D&D General What is a Ranger? A miserable pile of secrets! (+)

[Minigiant]

Yeah, I don’t think you and I have the same expectations for what a ranger should be able to do.

Maybe but you said

Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

to

I'm imagining stuff like the old Horizon Walker got. Your mastery of this environment eventually gives you quasi-magical abilities. Maybe you can use the heat of the desert to gain the benefit of blur or gain actual cold resistance due to acclimation to the cold northern lands. Blindsight for those who have hunted in the deep caverns of the Underdark, that sort of thing.

Which is basically what I'm saying the ranger should be based on.

The ranger adapts to fighting in the desert by learning to fight blinded. And in order to make use of it, they commune with desert spirits/fey/ghosts/demons/devils or harvest sand-hearts to blind their foes to even the odds. Which technically isn't fair since the foes aren't trained to fight blind.

 

[CreamCloud0]

And yet the Ranger is the one with the horde fighting abilities.

To be fair I wasn’t talking about the current ranger but a new hypothetical one.

 

[Charlaquin]

Correct, yet it is still a problem lol

Right, but what I’m getting at is that the problem is the fighter being too conceptually broad and stifling the development of anything interesting that doesn’t cast spells. The fighter’s toes are just too big to worry about stepping on. If other non-casters getting to exist and do cool things makes the fighter less appealing, sucks for the fighter. The Fighter should deal with it, or come up with its own identity beyond hitting stuff with weapons.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Ok, sold!

But what about the Barbarian, who has Primal every two words written in every name, title, and description? I guess at that point its like the martial version of Cleric/Paladin?

Martial version of druid if anything, but primal is a power source and barb and my new ranger are two very different things, one is a giant sack of hit points and melee destruction, maybe a little bit of self buffing, while the other is a ranged kite picking off targets from the sidelines and supporting the rest of the group out of combat with its pile of skills

 

[Shardstone]

Martial version of druid if anything, but primal is a power source and barb and my new ranger are two very different things, one is a giant sack of hit points and melee destruction, maybe a little bit of self buffing, while the other is a ranged kite picking off targets from the sidelines and supporting the rest of the group out of combat with its pile of skills

Hmmm...now I want to combine these two instead and make a more Rangerish Barbarian..

 

[payn]

Not that dual wielding is really a ranger trope. It just sort of happened one day, and we've been stuck with it ever since.

Im ok with it.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'm imagining stuff like the old Horizon Walker got. Your mastery of this environment eventually gives you quasi-magical abilities. Maybe you can use the heat of the desert to gain the benefit of blur or gain actual cold resistance due to acclimation to the cold northern lands. Blindsight for those who have hunted in the deep caverns of the Underdark, that sort of thing.

I think this highlights one of the biggest pieces of crunch that I enjoyed in 3.Xe. It had nice hard rules about how Extraordinary abilities were distinct from Supernatural abilities, which were also distinct from Arcane spells and Divine spells, etc. The strict rules about Magic A is Magic A and Magic B is Magic B gave a much better array of ways to describe these type of class features.

In 5e we just classify it all as "magic". This keeps it simple, sure. But it's also limiting in this case, as there isn't a mechanical difference to define how a ranger's mystical ability to survive in any terrain is different from a wizard spell/ritual that accomplishes the same thing. The ranger is a great example of a class that would benefit from more detailed rules on power sources and non-mundane mechanics.

 

[Charlaquin]

Maybe but you said


to

Which is basically what I'm saying the ranger should be based on.

The ranger adapts to fighting in the desert by learning to fight blinded. And in order to make use of it, they commune with desert spirits/fey/ghosts/demons/devils or harvest sand-hearts to blind their foes to even the odds. Which technically isn't fair since the foes aren't trained to fight blind.

Yeah, it’s the second sentence where you lose me.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Magic, Monster-hunting, and Environmental Adaptation. To me, those are what distinguish the Ranger from just a wilderness Rogue or Fighter.

 

[Kinematics]

A list of characters that I identify as "rangers":

Aragorn — Melee theme, and survival focus.
Legolas — Archery theme, and guide.
Aquaman — The aquatic Beastmaster.
Batman — The urban "Hunter" type.
Grizzly Adams — A Beastmaster living in the wilds.
Lone Ranger — Hunter/Bounty Hunter, with a spot of Beastmaster.
Sam & Dean from Supernatural — Hunters/Monster Slayers.
Drizzt — Mishmash of ranger subclasses.

There is no single poll option that fits all of them. Most of them could be described as living on the boundary between two worlds, including knowledge of the dark sides of their frontiers. Hunting is a common theme.

Weapons vary wildly. Nature is fairly common, if only because that's often part of the scope of "frontier", and includes being able to make good use of the environment. Magic is spotty.

I wouldn't classify any of them as "fighter". They can all fight, but fighting itself isn't their concept or theme. I also wouldn't classify them as "rogues", who I see as more selfish in behavior.