The all-time favorite Ranger MC that I've seen played is my Wife's Assassin Rogue/GS Ranger she used for Curse of Strahd. She hit level 9 in Rogue first, then MC'd into GS. Suddenly she goes from the reincarnation of Strahd's lost love to the Boogey Man. Most of the enemies we fought only had Darkvision at night which she was invisible to. She had Stealth on about +12 and the Alert Feat gave her +12 or so Initiative. She could solo-hunt most things in the game other than Strahd himself. The DM passed it off (when we finished and moved out of Borovia) as the undead critters gathering to tell horror stories about HER hunting THEM instead of the other way around!
For the record, Favored Foe is only at on the first hit on the target every turn, not every time you land a hit. So it’s just a d4 extra damage total per round. From the book; “The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you increase that damage by 1d4” So yeah, it isn’t good. Damn shane too because it triggers on an attack rather than a BA.
Yea, you need a full monk multiclass with ranger for hunters mark. Im doing a char with 4 Swarmkeeper 8 Shadow Monk and 8 Spore Druid and it's pretty sick. That said we're only playing from level 15-20
Gloomstalker Ranger/Way of the Shadow Monk. Both use wisdom and dex, the AC is great, amazing initiative. Take some levels of assassin to really break it.
I just multiclassed my Gloomstalker Ranger into Hexblade Warlock. Not a typical multiclass since it's a pretty MAD build, but she had a high charisma anyway and narratively dipping into Warlock made sense. I'm excited to see how the build plays out!
That sounds epic! How did the build do in your campaign? My group’s current campaign is about to end in a few sessions, and I’d love to hear what happened since we’re going to start a new campaign afterwards.
I played a highly mobile Way of Mercy Monk that dipped into Swarmkeeper Ranger. The extra damage was nice, but that push effect was just beautiful and hilarious.
I just started dnd again after 30 years, so I am basically a noob. My character, is an Amethyst Gem Dragonborn Monster Slayer / Cleric...it is actually a pretty cool build, the once a day flight for 1 min has saved my rear several times, plus my animal companion (Gert, a pseudodragon) is a great intell gathering companion...also the force dragons breath has got me out of sticky situations (on a successful hit, it pushes a target(s) 10 ft away)
Hey great video, i think there's abit of an error tho, " Favored Foe , 1st-level ranger optional feature, which replaces the Favored Enemy feature and works with the Foe Slayer feature When you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can call on your mystical bond with nature to mark the target as your favored enemy for 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you can increase that damage by 1d4." From tashas this only deals 1d4 at base level on one attack per round, not all attacks.
About controlling swarms of summons, I've heard of people that roll dice to determine HOW MANY of them successfully hit, rather than rolling for Hit vs AC with each one. I've also heard of some people choosing to just deal average damage with each attack. Mix those two ideas and together and it makes managing summon swarms a relative breeze. Yes, you may lose on critical hits.... but man... I think it works.
Half Elven (drow) Hexblade Warlock 2 Swarmkeeper Ranger 3 Eldritch Blast with gather the swarm that adds d6 damage with agonizing blast adds Chr modifier oh and in darkness with devils sight.
Excellent Review SPD! I am playing a Astral Elf Horizon Walker (5)/Soul Knife (3) Character. May end up doing a dip in Cleric (Twilight) but not yet. This character was bathed in Extra-Planar energies before arriving to his current location allowing him to harness and manifest in different ways. The psionics are planar energy themed. He utilizes a Magical Shortbow that the DM has allowed to pursue the side quest to enchant it further to allow attacks with shortbow to be imbued with psi-energy (psi-knife). Has Elven Accuracy along with Gifted Ranger (Homebrew). Honestly, have never had so much fun playing ANY character in or out of combat. The thematic is sick.
Priest of the wilds, fey wanderer ranger with war domain cleric. Absolutely love this sinergy, discovered this one thanks to dnd shorts and it's inspired me to make a fantastic character I'll hopefully play when I have a d&d group that I don't have to dm to play the game.
