Ranger: “I am an uncommitted Druid” Hunter: Pure customisation Beastmaster: Pokemon trainer with murder Horizon walker: Why not murder the possible future warlock patrons Gloomstalker: Rogue but dodgier Monster slayer: It’s a good class
@@LibertyLocalizer that was my impression as well but on another channel or two I've heard otherwise. Not 100% sure it's accurate but fairly sure these are well-respected sites
Here are some ideas for ranger build: First to say - I am using only PHB, point buy, don't use polearm master - OP in my opinion (and i love it this way ;-)). Half-orc(Mountain Dwarf) Str 17 Dex 8(10) Con 16 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 8 Feats/A.S.I.: lvl4 Heavily armored (str 18) lvl8 ...see further... lvl12 con 17 + wis 16 lvl16 Resilient Con (con 18) lvl19 str 20 Hunter Two handed (horde destroyer)- Take defensive fighting style, great weapon master on lvl8, horde breaker, escape the horde, whirlwind and evasion or uncanny dodge. You can do d12 or d10 with reach (I love pikes), as Half-orc, you will love savage attacks with these weapons, will do 3-6 attacks per round if more than 1 enemy around. S&B - dmg dealer - Take dueling fighting style, shield master on lvl8, uncanny dodge, rest is up to you (differs if you want to be good against 1 enemy, horde, or combination of both) - good combination of defense and offense. S&B - defender - Take defensive fighting style or dueling, sentinel on lvl8, colossus slayer (works with opportunity attacks), multiattack defense, whirlwind, evasion - base AC 21 (25 for 2nd attack), opportunity attacks do 2d8+str+2 dmg to damaged foes. Dual wielder - Take two-weapon fighting style, dual wielder on lvl8, solossus slayer, rest up to you - you are great dmg dealer against 1 enemy, still very defensive (AC 19, uncanny dodge, multiattack defense). Beast master Take sentinel on lvl8 and keep your animal next to you (punish anyone, who dares to attack it). This is one of the best tank builds in the game (your HP together is d10+con+4 - same like d18+con). You can use ensnaring strike on you and your animal (share spells) and have twice the chance to succeed (we all love restrained enemies). Offensive build - take defensive fighting style, great weapon master on lvl8 and your strategy is like this: Cast ensnaring strike with bonus action on both of you, come to your enemy, than engage enemy with your wolf, attack with wolf twice with advantage (pack tactics), first hit means str check or restrained, every hit means str save or knocked prone, than you attack with greataxe with advantage if prone or restrained for 1d12+str+10 (great weapon master), another str check or restrained and than you can run away (enemy has dissadvantage), followed by wolf, or stay there, because enemy has to use action to escape ensnaring strike. This concept works for every play-style, you want, works good and is realy entertaining to play. Every build is quite tough (204 HP on lvl20, AC at least 19 with no magic items, uncanny dodge) I especially love dwarven beast master S&B with wild boar (they both smell the same) charging next to him to close combat. Another possibility is variant human: str 16 (14 + 1 VH + 1 feat) dex 10 con 16 int 8 wis 15 cha 8 Heavily armored feat, rest the same combination of feats and ASI, (lvl4 str+2, lvl8 feat, lvl12 con+wis. lvl16 resilient con, lvl19 str+2 or any other order).
So my dad used to play D&D first edition back in high school. When R A Salvatore came out with Drizzt Du Urden and all those books, everybody starting making a ranger. Especially with duel scimitars. And an edgelord with a “I’m a loner, and loners walk alone” type of personality. It was like one of the first memes for D&D.
I did a character exactly like that. He was a drow, a ranger, used duel shortswords until eventually I took the dual wielder feat and used longswords. It was fun but if I ever play a ranger again it'll be an original character
@@robbiehussey4723 I too played this character, though for me it was because I was a loyal worshiper of Lolth and used it to get my party through our dangerous journey safely so that at the end of it I could sacrifice them and all the bonds of friendship we'd created to my goddess in exchange for power and glory. It worked out pretty well, for my character anyway.
How 2 play ranger: 1. Convince your DM to let you use Unearthed Arcana Ranger 2. DM says No 3. Be Sad 4. Play a fighter and use a bow 5. Be slightly less sad
The Monster Slayer's ability Slayer's Prey is not only once per short rest. You can use it an infinite amount of times. It's just that the mark ends on a creature you put it on after a short or long rest or if "you designate a different creature." It's basically a minnie Hunter's Mark that only applies to one hit a turn instead of every hit. Before you get Extra Attack, it is essentially Hunter's Mark for no spell slot expenditure.
I noticed this as well after a double... ok, triple take. And after doing so the first thought that crossed my mind was "This is the new Hunter", in terms of being the best straight upgrade to the class (you were already singling out a target with Hunter's Mark). That, Horizon Walker, and the new Beast Master actually got me excited to *play* instead of theory crafting, and actually look for 5e groups in my area. Its the perfect balance of RP, combat viability, and utility... A Jack of All trades for players that aren't *free spirit extroverts* . Otherwise known as *normal* people... lol
Wow. I’m over here thinking this class is bad then I look at the text like you said and just wow. This needs a lot more attention because I think this is now 3 channels that got it wrong. I know nerdarchy messed up and davvy did as well, I think web dm might’ve also messed up.
This is why you read the books people! Don't rely on other people to tell you the rules (especially youtube), because most people on youtube have no idea what they are talking about.
As a general response to everybody talking about the Revised Ranger, I agree that it makes the class SOOO much better, and I would always recommend it to anybody who wants to play a ranger in my games. I just didn’t mention it here because I wanted to keep the focus on the official ranger, and I would have CONSTANTLY kept saying “just play the revised ranger”, which would have probably annoyed the crap out of some people. That being said, in my class guide (which is where I send people who are still in the “which class should I pick” phase) I COMPLETELY go down on the RR’s dick to make sure that people don’t feel locked into a class that’s gonna suck later down the line. Still, thanks for everybody’s responses, yo!
Since revised ranger is my favourite class in the game, I do strongly recommend you do another one, but for the ranger revised. Yes, I know the aim of these videos is for new players and is based off of PHB, but the ranger revised NEEDS to be an exception, because of how strong it is in comparison. I implore you as a Nerd, to cover that class.
Kick question: I would like to make a Tabaxi tracker, using the +DEX and the dash abilities to go, hit and retreat, using two swords wile being the fastest and most agile member of the party physically speaking. I've just watched your guide on the rogue and i was wondering: what would be the best option to make a discret charachter in roleplay turning into a savage, ferocious, alway evasive Beast in combat? Ranger hunter+ LV1 Rogue for sneak attack or pure Rogue Swashbuckler? i really want to play a Panther Man that just sit on the corner or on the roof and become a slashing Beast in combat
medramon masque de cendres so dispite How many people play the Ranger they do not have to be dex based, they can use medium armor so you can make one with a strength based build, people might ask: how the hell does that work for RP, simple, your a big strong bounty hunter, or some type of tracker, point is your build will work just fine with medium armor and str, there is even a but ton of melee attacks built in there, you can even use a greatsword of you want (witch I recommend to all two hand melee users MINUS barbarian because barbarian gets more out of a 1d12 weapon than other classes) and if your thinking you don't have enough defence, take the defence fighting style or medium armor master because that 1 extra AC gives your half plate the same defense as full plate but let's you sneak and at half the cost of full plate! Also some of the conclave play really well with melee like using a bonus action to make your weapon attacks that turn deal all force damage and a extra 1d8 to one guy you really don't like!
I love my ranger. Was my first character I ever made and he is my absolute best boy. Started him a socially awkward young drow male (surface born though) who was better at getting along with animals than people but eventually found his people in his party who became his dear friends. Later this extended to the town his friends and him set down a homebase within (it’s an inn). And has more recently expanded to the entire area of the map which is basically Ten Towns (the “hometown” he prefers is Lonelywood). He’s actually made lots of friends. He has 3giants for friends, befriended a mammoth, has 4 sled dogs, has a pet mimic, and even a construct version of a pseudodragon (who acts like a cat and hangs out in his hood). You would think with all this that he was a beast master right? Nope. He is a gloomstalker. He’s no angsty person in the corner. He is the socially anxious type who only seems like he is brooding and the other players’ loved that. He is actually well liked by the other players and I’m told that quite often. He has basically been adopted by the party. Oh! I nearly forgot the mention the best part….ready for it? He adopted 14 kobolds who help run the inn his party owns. Yup. 14.
Funnily enough it wasn’t LOTR where I Heard of rangers but The Ranger Apprentice series where imagine 50 Batman’s and their protégés work directly under the king using longbows, knives, and the most secretive and feared sector of the land. They are as stealthy as rouges, use longbows like fighters with near perfect accuracy, sea knives like sailors, all human but are dexterous like halflings, etc.
Retep Noznjo that WOULD be awesome with a revised caviler represented by the temujai. Man this would be awesome to do! Have book characters make cameos as in game NPC’s
Irony of the two major classes allegedly based entirely on a single literary character (Conan for the barbarian and Aragorn for the ranger) is that both of those dudes are just Human Fighter in the source material.
@@Klaital1 Dude, Drizzt didn't exist in the 70's when the game was created. LOTR was written and published in 1954, for which G Gygax based a lot of the game on. Yes the Ranger was based upon the Rangers in LOTR of which Aragorn, also known as 'Strider" the Ranger.... Of course they are fighters, just not rank and file warriors found in a tradition army. They were scouts/survivalists that had to be independent and great fighters to survive in the wilds on their own or in small bands.
