D&D 5E Why Are Rangers Arcane Spellcasters?

[guachi]

Okay, the rules don't literally say they are arcane casters instead of divine casters. I don't think it mentions it for any spellcasters.

But... they don't know all of their spells like Paladins, Druids, and Clerics do and they don't get a holy symbol (or any focus, for that matter)

And yet Rangers are basically the half-caster version of a Druid like the Paladin is a half-caster version of a Cleric.

Looking at the Ranger spell list he has 46 spells, eight of them (17%) are exclusively Ranger spells. Eleven spells (24%) are Ranger/Druid spells. Exactly three spells - Alarm (Wizard), Silence (Bard/Cleric), and Nondetection (Bard/Wizard) are not either Ranger exclusive or on the Druid list.

33% of Ranger spells are Bard spells.

28% of Ranger spells are Cleric spells. Paladins, by comparison, are 58% Cleric spells (Paladins are so half-casting clerics with 3/5 of their spells being Cleric spells and all but two of the rest being Paladin only spells)

76% of Ranger spells are Druid spells. This is far above any other class

17% of Ranger spells are Paladin spells.

20% of Ranger spells are Sorcerer spells.

Exactly 0% of Ranger spells are Warlock spells. Rangers are treated as an Arcane caster and yet have no spells in common with an Arcane class.

26% of Ranger spells are Wizard spells, which is really low. Massive amounts of the Arcane caster lists are Wizard spells - Bard (73%), Warlock (88%), and Sorcerer (95%).

Basically, the Ranger spell list looks more like that of the Divine casters than Arcane casters.

Since Rangers are half-casting Druids, why not give them the casting features the half-casting cleric (Paladin) has? That is, known all spells on the list, a druidic focus and spells prepared equal to Wisdom modifier + half Ranger level. Under this system, the "spells prepared" are very similar to the current method for "spells known" but the Ranger actually has some ability to swap spells every day.

I can't figure what function was served crippling a Ranger's spells known like they did.

 

[Redthistle]

I think it comes from the development of the ranger class in early editions of the game. The Vancian mechanic of needing spell components was built in to ranger spell casting. What follows is my brainstorming on possible reasons.

Some things to consider:

1) Where most other spell casters have some external source for learning spells [granted by a deity (cleric), learned from mentors, colleagues, and/or nature spirits (druid), taught by a mentor or learned from a spell book or scroll or the like (wizard), bartered for from a patron (warlock), or innately gifted through some ancestral connection (sorcerer)], a ranger is more of a self-taught caster.

2) The class does not use a spell focus, but depends on the material components where such are required.

3) The self-sufficiency of rangers will tend to keep most of them away from other spell casting types, with druids being the class they might encounter most often, so most of the spells they witness being cast will likely be druidic.

4) Seeing that the same spell can be cast by other classes, sometimes using components, but also using different kinds of spell foci would open up the notion that there's more than one means to power a spell.

5) Rangers' independent attitudes could lead to puzzling out on their own a personal way of casting a spell, since they're used to doing things their own way. It's like, if they spotted someone riding a bicycle and wanted one of their own, they'd figure out a way to design and build one using materials they were already familiar with.

Those are my musings, for what they're worth.

 

[Ketser]

Um... The Player's Handbook states that rangers are divine spellcasters not arcane. Rather your question should be why are rangers spontaneous spellcasters, not preparation based.

Why are they spontaneous is a question i have asked several times. A part of me suspects that it's simply to separate them a bit more from paladins. Maybe to show that ranger who is often described as a self-sufficient character has learned its nature/divine magic mostly by himself and as such is a bit more limited in his spells known.

A smaller part of me thinks that is was initially intended as a sort of compromise. Pick hunter's mark, a few "arrow spells" and subtler spells and yu can limit how magical your ranger feels and easier to reskin them into martial. At least this was the idea i got, when i first read the final version of ranger.

