Ranger

Rough and wild looking, a human stalks alone through the shadows of trees, hunting the orcs he knows are planning a raid on a nearby farm. Clutching a shortsword in each hand, he becomes a whirlwind of steel, cutting down one enemy after another.

After tumbling away from a cone of freezing air, an elf finds her feet and draws back her bow to loose an arrow at the white dragon. Shrugging off the wave of fear that emanates from the dragon like the cold of its breath, she sends one arrow after another to find the gaps between the dragon’s thick scales.

Holding his hand high, a half-elf whistles to the hawk that circles high above him, calling the bird back to his side. Whispering instructions in Elvish, he points to the owlbear he’s been tracking and sends the hawk to distract the creature while he readies his bow.

Far from the bustle of cities and towns, past the hedges that shelter the most distant farms from the terrors of the wild, amid the dense-packed trees of trackless forests and across wide and empty plains, rangers keep their unending watch.

Deadly Hunters

Warriors of the wilderness, rangers specialize in hunting the monsters that threaten the edges of civilization—humanoid raiders, rampaging beasts and monstrosities, terrible giants, and deadly dragons. They learn to track their quarry as a predator does, moving stealthily through the wilds and hiding themselves in brush and rubble. Rangers focus their combat training on techniques that are particularly useful against their specific favored foes.

Thanks to their familiarity with the wilds, rangers acquire the ability to cast spells that harness nature’s power, much as a druid does. Their spells, like their combat abilities, emphasize speed, stealth, and the hunt. A ranger’s talents and abilities are honed with deadly focus on the grim task of protecting the borderlands.

Independent Adventurers

Though a ranger might make a living as a hunter, a guide, or a tracker, a ranger’s true calling is to defend the outskirts of civilization from the ravages of monsters and humanoid hordes that press in from the wild. In some places, rangers gather in secretive orders or join forces with druidic circles. Many rangers, though, are independent almost to a fault, knowing that, when a dragon or a band of orcs attacks, a ranger might be the first—and possibly the last—line of defense.

This fierce independence makes rangers well suited to adventuring, since they are accustomed to life far from the comforts of a dry bed and a hot bath. Faced with city-bred adventurers who grouse and whine about the hardships of the wild, rangers respond with some mixture of amusement, frustration, and compassion. But they quickly learn that other adventurers who can carry their own weight in a fight against civilization’s foes are worth any extra burden. Coddled city folk might not know how to feed themselves or find fresh water in the wild, but they make up for it in other ways.

Creating a Ranger

As you create your ranger character, consider the nature of the training that gave you your particular capabilities. Did you train with a single mentor, wandering the wilds together until you mastered the ranger’s ways? Did you leave your apprenticeship, or was your mentor slain—perhaps by the same kind of monster that became your favored enemy? Or perhaps you learned your skills as part of a band of rangers affiliated with a druidic circle, trained in mystic paths as well as wilderness lore. You might be self-taught, a recluse who learned combat skills, tracking, and even a magical connection to nature through the necessity of surviving in the wilds.

What’s the source of your particular hatred of a certain kind of enemy? Did a monster kill someone you loved or destroy your home village? Or did you see too much of the destruction these monsters cause and commit yourself to reining in their depredations? Is your adventuring career a continuation of your work in protecting the borderlands, or a significant change? What made you join up with a band of adventurers? Do you find it challenging to teach new allies the ways of the wild, or do you welcome the relief from solitude that they offer?

