Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why are non-caster Ranger themes so popular?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 8419360" data-attributes="member: 6932123"><p>Yep.</p><p></p><p>Army rangers:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Marksmanship = Archery, one of the common weapon choices for a ranger</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Physical Training = Athletics, climbing, swimming</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Medical Training = Some means of healing. Unfortunately D&D has a strong leaning towards magical healing, so this becomes a notable source of conflict for a non-caster ranger.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Small-unit tactics = A basic D&D party, so nothing particularly special here</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mobility = Ignoring difficult terrain, plus climbing and swimming again</li> </ul><p>Nothing too special, just noting that it lines up reasonably well with some of the basic concepts of the ranger.</p><p></p><p>Forest rangers:</p><p></p><p>Again, all pretty much in line with people's idea of the D&D ranger. The D&D ranger may not be helping park visitors, but he is expected to act as the main guide for the party when traveling in the wilderness.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A druid may protect nature because she is a part of nature. A ranger is more likely to protect nature because of the problems that disturbing it causes, and to enforce the "laws" protecting the forest. Fire prevention because fires are bad. Trail maintenance to avoid injuries to either travelers or wildlife (because injured wildlife becomes bait for predators or monsters, and you don't want them near traveled trails). And numerous similar cause-and-effect problems where civilization can shoot itself in the foot in its ignorance of how nature works. Also, anti-poaching enforcement.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Beyond that, rangers are trackers and hunters, which brings its own set of implications. Tracking is not just following a physical trail; it's understanding the nature of the beast and the environment. Beyond merely the Survival skill, it's Investigation (information gathering) and Nature (understanding how creatures interact with their environment). It's knowing whether a creature will head downstream or upstream at this time of year, for purposes of shelter or food. It's knowing where a creature will head to feel safe, if it was injured. It's knowing migration patterns and mating seasons of not just the creature, but the animals that the creature may hunt for food. It's knowing where to not go during flood season, or to avoid the soft snow that's likely to trigger an avalanche.</p><p></p><p>And of course it takes very little to shift all this from 'creature' to 'person'. (Explicitly so when dealing with poachers.) Whether ordinary hunter, monster hunter, or bounty hunter, a ranger's skills are all tuned to helping him accomplish his goals.</p><p></p><p>Speaking of animal companions, I was trying to come up with a list of all the ranger companions I could think of.</p><p></p><p>Drizzt: Guenhwyvar (panther)</p><p>Grizzly Adams: bear</p><p>Old bounty hunter in Battle Angel Alita: cyborg hounds</p><p>Lone Ranger: Silver (horse)</p><p>Batman: Robin (/s)</p><p>Rachel from Worm: dogs</p><p></p><p>And it occurred to me that Rachel's dogs, when transformed, are basically using the Wildshape mechanic. Their large forms can be destroyed, but the dogs themselves can safely escape the evaporating husk. It would be interesting to apply this mechanic to the beastmaster's animal companion.</p><p></p><p></p><p>As for the relation with magic, the only thing that a ranger commonly does that really needs magic is healing. And 'needs' in the sense that D&D doesn't really allow for healing others without magic, or a magic-like ability (Lay on Hands). Of course that's not really a strict rule, and the exceptions give some interesting ideas of how else it might get implemented.</p><p></p><p>So, setting aside healing, the only other thing that a ranger does that 'needs' magic are the various arrow spells that are spells solely for the sake of limiting them via concentration and number of spells known.</p><p></p><p>So spellcasting solves the 'problem' of both healing and mechanics for special arrow attacks. It's not that ranger needs to be a spellcaster; it's that it's a convenient game mechanism for giving ranger some archery and healing features. It just also causes a rift in the perception and expectation that people have of the core concept of the class.</p><p></p><p>So I'd say that people want a non-caster ranger because casting isn't a part of the class concept; it's only a mechanic that was tacked on for convenience. Some rangers may find spellcasting to be an actually useful tool, but it really doesn't feel like something that defines the ranger class itself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kinematics, post: 8419360, member: 6932123"] Yep. Army rangers: [LIST] [*]Marksmanship = Archery, one of the common weapon choices for a ranger [*]Physical Training = Athletics, climbing, swimming [*]Medical Training = Some means of healing. Unfortunately D&D has a strong leaning towards magical healing, so this becomes a notable source of conflict for a non-caster ranger. [*]Small-unit tactics = A basic D&D party, so nothing particularly special here [*]Mobility = Ignoring difficult terrain, plus climbing and swimming again [/LIST] Nothing too special, just noting that it lines up reasonably well with some of the basic concepts of the ranger. Forest rangers: Again, all pretty much in line with people's idea of the D&D ranger. The D&D ranger may not be helping park visitors, but he is expected to act as the main guide for the party when traveling in the wilderness. A druid may protect nature because she is a part of nature. A ranger is more likely to protect nature because of the problems that disturbing it causes, and to enforce the "laws" protecting the forest. Fire prevention because fires are bad. Trail maintenance to avoid injuries to either travelers or wildlife (because injured wildlife becomes bait for predators or monsters, and you don't want them near traveled trails). And numerous similar cause-and-effect problems where civilization can shoot itself in the foot in its ignorance of how nature works. Also, anti-poaching enforcement. Beyond that, rangers are trackers and hunters, which brings its own set of implications. Tracking is not just following a physical trail; it's understanding the nature of the beast and the environment. Beyond merely the Survival skill, it's Investigation (information gathering) and Nature (understanding how creatures interact with their environment). It's knowing whether a creature will head downstream or upstream at this time of year, for purposes of shelter or food. It's knowing where a creature will head to feel safe, if it was injured. It's knowing migration patterns and mating seasons of not just the creature, but the animals that the creature may hunt for food. It's knowing where to not go during flood season, or to avoid the soft snow that's likely to trigger an avalanche. And of course it takes very little to shift all this from 'creature' to 'person'. (Explicitly so when dealing with poachers.) Whether ordinary hunter, monster hunter, or bounty hunter, a ranger's skills are all tuned to helping him accomplish his goals. Speaking of animal companions, I was trying to come up with a list of all the ranger companions I could think of. Drizzt: Guenhwyvar (panther) Grizzly Adams: bear Old bounty hunter in Battle Angel Alita: cyborg hounds Lone Ranger: Silver (horse) Batman: Robin (/s) Rachel from Worm: dogs And it occurred to me that Rachel's dogs, when transformed, are basically using the Wildshape mechanic. Their large forms can be destroyed, but the dogs themselves can safely escape the evaporating husk. It would be interesting to apply this mechanic to the beastmaster's animal companion. As for the relation with magic, the only thing that a ranger commonly does that really needs magic is healing. And 'needs' in the sense that D&D doesn't really allow for healing others without magic, or a magic-like ability (Lay on Hands). Of course that's not really a strict rule, and the exceptions give some interesting ideas of how else it might get implemented. So, setting aside healing, the only other thing that a ranger does that 'needs' magic are the various arrow spells that are spells solely for the sake of limiting them via concentration and number of spells known. So spellcasting solves the 'problem' of both healing and mechanics for special arrow attacks. It's not that ranger needs to be a spellcaster; it's that it's a convenient game mechanism for giving ranger some archery and healing features. It just also causes a rift in the perception and expectation that people have of the core concept of the class. So I'd say that people want a non-caster ranger because casting isn't a part of the class concept; it's only a mechanic that was tacked on for convenience. Some rangers may find spellcasting to be an actually useful tool, but it really doesn't feel like something that defines the ranger class itself. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why are non-caster Ranger themes so popular?
Top