3.5 Rangers
Quick question to all those people who have rangers that do really well in your campaigns, how many use the Archery path instead of the two weapon path, and how many of those who actually take the two weapon path are actually using two weapons (ie not a weapon and shield combo).
I have no doubt in my mind that Archery rangers do really well, extremely well in fact, the problem usaully lies with the two weapon users (who actually use two weapons, not a shield), two weapon fighting does not really work well with hit and run tactics, typically if you stick around long enough to actually get to use it, your enemy will get a full attack on you, not usaully the best of options for a character with low ac and a lower hit die.
Dontpunkme:
If you want to keep a melee type ranger in your campaign, bumping the hit die back to D10, problably won't ruin your campaign, the extra hit die typically won't effect the archery ranger (thier goal is never to be in a place to be hit anyway) but will help your melee rangers a little bit (typically one round or critical longer than before), but should be balanced with something else. Personally I handicap some of thier other abilities to offset the bonus of the higher hit die. I simply changed camoflage and hide in plain sight so that they only work when the ranger is wearing light or lighter armor, and thier combat style and swift tracking abilities so that they do not work if he is wearing any armor heavier than light or carrying a light load, this might not seem like a big deal at first, but that light load restriction can be big handicap, even to the archery guys, and it helped me achieve my vision of the ranger more acurately than the 3.5 version did. A tough, skilled woodsman, who wanders through the wilderness and is capable of surviving the various dangers on his own if he chooses.
It also helped to keep my least favorite ranger design away from the campaign. The archer pack mule. Essentially the Archer, never goes anywhere with out his trusty suit of really heavy armor (typically 40+ pounds) strapped to his back, when ever they are in wide open terrain, the Archer finds a place to snipe at the enemy (the whole time with the armor stapped to his back), any time they go into a more confined space (like a dungeon) he straps on his heavy armor since he won't be able to sit back and hit from afar any way, and the armor won't really affect the rest of his abilities, like using camoflage and swift tracking. I've seen it three times, from three separate players, in two separate groups, in two Different Cities (Fort Worth and Houston) which is sad since I've only DM'd five campaigns since 3.5, and two of them where after I made my changes.
I also allow a mounted combat style track, and a dodge, mobility spring attack track for a melee ranger who better utilizes the rest of the rangers class abilities.
Think about the Light load limitations to balance out the Hit die increase, it really is effective. A ranger with a 14 str won't be able to carry more than 58 pounds, thats a chain shirt, long sword, short sword, two daggers, a long bow and a quiver of 20 arrows, a traveller's outfit, with only 14 pounds to spare, doesn't leave a lot of room for treasure or other goodies (like magical items, I doubt your going to want to drop them so you will be able to fight better or use swft tracking, and even the lightest bag of holding is fifteen pounds).
Good luck, And personally I would have prefered the 3.5 rangers tag line to be a Skilled Survivor and Tracker (any one can hunt, but not everyone knows how to survive, and stalker makes him sound like..., well like a rogue).