I disagree. I think he was a rogue. He manages to kill a giant elephant in, arguably, 3 hits. That's definitely sneak attack. Also he loves daggers. Just saying. That said i can see where you're coming from
Aragorn was also a Fighter. So were Merry and Pippin. For that matter, Conan was also a Fighter rather than taking the Barbarian class. "Rogue because sneak attack?" No, that in no way resembles a sneak attack just because it did more damage than usual, that was clearly a critical hit with a very favorable setup.
Actually Elf back when it was a class was just "Wizard with more HP and some weapon proficiencies, but each day you can decide to be a fighter that day instead and wear armor but not cast spells" It was like a multiclass fighter/wizard who still couldn't cast spells while wearing armor.
Use the Scout subclass of Rogue. It's way closer to Robin Hood than any ranger build is going to be. And Aragorn from LOTR? He's more a Fighter with proficiency in nature and survival type skills and tools than he is like the D&D Ranger.
I personally love playing the beast master class because of how the members of my party like to make their characters as overpowered as possible so I do not necessarily have to be good In battle. Plus my 3 foot gnome looks bad ass on a black panther
I know one way to make a Beastmaster good, Small panther rider. You need to be a small race like halfling, gnome, kobold, or goblin and take the Mounted Combatant feat at level 4, and have a panther as your companion. Now you have a mount that can go indoors and has a clime speed.
Or this beastmaster build: First to say - I am using only PHB, point buy, don't use polearm master - OP in my opinion (and i love it this way ;-)). Half-orc(Mountain Dwarf) Str 17 Dex 8(10) Con 16 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 8 Feats/A.S.I.: lvl4 Heavily armored (str 18) lvl8 ...see further... lvl12 con 17 + wis 16 lvl16 Resilient Con (con 18) lvl19 str 20 Normal build - take sentinel on lvl8 and keep your animal next to you (punish anyone, who dares to attack it). This is one of the best tank builds in the game (your HP together is d10+con+4 - same like d18+con). You can use ensnaring strike on you and your animal (share spells) and have twice the chance to succeed (we all love restrained enemies). Offensive build - take defensive fighting style, great weapon master on lvl8 and your strategy is like this: Cast ensnaring strike with bonus action on both of you, come to your enemy, than engage enemy with your wolf, attack with wolf twice with advantage (pack tactics), first hit means str check or restrained, every hit means str save or knocked prone, than you attack with greataxe with advantage if prone or restrained for 1d12+str+10 (great weapon master), another str check or restrained and than you can run away (enemy has dissadvantage), followed by wolf, or stay there, because enemy has to use action to escape ensnaring strike. I especially love dwarven beast master S&B with wild boar (they both smell the same) charging next to him to close combat. Another possibility is variant human: str 16 (14 + 1 VH + 1 feat) dex 10 con 16 int 8 wis 15 cha 8 Heavily armored feat, rest the same combination of feats and ASI, (lvl4 str+2, lvl8 feat, lvl12 con+wis. lvl16 resilient con, lvl19 str+2 or any other order).
@@JuckiCZ Just a note that Ensnaring Strike requires a 'weapon' attack, natural attacks do not count as weapon attacks so the animal companion can't actually proc the ensnaring strike (same goes for pretty much all the other similar spells).
You can actually use slayers prey as much as you like since it’s says it lasts intill a short rest/ long rest or designate different creature it’s basically the cantrip version of hunters mark.
Horizon Walker is definitely one of the funnest ranger subclasses for sure. Wish you talked about the revised ranger though since that is arguably one of the most popular UA classes, and actually makes the ranger good. (If not a little too good)
I know that it ruffles some peoples’ jimmies, but I actually really like the artificer UA. It’s not good yet, but it’s a really creative departure from the bog standard classes we have now.
For sure, I totally agree. I love the idea for the artificer and actually really like the slightly altered homebrew version. Its just hard to make good since its such a utility class.
A couple examples of good PHB Rangers are Reynard from "High Rollers" and Task of "the Unexpectables". Granted, they are both bow-wielding Hunter rangers, and thus are up there as some of the highest damage-dealers in their respective parties. In fact, there are some people who think the Hunter Ranger is one of the highest-tier classes in the game. Hunter's Mark is such a ridiculously useful spell that you should _almost always be using all the time,_ and only the Ranger gets it (that I know of at the moment), that one wonders why it isn't just a class ability instead. As it is, it's basically your missing "favored enemy bonus damage" except you can cast it on anyone, not just your favored enemy. I've also people regularly forget that you can cast it with higher spell slots to make it last longer, and that you can transfer it to another target after your target dies (I've seen so many people assume that the spell ends when the target dies).
Currently playing a UA Ranger, and I didn't realize Hunter's Mark lasts past the encounter 😅 mostly because I'm third level, and haven't been able to cast it yet...
I hear people say "oh, I didn't know this spell could do that" all the time. My number one piece of advice for anyone playing a class that uses spells is "thoroughly read your spell descriptions". Not just the effects of the spells, but also the casting times, components, durations, and any special conditions or exceptions. Many spells work differently from previous editions; some changes are slight enough that they could be missed if you just skim the description and assume it still works the same as it used to. This advice goes for class abilities too. I've seen people choose Beastmaster Ranger because they thought it worked the same as in 3.5 Edition or Pathfinder where their animal companion is actually a sentient creature capable of independent thought and action.
@@arcticbanana66 Yep this is my first time being a class with any type of spellcasting so I never put two and two together about that 1 hour con, still now that I'm level 3 I'm looking forward to being able to use Hunter's Mark, and not blowing all of my slots on Cure Wounds 😅
17th level Arcane Tricksters can also yoink it for 8 hours with their Spell Thief ability, but at that level there are so many better spells to use it on. The Monster Slayer archetype from Xanathar's Guide gets the Slayer's Prey class feature that's basically a mini Hunter's Mark (damage only on your first hit of the round, damage doesn't scale up, no bonus to tracking, but doesn't require concentration or a spell slot), and like the Vengeance Paladin its other class features can basically be described as "no, fuck _you_ in particular".
I would live with any criticism this class has tacked onto it if means I could be as glorious as that fella at 4:17 Also I haven't played a single game where the revised ranger wasn't used by default, but in all cases they were multiclassed into something else. I guess it's not appealing knowing that two of the mid-to-late game abilities are focused on just hiding, especially when one is a minute-cast time pass without trace. Where's the trap-laying or bonuses when succeeding on tracking things down? It's a shame they only really begun designing features that allow you to use the ability modifier per rest around the time Xanathar's was made, I think they would have given the ranger (hell, even the revised ranger) a lot more interesting abilities if they had sorted out that method for determining ability use when designing the class.
If you want a fun build, and your dm has a habit of putting enemies in close proximity: Go hunter, have hail of thorns as one of your spells, use a longbow, use horde breaker. You have double the chance of activating hail of thorns (it outpaces lightning arrow in terms of damage, when upcasted, but has a smaller area) with it, and if you get higher leveled, you can pair it with volley that lets you attack everybody in an area once, one person in that area twice, and hit some people in that area with a little aoe. It gives the ranger a specialization that not many people in the party have, which is prolonged AOE, you’re gonna say, the wizard can just use fireball, but the wizard can only fireball so many times per day, the only thing limiting you is your number of arrows.
Imagine a monster slayer with an oathbow dear god that is the definition of select the biggest baddest guy on the battlefield and tell him to die Also I respect you taking such effort to treat a very disliked class with the you did respect
Im new and I started with a ranger....I always thought it was fun and Tasha's fixed a lot of useless abilities and helped buff them. Also Drake warden is crazy.
I wish there were more videos talking about Ranger that use revised ranger instead of base. I mean, I could always read up on it myself and come to my own conclusions, but also Davvy is funny and has a good personality, and these videos help me think about this stuff for roleplaying purposes.
Best part about Underdark on Natural Explorer is that it works in any dungeons below/under the ground, inside a mountain/hill, etc. Pair it with Gloomstalker and you actually have a decent class while you are in most dungeons.
I've played an Unrevised Ranger as my first character, (still ongoing at lvl 9), and I've loved every encounter (This usn't meant to be rude to Davvy, just me telling my experience as Ranger)
I started playing D&D about a month ago and loved it. I played as a ranger cus I like long range, plus the rest of my party were melee fighters. We played a homebrew dark souls campaign that is still going on. When we got to the levels to pick sub-classes, I could pick hunter or beastmaster(didn't know about revised ranger). I really wanted an animal companion, cus who the hell wouldn't. When my dm read the list of companions, I emidiatly knew what to pick....the mutha fuckin pseudo-dragon. Hell yes, this bitch can fly and has a breath attack, sweet. Now that I know ranger isn't that good I'll ask the dm if i can use revised ranger.
Mtn.dew90 i have no idea what rules you’re using (sounds fun though) but beastmasters can’t get pseudo-dragons and pseudo-dragons don’t have breath attacks (again actually sounds really cool) just thought i’d mention that
my Rangers uses two axes and a longbow, and he's turned into the all round generalist of the party, he's got range and up close fuck off-itude, and given the mobility and the healing spell, he's a backup healer too, so the guy's essentially a great support for the imbalanced party we have(2 barbarians, a bard, and a rogue)
I'm one of those weird people who genuinely likes the ranger but I've always played in a more roleplay heavy campaign and I feel like that's where the ranger shines with his survival abilities to help make sure the group doesn't starve/dehydrate. I will say the option features really add to it as well and made it more useable as did the new conclaves with horizon walker and gloomstalker but also the fey wanderer and even swarmkeeper. This drakenwarden loos really good too and I need to sit down and play with it. I recently dual classed with a fighter on my swarm keeper (I know tell me all about the redundancy) and it along with my paladin have been the major front liners for the group but also my ranger is just murder on anyone from any range really.
