Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6433055" data-attributes="member: 4937">1e Ranger: A 'prestige' class generally stronger than other classes, available to play if you rolled all around good stats but no 16+ that would otherwise be necessary to make a good character.  You started with 2HD at 1st level, had a massive bonus to damage against a selection of very common foes, got a variety of minor abilities, and a mixture of minor wizard and druid spells at high level (eventually 10 spells at 17th level).  As 'balance' you had a variety of RP restrictions, but overall it was one of the strongest 'builds' you could take in 1e.   I have no idea why you think that they suck.  The opposite is the case. The class was loosely based on the idea of 'rangers' from the LotR, particularly Aragorn, the short scene where Aragorn is joined by his followers, and the Rangers of Ithilien led by their captain Faramir.  The person doing the translation wasn't very good at it IMO, and gets overly hung up on the idea of woodsy.   The 'ranger' is allowed to use crystal balls, because - Palantir, and has track, but the fact is that Aragorn is far better seen as a Paladin in D&D terms than as a what has now been called the D&D ranger and his ranger henchmen as an order of Cavaliers.  The D&D ranger has become a thing unto itself, an archetype that is divorced from anything but self-reference.  Somewhere along the way, Rangers became archers.  Maybe that was the D&D cartoon and Eric the Ranger.  In any event, Robin Hood the ranger was born, and that idea has taken off since.  3.X: The ranger is now a hybrid assassin druid.  Pretty much any relationship even the tenuous between The Lord of the Rings and the D&D ranger is gone.   The self-referential archetype is now being more influenced by video games that have used Ranger as an archer archetype, which in turn comes from D&D itself, than from any other external source.  The idea of a wilderness dwelling paragon of virtue is fading, and instead we have a combination hunter that utilizes nature and a shaman caretaker that protects it.  Also, along the way we've picked up the idea of fighting with two hands, because Drizzt.  The initial class is noted mostly for being a frontloaded single dip class, but otherwise pretty weak compared to the spellcasters, but what isn't? 4e: The ranger is a full on archer specialist.  World of Warcraft adds itself to the mix of self-referential sources.</blockquote>

Verification