D&D 5E Improving the Ranger

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I think rangers could probably use a boost (and the beastmaster needs a complete re-write).

I'd give them a couple cantrips and up spells known by 5, spread over the levels. Right now, they know less spells than Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters, who are tertiary casters to the ranger's secondary casting. They certainly have less than paladins, which add domain spells.

Possibly consider just giving them the animal companion. Paladins get the equivalent in Find Steed at 5th level for free, and I think their "pet" is better as it is smarter, has 1 mile telepathic communication (better than a familiar!) and can act independently.

Grant the equivalent of "Advantage" on damage vs. favored enemies. Paladins deal d8 extra damage with smites vs. undead and fiends, so I don't see why a situational damage boost is out of the question for rangers as well. You raise their average damage, but keep the same maximum. That way you feel less cheated if you don't fight favored foes.

Increase duration of primeval awareness to at least 10 minutes per spell level. Double duration in favored terrain, and you can tell if you are moving closer to the closest source (which might not be the most powerful or numerous).

I don't see anything wrong with granting great weapon fighting as a choice, but given your lighter armor, strength probably isn't your high stat anyways.

 

[Staffan]

I'm considering the following changes to Primeval Awareness, because as written it's so vague as to be almost useless.

1. One free use per short rest (duration 1 minute).

2. In your favored terrain, instead of having a bigger radius you get more specific info. I haven't decided exactly how yet, but I'm thinking letting the ranger choose X options out of Y potential ones. Some ideas are: What creature type(s), how powerful the nearest/most powerful one is, how near the nearest/most powerful is, what direction the nearest/most powerful is, how many there are (of different creature types if that's chosen as well).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The only thing the ranger needs is being abke to cast all his ritual spells in the whole spell list as rituals and the ability to use his downtime for adding extra favoured terrains.
The beast master ranger needs a ritual to revive his animal companion and the ability to let his companion go rampage, i.e. fight at its own under DM control, for when the ranger does not directly controll it.

His power is high enough. Really. Hunter´s mark and giant slayer allow him to deal a lot of damage.

Edit:
maybe adding some spells depending on chosen favoured terrains seems useful.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm considering the following changes to Primeval Awareness, because as written it's so vague as to be almost useless.

1. One free use per short rest (duration 1 minute).

2. In your favored terrain, instead of having a bigger radius you get more specific info. I haven't decided exactly how yet, but I'm thinking letting the ranger choose X options out of Y potential ones. Some ideas are: What creature type(s), how powerful the nearest/most powerful one is, how near the nearest/most powerful is, what direction the nearest/most powerful is, how many there are (of different creature types if that's chosen as well).

In his favoured terrain, he can sense presence of UP TO 6 miles. I interpret that as an ability to "scan" incresing the radius from 0 to 6 miles in 100ft increments, taking one round each.
This way it is a lot more useful to the ranger and well enough in the RAW terrain.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

His power is high enough. Really. Hunter´s mark and giant slayer allow him to deal a lot of damage.

Vengeance paladins get hunters mark as well, and all paladins by default also deal an extra d8 bonus damage at 11th. Relying on a single spell to patch the class seems off.

 

[Coredump]

In his favoured terrain, he can sense presence of UP TO 6 miles. I interpret that as an ability to "scan" incresing the radius from 0 to 6 miles in 100ft increments, taking one round each.
This way it is a lot more useful to the ranger and well enough in the RAW terrain.

Well, I don't believe it works that way, but even if it does... its still pretty useless. There is no way you can go every 100'

Lets say you burn a 3rd level slot, so it lasts 3 rounds. You try 1 mile, 1.5, and 2 miles. Nothing detected. So you burn another 3rd level spell, and try 2.5, 3, and 3.5. Lets say you get lucky and find it between 3 and 3.5 miles. That band is still over 10 square miles, and it is spread out in a circle with an 18 mile circumference. What good does that do for you?

