I think that we've all done it at some point or another, at least, most of us have. I've done it, many of my friends have done it, hell, even my wife was tempted at one point. There's something about the allure of the ranger that draws us to it, that calls to us, that makes us want to play it. Perhaps it's the whole Robin Hood mystique, what with the Merry Men invisible in the forest in broad daylight only to step from their hiding places to intimidate the bishop's guard to hand over his many valuables. Maybe it happened after reading 'The Crystal Shard' and imagining the flashing steel of blades dancing with quick and deadly precision. Or maybe it's simply the idea that rangers are just so much bad ass that no one can take them on. I recall a story told me by a friend about a former player of his. The player, it seems, often took umbrage when the DM told him that his character wasn't capable of whatever outrageous feat of power (storming the cloud giant castle, arm wrestling the titan, teaching the gods about magic) with a signature whine of, "But I'm a ranger!" And I suppose if you were to really look at it, the modern version of the ranger would the character of John Rambo, immortalized in the First Blood series of films.
It's evident that people truly love (and sometimes truly hate) the ranger class by the amount of variants, arguments, fights and debates that have taken place both online and off. I don't think that I've seen another class that has sparked as much discussion, nor do I think that I ever will.
Apparantly druids are popular with some people as well. I don't know these people but I've been assured that they do exist.
d20 Modern doesn't have rangers or druids. Understandably, for the nature of the game, the classes tend to have a modern bent. The game does, however, have Urban Arcana, the modern fantasy supplement, but there's no real analog for either class. The recommendation for the ranger is the Wildlord advanced class, which isn't a bad translation, but it surely ain't a good one. The recommendation for the druid is a combination of the Wildlord advanced class and the Mystic advanced class. This translation is far worse.
To solve this problem, Ancient Awakenings Publications has developed the Ranger and Druid advanced classes. Both classes largely follow the standard format for advanced classes as established in the d20 Modern core book: the necessary requirements to attain the class, the general information and features of the class (including a list of Bonus Feats) and a table covering the base attack bonus, saves, defense and reputation for the ten levels of the class. The author has tinkered with flexibility in the classes by adding talent trees, something I've only seen in used in the base classes.
The Ranger's standard class features focus on tracking, movement and hiding in the wilderness. The talents are split between the Huntsman talent tree and the Ranger talent tree. The Ranger talent tree offers two talents, the Wild Empathy talent which allows the character to make friendly with the animals and the Animal Companion talent which allows the character to make really friendly with one particular animal. The Huntsman talent tree has one talent of three levels, each giving a bonus d6 to damage akin to the traditional Sneak Attack ability to a total of 3d6 by the eighth class level. The problem with this talent tree is that the bonus is given when the character makes the attack with a ranged weapon from more than thirty feet away. When you combine the Ranger's emphasis on hiding with this ability and the Massive Damage Threshold rules of d20 Modern, then you've got a potentially deadly player character (or conversely, an particularly deadly NPC) at 8th level. I'm not saying that the talent tree is unbalanced, but keeping in mind that the requirement for the character is to be outside of close melee range (or even close standard ranged weapon range) from the target and the ability to do that much additional damage makes me very inclined not to allow this class into my game until I've considered it a great deal more than I already have.
The Druid's standard class features include the Wild Empathy and Animal Companion abilities from the Ranger talent tree, along with abilities to commune with the land and animals, spells and the ability to shapeshift into animal form. The Druid has only the Wildshape talent tree which modifies the Druid's ability to take on different form, expanding the range from Small or Medium-size to Large and/or Tiny and even including the ability to become a plant. While I have no specific qualms about the Druid class as a whole, I have very specific qualms about the Wild Shape ability. I won't go into all of them, but suffice to say that one very salient point is that the ability gives the Druid too much power too early when combined with spells and the animal companion.
The .pdf includes stats and rules for animal companions as does the accompanying text file (an addendum to the .pdf covering the advanced animal companion rules that appear to have been inadvertantly left out of the original). Additional creature stats are always nice and here we find a motherload.
Overall, I'd say that while the intent was good, the actual application needed more development. When stacked against the other classes, the Ranger and the Druid are potentially overpowered. While the requirements for the classes are clearly stated, there is no clear indication of how to get to that point. The Druid has requirements from four skills, none of which are available to one single class. Hell, I couldn't figure out a way to progress from one class with any of the standard occupations into the Druid. The .pdf has an interesting problem when one tries to cut and paste the text--the font is a visual one and thus all you get is a series of boxes. This detracts from the product for me, because the whole reason I'd choose a .pdf over a print version is the ability to be able to copy the text and manipulate it for my own personal uses. The price is fantastic, especially since you do get a number of crunchy rules and animal stats. I'm giving this a three out of five. It was average fare, the really good bits being brought down by the bits that could have been much better.
Rangers and Druids is the most recent offering from Ancient Awakenings Publications line of Modern Fantasy where traditional classes from Dungeons and Dragons are turned into advanced classes for d20 Modern. This thirteen page .pdf comes in three different flavors (with both a print version and a lanscaped version of the main file) and is bundled with an accompanying text file. This package rings in just under $1.50 USD and is available online through RPGNow. I received this product as a free review copy.
