5E RANGER CLASS ALPHA PLAYTEST

THE RANGER
Standing on a hilltop, surveying the wasteland before him, a man picks at his nails with his blade,
collecting valuable red clay and flicking it into a bowl. He sits in his magic circle, spits into the bowl
of necessary herbs, minerals, and hair, and begins chanting in a forgotten tongue. The spell he
weaves reveals the location of his quarry: the Great White Bear. He gathers his weapons and sets
forth to slay the beast.
Deep in the troglodyte caverns, a half-elf strides silent as a ghost with blade in hand. She smells
something foul, crouches, and smears her fingers through what can only be animal scat. She smells
it, eyes it with vision long-adapted to these dark tunnels, and a deep growl in the dark confirms her
suspicions. The troglodytes have tamed a manticore.
A half-orc stands atop the highest branches of a tree, surveying the vastness of the forest before
him. It would take him three weeks to traverse on foot, and would be fraught with untold perils. He
brings his middle finger and thumb to his mouth, and lets out an ululating whistle. With a rush of
wind and a cry that echoes in the canyon, an eagle the size of a grizzly bear swoops down and
snatches him out of the tree. He uses her specialized harness to climb onto her back, where he
whispers their destination into her ear.
In the lands less traveled—the deep, dark, and mysterious places of the world where the bravest
men and women yet quake in their boots—you will find rangers. They traverse the unexplored and
live amongst the strange and frightening, and yet they survive against all odds. For they are masters
of the wild and weird.

Hardy Survivalists
Masters of terrain and the wilderness, rangers are the most skilled survivalists that can be found.
They live their lives apart from the civilized world and often eschew its greater courtesies. This
gives them a great understanding of the dangerous world outside the walls of one’s home. Whether
it’s the ratways of a city or the ravines of a wasteland, rangers know who to trust, what to do, where
to travel, when it’s safe, and why the monsters want to eat you.

Wandering Mystics
Rangers are not mages. Most of them don’t even have formal training. And yet, no ranger would
travel without the supplies to perform a variety of rituals they have memorized over the years.
Most rangers come across rituals during their travels—rather than in a library—reading them off
the walls of ancient ruins or learning them from traveling wizards and sages. To a ranger, magic is
simply another tool in their repertoire, like their blade or bedroll.

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Creating a Ranger
When you create your ranger, it is important to consider how they came into this life. One does not
normally choose to spend their life away from all that the rest of civilization calls home. Perhaps,
for your ranger, the warm feather bed and the bitter tavern ale are reminders of a life she wants to
forget. Or maybe she hears the call of civilization, but was banished from it long ago and cannot
partake of its succulence, much as she might desire it. Or maybe you were never a part of that
world. You were born into a band of rangers, druids and barbarians whose lives have always been
controlled by the whims of the wild. A ranger’s origin often informs much of their outlook on life.

THE RANGER
Rituals
Level Class Feature
Known
1 Survivalist, Rituals (1st) 2
2 Fight or Flight, Superior Senses 2
3 Ranger Archetype, Rituals (2nd) 3
4 Ability Score Increase 3
5 Rapid Attack, Rituals (3rd) 4
6 Strider 4
7 Ranger Archetype Feature, Rituals (4th) 5
8 Ability Score Increase, Instinctive Ritual (one use) 5
9 Rituals (5th), Wanderer’s Soul 6
10 Camouflage, Improved Rapid Attack 6
11 Ranger Archetype Feature 7
12 Ability Score Increase 7
13 Predator’s Senses 8
14 Adrenaline Surge 8
15 Ranger Archetype Feature 9
16 Ability Score Increase 9
17 Superior Fight or Flight 10
Improved Predator’s Senses, Instinctive Ritual (two
18 10
uses)
19 Ability Score Increase 11
20 True Survivor 11

Class Features
As a ranger, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points
Hit Dice: 2d6 per ranger level.
Hit Points at 1st level: 12 + your Constitution modifier.
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 2d6 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per ranger level after 1st.

