Bolts and Arrows – A Comprehensive Ranger Overview, Part 2: The Base Class

To this day I still find it amusing how people just completely overlook the good parts of the class

Now, after dispelling the myths and whatnot surrounding the class, what obviously comes next is looking at the base class and its features.

Keep in mind this is only the base class itself – each subclass will get its own article discussing their features and such

Enjoy!

Level 1

Humble beginnings

Starting Stats/Equipment

Not much to really talk about here. The 1d10 hit die, 10 + CON starting HP, and 6 + CON every level after 1 is quite standard for a martial.

You get all the equipment proficiencies that really matter, which are light and medium armor, shields, both simple and martial weapons (which includes firearms since they’re all martial weapons), and get both Perception and Stealth on your potential starting proficiencies list. No tool proficiencies, but we can pick up the ones we really need from our background anyways. The saving throw proficiencies do leave a lot to be desired though. Strength saves don’t come up very often and aren’t usually horribly lethal to fail so it’s not very relevant, and Dexterity saves, while one of the 3 most common saves (others being Wisdom and Constitution), is also the least punishing to fail comparatively. It’s still better than nothing though.

Lastly is the starting equipment. You’ll probably want to sell most of what’s here in order to get a Hand Crossbow fast, though if you can save the Longbow, do so. Longbows aren’t worth noting on in terms of damage, though Sharpshooter helps, but they do have incredibly long attack ranges, allowing for default kills. If you and your party just aren’t having any of the DM’s encounters that day, everyone should pick up a Longbow, get a mount of some sort, and start kiting the hell out of enemies, even if the character isn’t proficient in the Longbow. Outside of that though, keeping the Scale Mail is also probably a good idea for AC, and the 50 feet of Hempen Rope from the Explorer’s Pack is nice to have on occasion. Oh, and remember to sell background stuff too. More starting money is good.

Favored 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 favored 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 favored enemies.

You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored 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 favored enemies, if they speak one at all.

You choose one additional favored 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.”

Pretty much everyone knows about this one, so I’m not the first nor last to say this: It sucks. The benefits are marginal at best, providing nothing more than a little bit of info and a slightly easier time tracking, which might be relevant, but even if it is it’s not very significant. Bonus language also doesn’t matter in the slightest.

The only real notable part about it is it’s not ultra situational like is commonly stated, since it works on an entire class of enemies, not just a specific one like “Beholder” or something, though it can be super specific if you opt to choose 2 humanoids instead.

Now, if your party is set into a high survival campaign and the DM nerfed Goodberry in some way that stops it from meeting a creature’s food requirements, then it might have some benefits? The Beast category consists of animals, so that’s something I guess. It’s still such a fringe situation though that it doesn’t save the feature at all.

Favored Foe (Replaces Favored Enemy)

“This 1st-level feature replaces the Favored Enemy feature and works with the Foe Slayer feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and 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 favored 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 favored 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 favored 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.”

An optional feature introduced in Tasha’s that replaces Favored Enemy. While certainly more widely applicable and practical, it’s still overall not that great of a feature.

The main issues with the feature comes in 2 parts: One, it’s a very small DPR increase that is hardly noticeable, and two, it takes up your concentration. Basically, the two issues Hunter’s Mark has, but at least it doesn’t require a spell slot and comes at an earlier level.

From levels 1-4, it’s not too bad to be concentrating on. You don’t have anything better to concentrate on at level 1, and at level 2 when you finally get your spells, your main spell picks are either non-concentration or used in more emergency-like situations (Fog Cloud for breaking advantage if the DM does the ever-popular 8 wolves encounter, Entangle if damage isn’t enough to handle things at the early levels). No, don’t use Hunter’s Mark, that takes up your known spells and provides nothing meaningful that Favored Foe won’t already do. However, it definitely starts to wane come level 3, when you pick up your subclass. By level 4, its DPR increase basically doesn’t exist since Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter do so much that this tiny DPR increase doesn’t matter, and is now more likely than not just taking up concentration. And finally, once you reach level 5, well… you get your Extra Attack, making the DPR increase even tinier, and you pick up your second level spells, which includes the premier spell to concentrate on now if a control spell is not needed, Pass Without Trace. Pass Without Trace is a broken as hell spell and should be your main focus of concentration when out of combat and when the current combat encounter doesn’t require you to throw out control spells like Entangle or Spike Growth. And because you’ll want to be concentrating on it basically all the time if possible, well, that leaves no room for Favored Foe. Even if you did have the room to concentrate on Favored Foe though, it won’t provide any significant or notable increases, as stated before. And as you attain higher levels? You get more spell slots to use on Pass Without Trace and on control spells, and once you reach 9th level in Ranger, well…. Conjure Animals is a concentration spell is all I’ll say there.

