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.

 

[Corinnguard]

I again direct folks to the Levrl Up ranger. Lots of of stuff in that class that just theirs.

The Level Up Ranger differs from its' 5e counterpart in that spellcasting has been moved to its' Wildborn archetype. Thus, making that archetype the Ranger equivalent of the Eldritch Knight.

Wildborn | Level Up

a5e.tools

 

[FrogReaver]

I certainly wouldn't say a 5th level fighter has any chance of dealing with a Wyvern solo. Rogue has a better chance if they can kite and use stealth tactics, like rogues should.

Human Variant SS+CBE+Precision attack fighter should win about 50% of combats vs the wyvern solo. More if he out ranges the wyverns attack range on turn 1.

Probably doesn’t devalue your point, but mine is that character capabilities are really surprising sometimes.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I did not say that, actually. I said they should have something to make the martial bit pop besides spells.
Because literally every class has a thing only they can do. For Ranger, WOTC always do the spell, or some worse version of the spell. I'm saying they should not do the spell, nor a worse version of the spell.
I don't think I'm being obtuse nor overly fussy by suggesting this.

The barbarian always has rage... So what?

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Level Up Ranger differs from its' 5e counterpart in that spellcasting has been moved to its' Wildborn archetype. Thus, making that archetype the Ranger equivalent of the Eldritch Knight.

Wildborn | Level Up

a5e.tools

And that's exactly what I want the ranger to be. Spell-optional.

 

[Gammadoodler]

The harsh truth is most of the iconic features of a ranger that people would expect from an expert ranger would either:

require magic
OR
require technology that doesn't exist in most Medieval/Renaissance era D&D settings
OR
have a low chance of success if done mundanely and be unfulfilling/annoying if non-magical as a game mechanic

And many of them are parts of different disciplines and skills: Animal Handling, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Stealth, Survival

Rogues and Bards have it better as their iconic features have can be hit in 2-3 skills. (Stealth+SOH+Deception, Persuasion+Performance+Deception)

Bards meet up with Ranger in the fact that many of their iconic features have to be magical for the same reasons.

But back to the beginning, the D&D community haven't really sat down and created a list of Ranger stuff, their level, and their importance to the archetype.

The list is long and nebulous and filled with blatantly magical stuff that no one can agree what's important.... except maybe Hunter's Mark and Speak with Animals.

The harsh truth is that it is difficult to construct a persuasive argument without providing evidence or logical reasoning for your assertions.

And this post was composed solely of assertions without evidence or reasoning.

 

[Minigiant]

And that's exactly what I want the ranger to be. Spell-optional.

Spell optional ranger would never work for core D&D as it would be redundant and blatantly so.

Spell optional ranger literally only works for Advanced D&D.

 

[Minigiant]

The harsh truth is that it is difficult to construct a persuasive argument without providing evidence or logical reasoning for your assertions.

I've done so before. Writing it again would balloon my comment.

Especially since my point is that everyone won't agree on the list nor the subcategories.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Spell optional ranger would never work for core D&D as it would be redundant and blatantly so.

Spell optional ranger literally only works for Advanced D&D.

One more reason "core" D&D is the inferior game for me.

 

[Minigiant]

Ok @Gammadoodler, here is the short version.

Look at Ranger spells. Here are the 1st level ones.

• Absorb Elements
• Alarm
• Animal Friendship
• Beast Bond
• Cure Wounds
• Detect Magic
• Detect Poison and Disease
• Ensnaring Strike
• Entangle
• Fog Cloud
• Goodberry
• Hail of Thorns
• Hunter's Mark
• Jump
• Longstrider
• Searing Smite
• Snare
• Speak with Animals
• Zephyr Strike

Abilities of different disciplines and skills
Many Abilities that only work if magic
Abilities that would be very wordy and need to be shoved in a separate chapter

And most of them are iconic ranger stuff.

And that's just level 1 spells and 5e is missing a few old ranger spells and some made by new media.

That's the problem I keep mentioning. Ranger is a nebulous pile of slightly related tropey abilities, many of which are only fun or possible if magic. And the iconic trope abilities are so different you can't get a consensus of which ones are most important or iconic.

 

[FrogReaver]

Ok @Gammadoodler, here is the short version.

Look at Ranger spells. Here are the 1st level ones.

• Absorb Elements
• Alarm
• Animal Friendship
• Beast Bond
• Cure Wounds
• Detect Magic
• Detect Poison and Disease
• Ensnaring Strike
• Entangle
• Fog Cloud
• Goodberry
• Hail of Thorns
• Hunter's Mark
• Jump
• Longstrider
• Searing Smite
• Snare
• Speak with Animals
• Zephyr Strike

Abilities of different disciplines and skills
Many Abilities that only work if magic
Abilities that would be very wordy and need to be shoved in a separate chapter

And most of them are iconic ranger stuff.

And that's just level 1 spells and 5e is missing a few old ranger spells and some made by new media.

That's the problem I keep mentioning. Ranger is a nebulous pile of slightly related tropey abilities, many of which are only fun or possible if magic. And the iconic trope abilities are so different you can't get a consensus of which ones are most important or iconic.

I think it may just be that -

If you have awesome mechanical class bits then those mechanical class bits can fill in for the theme. If you have weak thematic identity for a class and weak mechanics for it then a place people often go is that the mechanics are bad because the thematics. If the mechanics were just shored up they would help provide the identity.