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.

 

[mellored]

Here's hoping you are right about the other legacy Ranger concentration spells..

Because, otherwise, it would be different than what has happened for the last 10 years..since one spell would be carrying along your class and subclass features, and the other would not.

Demonstrably and obviously different. Enough so, that I'm curious where your conclusion even came from, and wondering if there was something I misread.

What exactly do you think was removed?

One subclass feature uses hunters mark. And it replaces a feature that was rarely used and often a trap.

 

[Minigiant]

does this mean you'll be willing to give my dex character a d12 finesse weapon? because 'finesse isn't actually all that great'

I've been okay with a two handed finesse war-chain that deal 2d4 damage I allow.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I got behind on this thread and can't catch up. Is anyone kind enough to summarize what the complaints about this new version is? In a nutshell?

 

[mellored]

I got behind on this thread and can't catch up. Is anyone kind enough to summarize what the complaints about this new version is? In a nutshell?

People who want a spell-less ranger don't like hunters mark being buffed, as it makes them use a spell more. (See divine smite for similar complaints)

Other people wanted hunters mark buffed even more, in particular not having concentration.

The capstone is boring, and your better off mutli-classing rogue 1.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I got behind on this thread and can't catch up. Is anyone kind enough to summarize what the complaints about this new version is? In a nutshell?

Boring. It's Tasha Ranger, which was an alright stopgap, but they treated it as the (totally new!) final destination.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I got behind on this thread and can't catch up. Is anyone kind enough to summarize what the complaints about this new version is? In a nutshell?

centralisation and over-dedication around the incredibly mediocre hunters mark and the concentration it requires. and the features you'll be wasting if you don't want to base your character around using it.

 

[Minigiant]

I got behind on this thread and can't catch up. Is anyone kind enough to summarize what the complaints about this new version is? In a nutshell?

Not to repeat everything Everyone else has said.

Basically

The Ranger was originally the class WOTC focused on to work on early and it got updated in Tasha's cauldron of everything.

Because of this when they started updating classes for 2024, A lot of the updating process was already done for the Ranger.

And because they were kind of running out of time in updating classes, the 2024 Ranger is extremely similar to the Tasha's cauldron of everything Ranger.

Because of this Ranger stuck out compared to other classes when it came to the playtest and update process.

This had many effects on the community depending on your opinion of the Ranger

For people who want to spell-less, Rangers this upset them as the TCOE was more spell focused to limit page space.

For people who wanted less focus on Hunter's Mark, This upset them because this update tailored the entire class around Hunter's Mark.

For people who wanted more focus on Hunter's Mark, this upset them because Hunters Mark was boosted by class features but not in a overwhelming large amount.

For people who wanted to see more change this upset a dumb because the Ranger already went through an update and Watson did not put a lot of effort into reevaluating the entire class heavily again since they already did it once and lacked time to do again.

For people who just wanted a strong Ranger, they love this.

For people who love to Tasha's Ranger, they love this.

For people who wanted a ranger that they could not accidentally screw up or that the DM do via lack of cooperation could not screw over, they love this

So this.

Also 95% of fans thought the 14 Ranger capstone with bad and they think that the 24 capstone is still bad.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Thanks, gang! I think I'm sympathetic to the complaint regarding the over-use of Hunter's Mark - an alternative (or three) to that go-to spell would be nice to see. I'd like a spell-less ranger, myself, but I'm not overly stuck on that idea. I can see it not being very exciting for some, and again, I sympathize.

Overall, I think the goal was to give us a Ranger that was better than the 2014 one, without being too crazy-new, and I think that they probably delivered that. I guess we'll see when people get to play it.

 

[Minigiant]

centralisation and over-dedication around the incredibly mediocre hunters mark and the concentration it requires. and the features you'll be wasting if you don't want to base your character around using it.

Frankly I think the complaints about Hunters Mark is a red herring.

1) If WOTC gave Concentration less HM, people would simply shift to complaining about having to wait until level 13, 17, or 20.

2) Ranger is the Trope Example of "Not being able to even use one of your class features". Since 0e.

3) Despite online rage over Hunters Mark focus, the is little consensus of what the focus of a ranger should be over 20 except for a Hunters Mark like feature and maybe a Speak with Animals like feature.

To me, if TCOE never happened or have similar focus on ranger as other classes, many people would 100% call this the best ranger in fantasy TTRPGs.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

if TCOE never happened, many people would 100% call this the best ranger in fantasy TTRPGs.

This rings true. Tasha works so much better than 2014 Ranger, but that was 4 years ago.