And while Favored Foe does work with Foe Slayer, it’s not worth the time or concentration since at 20th level you pretty much always have your concentration on Pass Without Trace, a control spell, or Conjure Animals (or Conjure Woodland Beings if needed).

To recap this one, it’s ok levels 1-2, kinda meh 3-4, and practically useless level 5 and onwards.

Natural Explorer

“Also at 1st level, you are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favored terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.

While traveling for an hour or more in your favored 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 traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
– If you are traveling 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 favored terrain types at 6th and 10th level.”

Like Favored Enemy, plenty has already been said about this feature already, but here I go saying the same things again.

This feature is, in short, highly situational. Even more so than Favored Enemy since at least that feature covers a broad category instead of very specific types. This feature is simply situational in the sense that it’s incredibly determined by DM fiat. You’ll never really know if you’ll ever even be in your favored terrain, and even if you do end up in one, there are hardly any significant benefits to it.

– Difficult terrain not slowing the group would be great… if it didn’t only apply to traveling, and required you to be in a situational place for at least 1 hour to gain any benefit from. Now, not slowing group travel is vague wording and could mean to their movement in general, which is once again helpful if you didn’t need to spend so much time in a place you might not even enter.

– Group not getting lost is heavily up to how the DM even wants to interpret it, and once again, only works when in your favored terrain and only after you’ve been traveling specifically in said terrain for at least 1 hour – it’s completely possible you could’ve gotten lost before this even had benefit, and if your DM didn’t rule you as getting lost, then this part serves literally no purpose.

– “You remain alert to danger” is incredibly vague wording and offers very little. The best I can interpret is it means your group supposedly becomes immune to surprise, but since it’s not directly stated, it doesn’t apply. Maybe it doesn’t apply the Perception penalty if traveling at a fast pace? But once again, not stated.

– It’s not the worst thing ever to be able to stealth at normal pace – stealth and surprise is good after all. But Pass Without Trace already covers this way better if you’re not going to be there for long or not even in your favored terrain, and if you are in your favored terrain for over an hour, I highly doubt you’re going to be alone. And if you are alone? I don’t think traveling stealthily is your biggest worry, your biggest worry is getting back to your party.

– Finding double what you forage is great in a high survival campaign… if you’re traveling in a situational area you may never be in for at least 1 hour… and the DM nerfed Goodberry… and your party didn’t stock up on rations beforehand… and there isn’t a spellcaster that knows Prestidigitation in the party.

– The creature tracking doesn’t help at all, since if you’ve been traveling in an area for this long, it’s likely you and your party can already gauge the general creatures you’ll be facing. Once again, only helpful in a high survival campaign specifically, and only if you’re in your favored terrain traveling for more than an hour.

As you can tell from each bullet, they all emphasize a particular point: In order to gain any of the (basically worthless in most campaigns) benefits, you need to have already been traveling in the favored terrain for at least an hour to get anything, with no guarantee you’ll even enter your favored terrain or be in there for long – and if you are, then congrats, the DM has smiled on you… sort of? Even if you do meet all of the conditions, each benefit serves little purpose unless you’re, once again, in a high survival campaign. The only significant one I can really think that would provide some benefit in the average campaign is not getting lost, but if your party is traveling for that long, they likely either have a map and/or a guide, or have other ways of obtaining information regarding the area, such as Speak with Animals, a familiar, etc. And in the fringe situations where your party does somehow get lost, by the time this benefit kicks in, your party will likely be in a situation where getting out is likely the least of their worries. Or someone just uses magic. Or everyone actually does finally manage to get out… 1 hour after hopelessly getting lost and wasting everyone’s time. Which can then just loop back to the DM saying no one gets lost and rendering the feature useless.

