Ranger Design Goals

[Plane Sailing]

Well, they actually end up with the exact same number of hit points as fighters (on average) at the hit dice cap - a fact a lot of people forget when discussing the rangers d8 hit die. This means with a con bonus, rangers will have more hit points than a fighter until very high levels.

Of course, pre-AD&D the rangers and the fighters all had d8 for HD, but with the ranger starting at 2d8 and going up higher.

I was always a little disappointed that the ranger was made less hardy in AD&D onwards

Cheers

 

[Salamandyr]

Of course, pre-AD&D the rangers and the fighters all had d8 for HD, but with the ranger starting at 2d8 and going up higher.

I was always a little disappointed that the ranger was made less hardy in AD&D onwards

Cheers

Not only that, but as originally written, the Ranger didn't get bonus XP for high stats, but instead got a 5 xp for each 4 earned. Apparently nobody did the math to realize that was a 20% bonus; higher than any other character could achieve!

The original ranger was seriously OP.