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]

Simple Spell-less Hunter's Mark:

Hunter's Focus
You have advantage on all Wisdom (Perception) and Wisdom (Survival) to find targets.

As a bonus action, you may get +1d6 damage on all attacks until the start of your next turn.


Simple, works all the time, but creates a drain on your bonus action if you want to use it constantly. And gives them a super bonus to track....because their freakin rangers just let them track for pete's sake.

Or have it deal damage only once per turn and not drain Bonus action every turn. and it lasts until you take a long rest.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Hunter's Mark's ability to deal damage and improve tracking is non-magical in the same way enhance ability to improve all your wisdom skill checks is non-magical.... because you keep saying it is so. Why is Owl's Wisdom or Eagle's Splendor giving advantage to skill checks magical, but Hunter's Mark giving advantage to perception and survival non-magical? They are doing the exact same thing, mechanically

Ennh.. sorta..

I'd be more inclined to agree if you couldn't cast "Enhance Ability" on others.

If you could only cast it on yourself, then, yes, I would question its need to be a spell too

 

[Gammadoodler]

By your argument "normal hunting activities" would include killing anything in the world, from an Ancient Dragon to the Demon Prince of Undeath. I don't consider those things "normal hunting activities".

And, part of this is because people keep saying the Ranger is failing at things "any normal hunter" could do. So that is where my focus is. People seem to think that the Ranger is somehow less of a hunter than their uncle bob who goes out on deer season and catches an 8-point buck. That they are lacking in actual hunting skills. But they aren't.

Sure, a wyvern bleeds, so it can die. But it is going to be incredibly hard for a level 5 ranger to take it out with just a bow and arrow. They would be doing about 8.5 damage per hit, so we'll say 17 damage a round. Meaning they need seven rounds of combat to win. They likely have about 44 hp, meaning they will survive... one full round of attacks from the Wyvern, who can deal 46 damage in a single turn. The wyvern also has a fly speed of 80, making them much much faster than the Ranger.

How does magic help? Protection from Poison halves the Wyvern's poison damage, and makes them far more likely to succeed on the saving throw, halving it again. Now the Wyvern is only likely to do 28 damage in a single round. We've doubled the chances for the Ranger to survive with that alone. Summon Beast can get a flying companion to harrass the Wyvern, and buy the ranger another round of attacks, while also dealing damage and reducing the time the Ranger needs to win. Fog Cloud can help hide them if the Wyvern is dive bombing them, without having to use their action to hide, buying them more turns, and potentially allowing them to heal with Cure Wounds and survive another round. And if the enemy is weakened enough, then Hunter's Mark can be used to try and burn them down in a final rush to the finish line.

So, with magic I just took this from "not going to happen" to "maybe... maybe they could pull this off..."

Sigh...

So..I say I'm good with magic stuff outside of Hunters Mark.. repeatedly..

And you defend Hunter's Mark. BC exotic creatures require exotic solutions..or something..with no more justification than that.

And when I mention that you haven't made the case for the exotic solution we've been talking about...

You shotgun the effects of a bunch of obviously magical stuff, which I've already said I'm good with, with reasonably well-reasoned justifications for the usefulness of each..

Until we get back to Hunters Mark (the spell that I actually have a problem with)..
..where you again fail to make a case for how it's magical..
..or what it does that's any different from a 'focused attack'
..or what narrative aspect of the wyvern drives a need for whatever magic that Hunters Mark is bringing to the table.

Edit: Note that this conversation thus far has been in narrative terms and about what mechanics could be. Talking in terms of current settled mechanics kinda misses the point in two different ways.

 

[Minigiant]

Personally I'd like like there was a non-magical Rangers Mark. It's special paint that only Rangers are trained to see. It's literally would be a mark.

Then the Hunters Mark spell magically places a Ranger's Mark and enhances it with magic. And it allows you can move it with a bonus action.

 

[Staffan]

it's not designed to track fleeing enemies even though it can be used for that, it's for locating them in the first place, if you're using this spell in battle you've either waited way too late to cast it or you didn't know you were going to fight whatever you're facing, this is a divination spell, use it like one, if your team is a ranger, rogue, fighter paladin what were the chances you were going to be able to hit it's weaknesses even if you could prepare?

It might be changed in 2024, but the 2014 version of hunter's mark says "You choose a creature you can see within range and mystically mark it as your quarry." So it's not so good for an Aragorn pursuing orc kidnappers situation, but definitely more of a "things are about to get real" spell.

I imagine that with vulnerability being so extreme in 5E they can't use it for much beyond gimmick monsters. Much easier to use when the difference is smaller.

I'm pretty sure I've seen one of the devs say that exact thing.

By your argument "normal hunting activities" would include killing anything in the world, from an Ancient Dragon to the Demon Prince of Undeath. I don't consider those things "normal hunting activities".

 

[CreamCloud0]

It might be changed in 2024, but the 2014 version of hunter's mark says "You choose a creature you can see within range and mystically mark it as your quarry." So it's not so good for an Aragorn pursuing orc kidnappers situation, but definitely more of a "things are about to get real" spell.

it may have been lost in the chain of replies but i was discussing my own take on a HM revision, having the damage aspect removed and serving more as a tracking/information gathering spell.

i think i mentioned something similar earlier but i think it would be better if the damage portion of HM was removed from it and let it focus on being a utility spell, replace the damage by adding a damage boosting spell like arcane weapon to ranger's spells but i'd rather a HM like:

HUNTER'S MARK - 1st level spell
-1 bonus action
-self
-V
-1 hour, (no concentration)

You choose a creature (or type of creature) you can see or name and mystically mark it as your quarry. Until the spell ends you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find them, you become aware of [basically the generic statblock], information on unique creatures may be incomplete.
upcasting increases duration.

this gives it strong thematic purpose without cornering players into a long duration concentration spell or feeling like they're wasting significant resources by not using it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It might be changed in 2024, but the 2014 version of hunter's mark says "You choose a creature you can see within range and mystically mark it as your quarry." So it's not so good for an Aragorn pursuing orc kidnappers situation, but definitely more of a "things are about to get real" spell.


I'm pretty sure I've seen one of the devs say that exact thing.


View attachment 370371

Supernatural is actually a great example. They very rarely use magic, and when they do it's all ritual stuff. And they're hardly fighting normal beasts.

 

[Incenjucar]

Ultimately, this is strictly a choice WotC made based on whatever their internal discussion is. There is no logic strong-arming them into this.

Rangers haven't needed to rely on spells this hard or this early in any prior edition. They used to wait until 8th level, then WotC bumped it to 4th level in 3E, and 4E didn't need them at all.

It's a choice. Some people love it some people hate it, but nobody was forced into anything.

 

[Horwath]

Ultimately, this is strictly a choice WotC made based on whatever their internal discussion is. There is no logic strong-arming them into this.

Rangers haven't needed to rely on spells this hard or this early in any prior edition. They used to wait until 8th level, then WotC bumped it to 4th level in 3E, and 4E didn't need them at all.

It's a choice. Some people love it some people hate it, but nobody was forced into anything.

at least in 3.5e there were several official spell-less options for ranger and paladin.

 

[Incenjucar]

at least in 3.5e there were several official spell-less options for ranger and paladin.

And 2E had a few kits that reduced magic gain even further.