Deft Explorer

“This 1st-level feature replaces the Natural Explorer feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and 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.”

An optional feature introduced in Tasha’s that replaces Natural Explorer. Highly recommended. Deft Explorer gives a solid set of more widely applicable features that are helpful.

For starters, Canny is free Expertise in a skill of your choice – this should of course be relegated to Perception. Stealth is also a valid option since Surprise is so strong, and you’re really good at stealth thanks to Pass Without Trace (which doesn’t come until 5th level, but still). The 2 bonus languages are a nice ribbon I guess.

Roving is also very nice. Climbing speed is helpful in getting out of the range of enemies, especially when most have melee attacks, in order to preserve concentration or to get the higher ground. Remember you still need to use your hands for climbing and can’t climb on ceilings/upside down though, unless you have Spider Climb somehow. Swimming speed is situational, but still nice to have in the event it’s needed. However, the main meat of this one is the 5 foot speed increase. To summarize its impactfulness, kiting is strong in D&D, and you and your party should utilize as much as possible, usually with mounts or some particularly funny strategies such as having, say, a Giant Owl grapple you and fly you, but that’s not always going to happen. So what’s the best you can do if you don’t have those? Be faster than the enemy, as covered by Haen in the article linked way back in the Starting Stats/Equipment. The majority of creatures in D&D have a 30 foot movement speed, so a 5-foot increase to your speed is a huge leg up on them. More is of course great, but none are as impactful as a 5-foot boost.

Lastly comes Tireless. This one is a bit of an odd one, but nice to have nontheless. The temporary hit points should be used whenever you go into a short rest, to give yourself a buffer before getting back into the adventuring day, as since they have no listed duration, they will last until depleted or until you finish a long rest. You’ll usually on average get about 7 temporary hit points from the feature (4 average from the die, +3 from 16 WIS, though it can be a little lower if multiclassing or using Custom Lineage). It’s not a lot, but it’s nice to have regardless. As for the Exhaustion reduction, very few enemies inflict Exhuastion at all, and Ranger and its subclasses don’t have anything that would inflict Exhaustion on to itself. As such, the reduction is situational, but it is pretty funny since you only need a short rest to handle Exhaustion now, unless the way you gained Exhaustion says otherwise.

Level 1 Recap

A bit of a rough start overall, but that is the case for every character, not just Ranger. You’ve got a good starting chassis thanks to your proficiencies, so hang back with a Hand Crossbow if you manage to get your hands on one, or Longbow if you didn’t. Try to prioritize getting a Hand Crossbow when you can, as well as Half-Plate. And of course, get Crossbow Expert from a free feat race, or free feat in general if your DM uses that houserule.

Level 2

We immediately see a small power spike here

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.” (I am not listing every Fighting Style option for my sanity)

Archery is really the only one that matters. +2 to ranged weapon attacks is big, and will further help our DPR when we get Sharpshooter. But, seeing as this is a comprehensive overview, I’ll discuss the others.

Blind Fighting offers little benefit to yourself since 10 feet is melee range, which you want nothing to do with. Blindsight is certainly juicy, but Archery just pushes it out (this also applies to Fighter), and as mentioned, 10 feet isn’t quite enough.

Defense, while nice since +1 AC is even more impactful the higher our AC goes, once again loses out compared to Archery’s bonuses. This is certainly a good pick for Paladin though.

Dueling, we want nothing to do with since we don’t want anything to do with melee as an inherently ranged-focused class. Oh, and the bonus you get from this is the exact same as Archery’s anyways, with Archery providing more technical benefits since it applies to ranged weaponry.

Thrown Weapon Fighting is interesting, but once again falls short of Archery – like how most thrown weapons compare to using a ranged one.

Two-Weapon Fighting sucks. Not just on Ranger, on every class that can get it. Two-weapon fighting in general is poor, maybe on Rogue since more chances to use Sneak Attack, but at that point just get Crossbow Expert for them.

tl;dr the only option that matters is Archery.

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.”

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”

The big feature is here. While our big guns will come later, there are a solid list of 1st-level spell picks for Ranger. If you want to know good spells for each spell level, here’s Haen’s guide to every Ranger spell available.

