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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 7686893" data-attributes="member: 5100">Actually, it is wilderness survival -- or just survival in general. With awareness (including tracking) being part of that.The Ranger should be the hardest class to kill. Not necessarily in terms of raw damage; that seems to be the Barbarian's schtick. But, the Ranger should be good enough at fighting to pose a threat in a stand-up fight. They should be good enough at hiding to escape or to ambush. They should be perceptive enough to be hard to surprise. They should be good enough at tracking to always have you looking over your shoulder. They should have enough hit points to live long enough to realize they need to disengage and try a different tactic. They should never need to worry about finding food or water (under normal circumstances). And, they should be able to tend to themselves well enough to recover on the move.How do you do that?- A fighting style, per PHB, gives them some combat chops.- Stealth on the class list gives them, well, stealth.- Perception on the class list, same.- Survival on the class list goes towards the tracking and food.- The 2d6 HD from the UA variant gave them toughness. It also perfectly handled their ability to tend to themselves with minimal rest. Although I hate the 1d8 HD idea from 3.5, I could be persuaded that 2d4 worked fine, given the synergy with recovery during a short rest. I don't think that 2d6 is unbalanced, though.- Natural Explorer adds some boosts and flavor to round it out.That gives you your core Ranger. Everything else is a sub-class.- Beast Master: I always saw this as a Druid, but what the heck, leave it as a Ranger archetype.- Spellcasting guardian: Make it an archetype. Personally, I think the idea of Ranger praying for spells is stupid. They get spells by learning lore about the wilderness and are closest to Bards in their approach to magic. Other people disagree. Some people doen't like spells for Rangers at all. Definitely sounds like an "opt-in".- March warden: Like Favored Enemy? Have a campaign it works in? Fantastic! If you're a closeted genocidal maniac, take this archetype.Also note, as far as intruding on the Barbarian's territory goes, the Ranger was here first. When in doubt about schtick, the Ranger always wins the coin toss against the Barbarian.</blockquote>

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