The Ranger: What is his shtick?

[Minigiant]

Rangers need healing.

The idea that a person would willfully go miles away from civilization for long periods of time repeatedly without a way to heal himself is LUDICROUS and ABSURD.

If 4E didn't have second wind and the ability to spend surges on rest, I would have ripped the ranger pages out for being silly.

 

[Steely_Dan]

I do not want the Ranger railroaded into TWf or archery, and it sounds like they won't be, as I heard them mention 3 archetypes (hopefully more) they are working on: Aragorn, Drizzt, and Grizzly Adams.

 

[Blackwarder]

Rangers need healing.

The idea that a person would willfully go miles away from civilization for long periods of time repeatedly without a way to heal himself is LUDICROUS and ABSURD.

If 4E didn't have second wind and the ability to spend surges on rest, I would have ripped the ranger pages out for being silly.

Ranger needs better healing at rest, and perhaps with special herbs he can pass it around to the rest of the party. So if a normal character can heal one HP per level per rest a ranger can heal two or more.

Warder

 

[paladinm]

I do not want the Ranger railroaded into TWf or archery, and it sounds like they won't be, as I heard them mention 3 archetypes (hopefully more) they are working on: Aragorn, Drizzt, and Grizzly Adams.

I think Robin Hood is in the mix somewhere too.. That's where the archer build came from.

 

[Steely_Dan]

I think Robin Hood is in the mix somewhere too.. That's where the archer build came from.

I believe they mention Robin Hoodie in the 2nd Ed PHB Ranger description.

 

[tuxgeo]

Quite so. And the D&D ranger was, quite unabashedly, based off of Aragorn.

Is that a problem?

It's only a problem if "being the rightful king of Gondor" is a part of the background of each and every ranger in D&D. (Especially if any one party contains two or more rangers at the same time.)

IMHO, the D&D ranger was, quite unabashedly, based off the Dunedain rangers (plural) in Lord of the Rings -- of whom Aragorn was the leader, having attributes that the other, more typical rangers did not.

IMHO, there can be various levels of healing in D&D (thinking in 4E terms, here): Untrained in Heal; Trained in Heal; bearer of Healing Potions; Ritual Caster having the Brew Potion ritual; member of a class having healing class features; member of a class having healing spells or prayers; Ritual Caster having the Remove Affliction ritual; and so on. Aragorn's ability to heal the Black Breath was probably a combination both of his kingliness and his advanced ritual abilities, not of his ranger class; and while all rangers should probably have training in the Heal skill, they should not *all* be able to heal the Black Breath, because that's too setting-specific and too particular to Aragorn's kingliness.

 

[Steely_Dan]

And no Ranger of the North (or Aragorn) ever blasted of a magic missile or sleep spell.

 

[The Shadow]

I believe they mention Robin Hoodie in the 2nd Ed PHB Ranger description.

I think 'Robin Hoodie' would be more likely to be an urban ranger.

 

[Steely_Dan]

I think 'Robin Hoodie' would be more likely to be an urban ranger.

Yes, I'm surrounded by them in South London; roaming, armed bands of hooded 9-year olds looking to stab me for my beer money.

 

[Frostmarrow]

If we have the fighter as the melee expert and the rogue as the ranged weapon expert the ranger becomes the link inbetween that is competent with both ranged and melee weapons. I see it that way in many stories. David is a rogue where Goliath is a fighter. Robin is a rogue and Little is a fighter. Bart is a rogue and Mongo is a fighter. Han is a rogue and Luke is a fighter.
This does not mean rogues can't hold their own in melee (but they do have to resort to cheap tactics). It does not mean fighters can't shoot at all.

A comparison:

Fighter melee: +10; Fighter ranged +8
Rogue melee: +8; Rogue ranged +10
Ranger melee: +9; Ranger ranged +9

Edit: I wasn't even going to post this as the design guidelines for the fighter is up and they don't support this angle at all. Please carry on.