I play a ranger in my group and putting drow poison on a arrow then mulltypiling and I picked ranger cause Dragonborn was just so lackluster to me good video
The Horizon Walker is basically the best thing ever. Period. Especially because it gives you a valid reason to reflavor your spells, so that they are not the druids runty brother, but instead drawn from the planes themselves. This is so much cooler than being an apprentice druid who thought bows and scale armor are really neat-o.
In my world, the “Monster Slayer” Ranger is the Master Detective who hunts down the creatures of the night and sends the darkest of spell-casters to justice!!
Pick any race than Just go rogue and multiclass to Ranger they complement each other well. the Ranger it gives you proficiency with shields get a shield and studded leather pick the defence fighting style at level 2 and don't forget you also get spellcasting now this is gonna be fun. put the highest points to dex if you're at 18 congrats you already got 19 to AC and that's just the start ;)
There’s always the small race + medium flying mount at level 3 with beast master. So you could fly in strike and then dash out with your bonus action because your beast didn’t attack.
I will admit, I do like how each Ranger conclave focuses on each element of a Ranger. The Hunter focuses on weapon proficiency... The Beastmaster focuses on the animal companion (albeit poorly. One may want to fix this...) The Horizon Walker focuses on favoured terrain... The Gloom Stalker focuses on the stealth skills... and Monster Slayer focuses on the favored enemy mechanic! I really like how this is laid out, and also find this really enjoyable, because if you were to play a Ranger, test out all of the features, and think "Hm, I really like this one feature over the others!", you already have a Conclave you can go to, because it leans so heavily into that one feature!
My Dm just randomly afflicted my party an i with secondary classes based on our reactions to a deity randomly appearing, so getting this insight into the ranger for my Tortle Path of the Shepard Druid is balls to the wall useful.
Rangers can use all martial weapons, which allows for the use of greatswords. Yes this means you need strength for your attack stat, but since you have medium armor proficiency you can do so whilr having a 14 in dex. This allows you to huntersmark to do 3d6+str per hit, which is pretty snazzy at lvl5. You do marginally more damage with dex based attacks before then (because hitting a second time as a bonus action while dual wielding letting you do 4d6+(dexterity x2) per turn) The nice thing about the great sword is that you can take the great weapon master feat for a nice +10 to damage, and the *Guardian of nature* spell is a direct upgrade to huntersmark if you are str based since it will also give you advantage on attacks. I get that this is a beginner's guide, but seeing as you referenced aragorn (who uses a longsword/great sword) i thought it merited mention
Im playing a ranger for the first time! Im going with swarmkeeper. I wanted beast keeper but it doesn’t offer as much as swarm. Thankfully the dm is letting us start with an uncommon magic item. I think bag of tricks will give them that companion aesthetic I’m looking for
I prefer to play a two weapon fighter ranger because with the feat you can use two longswords with no penalty and full bonuses and then use hunters mark and the hunter archetype and suddenly you can stack damage abilities. Two weapon fighers are the chads of the rangers.
I sometimes when playing with new players play "level 0" where the hit die is a d4 and instead of being added to it is upgraded to the hit die of their future class when they level up, then they also get either simple weapons and light armour or they get one cantrip
Their is actually ONE scenario where playing a ranger is fun. If your a new player in campaign that isn't going to run to high levels (or if it is just ask your GM if you can change characters later) playing a ranger can actually be really fun cause you get to try out a bit of everything and decide what you like.
I'm planning a ranger whose favorite terrain is Urban or cities, and after watching the class series like 3 times, I came back to this video so Davvy could help me pick my subclass. (Provided the DM is not ok with unearthed arcana. Not all of them are )
I love my beast master. I've made my giant frog companion do work. With jump, swallow, and the fact our gnome Bard can ride him, he's definitely the favorite character of the party. Sure, the HP sucks, but if you're creative there's a lot you can do with a beast master
In my homebrew, I edited the Ranger class from “favorite terrain” and changed it to “adaptive terrain” - after 48 hours in a new type of terrain, they gain advantage on ground movement, or tracking perception, or weather debuffs - choice of the player. Edit: they can’t change their advantage type unless they leave that terrain, learn a new one, and then come back. Basically it would take a week to change advantage (as it’s adapting to the terrain in a new way, which I assume would take a fair amount of study/practice).
So uh. I've only been playing for a few weeks at my local game store, and before my first session I just chose a premade elf ranger as my character :p _And_ not realising that it was The Worst Archetype, I chose, yep, Beastmaster. (Which I'd completely forgotten about for like three weeks until another player brought it up in my last session ha ha whoops) I'd hoped I could switch to Hunter, but unfortunately I apparently can't :/ I didn't choose an animal companion yet because I was under the impression that I had to _acquire_ said animal somehow, but I apparently just... have one? Sooooo I'm heavily toying with the idea of making my animal companion a wolf because I'm ALREADY an _elf ranger_ and at this point I might as well go all out and be as cheesily trite as possible :p
OhGoodAFarce If you’re playing an official Adventurer’s League game at your game store, then you are completely within your rights to change anything about your character up until you hit 5th level. If you aren’t playing AL, and your DM still won’t let you change even though it’s your very first time playing and you have clearly expressed that you aren’t having any fun, clearly express that the DM can go stuff it and find a different table, yo, because that shit does not fly.
Davvy Chappy I don't _think_ it's Adventurer's League? I'm pretty sure it's D&D Encounters. And I don't really want to leave my table, the DM _is_ actually really nice (if he weren't, I wouldn't have come back after the first week, and this past Saturday was my fifth) and I never said I wasn't having fun :p I was just kinda poking fun at myself in my comment.
Dont listen to anyone, Beastmaster isn't that bad, of course there are much stronger classes/builds for min/maxers out there, but that doesnt mean that Beastmaster is useless. If you want to min/max him take Giant Poisonous Snake as your Companion. It has high dex and deals additional 3d6 (or half on save) poison dmg with every attack. So on 11 lvl you attack once and your snake attacks twice for 1d4+8 + 3d6(or half on save) each time, which isn't bad. Especially if your table uses rules for Flanking. Yes your companion is a bit squishy 44hp and AC 20 on level 11 (if you buy Studded Leather for your snake), but it should be fine if you have a dedicated tank in your party and dont do anything stupid.
Just a note the Monster slayer , Slayers pray work any time you can use it on multiple creatures in the same fight it just can only be active on one at a time. the wording is wonky but it says. the benefit last until you finish a short or long rest or you designate a different creature. means you can do it on different creatures. it just doesn't have a set duration didnt see someone state it in the comments so I thought it was worth it after a year XD
Honestly, I feel like the Ranger is one of the most customizable classes in D&D. I'll agree that most of the Ranger's early-game abilities are a bit too situation-specific, I still feel like there's not just one way to play this class. To start with a longbow set and medium armor, this is one of the most powerful martial classes in the game. That, and the inclusion of augmentation magic similar to paladins is very helpful to pick up some slack from the class' low points. To be fair though, I also really like playing Hunters and Horizon Walkers.
Ive home brewed rangers pretty hard. I gave them a nature smite ability (the can spend a spell slot to deal 1d6+2d6/spell level) but it can only be used on their favored enemy. And they get more advantages in favored terrain. And I made beast master not suck real hard.
Ranger is bad if you use the Player's Handbook to create one. Get alternate features now with the new Unearthed Arcana Class Feature Variants. Deft Explorer is 3 features compiled into one that you can choose to get at when you pick the class at level 1 and when you reach 6th and 10th levels. Canny gives you one additional skill proficiency, Roving gives you an extra 5 ft of movement and Tireless gives you additional hit points equal to d10 + Wis mod. Favoured Foe gives you the Hunter's Mark spell for free and you can cast it without preparation. Primal Awareness gets you additional ranger spells to cast at certain levels. Fade Away lets you become invisible. And a shit ton of other cool features too! Don't risk boxing yourself in with crippling overspecialisation, get the UA Ranger Variant Features now and make Rangers greater!
Beast master requires so much work to be good. If you pick a flying snake and multiclass into rouge you have a pretty good combo but that is just you trying to find a use for the beast
Re read Slayers Prey mate. The effects and bonuses of the ability drop on your designated target at the end of a short/long rest or if you designate a different target. This wording implies that one cannot stack Slayers Prey on multiple Targets and that if the designated creature still lives at the end of a rest, Slayers Prey drops. It doesn't state that the player can only use the ability once per short rest.
