I play rangers will always play rangers because I love rangers. Rangers have one of the best early game spells in the game in hunter's mark. At lv 2 you are dealing an extra d6 damage, I think people over look this spell. If you look at the weapon section the only weapons dishing out that type of damage is heavy two handed weapons. Others have said this before but combine that with multiple attacks such as two handed fighting and a decent modifier you can dish out 20 plus damage a turn before lv 5 after lv 5 your in the 30 damage per turn range.
My lv 4 human ranger has a 20 dexterity due to the ability score improvement. He dishes out a ton of damage because of hunters mark. The character used the variant human trait to get the crossbow expert feat. Combat with this character goes like this: move, hunters mark (bonus action), fire hand crossbow (attack action). The character has archery as its fighting style so thats +9 to hit doing 2d6 damage + 5 on the way in. If the target doesn't die before the character's next turn it attacks with its rapier doing d8+d6+5 damage, if that doesnt kill the creature the character fires its hand crossbow at +9 to hit (no disadvantage because of feat) doing another 2d6 damage.
If the rapier kills the creature, than the character has two choices fire the hand crossbow at someone or use the bonus action to mark a new target. That way next turn it can make the rapier and crossbow attacks with the extra d6. When you add the hunter archetypes to combinations like this your adding another d8 damage, or your able to hit multiple creatures making your damage output just as high as any other class. The d8 is similar to fighters extra d8 maneuvers damage, right?
The beast master option is not as appealing because everyone is concern with one phase of the game. Your companion can do alot of other things outside of combat to help you out such as following enemies that have escape and finding out their hidden lair. Certain animals can mimic or use telepathic like abilities to communicate with you to let you in on conversations you should not hear. How effective a beast is outside of combat is usually determined by your GM. Most GM rewards players when they find a way to use their beast companion outside of combat because of its reputation as being a useless option.
I like the pseudodragon it helps my ranger alot, especially when I am being used as a scout. I use his limited telepathy ability to communicate with the team, when the character finds the enemy the party is usually able to take advantage of surprise. The character normally waits for the party to get into position while waiting he takes advantage of hide in plain sight (+10 to stealth check). When the party gets in position the character usually starts the combat off by making a ranged attack using sharpshooter feat because he has advantage due to unseen attacker. He than use a bonus action to have the pseudodragon swoop in and use the help action giving the ranger another sharpshooter attack at advantage because of the dragon. After the dragon use the help action it flys away while the party comes rushing in. The ranger than use hunters mark on the scariest dude and take shots at him than next turn the pseudragon use help to give him advantage on one of the shots with sharpshooter+hunters mark. The ranger is dishing out more than enough damage to matter.
The coolest thing so far is that the party once lived because the party's bard used a nice spell that made the pseudodragon look like a big guy and we got to use frightful presence ability that made the enemy run like hell.
Rangers will always be my favorite! Not the best at anything but above average or good in all categories and thats good enough with me.
My lv 4 human ranger has a 20 dexterity due to the ability score improvement. He dishes out a ton of damage because of hunters mark. The character used the variant human trait to get the crossbow expert feat. Combat with this character goes like this: move, hunters mark (bonus action), fire hand crossbow (attack action). The character has archery as its fighting style so thats +9 to hit doing 2d6 damage + 5 on the way in. If the target doesn't die before the character's next turn it attacks with its rapier doing d8+d6+5 damage, if that doesnt kill the creature the character fires its hand crossbow at +9 to hit (no disadvantage because of feat) doing another 2d6 damage.
If the rapier kills the creature, than the character has two choices fire the hand crossbow at someone or use the bonus action to mark a new target. That way next turn it can make the rapier and crossbow attacks with the extra d6. When you add the hunter archetypes to combinations like this your adding another d8 damage, or your able to hit multiple creatures making your damage output just as high as any other class. The d8 is similar to fighters extra d8 maneuvers damage, right?
The beast master option is not as appealing because everyone is concern with one phase of the game. Your companion can do alot of other things outside of combat to help you out such as following enemies that have escape and finding out their hidden lair. Certain animals can mimic or use telepathic like abilities to communicate with you to let you in on conversations you should not hear. How effective a beast is outside of combat is usually determined by your GM. Most GM rewards players when they find a way to use their beast companion outside of combat because of its reputation as being a useless option.
I like the pseudodragon it helps my ranger alot, especially when I am being used as a scout. I use his limited telepathy ability to communicate with the team, when the character finds the enemy the party is usually able to take advantage of surprise. The character normally waits for the party to get into position while waiting he takes advantage of hide in plain sight (+10 to stealth check). When the party gets in position the character usually starts the combat off by making a ranged attack using sharpshooter feat because he has advantage due to unseen attacker. He than use a bonus action to have the pseudodragon swoop in and use the help action giving the ranger another sharpshooter attack at advantage because of the dragon. After the dragon use the help action it flys away while the party comes rushing in. The ranger than use hunters mark on the scariest dude and take shots at him than next turn the pseudragon use help to give him advantage on one of the shots with sharpshooter+hunters mark. The ranger is dishing out more than enough damage to matter.
The coolest thing so far is that the party once lived because the party's bard used a nice spell that made the pseudodragon look like a big guy and we got to use frightful presence ability that made the enemy run like hell.
Rangers will always be my favorite! Not the best at anything but above average or good in all categories and thats good enough with me.
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