Rangers always had a special enemy but in my game they also had a special ally. The ally could be an enemy of their enemy but not always. I love your comment Ranges are Druid Paladins. That is exactly how I see them.
I have created a bunch ov different Hunters Lodges that a ranger can join. Each one has a totem-like animal spirit that they honor. And they can gain rep by hunting dangerous monsters(to help out small settlements), helping out locals with food or situations they would be useful at (without their knowledge, like a guardian angel deal), offer their tracking & trailing thru a favored terrain or something similar, and anyone can come in to a Lodge and pay for aid(good way to obtain quests). Lots ov room for creativity and options there. I really like the idea ov a favored ally. Very interesting.
Strangely enough I a year ago I played a 5e Paladin(oath of the watchers) Ranger (Horizon Walker) dual class for a lvl 20 one shot between campaigns. It was a rather nastily wonderful combo due to the mix of spells available and having two combat proficiencies and a dex based character is quite good especially if you take a two level dip in fighter on the front end for action surge, which I did. Not exactly the most efficient when it comes to certain higher level class skills and effects but having divine smite available is a major plus.
Tolkien drew inspiration for the Ranger from a martial caste instituted by William the Conqueror called Underforester to police the frontier portions of his kingdom, to protect the vert and venison and get to places that were too dangerous for others to get to and and enforce the law on those who tried to poach
The alignment restriction on the Ranger back in the AD&D by the time the PHB was published was that they always had to be Good, not Lawful. Which made a lot more sense actually. Robin Hood was a good guy where the foot touches the ground, as opposed to being the good guy where the quill meets the parchment. Something that i think is important to note is about the switch to make the the Ranger's access to magic more Priest oriented, rather than Wizard oriented from 2nd Edition onward. The idea of the Ranger, be a hippy priest, i believe is our interpretation of the concept in modern times. But when you look at the old lore, whether Gaelic, or Welsh, or Briton, the Ranger character was more like a warrior incarnation of the Druid -who was actually described more as a magician, as opposed to the hippy priests that we see them as now. So in this respect, the old PHB that gave the Ranger some competency with basic Wizardry, was quite in line with the Celtic lore that has survived in one form or another to be handed down to us. But this is the problem. The Ranger to us is a lot like the Ninja in Japan. We don't really know where history and legend cross, because there was so little left to posterity in terms of a historical account, as opposed to the use of these characters in moral stories passed on orally. Again, we end up with problems in the Greek and especially the Roman and Anglo-Saxon accounts of the historical root of the Celtic peoples (& the Ranger for purpose of this post), because these peoples were being written about from the point of view of an enemy, and not from their own argument. All we get really is that these are foreigners who are to be feared. But, i suppose, in its own way, this fog is what ensured that the Druid and the Ranger would survive to be re-imagined in Dungeons and Dragons. Along with the fact that a lot of the great story telling, also blossomed into a lot of great Literature among Celtic peoples in latter centuries. And this brings us back again to Tolkien. From what i understand, a lot of his incentive in the Lord of the Rings stories was that he wanted the English to have a rich mythology, the same way the Irish, Scots, and Welsh did. And he took a lot from the Bible -lets not forget that he was a devout Roman Catholic, and he mixed this with the lore that was spawned from the soil in the Isles.
I have a strength build ranger, and he's pretty awesome. Horizon walker, he's also a gnoll. Very good at fighting fiends. Even got a weapon commissioned that does extra damage to evil and to fiends. So it's just a great synergy.
My favorite ranger ever was one i played in 3 -3.5 homebrew. The Rogue player and i quickly realized how devastating we could be together. she went assassin, i took dread commando. both of us took some combat oriented team work feats and learned a tactical sign language (like drow sign ) and together we just devastated every enemy we came across. weather it was with perfectly executed ambushes, or in open pitch battle.
Coup de gras arrow shot to the head or chest. Make Fort save DC: 10 +1d8 arrow dmg, with any other class feature abilities. Or lose that many temporary Constitution points. 3.5e Star Wars Mag had Sharp Shooter prestige class. i.) Target gets a Ref save vs Shooters atk roll. ii.) Target gets Fort save vs dmg or dies iii.) Targets make save, then targets takes Constitution dmg. IRL people have took arrow through the head and remain awake through the whole ordeal. Arrow locks up the heart, through the chest, enternal lung bleeding causes the victim to drown.
@@back5594 Coup de gras was first introduce in D&D3e as combat action to kill a Helpless Defender. Later supplement books turn CdG into a stander combat action that carries the ability to kill in a single hit. Other RPG system have a Death Blow result action in their game systems so some people carried it over into D&D. White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Vampire d10 system has single hit kill combat. d10 does not run on HP " hip points," but Stamina dice. Staking a vampire is difficulty of 8 on d10, weapon speciality is 7 on d10 To stake a vampire or shoot a person in the heart/ head, you need five confirm hits and cause three confirm level of damage. If the numbers are met, then you get an instant kill. Game company Green Ronin put out a game book call Vampire Psions for D&D3.5e on how to run vampire character for a campaign. Coup de Gras rule was use to stake vampire at full hp as a full round attack action.
My son Josef (27) and his friends are talking about getting into the game. They have suggested though, that I may be likely to metagame. I disagree, I haven't played since AD&D . While I may know a little more about certain monsters, so much has changed in the game, that I will essentially be a newb . The game is so much different now, I'm hoping my old AZZ can adapt. I haven't played in about 25 years. I'm glad to see the game making a great comeback. I just hope I can participate.
On the topic of beastmasters. My first character I ever made was in 3.5 They were a halfling ranger that road a wolf around and toted a heavy repeating crossbow.
Thanks for this in-depth look at my favorite class. I'm currently playing a Revised Ranger Wood Elf and having a blast. The one OP feature of Revised Ranger is sensing favored enemies within 5 miles - it's OP only because there's no limit to how often you can use it. Basically you can have GPS tracking all around you all day long - this could get really frustrating for the DM as it gives the party too much information. My DM and I agreed to limit its use to once every short rest. Looking forward to the Part 2 video!
I'm 10 minutes in in the video and I love it already that you mentioned WOTC forgetting about Ocean/Coast in natural enviroments. IDK if that's just came to your mind at the moment or you were referencing the old AD&D ranger handbook, but it's awesome someone remembers, since both are awesome biomes. Cheers.
Great vid AJ, thank you for touching on balancing issues that wotc had. One of my favorite movies, the 13th warrior. Daniel Southern played as Edgtho who in my mind is a ranger viking. Thanks again AJ & have a great day.
Great video, AJ :) Adding to Raymond Fiest, David Eddings, D&D, LOTR, and others, you marvelously show your good taste again with Robin of Sherwood! Nasir was the shit! I love seeing the actors from that show in contemporary productions - GoT, The Departed, Beowulf, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, etc.
My first ranger in 5e was the equivalent to a knights templar under the Dorrian Order, who was a guide to pilgrims and travelers in the incredibly dangerous savage peaks mountains
We had Mark Ryan, Nasir's actor, as a guest at a convention I worked back in the day. He said that he had to say a few words now and then in order to get paid for a speaking role but otherwise his 'dialog' was facial expressions and body language. He said that, at that time, he had the highest paid eyebrows in the business.