Do keep in mind a few things though: As a half-caster, your spell progression is a bit slower than fullcasters, and you don’t have as many spell slots comparatively. Your maximum casting level also caps at 5 unless you start dipping.

There’s also that optional rule that allows Rangers to use Druid spellcasting foci, which you can use if you want, but I would recommend using component pouches for a few different reasons.

Level 2 Recap

Overall solid level. We get our spellcasting and a small bunch of good 1st level spells to pick from, and Archery to boost our damage output.

Additionally, since we get spellcasting this level, we now have 2 1st-level spell slots and 2 known spells.

Level 3

We get our subclasses here. One’s subclass of choice can really decide the overall strength of the Ranger.

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 favored terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn’t reveal the creatures’ location or number.”

Not a great feature, but not a horrible one. Knowing what types of creatures your party may be going up against is good knowledge and allows for preparations, though the spell slot expenditure is a little much. Don’t expend spell slots higher than 1st level on this feature, it’s not worth it. You likely won’t be using this feature too much though, since spell slot conservation is important. If it gave just a little more information, it’d probably be pretty solid.

Primal Awareness

“This 3rd-level feature replaces the Primeval Awareness feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and 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. These spells don’t count against the number of ranger spells you know.

(No, I’m not listing them)

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.”

An optional feature introduced in Tasha’s that replaces Primeval Awareness. It’s an okay feature, nothing spectacular. Free castings of information spells is always nice, and Speak with Plants can be particularly potent as a non-concentration control option.

I personally recommend using it over Primeval Awareness, but you can get some mileage out of Primeval Awareness, so it’s mostly a “what do you really need?” debate.

Ranger Conclave

“At 3rd level, you choose to emulate the ideals and training of a ranger conclave. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.”

A big feature which can signal a big power spike depending on your subclass chosen. Each subclass will get their own article, but I’ll put a small ranking of their strengths.

There are 8 total Ranger conclaves, each of them divided into sections: Upper, Lower, Bad. Upper is the strongest 3, Lower is the next set of 3 that’s weaker than the Upper set, but still usable with their own functionality, and Bad is the 2 remaining that are, well, bad.

Upper
1. Gloom Stalker
2. Swarmkeeper
3. Hunter

Lower
1. Beast Master (Using PHB, not Tasha’s version)
2. Drakewarden
3. Fey Wanderer

Bad
Horizon Walker
Monster Slayer

Haen’s summary of the subclasses should give a good idea of the positions.

Level 3 Recap

Not as many features here, but still a major level since we pick up our subclass.

Our spell slots increased from 2 1st-level to 3 1st-level, and our spells known increased from 2 to 3.

Level 4

Not a lot happening here, it’s just an ASI.

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.”

Hopefully your DM allows feats, which practically every DM does, but there’s always that one. If they do, this is the level to pick up the Sharpshooter feat (you preferably should’ve been using a free feat race or playing a free feat game to get Crossbow Expert at level 1). Sharpshooter will provide a bigger damage boost than another +2 DEX, so while not immediately rushing to cap your DEX feels weird, keep in mind that it’s for the sake of increasing your DPR further than a simple ASI would, in addition to defending yourself better with later ASIs.

If the DM doesn’t allow feats… probably shouldn’t have been playing Ranger, or any martial character, really. Play a fullcaster and rush your casting score.

Martial Versatility

“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.”

Optional feature added in Tasha’s that is an addition to your ASI/Feat. It doesn’t matter whether the DM allows this or not since we have no reason to switch off of Archery, though it’ll be of use if you for some reason didn’t take Archery at level 2.

Level 4 Recap

Nothing really going on here, we just pick up the Sharpshooter feat. Actually, that is quite a bit going on here, Sharpshooter will be a great increase to our output when combined with Crossbow Expert.

No spell slot or known spell increases.

Level 5

Our main jump in power

Extra Attack

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

One of our main martial features is here, and with it a damage spike. Assuming we took Crossbow Expert at level 1 via free feat race, we now make 3 attacks per turn, which all can be power attacked with Sharpshooter for a pretty good amount of damage. There’s not really much more to say about Extra Attack, it’s very straightforward.

