wrong direction. You are trying to say that the baseline for a 1-handed weapon should be a d10, because you've removed all properties. And this is some attempt to balance strength and dexterity.

But to balance strength and dexterity, you need to make strength better OUTSIDE combat, not by making strength using 1-handed weapons superior and two-handed weapons superior.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

you can always dual wield after dropping a bow

Not with rapier. Which is why I say, 1d8 rapier is more than ok.

 

[Horwath]

Solution:
Martial with Nature Invocations.

And those invocations can include spells or spell-like abilities, always on speak with Animals, herbal healing, scouting pet, combat pet, and whatever else.

Not officially happening for 5.24, but would fit 6e just fine or a homebrew.

hmmm

drop spellcasting.
add 5 extra invocation slots over warlock for 5 spell levels lost. maybe 6 for cantrips lost.
that is 14 invocations over 20 levels.

when you pick a spell you can cast it once per long rest without components.

 

[Horwath]

Because you are trying to resolve the problem from the wrong direction. You are trying to say that the baseline for a 1-handed weapon should be a d10, because you've removed all properties. And this is some attempt to balance strength and dexterity.

But to balance strength and dexterity, you need to make strength better OUTSIDE combat, not by making strength using 1-handed weapons superior and two-handed weapons superior.

STR better for melee(in all weapon configurations)
DEX better for ranged

it's simple.

 

[CreamCloud0]

And I think that is silly, because giving specific weapons to specific classes as a balance will never work and is a pain in the butt. Also, yeah, you could have more weapons, but most groups don't even use the ones we have, adding three dozen more isn't going to make the game better. I tried that.

but weapon access is already used to balance specific classes, it's just used in an incredibly simple fashion with little nuance, a cleric only has simple weapons, a paladin has martial ones.

and my point about adding weapons is less about balance and more about customisation, IMO there are some weird gaping holes in the weapon table as it exists,

 

[Rocker26a]

Who claimed that the Ranger was supposed to get two expertise there?

I don't know about supposed to, but I would (and did) argue that just giving them the standard Expertise treatment, two at an earlier level, two at a later level, makes the most sense.

they do make sense thematically for the Ranger, who is the ultimate traveler.

A Ranger is/ought to be the ultimate traveler. They are not, however, a holiday maker. They don't roam the world to get to know the locals necessarily. Their work does not strictly involve immersing themselves in other cultures. Not to say that they definitely wouldn't, but it's not such a part of the Ranger identity to stick it on the levelling table.
More than that, I just find it very bizarre to grant languages via the base class in general. Subclasses based around particular things, fine. "you're a fey pact warlock, you are imparted knowledge of the sylvan language if you didn't have it already", that makes sense. How can that work for a base class?
It feels very "extra hour in the ballpit" in terms of things on the levelling table. It seems like they didn't want to grant Expertise as normal, perhaps because they were terrified of them sharing space with the Rogue and/or Bard, so they thought "what low value thing can we swap the 2nd Expertise out for".

 

[Horwath]

but weapon access is already used to balance specific classes, it's just used in an incredibly simple fashion with little nuance, a cleric only has simple weapons, a paladin has martial ones.

and my point about adding weapons is less about balance and more about customisation, IMO there are some weird gaping holes in the weapon table as it exists,

with addition of weapon masteries, maybe we could have dropped the martial/simple weapon split.

everyone has proficiency with all weapons and that is it.

then things like masteries, fighting styles, attack rides, feat choice, basic investment in STR or DEX, maneuvers, can tell the difference between martial and non-martial characters.

 

[mellored]

hmmm

drop spellcasting.
add 5 extra invocation slots over warlock for 5 spell levels lost. maybe 6 for cantrips lost.
that is 14 invocations over 20 levels.

Something like that. Depending on if expertise and Roving are core features instead of options, and what the subclass look like.

Also warlocks do need to spend at least one to get weapon level damage.

when you pick a spell you can cast it once per long rest without components.

Depends on the spell, and level.

Zephyr Stike and Ensnaring Stike could probably be once per short rest. Or maybe once per battle.

Detect Posion and Disease, Longstrider, Jump, and Alarm can probably be passives.

Snare might require level 5, be at-will, and limited to 1 snare at a time.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

STR better for melee(in all weapon configurations)
DEX better for ranged

it's simple.

And that is already mostly true.