Ranger
Scouts, trackers, and wanders in the wild, Rangers are at home in the remote places of the world. Skilled in tracking, surviving, and armed with a deep knowledge of the natural world, rangers are some of the most formidable skirmishers.
| Level | Combat Proficiency Bonus | Ranger Bonus | Techniques | Favored Enemy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +1 | +2 | 1st | 1st |
| 2nd | +2 | +2 | 2nd | |
| 3rd | +3 | +2 | 2nd | |
| 4th | +4 | +2 | 3rd | |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | ||
| 6th | +6 | +4 | 4th | 3rd |
| 7th | +7 | +4 | ||
| 8th | +8 | +4 | 5th | |
| 9th | +9 | +4 | 4th | |
| 10th | +10 | +6 | 6th | |
| 11th | +11 | +6 | ||
| 12th | +12 | +6 | 7th | 5th |
| 13th | +13 | +6 | ||
| 14th | +14 | +6 | 8th | |
| 15th | +15 | +8 | 6th | |
| 16th | +16 | +8 | 9th | |
| 17th | +17 | +8 | ||
| 18th | +18 | +8 | 10th | 7th |
| 19th | +19 | +8 | ||
| 20th | +20 | +10 | 11th |
| Level | Abilities |
|---|---|
| 1st | Favored Enemy, Basic Survival Skills, Herbalist, Wild Empathy, Quarry |
| 2nd | Studied Terrain |
| 3rd | Common Herbal Remedies |
| 4th | Ability Score Increase |
| 5th | Minor Herbal Remedies |
| 6th | Extra Attack |
| 7th | Major Herbal Remedies |
| 8th | Ability Score Increase |
| 9th | -- |
| 10th | -- |
| 11th | Extra Attack |
| 12th | Ability Score Increase |
| 13th | -- |
| 14th | -- |
| 15th | -- |
| 16th | Ability Score Increase |
| 17th | -- |
| 18th | -- |
| 19th | -- |
| 20th | Master Hunter, Ability Score Increase |
Class Features
Prime Ability: Wisdom
Hit Points: d10 + Con bonus per level
Skill Points: Medium (4 per level)
Knowledge Points: Medium (4 per level)
Save DC: 10 + Character Level + Wis Bonus
Spell Attack Bonus: Character Level + Wis Bonus
Starting Proficiencies
Weapon Proficiency: Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (all)
Armor Proficiency: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields Proficiency
Other: Tracker, Trapper (Simple/Natural Traps only)
Favored Enemy
Select a creature type to be your favored enemy from the following list: Aberration, Animal, Construct, Dragon, Fey, Giant, Humanoid (choose: aquatic, dwarf, elf, giant, goblinoid, gnoll, gnome, Halfling, human, orc, or reptilian), Magical beast, Monstrous humanoid, Ooze, Outsider (choose: air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, native, water), Plant, Undead, or Vermin. You have specialized knowledge about your favored enemy, allowing you to study, track, and subdue them easier. Every three levels, you gain another favored enemy (at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18).
Basic Survival Skills (Ex)
You have Skill Focus (Nature). As such, you are proficient in most basic survival skills (predicting weather, determining direction, lighting fires, foraging for food or water, building basic shelters). Note: with Skill Focus, your minimum roll on all Nature checks is equal to 10 + WIS, so you automatically perform any actions with this DC without needing to roll for them.
Herbalist (Ex)
You can use your Nature knowledge instead of Knowledge (Alchemy) to make natural versions of alchemical items. You may also use Nature instead of Medicine to create all forms of medicine. With medicinal items, you can gather herbs instead of purchasing crafting materials (see Herbs). Each yield you gather for this purpose is enough to create one item.
Note: Herbalist stacks with the benefits from Basic Survival Skills.
Wild Empathy (Ex)
A ranger gets the Wild Empathy ability, allowing you to make Animal checks on wild animals, not just domestic ones.
You also have an innate knack for communicating with all animals. This isn't a language, but an instinctive ability to understand needs, body language, emotions, and signals given off by animals. You are in-turn able to ask animals for assistance with very basic tasks within the realm of the animal's normal abilities.
Ranger Techniques (Ex)
Rangers learn technique faster than most classes. You get your first technique at level 1. Afterward, you gain a new technique every even level.
Quarry (Ex)
As an expert hunter, you can study targets carefully to understand their motivations, habits, and combat tactics. To study a target, you must take a standard action to observe a target in line of sight or one minute to study some trace of the creature (tracks, its lair, an object it used). If the target is one of your favored enemies, these times are reduced greatly, allowing you to use a bonus action to study a creature in line of sight or a standard action to study traces.
You can have no more than one quarry at a time, though you may target one discrete group together (a family, group, pack, pride, gang, or other organization). You may not switch the target until all of your quarry is dead, captured, or until you take a short rest.
When a creature is your quarry, you get the following.
- When making Tracks checks for your quarry, treat any roll of 9 or lower as a 10.
- In combat, you apply your Ranger Bonus to attack and damage rolls. If you have the Animal Companion common ability, your companion also gets this bonus.
- You apply your Ranger bonus to skill checks related to your quarry (Perception, Deception, Track, Insight, etc.).
Monster Lore
As soon as you select your quarry, you can roll a standard knowledge skill check to see if you can identify it. If you don't have ranks in the appropriate knowledge skill, you can roll an intelligence check instead. You may add your Ranger Bonus to either of these checks.
If successful, choose one of the following four options to learn about the creature.
