The Quintessential Woodsman

[Olgar Shiverstone]

No, it's not a new Mongoose release (that I'm aware of, anyway). Three questions:

1. What elements do you feel make the quintessential woodsman/hunter character?

2. What fantasy character(s) are an example of your ideal?

2. What classes or game mechanics would you use to build your woodsman/hunter -- assuming it can be done with existing game mechanics?

The definition of woodsman/hunter does not necessarily equate to ranger, or scout, or current class XXXX unless you choose to define it that way.

My personal answers:

As much as I love the ranger class -- probably my favorite of the current D&D classes -- it doesn't quite nail it for me. The Ranger as defender of civilization from evil things from the wild (archtypal Aragorn or Tolkien ranger, to me) I see as something separate from a "woodsman". The woodsman is not a scout, solely adept at hiding, or tracking and locating enemies. Instead, I'd define him as someone steeped in the lore of the wilds, adept at following trails, hunting, and understanding natural creatures. He has martial skills as a result of his hunting skills, but he isn't primarily a soldier. In the fantasy environment, his skills are mundane, built through learning and experience, rather than magical. Examples might be Davy Crockett, or Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans, though both have a bit more martial bent than the concept I'm driving at.

Mechanically, the ranger is close, but should drop magical abilities, favored enemies, and the to-weapon fightign style (perhaps drop all fighting styles) in favor of more closely tied wildnerness skills. The scout is also close, but disable device as a class skill and the skirmish abilities don't seem quite right, either. The druid captures some of the natural feel, but is far too magical.

(I suppose the challenge of capturing this is why there have been so many alt.ranger classes over the years).

 

[smootrk]

Here is a thread where, collectively with the help of some ENWorld folks, I reasoned out a wilderness dwarf character concept... A Dwarven Lumberjack.
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=148907

You may find some ideas there as well.

 

[Mark CMG]

Expert NPC with a skill list that includes Hide, Listen, Search, Spot, Survival, and some Knowledge and Craft skills, or perhaps Profession [Woodsman] that includes the Knowledge and Craft skills.

Davy Crockett and Paul Bunyan are your Woodsman types, and that guy from Little Red Riding Hood.

 

[DaveyJones]

this class should be included in the next Complete book. The Complete NPC. ways to rough out Experts, Commoners, Adepts, Warriors, and Aristocrats. A Complete Book for the DM, not the players.

 

[Tonguez]

and that guy from Little Red Riding Hood.

Therefore you need Favoured Enemy:Big-Bad-Wolf

Woodsman archetypes for me include Grizzly Adams with his Bear companion, Tarzan with his ability to merge with the jungle, Davy Crockett and Hawkeye, my uncle Ron who can find food on the bottom of a rock in the middle of a desert (it may be disgusting but it can be the difference between life and death)

 

[Mark CMG]

this class should be included in the next Complete book. The Complete NPC. ways to rough out Experts, Commoners, Adepts, Warriors, and Aristocrats. A Complete Book for the DM, not the players.

I'm hoping to finish Tasks, Titles, and Trades soon (primarily NPC stat blocks), which should fill that need, but I am having trouble figuring out a way to produce it that doesn't invite those who would stripmine it for the NPC Wiki. It's a shame that I would even need to guard against such a thing but no one in charge of that project will pledge not to cut such a product off at the knees and it's too much work to watch get syphoned like that. Besides, even with such a pledge, should one be forthcoming, there's no guarentee that someone else would come along and start up a whole new NPC Wiki independent of the current one and do the stripmining over there.

 

[Mark CMG]

Therefore you need Favoured Enemy:Big-Bad-Wolf

That's so true! (But he doesn't want a Ranger, per se.)

Woodsman archetypes for me include Grizzly Adams with his Bear companion, Tarzan with his ability to merge with the jungle, Davy Crockett and Hawkeye, my uncle Ron who can find food on the bottom of a rock in the middle of a desert (it may be disgusting but it can be the difference between life and death)

Funny. I'm sitting here with a copy of The Last of the Mohicans audiobook on my desk that I was trying to decide when to squeeze into my literary diet and failed to mention Hawkeye.

 

[Stalker0]

A true woodsman has excellent senses and ambush skills. He's great with a bow. He can make anything he needs from the wilderness. He can track like no bodies business. He also can set up snares and traps in the wilderness. That's the woodsman to me.

 

[DaveyJones]

Funny. I'm sitting here with a copy of The Last of the Mohicans audiobook on my desk that I was trying to decide when to squeeze into my literary diet and failed to mention Hawkeye.

don't forget Mowgli and his animal friends from Jungle Book.

 

[Ahzad]

No, it's not a new Mongoose release (that I'm aware of, anyway). Three questions:

1. What elements do you feel make the quintessential woodsman/hunter character?

2. What fantasy character(s) are an example of your ideal?

2. What classes or game mechanics would you use to build your woodsman/hunter -- assuming it can be done with existing game mechanics?

The definition of woodsman/hunter does not necessarily equate to ranger, or scout, or current class XXXX unless you choose to define it that way.

My personal answers:

As much as I love the ranger class -- probably my favorite of the current D&D classes -- it doesn't quite nail it for me. The Ranger as defender of civilization from evil things from the wild (archtypal Aragorn or Tolkien ranger, to me) I see as something separate from a "woodsman". The woodsman is not a scout, solely adept at hiding, or tracking and locating enemies. Instead, I'd define him as someone steeped in the lore of the wilds, adept at following trails, hunting, and understanding natural creatures. He has martial skills as a result of his hunting skills, but he isn't primarily a soldier. In the fantasy environment, his skills are mundane, built through learning and experience, rather than magical. Examples might be Davy Crockett, or Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans, though both have a bit more martial bent than the concept I'm driving at.

Mechanically, the ranger is close, but should drop magical abilities, favored enemies, and the to-weapon fightign style (perhaps drop all fighting styles) in favor of more closely tied wildnerness skills. The scout is also close, but disable device as a class skill and the skirmish abilities don't seem quite right, either. The druid captures some of the natural feel, but is far too magical.

(I suppose the challenge of capturing this is why there have been so many alt.ranger classes over the years).

Someone with skills in hunting, stalking, wilderness survival, guiding, some martial skills, and an indomitable will to keep going no matter the odds.

Folks like this I think of are, first and foremost Conan (read Beyond the Black River and tell me he isn't the quintessential woodsman), Hawkeye from Last o/t Mohicans, Aragorn, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Drizzt to name a few.

I would use the Borderer class from Mongoose's Conan. It captures pretty much what I imagine a woodsman type of class to be.