When did You multiclass out of Ranger?

[Zuras]

Apropos of the “Why Rangers Suck/How to fix the Ranger” discussion...

If you have played a Ranger, how many levels in did you get?

If you multiclassed, what level did you start, and was it planned from the beginning?

If you stopped playing the character, did you get tired of them or did the campaign end.

In my experience, Rangers are excellent through 5th level, and continue adding strong features till 11th.

I have played a Gloom Stalker to 5th, ten multiclassed into Battle Master Fighter, planned ahead of time to build a Green Arrow style archer using trick arrows. The build has worked very well, working as a powerful striker while maintaining significant utility outside combat.

I also played with a Hunter Ranger from 1st through 11th. They were easily one of the strongest PCs in the campaign, and were effective in most situations. The campaign ended at 11th level, and they were happy with the Hunter abilities but were planning on Multiclassing into Rogue or Fighter after picking up Volley.

I see the natural Ranger MC breakpoints at 3, 5, 9 and 11, but wonder how it has been working out for others in practice.

[mythmonster2]

I played a Hunter Ranger, intending to go single classed. But, as we played, I realized I was often the party's go-to for stealth, so after level 3, I went and picked up a couple levels in Assassin Rogue. I can't remember when, but I eventually switched back to Ranger to get to level 5, then went full Rogue after that. Nothing after level 5 interested me for Ranger. The level 8 hunter abilities were nice, but not worth three levels.

[MagneticKitty]

Apropos of the “Why Rangers Suck/How to fix the Ranger” discussion...

If you have played a Ranger, how many levels in did you get?

If you multiclassed, what level did you start, and was it planned from the beginning?

If you stopped playing the character, did you get tired of them or did the campaign end.

In my experience, Rangers are excellent through 5th level, and continue adding strong features till 11th.

I have played a Gloom Stalker to 5th, ten multiclassed into Battle Master Fighter, planned ahead of time to build a Green Arrow style archer using trick arrows. The build has worked very well, working as a powerful striker while maintaining significant utility outside combat.

I also played with a Hunter Ranger from 1st through 11th. They were easily one of the strongest PCs in the campaign, and were effective in most situations. The campaign ended at 11th level, and they were happy with the Hunter abilities but were planning on Multiclassing into Rogue or Fighter after picking up Volley.

I see the natural Ranger MC breakpoints at 3, 5, 9 and 11, but wonder how it has been working out for others in practice.

I had a beast master revised ranger /rogue. Pure ranger till lv 8, then rogue till I stopped playing the character at lv 14 or so.
Wasn't planned from the beginning, just didn't want any of the later level things, they seemed boring and it didn't feel like I was growing in strength. Felt stagnant. I tend to not play characters longer than a year or two any way.

[swamp_slug]

I played an elven Ranger from level 1 to 7. I retired him from the campaign due to narrative reasons that transpired in game meaning he could not continue with the party, otherwise I am sure I would be playing him now at level 11.

When I retired him he was Ranger (Hunter) 5/ Rogue 2 with the intention of picking going Scout at Rogue 3 and continuing with Rogue from there. The main reason I multiclassed was because level 6 Ranger seems so lacklustre compared to the benefits of a/another level in Rogue. From a mechanical perspective it made sense and from a narrative perspective the campaign at that point hadn't varied too much from his favoured enemy and terrain selections so it felt odd to pick new options from a list with which he had little to no experience.

As a note, my DM does not allow UA so no Revised Ranger with its better Favoured Enemy/Natural Explorer and a character must have 5 levels in its primary class before multiclassing so 6th level was the earliest I could multiclass, not that it bothered me since 4th and 5th level in Ranger are very strong.

[Zigludo]

Any Ranger that is capable of multiclassing at all, can multiclass into Druid, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Monk. The breakpoints I've listed are the points where I think taking literally any one of those five options is more rewarding overall than taking additional Ranger levels, even without careful planning.

Gloom Stalkers, despite being arguably the strongest subclass, shouldn't stay past 5. The 11 feature isn't worth it. The level 15 feature is neat but not worth 9 levels.