- The creature's highest and lowest ability score
- One of the creature's Qualities
- One of the creature’s Bypasses, Resistances, or Vulnerabilities
- Whether the creature has multiple attacks and what damage types it deals
Unlike other classes, Rangers may roll a new knowledge check each time they learn a little more about their quarry. When tracking, you get a new roll when you stumble on new traces of your target. Perhaps you find fresh victims of the creature, signs of its living habits, items in its lair, discarded food samples, or other evidence of the creature's nature. In combat, you don't need traces of the creature because you are observing its behavior directly. Instead, you may simply use a standard action to make another knowledge check.
Studied Terrain (Ex)
At level 2, you gain the ability to study your terrain and adapt to it. As an expert survivalist, you are used to adapting to a number of different wild environments. Upon arriving in a new terrain, you may take some time to survey the land, examine local flora and fauna, and get a feel for how wild things live and hunt in that land. Studying the terrain takes one hour of dedicated, uninterrupted study devoted only to this effort. A terrain can be any piece of land in the prime material plane, as designated by the GM, that is distinct in some way from its surrounding environment. A small forest surrounded by a vast plain may require a separate studied effort. Likewise, just because one studies one forest doesn't mean he is familiar with all forests. You must make a separate study of each new land entered to gain the benefits. The GM may even decide that one part of a forest is distinct enough from another part, so as to require two separate study efforts. Note: Studied terrain only works in wild terrain and dungeons, not in towns, civilized areas, or constructed buildings (such as towers or castles).
Once studied, you have a better understanding of that geography and gain certain benefits in relation to it. If you revisit the terrain later, the GM may decide you are still familiar enough with the terrain to gain the same benefits without restudy, especially if the land is frequently traveled. For less frequent terrain, the GM may decide a new period of study is necessary or may even allow you to jog your memory after a shorter period of study.
You gain the following benefit from studied terrain:
- You may apply your Ranger Bonus to initiative checks.
- You may apply your Ranger Bonus to Nature, Dungeoneering, Perception, Stealth, and Track skill checks. If tracking a quarry, these bonuses are only applied once.
- You leave no trail and cannot be tracked through the terrain if you don't want to be.
- You can hide as a bonus action in studied terrain
- You may ignore any difficult terrain from natural causes (thorns, briars, brush, swampy ground, mud, slippery rocks). Magically created or man-made rough terrain affects you normally.
Herbal Remedies (Ex)
Starting at level 3, you can create herbal remedies to heal allies or lend aid in combat. Each day you can gather enough herbs to prepare a number of remedies equal to your Wisdom bonus. This takes at least one hour and must be done in studied terrain. When you start, you can prepare any of the Common Remedies listed below. At level 5, you may learn Minor Remedies, and at level 7, you may learn Major ones.
Some remedies, such as those used for healing, must be gathered fresh each day. These remedies lose their potency after the end of your next long rest. Other remedies are processed or dried and last until used.
Remedies must be activated and applied by you using your expertise, though another Ranger can use them under your direction. Using an herbal remedy usually takes a full-round action, but at any time, you can spend a minute to select some of your prepared remedies and equip them for use in combat. Doing so makes your unequipped remedies inaccessible but speeds up your access to the equipped ones. The action it takes to use these remedies depends on how many you choose to equip:
| Equipped Remedies | Action* |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reaction |
| 2-4 | Bonus |
| 5-8 | Movement |
| 9-12 | Standard |
| 13+ | Full-Round Action |
* Note: as long as the action required to use a remedy is not a full-round action, you can always substitute a Standard action for the action required here.
Regardless of how fast you can use a remedy, only one can be used per round. Unless otherwise stated, all remedies require you to be in touch range with your target.
Extra Attacks (Ex)
At level 6 and again at level 11, you gain an extra attack that you can make when making a full attack. In a full attack, all attacks except for your first are made at a -5 penalty.
Capstones
Master Hunter (Ex) - A ranger of 20th level becomes a master hunter. You can, as a standard action, make a single attack against your quarry at your full attack bonus. If the attack hits, the target takes damage normally and must make a Con save or die (vs. Class DC). You can choose instead to deal an amount of nonlethal damage equal to the creature's current hit points. A successful save negates this damage. You can use this ability once per long rest.
Herbal Remedies
Common Remedies
- Bioluminescence – These herbs create a bioluminescent light with a light increment of 10 feet. They last for 4 hours before fading away.
- Bitterant – These oily, bitter herbs cover the body and make you unappetizing to any creature that may try to swallow you. If you are already swallowed when you apply the herbs, the creature will take a standard action to spit you up on their next turn. These herbs last for 1 hour before losing their potency.
- Encapsulant – These herbs combine to make a temporary membrane that covers your mouth, filtering out impure, poison, or unbreathable air for 2 rounds.
- Neutralize Acid – You create a substance that neutralizes acid splashed on a creature, relieving any damage it might otherwise deal for 1 round. You cannot destroy acid itself or aid someone immersed in acid.
- Odor Absorbers – When applied to the face, these herbs block out the effects of strong smells, such as a Ghast’s stench. The protective effect lasts for 1 minute.
- Odor Suppressant -- These herbs are strong enough to mask the odor of the target they are applied to, making attempts to smell them using scent impossible.
- Solvent – You can mix herbs that instantly release creatures or items that are stuck with sticky substances produced by most creatures. This solvent isn’t powerful enough to dissolve Sovereign Glue or most strong, man-made adhesives.
Minor Remedies
- Lowers target spell resistance – The target’s spell resistance is lowered by 2 points for 1 minute.
- Sticky powder – This powder sticks to the creature and remains visible. This identifies invisible creatures, separates invisible from actual creatures, and similar effects.
- Glow Powder – This powder glows in the dark, and while it won’t help identify invisible creatures, it does mark creatures making them easy to locate in the dark.
- Corporeal Dust – This mixture of herbs and ground bone matter will cause an incorporeal undead creature to become corporeal for one round.
- Anti-Regenerative – This burning mixture of herbs suppresses regeneration or fast healing for 1 round.