Interesting Ranger setups

[DangitRita]

I'm looking to make a fun Ranger with versatility and an interesting angle.

I'm thinking about Magic Initiate w/Find Familiar and two cantrips for versatility and fun. Taking Hunter's Mark as I should and I'm not sure about other Ranger Spells. He's currently a monk using a glaive but I will be switching it to Ranger for sure because I already have a monk and I want a new experience.

For background, I'm DMing and I added the Monk so they could fight more difficult encounters that need 4 people and didn't care about the Monk at first. It was just there for added strength. I now like and want to play the character as a Ranger.

I'd appreciate any fun builds for Ranger! Thank you so much.

[AttilatheYeon]

Do you have access to Xanathar's guide? If so Hill Dwarf Gloomstalker melee. At level 4 grab drawven fortitude so you can heal on a dodge action. You'll prob go first or close with a bonus to initiative from GS. You get an extra attack as on the first round, so you'll eventually have 3 attacks. Either use entangling strike or if GWM pile on damage with HM. When you get below half HPs use the dodge action to heal yourself. Makes you damn near unkillable without needing a healer.

[DangitRita]

That sounds amazing but I'm currently a Tiefling and I decided I'm not going to change race even though i'm changing class.

[CTurbo]

What are your stats and level? So you're taking a current character who is a Monk and turning it into a Ranger? Like a redo?

[DangitRita]

Level 3. 12 STR, 18 DEX, 14 CON, 12 INT, 15 WIS, 8 CHA.

He's currently a Variant Tiefling Monk who JUST hit level 3. I planned to take Sun Soul Monk for flavor and not much else but quickly realized I wasn't treating him as an NPC for the players as I initially planned but as an actual character for me. I was controlling him as hired muscle the first few sessions but developed a liking for the voice, personality, character development, etc. he was developing and decided I wanted it as MY character. In case this party was ever moved into another campaign or something with a different DM as that has happened before with this group of freinds. I have already played a Monk so I want to change him from a Monk to a Ranger because their stats are, or can be similar.

Still Variant Teifling, still the above stats, and possibly the same weapons (re-flavored spear and short bow) and items. I'm not going to just redo the character because i'm the DM and try to roll better stats, etc. Not fair. I asked the players and they said they were ok with a class change and didn't feel I was doing any sort of shady nonsense as the DM here. I'm trying to go through my options as a Ranger now to make a fun, interesting and versatile character that will fit into the party.

I have practiced the separation of player and DM meta knowledge and even with the fancy scouting abilities Rangers get, will be playing him IC at all times. Ideally not ever having him know more than the players from a technical standpoint.