My Ranger hates Aragorn

[Ingolfr_V]

For other folks who ended up playing rangers, what have you done to make them more than just stock 'Aragorn' or 'Robin Hood' characters, and what clever little tricks have you had them do to make them interesting for their class? Wizards can use their spells in all sorts of clever, alternate ways, but where have we pushed the boundaries on ranger traits?

[pffh]

In my group we currently have a hairy, paranoid, hallucinating, french, dual weilding tiefling ranger with a boar (it's called monsoir baekon) dressed in a silk scarf. That's about as far away from aragorn and robin hood as you can get.

[Kol Korran]

i can only speak about my players. as i recall three have played a ranger before:
1) "no Speak" was the nickname for a ranger who just didn't speak. he communicated the entire game with grunts, humms, and so on. he was mostly very slow and methodical, something the player explained the ranger took from living in the wild so much. the guy was sort of like a bear in his approach to stuff- not easely aroused, but when he was- all hell broke loose.

2) "the archer" this guy took a monk's outlook on archery- a spiritual pursuit. the entire "the arrow and the target" philosophy and so on. he was a bit one dimensional, very deadly with the bow, but neutral in most his ways, so no robin hood. somewhat of a legolas though...

3) Crazy Psycho ranger- think Belkar. this guy was a sadistic ranger to the core, always seekingthe next kill, relishing in blood, tracking and hunting his foes. he took some weird weapons for his two weapons fighting trait... i think one was a kophesh? don't really remember.

hope this helped.
Kol.

[Hallavast]

Well, the obvious reply is "rangers get spells, too". Not to mention their animal companions and animal skills/spells. Playing these themes up makes for a different style of play. Kind of like a Beastmaster angle on it.

For kicks, you could play him on the opposite side of the alignment coin. Have him take on a NE outlook. Maybe he could have worked for slavers in the past as a bounty hunter, or maybe he's got a Hemet Nessingwary "Great White Hunter" chip on his shoulder.

[BobVosh]

In my group we currently have a hairy, paranoid, hallucinating, french, dual weilding tiefling ranger with a boar (it's called monsoir baekon) dressed in a silk scarf. That's about as far away from aragorn and robin hood as you can get.

I'm almost scared to ask this...does he wear more than the silk scarf? He seems like he could go either way with that...

Aragorn and Robin Hood cared more for the city than the woods. Go nature and you aren't like them. Or did you mean mechanically?

[mikej]

You forgot Drizzt Do'Urden.

I like Rangers but they're very easy to fall into cliche stereotypes.

[Human Paragon 3]

I have a ranger (built, not played yet) called Butch Tracker, who is a CE type that thinks he is morally superior to all other men. He has sworn an oath never to kill, so instead he takes limbs so that the enemy will no longer be a threat. Of course, this will often lead to their deaths, or worse, but that's not my problem.

Build-wise I did a ranger multi-classed with swordsage and took all the feats and manuevers that imply crippling strikes. RP wise, he's a humungous a-hole who smiles grimly as he hacks away arms and legs from helpless people.

[OverdrivePrime]

My favorite ranger is the elite warrior of his forest, trained and commissioned by the fey to seek out and destroy that which threatens the natural order. I worked with my DM to homebrew a large sword fighting tree for weapon style as I don't have much love for TWF, and I don't use bows that often, preferring to mix it up in hand to hand.

I've redone him a couple times, my favorite version goes Barbarian 1, Druid 4, Homebrewed prestige ranger x.

Basically, he's a heroic adventurer, taken in and raised by fey. He works with other adventurers on his quests, but he owes his allegiance to the fey and his home forest, rather than to humanity.

Sadly, the "Demon Wars" books by Bob Salvatore feature a ranger that is shockingly similar to my dude. I was there first though! And probably a thousand other dudes, but I hate looking like I ripped off a book character.

[Hallavast]

Build-wise I did a ranger multi-classed with swordsage and took all the feats and manuevers that imply crippling strikes. . . .

I've also played a ranger swordsage build. It meshes pretty well and is a nice set-up for horizon walker.

[dsmiles]

Played several rangers over the years. The first was the typical 1e Half-Elf Ranger (stereotypical for 1e). The best was a short, human ranger with a scythe and a Napoleon Complex (plus favored enemy: giants). He would have fit in well in a game of 40K...he was that grim and dark and full of hate.