The Ranger

Level	Features	Spells Known	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer
2nd	Fighting Style, Spellcasting	2	2
3rd	Ranger Archetype, Primeval Awareness	3	3
4th	Ability Score Improvement	3	3
5th	Extra Attack	4	4	2
6th	Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer improvements	4	4	2
7th	Ranger Archetype feature	5	4	3
8th	Ability Score Improvement, Land’s Stride	5	4	3
9th	—	6	4	3	2
10th	Natural Explorer improvement, Hide in Plain Sight	6	4	3	2
11th	Ranger Archetype feature	7	4	3	3
12th	Ability Score Improvement	7	4	3	3
13th	—	8	4	3	3	1
14th	Favored Enemy improvement, Vanish	8	4	3	3	1
15th	Ranger Archetype feature	9	4	3	3	2
16th	Ability Score Improvement	9	4	3	3	2
17th	—	10	4	3	3	3	1
18th	Feral Senses	10	4	3	3	3	1
19th	Ability Score Improvement	11	4	3	3	3	2
20th	Foe Slayer	11	4	3	3	3	2

Quick Build

You can make a ranger quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. (Some rangers who focus on two-weapon fighting make Strength higher than Dexterity.) Second, choose the outlander background.

Class Features

As a ranger, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per ranger level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d 10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per ranger level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields

Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons

Tools: None

Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity

Skills: Choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) scale mail or (b) leather armor
• (a) two shortswords or (b) two simple melee weapons
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• A longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows

Favored Enemy

 Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy. 
 Choose a type of favored enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs) as favored enemies. 
 You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. 
 When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all. 
 You choose one additional favored enemy, as well as an associated language, at 6th and 14th level. As you gain levels, your choices should reflect the types of monsters you have encountered on your adventures. 

Natural Explorer

 You are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favored terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in. 
 While traveling for an hour or more in your favored terrain, you gain the following benefits: 

• Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
• Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
• Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
• If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
• When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
• While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

 You choose additional favored terrain types at 6th and 10th level. 

Fighting Style

 At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. 

Spellcasting

 By the time you reach 2nd level, you have learned to use the magical essence of nature to cast spells, much as a druid does. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting and chapter 11 for the ranger spell list. 

Spell Slots

 The Ranger table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. 
 For example, if you know the 1st-level spell animal friendship and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast animal friendship using either slot. 

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

 You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the ranger spell list. 
 The Spells Known column of the Ranger table shows when you learn more ranger spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level. 
 Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the ranger spells you know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots. 

Spellcasting Ability

 Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your ranger spells, since your magic draws on your attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a ranger spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. 

 Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
 Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Ranger Archetype

 At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate: Hunter or Beast Master, both detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level. 

Primeval Awareness

 Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend one ranger spell slot to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot you expend, you can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile of you (or within up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn’t reveal the creatures’ location or number. 

Ability Score Improvement

 When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. 

Extra Attack

 Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. 

Land’s Stride

 Starting at 8th level, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. 
 In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such those created by the entangle spell. 

Hide in Plain Sight

 Starting at 10th level, you can spend 1 minute creating camouflage for yourself. You must have access to fresh mud, dirt, plants, soot, and other naturally occurring materials with which to create your camouflage. 
 Once you are camouflaged in this way, you can try to hide by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or wall, that is at least as tall and wide as you are. You gain a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as you remain there without moving or taking actions. Once you move or take an action or a reaction, you must camouflage yourself again to gain this benefit. 

Vanish

 Starting at 14th level, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. Also, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail. 

Feral Senses

 At 18th level, you gain preternatural senses that help you fight creatures you can’t see. When you attack a creature you can’t see, your inability to see it doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it. 
 You are also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn’t hidden from you and you aren’t blinded or deafened. 

Foe Slayer

 At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against one of your favored enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied. 

Ranger Archetypes

The ideal of the ranger has two classic expressions: the Hunter and the Beast Master.

Xanathar’s Guide to Rangers

I spend a lot of my life away from civilization, keeping to its fringes to protect it. Don’t assume that because I don’t bend the knee to your king that I haven’t done more to protect him that all his knights put together.

— Soveliss

I’m a monster. Are you going to try to kill me? Didn’t think so. Go kill some goblins or something. On second thought, goblins aren’t monsters—they’re people. So maybe you should call yourself a people killer.

