What is the *official * d&d community fix to the ranger?

[CyberThread]

what is the general agreed on bits by the community that is the fix to the ranger?

[Novawurmson]

Ranger is generally considered "fixed" to begin with - it's tier 4 (tier 3 for wildshape variant ranger). Tier 4 means that it can do its job well, but not too many other things on the side.

So while it's not game-breakingly powerful, it's a fine choice for most campaigns.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Wildshape Mystic Ranger (with Sword of the Arcane Order) AKA Lighting Warrior lite, would be my "official fix" for the ranger.

On a more serious note, Ranger is perfectly fine as it is, perhaps giving them full Animal Companion progression (and nerfing druids's AC for that matter).

[Novawurmson]

I guess I'd recommend giving the Ranger d10 HD like PF, if we're making suggestions.

Make sure to check Spell Compendium for better Ranger spells.

[Humble Master]

I generally find that Ranger is fine as it is. As said above Spell Compendium offers some great Ranger spells which defiantly makes the class more powerful. The one thing about Ranger that is bad is Favored Enemy because it's usefulness is so limited.
Other than that Ranger is good as is.

[mabriss lethe]

I'd open up Battle Blessing for the Ranger. Or, heck, to all "half caster" classes instead of Paladin only, or incorporate it as an extra feature of half casters in general. Sure, you only get 4th level spells, but you can drop spells and fight at the same time.

[Big Fau]

Replace FE with Skirmish, and increase their spell progression to mimic the Duskblade's. New spells would be drawn from the Cleric and Druid lists (possibly with a few domain spells included).

[Barsoom]

I always found it surreal that a ranger could have been brought up to fight Dragons all his life (thus gaining bonuses against them) yet not know diddly squat about Dragons (cause Knowledge: Arcana isn't a class skill).

My one and only fix for the Ranger is: you can use Knowledge: Nature against your favored enemies regardless of their type. Otherwise, the ranger is fine.

[ngilop]

giving rangers full animal companion progresion

increasing combat styles ( why do they just end at 11th?)

and increasing favored enemy are what iw ould considerng the 'generally agreed to' fixes.


but that is just my opinion and experiences on what ranger 'fixes' ive seen.

[Waker]

I always found it surreal that a ranger could have been brought up to fight Dragons all his life (thus gaining bonuses against them) yet not know diddly squat about Dragons (cause Knowledge: Arcana isn't a class skill).

My one and only fix for the Ranger is: you can use Knowledge: Nature against your favored enemies regardless of their type. Otherwise, the ranger is fine.

The way I run it is that if a Ranger has a Favored Enemy they gain access to the Knowledge skill associated with them. So having a Dragon as a FE would add Knowledge Arcana to the skill list.

[CyberThread]

I don't need no stickin knowledge check to know it had two wings, and brath fire. It be a stink'in dragon, now me arrow gonna shoot right under the wings, and get that here damgae. We be callin it, I hatcha so much damage.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Two things for the FE dragons but no know arcana thing:

First, just because a skill isn't a class skill doesn't mean you can never have ranks in it. A 4th level ranger with 3.5 ranks in know arcane has a chance of correctly identifying a creature of up to 13 HD as "some kind of dragon."

Second, there seems to be a widespread assumption that a ranger with a particular favored enemy uses the specialized tricks and tactics he's learned to combat those creatures only when he's actually facing them. I think it warrants consideration that he, perhaps, uses those same tricks and tactics against -all- foes and that if he happens to be facing something that isn't a member of his FE group that they simply don't have a noteable impact on how well he fights that creature.

[Cheiromancer]

My one and only fix for the Ranger is: you can use Knowledge: Nature against your favored enemies regardless of their type. Otherwise, the ranger is fine.

I like this. It makes Knowledge Devotion quite cost effective, too.

[Yora]

I fall in line with the people saying that common community conscensus is, that ranger does not need any fixing.

[Dark.Revenant]

Ranger is slightly underpowered but doesn't need "fixing" any more than other martial classes.

In my campaign, though, magic is removed (replaced with psionics). For Paladin, Ranger, Inquisitor, and Bard I opted not to give them manifesting but instead give them martial adept progression (Crusader, Warblade, Swordsage, and Swordsage respectively) with customized discipline lists. I added archetypes to the other martial classes to compensate, but these four classes have better progression than any archetype-driven initiator levels.

Turns out that Tome of Battle + Ranger makes an interesting and effective mix. The style feats really come into their own when the Ranger has access to stuff like Iron Heart and Tiger Claw, and Shadow Hand is also interesting to play with. If you do this, then you should also patch ToB with something that helps with ranged attacks, such as making the maneuvers and stances apply to ranged attacks if physically possible.

[Yora]

I play Pathfinder, and I replaced spellcasting with the Skirmisher archetype.
Though I think for D&D, replacing spellcasting with bonus feats works just as well.

[TuggyNE]

I wouldn't say the ranger needs no fixing, quite, but its ACFs tend to make it hold up more or less passably. So it only really needs a bit of polish and perhaps some system-wide boosts to archery.


Though I think for D&D, replacing spellcasting with bonus feats works just as well.

The ACF for that tends to be somewhat suboptimal, from what I've heard, especially because it takes out wand usage.

[EyethatBinds]

My only fix is to give the Ranger a Druid level -4 instead of half for his animal companion. No other fixes really needed. It's a strong class in 3.5.

The less said of 3.0 ranger the better.

[Gavinfoxx]

Are you asking for this?

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165522

[lordzya]

I just finished a homebrew project that was intended to bring up the weaker core classes. I did pretty extensive research on what people thought and what changes they had attempted already before sitting down to create my own versions, so I think they pretty accurately reflect what the community thinks. I revised bard, paladin, monk, rouge, fighter and ranger. I have my paladin and ranger ones on the the forums now (links in my signature).

[Alienist]

Ranger is slightly underpowered but doesn't need "fixing" any more than other martial classes.

In my campaign, though, magic is removed (replaced with psionics). For Paladin, Ranger, Inquisitor, and Bard I opted not to give them manifesting but instead give them martial adept progression (Crusader, Warblade, Swordsage, and Swordsage respectively) with customized discipline lists. I added archetypes to the other martial classes to compensate, but these four classes have better progression than any archetype-driven initiator levels.

Turns out that Tome of Battle + Ranger makes an interesting and effective mix. The style feats really come into their own when the Ranger has access to stuff like Iron Heart and Tiger Claw, and Shadow Hand is also interesting to play with. If you do this, then you should also patch ToB with something that helps with ranged attacks, such as making the maneuvers and stances apply to ranged attacks if physically possible.

I despise the Tomb of Battle with the burning passion of a thousand suns*, but that actually sounds quite interesting.**

*Actually, I don't hate ToB, how could I? I play 4th ed after all, for which it was the warm-up exercise.

**Kidding aside, that does actually sound really interesting.

I'd give the Ranger d12 hit points to bring it into line with the barbarian, warblade, knight et al (heck there's probably some katana-weenie version of the samurai out there with d12s)

[Glimbur]

Swift Hunter, a feat from... Complete Scoundrel? It lets you stack Ranger and Scout for skirmish and FE. Throws some extra damage to the ranger, which helps it be more significant in combat. You'll probably want to trade out your animal companion because it will be even further behind due to scout levels.

Also, Spell Compendium has better ranger spells.