Ranger is the new monk?

[Mathew_Freeman]

So what is the general consensus then? Have we born witness to the birth of RZILLA, and will it trample over all other builds?

And if this happened to the class that was wildely considered underpowered in 3e (recal the GIANT Rangers Suck thread over on wotc boards) what kind of a boost do you think will Bards get? I'm thinking stuff like "Talented" wherein the Bard can select a power of the same level from any other class per encounter.

Nope, I'm going with "The ranger is the new monk" idea. IIRC, when 3e game out the boards were full of "The Monk is the best class!" for a few months, and then suddenly it shifted to "The Monk is useless!".

I can't see the shift being quite so dramatic this time around, but neither do I think the Ranger is the "best" class.

 

[AllisterH]

It looks overpowered to me. The 'heavy ranger' build gives you Toughness for free. Ditch DEX and go for STR, as well as high WIS for special abilities. A human ranger can get to wear plate mail by level 2, and fight with two weapons, and get +1d6 damage/round to anything it decides to make its hunting b!tch.

The problem with this is that as a melee class that doesn't seem to have the evasion/movement capabilities of the warlock or rogue, the ranger is going to get hit.

Even though both the fighter and paladin have higher number of surges, melee classes go through them quickly. The ranger I'm thinking is going to be burn through his surges pretty quickly.

I think you might want to spend a feat on the EXTRA SURGE feat.

There's also the problem that most of the high WIS special abilities aren't as common as the DEX ones.

 

[mmu1]

The problem with this is that as a melee class that doesn't seem to have the evasion/movement capabilities of the warlock or rogue, the ranger is going to get hit.

Even though both the fighter and paladin have higher number of surges, melee classes go through them quickly. The ranger I'm thinking is going to be burn through his surges pretty quickly.

I think you might want to spend a feat on the EXTRA SURGE feat.

There's also the problem that most of the high WIS special abilities aren't as common as the DEX ones.

Feats certainly won't be a limiting factor, though. You get a ton of them, and most are rather underwhelming. You certainly will have plenty to spare for things like armor proficiency or extra healing surges.

 

[neoweasel]

The problem with this is that as a melee class that doesn't seem to have the evasion/movement capabilities of the warlock or rogue, the ranger is going to get hit.

Mur? Rangers have a bunch of Immediate Interrupts (both daily and Encounter) that are "you attack me and I move away". I can think of two off the top of my head.

 

[neoweasel]

Nope, I'm going with "The ranger is the new monk" idea. IIRC, when 3e game out the boards were full of "The Monk is the best class!" for a few months, and then suddenly it shifted to "The Monk is useless!".

I can't see the shift being quite so dramatic this time around, but neither do I think the Ranger is the "best" class.

I tend to agree. From my perspective, most of the clamor is "This power is broken!" rather than "The class as a whole is broken!" Personally, I think that Ranger is a solid class that does its job well. Much like most of the other classes seem to (I'm a little iffy on the Leaders, but it's hard to judge the power of buffers just by looking at them).