Rangers, like druids, have a mystical connection with nature. As they protect and nurture the natural process, nature rewards the ranger with abilities, powers and spells. Rangers are followers of a more martial viewpoint of the natural process. Rangers find themselves comfortable in all terrains and climates, sometimes serving as guides, scout, hunters, or advisors. They do not feel as uncomfortable in large cities as druids. On the other hand, a ranger could also be a person who uses his connection to nature to take advantage of the bounty it provides.
Characteristics: Rangers, as martial characters, often choose feats to help with their chosen role. Their spellcasting is supplementary, rather than primary, so they only rarely choose feats to expand upon their casting abilities. Their wide variety of skills help rangers overcome many obstacles they might encounter in the wilderness.
Role: The strengths of the ranger class are in his fighting styles and favored enemies. They use their spells to help them out in a variety of situations. They are able scouts and harriers, and are often called upon to do so.
Game Rule Information
Rangers have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom determines how easily a ranger may learn new spells. Charisma determines the number of bonus spells a ranger may cast, as well as how hard they are to resist. Dexterity is important to a ranger, who wears little if any armor. Constitution is important to rangers to give them extra hit points, a resource all characters need in abundance.
Hit Die: d6+2
Starting Gold: 5d4x10
lvl BAB F R W Class Abilities
1 +1 +2 +2 +0 Wild Empathy, Track, 1st Favored Enemy
2 +2 +3 +3 +0 Combat Style, Armored Casting, +1 nature spellcasting level
3 +3 +3 +3 +1 Endurance
4 +4 +4 +4 +1 Animal Companion, +1 nature spellcasting level
5 +5 +4 +4 +1 2nd Favored Enemy
6 +6 +5 +5 +2 Improved Combat Style, +1 nature spellcasting level
7 +7 +5 +5 +2 Woodland Stride
8 +8 +6 +6 +2 Swift Tracker, +1 nature spellcasting level
9 +9 +6 +6 +3 Improved Armored Casting, Evasion
10 +10 +7 +7 +3 3rd Favored Enemy, +1 nature spellcasting level
11 +11 +7 +7 +3 Greater Combat Style
12 +12 +8 +8 +4 +1 nature spellcasting level
13 +13 +8 +8 +4 Camouflage
14 +14 +9 +9 +4 +1 nature spellcasting level
15 +15 +9 +9 +5 4th Favored Enemy
16 +16 +10 +10 +5 Superior Combat Style, +1 nature spellcasting level
17 +17 +10 +10 +5 Hide in Plain Sight
18 +18 +11 +11 +6 +1 nature spellcasting level
19 +19 +11 +12 +6
20 +20 +12 +12 +6 5th Favored Enemy, +1 nature spellcasting level
Class Skills: The ranger’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (dungeoneering, geography and cultures, nature)(Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Rope (Dex). See the Player’s Handbook Chapter 4: Skills for skill descriptions.
Skill Points per Level: 6 + Int modifier
Class Features
All the following are class features of the ranger.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Rangers have proficiency with Basic Weapons Group and three other weapon groups of their choice. In addition, rangers may choose the Druid Weapons Group. They are proficient with light armor and medium armor, and with all shields, except tower shields.
Track: A ranger gains Track as a bonus feat.
Wild Empathy (Ex): A ranger can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The ranger rolls 1d20 and adds his ranger level and his Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, the ranger and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
The ranger can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but he takes a -4 penalty on the check.
Favored Enemy (Ex): As PHB, except the list of favored enemies changes and the ranger has the option of instead taking the Favored Terrain variant found on page 65 of Unearthed Arcana.
Favored Enemy choices
Aberration Fey Magical Beast
Animal Giant Monstrous Humanoid
Construct Humanoid (aquatic) Plant
Dragon Humanoid (terrestrial) Undead
Elemental Humanoid (extraplanar) Vermin
Outsider - natives of the abyss, arboria, limbo, pandemonium, ysgard
Outsider - natives of the abyss, baator, carceri, gehenna, hades
Ousider - natives of acheron, arcadia, baator, celestia, mechanus
Outsider - natives of arborea, beastlands, bytopia, celestia, elysium
Outsider - natives of the astral, ethereal, outlands, shadow
Outsider -native of the plane of fire, plane of earth, plane of air, plain of water, positive energy, negative energy
Favored Enemy (Outsider) deserves special consideration. There’s a problem with the current incarnation of how a ranger interacts with certain creatures with the Outsider type. Currently, a ranger can have Favored Enemy (animals) and gain his bonus when hunting elk, for instance. But, that elk that happens to come from Ysgard with the half-celestial template applied, it somehow makes that ranger inept at hunting it. And that’s stupid. So I’m changing how that works. Outsider now only applies to creatures that don’t have a base creature of another type. In our elk example, Favored Enemy (Outsider) does nothing while Favored Enemy (Animal) works.