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Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, shields.
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons.
Tools: Herbalism Kit.
Saving Throw: Dexterity or Constitution.
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.

 Leather armor
 (a) two short swords or (b) one simple or martial melee weapon
 (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
 A longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows
 An herbalism kit

Survivalist
You are prone to spending time in the uncivilized and unsettled places of the world, and are adept
at surviving in such locales. You know the best paths, the best ways to find food, and how to track
the wild and weird. You gain the following benefits.

 Difficult terrain does not slow your group’s travel.

 You cannot become lost except by magical means.
 Even when 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.
 While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long
ago they passed through the area.
 You may spend 1 hour collecting and preparing mystical healing poultices using special
ingredients and ritual magic. You can create a number of poultices over the course of an
hour equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). You can then take 1 minute to apply a
poultice to a creature’s wounds, healing a number of hit points equal to 1d6 + your Ranger
level. You can only carry a number of poultices at once equal to your Wisdom modifier
(minimum 1), and they lose potency after 24 hours.

Rituals
At 1st level, you are familiar with the mystic arts, and learn a small number of rituals which you can
perform at any time. Casting a ritual takes 10 minutes in addition to the normal casting time of the
spell. At 1st level, you learn two 1st-level rituals. You learn an additional ritual at every odd level
thereafter. You are capable of learning higher level rituals starting at 3rd level, and every odd level
thereafter, as noted on the Ranger table above. Your spellcasting ability for the purposes of Saving
Throws and Spell attack modifiers is Wisdom.

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Fight or Flight
Starting at 2nd level, you are always wary of danger, and react faster than most anyone else. When
you roll initiative, you gain a special turn that takes place before other creatures can act, during
which you can only take specific actions. During this turn, you can take the dash or dodge action, or
you can make a single melee or ranged attack. You cannot move normally during this turn, or take a
bonus action.
If multiple creatures in an encounter have this class feature, they act in order of initiative, then
regular initiative order begins.
If you would normally be surprised at the start of an encounter, you are not surprised, but you do
not gain this extra turn.
At 17th level, you may take a full turn, including movement, instead of a single action. You are also
no longer restricted in which actions you can take.

Superior Senses
At 2nd level, your time in the dangerous and dark places of the world has caused you to adapt to its
particular difficulties. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet. If you already have darkvision, then its
range increases by 30 feet. Your passive perception also increases by 5.

Ranger’s Path
At 3rd level, you select one of three ranger paths: the Hunter, the Beast Master, or the Hood. Your
choice grants you features at 3rd level, then again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.

Ability Score Increase

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.

Rapid Attack
Starting at 5th level, during any turn you use the Attack action, you may use your bonus action to
make an additional weapon attack. If you instead use Two-Weapon Fighting to make an off-hand
attack as a bonus action, you make two off-hand attacks.
At 10th level, you do not need to first use the Attack action on your turn to make a weapon attack as
a bonus action. If you use your bonus action to make a weapon attack this way, you do not add your
ability modifier to the damage.

Strider
Starting at 6th level, you can take use a bonus action to take the dash or disengage actions. When
you take either of these actions, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra
movement for the rest of your turn. 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.

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In addition, you have tactical advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created
or manipulated to impede movement such as those created by the entangle spell.

Instinctive Ritual
At 8th level, you are capable enough at casting rituals that you can occasionally cast them without
any form of preparation. You may cast any ritual you know using its normal casting time, without
the added 10 minutes normally applied to ritual casting. You must complete a short or long rest
before you can cast a ritual in this way again.
At 18th level, you can cast two rituals this way before you need to complete a short or long rest.

Wanderer’s Soul
At 9th level, your very nature makes you more resistant to mental attacks, and nearly impossible to
pin down through magic. You gain proficiency with Wisdom saving throws, and you cannot be
detected via the divination or locate person spells.

