Ranger

The Ranger

Rough and wild looking, a human stalks alone through the shadows of trees, hunting the orcs he knows are planning a raid on a nearby farm. Clutching a shortsword in each hand, he becomes a whirlwind of steel, cutting down one enemy after another.
After tumbling away from a cone of freezing air, an elf finds her feet and draws back her bow to loose an arrow at the white dragon. Shrugging off the wave of fear that emanates from the dragon like the cold of its breath, she sends one arrow after another to find the gaps between the dragon’s thick scales.
Holding his hand high, a half-elf whistles to the hawk that circles high above him, calling the bird back to his side. Whispering instructions in Elvish, he points to the owlbear he’s been tracking and sends the hawk to distract the creature while he readies his bow.
Far from the bustle of cities and towns, past the hedges that shelter the most distant farms from the terrors of the wild, amid the dense-packed trees of trackless forests and across wide and empty plains, rangers keep their unending watch.

Deadly Hunters

Warriors of the wilderness, rangers specialize in hunting the monsters that threaten the edges of civilization—humanoid raiders, rampaging beasts and monstrosities, terrible giants, and deadly dragons. They learn to track their quarry as a predator does, moving stealthily through the wilds and hiding themselves in brush and rubble. Rangers focus their combat training on techniques that are particularly useful against their specific favoured foes.
Thanks to their familiarity with the wilds, rangers acquire the ability to cast spells that harness nature’s power, much as a druid does. Their spells, like their combat abilities, emphasize speed, stealth, and the hunt. A ranger’s talents and abilities are honed with deadly focus on the grim task of protecting the borderlands.

Independent Adventurers

Though a ranger might make a living as a hunter, a guide, or a tracker, a ranger’s true calling is to defend the outskirts of civilization from the ravages of monsters and humanoid hordes that press in from the wild. In some places, rangers gather in secretive orders or join forces with druidic circles. Many rangers, though, are independent almost to a fault, knowing that, when a dragon or a band of orcs attacks, a ranger might be the first—and possibly the last—line of defense.
This fierce independence makes rangers well suited to adventuring, since they are accustomed to life far from the comforts of a dry bed and a hot bath. Faced with city-bred adventurers who grouse and whine about the hardships of the wild, rangers respond with some mixture of amusement, frustration, and compassion. But they quickly learn that other adventurers who can carry their own weight in a fight against civilization’s foes are worth any extra burden. Coddled city folk might not know how to feed themselves or find fresh water in the wild, but they make up for it in other ways.

Creating a 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?

Ranger Table

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

Ranger Spell Table

Level	Spells Known	-Spell 1st	Slots 2nd	Per 3rd	Spell 4th	Level- 5th
1st	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	2	2	-	-	-	-
3rd	3	3	-	-	-	-
4th	3	3	-	-	-	-
5th	4	4	2	-	-	-
6th	4	4	2	-	-	-
7th	5	4	3	-	-	-
8th	5	4	3	-	-	-
9th	6	4	3	2	-	-
10th	6	4	3	2	-	-
11th	7	4	3	3	-	-
12th	7	4	3	3	-	-
13th	8	4	3	3	1	-
14th	8	4	3	3	1	-
15th	9	4	3	3	2	-
16th	9	4	3	3	2	-
17th	10	4	3	3	3	1
18th	10	4	3	3	3	1
19th	11	4	3	3	3	2
20th	11	4	3	3	3	2

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.

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, 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.

You choose additional favoured terrain types at 6th and 10th level.

Fighting Style

At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your speciality. 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.

Defence

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

Dueling

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.

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.

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.
Spell Save DC = 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom Modifier
Spell Attack Modifier = your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom Modifier

Ranger Archetype

At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate: the Hunter that is detailed at the end of the class description or one from another source. 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.

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.

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 as 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.

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.

Gaming by etsy

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.

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