Hunters should also probably leave by 5. You might be able to make an argument for going to 8 for multi attack defense and the ASI, but no further.

Horizon Walkers can feel free to go to 11 before leaving, because their level 11 feature is fantastic. About as good as Fighter's second extra attack. And 2d8 damage on a bonus action. Totally worth. The level 15 feature may look attractive but you're better off taking 5 in Rogue and grabbing Uncanny Dodge instead.

Funnily, Beast Masters can actually justify going all the way to 15 in order to pick up Share Spells and linearly increasing their companion's HP, before leaving to pick up spells which are actually good for Share Spells (the Ranger doesn't really have any.) Eldritch Knight is really nice by virtue of providing Shield which can make your buddy much more survivable which is his main issue. On the downside, you played 15 levels of Beast Master Ranger, and the experience was probably awkward.

In addition, all subclasses other than the Beast Master work very well as a 4 or 5 level dip, depending on whether or not you already have Extra Attack.

Revised Ranger is a much stronger class than the PHB Ranger, but I think all of the statements made here are also true about RR; it's frontloaded to a roughly equal degree, if not more so. I can't think of any situation where one would want to go to Ranger 20. RR Beast Master is its own subclass though so it may be a different story.

[Zuras]

Any Ranger that is capable of multiclassing at all, can multiclass into Druid, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Monk. The breakpoints I've listed are the points where I think taking literally any one of those five options is strictly more rewarding than taking additional Ranger levels.



You seem really down on Ranger spells. The 3rd level options aren’t as good as Pass Without Trace, Spike Growth and Healing Spirit at 2nd, but they are some decent ones in there. Conjure Animals is great (though situational by 9th level) and Lightning Arrow is decent in practice thanks to its action economy as a bonus action.

If you want to lean in to the martial side, I agree that 5th level is a good place to stop, but the higher level Ranger spells provide definite value if you continue.

[NaughtyTiger]

i play rangers with outside dips...

ranger 1, rogue 2, ranger 3-6 (dead)
ranger 1-3, cleric 4-6, ranger 8-9, beastmaster needed aid + warding bond.

[Zigludo]

You seem really down on Ranger spells.

I don't mean to. They're good spells. It's just that, with the exception of maybe Conjure Volley, Lightning Arrow and Steel Wind Strike, you can get all of the good ones with Druid levels. Yeah, the Ranger can cast all of those spells at level 9. But the Druid5/Ranger5 can cast all of them at level 10, and he has more slots to cast them with, and he has a bigger /better spell list, and he can prepare his spells every day, and he has 3 cantrips, and he can ritual cast, and he can turn into animals, and he has subclass features which quite possibly further augment his magical abilities... On the bright side, the Ranger gets Lightning Arrow. Hmm.

Spellcasting progression is probably the aspect which makes the Ranger's late game shortcomings most apparent, actually. Say you compare Hunter5/Rogue6 to Hunter11. "Well, yes," you might say, "If we look at the numbers, the rogue multiclass has better at-will / short rest / martial capabilities. But, hey, the mono Ranger does have better spellcasting, the rogue multi is just more specialized." Not so if we compare Hunter11 against Hunter5/Druid6. The Druid multi has much better spellcasting. (Except for Lightning Arrow, okay.) And in terms of martial ability? They're really about the same. The edges the Hunter gets from his Ranger levels (5 hit points, Multi-Attack Defense and Volley) don't come close to making up for the advantages in casting that the Druid multi gets. (If you happen to choose Moon Druid, the Druid multi probably has better martial abilities than the mono Ranger. Giant Elks with extra attack are scary.)

These differences only get more pronounced past level 11 as the Druid's spellcasting continues to improve and the Hunter's martial abilities don't keep pace, in fact hardly improve at all. (Again, a Moon Druid is also probably outpacing the Ranger in both categories, but I hesitate to draw direct comparisons to that subclass since its lower level is so high in the first place.)

EDIT: Due to your post I've amended my wording to "more rewarding overall" instead of "strictly better". Obviously a Ranger 11 is going to have better spellcasting than a Ranger5/Rogue6.

