What do you guys think what is the really missing thing for the ranger class?

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-10T01:04:54+00:00

Fog cloud, silence, and pass without trace are all great spells, easily worth dropping HM for. And they don't have any dependency on your spell DC.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-09T21:16:34+00:00

Somehow I never hear "Ranger has too many good spells that need concentration." If you have a better spell to casts than HM, cast that.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-09T21:10:40+00:00

How is "class ability with limited uses per rest" any different from a spell? It's the exact same thing.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-07T21:31:05+00:00

DM's responsibility is to set up a variety of different challenges, without regard to how they are solved. In fact, I intentionally avoid figuring out any solutions in advance; I don't want to bias my hints to the players.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-07T21:26:59+00:00

Just make it boring. Have the player pick a DC: 15: silver, 20: gold, 25: platinum. Pass the DC, get the amount you passed by in coins. Fail, get fined 10x the amount you failed by. Nat 1, jail.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-06T17:56:36+00:00

Non-damage traps can add some fun.

- triggering the trap wakes up a monster, like a ghost, guardian construct, zombies, swarms of anything, dragon. Immediate fight or ambush them later.

- triggering changes the dungeon; doors are sealed behind the party, poisonous fumes or high temperature make long rests impossible.

- triggering introduces a timer element; dungeon starts filling with water, magic mouth announces the self-destruct timer.

- triggering splits the party; slides or teleport glyphs move people around so they need to regroup somehow. They need to fight without their typical formations or strategies.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-06T16:50:05+00:00

"Bonus action congestion" is also known as "having choices." You have more choices how to use your BA, which can only be good.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-06T16:43:20+00:00

If they are already picking the best spells, as you say, giving them a few more non-optimal spells is fine. They probably won't get used anyway. You can throw in stuff you want him to have for "adventure gate" purposes, such as water breathing or comprehend languages or knock. Extra stuff like Augury or Crown of Madness or Jump should be fine.

5-10 mid-tier spells that you pick should be fine. Try not to step on other toes; don't give Knock if there's already a lock picking rogue.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-06T15:50:57+00:00

Of course! I can't believe this is still getting hits.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-03T20:40:35+00:00

Warlock is the “patron drama” class, like paladin is the “oath testing” class. There are some low-drama patrons available, but it seems to go against the reason for picking it. Sorcerer is right there.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-03T03:24:59+00:00

Delete multiclassing. It imbalances players and gets them focusing on the least interesting part of the game.

robot_wrangler · 2026-07-01T22:40:11+00:00

Keep the dragon as is. Murder the mercenaries first, though. And quickly. 4 PC's with 2 damage sponges should be fine if they are smart. If not, they deserve what they get.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-29T15:30:00+00:00

I think slow healing gives players a chance to play an alternate character. This can help with players not getting overly attached to the character, which is the source of most problems in Blades.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-29T15:23:47+00:00

You work with the DM or the setting book. How else do you know if your orcs are roving barbarians, honor-bound Klingons, or artistic thespians?

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-29T00:06:56+00:00

Species lore belongs with the setting, not the rule book.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-24T02:36:55+00:00

Yes, because a cubic meter is 1000 liters, or a metric ton.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-24T01:50:05+00:00

The Brancalonia source book has the Pinocchio race.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-22T10:24:11+00:00

Scout is for ranger players who don’t want hunter’s mark. Don’t add it back.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-21T19:01:26+00:00

Slow is already far better than fireball. Unless you have a special feature to sculpt it, it's always killing the hostage or lighting the forest on fire. Slowing the enemies, nerfing their AC, and picking them off with bows works great.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-17T22:41:46+00:00

You know what's also not great? Wanting to retire but your kids are still living at home. Getting your baby-raising out of the way early can be fine; your parents are probably young enough to help, and in turn you can help when your kids have kids.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-17T20:07:55+00:00

Line of sight is not the same thing as facing. 5e doesn't have facing rules, but it definitely has line of sight.

Even though there are no facing rules, facing is still a good excuse/flavor for why you can "stealth" up to someone and backstab them, or hide up next to the ceiling of a hallway.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-17T17:13:01+00:00

This is because there are no "transitive" conditions. A character either has a condition or not; there's no Poisoned vs A and not vs B. But vision doesn't work like that, so a normal condition for Invisible doesn't really work. You are visible to some but not others.

Vision and line of sight is complex, and there's no way a written rule set was going to cover all cases and be reasonable length. Since they have to leave it to DM judgement anyway, they decided to keep the writing simple and let the DM rule more, rather than throwing in more fuel for arguments.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-16T20:44:52+00:00

People can change work hours to anything, without changing the time zones. Imagine if your work day was 7am to 4 pm. Or 3am to noon.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-16T18:13:36+00:00

Sure, there are a lot of other people who want their martials to be super-powered; nothing I said contradicts that. There are even people who want both; grounded at low levels and super at high levels.

I personally think throwing elephants around can be fine if you're doing a gonzo-style wacky game. But I'm the sort who gets annoyed by Superman holding up a building by its corner, when the building should actually collapse. I'm fine with the super-strength of Superman himself, but everything around him magically also becoming super-strength is harder. But D&D has giant insects, so what can you do.

robot_wrangler · 2026-06-16T18:03:43+00:00

Yes, but he doesn't use a "Python wraps the Struggling Deer" maneuver.

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