So far, I'm enjoying my lv 1 Peace Cleric/lv 6 Drakewarden Ranger. I'll be getting Sharpshooter for my kobold once he's ranger lv 8, and having Emboldening Bond + Bless + Draconic Roar is great for hitting some massive damage consistently.
Note: Monk's unarmored defense is dex and wis, not dex and con like you said. That's the barbarian Edit: also, on the gloomstalker/assassin you said to take the Archery fighting style for a little extra damage. While it's true that you'll do more damage with that fighting style, it's because it boost your chance to hit. It provides no additional damage
It's quite easy to pull this off. You'll need to choose primary and secondary combat stat(str/dex), and you want 13 in your secondary stat. You can use finesse weapons with strength, if necessary. One level of rogue gives you a ton of utility, plus some damage boost for s&b paladins. Three levels of rogue are also good, but I wouldn't level it any further than that.
There is real synergy for night ambushing & fighting between the Gloomstalker Ranger, Way of the Shadow Monk, Twilight Domain Cleric, and the Assassin Rogue. You don't need all these classes, but however you mix & match....if is dark and shadowy...you're probably gonna kill everything before anything even knows you are there.
I currently play a Gloomstalker who multiclassed. I was originally going to go with rogue/assassin, but after discussing it with my DM, we decided that she would be entirely too OP compared to the rest of the group (especially with a +9 to initiative, as well as Advantage on initiative). So instead, I am going fighter/eldritch knight with her. She can melee alpha strike (especially if she gets surprise, which is pretty likely cuz she is SNEAKY) and then fall back for ranged support, with a small bag of magical tricks for funsies.
Echo Knight fits nicely into this for thematics as well as Action Surge ;) IMO if you dont got AT LEAST 2 levels of fighter as an assassin to pick up Action Surge, you're missing half your damage
My favorite sneaky character is a triple class Way of Shadows Monk, Gloom Stalker Ranger, Soul Knife Rogue. I know Assassin seems like the more obvious choice, but my DM allows flurry of blows with my psychic blade ki infused weapons and he takes the psychic knifes lack of physical damage into consideration.
So, I've got a multiclassing question that may end up not involving the ranger lol I'm playing an eldritch knight that uses wisdom to cast (party was going to be full of int caster, DM allowed for variety.) I'm debating whether or not to multiclass and if so, to dip into ranger or cleric. Maybe only a few levels of either, so I can still get 3 attacks. I thought a bit of war cleric so I can get some beefier spells and that bonus action attack (limited I know) Or maybe 2 (3?) levels of ranger for an extra fighting style and a couple more spells.
I would be very careful about changing the base stats for characters. They’re balanced the way they are for a reason, especially considering wisdom is a very prominent stat for skill checks etc. Essentially in letting an arcane magic type character use wisdom (the natural or divine magic type) you’ve opened an infinite door for power creep. Don’t be surprised when you’re the most OP character at the table.
I would go with cleric, 3 levels gets u Spiritual Weapon, a couple levels more gets u Spirit Guardians. In addition to more spell spots and a larger spell list
Personally I really like the idea of going Ranger 3 for another fighting style, hunters mark and if you go Drakewarden or Beastmaster you get a damaging use of your bonus action.
Not sure if it's relevant but a difference between hunters mark and favored foe is one triggers on EVERY attack you do vs favored foe only the first attack that hits, I know it's nitpicky but mattered to me when I was going dual wielding with a extra attack
For multiclassing, could you do a circle of the moon druid and swarm ranger? I really want a Druid/Ranger, as I love archery but also think it would be awesome to wildshape.
I am thinking about a warlock ranger multiclass. The flavor is that Santa Claus needs someone to go find the rare stuff or even people that kids ask on their letters... Santa is a re imagined Marid Genie, for the colds and bottled respite inside a snow globe. The seeker part would come from ranger, but I don't know which subclass pairs better. How would you do it?
