Favourite 1st Level Ranger Spells

[Steverooo]

1rst level Ranger Spells

First, he'll probably want to take Detect Animals and Plants, in order to locate some Holly/Mistletoe (V, S, only, no DF). Next, I used Speak with Animals to talk to my horse and make sure it agreed, then the next day Animal Friendship. Now it knows six useful tricks (still looking for the ninth level Druid to cast Awaken on it).

What's a "good" spell depends upon your campaign. Roleplaying-intensive? Speak with Animals is often overlooked. "You find Dalver's broken body, lying in a corner. A thorough search of the room turns up no clues. The only thing you find is a frightened cat, under some cushions on the couch. If only that cat could talk!" ;-p

Offensively, Entangle is about all you've got, in the PHB. Defensively, Resist Elements is probably the best.

 

[Crothian]

If you have Wizard or Sorcerer in the group who likes uses web, Web Walking is very good (from Spells and Spellcraft). Sethris' Potency from Relics and Rituals is great if you have an animal campanion with poison. So, they have great spells but one just needs to think ahead and try to set up the situations where they will be useful.

 

[Christian]

Yes, I understand, haiiro. I'm just saying that the ranger (especially if you stick to the core rules) really doesn't have any generally useful spells. The spells I noted have useful applications in limited situations; so your best bet, as the player of a ranger, is to try to foresee the situations your party will encounter, and prepare appropriate spells. Darklone likes entangle-but that's spectacularly useless in most dungeon crawls. Alarm is handy if your group will be bedding down in hostile territory; Magic Fang if you (or a druid in the group) have an animal companion that's likely to see combat, or if you have a monk ally; Resist Elements if the clues point to a draconic enemy, etc. But there's not any one spell that's a 'signature' ranger spell ... so you're probably wasting your time trying to find one in advance. Use your mental energy to figure out what the DM's going to throw at you, and once you have, spell selection will be quite easy (especially from this tiny list).

 

[just__al]

I'm a big fan of Dawn. It's very nice if your ranger is on watch and something wanders into your campsite.

Yes it's a 0 level druid spell, but not every group has a druid.