D&D General What is appropriate Ranger Magic

[CreamCloud0]

my apologies for getting crushed by homophones again.

Huh?

 

[Minigiant]

The problem with the 2014 ranger (haven't read the 2024 ranger yet) was, that all his abilities were rendered mood because wilderness exploration was not well supported by the rules.

No.

It's not that wilderness exploration was not well supported.

It's that wilderness exploration is always supported is low level/tier.

Look at the example given:

The Ranger from Level Up is closer to being the outdoor survival and tracking expert IMO.

The A5e ranger can be

• trackless at level 10,
• create a shelter at level 12,
• create fire at level 18,
• move faster and avoid difficult terrain at level 18,
• gain resistance at level 19
• summon an element or animals at level 20,

It's low level Tier 1 stuff stretch over 20 levels.

The crux of the problem is People ask for wilderness exploration abilities for the Ranger but really our people clear about what these abilities are. So what is usually only given are low level abilities that quickly become outpaced by magic or money.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ranger magic is highly divisive. And I believe the issues D&D and D&D like game has with rangers is that it draws so broadly from ideas of what a ranger could be that designers cannot condense down the many ideas into one cohesive idea nor do some fans what some ideas to be in the ranger.

So I am polling a list of magical effects descriptions and asking you all to choice which you would consider to be a Ranger Base class spell. As if WOTC, ENP, or any other publishers were to create a list of new spells to add to the Ranger expanded list. These are not subclass spells or spell with special class requires. I am interested on how fans see ranger magic.

Some spells are inspired by characters of media that are given as examples of rangers. Others are out there to stretch the limits. Some stretch to druid or wizard territory. Some are inspired by effects and spells from other media

Which do you see as ranger spells?


Autumn Blades

The ranger dissolves their weapon into a cloud of leaves which rush at an opponent to slash them hundreds of times.

Beastmeld

The ranger touches a beast no larger that one size larger than them and gains one action, reaction, or trait of the beast. The ranger uses their own ability score and proficiency for all tests and DCs.


Blade Cascade

The ranger, heightened by a sudden rush of vigor and anger, attacks a target over and over until they miss.


Blade Thirst

The ranger transfers magic into a slashing weapon giving it a +3 bonus and a glow of a blue flame


Bloodhounds

The ranger summons a pack of hounds, lizards, or other pack animals from another plane to follow the scent of a creature over long distance and after a long period of time. They do not attack the creature but make a loud ruckus that the ranger can follow.


Exploding Arrow

The ranger enchants their arrow with fire magic which causes it to violently explode up on striking their target


Giant Axe

The ranger enchants a hand axe and throws it. Once flung, the axe increases in size to that of giant of larger size.


Greenwood Limb

The ranger grows a limb of wood and plantlife from their chest. The wooden limb acts as another arm and can be used to make attacks or hold a shield.


Heatsight

The ranger can close their eyes and see heat when they reopen them. This also them to see objects that are invisible, or hidden behind stone or metal barriers. Extremely cold or hot items provide cover while the ranger is seeing this way


Implacable Pursuer

The ranger target a quarry and always knows where their quarry is, as long as it's moving. Whenever they move, the ranger knows.


Long Grasp

The ranger extends their reach with vines or ropes to make grapples and unarmed strikes from far away.


Othrus

The ranger transforms into a large hound with two fanged heads.


Sense Fear
The ranger telepathically enters their prey's mind, leaning how afraid they are and how to Intimidate them.


Steelskin

The ranger touches their skin and it turns into flexible steel. Their Armor Classes increases and they become immune to critical hits.


Strength of the Beast

The ranger touches a piece of hide and grants the might, speed, or toughness of the beast as they turn into a lycanthrope. They can shift between a humaniod, wolf, or hybrid wolfman form.


Umbral Escape

The ranger coats themselves in the black from the Shadowfell granting them a bonus to Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth.


Wildtalk

The ranger can touch a beast and as long as they remain in contact, the beast can speak and understand any language the ranger can.


Wooden Escape

The ranger, when hit by an attack, replaces themselves with plantlife from the Feywild. This causes the attack to miss.

I vastly prefer rangers not having spells in the base class and instead moving that to a specific subclass (or subclasses if sufficiently distinct from each other thematically). Incidentally, that's exactly how Level Up does it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

For those of you who believe that the Rangers should not have magic spells by default, what by default should a Ranger have that differentiates them from a fighter or a rogue?

Special abilities focusing on exploration and nature.

 

[Minigiant]

Special abilities focusing on exploration and nature.

Like what?

 

[Micah Sweet]

But seriously when it comes to the noncasting ranger, There is always a host of abilities that people vaguely describe that the ranger class would have. However when it comes down to describing the specific abilities they describe The theme sort of class features that people complain about that is either too strong or too weak and thus no one ever agrees to what they are. Or they just simply suggest boost in skills and make the core chassis of the Ranger just in alternate version of either the fighter or rogue with part of the fighter approach carved and given to the Ranger.

Many versions of non-spell casting Rangers that I've seen published or suggested typically are characters who have a fighter chassis and some woodcraft skills that are irrelevant past level four or so instead scaling with either a damage and or skill bonus.

The spellcasting Ranger does not have this problem. Dispel casting ranger is assumed to have magic by default and assume to have some level of unbelievable ability so it is just a gauge of how much the class break the base reality. Either having a slight reality warfare or a heavy reality warper.

And this is kind of the point of the threat. You see how far and deep in to the theme the Ranger is allowed to dive into. And to see where the limit of their supernatural sense is declared by the community.

What is a level 5 Ranger class feature? A level 10 Ranger class feature? A level 20 ranger class feature? Does Ranger Magic include just beast and plants? What about rocks? What about steel? What about man made technology? Can Rangers be powered by fey magic? Wizard? Shadow Magic? Demon Magic?

As I've said, Level Up provides many examples of specific abilities.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Like what?

See poat above.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's because non-magical discrete abilities were taken from us.

In WotC's version of 5e that seems to be true, yes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A ranger in my mind is an outdoor survival and tracking expert. He knows his (favourite) terrain. So abilities in this regard.
Additionally, she/he is very goodnight Bows.
Fighting abilities more akin to monks instead of fighters.

They should be able to commune with the nature, but not in a wizard or cleric spellcasting kind of way, more like ritual/channel divinity kind if way.
So ask the spirits if the forest where to find prey, ask the spirits of the desert where water could be find and so on.

The problem with the 2014 ranger (haven't read the 2024 ranger yet) was, that all his abilities were rendered mood because wilderness exploration was not well supported by the rules.

Absolutely. A good non-spellcasting ranger needs to interact with a robust exploration rules module, something unavailable in WotC 5e.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

You could just take the features on the scout and bolt them on the ranger and remove its spells.

And Hell, give them Hunters Quary that works like Sneak Attack, like an increasing number of d8 against a marked foe as long as you dont have disadvantage against it and it has less than 100% of its HP.