Tabaxi - 3 Gloomstalker / 3 Assassin / 6 Shadow Monk / 7 Echo Knight (you can take the final level in any of the classes: Gloomstalker, Assassin or Echo Knight will grant an ASI/Feat, Shadow Monk will gain Evasion & Stillness of Mind)
Funnily enough, Ranger is the one class I generally don't multiclass. Especially thanks to Tasha's. If you know your characters are going the full thing from 1-20, then I can always spare two levels for something else (it's Fighter, let's be real). But that's the same with Wizard. The 20th level features of both classes aren't worth enough, in my opinion, to justify going the full 20. Particularly with the Beast Master (Tasha's options, and by extension the Drakewarden). Also: Monk's Unarmored Defense is calculated off Dexterity and Wisdom. Barbarian is the one who gets Dexterity and Constitution.
7:31 I feel like you've misread favored foe... it only does damage on the first attack that hits "The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you can increase that damage by 1d4."... soz
Favored Foe basically only comes into play when you obviously don't already have HM or another concentration spell running and you roll a crit. It's a free 2d4 added damage, 2d6 later on
I find this video humorous.... it is obvious you never played 1st edition...... the greatest nightmare of all classes was the Ranger Assassin..... 1 shot 1 kill
The all-time favorite Ranger MC that I've seen played is my Wife's Assassin Rogue/GS Ranger she used for Curse of Strahd. She hit level 9 in Rogue first, then MC'd into GS. Suddenly she goes from the reincarnation of Strahd's lost love to the Boogey Man. Most of the enemies we fought only had Darkvision at night which she was invisible to. She had Stealth on about +12 and the Alert Feat gave her +12 or so Initiative. She could solo-hunt most things in the game other than Strahd himself. The DM passed it off (when we finished and moved out of Borovia) as the undead critters gathering to tell horror stories about HER hunting THEM instead of the other way around!
For the record, Favored Foe is only at on the first hit on the target every turn, not every time you land a hit. So it’s just a d4 extra damage total per round. From the book;
“The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you increase that damage by 1d4”
So yeah, it isn’t good. Damn shane too because it triggers on an attack rather than a BA.
Yea, you need a full monk multiclass with ranger for hunters mark. Im doing a char with 4 Swarmkeeper 8 Shadow Monk and 8 Spore Druid and it's pretty sick. That said we're only playing from level 15-20
Gloomstalker Ranger/Way of the Shadow Monk. Both use wisdom and dex, the AC is great, amazing initiative. Take some levels of assassin to really break it.
I just multiclassed my Gloomstalker Ranger into Hexblade Warlock. Not a typical multiclass since it's a pretty MAD build, but she had a high charisma anyway and narratively dipping into Warlock made sense. I'm excited to see how the build plays out!
That sounds epic! How did the build do in your campaign? My group’s current campaign is about to end in a few sessions, and I’d love to hear what happened since we’re going to start a new campaign afterwards.
More of these please. They rock!
I played a highly mobile Way of Mercy Monk that dipped into Swarmkeeper Ranger. The extra damage was nice, but that push effect was just beautiful and hilarious.
I combined Way of the Open Hand Monk with Swarmkeeper Ranger, chose variant human for the crusher feat.... *yeet.*
I just started dnd again after 30 years, so I am basically a noob. My character, is an Amethyst Gem Dragonborn Monster Slayer / Cleric...it is actually a pretty cool build, the once a day flight for 1 min has saved my rear several times, plus my animal companion (Gert, a pseudodragon) is a great intell gathering companion...also the force dragons breath has got me out of sticky situations (on a successful hit, it pushes a target(s) 10 ft away)
Hey great video, i think there's abit of an error tho, " Favored Foe , 1st-level ranger optional feature, which replaces the Favored Enemy feature and works with the Foe Slayer feature
When you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can call on your mystical bond with nature to mark the target as your favored enemy for 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you can increase that damage by 1d4." From tashas this only deals 1d4 at base level on one attack per round, not all attacks.
I was about to say the same thing… if favored for worked for every attack hunters mark would be irrelevant by level 6
Yeah, because of this Favored Foe mainly used by Crossbow Expert Rangers, since Hunter's Mark is very expensive for their action economy.