The " Pike " pole arm is a really long " long spear." IRL history, the Trojan War and " Alexander the Great " troops used 5m to 7m 20 ft spears in battle. There are videos of people sticking a pole /staff into the ground and climbing it to music. I only run with 3.5e rules. fighter4th/rogue3rd/bard3rd CR:10 ; BAB+8 weapon specialization: long spear/ or Pike. +1atk/+2dmg Perform: 12ranks.
Thank you so much for talking about my favorite class! Usually most people put them on the bottom of their list because of their lackluster effect they have on most D&D games.
Aragorn is the ranger archetype for me. Yet, I love the idea of rangers being mounted archers. For anybody familiar with Attack on Titan, I can't help but think of the Scout Corp as an all-ranger mounted unit. Especially for the Ackerman family.
I’ve always been a fan of allowing rangers to gain favored enemies and terrain after gaining a certain level of experience with them. For example: if a ranger without orcs as their favored enemy or dungeons as their terrain spent 3 sessions clearing out a dungeon full of them, it makes sense to grant that ranger some degree of the class feature for orcs and dungeons.
I. Love. Rangers! My first DnD character was a ranger and they have had me heart ever since. I've played other classes, but this woodland warrior is always me favorite.
When I think of Rangers I think of two prestige classes: Deep Woods Snipers, Order of the Bow Initiate. But tbh if I'm gonna play a "ranged" class it probably gonna be a Fighter for the massive amount of feats. The idea of a Beast Master Ranger in fun in theory, but animal classes are best left to the Druids who have the magic to make them stronger. The only class I can see a dual sword wielding Ranger morphing into is the Dervish or some type of weapon master, but still, if you're gonna be clad in leather/mobile armor and holding two weapons you may as well be a Rogue. Great vid, keep em comin!!!
Ah, attacks against unseen foes. Reminds me of my best friend in high school. Always tried to sneak up on me from behind and always failed. He didn't understand when I told him I wasn't listening FOR him or trying to "sense his presence" I could just hear a break in the ambient air flow. There was a kind of.. Dead space.. Too quiet behind me. Ah, nostalgia..
I have sometimes added sometime arcane spellcasting to rangers especially elemental based, especially if I given them arcane Archer instead of to fighters, but arcane in sword like weapons is similar to swordmage but not exactly of 4e
3.5e had a few problems. melee fighters had the feat Power Attack where they can add their current BAB to a melee attack damage, but archers didn't have a feat like that. In one Dragon Mag issue, the had a feat Dead Eye, but it was weak. How lethal an archer is, is base on your DM house rules.
Ive been doing one of the early restrictions in our 5E game by accident 😂 My character is a Wildfire Druid-Swarm Keeper ranger mutliclass who sends most of his gold back to the small mountain town that he came from.
Colossus Slayer is reffering to any enemy that can survive the first round of combat. If it's getting a lot of use then the beastie is a colossal enemy
Since it only works with injured enemies, I like to imagine that the ranger sees the wounds on the enemy and then targets those wounds to give the extra damage.
Someone should do a ranger build that has gone a little bit mad from being alone in the forest for such a long time. Maybe having a few completely random modifiers in some skills
Last high elf from an ancient city that was holocausted by genocidal humans and orks in a three way war(that is still raging) that the elves lost centuries ago. every creature in the forest is dead, ethier from over hunting or flat out genocide by paranoid war crazed humans and orks who still fear the elves even though they defeated them centures ago. So there is only the overgrown ancient city and plants in the forrest, and afew ants(awakened tree creatures) who have adopted a culture of hidding by pretending to be trees. So after time the last high elven ranger now thinks they're a tree and speaks ONLY in the sounds trees make. Not ants, litteral trees. And they're lethal combat skills alone are actually the only and real reason why humans & orks still fear elves.
@@thedarkmaster4747 In Elder Scrolls lore, every single madman is connected to the Mad God Sheogorath. And he randomly grants them knowledge. Only knowledge they could possibly understand but maybe their madness grants them an unconventional way to solve a problem.
Zack kerber Doesn't hermaeus mora turn people mad too? i mean my main character in that game is obcessed with trying to find away to kill him. That reminds me of clan malkavian from vampire the masquerade. (wisdom of the madness is one of the most epic tropes in existence in my opinion.) Hmmm... Maybe the poor lone elf ranger can bring their race back, through the trees. Litterally. Since the roots of the forrest would've absorbed all the nutrients of their dead bodies. But only through a thurther and dangerous(to one self and others) descent and indulgance into deeper madness.
@@thedarkmaster4747 In Bloodborne there is a concept that madmen are simply people who are so intelligent that normal people can't understand them and think they're mad. A bit like those who delve into Hermaus' realm. It fits. I mean if we took someone with a PHD in physics back to the dawn of man and give a lesson they'd think him mad. Madness and intelligence 2 sides of the same coin no?
I just started playing my first ranger, using the outlander background, in a game that is all arctic except for the tunnels. I feel bad now because of how absurdly broken this is for exploration and travel. I got so used to the ranger supposedly being the worst class that felt the need to double up on features to make myself as good as possible at everything I needed to do. I can't get lost (ever) except by magic. I can find food for up to 12 people, who needs goodberry. My group cannot be surprised by an ambush, and I know exactly how many of an exact enemy set up the ambush. My wisdom is 18 and I have near constant expertise in 4 skills. I now understand why the ranger was allowed to fall behind in all other aspects of the game, because they pretty much invalidate an entire and important aspect of it.
@@AJPickett well yes, but that is magical terrain which is already mentioned as the workaround for messing with them. But when put into a situation where they can actually shine, wow the ranger can just break an entire portion of what makes it an adventure. Beastmaster is still hopeless as a battle pet though. 😬
Just giants is a little misleading, since "Giant class creatures are: bugbears, ettins, giants, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, ogres, ogre magi, orcs, and trolls." They added their level to damage against all monsters in that category. They ranger was really overpowered in 1E, which is why they were so fun to play. lol
In real life there is a dialect of spanish called Silbo, this dialect consists entierly of whistling noises that can be hear rather clearly for up to several miles. So rangers may as well have the message spell for all the good humans can already do.
That's cool. I also have a single look in IRL that I want to incorporate into the game. The half second eye lock with a friend. The message, "I think sh!t is about to happen! You got my 6?"
Of all the things you could have said, "an animal companion who's afraid of water." Hydrophobia is a red flag of rabies right before they go rabid, and is almost entirely incurable at that stage or beyond.
I think the villain my party hated the most and had the most satisfaction finally defeating after several game sessions was a troll ranger who's favored enemies were elves and humans.
Hell yes a sheild is awesone as a weapon.....using a kite sheild and smiting someone with it,esp when your strength is greater than 18oo is truly epic,i once sent a knight over 30 ft through the air with a nat 20 using my kite(20str.),he was dead before he hit the ground!
@@AJPickett You didn't say that right. "You'll REALLY REALLY REALLY want that ranger to REALLY REALLY REALLY focus on stealth and survival. REALLY." That is how that sentence is supposed to go! The volcanic landscape was something that I was thinking, but what about archetype, feats, stuff like that. Also, what would you bring?(aside from other people also specializing in stealth.) Are there any magic items or spells you would consider necessary? Can you eat anything you manage to scavenge in the abyss? I assume a Tiefling would be able too.
The simple answer would be to go Horizon Walker so you can detect portals to get out of there ;-), or at the very least find the portal to a different layer. If your DM says portals won't come into play, the Monster Slayer's ability to scan for weaknesses/resistances/immunities can be really useful across the planes where they can vary quite a bit. The Gloom Stalker's free proficiency in Wisdom saves at 7th would help against the daily saves to avoid corruption and/or alignment change, but your DM may not be using those if the whole campaign is set there. Spell-wise, Goodberry, Pass Without Trace, and Lesser Restoration seem necessary, as they always do.
