BR:Ranger
Playtest Material
This class is currently being previewed for the next update of the Basic Rules.
| Ranger Agility | Willpower | |
|---|---|
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Difficulty Offense Defense Support
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Delvebound Class | Martial
Class Overview. The Ranger is a martial class specializing in exploration, combating foes, and making use of the natural world around them. | |
Rough and wild looking, a Breton stalks alone through the shadows of trees, hunting the goblins he knows are planning a raid on a nearby farm. Clutching a short sword in each hand, he becomes a whirlwind of steel, cutting down one enemy after another.
After tumbling away from an avalanche of snow, a Bosmer finds her feet and draws back her bow to loose an arrow at the frost troll. Quickly using oil and her tinderbox, she sends one flaming arrow after another to push back the troll’s dreadful assault.
Holding his hand high, a Redguard whistles to the hawk that circles high above him, calling the bird back to his side. Whispering instructions in Yoku, he points to the bear 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, 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. 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 warden conclaves. Many rangers, though, are independent almost to a fault, knowing that, when a dragon or a band of goblins 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 favored enemy? Or perhaps you learned your skills as part of a band of rangers affiliated with a warden conclave, trained in mystic paths as well as wilderness lore. You might be self-taught, a recluse who learned combat skills, tracking, and have a 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?
The Ranger
| Level | Proficiency Bonus |
Class Features | Techniques Known |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +2 | Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer | - |
| 2 | +2 | Fighting Style, Wild Techniques | 2 |
| 3 | +2 | Primal Instincts, Ranger Archetype | 2 |
| 4 | +2 | Attribute Score Improvement | 3 |
| 5 | +3 | Extra Attack | 3 |
| 6 | +3 | Adaptive Hunter, Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer Improvements | 4 |
| 7 | +3 | Primal Defense, Ranger Archetype Feature | 5 |
| 8 | +3 | Attribute Score Improvement, Land’s Stride | 5 |
| 9 | +4 | Skirmisher’s Stealth | 6 |
| 10 | +4 | Natural Explorer Improvement, Hide in Plain Sight | 6 |
| 11 | +4 | Ranger Archetype Feature | 7 |
| 12 | +4 | Attribute Score Improvement | 7 |
| 13 | +5 | Nature’s Protection | 8 |
| 14 | +5 | Favored Enemy Improvement, Vanish | 8 |
| 15 | +5 | Ranger Archetype Feature | 9 |
| 16 | +5 | Attribute Score Improvement | 9 |
| 17 | +6 | Primal Connection | 10 |
| 18 | +6 | Feral Senses | 10 |
| 19 | +6 | Attribute Score Improvement | 11 |
| 20 | +6 | Foe Slayer | 11 |
Attribute Score Minimum. As a multiclass character, you must have at least an Agility or Strength score of 13 to take a level in this class, or to take a level in another class if you are already a ranger.
Proficiencies Gained. If ranger isn’t your initial class, here are the proficiencies you gain when you take your first level as a ranger: light armor, medium armor, shields, all weapons, one skill from the class’s skill list or the herbalism kit.
Quick Build
You can make a ranger quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Agility your highest attribute score, followed by Endurance. (Some rangers who focus on two-weapon fighting make Strength higher than Agility.) Second, choose the outlander background.
Class Features
| Hit Points | |
|---|---|
| Hit Dice | 1d10 per Ranger level |
| HP at 1st Level | 10 + your Endurance modifier |
| HP at Higher Levels | 1d10 (or 6) + your Endurance modifier per Ranger level after 1st |
| Proficiencies | |
| Armor | Light armor, Medium armor, Shields |
| Weapons | All weapons |
| Tools | Herbalism kit |
| Saving Throws | Strength, Agility |
| 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:
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As a ranger, you gain the following class features.
Favored Enemy
1st-level ranger feature
You have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy.
Choose a type of favored enemy: Beasts, Fiends, Humanoids, or Undead. You have advantage on Willpower (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. Each time you hit a favored enemy with an attack and deal damage to it, you deal an additional 1d4 damage.
You also learn one language of your choice, typically one spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it. However, you are free to pick any language you wish to learn.
You can choose an additional favored enemy, as well as an associated language, when you reach 6th level, and again at 14th level. Additionally, this feature’s extra damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level, and to 1d8 at 14th level.
Natural Explorer
1st-level ranger feature
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, urban, or underground. When you make an Intelligence or Willpower 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 learn additional favored terrain types when you reach 6th and 10th level in this class.
Each time you finish a long rest, you can choose to replace one of your current favored terrains with the current terrain you are in.
Fighting Style
2nd-level ranger feature
You adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. You can not take a fighting style option more than once.
Archery
You gain +2 bonus to your attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.
Defense
While you are wearing armor, 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 attribute modifier to the damage of the second attack.
Wild Techniques
2nd-level ranger feature
In your time spent within the wilderness, you have learned wild techniques, tactics and skills that you have had to rely on in order to survive on your own far from civilization.
You gain two wild techniques of your choice. Your technique options are detailed at the end of the class description. When you gain certain ranger levels, you gain additional techniques of your choice, as shown in the Techniques Known column of the Ranger table.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the techniques you know and replace it with another technique that you could learn at that level.
