I honestly think the ranger is really powerful in the early levels! Just doesn't get much love after level 5 for much damage. Maybe the other subclasses do though
I think the potential problem is that any other martial can do (nearly) all of this whilst their features do much more… BUT like Paladin, I think Ranger is stronger than mundane martials simply because it gets spells. Though Warlock, Bard and Eldritch Knight are probably better… whereas Paladin’s Auras level the playing field
Hunter Ranger was always good. Without the buff to hunter's mark. Either ranged or melee, stacking hunter's mark, colossal slayer, great weapon master feat, and anything else you can get from weapon mastery and you will cutting people down for days. (I don't interpret the great weapon fighting style the same way you do. It's intended for weapon damage and expanding it beyond makes it more powerful but also cheesy.
Dueling fighting style doesn't work with a weapon you are wielding in 2 hands. Gw fighting style doesn't apply to damage dice from other sources, just weapon damage. (Somethings add to weapon damage like sneak attack, but WotC makes sure to keep these things from stacking) Additionally fire burn is a once per long rest ability so 5 damage a day is not a big deal it's hardly worth mentioning. Colossus Slayer is a d8 per round, per creature which incentivizes attacking multiple foes.. which you don't want to do in melee unless you drop one in first attack.. but how often does that happen? Rangers do low single target damage compared to any other melee class.. I'm not sure why, but all their features seem to incentivize attacking multiple targets. As far as tanking goes rangers are limited by constitution being low (multiple ability dependant) lack of reaction defense (defense duelist is a must) and little damage mitigation like rage or heavy armor master. Mathematically they just aren't as good on the front line. They are more of a dual role skilled/support character. Which is niche and why so many people have a problem with them. Breaking their features down you get: 1/3 caster which is mostly support, 1/3 combatant, 1/3 skills user.
Thanks. This gives me a lot to work with in making a viable ranger.
I honestly think the ranger is really powerful in the early levels! Just doesn't get much love after level 5 for much damage. Maybe the other subclasses do though
I think the potential problem is that any other martial can do (nearly) all of this whilst their features do much more…
BUT like Paladin, I think Ranger is stronger than mundane martials simply because it gets spells. Though Warlock, Bard and Eldritch Knight are probably better… whereas Paladin’s Auras level the playing field
Hunter Ranger was always good. Without the buff to hunter's mark. Either ranged or melee, stacking hunter's mark, colossal slayer, great weapon master feat, and anything else you can get from weapon mastery and you will cutting people down for days. (I don't interpret the great weapon fighting style the same way you do. It's intended for weapon damage and expanding it beyond makes it more powerful but also cheesy.
Dueling fighting style doesn't work with a weapon you are wielding in 2 hands.
Gw fighting style doesn't apply to damage dice from other sources, just weapon damage. (Somethings add to weapon damage like sneak attack, but WotC makes sure to keep these things from stacking)
Additionally fire burn is a once per long rest ability so 5 damage a day is not a big deal it's hardly worth mentioning. Colossus Slayer is a d8 per round, per creature which incentivizes attacking multiple foes.. which you don't want to do in melee unless you drop one in first attack.. but how often does that happen? Rangers do low single target damage compared to any other melee class.. I'm not sure why, but all their features seem to incentivize attacking multiple targets.
As far as tanking goes rangers are limited by constitution being low (multiple ability dependant) lack of reaction defense (defense duelist is a must) and little damage mitigation like rage or heavy armor master. Mathematically they just aren't as good on the front line. They are more of a dual role skilled/support character. Which is niche and why so many people have a problem with them.
Breaking their features down you get: 1/3 caster which is mostly support, 1/3 combatant, 1/3 skills user.
Can you make this so it can be seen as the ranger class in the sense of in a file form or similar so I can refer to it as needed?