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 sendsone 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 favored 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,
— Spell Slots per Spell Level —
The Ranger
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | Spells Known | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Deft Explorer, Favored Foe | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | +2 | Fighting Style, Spellcasting | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 3rd | +2 | Ranger Archetype, Primal Awareness | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 5th | +3 | Extra Attack | 4 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 6th | +3 | Deft Explorer Option | 4 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 7th | +3 | Ranger Archetype Feature | 5 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvment, Land's Stride | 5 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 9th | +4 | ─ | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 10th | +4 | Deft Explorer Option, Fade Away | 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 | 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 |
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 favored 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.
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
- Armor: Light armor, medium armor, 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 armor
- (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
Deft Explorer
You are an unsurpassed explorer and survivor. Choose one of the following benefits, and then choose another one at 6th and 10th level.
Canny
Choose one skill: Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Stealth, or Survival. You gain proficiency in the chosen skill if you don’t already have it, and you can add double your proficiency bonus to ability checks using that skill.
In addition, thanks to your extensive wandering, you are able to speak, read, and write two languages of your choice.
Roving
Your walking speed increases by 5, and you gain a climbing speed and a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.
Tireless
As an action, you can give yourself a number of temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier. You can use this special action a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once), 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.
Favored Foe
Beginning at 1st level, you can call on your bond with nature to mark a creature as your favored enemy for a time: you know the hunter’s mark spell, and Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for it. You can use it a certain number of times without expending a spell slot and without requiring concentration— a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
When you gain the Spellcasting feature at 2nd level, hunter’s mark doesn’t count against the number of ranger spells you know.
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.
Defense
While you are wearing armor, 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.
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 the end of this document 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, whenever you finish a long rest, you can replace one of the ranger spells you know with another spell from the ranger spell list. The new spell must be the same level as the spell you replace. When you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the ranger spells you know and replace it with another spell of any level for which you have spell slots from the ranger spell list.
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
Spell attack modifier
Spellcasting Focus
You can use a druidic focus as a spellcasting focus for your ranger spells.
Ranger Archetype
At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.
Primal Awareness
At 3rd level, 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.
Primal Awareness Spells
| Ranger Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 3rd | detect magic, speak with animals |
| 5th | beast sense, locate animals or plants |
| 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.
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.
Fade Away
Starting at 10th level, you can use a bonus action to magically become invisible, along with any equipment you are wearing or carrying, until the start of your next turn.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or 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 your favored enemy. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.
Ranger Archetype
The ranger has many expressions, such as the beast master.
Beast Master
The Beast Master archetype embodies a friendship between the civilized races and the beasts of the wild. United in focus, beast and ranger fight the monsters that threaten civilization and the wilderness alike.
Primal Beast Companion
At 3rd level, you gain a the companionship of a primal beast that accompanies you on your adventures and is trained to fight alongside you. Choose either a Beast of the Air or the Earth, and you determine its appearance. Stories describe primal beasts that mystically change form to align with the spirit of their companion. See this creature’s game statistics in the primal beast stat blocks.
You add your proficiency bonus to the beast’s AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in.
In combat, the primal beast shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take one of the actions in its stat block or the Hide action.
You can also use your action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, or Help action. Once you have the Extra Attack feature, you can make one weapon attack yourself when you command the beast to take the Attack action.
If you are incapacitated or absent, the beast acts on its own, focusing on protecting you and itself. The beast never requires your command to use its reaction, such as when making an opportunity attack.
If the beast has died within the last hour, you can use your action to touch it and expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher. The beast returns to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored.
At the end of a long rest, you can obtain the companionship of a new primal beast if your primal beast is dead, or change the form of your current primal beast.
Exceptional Training
Beginning at 7th level, on any of your turns when your beast companion doesn’t attack, you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on its turn.
In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Bestial Fury
Starting at 11th level, when you command your beast companion to take the Attack action, the beast can make two attacks.
Ranger Spell List
1st Level
- Absorb Elements
- Alarm
- Animal Friendship
- Beast Bond
- Cure Wounds
- Detect Magic
- Detect Poison and Disease
- Ensnaring Strike
- Entangle
- Fog Cloud
- Goodberry
- Hail of Thorns
- Hunter's Mark
- Jump
- Longstrider
- Searing Smite
- Snare
- Speak with Animals
- Sudden Awakening
- Wild Cunning
- Zephyr Strike
2nd Level
- Aid
- Animal Messenger
- Barkskin
- Beast Sense
- Cordon of Arrows
- Darkvision
- Enhance ability
- Find Traps
- Gust of wind
- Lesser Restoration
- Locate Animals or Plants
- Locate Object
- Magic weapon
- Pass Without Trace
- Protection from Poison
- Silence
- Spike Growth
- Warding bond
3rd Level
- Blinding smite
- Conjure Animals
- Conjure Barrage
- Daylight
- Flame Arrows
- Lightning Arrow
- Meld into stone
- Nondetection
- Plant Growth
- Protection from Energy
- Revivify
- Speak with Plants
- Tongues
- Water Breathing
- Water Walk
- Wind Wall
4th Level
- Conjure Woodland Beings
- Death Ward
- Dominate Beast
- Freedom of Movement
- Grasping Vine
- Guardian of Nature
- Locate Creature
- Stoneskin
5th Level
- Awaken
- Commune with Nature
- Conjure Volley
- Greater Restoration
- Swift Quiver
- Tree Stride
Credits
- All art from the Player's Handbook, copyright WotC
- Compiled by u/Xyrlian