I ended up making a ''non revised'' ranger multiclass that ended up being actually really fucking good. Basically I picked gloom 5 levels of gloom stalker and then multiclassed into assassin rogue,that build works well starting from lvl 8 and get's better and better as you gain more rogue levels. Basically you deal fucking insane amounts of damage to surprised enemies,which is pretty easy since you're simply invisible to anything without blindsight or tremorsense in darkness depending on how careful your group is willing to be when it comes to letting you scout ahead and preparing for attacking instead of just running in there. So basically the build works like this,you get 3 attacks instead of 2 during your first round in each combat,the third attack deals extra 1d8 damage. If you use all of that with sneak attack and hunter's mark,you end up dealing massive amounts of damage with those 3 attacks. And after that your average damage ended up being about 33 points of damage without any magical items. Which you could ofc bump to something like 50 with sharpshooter feat but 33 is fine for lvl8 character especially after dealing closer to 90 points of damage on average against a surprised enemy. It's by no means an impressive build for any minmaxers out there,but if you want a cool build and interesting Ranger/rogue build try it out,with elven accuracy feat you basically roll 3d20s for all of your attack rolls instead of 2 whenever you have advantage,which is almost always with this build because of the umbral sight ability. Do note that this depends on how antagonistic your DM is because if they're not cool with letting you do stuff like being invisible in all dark dungeons and caves they will just start throwing enemies with blindsight of ridiculous distance at you just to piss on your parade so if your DM is not ok with PCs having these really cool abilities that build will not work for you at all. Also a dm who specifically counters players instead of designing encounters that make sense or lead to cool stories that dm is an asshole anyway so there's that.
I know with the Favourite Terrain and Enemy type for my first Ranger (A Tabaxi that was pretty much a hunter and was more on the Marksman/Survival route) I just picked the one that was more for flavour and character background (I knew I wouldn't get it in-game, but I thought 'screw it, he went through this and hunted that a lot as a young Tabaxi, so that was it') my DM didn't have an issue
My favorite way to play a ranger is to make a character with no levels in the ranger class. Start with a fighter and choose the archery fighting style (no shit) and multiclass into Druid at level 2 so you can start using forest magic early on, after that swap back to fighter until you get your second attack it’s recommend you take the Eldritch Knight archetype for the spell progression but a case can be made for arcane archer. after getting two attacks swap back to Druid to pick up the circle of land and get more nature magic taking additional levels in fighter until you strike the balance you’re looking for. For bonus points dip 3 levels into rogue and take the scout archetype, skirmisher will let you put space between yourself and your enemies and if you don’t think your character can use cunning actions then you simply aren’t cunning enough.
Me my brother and my dad are all new to dnd and my brother plays a beastmaster and I don’t know if my dad realizes that he has to give up actions so we don’t do that
Aragorn was obviously a ranger , able to track , likes being in the wild, and was literally called a ranger in the book and movies, Aragorn being a ranger is good enough to tell me that being a ranger is awesome
This is late, but I hope people see this. If you want to play a ranger and want to have fun, the only sub class that feels somewhat unique is the beast master. Play revised ranger beast conclave and have fun.
i made a monster slayer ranger but instead of hunting them down, i played them more of a zoologist, instead studying monsters and writing notes about them in her new monster manual. i love the idea and i highly encourage monster slayer.
I have a friend that is a Beast Master Ranger. I decided to give him the ability to have stronger creatures like Griffions or Rhino as a companion to at least make thw class a bit cooler
I remember my first character in 5e being a Ranger. Not trusting my own DPS from my bow, I chose the Beastmaster subclass with a pet Boar. I never heard the end of how useless my character was, at least until level 5 when both myself and my pet could attack. Things actually got far better from there, but those levels from 3 until hitting 5 are PAINFUL as F&%$. After that, it gets much much easier, however I generally lost a pet every 2 encounters, either to AoE damage or a lucky hit from some enemy fighter. That being said, the rogue and the fighter of the party absolutely loved my pet being around since I would order it to flank whatever they would attack and give them advantage. Despite how much I like playing Beastmaster, I agree that it is quite weak compared to EVERY OTHER SUBCLASS, and I really want that Beast Conclave to hurry up and be published in a supplement book.
I'm actually playing a beast master rn but we modified it a decent amount so it's a bit more viable. I'm honestly kind of enjoying it. Both my character and her direwolf have pack tactics(grim hollow-style werewolf w/ kindred form), so whenever I'm using kindred form(which I tend to do if I get low on hit points), I get at least one guaranteed hit. It'll probably get boring at later levels, but considering my character has the werewolf thing And something else that my DM is keeping secret besides the fact that it'll be powerful, I think I'll manage lol.
I honestly don't know why so many people think Ranger's suck. Go for a Dex build. I chose the Archery fighting class, giving me +2 to attack I grabbed the Sharpshooter feat which allows a -5 penalty for attack for +10 damage. I'm also proficient in weapons with the bonus +2. My Dex mod is 4. In short, I get +8 to every attack roll with a bow. My proficiency bonus increases every 2 or 3 levels, making it so that I never miss and basically always deal +10 damage. I don't see how that sucks
Try playing a PHB Beastmaster Ranger, then you'll realize where all the hate comes from. That and the lack of damage for your favored enemy, along with the extremely situational nature of natural terrain. The revised Ranger however is pretty decent. Enough people love it where WoTC refuses to include it officially.... I mean for God's sake they need to at least make The Beastmaster revision official
I took one look at Beastmaster when I first started playing, and immediately decided against it. I understand the hate regarding the Ranger Subclass, but if you play the archetype well, you can be amazingly badass. Rangers get hail of Thorns and lightning arrow - two spells which stack with the Sharpshooter feat. I recently dipped into Rogue, so with Sneak Attack I can deal ridiculous amounts of damage. Favoured enemy and terrain will come into play maybe half the time, but the times it does can really help. If you want a damage dealing Ranger - go Colossus slayer and dip into Rogue for sneak Attack. You'll only need to dip once to start dealing crazy amounts of damage through Ranger spells and abilities 😂
Simply pick favored terrain planes and then just say "We're on the primordial plane of water so it counts." Or "We're on the material plane so it counts." Etc. Sure it breaks the entire point of it being a preferred terrain, but I'd argue that primary features of a class shouldn't be restricted to only one terrain.
Level 20 Vengeance Paladin: *becomes literal angel of death*
Level 20 Ranger: I can finally do slightly more damage to my favored enemies!
Ranger is a good villain class since you can have them sit in their favored terrain.
Not to mention essentially a sniper from atop the trees, many traps, or just having set up near pits of quicksand or pitfalls or what have you
Ranger: “I am an uncommitted Druid”
Hunter: Pure customisation
Beastmaster: Pokemon trainer with murder
Horizon walker: Why not murder the possible future warlock patrons
Gloomstalker: Rogue but dodgier
Monster slayer: It’s a good class
More like Horizon Walker: Warlock Patron population control
How to play Ranger
1. Don't pick Beastmaster
2. Don't pick Beastmaster
3. Don't pick Beastmaster
4. Don't pick Beastmaster
5. Don't pick Beastmaster
6. Don't pick Beastmaster
7. Don't pick Beastmaster
8. Don't pick Beastmaster
9. Don't pick Beastmaster
10. Don't pick Beastmaster
11. Pick UA Beastmaster. (Evidently it's AL legal)
Stop Trolling it's Just an Opinion Really? I thought all UA stuff was illegal.
@@LibertyLocalizer that was my impression as well but on another channel or two I've heard otherwise. Not 100% sure it's accurate but fairly sure these are well-respected sites
But I like having pets...
Small race panther cavalry.
"If you like the Ranger and just want more Ranger for your Ranger"
I think JoCat was channeling you when he made his _Crap Guide to DnD: Fighter_ .
Too true
No, he's channeling JoCrap
2:15 >Woman with bow has drawn the string entirely over her body and is attempting to nock the arrow onto thin air.
@D4rkSh4d3 _
Because this is Dnd I wouldn't be surprised
GrimReaper192 her name is Cattie Brie
How to play ranger.
Step 1: Pick Fighter
Step 2: Use a Bow
Step 3: Be happier
MarklenIngyer or play a swords bard and take ranger spells with your magic secrets.
Here are some ideas for ranger build:
First to say - I am using only PHB, point buy, don't use polearm master - OP in my opinion (and i love it this way ;-)).
Half-orc(Mountain Dwarf)
Str 17
Dex 8(10)
Con 16
Int 8
Wis 15
Cha 8
Feats/A.S.I.:
lvl4 Heavily armored (str 18)
lvl8 ...see further...
lvl12 con 17 + wis 16
lvl16 Resilient Con (con 18)
lvl19 str 20
Hunter
Two handed (horde destroyer)- Take defensive fighting style, great weapon master on lvl8, horde breaker, escape the horde, whirlwind and evasion or uncanny dodge. You can do d12 or d10 with reach (I love pikes), as Half-orc, you will love savage attacks with these weapons, will do 3-6 attacks per round if more than 1 enemy around.
S&B - dmg dealer - Take dueling fighting style, shield master on lvl8, uncanny dodge, rest is up to you (differs if you want to be good against 1 enemy, horde, or combination of both) - good combination of defense and offense.
S&B - defender - Take defensive fighting style or dueling, sentinel on lvl8, colossus slayer (works with opportunity attacks), multiattack defense, whirlwind, evasion - base AC 21 (25 for 2nd attack), opportunity attacks do 2d8+str+2 dmg to damaged foes.
Dual wielder - Take two-weapon fighting style, dual wielder on lvl8, solossus slayer, rest up to you - you are great dmg dealer against 1 enemy, still very defensive (AC 19, uncanny dodge, multiattack defense).
Beast master
Take sentinel on lvl8 and keep your animal next to you (punish anyone, who dares to attack it). This is one of the best tank builds in the game (your HP together is d10+con+4 - same like d18+con). You can use ensnaring strike on you and your animal (share spells) and have twice the chance to succeed (we all love restrained enemies).