Avernus is the first layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Demon are known to send scouting parties and do full scale army raids. So a Ranger specialize in hunting Demons will work. The second level of Baator is one mass Swamp.
I’ve played Rangers for as long as I could remember. 5e Rangers have been watered down in some ways, but they have so many possibilities as the D&D version of the Everyman or the grey man trope. They are actually really good at encounter superiority if you bypass hunters mark as your most used spell. They are good at moving on the battlefield and if you take martial adept feat or take a three level dip in fighter battle master. Best ranger subclasses for this dip is Horizon Walker or Fey wanderer. Misty step or the mobility feat is a must. In short, describing the ranger as the Paladin of nature is a fairly good description. Tasha’s improved them after the nerf, but after analyzing how they were laid out in the books I think they were intentionally moved into the second best at everything class for a reason. Paladins, Fighters, and Barbarians are your classic martial classes from the stories. The only thing that chafed me was that the Arcane Archer is a fighter class, it would have fit nicely as a ranger sub class so I home brewed it and to balance it out the ranger uses spell slots for the “trick” arrows and scales accordingly like divine smite.
A fighter is a warrior. A ranger is a survivalist. If you want a class that is damage oriented just pick a warrior. But if you want someone who can support in a fight as well as keep the party alive and headed in the right direction then a ranger is your man. I think the ranger suffers only because people are trying to make the ranger into a fighter. Instead of raw damage dealing perhaps the ranger should crowd control and other tactics that keep the enemy from ever making use of their full kit. After all an enemy that either never gets a chance to attack or never has a chance to hit is pretty much already dead.
@@jacobfreeman5444 I agree to a point, they are the martial utility class in the game. The original ranger was a fighter and was either a dual wielder or an archer (player’s choice at level 1) with some spell casting ability. It still had that feel in 3.5 even though it was made into its own separate class. It took me a little while to figure out rangers in 5e. Once I did, the damage scaling along with the spell utility is crazy good as long as you can keep concentration. My preferred build is dual wielding and/or thrown weapon fighting with Druidic warrior being a close third unless I take a magic initiate feat at fourth level.
Personally I like using historical rangers as a reference for my stories Roberts rangers being a good start, the mongol arrow riders, native American braves being another, and a modern day one being the night wolves of the us border patrol a group of highly trained trackers.
Beast Master Ranger is the only class that allows you to control the world’s most dangerous Least Weasel!!!!! Honestly having the DM narrate how your weasel or chicken kills the Tyrannosaur is worth it imo from a RP and general fun perspective
Nice vid A.J. youve done a vid on the only character class ive never had a successful character in,best ive ever done with a Ranger is 9th level! Maybe i should roll another one up and get on that proverbial horse and ride 😎.......Oh yeah hell of a video you did on Stan Lee,my neice and her husband met him at comicon and said he was such a nice guy,really approachable!
My first character was a beast master ranger with a giant centipede. That beast made the dm start using poison immunities because it was admittedly rediculous
Ah yes, when your favorite subclass of ranger was apparently the worst one for so long it’s still looked down on even after it’s been fixed. *sighs in beast master*
I based Loom of Magus on 2nd Ed AD&D. I loved it and did an uncountable level of "homebrew" modifications in the theme of "kits." The Ranger is the template of just about every warrior who is borderline ninja and Wicca. The Movians (my zero-magic race that can only do magical acts via Magi-Tech and actual technology) had a Ranger kid that was more a special ops type (Ninja) than a good guy attuned to nature... technically a Ranger class guy but not really a Ranger. Actually, the Movian kit is not a real Ranger in any way aside from its modified skills and class inspired abilities.
I also added various versions of the Paladin class, including God (Goddess) specific versions that are not like the classic Paladin. I have Paladins of Pan (Drunken youth god) and Paladins of Nightshade (Totally evil chaos god of the undead, especially vampires and the cruel).
As a guy who has worked outdoors with animals of all kinds I definitely enjoy rangers as my favorite class, unpopular as they may be 😂 tho I’ve mainly played Pathfinder and my D and D games have been mainly one shots
A party of adventurers consisting of a ranger who specialize in hunting the underdark for healing Magic use a paladin use a barred for an all-around generalist and a psychic warrior for a alternative fighting and psionic ability this group would be unstoppable in the underdark
@@AJPickett I appreciate the fix on the Beast Master at least and the new Druidic fighting style goes right along with what you said about Rangers working closely and learning from Druids.
Hey I would love you to cover the Frostburn, I like to listen to your videos as audio books while I do stuff. Currently working on a campaign that has drow enslaving neanderthals and making them into a "Raider" race, based on that killer neanderthal theory. Gonna make some halflings into the Homo Floresiensis or "Cave Hobbits".
The question always comes up: Did Rangers exist in the Middle Ages or were they an invention of fantasy authors? I did some research into this and the answer is that the first rangers appeared in Colonial Virginia. Originally, the Colonists and Native Americans were friendly. Eventually, they came into conflict with attacks on each side. After one particularly deadly attack by a hostile tribe, the Colonists realized they were facing a new kind of enemy and needed a new kind of warfare. The Colonists got together with some Native American tribes that they were still friendly with and together formed a band that would “range” the countryside in search of hostiles. Thus the first Rangers were born. Rangers were a unique blend of European and Native American fighting styles. Ever since then, the US has had Rangers as an important part of their armed forces. That includes the famous US Army Rangers that you might have seen featured in the movie Black Hawk Down. The motto of the Army Rangers is “Rangers Lead the Way”, which seems appropriate for your D&D Rangers.
More accurately, that would be one answer to the question "Did America have Rangers, who were Europeans". I am absolutely sure the Mayans, Aztecs and other original American nations had LOADS of them. Musketeers in Europe itself were a kind of Ranger as well.
I love the idea of a dwarf ranger who believes gems and precious metals should stay in the earth and finds standard dwarf industry very distasteful. Most of the other dwarfs think this is crazy.
My biggest problem with the beastmaster ranger is that they can only have 1 animal Companion. I mean look at the actual Beastmaster Dar. He had a tiger,2 Farrets and a hawk. I was always of the opinion that no matter what type of ranger you were you should always be able to have 1 animal companion but if you're beastmaster you should be able to have several companions like an Owl anda wolf and scouts like a squirrel or ferrets ,a rat or maybe a spider or something like that.
If you take the Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter feats, I think a hand crossbow makes more sense. Does less damage than a heavy crossbow but you get an extra attack as a bonus action and the short range of the hand crossbow is negated. But until you get Crossbow Expert, use the heavy crossbow.
Combined with hunter's mark already cast on the target, a hand crossbow with crossbow expert feat is a heck of a lot with the extra attack and bonus action attack. That's really just for pumping out damage. However if a ranger is using an animal companion and making use of the pet's actions for utility, then I'd say stick to the bow. I use the flanking rules in my games which add more value to tactical play than just raw dpt. Also multiclassed rangers which use their weapons half the time (or less possibly) wouldn't feel as if investing a whole feat into a very specific thing like crossbow expert would be worth it.
Nature is a Ranger's and/or Druid's source of power and devotion. Nature is not limited to forests as deserts, jungles, grasslands and oceans are also part of Nature. Wherever you have life in any form Nature is there. In 5E I like adding taking Magic Initiate and loading up on extra Druid spells and cantrips.
