The Ranger

Posted on by S J Grodzicki

The Ranger for LFG 😀

In my wip Midlands setting, the wilderness is genuinely dangerous, filled with beastmen, barbarians and predatory animals. Cities are relatively isolated, and travel between rarely attempted outside of large, well armed caravans. Rangers however prove an exception to the rule; daring explorers that rely on their survival skills to traverse the borderlands and beyond… making them excellent adventurer material.

When designing the ranger, my objectives were:

  1. A capable warrior, with some traditional “ranger” abilities,
  2. No overlapping existing class niches (especially the barbarian and rogue),
  3. No magic, and
  4. A strong nature theme.

As you’ll see, I ultimately went for a ranged specialist, with a mix of non-magical utility, based on herbalism, wilderness skills and a beast companion. Yes, they come with a beast companion; I know that’s something not everyone will like – but for LFG purposes, it’s a great way to differentiate rangers from the other classes (and LFG doesn’t have a druid class, the other usual candidate for a “pet”).

So here it is, the latest iteration of the Ranger. I’d be grateful for any feedback. Pet classes are notoriously difficult to balance, so I’m all ears for suggested improvements!

Ranger PDF

 

Ranger page 1Ranger page 2Ranger page 3Ranger page 4

Various artwork copyright 2017 or earlier, Claudio Cassini, Daniel Comerci – hounworks.it, 123RF, or Matt Morrow. Used with permission.

7 thoughts on “The Ranger”

  4. Awesome! Artwork is BOSS too! The ranger is so good, especially including the off-hand/2nd attack features you might need to give a slight bump the fighter/barb features. Adding in your animal companion and you’ve got a package that’s hard to beat.

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    1. Thanks Steve and cheers for the feedback! Yes we’re keeping an eye on the ranger in playtesting. I have tweaked the current version already in the setting book (sharpshooter limited to once per round). Couple of things we’ve noticed so far – ranger’s lower to hit bonus (lower than Fighter/Barb) makes a difference, and with Perc as the key attribute, rangers tend to be MAD, which fighters/barbs dont suffer from. Relying on the off hand adept ability quickly depletes rangercraft uses but yeah can be good in a pinch. What we’ve tended to see is the ranger very good at range, and moderate (sometimes good) in melee (specialist shooty rangers tend to struggle if “caught” in melee). In battle the companion usually acts as a hp buffer/distraction, but can sometimes also add a bit of damage (esp wolf, but wolf tends to draw counterattacks for that reason – either resulting in a zero hp wolf pretty quick, or requiring rescues, which depletes luck).

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