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

[James Gasik]

Maybe, but looking at the latest play test, I think I'd be very pleased with playing a primal spell list bard to fulfill my ranger class fantasy.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Problem is, most of the spellcasting ranger's spells are just to do things normal people can do that has to be a spell because D&D players and designers have a horrifically limited experience pool.

The 'class fantasy' of the spellcasting ranger is 'to do what normal people can do, only with artificial limits on how often you can do it', or 'things you would be able to do with skills if they weren't terribly designed out of feat of adding more than two numbers together'.

 

[Minigiant]

Problem is, most of the spellcasting ranger's spells are just to do things normal people can do that has to be a spell because D&D players and designers have a horrifically limited experience pool.

The 'class fantasy' of the spellcasting ranger is 'to do what normal people can do, only with artificial limits on how often you can do it', or 'things you would be able to do with skills if they weren't terribly designed out of feat of adding more than two numbers together'.

Some of it is. Some of it isn't.

Normal people can't speak to plants, see through the eyes of beasts, call fairies, summon thorns, walk on water, leave a wake of fire, or teleport through trees.

And again ranger used to have more.

Part of the D&D ranger, and the ranger of many modern high fantasy setting, is wielding some supernatural cow excrement that normal people don't know how to do to survive, protect their range, and hunt their foes.

The class fantasy of the spellcasting ranger is a warrior who placed a hunting trap that encases the one that trigger it in a block of ice. Then when the victims buddies huddle around them to chip him or her out, an arrow hits their shoulder and explodes in Primal fire. Which of course pulls the ranger, his party, and a couple beasts out of invisibility to pounce of the softened survivors.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Some of it is. Some of it isn't.

Normal people can't speak to plants, see through the eyes of beasts, call fairies, summon thorns, walk on water, leave a wake of fire, or teleport through trees.

And again ranger used to have more.

Part of the D&D ranger, and the ranger of many modern high fantasy setting, is wielding some supernatural cow excrement that normal people don't know how to do to survive, protect their range, and hunt their foes.

The class fantasy of the spellcasting ranger is a warrior who placed a hunting trap that encases the one that trigger it in a block of ice. Then when the victims buddies huddle around them to chip him or her out, an arrow hits their shoulder and explodes in Primal fire. Which of course pulls the ranger, his party, and a couple beasts out of invisibility to pounce of the softened survivors.

It sounds like you're confusing Rangers, as an archetype, with WoW's Hunter class.

I don't think most people envision Rangers as being able to do all that. Indeed, much of what WoW Hunters do is rather antithetical to D&D Rangers.

 

[Incenjucar]

In 2E, the most spell-heavy rangers got up to 4/4/3/2 1st-4th level spells, and the least magical got 2/2 1st-2nd level spells, with each getting a bonus 1st level spell due to Wisdom requirements.

A level 20 ranger could thus have as few as 5 spells per day, most of which could easily be replaced with alchemical, herbal, or crafted items, or advanced uses of skills.

 

[Minigiant]

It sounds like you're confusing Rangers, as an archetype, with WoW's Hunter class.

I don't think most people envision Rangers as being able to do all that. Indeed, much of what WoW Hunters do is rather antithetical to D&D Rangers.

Those types of rangers appear in more than just Warcraft.

Warhammer and most popular fantasy gaming series have these type of rangers.

Same with most modern fantasy comics. And especially animated works.

 

[Incenjucar]

Those types of rangers appear in more than just Warcraft.

How many of them are from before Warcraft?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Warhammer and most popular fantasy gaming series have these type of rangers.

Absolutely not.

Not at all. I'd consider myself extremely familiar with all rangers and ranger-like characters in Warhammer Fantasy in various formats.

They have not a single one of the powers you mentioned.

And no, I'm very familiar with "popular fantasy gaming series", and again, no, their rangers do not typically have these things. It's basically Warcraft (including Warcraft 3) and stuff that's deriving directly from Warcraft (like DotA).

Rangers in Dragon Age, for example, do not have any of these powers (they do have some others, but not these ones).

As "modern fantasy comics" and "animated works", which ones SPECIFICALLY are you referring to? Name them, please.

You're sounding awfully like the people I used to have deal with who constantly claimed things like "Most modern fantasy novels have orcs, dwarves and halflings in!", which was abjectly and demonstrably false. It was funny how they always relied on generalizations and could never, ever come up with specifics.

If you can't come up with specifics, I feel like we must dismiss your claims here entirely.

 

[Incenjucar]

It's certainly true that "bow-using person" is the Hunter or a Hunter-ripoff to a lot of folks, but that's just because WoW was a very successful video game, and the Hunter was also certainly inspired by the Ranger, but that doesn't cause the Venn diagram to inhale Ranger into Hunter's circle.

 

[Shardstone]

This conversation goes in circles endlessly, solutions, either drafted up or proposed, get left behind in order to repeat the same tired arguments again and again and again and again and again. Yeesh. Everyone has their opinions and no one wants to try it someone else's way. It isn't that its hard to make a compromise ranger, it's that people don't want to compromise at all and want their vision to be the only vision.