Offensive build - take defensive fighting style, great weapon master on lvl8 and your strategy is like this: Cast ensnaring strike with bonus action on both of you, come to your enemy, than engage enemy with your wolf, attack with wolf twice with advantage (pack tactics), first hit means str check or restrained, every hit means str save or knocked prone, than you attack with greataxe with advantage if prone or restrained for 1d12+str+10 (great weapon master), another str check or restrained and than you can run away (enemy has dissadvantage), followed by wolf, or stay there, because enemy has to use action to escape ensnaring strike.
This concept works for every play-style, you want, works good and is realy entertaining to play. Every build is quite tough (204 HP on lvl20, AC at least 19 with no magic items, uncanny dodge)
I especially love dwarven beast master S&B with wild boar (they both smell the same) charging next to him to close combat.
Another possibility is variant human:
str 16 (14 + 1 VH + 1 feat)
dex 10
con 16
int 8
wis 15
cha 8
Heavily armored feat, rest the same combination of feats and ASI, (lvl4 str+2, lvl8 feat, lvl12 con+wis. lvl16 resilient con, lvl19 str+2 or any other order).
Or just play the Rogue " Scout" Archetype with the Outlander Background
@@JuckiCZ but which do you think is better for someone who's a melee fanatic? A fighter half-orc or a barbarian half-orc?
I play rangers as the team's guide and scout.
So my dad used to play D&D first edition back in high school. When R A Salvatore came out with Drizzt Du Urden and all those books, everybody starting making a ranger. Especially with duel scimitars. And an edgelord with a “I’m a loner, and loners walk alone” type of personality. It was like one of the first memes for D&D.
So 5e Rouges then?
Ill never understand people who want to play loners in what is clearly a team game.
I did a character exactly like that. He was a drow, a ranger, used duel shortswords until eventually I took the dual wielder feat and used longswords. It was fun but if I ever play a ranger again it'll be an original character
@@robbiehussey4723 I too played this character, though for me it was because I was a loyal worshiper of Lolth and used it to get my party through our dangerous journey safely so that at the end of it I could sacrifice them and all the bonds of friendship we'd created to my goddess in exchange for power and glory. It worked out pretty well, for my character anyway.
How 2 play ranger:
1. Convince your DM to let you use Unearthed Arcana Ranger
2. DM says No
3. Be Sad
4. Play a fighter and use a bow
5. Be slightly less sad
Riot_ZA 6. Take a small dip into ranger
I personally feel scout Rogue is good enough.
The Monster Slayer's ability Slayer's Prey is not only once per short rest. You can use it an infinite amount of times. It's just that the mark ends on a creature you put it on after a short or long rest or if "you designate a different creature." It's basically a minnie Hunter's Mark that only applies to one hit a turn instead of every hit. Before you get Extra Attack, it is essentially Hunter's Mark for no spell slot expenditure.
Somehow LITERALLY EVERYONE I see review this class misses this. I don't see how it's SO hard to miss.
Well stuff my sausage, it does too. Thanks for clearing that up, i wouldnt have noticed otherwise.
I noticed this as well after a double...
ok, triple take.
And after doing so the first thought that crossed my mind was "This is the new Hunter", in terms of being the best straight upgrade to the class (you were already singling out a target with Hunter's Mark).
That, Horizon Walker, and the new Beast Master actually got me excited to *play* instead of theory crafting, and actually look for 5e groups in my area.
Its the perfect balance of RP, combat viability, and utility... A Jack of All trades for players that aren't *free spirit extroverts* .
Otherwise known as *normal* people... lol
Wow. I’m over here thinking this class is bad then I look at the text like you said and just wow. This needs a lot more attention because I think this is now 3 channels that got it wrong. I know nerdarchy messed up and davvy did as well, I think web dm might’ve also messed up.
This is why you read the books people! Don't rely on other people to tell you the rules (especially youtube), because most people on youtube have no idea what they are talking about.
As a general response to everybody talking about the Revised Ranger, I agree that it makes the class SOOO much better, and I would always recommend it to anybody who wants to play a ranger in my games. I just didn’t mention it here because I wanted to keep the focus on the official ranger, and I would have CONSTANTLY kept saying “just play the revised ranger”, which would have probably annoyed the crap out of some people. That being said, in my class guide (which is where I send people who are still in the “which class should I pick” phase) I COMPLETELY go down on the RR’s dick to make sure that people don’t feel locked into a class that’s gonna suck later down the line. Still, thanks for everybody’s responses, yo!
I disagree, the druid is my favourite naturiey boi
Since revised ranger is my favourite class in the game, I do strongly recommend you do another one, but for the ranger revised. Yes, I know the aim of these videos is for new players and is based off of PHB, but the ranger revised NEEDS to be an exception, because of how strong it is in comparison.
I implore you as a Nerd, to cover that class.
Kick question:
I would like to make a Tabaxi tracker, using the +DEX and the dash abilities to go, hit and retreat, using two swords wile being the fastest and most agile member of the party physically speaking.
I've just watched your guide on the rogue and i was wondering: what would be the best option to make a discret charachter in roleplay turning into a savage, ferocious, alway evasive Beast in combat? Ranger hunter+ LV1 Rogue for sneak attack or pure Rogue Swashbuckler?
i really want to play a Panther Man that just sit on the corner or on the roof and become a slashing Beast in combat
medramon masque de cendres so dispite How many people play the Ranger they do not have to be dex based, they can use medium armor so you can make one with a strength based build, people might ask: how the hell does that work for RP, simple, your a big strong bounty hunter, or some type of tracker, point is your build will work just fine with medium armor and str, there is even a but ton of melee attacks built in there, you can even use a greatsword of you want (witch I recommend to all two hand melee users MINUS barbarian because barbarian gets more out of a 1d12 weapon than other classes) and if your thinking you don't have enough defence, take the defence fighting style or medium armor master because that 1 extra AC gives your half plate the same defense as full plate but let's you sneak and at half the cost of full plate! Also some of the conclave play really well with melee like using a bonus action to make your weapon attacks that turn deal all force damage and a extra 1d8 to one guy you really don't like!
and the Tabaxi race is valid with this build?
You said everyone's favourite nature bois, but that would be druid
Miles Ried
Druids are the dirty bois
I was gonna like but it's glories
How to *_a c t u a l l y_* play as a Ranger:
Step 1: Use the UA's Revised Ranger.
Ranger is good how it is we don't need that trash.
@@ARTROUBLETOOL don't lie to yourself.
no you
ok pick rangeruse sharp shooter
@@ARTROUBLETOOL Or pick Fighter, use sharpshooter earlier, and be better
I love my ranger. Was my first character I ever made and he is my absolute best boy. Started him a socially awkward young drow male (surface born though) who was better at getting along with animals than people but eventually found his people in his party who became his dear friends. Later this extended to the town his friends and him set down a homebase within (it’s an inn). And has more recently expanded to the entire area of the map which is basically Ten Towns (the “hometown” he prefers is Lonelywood). He’s actually made lots of friends. He has 3giants for friends, befriended a mammoth, has 4 sled dogs, has a pet mimic, and even a construct version of a pseudodragon (who acts like a cat and hangs out in his hood). You would think with all this that he was a beast master right? Nope. He is a gloomstalker. He’s no angsty person in the corner. He is the socially anxious type who only seems like he is brooding and the other players’ loved that. He is actually well liked by the other players and I’m told that quite often. He has basically been adopted by the party. Oh! I nearly forgot the mention the best part….ready for it? He adopted 14 kobolds who help run the inn his party owns. Yup. 14.
I play my Rangers closer to Aragorn, whom the class was ACTUALLY BASED OFF OF!!
*glares angrily at Legolas fanbois*
I very specifically played my wood elf in 3.5e based off Strider. i have never looked back since.
So I want to have a longbow and a longsword
I am I hoping for too much
honestly need advice
@@emmanuelmitchell3535 either buy it later while playing or roll for gold when making your character and hope.
Play a fighter then.
Legolas is an Arcane Archer fighter, and I will say no more about it. Yes, he grew up in a forest, but in a friggin' WALLED OFF CITY.
Funnily enough it wasn’t LOTR where I Heard of rangers but The Ranger Apprentice series where imagine 50 Batman’s and their protégés work directly under the king using longbows, knives, and the most secretive and feared sector of the land. They are as stealthy as rouges, use longbows like fighters with near perfect accuracy, sea knives like sailors, all human but are dexterous like halflings, etc.
Retep Noznjo that WOULD be awesome with a revised caviler represented by the temujai. Man this would be awesome to do! Have book characters make cameos as in game NPC’s
"As stealthy as rogues?" Hell no, they are stealthier. >:)
Rafael Castor IKR!? Seriously it’s like they START with that rouge ability where you move with half movement but have advantage on stealth rolls.
Irony of the two major classes allegedly based entirely on a single literary character (Conan for the barbarian and Aragorn for the ranger) is that both of those dudes are just Human Fighter in the source material.
I would say ranger is more based on Drizzt than Aragorn. Also Conan was closer to rogue than fighter.
@@Klaital1 nah Conan was a wizard
@@Klaital1 Dude, Drizzt didn't exist in the 70's when the game was created. LOTR was written and published in 1954, for which G Gygax based a lot of the game on. Yes the Ranger was based upon the Rangers in LOTR of which Aragorn, also known as 'Strider" the Ranger.... Of course they are fighters, just not rank and file warriors found in a tradition army. They were scouts/survivalists that had to be independent and great fighters to survive in the wilds on their own or in small bands.
Legolas was most likely a fighter.
