Rangers and Swift Spells

[Votan]

I notice that in the Spell Compendium Rangers have a lot of swift action spells.

Ranger 1: Accelerated Movement, Arrow Mind, Blades of Fire, Dawn, Deep Breath, Guided Shot, Instant search, Sniper's Shot, Vine Strike

Ranger 2: Exacting shot, Lion's charge

Ranger 3: Arrow Storm, Bladestorm, Blade Thirst

These appear to do some really neat things. Lion's charge really makes a charge attack better. Arrow Mind, Exacting shot and Arrow Storm are really good archery enhancements. Bladestorm is as good as whirlwind attack.

My question -- do people find that these spells make a Ranger more likely to make effective use of her spells? Or is the 4 levels of ranger spells still kind of like a vestigal class feature -- it is there but never really noticed.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I've don't have experience with the ranger itself, but I've played similar caster/warriors and I've found that swift spells help imensly. I think the reason the spellcasting side of rangers was so unpoluar was because in combat you had to choose to either cast a spell OR attack sombody. But with swift spells you can do both, so there's no reason not to cast spells.

 

[Crothian]

I always felt the Ranger was fine with their spells. THey are not many but in the right situations they can be very effective. The swift spells are really about enhancing combat though, an area the Ranger never really needed help in.

 

[Pinotage]

I think the ranger's animal companion probably needs more help from spells than the ranger himself. Share spells always works well with ranger spells.

Pinotage