Kodyax Derschrecken one can even make the argument that the city/village is its own biome as it is now the natural habitat of humans and many other sentient beings and supports its own ecosystems.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog I actually agree with that argument as many to most cities have parks along with all the elements to make urban centers their own ecosystems. Plus in the DM's Guild follow up Xanathar's Guide has an urban ranger in it as an archetype and in many editions of the game there are at least some variation of the urban druid to boot.
A 23 Armor class at level 1 and people tell me know 5 Edition characters aren't any stronger than first edition oh my God that is a -3 armor class that's only possible with magical items and stupid high God level of dexterity in first edition
My friend loves to play rangers in my games but sadly has a habit of dying do to sheer bad luck, first game we played way back in 3rd ed he was checking out a room and got killed by a wild dog, then in our most recent game where i was running Lost Mines, he crit failed his animal handling check on the wolves in the goblin cave giving the wolves an attack of opportunity and I rolled a 20 so being he was wounded from the goblin fight earlier they did enough damage to get him to 0. luckily our mad warlock through a good roll and some unorthodox healing using a kit and some wolf meat stuffed into the wound to stop the bleeding was able to bring him back to 1 hp
Yes, underdark is basically the underworld or underground. Caves could be considered entryways to the underground and I would keep in mind where it overlaps with other types. I do like what has come down the pike in other books and especially the revised version but I loved playing rangers for their favored enemies and spell casting. Part of being a ranger is that you are specially trained in hunting down and killing certain foes, usually of Nature but not always.
Noob DM I’d also include any decrepit stone structures like ancient ruins or temples that aren’t covered by the plants of another environment like an ancient temple overgrown by the jungle around it would fall into the domain of a jungle/forest but one that’s half underground because of an earthquake would count as underdark.
It's Matt Collvilles new book! I highly suggest checking out is channel it's full of DnD discussion and knowledge. One of the greats in the community and on TH-cam.
@@devinm.6149 How can a fighter cast Animal Growth and Tenser's Transformation?! Argh, He-Man is so not d&d! Even though Skeletor would be a fantastic lich.
Been working on the new builds, I see the ranger as primarily an Archer type build which honestly is my own fault. Fights mostly at long range, ambushes where they have advantage, and the targets seldom can get close enough to engage. They are often alone out there on the edge of civilization or so the story goes, as such they can not afford hand to hand combat So the Long bow does a d8 +2, or +4 + dex mod (Favored and Greater Favored enemies) for a total of 15-17, outside of Magic very few methods of increasing . lots of magic items for other classes, not so many that effect Ranger at range Problem low level of spells that can even effect damage, those they do have are crowd control. Ammunition quiver 20 arrows ? 10th Ranger can empty a quiver of twenty arrows in roughly 4 turns,17th lvl roughly 3 turns. Means a long trip back to the nearest place to buy arrows and or a bow. Requires Bowyer and Fletcher skills Traps should have access to building and finding traps in the wilderness as skills. Feats: Sharp Shooter increases to hit ability and eliminates range, cover, except for full cover problems. Should be within the Ranger skills not a feat for them. Mastering the Cross bow allows you to ignore reload time, engage at close range, and incentive for hand cross bow. If your using the Long bow only the 5ft range matters, and should be a Ranger skill not a feat for them Pole arm mastery allows you to engage targets of opportunity, within 10 ft range. Well Rangers range is 600ft, , why is there no feat that allows the same. . Rangers only have 11+5? spells and many of them do not add to damage or actually anything the ranger does. All the spells a Ranger has top out at 5th level spell slots while some are effective many do nothing or are covered by Skills already in the Ranger make up. The spell list should be redone, eliminate the ones covered by skills and abilities and replace them with ones that apply.
Rangers always had a special enemy but in my game they also had a special ally. The ally could be an enemy of their enemy but not always. I love your comment Ranges are Druid Paladins. That is exactly how I see them.
That's a great idea.
I have created a bunch ov different Hunters Lodges that a ranger can join. Each one has a totem-like animal spirit that they honor. And they can gain rep by hunting dangerous monsters(to help out small settlements), helping out locals with food or situations they would be useful at (without their knowledge, like a guardian angel deal), offer their tracking & trailing thru a favored terrain or something similar, and anyone can come in to a Lodge and pay for aid(good way to obtain quests). Lots ov room for creativity and options there.
I really like the idea ov a favored ally. Very interesting.
Strangely enough I a year ago I played a 5e Paladin(oath of the watchers) Ranger (Horizon Walker) dual class for a lvl 20 one shot between campaigns. It was a rather nastily wonderful combo due to the mix of spells available and having two combat proficiencies and a dex based character is quite good especially if you take a two level dip in fighter on the front end for action surge, which I did. Not exactly the most efficient when it comes to certain higher level class skills and effects but having divine smite available is a major plus.
Tolkien drew inspiration for the Ranger from a martial caste instituted by William the Conqueror called Underforester to police the frontier portions of his kingdom, to protect the vert and venison and get to places that were too dangerous for others to get to and and enforce the law on those who tried to poach
Love the content! Haven't played D&D for 20 years. This made me want to pick up the game again.
That, sir, is the highest form of compliment. Thank you.
The alignment restriction on the Ranger back in the AD&D by the time the PHB was published was that they always had to be Good, not Lawful. Which made a lot more sense actually. Robin Hood was a good guy where the foot touches the ground, as opposed to being the good guy where the quill meets the parchment.
Something that i think is important to note is about the switch to make the the Ranger's access to magic more Priest oriented, rather than Wizard oriented from 2nd Edition onward. The idea of the Ranger, be a hippy priest, i believe is our interpretation of the concept in modern times. But when you look at the old lore, whether Gaelic, or Welsh, or Briton, the Ranger character was more like a warrior incarnation of the Druid -who was actually described more as a magician, as opposed to the hippy priests that we see them as now. So in this respect, the old PHB that gave the Ranger some competency with basic Wizardry, was quite in line with the Celtic lore that has survived in one form or another to be handed down to us.
But this is the problem. The Ranger to us is a lot like the Ninja in Japan. We don't really know where history and legend cross, because there was so little left to posterity in terms of a historical account, as opposed to the use of these characters in moral stories passed on orally. Again, we end up with problems in the Greek and especially the Roman and Anglo-Saxon accounts of the historical root of the Celtic peoples (& the Ranger for purpose of this post), because these peoples were being written about from the point of view of an enemy, and not from their own argument. All we get really is that these are foreigners who are to be feared. But, i suppose, in its own way, this fog is what ensured that the Druid and the Ranger would survive to be re-imagined in Dungeons and Dragons. Along with the fact that a lot of the great story telling, also blossomed into a lot of great Literature among Celtic peoples in latter centuries.
And this brings us back again to Tolkien. From what i understand, a lot of his incentive in the Lord of the Rings stories was that he wanted the English to have a rich mythology, the same way the Irish, Scots, and Welsh did. And he took a lot from the Bible -lets not forget that he was a devout Roman Catholic, and he mixed this with the lore that was spawned from the soil in the Isles.
I always think of Halt from the Rangers Apprentice series. Great source material for making your ranger players feel significant.
I have a strength build ranger, and he's pretty awesome. Horizon walker, he's also a gnoll. Very good at fighting fiends. Even got a weapon commissioned that does extra damage to evil and to fiends. So it's just a great synergy.
