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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 9470423" data-attributes="member: 3586">AD&D is a bit weird, because it's Gary's clean-up of the original Ranger (fan-created) rules for OD&D, which were very definitively based on Aragorn.So, Joe Fischer created the ranger (first presented in The Strategic Review #2). They're always Lawful (the Law-Neutral-Chaos axis was the only alignment in those days). In the original system, they got 2d6 hit points at first level, and topping out at 10d6 at 9th level, plus 2 hp every level thereafter - or d8s using the Greyhawk system (which has fighters at d8 hit dice per level, so they are actually a bit tougher than fighters as originally designed).Oh, and they get a +33% bonus to earned XP... independent of attribute scores (which gave a fighter a 10% bonus at max). They have the ability to track, but no other wilderness skills. (They gain cleric & magic-user spells at high levels, and some interesting other high-level abilities, like using any healing magic items, or clairvoyance, clairaudience, esp, telepathy, TK, teleportation magic items... don't know where that last few come from!)Gary keeps their HD at d8, but the fighter is bumped to D10. Now the druid exists, their spells are bumped from cleric to druid, and the list of magic items they can use is reduced significantly (to the more Aragorn-like clairaudience - telepathy chunk, which much all relate to the Palantir).And 2E does even more surgery. Druid and Clerics now share the same spell lists, so Rangers get "clerical" spells from certain spheres. The "seeing" magic item list disappears out of their class description. For the first time, we get animal handling as an ability, and suddenly the ranger has special abilities (two-weapon fighting, stealth) only useable in light armour - as opposed to the plate-clad ranger of OD&D/1E.It's probably the class that has most looked for an identity. Because a lot of the early attempts are "like a fighter, but better!" Later on, it becomes more of a wilderness warrior - expanding on what fits with tracking - while dropping Aragorn elements. 1E: "Rangers are a sub-class of fighter who are adept at woodcraft, tracking, scouting, and infiltration and spying."2E: "The ranger is a hunter and woodsman who lives by not only his sword, but also his wits. Robin Hood, Orion, Jack the giant killer, and the huntresses of Diana are examples of rangers from history and legend."3E: "The forests and hills are home to fierce and cunning creatures, such as bloodthirsty owlbears and malicious displacerbeasts. But more cunning and powerful than these monsters is the ranger, a skilled hunter and stalker. He knows the woods as if they were his home (as indeed they are), and he knows his prey in deadly detail"4E: "Rangers are watchful warriors who roam past the horizon to safeguard a region, a principle, or a way of life. Masters of bow and blade, rangers excel at hit-and-run assaults and can quickly and silently eliminate foes. Rangers lay superb ambushes and excel at avoiding danger."5E: "Far from bustling cities, amid the trees of trackless forests and across wide plains, Rangers keep their unending watch in the wilderness. Rangers learn to track their quarry as a predator does, moving stealthily through the wilds and hiding themselves in brush and rubble."(Some of this duplicated from earlier posts).Cheers,Merric</blockquote>

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