 

[reelo]

I think rangers could probably use a boost (and the beastmaster needs a complete re-write).

I'd give them a couple cantrips and up spells known by 5, spread over the levels. Right now, they know less spells than Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters, who are tertiary casters to the ranger's secondary casting. They certainly have less than paladins, which add domain spells.

Possibly consider just giving them the animal companion. Paladins get the equivalent in Find Steed at 5th level for free, and I think their "pet" is better as it is smarter, has 1 mile telepathic communication (better than a familiar!) and can act independently.

Grant the equivalent of "Advantage" on damage vs. favored enemies. Paladins deal d8 extra damage with smites vs. undead and fiends, so I don't see why a situational damage boost is out of the question for rangers as well. You raise their average damage, but keep the same maximum. That way you feel less cheated if you don't fight favored foes.

Increase duration of primeval awareness to at least 10 minutes per spell level. Double duration in favored terrain, and you can tell if you are moving closer to the closest source (which might not be the most powerful or numerous).

I don't see anything wrong with granting great weapon fighting as a choice, but given your lighter armor, strength probably isn't your high stat anyways.

Giving them Cantrips seems like a great idea. What would be the most logical list to chose from: Druid?

I might tinker with primeval awareness as well, making it work like a radar/echolocation ping, giving general direction and vague distance (very close/close/far/very far, within its designated range)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Well, I don't believe it works that way, but even if it does... its still pretty useless. There is no way you can go every 100'

Lets say you burn a 3rd level slot, so it lasts 3 rounds. You try 1 mile, 1.5, and 2 miles. Nothing detected. So you burn another 3rd level spell, and try 2.5, 3, and 3.5. Lets say you get lucky and find it between 3 and 3.5 miles. That band is still over 10 square miles, and it is spread out in a circle with an 18 mile circumference. What good does that do for you?

How good it lasts 1 MINUTE per spell level... and I never pretended it is exactly how you must interpret RAW, but it is my interpretation, that actually makes it useful for the Ranger...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Vengeance paladins get hunters mark as well, and all paladins by default also deal an extra d8 bonus damage at 11th. Relying on a single spell to patch the class seems off.

You get another feature as ranger on level 11. Admittedly, it could be better, since it does not work well with his core fighting style, TWF RAW, but it is not that far off.
I also have have not analyzed both classes from an optimizer´s standpoint, but in actual play, the ranger does more than well enough. And the player has fun. And his non combat abilities are really helping so far...

I also admitt, that the ranger as written reads terrible, and some features overshadow other features by a wide margin. Also only 11 spells known at most seems too harsh. Maybe add hunter´s mark as a class feature or something, so it frees up one spell known... I don´t know... but don´t pretend, the ranger is objectively bad as is. It is only slightly off the mark.

 

[Minigiant]

You get another feature as ranger on level 11. Admittedly, it could be better, since it does not work well with his core fighting style, TWF RAW, but it is not that far off.
I also have have not analyzed both classes from an optimizer´s standpoint, but in actual play, the ranger does more than well enough. And the player has fun. And his non combat abilities are really helping so far...

I also admitt, that the ranger as written reads terrible, and some features overshadow other features by a wide margin. Also only 11 spells known at most seems too harsh. Maybe add hunter´s mark as a class feature or something, so it frees up one spell known... I don´t know... but don´t pretend, the ranger is objectively bad as is. It is only slightly off the mark.

The ranger isn't terrible.
It just doesn't fit every campaign. It was written weird.
They saw that rangers from 1st to 3rd edition were only good against certain enemies and locked the DM into using certain enemies.
They also saw that making they making rangers generalists in 4th edition made them the deadliest killer in D&D history.


So they made rangers a "Wilderness or bust" class. Rather weird. If you don't chuck storms, water, beasts, trees, and runners at the party, the ranger loses a lot. But they look like a hero if you do.

It's weird. I can't say it was a good or bad idea.