NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Asgorath" data-source="post: 7489069" data-attributes="member: 6921966">There are ranged Barbarian and Paladin builds that do top-tier damage?  I wasn't aware of that.  Melee Rangers may very well be behind the strongest of the melee classes/subclasses, but that seems to be true of all dual-wielding variants.  However, at range, Rangers seem quite solid, even if we're not considering the XGtE subclasses.  Speaking of that, if you're not prepared to use the new subclasses that WOTC have designed after the initial feedback that the Ranger might be on the weaker end of the spectrum, I don't know what to tell you.  The Gloom Stalker is pretty great, I'd probably argue it's bordering on overpowered if you're fighting in the dark all the time, but even outside of that it's extremely strong.Hiding is actually quite easy.  Just find a place with some cover, and then bonus action Hide behind it.  Do all your fights take place on a mile-wide paved square or something?  Surely there's a corner or alcove or wall or some other obstacle that you can duck behind and get full cover, then use your bonus action to actually Hide.  I DM for a game with a Rogue who does this all the time.  Wood Elves can even take the Hide action if they are only lightly obscured by natural things such as fog or foliage etc, which means you don't even need to be behind total cover.  If your DM isn't letting you do that, then that's a problem you and your DM need to resolve.Yes, you can build a skill monkey class to be "better" at out-of-combat things than a Ranger, my point was that they'd still be way better than a Polearm Master/GWM Vengeance Paladin who can do nothing but fight.  Same can be said for any super-optimized-for-combat character.  Will that character do well in combat?  Absolutely.  Will they be able to participate in out-of-combat activities as much?  Probably not.  As I get older and the more I play 5E, the less interested I become in treating D&D like a video game RPG and focusing on nothing but combat.  As I said, would I be happy if my Ranger had the Revised Ranger's Favoured Enemy or Vanish at level 6?  Of course.  However, I'm really enjoying the Gloom Stalker subclass and am finding myself more than able to keep up with the rest of my party during combat.</blockquote>

Verification