About controlling swarms of summons, I've heard of people that roll dice to determine HOW MANY of them successfully hit, rather than rolling for Hit vs AC with each one. I've also heard of some people choosing to just deal average damage with each attack.
Mix those two ideas and together and it makes managing summon swarms a relative breeze.
Yes, you may lose on critical hits.... but man... I think it works.
Yea, that's a great idea; less swingy on damage but easier to manage and run.
Half Elven (drow)
Hexblade Warlock 2
Swarmkeeper Ranger 3
Eldritch Blast with gather the swarm that adds d6 damage
with agonizing blast adds Chr modifier oh and in darkness with devils sight.
Getting ready to start curse of strahd and i think im going to go gloom stalker and then rogue.
Excellent Review SPD!
I am playing a Astral Elf Horizon Walker (5)/Soul Knife (3) Character. May end up doing a dip in Cleric (Twilight) but not yet. This character was bathed in Extra-Planar energies before arriving to his current location allowing him to harness and manifest in different ways. The psionics are planar energy themed. He utilizes a Magical Shortbow that the DM has allowed to pursue the side quest to enchant it further to allow attacks with shortbow to be imbued with psi-energy (psi-knife). Has Elven Accuracy along with Gifted Ranger (Homebrew).
Honestly, have never had so much fun playing ANY character in or out of combat. The thematic is sick.
Priest of the wilds, fey wanderer ranger with war domain cleric. Absolutely love this sinergy, discovered this one thanks to dnd shorts and it's inspired me to make a fantastic character I'll hopefully play when I have a d&d group that I don't have to dm to play the game.
So far, I'm enjoying my lv 1 Peace Cleric/lv 6 Drakewarden Ranger. I'll be getting Sharpshooter for my kobold once he's ranger lv 8, and having Emboldening Bond + Bless + Draconic Roar is great for hitting some massive damage consistently.
Note: Monk's unarmored defense is dex and wis, not dex and con like you said. That's the barbarian
Edit: also, on the gloomstalker/assassin you said to take the Archery fighting style for a little extra damage. While it's true that you'll do more damage with that fighting style, it's because it boost your chance to hit. It provides no additional damage
Love the vid, as always!! Could you do a Paladin-rogue multiclass? Either way, thanks!
It's quite easy to pull this off. You'll need to choose primary and secondary combat stat(str/dex), and you want 13 in your secondary stat. You can use finesse weapons with strength, if necessary.
One level of rogue gives you a ton of utility, plus some damage boost for s&b paladins. Three levels of rogue are also good, but I wouldn't level it any further than that.
There is real synergy for night ambushing & fighting between the Gloomstalker Ranger, Way of the Shadow Monk, Twilight Domain Cleric, and the Assassin Rogue. You don't need all these classes, but however you mix & match....if is dark and shadowy...you're probably gonna kill everything before anything even knows you are there.
I currently play a Gloomstalker who multiclassed. I was originally going to go with rogue/assassin, but after discussing it with my DM, we decided that she would be entirely too OP compared to the rest of the group (especially with a +9 to initiative, as well as Advantage on initiative). So instead, I am going fighter/eldritch knight with her. She can melee alpha strike (especially if she gets surprise, which is pretty likely cuz she is SNEAKY) and then fall back for ranged support, with a small bag of magical tricks for funsies.
I would throw in a 2 level dip in Artificer. That way u can use a hand crossbow & a shield as long as u take the Crossbow Expert feat
Echo Knight fits nicely into this for thematics as well as Action Surge ;) IMO if you dont got AT LEAST 2 levels of fighter as an assassin to pick up Action Surge, you're missing half your damage
My favorite sneaky character is a triple class Way of Shadows Monk, Gloom Stalker Ranger, Soul Knife Rogue. I know Assassin seems like the more obvious choice, but my DM allows flurry of blows with my psychic blade ki infused weapons and he takes the psychic knifes lack of physical damage into consideration.
Nice. What did you name this PC?
@@SkullSplitter I'm betting Ginsu...
