Rangers w/out spells

[Plane Sailing]

Or you could say that he was doing magic. There is a strong implication in the book that Athelas does what it does because Aragorn is a member of the royal line of Gondor. Dunno if this backed up by Silmarillion and other background docs, but it jibes with the generally low-key magic in Middlearth.

A previous king of Gondor (Isildur?) cursed an entire nation of oathbreakers and they became undead... so there certainly was quite a lot of power in the numenorean line!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Or you could say that he was doing magic. There is a strong implication in the book that Athelas does what it does because Aragorn is a member of the royal line of Gondor. Dunno if this backed up by Silmarillion and other background docs, but it jibes with the generally low-key magic in Middlearth.

Regards
Luke

That's great for anyone with the King of Gondor PrC, not so great for all those other non-magical rangers out there.

 

[Ylis]

ElfClash: Realm of Lanai (Khan's Press) has a variant ranger w/o spells (actually almost all the standard classes/races are variants). They have better abilities (more than just the "Favored enemy") to balance them out. They play really well

 

[Desdichado]

My favorite alt.rangers without spells are the Wildlander from Midnight, the Woodsman from Wheel of Time and the Bushfighter from Ken Hood's (now defunct?) free d20 pdf downloads.

 

[TracerBullet42]

My favorite alt.rangers without spells are the Wildlander from Midnight, the Woodsman from Wheel of Time and the Bushfighter from Ken Hood's (now defunct?) free d20 pdf downloads.

Free pdfs? Where?

 

[mmadsen]

Wilderness Rogue

Unearthed Arcana presents a much better alternative Ranger than the not-quite-spellcasting one already discussed: the Wilderness Rogue.

 

[Psion]

I clicked on this thread with the intention of suggesting exactly this.

iirc, it's Rokugan (AEG) that suggests treating rangers this way.

Yup. Been using it for a long time.

 

[diaglo]

you could try the Original Ranger from the Strategic Review.

basically don't give spells until a much higher lvl. and when you do give them the option of much great choice of spells.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

you could try the Original Ranger from the Strategic Review.

basically don't give spells until a much higher lvl. and when you do give them the option of much great choice of spells.

Or the 1e ranger with magic-user spells ... my goodness, what a screwball design idea.

 

[Knightfall]

I really like the variant martial classes presented in Path of the Sword by Fantasy Flight Games. (The Hunter and the Outdoorsman.)

Hunter
Fighter BAB; good Fort and Will saves; Chosen Foe (1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th lvl.); Night Stalker & Trackless Step at 3rd lvl.; Merciful Strike at 6th lvl.; Sense Foe at 9th lvl.; Forceful Strike at 12th lvl.; Weak Spot at 15th lvl.; and Inescapable Pursuit at 18th lvl.

Outdoorsman
Fighter BAB; good Fort and Ref saves; Favored Terrain (1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th lvl.); Preferred Weapons & Lightstep at 1st lvl.; Animal Companion at 3rd lvl.; Bonus Feat (4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th lvl.); Fast Passage at 5th level; Bestial Companion at 14th lvl.; Magical Companion at 18th lvl.