Luar D'Andrea agreed, likely a champion fighter since he's super athletic and seems to crit all the time :P
I disagree. I think he was a rogue. He manages to kill a giant elephant in, arguably, 3 hits. That's definitely sneak attack. Also he loves daggers. Just saying. That said i can see where you're coming from
Fighter rogue multiclass? Lol
Luar D'Andrea maybe. Depends are we including Hobbit Trilogy Legolas or just LotR Legolas?
Aragorn was also a Fighter. So were Merry and Pippin. For that matter, Conan was also a Fighter rather than taking the Barbarian class.
"Rogue because sneak attack?" No, that in no way resembles a sneak attack just because it did more damage than usual, that was clearly a critical hit with a very favorable setup.
You could literally just play a rogue with a bow multiclassing with the Druid
TLDR buddy but yes you can
Wow again TLDR
Actually Elf back when it was a class was just "Wizard with more HP and some weapon proficiencies, but each day you can decide to be a fighter that day instead and wear armor but not cast spells"
It was like a multiclass fighter/wizard who still couldn't cast spells while wearing armor.
Rogue gets proficiency with ranged weapons and can start with a short bow.
Use the Scout subclass of Rogue. It's way closer to Robin Hood than any ranger build is going to be.
And Aragorn from LOTR? He's more a Fighter with proficiency in nature and survival type skills and tools than he is like the D&D Ranger.
Regardless of how you feel about the Ranger, you can’t deny it has the most underwhelming level 20 ability in the game
"You're no longer playing DnD, you're playing pokemon."
I'm fine with this
I personally love playing the beast master class because of how the members of my party like to make their characters as overpowered as possible so I do not necessarily have to be good In battle. Plus my 3 foot gnome looks bad ass on a black panther
+1 for Globglogabgalab. That meme had zero potential but still lasted as long as it did.
MSPA
I know one way to make a Beastmaster good, Small panther rider. You need to be a small race like halfling, gnome, kobold, or goblin and take the Mounted Combatant feat at level 4, and have a panther as your companion. Now you have a mount that can go indoors and has a clime speed.
Or this beastmaster build:
First to say - I am using only PHB, point buy, don't use polearm master - OP in my opinion (and i love it this way ;-)).
Half-orc(Mountain Dwarf)
Str 17
Dex 8(10)
Con 16
Int 8
Wis 15
Cha 8
Feats/A.S.I.:
lvl4 Heavily armored (str 18)
lvl8 ...see further...
lvl12 con 17 + wis 16
lvl16 Resilient Con (con 18)
lvl19 str 20
Normal build - take sentinel on lvl8 and keep your animal next to you (punish anyone, who dares to attack it). This is one of the best tank builds in the game (your HP together is d10+con+4 - same like d18+con). You can use ensnaring strike on you and your animal (share spells) and have twice the chance to succeed (we all love restrained enemies).
Offensive build - take defensive fighting style, great weapon master on lvl8 and your strategy is like this: Cast ensnaring strike with bonus action on both of you, come to your enemy, than engage enemy with your wolf, attack with wolf twice with advantage (pack tactics), first hit means str check or restrained, every hit means str save or knocked prone, than you attack with greataxe with advantage if prone or restrained for 1d12+str+10 (great weapon master), another str check or restrained and than you can run away (enemy has dissadvantage), followed by wolf, or stay there, because enemy has to use action to escape ensnaring strike.
I especially love dwarven beast master S&B with wild boar (they both smell the same) charging next to him to close combat.
Another possibility is variant human:
str 16 (14 + 1 VH + 1 feat)
dex 10
con 16
int 8
wis 15
cha 8
Heavily armored feat, rest the same combination of feats and ASI, (lvl4 str+2, lvl8 feat, lvl12 con+wis. lvl16 resilient con, lvl19 str+2 or any other order).
Small player beast master, pterodactyl
@@JuckiCZ Just a note that Ensnaring Strike requires a 'weapon' attack, natural attacks do not count as weapon attacks so the animal companion can't actually proc the ensnaring strike (same goes for pretty much all the other similar spells).
Or pick a pterodactyl. Which is also a 1/4 beast, for some reason.
You can actually use slayers prey as much as you like since it’s says it lasts intill a short rest/ long rest or designate different creature it’s basically the cantrip version of hunters mark.
Horizon Walker is definitely one of the funnest ranger subclasses for sure. Wish you talked about the revised ranger though since that is arguably one of the most popular UA classes, and actually makes the ranger good. (If not a little too good)
I know that it ruffles some peoples’ jimmies, but I actually really like the artificer UA. It’s not good yet, but it’s a really creative departure from the bog standard classes we have now.
For sure, I totally agree. I love the idea for the artificer and actually really like the slightly altered homebrew version. Its just hard to make good since its such a utility class.
01:50 I took some time to understand what was happening in this art.
6:43
is that a giant f*cking corgi
i want one
Angry Furret he’s a gud boi
Omg. Playing Pokémon makes so much sense for that archetype.
A couple examples of good PHB Rangers are Reynard from "High Rollers" and Task of "the Unexpectables". Granted, they are both bow-wielding Hunter rangers, and thus are up there as some of the highest damage-dealers in their respective parties. In fact, there are some people who think the Hunter Ranger is one of the highest-tier classes in the game.
Hunter's Mark is such a ridiculously useful spell that you should _almost always be using all the time,_ and only the Ranger gets it (that I know of at the moment), that one wonders why it isn't just a class ability instead. As it is, it's basically your missing "favored enemy bonus damage" except you can cast it on anyone, not just your favored enemy. I've also people regularly forget that you can cast it with higher spell slots to make it last longer, and that you can transfer it to another target after your target dies (I've seen so many people assume that the spell ends when the target dies).
Currently playing a UA Ranger, and I didn't realize Hunter's Mark lasts past the encounter 😅 mostly because I'm third level, and haven't been able to cast it yet...
I hear people say "oh, I didn't know this spell could do that" all the time. My number one piece of advice for anyone playing a class that uses spells is "thoroughly read your spell descriptions". Not just the effects of the spells, but also the casting times, components, durations, and any special conditions or exceptions. Many spells work differently from previous editions; some changes are slight enough that they could be missed if you just skim the description and assume it still works the same as it used to.
This advice goes for class abilities too. I've seen people choose Beastmaster Ranger because they thought it worked the same as in 3.5 Edition or Pathfinder where their animal companion is actually a sentient creature capable of independent thought and action.
@@arcticbanana66 Yep this is my first time being a class with any type of spellcasting so I never put two and two together about that 1 hour con, still now that I'm level 3 I'm looking forward to being able to use Hunter's Mark, and not blowing all of my slots on Cure Wounds 😅
17th level Arcane Tricksters can also yoink it for 8 hours with their Spell Thief ability, but at that level there are so many better spells to use it on.
The Monster Slayer archetype from Xanathar's Guide gets the Slayer's Prey class feature that's basically a mini Hunter's Mark (damage only on your first hit of the round, damage doesn't scale up, no bonus to tracking, but doesn't require concentration or a spell slot), and like the Vengeance Paladin its other class features can basically be described as "no, fuck _you_ in particular".
Hex does basically the same thing and you can get either of them as a bard, an objectively better class for support, utility, and general fun to play.
I would live with any criticism this class has tacked onto it if means I could be as glorious as that fella at 4:17
Also I haven't played a single game where the revised ranger wasn't used by default, but in all cases they were multiclassed into something else. I guess it's not appealing knowing that two of the mid-to-late game abilities are focused on just hiding, especially when one is a minute-cast time pass without trace. Where's the trap-laying or bonuses when succeeding on tracking things down?
It's a shame they only really begun designing features that allow you to use the ability modifier per rest around the time Xanathar's was made, I think they would have given the ranger (hell, even the revised ranger) a lot more interesting abilities if they had sorted out that method for determining ability use when designing the class.
If you want a fun build, and your dm has a habit of putting enemies in close proximity:
Go hunter, have hail of thorns as one of your spells, use a longbow, use horde breaker. You have double the chance of activating hail of thorns (it outpaces lightning arrow in terms of damage, when upcasted, but has a smaller area) with it, and if you get higher leveled, you can pair it with volley that lets you attack everybody in an area once, one person in that area twice, and hit some people in that area with a little aoe. It gives the ranger a specialization that not many people in the party have, which is prolonged AOE, you’re gonna say, the wizard can just use fireball, but the wizard can only fireball so many times per day, the only thing limiting you is your number of arrows.
You can use Slayer's Prey from the Monster Slayer as often as you want, not just once per short rest. Massive difference.
Imagine a monster slayer with an oathbow dear god that is the definition of select the biggest baddest guy on the battlefield and tell him to die
Also I respect you taking such effort to treat a very disliked class with the you did respect
Im new and I started with a ranger....I always thought it was fun and Tasha's fixed a lot of useless abilities and helped buff them. Also Drake warden is crazy.
I wish there were more videos talking about Ranger that use revised ranger instead of base. I mean, I could always read up on it myself and come to my own conclusions, but also Davvy is funny and has a good personality, and these videos help me think about this stuff for roleplaying purposes.
the unenlightened masses, they don't know that hunter's mark is suboptimal *insert kobold noises*
I know you’ve mentioned the revised ranger, and it’s the version I use; I’d love to see a video on that one.
Best part about Underdark on Natural Explorer is that it works in any dungeons below/under the ground, inside a mountain/hill, etc.