HAHAHAAHA
So, I've got a multiclassing question that may end up not involving the ranger lol
I'm playing an eldritch knight that uses wisdom to cast (party was going to be full of int caster, DM allowed for variety.)
I'm debating whether or not to multiclass and if so, to dip into ranger or cleric.
Maybe only a few levels of either, so I can still get 3 attacks.
I thought a bit of war cleric so I can get some beefier spells and that bonus action attack (limited I know)
Or maybe 2 (3?) levels of ranger for an extra fighting style and a couple more spells.
I would be very careful about changing the base stats for characters. They’re balanced the way they are for a reason, especially considering wisdom is a very prominent stat for skill checks etc.
Essentially in letting an arcane magic type character use wisdom (the natural or divine magic type) you’ve opened an infinite door for power creep. Don’t be surprised when you’re the most OP character at the table.
I would go with cleric, 3 levels gets u Spiritual Weapon, a couple levels more gets u Spirit Guardians. In addition to more spell spots and a larger spell list
Personally I really like the idea of going Ranger 3 for another fighting style, hunters mark and if you go Drakewarden or Beastmaster you get a damaging use of your bonus action.
Not sure if it's relevant but a difference between hunters mark and favored foe is one triggers on EVERY attack you do vs favored foe only the first attack that hits, I know it's nitpicky but mattered to me when I was going dual wielding with a extra attack
For multiclassing, could you do a circle of the moon druid and swarm ranger? I really want a Druid/Ranger, as I love archery but also think it would be awesome to wildshape.
You totally could. You'd kinda be one with the swarm. What would you name this character?
Any ideas on a Multiclass with The Horizon Walker?
Note: Favored foe only applies the d4 once per turn
I am thinking about a warlock ranger multiclass. The flavor is that Santa Claus needs someone to go find the rare stuff or even people that kids ask on their letters... Santa is a re imagined Marid Genie, for the colds and bottled respite inside a snow globe. The seeker part would come from ranger, but I don't know which subclass pairs better. How would you do it?
Bugbear Gloomstalker 4/ Artificer 2/ Assassin 3/ Battlemaster 11. 😈
Tabaxi - 3 Gloomstalker / 3 Assassin / 6 Shadow Monk / 7 Echo Knight (you can take the final level in any of the classes: Gloomstalker, Assassin or Echo Knight will grant an ASI/Feat, Shadow Monk will gain Evasion & Stillness of Mind)
Funnily enough, Ranger is the one class I generally don't multiclass. Especially thanks to Tasha's.
If you know your characters are going the full thing from 1-20, then I can always spare two levels for something else (it's Fighter, let's be real). But that's the same with Wizard. The 20th level features of both classes aren't worth enough, in my opinion, to justify going the full 20. Particularly with the Beast Master (Tasha's options, and by extension the Drakewarden).
Also: Monk's Unarmored Defense is calculated off Dexterity and Wisdom. Barbarian is the one who gets Dexterity and Constitution.
Would dipping into Fighter and/or Rogue for 2 levels each give the Gloomstalker more punch and skills?
Goblin Worg Rider / Worg Pack Master :)
the best intro
Favored foe only triggers on one attack each turn. If it triggered on every attack it would make a hunters mark completely an obsolete spell
Drakewarden isnt 2nd its 3rd
Best companion is chain warlock with fractal mascot
7:31 I feel like you've misread favored foe... it only does damage on the first attack that hits "The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you can increase that damage by 1d4."... soz
Favoured Foe only works once per turn
Read again favored foe: it only deals extra damage once per round
Favored For is only once per turn. Not every hit.
So it's not a better option than hunter's mark for a monk. Not even close.
Favored Foe basically only comes into play when you obviously don't already have HM or another concentration spell running and you roll a crit. It's a free 2d4 added damage, 2d6 later on
I find this video humorous.... it is obvious you never played 1st edition...... the greatest nightmare of all classes was the Ranger Assassin..... 1 shot 1 kill
Honestly I was hoping to hear of a cool Horde Breaker idea. Leaving kinda disappointed... :/