My favorite ranger ever was one i played in 3 -3.5 homebrew. The Rogue player and i quickly realized how devastating we could be together. she went assassin, i took dread commando. both of us took some combat oriented team work feats and learned a tactical sign language (like drow sign ) and together we just devastated every enemy we came across. weather it was with perfectly executed ambushes, or in open pitch battle.
Ranger,(Hunter/Trapper) is one of my fav class in D&D and other fantasy based games/books etc. "One arrow. One Kill. No Exceptions."
Coup de gras arrow shot to the head or chest.
Make Fort save DC: 10 +1d8 arrow dmg, with any other class feature abilities.
Or lose that many temporary Constitution points.
3.5e Star Wars Mag had Sharp Shooter prestige class.
i.) Target gets a Ref save vs Shooters atk roll.
ii.) Target gets Fort save vs dmg or dies
iii.) Targets make save, then targets takes Constitution dmg.
IRL people have took arrow through the head and remain awake through the whole ordeal. Arrow locks up the heart, through the chest, enternal lung bleeding causes the victim to drown.
What’s coup de gras arrow shot
@@back5594 coup de gras " french " for mercy or kill blow/ thrust. In basic, the last attack you make that kills your opponent .
kris palermo but how does relate to dnd is that an ability?
@@back5594 Coup de gras was first introduce in D&D3e as combat action to kill a Helpless Defender. Later supplement books turn CdG into a stander combat action that carries the ability to kill in a single hit. Other RPG system have a Death Blow result action in their game systems so some people carried it over into D&D.
White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Vampire d10 system has single hit kill combat.
d10 does not run on HP " hip points," but Stamina dice.
Staking a vampire is difficulty of 8 on d10, weapon speciality is 7 on d10
To stake a vampire or shoot a person in the heart/ head, you need five confirm hits and cause three confirm level of damage. If the numbers are met, then you get an instant kill.
Game company Green Ronin put out a game book call Vampire Psions for D&D3.5e on how to run vampire character for a campaign. Coup de Gras rule was use to stake vampire at full hp as a full round attack action.
I once created an urban ranger who had an animal companion that was a giant War Hound that was fierce as hell. Good times.
@Raiden Trace yea, been watching on Kaldrostream for years myself :D
My son Josef (27) and his friends are talking about getting into the game. They have suggested though, that I may be likely to metagame. I disagree, I haven't played since AD&D . While I may know a little more about certain monsters, so much has changed in the game, that I will essentially be a newb . The game is so much different now, I'm hoping my old AZZ can adapt. I haven't played in about 25 years. I'm glad to see the game making a great comeback. I just hope I can participate.
You can! Hope you have fun!
On the topic of beastmasters.
My first character I ever made was in 3.5
They were a halfling ranger that road a wolf around and toted a heavy repeating crossbow.
I’ve loved Rangers since I chose the class to first try out DnD, I just love how self-sufficient and nature-flavored they are
Thanks for this in-depth look at my favorite class. I'm currently playing a Revised Ranger Wood Elf and having a blast. The one OP feature of Revised Ranger is sensing favored enemies within 5 miles - it's OP only because there's no limit to how often you can use it. Basically you can have GPS tracking all around you all day long - this could get really frustrating for the DM as it gives the party too much information. My DM and I agreed to limit its use to once every short rest. Looking forward to the Part 2 video!
So that explains why there are no none humans on Earth. The rangers GPS all of them down.
I'm 10 minutes in in the video and I love it already that you mentioned WOTC forgetting about Ocean/Coast in natural enviroments. IDK if that's just came to your mind at the moment or you were referencing the old AD&D ranger handbook, but it's awesome someone remembers, since both are awesome biomes. Cheers.
What about Jungle?
@@gabrielshervo678 That is one of the most famous terrain chosen alongside Forests.
35:28 Wait, so a Gold Dragon Ranger can resurrect any mortal its chosen as a companion with nothing but a gourmet meal and some spices?
Great vid AJ, thank you for touching on balancing issues that wotc had. One of my favorite movies, the 13th warrior. Daniel Southern played as Edgtho who in my mind is a ranger viking. Thanks again AJ & have a great day.
I love that movie.
Great video, AJ :) Adding to Raymond Fiest, David Eddings, D&D, LOTR, and others, you marvelously show your good taste again with Robin of Sherwood! Nasir was the shit! I love seeing the actors from that show in contemporary productions - GoT, The Departed, Beowulf, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, etc.
It was such a shame the production company ran out of budget for the show because they spent it all on crappy movies.
Ahh thank you at last my Favored class.
My first ranger in 5e was the equivalent to a knights templar under the Dorrian Order, who was a guide to pilgrims and travelers in the incredibly dangerous savage peaks mountains
We had Mark Ryan, Nasir's actor, as a guest at a convention I worked back in the day. He said that he had to say a few words now and then in order to get paid for a speaking role but otherwise his 'dialog' was facial expressions and body language. He said that, at that time, he had the highest paid eyebrows in the business.
D&d merch idea: exotic weapon: stripper-polearm.
The " Pike " pole arm is a really long " long spear."
IRL history, the Trojan War and " Alexander the Great " troops used 5m to 7m
20 ft spears in battle.
There are videos of people sticking a pole /staff into the ground and climbing it to music.
I only run with 3.5e rules.
fighter4th/rogue3rd/bard3rd CR:10 ; BAB+8
weapon specialization: long spear/ or Pike. +1atk/+2dmg
Perform: 12ranks.
Bug trouble in little China was first place saw dual weird. Also a great movie to use as inspiration for a campaign.
Thank you so much for talking about my favorite class! Usually most people put them on the bottom of their list because of their lackluster effect they have on most D&D games.
Aragorn is the ranger archetype for me. Yet, I love the idea of rangers being mounted archers. For anybody familiar with Attack on Titan, I can't help but think of the Scout Corp as an all-ranger mounted unit. Especially for the Ackerman family.
Warder you say? Al'Lan Mandragorn would be proud (not that he would express it with particular enthusiasm).
My favorite class, it has everything I like. a little bit of magic a little bit of stealth and it is martial.
What is your opinion of Drizzt Do'Urden, one of the most badass Drow rangers in the multiverse?
Never met him, but I have heard very good things about him and his daughter.
I’ve always been a fan of allowing rangers to gain favored enemies and terrain after gaining a certain level of experience with them. For example: if a ranger without orcs as their favored enemy or dungeons as their terrain spent 3 sessions clearing out a dungeon full of them, it makes sense to grant that ranger some degree of the class feature for orcs and dungeons.
I. Love. Rangers! My first DnD character was a ranger and they have had me heart ever since. I've played other classes, but this woodland warrior is always me favorite.
I play a beastmaster Ranger named Dar. He has a pseudodragon and one of his spells is, conjure animals. It just made sense given he was a beastmaster.
When I think of Rangers I think of two prestige classes: Deep Woods Snipers, Order of the Bow Initiate. But tbh if I'm gonna play a "ranged" class it probably gonna be a Fighter for the massive amount of feats. The idea of a Beast Master Ranger in fun in theory, but animal classes are best left to the Druids who have the magic to make them stronger. The only class I can see a dual sword wielding Ranger morphing into is the Dervish or some type of weapon master, but still, if you're gonna be clad in leather/mobile armor and holding two weapons you may as well be a Rogue. Great vid, keep em comin!!!
