Image credits: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002); Source: fancaps.net

In the corner of a tavern, on the outskirts of town, in the shade of a great tree or wandering through the desert. Rangers are travelers and wanderers, vagabonds often mistaken for vagrants who travel light and want for little. They are attuned to the natural order of things, and this primal awareness empowers them as trackers, survivalists, and spellcasters.

Rangers have an almost mythic quality about them, as elusive as they are mysterious. Most live outside the comforts of society, as time spent in the wilderness sharpens the senses and hones the body. Thus, the appearance of a Ranger in a town often heralds an event of some significance: In areas with little to fear, a Ranger sighting is often an omen of bad times ahead, but when monsters terrorize the land, no greater comfort can be found than the presence of a capable Ranger.

Why should you revise the Ranger?

The 5.24 Ranger suffers from a lot of problems. It has fairly paltry damage scaling in higher tiers of play. Many of its features are uninteresting, or underwhelming for their level. The class has access to spellcasting, but is unable to benefit from many of its spells that rely on Concentration without giving up other class features that rely on the use of Hunter’s Mark. And perhaps most importantly, the class has access to very few features that make you as the player feel “cool;” or at least, cooler than any other class.

Additionally, Rangers in 5.24 have a bit of an identity crisis. The game doesn’t really know what purpose the class serves. It feels like they’re just here because they have to be; not because there’s much passion for their inclusion. In addition to mechanical changes, this revision comes with new flavor text to help establish what it actually means to be a Ranger.

Why should you use these revisions?

These revisions fix many of the aforementioned issues with the 5.24 Ranger while still being compatible with official 5.24 Ranger subclasses. They include new or updated features that help the Ranger stay relevant at higher tiers of play, adjustments to Hunter’s Mark that make it easier to use reliably, and a few other tweaks to make the class more exciting.

How powerful are these changes really?

These changes do represent a noteworthy power increase from the base 2024 version of the Ranger. For one, options in this version of the class enable you to use Hunter’s Mark without constantly needing your Bonus Action to switch targets. This frees up the Ranger to take better advantage of feats like Dual Wielder, as well as some class features like Nature’s Veil. The addition of the Ambuscade feature at Level 9 also provides a reliable boost to the class’s effectiveness in the first round of every encounter; almost like a mini “action surge” that is usable in every combat.

Even so, according to my own calculations, this version of the class still struggles for weapon damage in later tiers of play. At Level 11, it falls behind a True Strike Rogue build by about 4 points of average Damage Per Round, and it stays at the back of the pack for Martial characters until Level 19. However, those calculations do not account for subclass choice, and they also don’t account for spells other than Hunter’s Mark. Effective use of Conjure Animals or Conjure Woodland Beings once you reach higher levels can do a lot to bring those numbers up, and you now have tools to use those spells in tandem with Hunter’s Mark if you wish.

Playtesting?

I have gotten the chance to DM for an early draft of this Ranger in a Level 15 one shot, and the player and I both had fun with it. I have since made some changes, but I do not believe they are notable enough to significantly change the play experience. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do much playtesting beyond that. As I get more chances to see the class in action and hear more feedback, I may update this “Revised Ranger” with additional changes.

Full list of changes:

• Added Herbalism Kit to the list of proficiencies
• Replaced Druidic Focus from starting equipment with an Herbalism Kit, and adjusted starting gold in option A to account for this change
• Added the option to use an Herbalism Kit as a Spellcasting Focus
• The Expertise feature of “Deft Explorer” now grants Expertise in additional skills at higher levels, granting Expertise in one additional skill at level 5 and Expertise in another skill at level 9
• The Languages feature of “Deft Explorer” now grants the ability to learn Druidic or Thieves’ Cant, in addition to another standard language of the Ranger’s choice
• “Relentless Hunter” has been moved to level 5, and has been modified to grant your choice of an improvement to the Hunter’s Mark spell each time you cast it using “Favored Enemy” or a level 2+ spell slot, including the option to increase the damage of the spell to 1d8, the option to transfer the spell to a new creature as part of the Attack action, and the option to remove Concentration from the spell
• The movement speed increase granted by “Roving” is no longer blocked by wearing Heavy armor
• The “Expertise” feature at level 9 has been removed
• The “Ambuscade” feature has been added at level 9 as a new feature (inspired by an Unearthed Arcana article from 2015) that grants the Ranger an additional turn on the first round of combat, with several limiters to prevent the feature from becoming too powerful
• Both benefits from “Tireless” are now tied to taking a Short Rest
• The Temporary Hit Points ability from “Tireless” has been replaced with Rapid Recovery, a new feature that allows the Ranger to regain additional hit points for every hit die they expend over the course of a Short Rest
• The “Improved Relentless Hunter” feature has been added at level 13 as a new feature that improves the level 5 “Relentless Hunter” feature, now allowing you to choose two modifications for Hunter’s Mark each time you use that feature
• “Precise Hunter” now grants you a +3 bonus to attack rolls against a creature marked by your Hunter’s Mark, enabling the feature to stack with other sources of advantage
• “Epic Boon” feature has been renamed to “Ability Score Improvement (Epic Boon)”
• “Foe Slayer” now grants advantage on attack rolls against a creature of your choice for 1 minute instead of a bonus to the damage of Hunter’s Mark

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