Level 5 Recap

Only one feature this level, but it’s quite good and is part of our martial chassis.

On another note, we now get access to 2nd-level spells, with our spell slots increasing to 4 1st-level spell slots and 2 2nd-level spell slots. Our known spells increase from 3 to 4. With access to 2nd-level spells now, we get stronger spells like Spike Growth and of course, Pass Without Trace.

Level 6

Nothing this level, just improvements to features from previous level. We gain an extra Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain, or we increase our Favored Foe die and gain the Roving feature from Deft Explorer.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

Level 7

There’s actually plenty to discuss for this level, but they’re all the subclass features gained at this level, which again, will be discussed in each subclass’ own articles.

Spell slots increase to 4 1st-level slots and 3 2nd-level slots, and known spells increase from 4 to 5.

Level 8

We get our next ASI/Feat and Land’s Stride.

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.”

An okay feature, nothing much to discuss here. Difficult terrain can make kiting more difficult, so being able to ignore nonmagical difficult terrain certainly helps, especially if you have a DM who does actually follow the DMG and remembers that many battlefields are usually in difficult terrain. As for magically created plants, this is somewhat helpful, since it does mean you won’t be as easily caught in your own spells (or a friendly Druid’s), though since the primary effects of those particular plant-based spells/effects don’t actually offer saving throws and are magically created difficult terrain, this feature doesn’t help at all against them.

Quite frankly, the most difficult part about this feature is remembering you even have it so you can ignore nonmagical difficult terrain.

Level 8 Recap

An ok movement feature at this level, and an ASI/Feat. Preferably take Resilient (Constitution) for the feat, as concentration protection is very important, in addition to the generally nasty effects associated with CON saves.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

This level was rather quiet, but it’s all just the calm before the storm.

Level 9

The biggest power spike we will see for this class: We gain 3rd-level spells, and with it, Conjure Animals. This is huge. Conjure Animals is the big gun spell in our arsenal, and is from here on out our main damage and utility spell – this spell will often take priority over our higher-level spells when it comes to using higher-level spell slots due to its sheer strength. However, it is not an easy-to-use spell. Once again, Haen from Form of Dread has an article covering the creatures you can summon from this spell and their strengths as well as an article on summoning in general. Tabletop Builds also has an article regarding what to ask before playing Druid, which covers summoning as part of it. A rather bright Kobold has also covered this spell. A document by TreantMonk with macros if you use a virtual tabletop is in the first part of this series of articles, the myths. Conjure Animals will outdamage your Hand Crossbow, so when you drop Conjure Animals and intend to use it for damage and not utility, it would be wise to focus on protecting your concentration over dealing damage with your Hand Crossbow, though if you’re playing at range, which you should be, you likely won’t need to spend your actions on Dodging, so keep firing your Hand Crossbow until you see reason to Disengage or Dodge.

We now get access to 3rd-level spells, with our spell slots increasing to 4 1st-level slots, 3 2nd-level slots, and 2 3rd-level slots, and known spells increase from 5 to 6.

Level 10

After our huge spike though, comes a relatively underwhelming level (or just quiet level if you use Tasha’s).

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.”

Stealth is good, but with how long this feature takes to use combined with the fact that you can’t move AND it only benefits yourself, it offers little benefit at all. Pass Without Trace is far better, providing the same +10 bonus and benefitting both you and the party. Oh, and you can move while using it and don’t need to spend 1 whole minute.

Depending on how your DM chooses read this feature, you may also not always have access to the materials needed to use the feature, nor a solid surface that is taller and wider than you are.

The only notable part of this feature is that it is free and can be used for ambushes, but with how long Pass Without Trace lasts and doesn’t require you to sit still, plus allowing the whole party to be able to ambush, it is simply outclassed by using Pass Without Trace.

Nature’s Veil

“This 10th-level feature replaces the Hide in Plain Sight feature. You gain no benefit from the replaced feature and 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.”

An optional feature introduced in Tasha’s that replaces Hide in Plain Sight. I’d personally recommend using this feature, as like the rest of the Tasha’s optional features for Ranger, it’s more widely applicable and useful. While it definitely doesn’t last very long, it’s still useful enough to quickly get the hell out of somehere without needing to expend an excessive amount of time or a spell slot. Do remember that unless you take the Hide action though, your position is still known (though you are “heavily obscured”). If you want to know more, here is Tabletop Builds’ article on Hiding Surprise, and more.

