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<blockquote data-quote="mneme" data-source="post: 4224888" data-attributes="member: 59248">It's worth noting (for good or ill) that the D&amp;D Ranger has very little to do with the term a &quot;backwoods survival guy who knows the area like the back of his hand&quot;.&nbsp; Instead, it derives from two things:1. The rangers (ie, Numinoreans) in Lord of the Rings.2. Gygax's idea of rangers as humanity's defender against the demihuman threats.Now, the last vestige of the &quot;anti-threats&quot; bit has apparently been excised in 4.0 with the removal of favored enemies (probably good riddance, given how frequently those turned into &quot;I hate X, so I'll attack them when it makes no sense&quot; or &quot;I have 3 favored enemies.&nbsp; This monster isn't one of them either.&quot;), but I think a lot of the 4.0 approach comes from that -- rangers get a damage bonus (previously creature specific, now generic) -- therefore, they are Strikers -- therefore, it's also important to preserve their method of striking, ie &quot;weapon style.&quot;&nbsp; I'm not really sure where the &quot;two weapon fighter&quot; idea of rangers came from -- maybe the idea that when you were hunting monsters, you didn't necessarily have a buddy to watch your back, so a shield wasn't so useful; instead, it's just knife and other knife (oh, right, that's a bounty hunter.&nbsp; Not disssimilar).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mneme, post: 4224888, member: 59248"] It's worth noting (for good or ill) that the D&D Ranger has very little to do with the term a "backwoods survival guy who knows the area like the back of his hand". Instead, it derives from two things: 1. The rangers (ie, Numinoreans) in Lord of the Rings. 2. Gygax's idea of rangers as humanity's defender against the demihuman threats. Now, the last vestige of the "anti-threats" bit has apparently been excised in 4.0 with the removal of favored enemies (probably good riddance, given how frequently those turned into "I hate X, so I'll attack them when it makes no sense" or "I have 3 favored enemies. This monster isn't one of them either."), but I think a lot of the 4.0 approach comes from that -- rangers get a damage bonus (previously creature specific, now generic) -- therefore, they are Strikers -- therefore, it's also important to preserve their method of striking, ie "weapon style." I'm not really sure where the "two weapon fighter" idea of rangers came from -- maybe the idea that when you were hunting monsters, you didn't necessarily have a buddy to watch your back, so a shield wasn't so useful; instead, it's just knife and other knife (oh, right, that's a bounty hunter. Not disssimilar). [/QUOTE]

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