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<blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8938996" data-attributes="member: 6799660">My take on it has always been that it also was also a way to emulate Aragorn's various not-coded-as-magic abilities in a system which had not yet decided how it was going to do skills and abilities. Ranger first appeared in The Strategic Review #2, which came out a quarter-year after Supplement I introduced Thieves and their skill system. At that point, 'build this like we did the thief abilities' might not have been intuitive, and instead they did what 5e does and 'when in doubt, make it a spell.' The (okay, 'a') general problem with rangers is the one thing everyone agrees rangers do is survive well in the wilds, and most-likely make good trackers (and usually are good at sneaking). That core identity bleeds out of the class system the instant you have a skill system. 2e is a good example: non-weapon proficiencies became a standard* part of the core, and any fighter could be a passible ranger, so rangers got some extra bells and whistles like can dual-wield in light armor easily to keep their identities distinct. *Well, 'optional' with a lot of further content, such as kits, not making sense if you didn't use it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie the Duck, post: 8938996, member: 6799660"] My take on it has always been that it also was also a way to emulate Aragorn's various not-coded-as-magic abilities in a system which had not yet decided how it was going to do skills and abilities. Ranger first appeared in The Strategic Review #2, which came out a quarter-year after Supplement I introduced Thieves and their skill system. At that point, 'build this like we did the thief abilities' might not have been intuitive, and instead they did what 5e does and 'when in doubt, make it a spell.' The (okay, 'a') general problem with rangers is the one thing everyone agrees rangers do is survive well in the wilds, and most-likely make good trackers (and usually are good at sneaking). That core identity bleeds out of the class system the instant you have a skill system. 2e is a good example: non-weapon proficiencies became a standard* part of the core, and any fighter could be a passible ranger, so rangers got some extra bells and whistles like can dual-wield in light armor easily to keep their identities distinct. [SIZE=1]*Well, 'optional' with a lot of further content, such as kits, not making sense if you didn't use it.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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