Unless that Rogue is an arcane trickster, in which case that might be kind of up for debate...

[Aaron Underhand]

I have a horizon walker 5 that I plan to go cleric 15 now. At 20th you have 8th level spells and two attacks... My sort of Gish...

[Crgaston]

Apropos of the “Why Rangers Suck/How to fix the Ranger” discussion...

Snip

I see the natural Ranger MC breakpoints at 3, 5, 9 and 11, but wonder how it has been working out for others in practice.

I think your analysis is pretty accurate.

I'm currently running an unrevised Gloomstalker 7/ Scout Rogue 3 as one of two primaries in an ongoing campaign (2 groups, same world, different but sometimes intersecting storylines).

I went GS5, then 2 levels of Rogue for Cunning action, then 2 more of GS for the Wis saves (which is an excellent reason to stay past 5,, BTW), and then another Rogue level for Scout Archetype, more Expertise and another Sneak attack die. Assassin synergizes A LOT better for DPR, but this guy is definitely more of a Scout from an RP standpoint.

My intent, assuming he survives, is to alternate for the next few levels for back-to-back Feats, Uncanny Dodge, and maybe 3rd level slots. Then probably more Rogue, maybe capping off with some Shepherd Druid if we make it that far, primarily for the Auras.

EDIT:

While our main campaign was on hiatus recently, I DM'ed a L10 mini-adventure, and based on seeing how effective my guy had been, two of my tablemates independently built Rangers for it. A halfling Horizon Walker and a Vuman GS5/ Swords Bard (!) 5.

Both of them proved quite effective as well.

[mephiztopheleze]

I think the last actual Ranger I played was 2ed......

[Dalebert]

My gloomstalker 5 / rogue 6 (eventually 15) is a BEAST. He has elven accuracy and sharpshooter. He gets three attacks and an extra d8 on the first round and two attacks thereafter. If he has adv, which is frequent (invisibility, familiar, hiding), he can +10 with sharpshooter no problem. He has +2 from archery fighting style. He has an ild rune bow that adds another d6 of dmg to each hit. He has a +2 bow for when he really wants to ensure he lands a sharpshooter shot. He frequently takes out very powerful monsters in the first round.

[ZorroGames]

Now that my Female (my only) Chultan Archaeologist turned Ranger has reached level 5 I plan to MC as a Cleric (given her roots are Port Nyanzaru almost certainly Tymora as a (TBD but likely) Life or Nature Cleric) for at least 5 levels, maybe 15 should that miracle happen.

As my only Variant Human character (also) I am also debating about a tri-class with Rogue (Assassin) for the Tier 4 end game - again IF that happens.

[Mercurias]

I'm planning on taking five levels of Hunter Ranger and then swapping to Land Druid, basically making a general woodland Ranger/Caster sort.

[ImproperJustice]

I had a Ranger 6 / Druid 6
Gloomstalker / Circle of Underdark

Overall was a very jack of all trades versatile warrior / caster / stealth and survival expert.

Never lacked for ways to contribute.

Outside of that our party has two Revised Beastmasters, both level 12.

They seem capable and powerful, and their pets become monstrous once they begin grabbing asis / feats.
Wind Wall and conjure animals see a lot of use.

[TheCleverGuy]

Apropos of the “Why Rangers Suck/How to fix the Ranger” discussion...

If you have played a Ranger, how many levels in did you get?

If you multiclassed, what level did you start, and was it planned from the beginning?

If you stopped playing the character, did you get tired of them or did the campaign end?

I'm playing a Gloom Stalker Ranger 5/Assassin Rogue 3 right now. Started with Ranger and switched to Rogue after level 5. Knowing my campaign is only supposed to reach level 10 or so, all the Ranger abilities after 5 just seemed lackluster at best. Proficiency in WIS saves from Gloom Stalker at 7 was the only thing I felt like I was giving up, and the Rogue levels for Stealth expertise fit my character better anyway.

[Asmotherion]

Never played one.

if i ever would it would be for purelly thematic reasons and not optimisation ones. Perhaps some character with an animal companion (or multiple) or a hunter of some creature type.

But overall the class is lamely unbalanced.