It is also worth noting that unlike the Invisibility spell, the invisibility from this feature does not end upon casting a spell or making an attack.

Proficiency bonus per long rest is a little annoying, but our proficiency bonus at this level is +4 (4 uses), so we have enough uses to work with.

Level 10 Recap

We get either an underwhelming feature, or an okay one. We get an additional Favored Terrain as well, or the Tireless feature if we took Deft Explorer. Not really much to talke about this level.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

Level 11

There’s plenty to say about this level, but as with level 7, they’re all in the subclasses.

Outside of that, our spell slots increase to 4 1st-level slots, 3 2nd-level slots, and 3 3rd-level slots (more ammunition for Conjure Animals!), and our known spells increase from 6 to 7.

Level 12

Just an ASI/Feat. Now that our main feat setup is done, a +2 DEX to improve our to-hit rate will be nice to have, especially since average enemy AC is now increasing. You could choose to take a feat like Alert or Lucky here (also wouldn’t say no to Resilient (Wisdom)), but +2 DEX will be our ‘ol reliable for this level. If you used Custom Lineage instead of Variant Human, you’ll probably have something like a 17 in DEX and 15 in WIS (unless multiclassing), which in that case take a +1 to DEX and +1 to WIS to round them out.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

Level 13

We get 4th-level spells. That’s about it. Conjure Woodland Beings, yay. It’s a good spell that is the magical utility to Conjure Animals’ more physical utility/damage. It would be good to expect your DM to ban Pixies, but if they don’t, well, you’re in for a treat. Just read the Pixie stat block. There’s also other good choices of course, which Haen discusses in the article on summons in general, linked back at level 9.

Now, you’ll likely still be using your 4th-level slots on Conjure Animals, but if you need Conjure Woodland Beings, it’s there for you.

Keep in mind you only have 1 4th-level slot at this level, so be careful with how you use it. Assess the situation at hand.

We now get access to 4th-level spells, with our spell slots increasing to 4 1st-level slots, 3 2nd-level slots, 3 3rd-level slots, and 1 4th-level slot, and known spells increase from 7 to 8.

Level 14

Another quiet level with not much to talk about. This is a common occurrence at the higher Ranger levels.

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.”

It’s a whatever feature overall. Hiding as a bonus action is nice, I suppose, but doing so causes a loss in DPR since you’re not using your bonus action to use your Hand Crossbow then. If you’ve got summons active from Conjure Animals active though, it’s not a bad option in order to get enemies off your back. Think of this as weighing whether you should attack with your bonus action or use this feature similar to Rogue’s Cunning Action.

However, if you’ve cast a (non-bonus action) spell this turn, then it’s totally worth using this feature if you meet the conditions to hide, since you won’t be able to bonus action attack due to not having used your action to attack with the Hand Crossbow (and you don’t exactly have a better use of your bonus action unless you decided to take the Telekinetic feat at some point).

As for the part about not being trackable through nonmagical means, it’s up to whether the DM will make it a relevant feature or not, and at this level, most (significant) enemies will probably be scrying on you via magic or have other ways to track you through magic.

Level 14 Recap

Nothing much of note here. You get a more or less okay feature, and you either get an additional Favored Enemy or your Favored Foe die increases for the last time, though as discussed in Favored Foe, by this point you’re generally concentrating on something way better.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

Level 15

Once again, subclass features. Enough said.

Our spell slots increase to 4 1st-level slots, 3 2nd-level slots, 3 3rd-level slots, and 2 4th-level slots, with our known spells increasing from 8 to 9.

Level 16

ASI/Feat level, take Lucky or something, we don’t need to cap our DEX just yet. Alert and Resilient (Wisdom) are also good choices.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

Level 17

This is it, Tier 4. The land of 5th-level spells for us. Unfortunately, most of Ranger’s 5th-level spell choices are mediocre or poor, but thankfully, Conjure Animals upcasts with a 5th level slot, doubling our summons. Basically, your 5th level slot is reserved for Conjure Animals, unless there is a particular situation that warrants another spell for the slot (like Greater Restoration).

