D&D (2024) What type of ranger would your prefer for 2024?

[Emberashh]

Not if you are planning to hit most of the iconic ones. 25 effect is low balling.

That's essential the issue stated over and over. There are a lot of Ranger effects. The spell-less vs spellcasting line is a question of "How many effects do you consider Rangery?"

And past a certain number, the list grows too long for any major publisher to commit that many pages of their core player book to one class.

But adding a gazillion spells, no biggie.

 

[Charlaquin]

Started a draft already. Very curious to see how it turns out.

I mean, there are a lot of them out there. Right now I’m directing my creative energies towards designing a megadungeon and mapping the rooms at 5ft-per-inch scale.

Just realized I misread you. I thought you were telling me to “start a draft, already” rather than announcing that you had started a draft already

I’ll be interested to see your draft when you finish it.

 

[Minigiant]

But adding a gazillion spells, no biggie.

Gazillion wizard spells

Ranger doesn't even have enough spells on their list in 5e.

 

[Emberashh]

Gazillion wizard spells

Ranger doesn't even have enough spells on their list in 5e.

Right so we can do hundreds of pages of wizard stuff, most of which is filler garbage that never sees play, but we better get real stingy about how much space we give to the Ranger.

 

[Minigiant]

Right so we can do hundreds of pages of wizard stuff, most of which is filler garbage that never sees play, but we better get real stingy about how much space we give to the Ranger.

We?

It's WOTC and TSR who are the Wizard elitists.


Wizards...how many subclasses?
Rangers...how many subclasses?

 

[Vaalingrade]

We as a community are the ones that taught them wizards are the class that matters though.

 

[Minigiant]

We as a community are the ones that taught them wizards are the class that matters though.

That is the crux of the issue.

We as a community told TSR and WOTC that the most important rules are the Wizard spell, Cleric spells, and too a lesser extent Druid spells.

But having 25% of your player book dedicated more or less to 3 class means there is no room for a deep spell-less subsystem for 1 class. A lot of the warlocks subsystem is just casting spells. Same with the monk. And the fighter's barely scales and is incomplete.

 

[Riley]

What? There was no design in the old-school ranger. Just looking at the 2E Ranger...

I mostly loved the 1e ranger - or a cleric/ranger if I wanted spells.

I only played one cleric/ranger in 2e, and that was in a wahoo campaign where the actual rules seemed pretty irrelevant.

The 3.5e ranger was great, and mostly spell-free at the levels I played. (The 3e Ranger suffered from too-few skill points IMO. I tried a wilderness skill-monkey Rogue instead - but his combat skills disappointed me greatly.)

 

[Riley]

5E's interest in dealing with the challenges of nature and travel is so anemic that it's no surprise the ranger feels weird. I get why they chose to address those things with a light touch, but it doesn't give rangers much room to shine.

This.

My first D&D campaigns were with a bunch of Boy Scouts, often playing while camping.

Probably why I (still) love traditional low-magic Rangers.

 

[Horwath]

How to make Hunter's mark and other Ranger features a non-spell.

Hunter's mark,

Bonus action
Chose a target creature within 150ft
You have advantage on Perception checks vs that target.
Once on your turn you can deal extra damage to your target equal to your proficiency modifier.
Mark lasts until you finish a long rest or pick a new target.
At 5th level you can have 2 marks at the same time and you can mark 2 targets with same Bonus action.
At 11th level you can have 3 marks at the same time and you can mark 3 targets with same Bonus action.
At 17th level you can have 4 marks at the same time and you can mark 4 targets with same Bonus action.


Track;
You have Advantage on Survival checks for tracking creatures,
You can track at fast pace, and you remain alert while tracking and at fast pace.


Endurance:
You halve(round down) your effective exhaustion levels.