Pair it with Gloomstalker and you actually have a decent class while you are in most dungeons.
I've played an Unrevised Ranger as my first character, (still ongoing at lvl 9), and I've loved every encounter
(This usn't meant to be rude to Davvy, just me telling my experience as Ranger)
I started playing D&D about a month ago and loved it. I played as a ranger cus I like long range, plus the rest of my party were melee fighters. We played a homebrew dark souls campaign that is still going on. When we got to the levels to pick sub-classes, I could pick hunter or beastmaster(didn't know about revised ranger). I really wanted an animal companion, cus who the hell wouldn't. When my dm read the list of companions, I emidiatly knew what to pick....the mutha fuckin pseudo-dragon. Hell yes, this bitch can fly and has a breath attack, sweet. Now that I know ranger isn't that good I'll ask the dm if i can use revised ranger.
Mtn.dew90 i have no idea what rules you’re using (sounds fun though) but beastmasters can’t get pseudo-dragons and pseudo-dragons don’t have breath attacks (again actually sounds really cool) just thought i’d mention that
'Talk to your DM if your loss of power lasts more than 8 hours.' LOLOL!
my Rangers uses two axes and a longbow, and he's turned into the all round generalist of the party, he's got range and up close fuck off-itude, and given the mobility and the healing spell, he's a backup healer too, so the guy's essentially a great support for the imbalanced party we have(2 barbarians, a bard, and a rogue)
I'm one of those weird people who genuinely likes the ranger but I've always played in a more roleplay heavy campaign and I feel like that's where the ranger shines with his survival abilities to help make sure the group doesn't starve/dehydrate.
I will say the option features really add to it as well and made it more useable as did the new conclaves with horizon walker and gloomstalker but also the fey wanderer and even swarmkeeper. This drakenwarden loos really good too and I need to sit down and play with it.
I recently dual classed with a fighter on my swarm keeper (I know tell me all about the redundancy) and it along with my paladin have been the major front liners for the group but also my ranger is just murder on anyone from any range really.
I play a ranger in my group and putting drow poison on a arrow then mulltypiling and I picked ranger cause Dragonborn was just so lackluster to me good video
The Horizon Walker is basically the best thing ever. Period. Especially because it gives you a valid reason to reflavor your spells, so that they are not the druids runty brother, but instead drawn from the planes themselves. This is so much cooler than being an apprentice druid who thought bows and scale armor are really neat-o.
In my world, the “Monster Slayer” Ranger is the Master Detective who hunts down the creatures of the night and sends the darkest of spell-casters to justice!!
Pick any race than Just go rogue and multiclass to Ranger they complement each other well. the Ranger it gives you proficiency with shields get a shield and studded leather pick the defence fighting style at level 2 and don't forget you also get spellcasting now this is gonna be fun. put the highest points to dex if you're at 18 congrats you already got 19 to AC and that's just the start ;)
Quality videos are quality.
monster hunters can use their slayer’s prey ability on command and it just essentially drops concentration after a short rest.
There’s always the small race + medium flying mount at level 3 with beast master. So you could fly in strike and then dash out with your bonus action because your beast didn’t attack.
I will admit, I do like how each Ranger conclave focuses on each element of a Ranger.
The Hunter focuses on weapon proficiency...
The Beastmaster focuses on the animal companion (albeit poorly. One may want to fix this...)
The Horizon Walker focuses on favoured terrain...
The Gloom Stalker focuses on the stealth skills...
and Monster Slayer focuses on the favored enemy mechanic!
I really like how this is laid out, and also find this really enjoyable, because if you were to play a Ranger, test out all of the features, and think "Hm, I really like this one feature over the others!", you already have a Conclave you can go to, because it leans so heavily into that one feature!
My Dm just randomly afflicted my party an i with secondary classes based on our reactions to a deity randomly appearing, so getting this insight into the ranger for my Tortle Path of the Shepard Druid is balls to the wall useful.
Rangers can use all martial weapons, which allows for the use of greatswords. Yes this means you need strength for your attack stat, but since you have medium armor proficiency you can do so whilr having a 14 in dex.
This allows you to huntersmark to do 3d6+str per hit, which is pretty snazzy at lvl5. You do marginally more damage with dex based attacks before then (because hitting a second time as a bonus action while dual wielding letting you do 4d6+(dexterity x2) per turn)
The nice thing about the great sword is that you can take the great weapon master feat for a nice +10 to damage, and the *Guardian of nature* spell is a direct upgrade to huntersmark if you are str based since it will also give you advantage on attacks.
I get that this is a beginner's guide, but seeing as you referenced aragorn (who uses a longsword/great sword) i thought it merited mention
Im playing a ranger for the first time! Im going with swarmkeeper. I wanted beast keeper but it doesn’t offer as much as swarm. Thankfully the dm is letting us start with an uncommon magic item. I think bag of tricks will give them that companion aesthetic I’m looking for
I prefer to play a two weapon fighter ranger because with the feat you can use two longswords with no penalty and full bonuses and then use hunters mark and the hunter archetype and suddenly you can stack damage abilities. Two weapon fighers are the chads of the rangers.
I sometimes when playing with new players play "level 0" where the hit die is a d4 and instead of being added to it is upgraded to the hit die of their future class when they level up, then they also get either simple weapons and light armour or they get one cantrip
Yep, I'm gonna just use the Revised Ranger, cuz one of my players had the guts to choose the Beastmaster.
Their is actually ONE scenario where playing a ranger is fun. If your a new player in campaign that isn't going to run to high levels (or if it is just ask your GM if you can change characters later) playing a ranger can actually be really fun cause you get to try out a bit of everything and decide what you like.
I'm planning a ranger whose favorite terrain is Urban or cities, and after watching the class series like 3 times, I came back to this video so Davvy could help me pick my subclass. (Provided the DM is not ok with unearthed arcana. Not all of them are )
I love my beast master. I've made my giant frog companion do work. With jump, swallow, and the fact our gnome Bard can ride him, he's definitely the favorite character of the party. Sure, the HP sucks, but if you're creative there's a lot you can do with a beast master
In my homebrew, I edited the Ranger class from “favorite terrain” and changed it to “adaptive terrain” - after 48 hours in a new type of terrain, they gain advantage on ground movement, or tracking perception, or weather debuffs - choice of the player.
Edit: they can’t change their advantage type unless they leave that terrain, learn a new one, and then come back. Basically it would take a week to change advantage (as it’s adapting to the terrain in a new way, which I assume would take a fair amount of study/practice).
I miss the 3.5e ranger. Always got an animal compainion, always had extra attacks once you got past 5th level. Only downside was the d8 for HP.
Solution to the capstone: Make it their score, not bonus, and add it to attack and damage. Fair and balanced.
So uh. I've only been playing for a few weeks at my local game store, and before my first session I just chose a premade elf ranger as my character :p _And_ not realising that it was The Worst Archetype, I chose, yep, Beastmaster. (Which I'd completely forgotten about for like three weeks until another player brought it up in my last session ha ha whoops) I'd hoped I could switch to Hunter, but unfortunately I apparently can't :/ I didn't choose an animal companion yet because I was under the impression that I had to _acquire_ said animal somehow, but I apparently just... have one? Sooooo I'm heavily toying with the idea of making my animal companion a wolf because I'm ALREADY an _elf ranger_ and at this point I might as well go all out and be as cheesily trite as possible :p
OhGoodAFarce If you’re playing an official Adventurer’s League game at your game store, then you are completely within your rights to change anything about your character up until you hit 5th level. If you aren’t playing AL, and your DM still won’t let you change even though it’s your very first time playing and you have clearly expressed that you aren’t having any fun, clearly express that the DM can go stuff it and find a different table, yo, because that shit does not fly.
Davvy Chappy I don't _think_ it's Adventurer's League? I'm pretty sure it's D&D Encounters. And I don't really want to leave my table, the DM _is_ actually really nice (if he weren't, I wouldn't have come back after the first week, and this past Saturday was my fifth) and I never said I wasn't having fun :p I was just kinda poking fun at myself in my comment.
OhGoodAFarce oh, well if you’re having fun, then never mind. :p
Dont listen to anyone, Beastmaster isn't that bad, of course there are much stronger classes/builds for min/maxers out there, but that doesnt mean that Beastmaster is useless. If you want to min/max him take Giant Poisonous Snake as your Companion. It has high dex and deals additional 3d6 (or half on save) poison dmg with every attack. So on 11 lvl you attack once and your snake attacks twice for 1d4+8 + 3d6(or half on save) each time, which isn't bad. Especially if your table uses rules for Flanking. Yes your companion is a bit squishy 44hp and AC 20 on level 11 (if you buy Studded Leather for your snake), but it should be fine if you have a dedicated tank in your party and dont do anything stupid.
stuff it.. if your class is bad go all out.. get a ferret..
Just a note the Monster slayer , Slayers pray work any time you can use it on multiple creatures in the same fight it just can only be active on one at a time.
the wording is wonky but it says.
the benefit last until you finish a short or long rest or you designate a different creature.
means you can do it on different creatures. it just doesn't have a set duration
didnt see someone state it in the comments so I thought it was worth it after a year XD
E S P E C I A L L Y T H E W I Z A R D
I don't get the reference joke that keeps recurring. Which video is it from?
@@NinjaSushi2 Same. I don't understand. Captain please?
