D&D 5E Convince me that the Ranger is a necessary Class.

[Minigiant]

I agree with you here.

In a magical setting, some skills can be applied magically.

Medicine should heal or poison.
Animal Handling should deal with a pet.
Nature should do alchemy, metallurgy, elemental magic, physics, math.
Survival should do botany, zoology, ecosystems, environmentalism.

The Ranger skill list is: Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, or Survival. I'd add Medicine since Rangers are known for healing. And there are 4 tiers of play.

So that's 36 different rituals, knacks, or spells I would have attributed to being a ranger.

If I were in charge of 6e, I'd still give Rangers spellcasting and spell slots but no "real" spell-list. Ranger class features and Ranger knacks (I think that is the accepted term" would give rangers access to druid spells, wizard spells, and exclusive Ranger spells.

Animal Handling 1 gives you a beast companion who you can boost by taking the Beastmaster subclass.

Medicine 1 would give proficiency with the herbalism kit and teach you Cure Wounds.
Medicine 4 would let you craft a superior healing potion every long rest and teach you Mass Cure Wounds.

Nature 1 would teach you 2 level 1 druid spells and let you prepare druid spells.
Nature 4 would teach you 2 level 5 druid spells.

Survival 1 would teach you Tracker's Mark, and Endure Elements.
Survival 4 would give you resistance to cold, fire, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, and thunder damage, and teach you Predator Armor.

 

[Corinnguard]

separately, while the ranger is a viable class concept i have to disagree with people that it's THE dedicated pet class, the pet class needs to be it's own thing to fully develop it's legs and to branch out into the various different concepts it encompasses,

It would have to be something like PF1's Hunter class, which places more focus on the class's animal companion.

Hunter – d20PFSRD

www.d20pfsrd.com

 

[Horwath]

It would have to be something like PF1's Hunter class, which places more focus on the class's animal companion.

Hunter – d20PFSRD

www.d20pfsrd.com

yes,
but personally, I am more biased towards slayers as a ranger concept:

Slayer – d20PFSRD

www.d20pfsrd.com

 

[CreamCloud0]

with losing the universal subclass levels, we lost opportunity to get universal pet class for any class that wants a pet/companion/dragon/mount

i'm not sure a universal pet subclass would work all that well even if we did have universal subclass levels, it would have to be painfully generic and probably wouldn't be able to be properly balanced at all well with all the different classes base power budgets, i do think that more classes could have pet subclasses tuned to their specific needs, flavour and abilities, but it wouldn't be a 'one-size-fits-all' thing.

 

[Horwath]

i'm not sure a universal pet subclass would work all that well even if we did have universal subclass levels, it would have to be painfully generic and probably wouldn't be able to be properly balanced at all well with all the different classes base power budgets, i do think that more classes could have pet subclasses tuned to their specific needs, flavour and abilities, but it wouldn't be a 'one-size-fits-all' thing.

it would depend on reworking that ALL subclasses have same(or as similar as possible) power budget.
and ranger beast master is very bland and generic

 

[Corinnguard]

but personally, I am more biased towards slayers as a ranger concept:

Yeah, Rangers ought to be more 'bag and tag', meaning they're good at tracking down and subduing their quarry than killing them outright.

If the Assassin subclass was an actual class, I could see the Slayer being a subclass that leans towards the Ranger class.

 

[Minigiant]

Yeah, Rangers ought to be more 'bag and tag', meaning they're good at tracking down and subduing their quarry than killing them outright.

If the Assassin subclass was an actual class, I could see the Slayer being a subclass that leans towards the Ranger class.

Nah

Subduing and restraining targets would be an aspect of rangers.

But rangers are traditional hunters of wild monsters, encroaching villains, or barbaric raiders. They are killing their quarries or scaring them off.

That bandit or hill giant is getting their throat slit.