— Xanathar

Rangers are free-minded wanderers and seekers who patrol the edges of civilized territory, turning back the denizens of the wild lands beyond. It is a thankless job, since their efforts are rarely understood and almost never rewarded. Yet rangers persist in their duties, never doubting that their work makes the world a safer place.

A relationship with civilization informs every ranger’s personality and history. Some rangers see themselves as enforcers of the law and bringers of justice on civilization’s frontier, answering to no sovereign power. Others are survivalists who eschew civilization altogether. They vanquish monsters to keep themselves safe while they life in and travel through the perilous wild areas of the world. If their efforts also benefit the kingdoms and other civilized realms that they avoid, so be it.

If you’re creating or playing a ranger character, the following sections offer ideas for embellishing the character and enhancing your roleplaying experience.

View of the World

A ranger’s view of the world begins (and sometimes ends) with that character’s outlook toward civilized folk and the places they occupy. Some rangers have an attitude toward civilization that’s deeply rooted in disdain, while others pity the people they have sworn to protect—though on the battlefield, it’s impossible to tell the difference between one ranger and another. Indeed, to those who have seen them operate and been the beneficiaries of their prowess, it scarcely matters why rangers do what they do. That said, no two rangers are likely to express their opinions on the matter in the same way.

If you haven’t thought about the details of your character’s worldview, consider putting a finer point on things by summarizing that viewpoint in a short statement (such as the entries on the following table). How might that feeling affect the way you conduct yourself?

Examples:

• Towns and cities are the best place for those who can’t survive on their own.
• The advancement of civilization is the best way to thwart chaos, but its reach must be monitored.
• Towns and cities are a necessary evil, but once the wilderness is purged of supernatural threats, we will need them no more.
• Walls are for cowards, who huddle behind them while others do the work of making the world safe.
• Visiting a town is not unpleasant, but after a few days I feel the irresistible call to return to the wild.
• Cities breed weakness by isolating folk from the harsh lessons of the wild.

Homeland

All rangers, regardless of how they came to take up the profession, have a strong connection to the natural world and its various terrains. For some rangers, the wilderness is where they grew up, either as a result of being born there or moving there at a young age. For other rangers, civilization was originally home, but the wilderness became a second homeland.

Think of your character’s backstory and decide what terrain feels most like home, whether or not you were born there. What does that terrain say about your personality? Does it influence which spells you choose to learn? Have your experiences there shaped who your favored enemies are?

Examples:

• You patrolled an ancient forest, darkened and corrupted by several crossings to the Shadowfell.
• As part of a group of nomads, you acquired the skills for surviving in the desert.
• Your early life in the Underdark prepared you for the challenges of combating its denizens.
• You dwelled on the edge of a swamp, in an area imperiled by land creatures as well as aquatic ones.
• Because you grew up among the peaks, finding the best path through the mountains is second nature to you.
• You wandered the far north, learning how to protect yourself and prosper in a realm overrun buy ice.

Sworn Enemy

Every ranger begins with a favored enemy (or two). The determination of a favored enemy might be tied to a specific event in the character’s early life, or it might be entirely a matter of choice.

What spurred your character to select a particular enemy? Was the choice made because of tradition or curiosity, or do you have a grudge to settle?

Examples:

• You seek revenge on nature’s behalf for the great transgressions your foe has committed.
• Your forebears or predecessors fought these creatures, and so shall you.
• You bear no enmity toward your foe. You stalk such creatures as a hunter tracks down a wild animal.
• You find your foe fascinating, and you collect books of tales and history concerning it.
• You collect tokens of your fallen enemies to remind you of each kill.
• You respect your chosen enemy, and you see your battles as a test of respective skills.

Rangers of the Sword Coast

Montolio held out his arm, and the great owl promptly hopped onto it, carefully finding its footing on the man’s heavy leather sleeve.

“You have seen the drow?” Montolio asked.

