DM advice - keeping a ranger useful

[Yora]

I think I played far more rangers than anything else and while I love the concept, I never felt like actually contributing much to the party, except as a second class fighter with light armor.
Now I am preparing a campaign focused on barbarians, fighters, rangers, and rogues, and I would like to either tweak rangers a bit or create more situations in which the ranger is given lots of opportunities at ranging. It's going to be PF, but everything that applies to D&D should apply here as well.
The only outstanding ranger ability I can think of is tracking. Which is nice in theory, but in practice it's a lot of dice rolling that determines if you arrive at your destination or a different location, and how long it takes to get there. The other players are not involved at all, and even for the ranger player, it's just rolling without making any descisions. Even he doesn't really have any meaningful influence to how the campaign progresses, except when putting skill points in survival when he gains a new level.

In PF, a ranger can be a good archer. But a fighter can be a better one. A ranger also has a good amount of skills, but a rogue has more. A barbarian is likely to start with a good strength and can increase it with his rage (and in PF can increase it significantly more with the Strength surge rage power), which allows him to lift, throw, and break things and make extensive use of the environment in very cool ways.

I can't think of any situation in which a party would say "if we could have one more member, it would be really good to have a ranger". And in a wilderness campaing, a ranger should be the very first spot to fill, before thinking of any other class. Yet I don't really see what for.

[W3bDragon]

In general, the usefulness of a ranger beyond his combat ability will usually revolve around skill checks. However, skill checks need not be boring. For example, when it comes to tracking, you can give the ranger much more information about his environment. He could determine the size and composition of the tracked party. How long since they've passed there, etc. Also, remember that the ranger doesn't need to wait for Swift Tracker before he begins tracking at full speed. He can still do so before that with a -5.

The same can be said for Knowledge: Geography and Nature. Give the ranger more insight when using these knowledges to really make him feel indispensable outdoors.

He can also make a fine healer, given a wand of Cure Light/Moderate/Serious Wounds, as he can use it without failure.

As for his combat ability, archery seems best suited to a ranger in the party makeup you suggest, and it doesn't really matter that a fighter CAN be a better archer, because he probably won't be, leaving the ranger as the only archer, and a damn decent one at that.

Overall, he's a great support character. He's the ranged guy to support the melee, he's the knowledgeable guy to support the party leader, he's the other stealthy guy to support the rogue, he's the healer to support the barbarian, and with his hit dice his probable focus on dex, he's not squishy either.

[ArcturusV]

Well, I'd say it's one schtick is really the Favored Enemy, the "nice thing" it gets to have over other classes. I think if you included some of the rules for Leviathan Hunters on Trophies, that'd be a nice thing to do. Plus kind of flavorful that the Ranger who has a Hunter's Horn made of a Pit Fiend's severed horn might be useful to him.

But this doesn't make them a particularly favored class for wilderness adventuring. Not unless their favored enemy type is something you're very likely to be adventuring against in the wilderness in question. But I think it's a way to differentiate them from Druid and Fighter, and it might be the right hook to go for.

To make them "Wilderness Adventure" Relevant as well you might want to tweak that Favored Enemy thing to be Favored Location. So they can pick a reason like "Norwood, the grand forest of the Timmerman Peninsula", get to apply favored enemy bonuses to anything they oppose in that area instead. Least then it applies a bit more as a "Champion of the Wilderness" like a ranger supposedly is (thus equatable to the Paladin's Champion of Divine Good), than a random stalker obsessing over a particular creature type.

[VanIsleKnight]

Rangers are plenty useful, especially out in the wilds, they're not even my favourite class and I have a healthy level of respect for them. This may partially be due to being in a Kingmaker campaign at the moment, which is almost entirely set in the wilderness at early levels. Not sure about later levels yet, haven't gotten past Year 1 of running our kingdom yet.

-Fighters get abysmal skill points and skills and are almost rubbish out of combat
-Rogues are admittedly awesome out of combat but a little squishy and less useful in combat if they can't get their sneak attack off
-Barbarians are admittedly tough and intimidating to fight and semi-decent out of combat
-Rangers I feel are a nice in-between balance of being decent in and out of combat



Same hit die as fighter
2nd highest skill points per level for a class
Martial weapons
Medium armor and shields (except tower)
Full BAB progression
Fair saves
Decent skill list, especially for wilderness.
A +2/4/6/8/10 buff for bluff, perception, sense motive, atk/dmg, etc against a predominant enemy (great if lots of humans, etc)
Wild empathy is useful for campaigns with a fair amount of animals, like a wilderness one because most people can't "diplomancer" a wild animal. Admittedly less useful if your group are hack&slashers
Combat Style Feats The ranger's expertise manifests in the form of bonus feats at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level. He can choose feats from his selected combat style, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites.
Free Endurance so he can sleep in medium armor without taking penalties. Useful if your group actually keeps track of that since it's important during the night/sleep mode.
Favoured Terrain for a +2/4/6/8 bonus to initiative, perception, stealth, and can't be tracked in a predominant terrain. Again, useful in predominantly nature setting campaigns where a lot of time is spent in woods, hills, etc. Yes this perception bonus stacks with Favoured Enemy bonus. No the enemy humans/elves/whatever aren't going to easily sneak up on the party at night or ambush them.
Animal companion, or a boost to skills/dmg against humans for your party within 30 feet?
Divine spellcasting, so screw arcane spell failure chance, and some of those ranger spells are handy. Especially if you don't have a wizard in the party who knows everything.
Woodland Stride is only as good or effective as the campaign/DM makes it to be. Personally I don't know why there -wouldn't- be a crap ton of difficult terrain all over the place in the wilds. Because it's wild.
Skirmisher Archetype is pretty cool if you don't want your ranger to use spells, and personally I like the Hunter's Tricks better than the spells rangers get Just Because.
Track is also as useful as the DM wants it to be or makes it out to be. Sure, there's a bunch of tracks on the ground, which ones are the ones the party wants to follow? How fresh are they? Go into more detail if you want, Aragorn was able to tell a short-story about Merry and Pippin just from looking at the ground. Were the tracks made by men or women? High quality military boots, or rugged hide shoes? Bare feet? Did someone have a limp, or carrying/dragging something behind them? They broke out into a run here, oh look, blood, they were attacked by something. Etc.
The other ranger Archetypes are worth looking into, as well as the other combat styles.

