Ranger
Player's Handbook p46

Game Rule Information

The following changes have been made to the powers and abilities of the Ranger. Any published rules for the ranger that do not directly contradict the contents of this page still apply.

Class Features

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: I use the rules for Weapon Group Feats (UA p94). At first level the ranger gains the Basic Weapons feat and any three other Weapon Group Feats. The ranger's proficiency with armour is unchanged.

Ignore Spell Failure (Light Armour): Rangers gain this feat as a bonus feat at fourth level.

Ignore Spell Failure (Shields): Rangers gain this feat as a bonus feat at sixth level.

Skills: Replace Knowledge (dungeoneering) with Knowledge (underdark).

Spellcasting: Like druids and healers, rangers cast nature magic. Details of this form of magic can be found in the section on spellcasting. Rangers can cast 1st level spells at level four, 2nd at level eight, 3rd at level eleven and fourth at level fouteen. They may not cast spells of higher than fourth level. Rangers have a limited number of spell points, and tend not to rely on their spells. A ranger's caster level is half his class level.

Animal Companion (Ex): The rules presented on p35-36 of the PHB stand with one exception. The ranger's animal companion is not typical of its kind. Players should roll up their animal companions in the same way as character: 4d6 drop the lowest for each stat, and then apply racial modifiers. They should also roll hit points and not take the average figure.

Favoured Environment (Ex): These rules appeared in the Unearthed Arcana and make significantly more sense to me than the Ranger's favoured enemy. If you want your ranger to have a favoured enemy then you can still have one (see variants below), you can even mix and match between Favoured Environments and Favoured Enemies. However, these rules are the default for all rangers. Below is text reproduce from p65 of Unearthed Arcana:

Instead of selecting a type of creature against which to apply a bonus on certain skills and damage rolls, the ranger selects a specific natural environment and gains bonuses when in that environment. At 1st level the ranger may select a natural environment from those given on the table below. Due to his expertise in this envirnoment he gains a +2 bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot and Survival when using these skills in this environment. He also gains the same bonus on the knowledge associated with the creatures of that environment - either knowledge (nature) or knowledge (underdark).

At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (at 10th, 15th and 20th), the ranger may select an additional favoured environment from those given on the table, and gains an identical bonus on appropriate skill checks in that environment. In addition, at each such interval, the bonuses in any one favoured environment (including the one just selected) increase by 2. The ranger cannot select an environment he has never visited.

There are many feats in the game that enhance a ranger's Favoured Enemy ability. Because favoured enemies still exist (see below) all these feat still stand. However, I would be very open to players devising equivalent feats to improve their favoured environments if they so wished.

Variants

The following ranger variants have appeared in various sources. They deserve a mention here for the sake of completeness and their position in the rules. Players shouldn't feel obligued to adopt these options instead of the standard class. Variants don't make the character any more powerful, they simply make it different. "Official" variants are found in a variety of sources, for a complete list of all the variants I use in my campaigns follow this link.

Favoured Enemy: Instead of a Favoured Environment, rangers may decide to be xenophobic violence-mongers and choose a favorued enemy instead. The rules for favoured enemies are unchanged from p47 of the PHB. If is possible to combine favoured enemies and environments, gaining the benefits of one at 1st level and the other at 5th. If this is the case then bonuses for having multiple favoured environments or enemies do not accrue - or at least they do not accrue as quickly.

For example, a character gains orcs as a favoured enemy at 1st level, a favoured environment (tundra) at 5th and a second favoured enemy (dragons) at 10th. The ranger gains his +2 bonus to orc-related checks at 1st level, his +2 bonus to tundra-related checks at 5th level and his +2 bonus to dragon-related checks at 10th level. Also at 10th level he can choose to improve either his orc or his dragon checks by +2. He cannot choose to apply this +2 to his favoured environment because he gained the additional bonus from selecting another favoured enemy.

Planar Ranger: Introduced in Unearthed Arcana p55 a planar ranger is one that can use his wild empathy on extraplanar beasties, and his animal companion is fiendish of celestial. On the whole not a game destabilising variant, however, it may not fit into to some campaign settings and will certainly call for some thought from the player on why the ranger is a planar ranger. This variant could be combined with Planar Substitution Levels (see below).

Urban Ranger: This variant modifies the rangers powers, abilities and spells to the urban enviroment and does so quite effectively. All the rules stand as presented. This variant also produces a new feat (Urban Tracking) that can be taken by any class. See Unearthed Arcana p55.

Planar Substituion Levels: Rangers who make the prerequisites may swap out certain class abilities in favour of planar-related ones. At 4th level they may swap their Animal Companion for a Planar Animal Companion. At 8th level they may swap Swift Tracker for Portal Intuition. At 13th level they may swap Camouflage for Planar Tracking. They also gain Knowledge (the planes) as a class skill. See Planar Handbook pages 27 and 34 for more details.

Nonspellcasting Ranger: Introduced by p13 of The Complete Warrior, this variant of the ranger foregoes the ability to cast spells. In return you would gain fast movement at 6th level, bolster your fighting ability with nature's blessing at 11th level, gain a healing touch at 13th level and can cast free action on yourself at 16th level. See The Complete Warrior for more details.

See Also

• Magic
• Nature Magic
• Spell Points
• Spell Failure
• Languages
• Rangers of Iourn