[Swordgleam]

My current party's ranger hates gods. That's really her main thing. She's all nature-y (except when she constantly fumbles nature checks, but that's hardly part of the concept) and has trouble talking with people and all that, but she really hates gods.

[arguskos]

A player of mine is currently running a Mystic Ranger "deviant hunter". Basically, he's a member of an organization that tracks down and kills unlicensed and unnatural magic users, such as cultists, worshippers of evil gods, etc.

So far, he's doing a pretty good job of playing a LE "the ends justify the means" sorta character.

[SolkaTruesilver]

In my group we currently have a hairy, paranoid, hallucinating, french, dual weilding tiefling ranger with a boar (it's called monsoir baekon) dressed in a silk scarf. That's about as far away from aragorn and robin hood as you can get.

Couldn't you have asked somebody who can speak french for proper french name/grammar?

[Bayar]

Played a wildshape variant ranger once. Neither Aragorn nor Robin Hood turned into a bear and mauled someone.

[Flickerdart]

The best was a short, human ranger with a scythe and a Napoleon Complex (plus favored enemy: giants). He would have fit in well in a game of 40K...he was that grim and dark and full of hate.

Don Quixote?

[Dr.Epic]

but where have we pushed the boundaries on ranger traits?

I once made a barbarian/ranger who duel-wielded battle axes and worshipped a silver goblet that he referred to as "Puc the Cup."

Also, what about our sexy shoeless god of war?

[Eldariel]

Even the PHB suggests many auxillary roles for the class; Hunters (of meat or man) are archetypal Rangers (and I don't think any of the given examples fall under that role), you can play a Ranger as a nature mage of sorts and they make nice Barbarian-proxies too. Just a bit more knowledgable about their surroundings.

[Starbuck_II]

Played a wildshape variant ranger once. Neither Aragorn nor Robin Hood turned into a bear and mauled someone.

Well, there was a fanfic or two for Robin Hood....

[Soranar]

I used to play a wildshaped ranger , kinda makes you related to Beorn instead of Aragorn

[Dire Moose]

On a slightly more goofy side, a ranger/barbarian I created (see my current avatar for his appearance) had his entire family killed by a rampaging moose and has since sworn revenge on the entire moose population, vowing to hunt them to extinction. He's turned out quite insane, to the point where the sight of a moose will automatically trigger his barbarian rage and cause him to stop whatever he was previously doing in order to destroy the moose.

And yes, that helmet has moose antlers instead of horns. Getting through doors can be a bit of a challenge.

[dsmiles]

Don Quixote?

More like a space marine's mini-me...

CLEANSE!! PURGE!! KILL!!

@Dire Moose: My sister was bitten by a moose once...

[9mm]

when I do rangers I tend to be fall into the Gatekeeper/greensinger archetype; "Nature will be allowed to run it's course, WITHOUT INTERFERENCE."

[dsmiles]

when I do rangers I tend to be fall into the Gatekeeper/greensinger archetype; "Nature will be allowed to run it's course, WITHOUT INTERFERENCE."

I play more of the survivalist-type ranger. Lots of firepower, lives off the land in a remote area. Rangers aren't all tree-hugging dirt worshippers, some are more like the SOF Teams of the DnD world.

[shaddy_24]

My 4e dwarf ranger spent several years as a scout in the dwarf military. Large amounts of time away from the cities and exploring dark tunnels and the surface resulted in him being somewhat of a black sheep in dwarf society, and he feels out of place there. He's much more open then most dwarves in this world, and finds the main dwarf religion a little unusual. He uses a crossbow, and activally shuns melee combat, again unlike most dwarves. He also has a very pragmatic outlook on combat, and tends to be ready to run at any time.

[randomhero00]

I play him slightly crazy, like outgoing, good natured one minuted, psycho killer god of war the next. He's got a bit of a split personality, one a predator, one a friendly social person.

One recent session the group was saving an NPC by fake buying him from his slaver kidnappers as a non violent solution. My ranger was going along with the plan one minute, then just as the gold was about to be exchanged his conscience flipped out and he said, "buy this" and shot their leader full of arrows. As soon as the fight was over he went back to his cheery side and was skipping around singing, let freedom reign! To the annoyance of the (in character) party members.

