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

[CreamCloud0]

The D&D spell-slot magic system is a great, efficient system does a number of things that is important for story, pacing, and functionality:

1. You get to do things FAST, often as an action, where if you did it in a a mundane fashion, it could take an hour or days to do.
2. You get to bypass a lot of mundane physical material components if the act requires construction.
3. The effect is usally very accurate and/or efficient, not requiring a skill check for failure.
4. It is a system that allows multiple classes get access to these abilities as an option.
5. Spell slots introduce a limit for how often you can perform those actions in a day. Because they are slots rather than dedicated to each specific concept, you get to mix and match. If the DM has a subsystem that also lets you do this stuff in a mundane fashion, that would be on top of the spellcasting slots.

And regarding your comment about "just a thing normal people do," I will contest that claim. Let's look at the level 1 Ranger spells:

• Absorb Elements: Pure magic. Not just a normal thing.
• Alarm: Casting time is 1 minute and lets you set an alarm that covers an entire 20-ft. cube that is smart enough to not trigger from allies, and awakens you with an inaudible ping if you're within a mile. Not just a normal thing. Sure, you can do something different, like letting the ranger ask if they create a mundane tripwire/clattertrap, but that all needs context for location, materials, and time. That is too much bookkeeping for designing accurate, meaningful system that I don't think is worth creating. Therefore in my game a player doesn't need an "class ability" so much as a player asking to do it and as long as they have the means, I give a timeline and ask for an ability check, and I'd likely allow Survival proficiency to apply.
• Animal Friendship: Can magically charm one beast per spell level for 24 hours, pending a Wisdom save, using only an action. Not just a normal thing.
• Beast Bond: Telepathy. Not just a normal thing.
• Cure Wounds. Magical healing. Not just a normal thing.
• Detect Magic. Pure magic. Not just a normal thing.
• Detect Poison and Disease. An action to determine the hazardness of everything within 30 feet at a glance, without a touching it? Not just a normal thing.
• Ensnaring Strike. Magical attack. Not just a normal thing.
• Fog Cloud. Big magical AoE. Not just a normal thing.
• Goodberry. Magical healing food. Not just a normal thing.
• Hail of Thorns. Magical attack. Not just a normal thing.
• Hunter's Mark. Not just a normal thing due to the divinatory aspects that work even if the creature is unfamiliar to you. I suppose it could have been a mystical primal-energy-powered class ability useable X times per long/short rest. But we're already past that point.
• Jump. Not just a normal thing, despite the boring name that matches an act that anyone could do.
• Longstrider. Magical movement enhancement. Not just a normal thing.
• Snare. Not just a normal thing, because it only takes a minute to cast, doesn't care about terrain (doesn't need trees) and is "nearly invisible" no matter the terrain. A mundane snare trap requires all those things. That said, it still sucks. I say make it cost an action to cast so you can use it while you are being pursued. That fixes it for me.
• Speak With Animals. Pure magic. Not just a normal thing. I suppose you can make this a class ability, but would bards, rangers, and druids all get this class ability?
• Zephyr Strike. Magical attack. Not just a normal thing.

So... Alarm and Snare are the ones that are the most mundane. Sure, someone can make a subsystem for traps. Maybe I'd take a look at it. But these spells do it quick and reliably, near invisibly, compared to a mundane option.

it's amazing how differently people can look at and justify the rangers capabilities

i'm just going over that level 1 spells list (and include their spells that were also added later on) and say which ones i really think need to use magic to be performed, red is mundane, green needs magic, blue toes the line and could go either way depending on your interpretation of what/how it's happening

1. Alarm, setting up a noise trap
2. Animal Friendship, befriending a wild animal
3. Cure Wounds, medical skills vs instantaneous healing magic
4. Detect Magic, identifying the presence and types of magic
5. Detect Poison and Disease, reliably identifying signs of poison/illness
6. Ensnaring Strike, instantly restraining your target in bindings
7. Fog Cloud, Edit: (was magic) smoke bomb vs changing the weather
8. Goodberry, foraging enough food vs creating healing food
9. Hail of Thorns, trick spreading arrow vs acually 'bursting' thorns
10. Hunter's Mark, focusing on a target to target weak points or how to track them
11. Jump, juming really good
12. Longstrider, moving faster for a time
13. Speak with Animals, primal language of animals (as in LOTR) vs auto-translation
14. Absorb Elements, redirecting magical energies
15. Beast Bond, seeing through the senses of an animal
16. Entangle, rapid growth of plants to cause difficult terrain
17. Searing Smite, weapon on fire (using oil or suchlike) vs blade becomes glowing hot
18. Snare, it's just a snare trap
19. Sudden Awakening, urgently waking up your companions
20. Wild Cunning, most of the listed actions are mundane barring calling spirits to set up/pack away a campsite, but the idea of being able to set up/pack away a camp rapidly is primarily mundane if the spirits assistance aspect was ommited
21. Zephyr Strike, maneuvering quickly across the battlefield to target an enemy

