D&D 5E Ranger's favored enemies and spells.

[Plane Sailing]

I rather like favoured enemy being the defining feature of the ranger. They had a bonus against giants in 2e that evolved into favoured enemy in 3e, so that idea of opposing a certain type of enemy has been with the ranger for a couple editions.

Actually, they had a bonus against 'giant class' (which included giants, trolls, ogres, orcs, goblins) of +1 damage per level when they were first introduced in the Strategic Review. So the idea of opposing a certain type of enemy has been with the ranger -since its very inception as a class!-

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Back when 3e launched I did a big breakdown of the SR ranger, the 1e ranger, the 2e ranger and the 3e ranger. I could probably dig it up if you think it might be interesting (might actually be educational to include 3.5e, 4e, 4e essentials and 5e in the comparison now!)

Pretty please? The original was quite good; I'm sure an update would be tremendously beneficial for those who have arrived since. Ranger history is sooooo misunderstood.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm sure that someone else will have already picked you up on this but... no

2WF was in the 3e ranger because 2wf was introduced to the 2e ranger, which was there because Drizzt was a ranger who used 2wf because he was a drow and drow used 2wf.

Yeah I noticed...

The original ranger (as per the Strategic Review) was very much based entirely upon Aragorn but with a bit more magic along the way. Back when 3e launched I did a big breakdown of the SR ranger, the 1e ranger, the 2e ranger and the 3e ranger. I could probably dig it up if you think it might be interesting (might actually be educational to include 3.5e, 4e, 4e essentials and 5e in the comparison now!)

Sure it'd be interesting!