NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8254912" data-attributes="member: 6704184">Looking at ranger spells as you level, yeah, the ranger spells are just fine, they just need more access to them. Even the bemoaned Cordon of Arrow allows a hunter ranger with Collosus Slayer to deal the extra damage even in the first round more reliably, in addition to it's other benefits.Flame Arrows is mostly good for improving another character's damage. For yourself, just use Hunter's Mark, since you have to concentrate on Flame Arrows anyway. Lightning Arrow is very good. 6d8, 2d8 of which is AoE damage, added to an attack action. So, that's (best case, but not counting subclass damage buffs) 2d8+10+6d8. That's comparable to a warlock using Negative Energy Flood at the same class level, especially when you take into account that the ranger might be attacking with advantage and using Sharpshooter on both attacks, and probably has extra damage from their subclass. Conjure Barrage does 3d8 damage in a 60ft cone. Will that be optimal in every fight? No, but when it is a crowded fight, it's going to make the fight much faster and easier. The last time I saw it used, it was against a horde of undead, and IIRC it hit something like 20 enemies. We went into the fight with the jerk controlling them much fresher than the DM expected. Down to low level spells, Ensnaring Strike doesn't need to be upcast to be good, because at higher levels I use it agains spellcasters who are concentrating, primarily. They tend to suck at Strength checks, and thus have to spend a spell slot to teleport, if they have a teleport spell, or dispel magic as an action, to get out of it, or have 1 extra concentration save per round. It also has disadvantage on attacks and dex saving throws, and I now have advantage against it. Hail of Thorns adds 1d10 in a small AoE to an attack. Upcasting this one is a bit questionable, but it's never a bad use of a first level slot, when you start to get low on the higher level slots. At lower levels, it's great. After those, I'm looking at Summon Beast, Pass Without Trace, Absorb Elements if I'm melee and maybe even if I'm not, I don't love the 4th level spell list, but Freedom of Movement and Guardian of Nature are both fun. I haven't really looked at Summon Elemental, because I have more options with a lower level summon spell that I can upcast. Also Summon Beast lets me play a ranger how I prefer, which is with the Beast as a base class thing.</blockquote>

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