 

[guachi]

You are correct. It doesn't mention in the class description for the Ranger that their spells are divine. I had to look in the index and it mentions on Page 205 in the Spellcasting section that Rangers use divine magic.

So they are divine casters who don't operate under any of the same rules the other divine casters use. Though in practice it basically means what you've written - spontaneous caster vs. preparation based.

It seems like it gives Paladins a major boost over Rangers when it comes to spells. In online discussions of Rangers, their spell list, aside from Hunter's Mark, rarely comes up in discussions of Ranger play or balance.

I suspect, given the limitations of Ranger spell choice, that there are many Ranger spells that just don't get taken. It's not really choice; it's the illusion of choice. (Like how at level two you get two spells but one of them is almost assuredly going to be Hunter's Mark. So really your choices are Hunter's Mark and one other spell). It's like Rangers are a half-caster where the caster part is so very minor.

 

[I'm A Banana]

There's not really a such thing as "arcane" or "divine" casting anymore. All casting is spellcasting, and each class defines how they use spellcasting.

Rangers "use the magical essence of nature" and use magic which "draws on [their] attunement to nature."

The reason they have a tight list of spells known is probably to add variety and to reflect their self-sufficient natures. They don't petition any entity for magical aid - the spells they know are part of their skill-set, not granted to them.

Mechanically, you'd probably be "fine" if you let rangers choose from the whole list, but they were likely relegated to a list of spells known because that emphasizes their individuality and self-sufficiency in subtle ways.

 

[guachi]

Plus, their spells known is even lower than that of the 1/3 casters - the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster. Excepting level 2, the EK and AT have 0-2 more spells known than the Ranger. And they get cantrips where the Ranger gets none.

Personally, I'm inclined to give Rangers all of their spells as spells known. A half caster with a crippled list of spells doesn't seem very fun to play. And a whole lot of Ranger spells (at least the spells that aren't exclusively Ranger spells) are fun and interesting non-combat spells. Every Ranger-only spell is combat oriented.

 

[QuietBrowser]

The reason why Rangers are spellcasters stems back from D&D's origin as a wargame that wanted to emulate the Lord of the Rings. Because Gygax couldn't think of any way to separate Aragon's feats like preternatural tracking skill or knowledge of medicinal herbs from the fledgeling spells system, he decided to simply give rangers a handful of spells. They're "intuitive" because on the meta-level they're not supposed to represent magic so much as preternatural skill and a deep, intimate knowledge of the wilderness - that's why they don't need any sort of spellcaster's focus or spellbook; their abilities are more like spell-like abilities than "real" magic.

 

[Staffan]

I mentioned in one of the bazillion ranger threads that I think rangers would actually work better as preparation-based casters. The way I see it, rangers like to figure out what a situation is before barging in, and spell preparation would make them better at that aspect. That means that if they know they're hunting/defending against venomous creatures, they might prepare protection from poison, and if they're fighting a wizard they might take silence instead. Going to a place where they might need to go below water, take water breathing. Travel somewhere inhospitable where they won't be able to find food, take goodberry​.

 

[SkidAce]

There's not really a such thing as "arcane" or "divine" casting anymore. All casting is spellcasting, and each class defines how they use spellcasting.

Rangers "use the magical essence of nature" and use magic which "draws on [their] attunement to nature."

The reason they have a tight list of spells known is probably to add variety and to reflect their self-sufficient natures. They don't petition any entity for magical aid - the spells they know are part of their skill-set, not granted to them.

Mechanically, you'd probably be "fine" if you let rangers choose from the whole list, but they were likely relegated to a list of spells known because that emphasizes their individuality and self-sufficiency in subtle ways.

As [MENTION=6785802]guachi[/MENTION] states, pg 205 does call spells "divine".

 

[SkidAce]

I use the fact that rangers have to "choose" their spells to differentiate between orders(groups) of rangers in my world.

There is one group, The Lightning Rangers, that use arcane spells exclusively (house group / house rule).