Tier 4 is a bit of a quiet end for Ranger, since the most significant thing you get for all of T4 levels is 5th-level spells and slots. And I guess that level 19 ASI/Feat.

We now get access to 5th-level spells, with our spell slots increasing to 4 1st-level slots, 3 2nd-level slots, 3 3rd-level slots, 3 4th-level slots, and 1 5th-level slot, and know spells increase from 9 to 10.

Level 18

We get one feature this level, and half of it is useless RAW.

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.”

Let’s talk about the first half of this feature. It’s fairly useful, and while invisible creatures aren’t common, you (and many other casters) can create heavy obscurement, usually to negate advantage enemies would have. This would normally create a “flat roll” situation, since the advantage from attacking a blinded creature but the disadvantage from being blinding yourself cancel out each other, but as you no longer suffer disadvantage as a result of not being able to see/being blinded, this becomes a great way to generate advantage for yourself.

Now, we get to the second half. As stated, it’s useless RAW. Here’s the thing about obscurement/invisibility: You’re not actually hidden unless you took the Hide action, meaning you and anyone would would still know the location of a creature that is invisible/heavily obscured unless said creature took the Hide action and succeeded (or was already hidden). This means that the “ability to be aware of invisible creatures” this feature provides does nothing since you were already aware of invisible creatures, and since the feature doesn’t function if the creature successfully hides, which would also hide the creature from yours and others’ senses in general, this entire second half provides absolutely zero benefit.

Level 18 Recap

We get one feature that’s alright and gives us some nice advantage generation, but by this point a fullcaster would probably be able to do the same for the entire party without breaking a sweat. This doesn’t make Ranger weaker, it’s just fullcasters are so damn strong (Looking at you, Wizard). Shame the second half of said feature doesn’t function at all though.

No additional spell slots or known spells.

Level 19

We get our last ASI/Feat. It is here where we would take a +2 DEX to cap it off, though a feat of your choice is also valid.

Our spell slots increase to 4 1st-level slots, 3 2nd-level slots, 3 3rd-level slots, 3 4th-level slots, and 2 5th-level slots, with our known spells increasing from 10 to 11. This is the last increase to our spell slots and known spells we will get.

Level 20

Just multiclass out after 19 instead of taking this level.

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 favored enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.”

The additional to-hit bonus would be nice to have if the situations where you got it just weren’t so situational or not worth it, but even then it’s not a massive overall impact at this level. While you do have 3 categories now for Favored Enemies, there’s still no guarantee your DM will toss them at you (though if you did discuss with your DM about creature types in their campaign, this feature might be usable frequently), and requires you to have trudged through the earlier levels with Favored Enemy just to reach this admittedly underwhelming capstone. What about Favored Foe? If you haven’t gotten the idea already, you are most definitely concentrating on something way better at this point, so Favored Foe pretty much gets pushed into the closet and never used again, and as such, this feature never comes into play. Seriously, multiclass out at level 19, it’ll be more worth your time than this excuse of a capstone.

Summary

Well, in short, Ranger has reasonably solid progression, especially through Tier 1 to Tier 2, but starts to taper off around the middle of Tier 3, and slows to halt at Tier 4, with the only noteworthy features being 5th-level spells and the last ASI. Your subclass will really determine your progression for Tier 3 with their 11th-level and 15th-level features. Despite progression slowdown at higher levels, Ranger still maintains good fighting power and control, as well as supporting the party with Goodberries, Aid, etc., making Ranger a pretty fair class to straightclass, though if you really want to maximize Ranger, multiclassing is of course going to be a necessity (it’s funny how Assassin Rogue is a more valuable dip on Ranger than the entire subclass is for Rogue since Ranger actually has ways of generating reliable advantage and has better fighting power).

And with that, that is all I have to really say about the base class. Up next will be subclasses. I could cover spells and Conjure Animals, and I might, but Haen from Form of Dread has already done an excellent job for that, so I personally don’t see too much reason on my end to do so.

Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this beast of an article, though I believe this article by Nystul’s regarding the faults of Paladin is even larger.

– Mistral Umaimon