Camouflage
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 gain a +10 bonus on Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as
you remain completely still, and you can try to hide by pressing yourself up against a solid surface,
such as a tree or wall, or the ground, that is at least as tall and wide as you are. Once you move or
take an action, or a reaction, you reveal your location and must find a suitable hiding place again to
regain this benefit.

Predator’s Senses
At 13th level, you combine your senses to create a sort of “all-around vision” that allows you to
sense even the invisible. When you attack a creature you can’t see, your inability to see it doesn’t
impose tactical disadvantage on your attack rolls against it.
You are also aware of the location of invisible creatures within 10 feet of you, so long as they are not
hidden and you are not blinded or deafened. As long as you are not deafened, you are aware of the
presence of hidden creatures, but not their location. This range increases to 30 feet at 18th level.

Adrenaline Surge
At 14th level, you can tap into your reserves of adrenaline to give you an edge in combat. During any
turn in which you take a bonus action, you may take an additional bonus action. You can only use
this feature once per turn. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom
Modifier (minimum 1) before you need to complete a long rest to use it again.

True Survivor
At 20th level, you are capable of taking even the hardest hits, and keep on coming. You gain
resistance to all damage except psychic damage.

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Ranger Paths
Rangers normally dedicate themselves to one of three ideals: that of the Hunter, the Beast Master,
or the Hood.

Hunter
The hunter archetype is functionally unchanged, except that it gains the new class features listed
below, and does not gain the Multiattack class feature.

Hunter’s Quarry
As a bonus action, you may target a single creature which you can see and make it your party’s
quarry. You may also target a creature as your quarry using the action granted by Fight or Flight. As
long as the creature can be tracked, you automatically succeed on Wisdom (Survival) checks to
track it. You may maintain a quarry until it dies, you choose to end your quarry (no action
required), or you complete a short or long rest.
You also gain 4 “quarry dice,” which are d8s, when you name a creature as your quarry, which you
can use to inflict additional damage. Whenever you hit your quarry with a weapon attack, you can
expend and roll one quarry die, and add the result to your attack’s damage. Your allies may also use
these quarry dice; whenever one of your allies hits your quarry with a weapon attack, you may
choose to expend and roll one of your quarry dice and add the result to their damage roll. You can
only expend one quarry die each round. You lose these quarry dice when you can no longer
maintain your quarry. You must complete a short or long rest before you can name another
creature as your quarry.
You gain an additional quarry die when targeting your quarry at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.

Way of the Warrior

At 11th level, you become a master of combat, and learn a powerful technique to aid you in the fights
to come. You gain access to one of the following class features.

Retaliate
Whenever a creature hits you with a melee attack, you may use your reaction to make a single
melee attack against that creature.

Vital Strike
Whenever you hit with a weapon attack, you roll one additional weapon damage die.

Quick Study
At 11th level, if you have no quarry dice left after you’ve already targeted a creature as your quarry,
you may use your action to study your quarry. Doing so grants you additional quarry dice equal to
your wisdom modifier (minimum 1).

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You must complete a long rest before you can use this feature again.

Beast Master
For some rangers, training is not mastery over the blade, or mastery over a skill. Beast masters
bond with animal companions, and fight alongside them as if they were any other ally.