Just getting into D n D, great video brother that was wicked-funny and educational
Honestly, I feel like the Ranger is one of the most customizable classes in D&D. I'll agree that most of the Ranger's early-game abilities are a bit too situation-specific, I still feel like there's not just one way to play this class. To start with a longbow set and medium armor, this is one of the most powerful martial classes in the game. That, and the inclusion of augmentation magic similar to paladins is very helpful to pick up some slack from the class' low points.
To be fair though, I also really like playing Hunters and Horizon Walkers.
Ive home brewed rangers pretty hard. I gave them a nature smite ability (the can spend a spell slot to deal 1d6+2d6/spell level) but it can only be used on their favored enemy. And they get more advantages in favored terrain. And I made beast master not suck real hard.
6:27 cr 1/4 or less? might as well just be a circle of moon druid
My first class was ranger because I wanted a tutorial class to dnd and here's what I have to say LITERALLY PICK ANYTHING ELSE
Ranger is bad if you use the Player's Handbook to create one. Get alternate features now with the new Unearthed Arcana Class Feature Variants. Deft Explorer is 3 features compiled into one that you can choose to get at when you pick the class at level 1 and when you reach 6th and 10th levels. Canny gives you one additional skill proficiency, Roving gives you an extra 5 ft of movement and Tireless gives you additional hit points equal to d10 + Wis mod. Favoured Foe gives you the Hunter's Mark spell for free and you can cast it without preparation. Primal Awareness gets you additional ranger spells to cast at certain levels. Fade Away lets you become invisible. And a shit ton of other cool features too! Don't risk boxing yourself in with crippling overspecialisation, get the UA Ranger Variant Features now and make Rangers greater!
Beast master requires so much work to be good. If you pick a flying snake and multiclass into rouge you have a pretty good combo but that is just you trying to find a use for the beast
I almost hit my Ranger Gate button but decided to watch :-) Glad I did.
Re read Slayers Prey mate. The effects and bonuses of the ability drop on your designated target at the end of a short/long rest or if you designate a different target.
This wording implies that one cannot stack Slayers Prey on multiple Targets and that if the designated creature still lives at the end of a rest, Slayers Prey drops.
It doesn't state that the player can only use the ability once per short rest.
I ended up making a ''non revised'' ranger multiclass that ended up being actually really fucking good. Basically I picked gloom 5 levels of gloom stalker and then multiclassed into assassin rogue,that build works well starting from lvl 8 and get's better and better as you gain more rogue levels. Basically you deal fucking insane amounts of damage to surprised enemies,which is pretty easy since you're simply invisible to anything without blindsight or tremorsense in darkness depending on how careful your group is willing to be when it comes to letting you scout ahead and preparing for attacking instead of just running in there. So basically the build works like this,you get 3 attacks instead of 2 during your first round in each combat,the third attack deals extra 1d8 damage. If you use all of that with sneak attack and hunter's mark,you end up dealing massive amounts of damage with those 3 attacks. And after that your average damage ended up being about 33 points of damage without any magical items. Which you could ofc bump to something like 50 with sharpshooter feat but 33 is fine for lvl8 character especially after dealing closer to 90 points of damage on average against a surprised enemy.
It's by no means an impressive build for any minmaxers out there,but if you want a cool build and interesting Ranger/rogue build try it out,with elven accuracy feat you basically roll 3d20s for all of your attack rolls instead of 2 whenever you have advantage,which is almost always with this build because of the umbral sight ability. Do note that this depends on how antagonistic your DM is because if they're not cool with letting you do stuff like being invisible in all dark dungeons and caves they will just start throwing enemies with blindsight of ridiculous distance at you just to piss on your parade so if your DM is not ok with PCs having these really cool abilities that build will not work for you at all. Also a dm who specifically counters players instead of designing encounters that make sense or lead to cool stories that dm is an asshole anyway so there's that.
I know with the Favourite Terrain and Enemy type for my first Ranger (A Tabaxi that was pretty much a hunter and was more on the Marksman/Survival route) I just picked the one that was more for flavour and character background (I knew I wouldn't get it in-game, but I thought 'screw it, he went through this and hunted that a lot as a young Tabaxi, so that was it') my DM didn't have an issue
My favorite way to play a ranger is to make a character with no levels in the ranger class. Start with a fighter and choose the archery fighting style (no shit) and multiclass into Druid at level 2 so you can start using forest magic early on, after that swap back to fighter until you get your second attack it’s recommend you take the Eldritch Knight archetype for the spell progression but a case can be made for arcane archer. after getting two attacks swap back to Druid to pick up the circle of land and get more nature magic taking additional levels in fighter until you strike the balance you’re looking for. For bonus points dip 3 levels into rogue and take the scout archetype, skirmisher will let you put space between yourself and your enemies and if you don’t think your character can use cunning actions then you simply aren’t cunning enough.
Play a scout rogue with the outlander background.
Me my brother and my dad are all new to dnd and my brother plays a beastmaster and I don’t know if my dad realizes that he has to give up actions so we don’t do that
They just allow both to attack at once
Love your channel. Great work.
Aragorn was obviously a ranger , able to track , likes being in the wild, and was literally called a ranger in the book and movies, Aragorn being a ranger is good enough to tell me that being a ranger is awesome
I haven’t tried a ranger yet but if I do, I’m definitely checking out the revised version.
Even in old classes for rangers you could do some adaptability plus it gives destruction in an utmost power control fun
This is late, but I hope people see this.
If you want to play a ranger and want to have fun, the only sub class that feels somewhat unique is the beast master. Play revised ranger beast conclave and have fun.
i made a monster slayer ranger but instead of hunting them down, i played them more of a zoologist, instead studying monsters and writing notes about them in her new monster manual. i love the idea and i highly encourage monster slayer.
I have a friend that is a Beast Master Ranger. I decided to give him the ability to have stronger creatures like Griffions or Rhino as a companion to at least make thw class a bit cooler
Our favorite nature boy, except for druid... nature domain cleric... oath of the ancients paladin but after them ranger is our favorite.
Watching you suffer thru this one gave me such pleasure lol ranger for life sin!
for me you can swap favored enemy and evironment can be swapped every long rest
I remember my first character in 5e being a Ranger. Not trusting my own DPS from my bow, I chose the Beastmaster subclass with a pet Boar. I never heard the end of how useless my character was, at least until level 5 when both myself and my pet could attack. Things actually got far better from there, but those levels from 3 until hitting 5 are PAINFUL as F&%$. After that, it gets much much easier, however I generally lost a pet every 2 encounters, either to AoE damage or a lucky hit from some enemy fighter. That being said, the rogue and the fighter of the party absolutely loved my pet being around since I would order it to flank whatever they would attack and give them advantage.
Despite how much I like playing Beastmaster, I agree that it is quite weak compared to EVERY OTHER SUBCLASS, and I really want that Beast Conclave to hurry up and be published in a supplement book.
I'm actually playing a beast master rn but we modified it a decent amount so it's a bit more viable. I'm honestly kind of enjoying it. Both my character and her direwolf have pack tactics(grim hollow-style werewolf w/ kindred form), so whenever I'm using kindred form(which I tend to do if I get low on hit points), I get at least one guaranteed hit. It'll probably get boring at later levels, but considering my character has the werewolf thing And something else that my DM is keeping secret besides the fact that it'll be powerful, I think I'll manage lol.
My player (first time) literally handed me return of the king and said "my character inspiration. He was, of course, a ranger.
I honestly don't know why so many people think Ranger's suck. Go for a Dex build. I chose the Archery fighting class, giving me +2 to attack
I grabbed the Sharpshooter feat which allows a -5 penalty for attack for +10 damage. I'm also proficient in weapons with the bonus +2. My Dex mod is 4. In short, I get +8 to every attack roll with a bow. My proficiency bonus increases every 2 or 3 levels, making it so that I never miss and basically always deal +10 damage. I don't see how that sucks
Try playing a PHB Beastmaster Ranger, then you'll realize where all the hate comes from. That and the lack of damage for your favored enemy, along with the extremely situational nature of natural terrain.
The revised Ranger however is pretty decent. Enough people love it where WoTC refuses to include it officially.... I mean for God's sake they need to at least make The Beastmaster revision official
I took one look at Beastmaster when I first started playing, and immediately decided against it. I understand the hate regarding the Ranger Subclass, but if you play the archetype well, you can be amazingly badass. Rangers get hail of Thorns and lightning arrow - two spells which stack with the Sharpshooter feat. I recently dipped into Rogue, so with Sneak Attack I can deal ridiculous amounts of damage. Favoured enemy and terrain will come into play maybe half the time, but the times it does can really help. If you want a damage dealing Ranger - go Colossus slayer and dip into Rogue for sneak Attack. You'll only need to dip once to start dealing crazy amounts of damage through Ranger spells and abilities 😂
Simply pick favored terrain planes and then just say "We're on the primordial plane of water so it counts." Or "We're on the material plane so it counts." Etc.
Sure it breaks the entire point of it being a preferred terrain, but I'd argue that primary features of a class shouldn't be restricted to only one terrain.
"Home..... on the Ranger"
I'm Liking the Video just for that........
The UA is good, but i only use this class to flavor others.
Like a paladin with 1 ranger for Favored Enemy (Undead), and a whip.
So I’ve been playing ranger for awhile now all I’m gonna say is drow+gloomstalker+skulker+sharpshooter. You’re welcome.
Sunlight.... Ur Welcome....
I'm so glad they fixed the beast master
*Revised Ranger Deep Stalker laughing in the background*
I feel this needs an update post-Tashas. Tashas really gave almost everything requested in this video for the class