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.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm not a huge fan of being able to switch features on a rest - mainly because I create character sheets that have everything that you can do listed in detail, and that sounds like a lot of extra clutter when you can't use it. OTOH, I've always been pretty liberal with allowing players to rebuild characters when they want to do something different, so I've never really needed them to allow switch-outs.

Otherewise, I like most of this.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I've played Tasha Ranger, and it's efficient, but boring and restrictive. At least you can switch spells/Hunter options for the day now, so that is a bit like prepping.

You can finally actually be a TWF Ranger (as Nick leaves your bonus action open for the stupid Hunter's Mark). With the fighting styles getting opened up, if you want any interesting weapon mastery options, you should be a Strength Ranger.

If Hunter's Mark is going to be the Ranger Thing, as a class without Con save proficiency, they cannot afford to wait until lv13 to have Hunter's Mark not break concentration. But you know who gets Con proficiency and a better skill buff and can have that exact same Hunter's Mark with a 1-level dip? A Fighter.

 

[Kurotowa]

I am a little discouraged that Beast Master still has the problem where your pet can trigger Hunter's Mark, but from the sound of it both applying Hunter's Mark and having your pet attack are still Bonus Actions. Now maybe that's an intentional balance consideration, but it's still annoying.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not a big fan of the Hunters splash damage.

To me the Hunter was the martial option that does all plausible martial stuff and let you pick subtler spells as a Warrior with wilderness tricks.

Martial option for rangers seems to have been pretty much squeezed out.

 

[Gambit42]

The Tashas features are fine, I have no problem with them replacing the 5E base class features, except they moved Natures Veil from 10th to 14th and completely took away Vanish and Lands Stride, which were both flavorful and in the case of Lands Stride was a situational yet classic ranger ability.

But most importantly, all they had to do was rework Hunters Mark into not being a spell, not requiring concentration, and applying upon a successful attack. Doing that, along with the Tashas changes, giving some brand new abilities that didn't already exist in some form or fashion (of which there are basically none), and giving them the same prepared style spellcasting of Paladins, would have "fixed" the ranger.

All in all, this is quite a letdown for the 5E class they admit was rated as "most dissatisfying".

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

A lot of things depend, again, on if they're changing the spells. Ranger gets hamstrung by every single spell being concentration / bonus action, and now they're making sure those are already double-parked, by putting Hunter's Mark on everyone.

At least the new weapon-juggling rules help with getting some Somatic component spells out. I just feel like giving Ranger's unique spellcasting out at lv1, a level no pure class would spend any length of time at, is just an intentional buff to multiclass dips, and the post-lv1 features just aren't that impressive.

 

[Minigiant]

I've played Tasha Ranger, and it's efficient, but boring and restrictive. At least you can switch spells/Hunter options for the day now, so that is a bit like prepping.

Martial option for rangers seems to have been pretty much squeezed out.

WOTC along with most of the other big RPG designers have shown that they suck at providing both power and flavor.

So if your class or race is defined by drawing power from flavor like the Ranger, they give you underpowered flavorful classes/races or overturned efficient but bland classes/races.

TTRPGs needs a new crop of mindsets in the hobby.

 

[fuindordm]

If I squint I can imagine Hunter's Mark as a mumdane class ability, since it's always prepared and diesn't use spell slots the first X times

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm not a huge fan of being able to switch features on a rest - mainly because I create character sheets that have everything that you can do listed in detail, and that sounds like a lot of extra clutter when you can't use it. OTOH, I've always been pretty liberal with allowing players to rebuild characters when they want to do something different, so I've never really needed them to allow switch-outs.

Otherewise, I like most of this.

First to say:
They are intentionally doing this so having printed sheets are less useful. So everyone will have to switch to dndbeyond. Shame on you WotC.

Did I do it right?

 

[Parmandur]

First to say:
They are intentionally doing this so having printed sheets are less useful. So everyone will have to switch to dndbeyond. Shame on you WotC.

Did I do it right?

Or use pencil.