Ah, attacks against unseen foes. Reminds me of my best friend in high school. Always tried to sneak up on me from behind and always failed. He didn't understand when I told him I wasn't listening FOR him or trying to "sense his presence"
I could just hear a break in the ambient air flow. There was a kind of.. Dead space.. Too quiet behind me. Ah, nostalgia..
31:41
add that to a [well played] Warlock in the Party and the DM has much of the control of where the story *should* be going!
What you said at 22:22 makes favorite terrain "city" sound like a bad idea...
Someone said to me an Urban ranger is just called a Rogue, and now that is what I think about every time someone says Urban favored terrain.
@@AJPickett That makes sense -- the only character I'd call an "urban ranger" would be Carrot of Ankh Morporkh ;)
@@AND-od5jt Ooooo good point, I agree.
@@AND-od5jt I like it but could just be a paladin with reeaally high history proficency
I have sometimes added sometime arcane spellcasting to rangers especially elemental based, especially if I given them arcane Archer instead of to fighters, but arcane in sword like weapons is similar to swordmage but not exactly of 4e
12:01 why noy desert druids ? It is a natural environnement, one who could be listed in circle of the land lands.
The sharpshooter feat legally only adds +10 damage to attacks with ranged weapons, meaning it has to be an actual ranged weapon
3.5e had a few problems. melee fighters had the feat Power Attack where they can add their current BAB to a melee attack damage, but archers didn't have a feat like that.
In one Dragon Mag issue, the had a feat Dead Eye, but it was weak.
How lethal an archer is, is base on your DM house rules.
Ive been doing one of the early restrictions in our 5E game by accident 😂
My character is a Wildfire Druid-Swarm Keeper ranger mutliclass who sends most of his gold back to the small mountain town that he came from.
I like the gloomstalker multiclassed with rogue perfect herasser class
My favorite combo as well.
Colossus Slayer is reffering to any enemy that can survive the first round of combat. If it's getting a lot of use then the beastie is a colossal enemy
Since it only works with injured enemies, I like to imagine that the ranger sees the wounds on the enemy and then targets those wounds to give the extra damage.
I think a badger would be a pretty interesting companion, they may be small, but those little buggers are tougher than they look
In terms of classes ive played the most, they would be my number one. However, my favourite class, that ive rarely plated is Bard...
The Ranger is my favorite class to play as. Mostly because I feel that the ranger class is a very versatile one.
True, you can play ranger for many characters, all will be quite different from each other.
I'm glad someone likes playing it
@@rexhex3700 Yeah. It's the class I'm most comfortable with playing as.
@@AJPickett That's true.
Please do a ROGUE one! I love this type of video! Thanks!
Nice. A two parter
Someone should do a ranger build that has gone a little bit mad from being alone in the forest for such a long time. Maybe having a few completely random modifiers in some skills
Last high elf from an ancient city that was holocausted by genocidal humans and orks in a three way war(that is still raging) that the elves lost centuries ago. every creature in the forest is dead, ethier from over hunting or flat out genocide by paranoid war crazed humans and orks who still fear the elves even though they defeated them centures ago. So there is only the overgrown ancient city and plants in the forrest, and afew ants(awakened tree creatures) who have adopted a culture of hidding by pretending to be trees. So after time the last high elven ranger now thinks they're a tree and speaks ONLY in the sounds trees make. Not ants, litteral trees. And they're lethal combat skills alone are actually the only and real reason why humans & orks still fear elves.
@@thedarkmaster4747
In Elder Scrolls lore, every single madman is connected to the Mad God Sheogorath. And he randomly grants them knowledge. Only knowledge they could possibly understand but maybe their madness grants them an unconventional way to solve a problem.
Zack kerber Doesn't hermaeus mora turn people mad too? i mean my main character in that game is obcessed with trying to find away to kill him. That reminds me of clan malkavian from vampire the masquerade. (wisdom of the madness is one of the most epic tropes in existence in my opinion.) Hmmm... Maybe the poor lone elf ranger can bring their race back, through the trees. Litterally. Since the roots of the forrest would've absorbed all the nutrients of their dead bodies. But only through a thurther and dangerous(to one self and others) descent and indulgance into deeper madness.
@@thedarkmaster4747
In Bloodborne there is a concept that madmen are simply people who are so intelligent that normal people can't understand them and think they're mad. A bit like those who delve into Hermaus' realm. It fits. I mean if we took someone with a PHD in physics back to the dawn of man and give a lesson they'd think him mad. Madness and intelligence 2 sides of the same coin no?
I just started playing my first ranger, using the outlander background, in a game that is all arctic except for the tunnels. I feel bad now because of how absurdly broken this is for exploration and travel.
I got so used to the ranger supposedly being the worst class that felt the need to double up on features to make myself as good as possible at everything I needed to do. I can't get lost (ever) except by magic. I can find food for up to 12 people, who needs goodberry. My group cannot be surprised by an ambush, and I know exactly how many of an exact enemy set up the ambush. My wisdom is 18 and I have near constant expertise in 4 skills.
I now understand why the ranger was allowed to fall behind in all other aspects of the game, because they pretty much invalidate an entire and important aspect of it.
Oh I would have a lot of fun demonstrating just how difficult it is to track a pack of vampires into the shadowfell.... *cackles*
@@AJPickett well yes, but that is magical terrain which is already mentioned as the workaround for messing with them. But when put into a situation where they can actually shine, wow the ranger can just break an entire portion of what makes it an adventure.
Beastmaster is still hopeless as a battle pet though. 😬
Just giants is a little misleading, since "Giant class creatures are: bugbears, ettins, giants, gnolls, goblins,
hobgoblins, kobolds, ogres, ogre magi, orcs, and trolls." They added their level to damage against all monsters in that category. They ranger was really overpowered in 1E, which is why they were so fun to play. lol
I am currently running a two weapon user ranger with Hunter's Mark. It actually makes weilding 2 whips useful haha.
In real life there is a dialect of spanish called Silbo, this dialect consists entierly of whistling noises that can be hear rather clearly for up to several miles. So rangers may as well have the message spell for all the good humans can already do.
That's cool. I also have a single look in IRL that I want to incorporate into the game. The half second eye lock with a friend. The message, "I think sh!t is about to happen! You got my 6?"
Of all the things you could have said, "an animal companion who's afraid of water." Hydrophobia is a red flag of rabies right before they go rabid, and is almost entirely incurable at that stage or beyond.
If you haven’t read it by now you’d probably like the Ranger apprentice books
I think the villain my party hated the most and had the most satisfaction finally defeating after several game sessions was a troll ranger who's favored enemies were elves and humans.
👍 YES!
@ 32:15, is that an argonian, wearing glass armor weilding a glass bow in Skyrim?
Could be
Fun fact: Ninja basically means professional survivalist; meaning Rangers are aleeady Ninja if you add the style.
"Hey Booboo! Grab that pik-a-nik basket and lets get out of here before we end up as beast companions!"
I think BooBoo is technically Yogi’s animal companion.
I'd have the coast terrain just include stuff like coast (obviously) , coral reefs and atolls.
I say a shield should still be able to be used as a weapon. In 3.5 it did either 1d4 or 1d6 depending on the size.
Oh I agree.
Yeah, you really don't want to catch the edge of a light shield in the windpipe.
Hell yes a sheild is awesone as a weapon.....using a kite sheild and smiting someone with it,esp when your strength is greater than 18oo is truly epic,i once sent a knight over 30 ft through the air with a nat 20 using my kite(20str.),he was dead before he hit the ground!
