How does being able to hide help the ranger? he gets no bonus than any other character in fact the stealth rogue pops up and hits you for extra xd6 while the ranger gets no particular bonus.
Picture this:
It is a cool morning. While savoring the delights of the last morsel of man flesh, the hill giant smiles as he wiggles his toes effectively smearing the dew and grass between them into a paste that mats his toe hair.
He thinks back to his mornings hunt for breakfast, thinking the bear he found would be easy pickins he caught sight of some smoke over the next hill. Apparently, there was a small group of rodent sized humans (well rodent-sized in comparison to his mighty bulk) that had the shame to walk in his hills without his permission and without giving one of themselves up first as last nights dinner. In a rage he charged the sleepy few into gorish mess. Picking up the peices he thought - what every smart hill giant would think - what an opportunity, they now know what happens when they go on my land without permission, and I just got myself some tastey breakfast.
Well, in the midst of his musings he was rudely and sharply interrupted with a searing pain in his lower back. It felt like a stirge had just pricked him. Reaching behind he could feel the shaft of an arrow sticking a few inches out of his thick hide. By the size he knew one of those pesky human peices must not have learned their lesson. In a snort of rage he screamed and turned around. Suddenly another arrow flew from cover of the foliage. The location of the infidel was obvious - that thick patch of bushes and trees maybe 100 yards or so away. unforutantely at that distance he could not make out anything specifically. As he began his charge forward to smite the pesky creature under his great club, another shot hit him in the shoulder.
THAT HURT!
He redoubled his efforts, in a matter of seconds he was there. He started rummaging through the foliage smashing trees here and there. WHERE WAS THIS PESKY RAT. He saw and heard nothing.
After a couple of minutes he gave up on his search. With a glance over his shoulder, he figured he must have scared the creature into submission, it was not the first time something like that had happened. With a hurrumph, he slung his club on his shoulder and began walking proudly back to his cooking fire - he still had desert - the really tiny human he had kicked. The one female in the group seemed to get really upset by this - maybe she wanted to eat him - who knows.
On his way back, he felt another searing pain in his back - now he was angry. He ran faster than before back to the glade. In a rage he literally tore the glade limb from limb. Only the huge mightly oak could withstand his blows. Another searing pain - this time in his side - but this was not a little prick. He looked down and saw a lightly armored figure removing his longsword from the giants kidney and with two more thrusts and a slice from his short sword, the giant lay eviscerated at the ranger's feet.
While sneak attack is incredibly useful with stealth, it is not the end all or be all of stealth - and it has a severe limitation within 30' for ranged attacks - meaning if you want to continue to hide you get a -20 to your roll where as the opponent only gets a -3 for distance.
The ranger can use stealth efficiently at range (as efficiently as a rogue, but has no incentive to get closer).