Primal Instincts
3rd-level ranger feature
Your mastery of ranger lore allows you to establish a powerful link to beasts and to the land around you. With this feature you gain the following benefits:
Primeval Sense
You can use an action to attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. For 1 minute, you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 1 mile of you (or within up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain). This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from you. If there are multiple groups of your favored enemies within range, you learn this information for each group.
Any favored enemy within 30 feet of you has a faint outline surrounding it, which is only visible to you. The outline is visible through most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
Primal Mark
You can focus your ire on one foe, increasing the harm you inflict on it. As a bonus action, you designate one creature you can see within 90 feet of you as the target of this feature. You gain the following benefits for the duration, as shown on the Primal Mark table.
You have advantage on any Willpower (Perception) or Willpower (Survival) check you make to find the marked target.
Once per turn, when you hit the marked target with a weapon that you’re proficient with and deal damage, it takes an extra 1d6 damage from the weapon. This damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown on the Primal Mark table.
Primal Mark
| Ranger Level | Damage Increase | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd | 1d6 | 1 hour |
| 10th | 1d8 | 4 hours |
| 16th | 1d10 | 8 hours |
| 20th | 1d12 | 24 hours |
Ranger Archetype
3rd-level ranger feature
You choose an archetype that you strive to emulate: Archer, Hunter, or Scout. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.
| Ranger Archetype | Source |
|---|---|
| Archer | Basic Rules |
| Hunter | Basic Rules |
| Scout | Basic Rules |
| Green Pact Keeper | Legionnaire’s Guide to Cyrodiil |
| Sellsword | Legionnaire’s Guide to Cyrodiil |
Attribute Score Improvement
4th-level ranger feature
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one attribute score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two attribute scores by 1. You can't increase an attribute score above 20 using this feature.
Extra Attack
5th-level ranger feature
You can attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack action on your turn.
Adaptive Hunter
6th-level ranger feature
You have become skilled at hunting a wide variety of enemies. When you learn a new favored enemy, the types you can choose from are expanded to include: Constructs, Dragons, Giants, Monstrosities, and Oozes. You gain all the benefits against this chosen enemy that you normally gain against your favored enemy, including an additional language, and a bonus to damage.
Additionally, after studying and researching a type of creature over the course of a week in your downtime, you can learn one new favored enemy, choosing from the types available to you. You can change the favored enemy you learn as part of this feature by spending another week studying that type of creature.
Primal Defense
7th-level ranger feature
You are able to protect yourself better against the assaults of the creatures you’ve focused on. Whenever the target of your Primal Mark forces you to make a saving throw and whenever you make an attribute check to escape that target's grapple, add 1d6 to your roll.
Land’s Stride
8th-level ranger feature
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.
Skirmisher's Stealth
9th-level ranger feature
You combine speed and stealth in combat to make yourself hard to pin down. You are difficult to detect even if you attack or otherwise take actions that would normally reveal your presence.
At the start of your turn, pick a creature you are hidden from. You remain hidden from that creature during your turn, regardless of your actions or the actions of other creatures. As a bonus action at the end of your turn, you can make an Agility (Stealth) check to Hide from that creature again if you fulfill the conditions needed to Hide. Otherwise, creatures are aware of you at the end of your turn. A creature ignores this effect if the creature has truesight.
Hide in Plain Sight
10th-level ranger feature
You can remain perfectly still for long periods of time to set up ambushes. When you take the Hide action on your turn, creatures that attempt to detect you take a −10 penalty to their Willpower (Perception) checks until the start of your next turn. They gain this penalty only if you haven’t moved during this turn, and you don’t move until the start of your next turn.
If you are still hidden on your next turn, you can continue to remain motionless and gain this benefit.
Nature’s Protection
13th-level ranger feature
Your time spent in the wilds has caused you to be inured to the effects of nature. You have advantage on saving throws against poison and have resistance to poison damage. Additionally, when you make an Intelligence or Willpower check related to poisons, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.
Vanish
14th-level ranger feature
You can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. Also, you can never be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you intended to leave a trail.
Primal Connection
17th-level ranger feature
You become one with nature and gain a nearly supernatural connection to it, unlocking it's knowledge and secrets.
If you spend 1 minute in uninterrupted meditation while outdoors, you gain knowledge of the land within 3 miles of you. In caves and other natural underground settings, the radius is limited to 300 feet. You don't gain this knowledge in areas where nature has been replaced by construction, such as dungeons and towns.
You instantly gain knowledge of up to three facts of your choice about any of the following subjects as they relate to the area:
- terrain and bodies of water
- prevalent plants, minerals, animals, or peoples
- powerful beasts, fey, fiends, elementals, or undead
- influence from other planes of existence
- buildings
For example, you could determine the location of powerful undead in the area, the location of major sources of safe drinking water, and the location of any nearby towns.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Feral Senses
18th-level ranger feature
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 the creature isn't hidden from you and you aren't blinded or deafened.
Foe Slayer
20th-level ranger feature
At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you add your Willpower modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against a favored enemy. You can choose to use the feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.
Ranger Archetypes
The ideal of the ranger in Tamriel has a few classic expressions. The Archer, Hunter, and Scout are detailed below.
Community Creations
Community Creations are submissions from the Discord server.