The owl responded with a whoo, then went off into a complicated series of chattering hoots and whoos. Montolio took it all in, weighing every detail. With the help of his friends, particularly this rather talkative owl, the ranger had monitored the drow for several days, curious as to why a dark elf had wandered into the valley. At first, Montolio had assumed that the drow was somehow connected to Graul, the chief orc of the region, but as time went on, the ranger began to suspect differently.

- R.A. Salvatore, Sojourn

Long have rangers walked the wilds of the Sword Coast and the Savage Frontier. Like druids, their practices date back to the earliest days of humanity. And long before humans set foot in the North, elf rangers strode through its forests and climbed its mountains. The traditions and outlook of these people are now shared by members of many races. In particular, lightfoot halflings frequently hear the call of the wild and become rangers, often acting as guides and protectors of roving halfling bands, and shield dwarves forced to wander far from old clanholds sometimes follow the ranger’s path.

Not every prospector wandering far hills or trapper hunting through uninhabited lands becomes a ranger. True rangers go out into nature and find it holy, and like paladins, they are touched by something divine. Their gods and creeds might differ, but rangers share similar values about the sanctity of nature. While by no means always aligned with one another, rangers are bound into a loose community of sorts—one that often connects with circles of druids.

In the North and throughout much of the Heartlands, rangers use special marks to indicate campsites, dangerous areas, evil creatures, foul magic, goblinoid activity, hidden caches of supplies, safe passage, shelter, and graves or tombs. Many of these symbols were derived from elven lore or borrowed from groups like the Harpers. While by no means a secret language, these trail marks are often obtuse to non-rangers, and even druids might not understand them.

As a whole, rangers serve to help societies survive and thrive in the wilderness. Much of the Sword Coast and the North are unsettled. Rangers are driven to explore these lands, searching for fertile soil in which the seeds of civilization might grow, seeking resources (such as metals) that will benefit settled lands, or rooting out evil before it can spread. Other rangers spy on enemy troops or hunt down dangerous beasts or criminals. Given that so much of the North is frontier, rangers play a critical role in keeping communities safe and are often admired within them.

Human Rangers

Human rangers of the Moonshaes are devoted to the Earthmother, and those that work closely with druid circles on the mainland often honor the gods of the First Circle, but most rangers among humans favor the goddess Mielikki. However, they consider the goddess too wild and primal for them to pray to directly. Instead, they pray to Gwaeron Windstrom to bring their words to the goddess. Gwaeron is said to sleep in a grove of trees west of the town of Triboar, and most of his followers travel to that place at least once in their lives as a holy pilgrimage. Evil human rangers usually honor Malar for his ferocity and hunting skill.

Elf Rangers

Elf rangers are usually associated with a particular community such as Evereska or the tribes in the Misty Forest. Rather than being wandering explorers, elf rangers typically act as scouts and guardians of elven realms. Such elves usually devote themselves to Rillifane Rallathil or Solonor Thelandria. Elf rangers driven to roam might instead favor Fenmarel Mestarine, god of lone wanderers, or Shevarash, elven god of vengeance.

Halfling Rangers

Most halfiings who revere nature and its raw beauty come from lightfoot stock. Their bands spend at least as much time on the road and river as in village and town, and the role of a ranger is a natural fit with the lifestyle of most lightfoots. Lightfoot rangers tend to favor the god Brandobaris in his aspect as patron of exploration. Halflings more inclined toward nature itself typically prefer Sheela Peryroyl. Those who devote themselves more to the protection of settlements or travelers honor Arvoreen. The few strongheart halfiings who become rangers tend to favor those latter two deities.

Dwarf Rangers

Most dwarves prefer to hunker down under a mountain, rather than roam the wilderness of the surface or the Underdark. Most often, a dwarf ranger is either a shield dwarf cast out of a clanhold or a clanless dwarf seeking a place in the world. Sometimes dwarf rangers are prospectors who explore the world seeking new veins of ore. In any case, there are two deities who appeal to such dwarves: Marthammor Duin and Dumathoin.

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