D&D 5E Which version of the Ranger?

[TheAlkaizer]

I've played an extensive amount of 5E since its release; but surprisingly enough, I never played nor had a player play the ranger. So I have almost no idea of the intricacies of the class. However, I'm introducing a friend of mine to tabletop RPGs and he's really excited by the class fantasy. I want to make sure he has a great time and I'm willing to shift to a different version of the Ranger or even homebrew some stuff.

I know there's been a revised version of the class released and I've often seen snippets of people saying it was not doing too bad but definitely had some issues.

1. I'd like if you guys could shed some light on the issues that the class has. Which features are especially lacking? What are the core issues that people complain about?
2. Which version would you recommend to use?
3. If not a version, what homebrew ideas did you incorporate to better the experience of player Ranger?

I'll be doing a deep dive of this topic today and hopefully I should have a better idea on how to approach this!

 

[commandercrud]

The ranger is fine as is. People just like to complain.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Here's how I run Ranger:

1. Start with the base 5e Ranger in the PHB.
2. Unless you're playing a campaign where the abilities would be extraordinary (hint: you aren't) replace Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy with the alternatives from the Variant Class Features Unearthed Arcana (and which, IMO, are likely to appear in November's Tasha's book).
3. Do not use the Beast Master subclass. Not even with the variant class feature rules. WotC vastly, vastly, vastly overestimates how powerful an animal companion is.

The Variant Class Feature rules correct every issue I have with the base class. I'm fine with writing Beast Master off entirely because WotC's dev team has a wildly inflated perception of how good Animal Companions are.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Here's how I run Ranger:

1. Start with the base 5e Ranger in the PHB.
2. Unless you're playing a campaign where the abilities would be extraordinary (hint: you aren't) replace Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy with the alternatives from the Variant Class Features Unearthed Arcana (and which, IMO, are likely to appear in November's Tasha's book).
3. Do not use the Beast Master subclass. Not even with the variant class feature rules. WotC vastly, vastly, vastly overestimates how powerful an animal companion is.

The Variant Class Feature rules correct every issue I have with the base class. I'm fine with writing Beast Master off entirely because WotC's dev team has a wildly inflated perception of how good Animal Companions are.

Thank you for the insight. I'll build that character and see what the numbers look like. One question; if my player is excited by the fantasy of the beast master? How would you go around fixing/including it?

 

[Minigiant]

I'd like if you guys could shed some light on the issues that the class has. Which features are especially lacking? What are the core issues that people complain about?

There's 2 parts to this.

1. What are the issues with the ranger as it is designed to be played?
2. What are the issues with the ranger in the way some want to play it?

With 1, the issues with the ranger are its too few spells known, too few unique spells, and heavy use of ribbon class features

With 2, many people straight up don't want to pay the ranger as designed for D&D and instead wish to play variant fighters and rogues. With that in mind, all the class is lacking.

Which version would you recommend to use?

Depends.
The PHB one works best as the D&D ranger.

If not a version, what homebrew ideas did you incorporate to better the experience of player Ranger?

The best homebrew for the ranger is to increase the number of spells known and favored enemies. If your campaign skips exploration alot, use the alternate class features in the Variant CF UA.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Thank you for the insight. I'll build that character and see what the numbers look like. One question; if my player is excited by the fantasy of the beast master? How would you go around fixing/including it?

One alternative to the Beastmaster subclass is to just have an animal companion acquired through rangery exploits without special class features. The UA variant features also gives some free spells known in place of the primal awareness feature, including (with a free daily casting) Speak with Animals at level 3 and Beast Sense at level 5. Combine those with the UA Variant Feature Expertise option in Animal Handling and the Ranger can quickly feel like a Beastmaster without messing around with that subclass, and as an added bonus they can acquire their companion whenever story and luck determine rather than needing them to show up upon the beginning of level 3 to activate their subclass features.

 

[GlassJaw]

Thank you for the insight. I'll build that character and see what the numbers look like. One question; if my player is excited by the fantasy of the beast master? How would you go around fixing/including it?

The Artificer class has a much better companion mechanic than the PHB.

My best advice is to do a search. You'll find multitudes of discussions and homebrew rangers to sink your teeth into. Absolutely use the UA Alternate Class Features at a minimum. I also like combining that with the UA Revised Ranger and offering the player some choice of abilities (like Favored Enemy or Favored Foe).

 

[Gladius Legis]

The ranger is fine as is. People just like to complain.

Wrong.

 

[Gadget]

I think there was a UA that had an alternate Best Companion stats as well, it you want to go through the UAs and look for it. Otherwise, I second the alternate class features UA, with the caveat that this was written without taking multiclassing into account. If you use it and the mutli-classing optional feature, it would be very easy for someone to "cherr-pick" some good abilities for a one or two level dip into Ranger. You might want to put some sort of restriction on that. It sounds like the upcoming Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will include an updated version of these features.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Thank you for the insight. I'll build that character and see what the numbers look like. One question; if my player is excited by the fantasy of the beast master? How would you go around fixing/including it?

You could use the last Revised Ranger (not sure of the date but there were two or three of them). It's more powerful than other classes, but I don't think it's that bad. Or you could use the Battlesmith Artificer's Steel Defender rules instead of the animal companion rules, though you would need to reflavor things a bit (i.e., spend an action to heal 2d6 hit points, spend 1 minute to restore it to life, etc.). A new player might find that wonky. I'd probably encourage that player to just play an Artificer.

In general, I would try to steer the player away from the Beast Master subclass. The problems run pretty deep:

1. The companion consumes the PC's actions to take actions, which let's you substitute dealing 1d8+5 damage to deal 1d8+5 damage. This is a bit silly because you could just buy a freaking dog and it doesn't have that drawback. Even at the lower attack and damage, it's better because it doesn't cost the player's action. That's to say nothing of comparing it to summoned creatures which don't require anything beyond concentration to control.
2. The companion has no special protection from death. There's no easy way to heal or resurrect it. There's no way to get a new one except to go out into the wilderness and find a new one. It doesn't work like Find Familiar or Find Steed... even though there's no good reason for that. Many DMs will just kill an animal companion -- on accident or without reservation -- and then the PC has no benefit from their subclass until they can spend the time to find a new one. That might be several game sessions.
3. You still have the problem that animals can't climb ladders. The world is much more traversable by humanoids than by animals. Rather, the adventure will only ever lead to where humanoids can go simply out of necessity. However, it can easily lead where an animal can't go.

There's nothing saying your players can't have fun with the Beast Master as written, but there are a lot of ways that Beast Master doesn't feel very fun.