Ranger

As you create your ranger character, consider the nature of the training that gave you your particular capabilities. Did you train with a single mentor, wandering the wilds together until you mastered the ranger’s ways? Did you leave your apprenticeship, or was your mentor slain—perhaps by the same kind of monster that became your favoured enemy? Or perhaps you learned your skills as part of a band of rangers affiliated with a druidic circle, trained in mystic paths as well as wilderness lore. You might be self-taught, a recluse who learned combat skills, tracking, and even a magical connection to nature through the necessity of surviving in the wilds.

What’s the source of your particular hatred of a certain kind of enemy? Did a monster kill someone you loved or destroy your home village? Or did you see too much of the destruction these monsters cause and commit yourself to reining in their depredations? Is your adventuring career a continuation of your work in protecting the borderlands, or a significant change? What made you join up with a band of adventurers? Do you find it challenging to teach new allies the ways of the wild, or do you welcome the relief from solitude that they offer?   QUICK BUILD
You can make a ranger quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. (Some rangers who focus on two-weapon fighting make Strength higher than Dexterity.) Second, choose the outlander background.  

Ranger Table

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Spells Known	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	+2	Favoured Enemy, Natural Explorer	--------	----	----	----	----	----
2nd	+2	Fighting Style, Spellcasting	2	2	----	----	----	----
3rd	+2	Ranger Archetype, Primeval Awareness	3	3	----	----	----	----
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility	3	3	----	----	----	----
5th	+3	Extra Attack	4	4	2	----	----	----
6th	+3	Favoured Enemy and Natural Explorer Improvements	4	4	2	----	----	----
7th	+3	Ranger Archetype Feature	5	4	3	----	----	----
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement, Land's Stride	5	4	3	----	----	----
9th	+4	-----------------------------------------------------------	6	4	3	2	----	----
10th	+4	Natural Explorer Improvement, Hide in Plain Sight	6	4	3	2	----	----
11th	+4	Ranger Archetype Feature	7	4	3	3	----	----
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	7	4	3	3	----	----
13th	+5	-----------------------------------------------------------	8	4	3	3	1	----
14th	+5	Favoured Enemy Improvement, Vanish	8	4	3	3	1	----
15th	+5	Ranger Archetype Feature	9	4	3	3	2	----
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	9	4	3	3	2	----
17th	+6	-----------------------------------------------------------	10	4	3	3	3	1
18th	+6	Feral Senses	10	4	3	3	3	1
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	11	4	3	3	3	2
20th	+6	Foe Slayer	11	4	3	3	3	2

 

Class Features

As a ranger, you gain the following class features:  

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per ranger level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per ranger level after 1st    

Proficiencies

Armour: Light armour, medium armour, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
Skills: Choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival    

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:   (a) scale mail or (b) leather armour
(a) two shortswords or (b) two simple melee weapons
(a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
A longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows    

Favoured Enemy

Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy.

Choose a type of favoured enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs) as favoured enemies.

You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favoured enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.

When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favoured enemies, if they speak one at all.

You choose one additional favoured enemy, as well as an associated language, at 6th and 14th level. As you gain levels, your choices should reflect the types of monsters you have encountered on your adventures.    

Favoured Foe (Optional)

This 1st-level feature replaces the Favoured Enemy feature and works with the Foe Slayer feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and you don't qualify for anything in the game that requires it.

When you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can call on your mystical bond with nature to mark the target as your favoured enemy for 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell).

The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favoured enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you increase that damage by 1d4.

You can use this feature to mark a favoured enemy a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

This feature's extra damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class: to 1d6 at 6th level and to 1d8 at 14th level.    

Natural Explorer

You are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at travelling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favoured terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, jungle, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favoured terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.

While travelling for an hour or more in your favoured terrain, you gain the following benefits:  

• Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
• Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
• Even when you are engaged in another activity while travelling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
• If you are travelling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
• When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
• While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

   

Deft Explorer (Optional)

This 1st-level feature replaces the Natural Explorer feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and you don't qualify for anything in the game that requires it.

You are an unsurpassed explorer and survivor, both in the wilderness and in dealing with others on your travels. You gain the Canny benefit below, and you gain an additional benefit when you reach 6th level and 10th level in this class.

