I'm not sure why you bring up the Striker role, since that really wasn't what I was referring to. It is more the fact that a lightly armored warrior who uses weapons like the bow is something of an archetypical character (Robin Hood is a fine example), and I don't really want to see magic forced into what is otherwise a non-magical archetype.The Ranger was not a striker class originally. He was a woodsman, a defender of the frontier and a friend of the fey. A Dunedain like Aragorn and the other Rangers of the North.
I'm not really a fan of bow Fighters. I prefer to class concept of a Fighter to be a bit more specific than that. That's probably another hard battle to fight, though.I think the new edition should return to supporting a Fighter with a bow like all the previous editions, so that the Ranger can remain a special primal class. And I say that as a staunch Fourther, but one who loves classic literature and mediaeval legends.
- However, there should be options for the ranger to sporadically gain access to "Woodlore" instead of higher martial abilities. This Woodlore is not exactly divine magic, and certainly not spells, but subtle supernatural effects that are isolated to the ranger only rather than being a cleric or druid "hand-me-down". They should be at-will abilities that perhaps take several minutes to even an hour or so to warm up and manifest and they cannot be used concurrently. Perhaps the highest level Woodlore effects can be enacted immediately. Woodlore should be directly tied to the mysterious things we think a ranger should be able to do.
Yes. I don't consider them to be "woodsmen", so much as something straight out of Tolkien. They didn't cast spells, but they did have some powers the bordered on the supernatural, IMHO, so close enough.