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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morlock" data-source="post: 6600017" data-attributes="member: 6776981">I don't know. The closest thing I can think of would be game wardens and similar roles.I would take issue with your premises. The D&D ranger is kind of a jumped-up or bastardized version of Tolkien's rangers. Tolkien's rangers were simply members of an organization, much like Harpers in the Forgotten Realms (as far as I understand Harpers, which ain't far). We don't see many of them in Tolkien's work, but the ones we do see (I'm counting Faramir and at least some of his followers, though I can't remember if they were actually members of the same group Aragorn was) are simply outdoorsmen on top of whatever else they were, much like you might have found in Robin Hood's band of Merry Men. If I were writing up the rangers in D&D, I'd make them like any other character, but members of an organization. Fighters, mostly, but I'd see members of most PHB classes as eligible.D&D rangers are mostly a case of using Aragorn as a class, plus some hyperbole. I'd stat him up as a fighter with a new feat or two, personally.Lecture over, guess I just felt like gassing a bit there. I'm sure someone well-versed in Tolkien could do a better job of expounding on this.Edit: on the other hand, I'm sure we could find a whole bunch of interesting history paralleling the rangers if we focus on the organization part. The Crusades would be the first place I'd look. The rangers strike me as a lot like Crusaders; upper-class men, often 2nd+ sons with a lifetime of martial training and nothing to inherit, with maybe an idealistic/zealous bent, or maybe a colonialist bent, going off to a wild and dangerous place to bring it order and righteousness.</blockquote>

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