Beast Companion
At 3rd level, you gain a beast companion that follows you throughout your journeys, fighting along
your side. While traveling only with your beast, you can travel stealthily. This beast cannot have a
challenge greater than ¼, and must be large or smaller. The beast companion adds your Proficiency
bonus to its AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is
proficient in. In addition, the beast’s hit point maximum equals either its normal maximum or your
ranger level x 4, whichever is higher.
The beast follows your commands the best it can, and it acts on your initiative, keeping in mind that
your beast can still only take a single action and bonus action in addition to moving up to its speed
in a round. You may command it to move without using an action. As an action, you may command
your companion to attack, dash, disengage, dodge, or help. When you command the companion to
attack, it will keep attacking every round until you give it another command. If your companion
isn’t already taking an action, it will automatically attack any creature that attacks it or you in
melee. It will continue attacking every round until you give it another command.
You may use the action granted by Fight or Flight to
Advancing Your Companion.
command your beast to take the attack, dash, or dodge
At 7th and 11th level, you may not want
action. Your beast cannot move during the Fight or to gain a new companion of a higher
Flight turn, but may take the commanded action. challenge, but keep your old one. Work
You can only have 1 companion, but you can gain a new with your DM, and together you can
companion by spending 8 hours bonding with a beast find a solution by re-skinning a beast of
that meets the companion prerequisites. Doing this ends the appropriate challenge, or boosting
your bond with your current companion. your companion’s numbers to be
competitive at the necessary challenge.
At 7th level, your companion’s maximum challenge After all, who says that Barton the Bear
increases to ½. At 11th level, it increases again, to 1. can’t grow alongside his ranger?

Exceptional Training
At 7th level, as a bonus action, you may command your beast companion to take the dash, disengage,
dodge, or help actions. The beast itself still uses its action for the turn.

Unified Offense
At 11th level, as a bonus action, you may command your beast companion to take the attack action.
The beast itself still uses its action to attack.

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Unified Defense
Beginning at 15th level, when an attacker that you can see hits your beast companion with an attack,
you can call out a warning as a reaction. If your beast companion can hear you, it can use its
reaction to halve the attack’s damage against it. In addition, if your beast companion is within 5 feet
of you and an enemy you can both see attacks you, your beast companion can use its reaction to
impose tactical disadvantage on that attack.

Hood
For some rangers, combat is unnecessary, and stealth is the more desirable option. These rangers
are masters of maneuvering through combat without being seen, and striking when one least
expects it.

Skirmisher’s Stealth
Starting at 3rd level, through trickery, distraction, or perhaps something more supernatural, you can
maneuver out in the open without being noticed. As long as you begin your turn hidden from
enemies, you may activate this ability as a bonus action. For the rest of your turn, creatures do not
notice or detect you unless you attack, cast a spell, or otherwise make yourself known. If you are
not hidden at the end of your turn, then creatures can notice and detect you normally.
In addition, during the free turn granted by Fight or Flight, you may also hide as a bonus action.

Savvy Survivalist
At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in two additional skills or tool sets. At 15th level, You gain
proficiency with another two skills or tool sets.

Takedown
At 7th level, you are a master at bringing your foes down from a stealthy position. You have tactical
advantage on attacks against creatures that have not acted in combat yet. In addition, any attack
against a surprised creature is a critical hit.
At 15th level, you deal triple damage when you hit an enemy with a critical hit, instead of double.

Foe Slayer
At 11th level, you know how to bring down foes with great efficiency. Once each turn, when you hit
an enemy with an attack, you may add your Wisdom modifier to the damage dealt.

Vanish
Starting at 11th level, you can take the Hide action even while being observed. Also, you cannot be
tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.

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Ritual List
When the ranger learns a new ritual, it may choose from the following list.

1st level
Alarm, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, Find Familiar, Purify Food and Drink, Speak With
Animals, Unseen Servant

2nd level
Animal Messenger, Augury, Beast Sense, Gentle Repose, Locate Animals or Plants, Silence

3rd Level
Feign Death, Leomund’s Tiny Hut, Meld Into Stone, Phantom Steed, Water Breathing, Water Walk

4th level
Divination, Panacea*

5th level
Commune With Nature, Rary’s Telepathic Bond

PANACEA
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: self, or creature touched
Components: V, S, M (special herbs, and bark from a holy oak tree worth 50 gp)
Duration: Instantaneous
You or a creature you touch is affected in one of the following ways:
 The creature’s exhaustion level is reduced by 1.
 One poison or disease is immediately cured.
 One effect reducing the creature’s maximum hit points is ended.
 The blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned condition is ended.

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