[Seharvepernfan]

I think rangers make the best archers, because they combine martial proficiency/full bab/decent wis/stealth and perception skills in a single class. They also get bonus archery feats, if they choose to. I think rangers make the best 6th person in an adventuring party, after the normal 4 and a bard.

[limejuicepowder]

I don't know what books you have access to, but a ranger's spells become quite potent if they at least get spell compendium. Remember that as long as a spell is on the list, the character can auto-use an item of that spell, even if they can't cast it yet. It's very cheap to stock up on some ranger-spell wands, and that gives you a pretty big boost - arrow mind is awesome for archers, and lay of land can help big time with the "master of wilderness" theme. There are tons of other good buffs and effects as well.

[Coidzor]

I can't think of any situation in which a party would say "if we could have one more member, it would be really good to have a ranger". And in a wilderness campaing, a ranger should be the very first spot to fill, before thinking of any other class. Yet I don't really see what for.

Well, the right kind of ranger gets you two decent fighter-types for one character slot or an earlyish (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/ranger/archetypes/paizo---ranger-archetypes/sable-company-marine) source of constant natural flight. Granted, they really shouldn't have the -3 druid level thing anyway.

You're right about tracking being subpar. I recall a quote about it being railroading disguised as a class feature and I'm inclined to agree in terms of general principles. The only thing that sets him apart really is his gimped casting or the substitutes for it. Mystic Ranger in 3.5 may or may not actually help due to the memetic popularity of making it into lightning warrior lite.

[OverdrivePrime]

Since 2nd Edition, Rangers have always been my 'bumper sticker' class. As in "my other character is a ranger" - the character I preferred to imagine myself as, but rarely played because the mechanics didn't support the idea. Pathfinder has gone a long way to change that.

It used to be that a ranger was only situationally useful. He'd be a less useful amalgam of fighter and rogue 80% of the time, but then 20% of the time he'd just completely dominate a battle against a certain foe. Unfortunately at low-to-mid play levels, those were foes that anyone else could have handled.

Now with the Guide archetype, the ranger can *always* matter. He's now the guy you send after the big boss, while the barbarian mops up mobs.

I do still think that the ranger is always going to be the class that requires more collaboration and coordination with the DM, because unlike any other character, a good ranger build is *highly* campaign dependent.

[Yora]

I just had the idea that a ranger would be a perfect candidate to be a master of setting up traps. Putting up tripwires, concealed spikes, collapsing caves, and stuff like that. That would be something were everyone would be looking at the ranger first.
It's generally not so useful because most of the time PCs enter a dungeon to visit each enemy in their rooms, but I am thinking more of something where enemies are observed for hours or days and there is usually a lot of planning and preparation before getting into a violent confrontation. In such a campaign, traps would be extremely useful.

But I am not aware of any particular rules or character options for such things. Does anyone know of places to look for them?

[ArcturusV]

Well, there's Craft-Trapmaking in 3.5. And I've used it to good effect before. Though I've heard there is a Trapsmith class or ACF set I've never seen it (Or I forgot it after I read it) so I've never used it.

Of course there are Druid spells which are also trap based that, if they aren't on the Ranger List in PF should be. Spike Stones, Snare, those Fire Acorns, etc.

Not RAW, but a logical interpretation is that if you were Trapping you should be able to use your Stealth skill (I seem to recall that Hide, Move Silently, got condensed into one) to hide a trap for later use. Your Tracking Knowledge should help you actually place a trap somewhere where it's liable to go off on your intended target, recognizing trails and such.

[OverdrivePrime]

I just had the idea that a ranger would be a perfect candidate to be a master of setting up traps. Putting up tripwires, concealed spikes, collapsing caves, and stuff like that. That would be something were everyone would be looking at the ranger first.
It's generally not so useful because most of the time PCs enter a dungeon to visit each enemy in their rooms, but I am thinking more of something where enemies are observed for hours or days and there is usually a lot of planning and preparation before getting into a violent confrontation. In such a campaign, traps would be extremely useful.

But I am not aware of any particular rules or character options for such things. Does anyone know of places to look for them?

Ka-LINK! (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/ranger/archetypes/paizo---ranger-archetypes/trapper)
Pathfinder's Trapper archetype has got your back.

A trapper is a ranger who focuses exclusively on traps, rather than learning conventional magic.

[Yora]

I see... But those seem to be magic glyphs instead of hunting traps. Thanks, though.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The Swift Hunter feat that basically allows you to gestalt Ranger and the very-similar Scout is very helpful as well.