Spells: Beginning at level 2, a ranger learns to cast nature spells, which are drawn primarily from the druid and ranger spell lists.
Rangers have a class specific spell list that only they may access. A character must meet the minimum number of ranger levels to gain access to these ranger-only spells. All ranger spells are nature spells, even if they normally appear on a different spell list. Use the following chart to determine the minimums necessary:
1st level ranger spells: 2 levels of ranger.
2nd level ranger spells: 6 levels of ranger.
3rd level ranger spells: 10 levels of ranger.
4th level ranger spells: 14 levels of ranger.
Caster Level: At every level except 1st, 5th, and 9th, a ranger’s effective caster level increases by 1, even though he doesn’t advance in spellcasting according to tables S-1 through S-3. This increase in effective caster level only affects the variables of his spells that are dependent upon caster level, such as range, number of targets affected, damage, area of effect, etc. It also increases opposed rolls that rely on caster level, such as rolls made to overcome spell resistance and caster level checks (dispel magic for example). This effective caster level increase does not grant him more spells known, more spells prepared, nor more spells per day.
Ranger Spell List: As a nature, a ranger may choose any spell from the nature spell list at the appropriate level. He may also choose spells from the following list.
1st level: Alarm, Animal Messenger, Biofeedback, Bite of the Wolf, Camouflage, Chameleon, Delay Poison, Elf Sight, Resist Energy
2nd level: Anchored Navigation, Protection from Energy, Safe Clearing, Snare, Speak with Plants, Spike Growth, Wind Wall
3rd level: Claws of Energy, Command Plants, Darkvision, Easy Climb, Neutralize Poison, Nondetection, Obstruction, Repel Vermin, Resist Energy (Mass)
4th level: Adapt Body, Animal Growth, Commune with Nature, Tree Stride
5th level: Hidden Lodge, Oak Body
Extra Source Material: Extra source material consists of other published works that include ranger spells. This list should automatically include any ranger spells that are released with new accessory books.
Combat Style: Rangers begin to develop their own unique combat style. As he advances in level, this combat style improves. A 2nd level ranger chooses a bonus feat from the following list:
Dodge, Mounted Combat, Point Blank Shot, Shield Specialization, or Two-Weapon Fighting. The ranger must meet any prerequisites in order to take the feat.
Armored Casting: Rangers gain Armored Casting as a bonus feat at level 2.
Endurance: A 3rd level ranger becomes more adept at withstanding the rigors of life in the wild. He may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued. He gains a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves:
Swim checks made to resist non-lethal damage
Constitution checks made to continue running
Constitution checks made to avoid non-lethal damage from a forced march
Constitution checks made to hold your breath
Constitution checks made to avoid non-lethal damage from starvation or thirst
Fortitude saves made to avoid non-lethal damage from hot or cold environments
Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation
Animal Companion (Ex): At 4th level, a ranger gains an animal companion selected from the following list: badger, camel, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, horse (light or heavy), owl, pony, snake (Small or Medium viper), or wolf. If the campaign takes place wholly or partly in an aquatic environment, the following creatures may be added to the ranger’s list of options: crocodile, porpoise, Medium shark, and squid. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the ranger on his adventures as appropriate for its kind.
This ability functions like the druid ability of the same name, except that the ranger’s effective druid level is his ranger level-3. A ranger may select from the alternative lists of animal companions just as a druid can, though again his effective druid level is his ranger level-3. Like a druid, a ranger cannot select an alternative animal if the choice would reduce his effective druid level below 1st.
Improved Combat Style: A 6th level ranger gains a bonus feat. He may choose a feat that appears on the Combat Style list, or any feat that has a Combat Style feat or feats as a prerequisite. The ranger must meet any other prerequisites in order to select the feat.
Woodland Stride (Ex): Starting at 7th level, a ranger may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at his normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment.
However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that are enchanted or magically manipulated to impede motion still affect him.
Swift Tracker (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, a ranger can move at his normal speed while following tracks without taking the normal -5 penalty. He takes only a -10 penalty (instead of the normal -20) when moving at up to twice normal speed while tracking.
Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a ranger can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the ranger is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless ranger does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Improved Armored Casting: Rangers gain Improved Armored Casting at level 9.
Greater Combat Style: An 11th level ranger gains a bonus feat. He may choose a feat that appears on the Combat Style list, or any feat that has any Combat Style feat or feats as a prerequisite. The ranger must meet any other prerequisites in order to select the feat.
Camouflage (Ex): A ranger of 13th level or higher can use the Hide skill in any sort of natural terrain, even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment.
Superior Combat Style: A 16th level ranger gains a bonus feat. He may choose a feat that appears on the Combat Style list, or any feat that has any Combat Style feat or feats as a prerequisite. The ranger must meet any other prerequisites in order to select the feat.
Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): While in any sort of natural terrain, a ranger of 17th level or higher can use the Hide skill even while being observed.