Any thoughts on a ranger build for a campaign set in the Abyss or nine hells?
Would desert as a favored terrain include volcanic landscapes? Probably. You'll want that ranger to really focus on stealth and survival.
@@AJPickett You didn't say that right. "You'll REALLY REALLY REALLY want that ranger to REALLY REALLY REALLY focus on stealth and survival. REALLY." That is how that sentence is supposed to go!
The volcanic landscape was something that I was thinking, but what about archetype, feats, stuff like that. Also, what would you bring?(aside from other people also specializing in stealth.) Are there any magic items or spells you would consider necessary?
Can you eat anything you manage to scavenge in the abyss? I assume a Tiefling would be able too.
The simple answer would be to go Horizon Walker so you can detect portals to get out of there ;-), or at the very least find the portal to a different layer. If your DM says portals won't come into play, the Monster Slayer's ability to scan for weaknesses/resistances/immunities can be really useful across the planes where they can vary quite a bit. The Gloom Stalker's free proficiency in Wisdom saves at 7th would help against the daily saves to avoid corruption and/or alignment change, but your DM may not be using those if the whole campaign is set there. Spell-wise, Goodberry, Pass Without Trace, and Lesser Restoration seem necessary, as they always do.
Avernus is the first layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Demon are known to send scouting parties and do full scale army raids. So a Ranger specialize in hunting Demons will work.
The second level of Baator is one mass Swamp.
I’ve played Rangers for as long as I could remember. 5e Rangers have been watered down in some ways, but they have so many possibilities as the D&D version of the Everyman or the grey man trope. They are actually really good at encounter superiority if you bypass hunters mark as your most used spell.
They are good at moving on the battlefield and if you take martial adept feat or take a three level dip in fighter battle master. Best ranger subclasses for this dip is Horizon Walker or Fey wanderer. Misty step or the mobility feat is a must.
In short, describing the ranger as the Paladin of nature is a fairly good description. Tasha’s improved them after the nerf, but after analyzing how they were laid out in the books I think they were intentionally moved into the second best at everything class for a reason. Paladins, Fighters, and Barbarians are your classic martial classes from the stories. The only thing that chafed me was that the Arcane Archer is a fighter class, it would have fit nicely as a ranger sub class so I home brewed it and to balance it out the ranger uses spell slots for the “trick” arrows and scales accordingly like divine smite.
A fighter is a warrior. A ranger is a survivalist. If you want a class that is damage oriented just pick a warrior. But if you want someone who can support in a fight as well as keep the party alive and headed in the right direction then a ranger is your man. I think the ranger suffers only because people are trying to make the ranger into a fighter. Instead of raw damage dealing perhaps the ranger should crowd control and other tactics that keep the enemy from ever making use of their full kit. After all an enemy that either never gets a chance to attack or never has a chance to hit is pretty much already dead.
@@jacobfreeman5444 I agree to a point, they are the martial utility class in the game. The original ranger was a fighter and was either a dual wielder or an archer (player’s choice at level 1) with some spell casting ability. It still had that feel in 3.5 even though it was made into its own separate class.
It took me a little while to figure out rangers in 5e. Once I did, the damage scaling along with the spell utility is crazy good as long as you can keep concentration. My preferred build is dual wielding and/or thrown weapon fighting with Druidic warrior being a close third unless I take a magic initiate feat at fourth level.
I've been playing a ranger with a longbow since 1980 should I change? Nah!
Personally I like using historical rangers as a reference for my stories Roberts rangers being a good start, the mongol arrow riders, native American braves being another, and a modern day one being the night wolves of the us border patrol a group of highly trained trackers.
Great Video AJ you should do the Barbarian or the Monk next
Lots of requests to do the Monk (not many likes yet though)
Beast Master Ranger is the only class that allows you to control the world’s most dangerous Least Weasel!!!!!
Honestly having the DM narrate how your weasel or chicken kills the Tyrannosaur is worth it imo from a RP and general fun perspective
Good video AJ
Thanks Chris :)
Nice vid A.J. youve done a vid on the only character class ive never had a successful character in,best ive ever done with a Ranger is 9th level! Maybe i should roll another one up and get on that proverbial horse and ride 😎.......Oh yeah hell of a video you did on Stan Lee,my neice and her husband met him at comicon and said he was such a nice guy,really approachable!
My first character was a beast master ranger with a giant centipede. That beast made the dm start using poison immunities because it was admittedly rediculous
Ah yes, when your favorite subclass of ranger was apparently the worst one for so long it’s still looked down on even after it’s been fixed. *sighs in beast master*
I based Loom of Magus on 2nd Ed AD&D. I loved it and did an uncountable level of "homebrew" modifications in the theme of "kits." The Ranger is the template of just about every warrior who is borderline ninja and Wicca. The Movians (my zero-magic race that can only do magical acts via Magi-Tech and actual technology) had a Ranger kid that was more a special ops type (Ninja) than a good guy attuned to nature... technically a Ranger class guy but not really a Ranger. Actually, the Movian kit is not a real Ranger in any way aside from its modified skills and class inspired abilities.
I also added various versions of the Paladin class, including God (Goddess) specific versions that are not like the classic Paladin. I have Paladins of Pan (Drunken youth god) and Paladins of Nightshade (Totally evil chaos god of the undead, especially vampires and the cruel).
As a guy who has worked outdoors with animals of all kinds I definitely enjoy rangers as my favorite class, unpopular as they may be 😂 tho I’ve mainly played Pathfinder and my D and D games have been mainly one shots
Love the Rangers
Is there any possibility of retooling The Prestige class Slayer from 3rd Edition for 5th?
A party of adventurers consisting of a ranger who specialize in hunting the underdark for healing Magic use a paladin use a barred for an all-around generalist and a psychic warrior for a alternative fighting and psionic ability this group would be unstoppable in the underdark
Holy moly, I never thought of the Mariner as a ranger but he fully is!!!! Like, a half abberation ranger. Hell yeah.
What do you think about the alternative features from Tasha's Bucket of OP Soup?
I have no opinion.
@@AJPickett I appreciate the fix on the Beast Master at least and the new Druidic fighting style goes right along with what you said about Rangers working closely and learning from Druids.
Robin of Locksley might be an Archer class. Qv Best if the Dragon Volume III
Hey I would love you to cover the Frostburn, I like to listen to your videos as audio books while I do stuff. Currently working on a campaign that has drow enslaving neanderthals and making them into a "Raider" race, based on that killer neanderthal theory. Gonna make some halflings into the Homo Floresiensis or "Cave Hobbits".
I was reading the ranger variants I think the most interesting ones are urban Ranger or the planer Ranger
The question always comes up: Did Rangers exist in the Middle Ages or were they an invention of fantasy authors? I did some research into this and the answer is that the first rangers appeared in Colonial Virginia. Originally, the Colonists and Native Americans were friendly. Eventually, they came into conflict with attacks on each side. After one particularly deadly attack by a hostile tribe, the Colonists realized they were facing a new kind of enemy and needed a new kind of warfare. The Colonists got together with some Native American tribes that they were still friendly with and together formed a band that would “range” the countryside in search of hostiles. Thus the first Rangers were born. Rangers were a unique blend of European and Native American fighting styles. Ever since then, the US has had Rangers as an important part of their armed forces. That includes the famous US Army Rangers that you might have seen featured in the movie Black Hawk Down. The motto of the Army Rangers is “Rangers Lead the Way”, which seems appropriate for your D&D Rangers.