[John Campbell]

My current 3.5/Pathfinder character is a Ranger - a half-orc who was raised by his presumptive father's people (unfortunate implications are go!), a clan of orcish horse-nomads. He's uncivilized, hair-trigger violent, illiterate, has been known to engage in ritual cannibalism (or occasionally just because food is short), and is contemptuous of short-tooth folk, the weak, people who walk rather than ride, people who live in settlements, and particularly people who grub in the dirt for their food. And while he's not really a bad person, his cultural upbringing taught him that killing such people and taking their stuff isn't wrong... putting them out of their miserable existence is kind of doing them a favor, when you think about it.

He rides a dire wolf (animal companion), ditched his spellcasting for practically every useful archery and mounted combat feat in the book, dipped Barbarian just for the rage (because playing a half-orc without rage is just Wrong), and has favored enemy (orc) because being really good at kicking the crap out of your peers is a valuable social skill for the upwardly mobile in his tribe.

Aragorn would attack me on sight.

[pffh]

Couldn't you have asked somebody who can speak french for proper french name/grammar?

The person playing him speaks french (and so do two other people in the group) the name is a joke.

[deuxhero]

Wildshape ranger+MoMF is far an away from the two.

[Mordokai]

Well, I made this female elf ranger for my 4E game. For nothing else than pure kicks, I choose the Born under the bad sign background and as a result, she has ashen gray skin. She and her parents started travelling the multiverse when she was very young and her parents were killed on a plane of Elemental Chaos and she was saved by a devotee of a Traveler. He lead her back to material plane, where she took up worshiping Traveler herself. She traveled for some years, got some levels under her belt and then she decided she'd like to see other planes again. She found herself a party and they set a course for Shadowfell. After some time, the party leader(fighter) put on his real face and when she wouldn't put out for him, he raped her. After that, she was left in Shadowfell to die. She found her way back and killed all of them.

As if happens, rape carries consequences. This one came in form of undesired pregnancy and she decided to keep the child. She also got a boon from Traveler himself, by DM fiat. Also, the father is coming back as a vampire somewhere later in the campaign, to try and get a revenge on her. DM told me that, so I could prepare myself at least a little, since he warned he isn't going easy on me and because of their... shared past, my ranger should have at least some knowledge of his capabilities.

Mechanically, she's devised to be very mobile, since she did spend most of her life on the road and I tried to picture that with feat and power selection.

As for the little half elf? She's my next character for next campaign

So the best advice I can give you... make a backstory for your ranger and act on it. It might make what's otherwise fairly bland class much more interesting.

[T.G. Oskar]

Rangers aren't limited to forests, you know.

One good idea is to imagine a different place, and go with fluff that suits it. For example: a desert ranger would be like a Bedouin, all covered in heavy robe attire, using dual-wielded scimitars (or at least a scimitar and a dagger, and call that a jambiyah), and with a snake as animal companion. He could be a master tracker, since while he's not used to track on forests, sands grant a much more rewarding experience. He already practices camouflage (his robes are usually of a color that resembles the sand) and may know the desert better than anyone else, influencing and not limited to his incredible survival (Endurance), his choice of spells, amongst other things. That's much as far different as the forest theme suggests.

The actual devs suggested the dwarven "caver" too; basically, someone who's familiar with mountains and caverns rather than forests. Perhaps one that's more endurable than a forest ranger, that learns to subsist of the moisture of the caverns, that's more used to cold temperatures than to hot ones, and that gets at home on the caverns than on the forests. It may also imply someone that's grumpy, loner, and hard to deal with men.

In fact, you could imply a sailor can be a type of ranger. They know the sea better than they know land, all the more when they pretty much were born and raised on a ship.

Much like what Horizon Walker does, a ranger becomes different based on the type of environment chosen. Rangers are influenced by hunters, forest wardens and scouts, so it's not difficult to find those on any place; whether they be plains, deserts, jungles, or even the unforgiving icelands. Even while limited to two combat styles, a small amount of animal companions, and some forest-themed spells, you can handle with what's less tied to forest-themed fluff a quite different ranger. Sandstorm, Stormwrack and Frostburn suggest how would a Ranger that's outside of the forest would behave, and the suggestions may sound quite similar to these ones; the amount of spells, weapons, feats and skill applications from those places help to build different themes of rangers.