Edit: breaking that down of 21 abilities that's 9 martial abilities, 5 magic abilities and 7 that could go either way, which if i really had to pick which side i'd put each on: cure wounds, goodberry, speak with animals and wild cunning and fog cloud, hail of thorns and searing smite for 13 martial, 8 magic split

technically UA ranger options include Deft Explorer(Roving) at level 6 or the Mariner fighting style which both provide climb and swim speeds equal to the ranger's base walking speed.

 

[Minigiant]

We keep coming back to this fallacy that nothing can be powerful without being a spell.

That isn't what is said.

What is said is the majority of spell-less rangers never describe a desired nonspell ranger feature that is above Tier 1.

It's not that there are no nonmagical ranger stuff. It's that when us magical ranger fans describe them, the fandom sats "NO THAT HAS TO BE A SPELL".

 

[Vaalingrade]

This is why we ignore the fandom. They/we are why we're in this situation in the first place.

 

[Incenjucar]

The point is that mostly already exist as many people describe.

It's usually:
1) a Fighter with a feat for Expertise and a feat for Hunters Mark
or
2) a Ranger who describes their spells as practiced martial training

For the people who want something else, it is usually the rewriting of the ranger spells lit as not-spells rebalanced for at-will use. However no one is willing to dedicate space in a core book for that nor in the requesting group willing to agree on a list of full scaling features if they did.

So WOTC, Paizo, and most publishers never attempt it and say "Play a Fighter and customize with feats".

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

[Minigiant]

This is why we ignore the fandom. They/we are why we're in this situation in the first place.

That doesn't solve the issue.

I described how a Spellcasting Ranger is different from a Druid.

You have to describe how a Spell-less Ranger is different from a Fighter with Expertise or a reflavored spellcasting Ranger.

 

[Vaalingrade]

That doesn't solve the issue.

I pretty much solves most issues.

I described how a Spellcasting Ranger is different from a Druid.

Not really. I see things druids can do, but they're half-casters. Half-casters seem to be important for some reason. Because someone wants... less capability per day? This has never been acknowledged or explained, just stated as a thing.

You have to describe how a Spell-less Ranger is different from a Fighter with Expertise or a reflavored spellcasting Ranger.

Being capable of using skills reliably and existing at all outside of combat easily takes us past the fighter.

And a spell-less ranger can't be countered and doesn't have to defile the grave of Jack Vance.

 

[Minigiant]

Being capable of using skills reliably and existing at all outside of combat easily takes us past the fighter.

And a spell-less ranger can't be countered and doesn't have to defile the grave of Jack Vance.

Sounds like a Fighter with Skill Expert feat?

 

[Incenjucar]

Sounds like a Fighter with Skill Expert feat?

Not even close.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Sounds like a Fighter with Skill Expert feat?

How many of that feat? At first level.

also, the 'class fantasy' described for the Bow Wizard Ranger is literally just a druid, so I didn't see what this is trying to prove.

 

[Minigiant]

How many of that feat? At first level.

All you are describing is Skill Expert for Expertise in skill.

also, the 'class fantasy' described for the Bow Wizard Ranger is literally just a druid, so I didn't see what this is trying to prove.

I'm a describing

Combat: Weapons based combat with occasional persistent physical enhancement (Hunters Mark/Barkskin/Blade Thrist) or instantaneous elemental/natural weapon enhancement.(Lightning Arrow, Ensnaring Strike)

Exploration: High Dexterity and Wisdom based skill check with magic to bypass when nature and wilderness makes success difficult or impossible

Social: Basic/Poor social skills but with broad language range including animals and eventually plants and nature itself