More accurately, that would be one answer to the question "Did America have Rangers, who were Europeans". I am absolutely sure the Mayans, Aztecs and other original American nations had LOADS of them. Musketeers in Europe itself were a kind of Ranger as well.
I love the idea of a dwarf ranger who believes gems and precious metals should stay in the earth and finds standard dwarf industry very distasteful. Most of the other dwarfs think this is crazy.
Now that would be hilarious
My biggest problem with the beastmaster ranger is that they can only have 1 animal Companion. I mean look at the actual Beastmaster Dar. He had a tiger,2 Farrets and a hawk. I was always of the opinion that no matter what type of ranger you were you should always be able to have 1 animal companion but if you're beastmaster you should be able to have several companions like an Owl anda wolf and scouts like a squirrel or ferrets ,a rat or maybe a spider or something like that.
Is it worth it to go for a heavy crossbow as a ranger? I mean damage wise it'll defiantly hurt unless there is some weakness that i am missing.
If you take the Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter feats, I think a hand crossbow makes more sense. Does less damage than a heavy crossbow but you get an extra attack as a bonus action and the short range of the hand crossbow is negated. But until you get Crossbow Expert, use the heavy crossbow.
The weakness of any crossbow is the Loading property. This limits you to one attack unless you get Crossbow Expert.
Combined with hunter's mark already cast on the target, a hand crossbow with crossbow expert feat is a heck of a lot with the extra attack and bonus action attack. That's really just for pumping out damage.
However if a ranger is using an animal companion and making use of the pet's actions for utility, then I'd say stick to the bow. I use the flanking rules in my games which add more value to tactical play than just raw dpt. Also multiclassed rangers which use their weapons half the time (or less possibly) wouldn't feel as if investing a whole feat into a very specific thing like crossbow expert would be worth it.
Nature is a Ranger's and/or Druid's source of power and devotion. Nature is not limited to forests as deserts, jungles, grasslands and oceans are also part of Nature. Wherever you have life in any form Nature is there. In 5E I like adding taking Magic Initiate and loading up on extra Druid spells and cantrips.
Kodyax Derschrecken one can even make the argument that the city/village is its own biome as it is now the natural habitat of humans and many other sentient beings and supports its own ecosystems.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog I actually agree with that argument as many to most cities have parks along with all the elements to make urban centers their own ecosystems. Plus in the DM's Guild follow up Xanathar's Guide has an urban ranger in it as an archetype and in many editions of the game there are at least some variation of the urban druid to boot.
A 23 Armor class at level 1 and people tell me know 5 Edition characters aren't any stronger than first edition oh my God that is a -3 armor class that's only possible with magical items and stupid high God level of dexterity in first edition
Seriously a first edition character is Jimmy Olsen at level 20 and the 5th edition at level 1 is Superman
I think the stalker ADDS gains 120 feet of darkvision if they have it already.
We call them Specialist in Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
What is the source for the picture at the 9:19 mark?
www.deviantart.com/lucasgraciano Artwork for Magic the Gathering, excellent eh? ( also www.lucasgraciano.com/store/ )
Awesome! That sending up a falcon to triangulate the location is genius. Thats the kind of ideas that got me hooked on your channel. Thank you AJ.
Oh, I really plan to unload a ton of ideas in the second video, so look out for that one.
Take my money! LMAO
@@reubenholcomb8568 Buy my merch! LOL
My canon Baldur's Gate character was a Ranger. She's making a comeback for BG3.
Lizerdfolk, ranger hunter, javelin and shield, would that work?
Sure
My friend loves to play rangers in my games but sadly has a habit of dying do to sheer bad luck, first game we played way back in 3rd ed he was checking out a room and got killed by a wild dog, then in our most recent game where i was running Lost Mines, he crit failed his animal handling check on the wolves in the goblin cave giving the wolves an attack of opportunity and I rolled a 20 so being he was wounded from the goblin fight earlier they did enough damage to get him to 0. luckily our mad warlock through a good roll and some unorthodox healing using a kit and some wolf meat stuffed into the wound to stop the bleeding was able to bring him back to 1 hp
Would you assume that if I take underdark that would include caverns and underground?
Yes, definitely.
Yes, underdark is basically the underworld or underground. Caves could be considered entryways to the underground and I would keep in mind where it overlaps with other types. I do like what has come down the pike in other books and especially the revised version but I loved playing rangers for their favored enemies and spell casting. Part of being a ranger is that you are specially trained in hunting down and killing certain foes, usually of Nature but not always.
Noob DM I’d also include any decrepit stone structures like ancient ruins or temples that aren’t covered by the plants of another environment like an ancient temple overgrown by the jungle around it would fall into the domain of a jungle/forest but one that’s half underground because of an earthquake would count as underdark.
"I like playing around with feet"
So you're one of *those*, Professor Pickett?😉
Negative
@@AJPickett 🤣
Hi! You mentioned a stronghold book about halfway through, do you have a link for that? Thank you!
It's Matt Collvilles new book! I highly suggest checking out is channel it's full of DnD discussion and knowledge. One of the greats in the community and on TH-cam.
You should be aloud to have whatever animal you want as a beast master. That's kinda the idea isn't it?
my ranger lord is my most prized character!!😊❤❤
Great content, keep it coming.
Please do the monk
Next up is monk ? 🙏?
"...and my animal companion's trait is:... 'Coward'...? Huh.. I guess I'm calling you 'Cringer'..."
By the power of Gray Skull! I have the power!
*Cringer becomes Battle Cat*
@@devinm.6149 How can a fighter cast Animal Growth and Tenser's Transformation?! Argh, He-Man is so not d&d! Even though Skeletor would be a fantastic lich.
@@yaldabaoth2 Magic sword.
Been working on the new builds, I see the ranger as primarily an Archer type build which honestly is my own fault. Fights mostly at long range, ambushes where they have advantage, and the targets seldom can get close enough to engage. They are often alone out there on the edge of civilization or so the story goes, as such they can not afford hand to hand combat
So the Long bow does a d8 +2, or +4 + dex mod (Favored and Greater Favored enemies) for a total of 15-17, outside of Magic very few methods of increasing .
lots of magic items for other classes, not so many that effect Ranger at range
Problem low level of spells that can even effect damage, those they do have are crowd control.
Ammunition quiver 20 arrows ? 10th Ranger can empty a quiver of twenty arrows in roughly 4 turns,17th lvl roughly 3 turns.
Means a long trip back to the nearest place to buy arrows and or a bow. Requires Bowyer and Fletcher skills
Traps should have access to building and finding traps in the wilderness as skills.
Feats: Sharp Shooter increases to hit ability and eliminates range, cover, except for full cover problems. Should be within the Ranger skills not a feat for them.
Mastering the Cross bow allows you to ignore reload time, engage at close range, and incentive for hand cross bow. If your using the Long bow only the 5ft range matters, and should be a Ranger skill not a feat for them
Pole arm mastery allows you to engage targets of opportunity, within 10 ft range. Well Rangers range is 600ft, , why is there no feat that allows the same. .
Rangers only have 11+5? spells and many of them do not add to damage or actually anything the ranger does. All the spells a Ranger has top out at 5th level spell slots while some are effective many do nothing or are covered by Skills already in the Ranger make up. The spell list should be redone, eliminate the ones covered by skills and abilities and replace them with ones that apply.