Canny (1st Level)
Choose one of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make using the chosen skill. You can also speak, read, and write 2 additional languages of your choice.

Roving (6th Level)
Your walking speed increases by 5, and you gain a climbing speed and a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

Tireless (10th Level)
As an action, you can give yourself a number of temporary hit points equal to 1d8 + your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1 temporary hit point). You can use this action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

In addition, whenever you finish a short rest, your exhaustion level, if any, is decreased by 1.    

Fighting Style

At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options.

You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Archery
You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

Blind Fighting
You have blind sight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.

Defence
While you are wearing armour, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Druidic Warrior
You learn two cantrips of your choice from the Druid spell list. They count as ranger spells for you, and Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for them. Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of these cantrips with another cantrip from the Druid spell list.

Duelling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Thrown Weapon Fighting
You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon. In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.

Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.    

Spellcasting

By the time you reach 2nd level, you have learned to use the magical essence of nature to cast spells, much as a druid does. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the ranger spell list. Below is a list of additional spells that a ranger can choose from, on top of the standard ranger spell list:

1st Level
entangle
searing smite

2nd Level
aid
enhance ability
gust of wind
magic weapon
summon beast

3rd Level
elemental weapon
meld into stone
revivify
summon fey

4th Level
dominate beast
summon elemental

5th Level
greater restoration    

Spell Slots

The Ranger table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your ranger spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell animal friendship and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast animal friendship using either slot.    

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the ranger spell list.

The Spells Known column of the Ranger table shows when you learn more ranger spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the ranger spells you know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your ranger spells, since your magic draws on your attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a ranger spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.



   

Spellcasting Focus (Optional)

At 2nd level, you can use a druidic focus as a spellcasting focus for your ranger spells. A druidic focus might be a sprig of mistletoe or holly, a wand or rod made of yew or another special wood, a staff drawn whole from a living tree, or an object incorporating feathers, fur, bones, and teeth from sacred animals.    

Ranger Archetype

At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate. You will find the different Archetype options listed at the bottom of this article. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.    

Primeval Awareness

Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend one ranger spell slot to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot you expend, you can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile of you (or within up to 6 miles if you are in your favoured terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn’t reveal the creatures’ location or number.    

Primal Awareness (Optional)

This 3rd-level feature replaces the Primeval Awareness feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and you don't qualify for anything in the game that requires it.

You can focus your awareness through the interconnections of nature: you learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class if you don't already know them, as shown in the Primal Awareness Spells table below. These spells don't count against the number of ranger spells you know:

Ranger Level	Spell
3rd	speak with animals
5th	beast sense
9th	speak with plants
13th	locate creature
17th	commune with nature

You can cast each of these spells once without expending a spell slot. Once you cast a spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.    

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.    

Martial Versatility (Optional)

Whenever you reach a level in this class that grants the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can replace a fighting style you know with another fighting style available to rangers. This replacement represents a shift of focus in your martial practice.    

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.    

Land’s Stride

Starting at 8th level, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such those created by the entangle spell.    

Hide in Plain Sight

Starting at 10th level, you can spend 1 minute creating camouflage for yourself. You must have access to fresh mud, dirt, plants, soot, and other naturally occurring materials with which to create your camouflage.

Once you are camouflaged in this way, you can try to hide by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or wall, that is at least as tall and wide as you are. You gain a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as you remain there without moving or taking actions. Once you move or take an action or a reaction, you must camouflage yourself again to gain this benefit.    

Nature's Veil (Optional)

This 10th-level feature replaces the Hide in Plain Sight feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and you don't qualify for anything in the game that requires it.

You draw on the powers of nature to hide yourself from view briefly. As a bonus action, you can magically become invisible, along with any equipment you are wearing or carrying, until the start of your next turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.    

Vanish

Starting at 14th level, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. Also, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.    

Feral Senses

At 18th level, you gain preternatural senses that help you fight creatures you can’t see. When you attack a creature you can’t see, your inability to see it doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it.

You are also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn’t hidden from you and you aren’t blinded or deafened.    

Foe Slayer

At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against one of your favoured enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.    

Ranger Archetypes

The ideal of the ranger has classic expressions showcased in the skills they have developed and the surroundings they grew up in. These are detailed below.