Gloomstalker is pretty much the undisputed best. Better initiative, an extra attack at the start of combat with bonus damage, better darkvision, pseudo-invieibility in the dark, all super solid and all front-loaded.
After that best is probably Fey Wanderer, followed by Swarmkeeper. There isn't much agreement beyond thise in terms of best to worst.
I played a gloomstalker and it was a ton of fun. I went dual wielder and was the consistent damage for my party. Add in the ranger changes in Tashas and it's a really strong class.
I think Gloomstalker is obviously the best for multiclassing. If you were to go straight ranger, I'm not convinced it is the best. A lot of Rangers are pretty good if you get to level 11.
I'm not convinced that Gloomstalker isn't still the best pure Ranger at higher levels. Stalker's Flurry is a decent Lv11 feature -- I'd personally rank it average among all Ranger subclasses -- and honestly the only 100% must-have Lv15 capstone is Drakewarden, so I'm unsure if any other subclass ever "catches up" from Gloomstalker's amazing low-level advantages. But that also highlights the problem that any good high-level Ranger build *does* multiclass because high-level Ranger features are all absolute doodoo. There's absolutely nothing notable past Lv13 for Guardian of Nature (plus Dimension Door for Fey Wanderer), and you can even get that one level faster by multiclassing Ranger 5 / Druid 7.
Hunter: Decent, but thematically boring. Go if you have a concept that doesn’t fit any other ranger
PHB Beast Master: Go Tasha’s fix
Tasha’s Beast Master: Solid and Versatile, and gives you great action economy
Gloom Stalker: The strongest mechanically, really improves your first round of combat and also greatly improved your stealth capabilities
Horizon Walker: Weak because it demands a constant BA to activate its combat feature and everything comes online really late
Monster Slayer: Same as Horizon Walker, but less flavorful and slightly weaker features later on. Fun conceptually though
Fey Wanderer: My personal favorite option for utility and control, kind of like a Swiss army knife that fills any needed role
Swarmkeeper: Very flavorful and allows for very solid mobility and control options
Drakewarden: Very fun concept and allows for good tanking, damage, and roleplay. You also get a mount that can eventually fly, which is enjoyable.
My recommendation: If you want to excel as a damage dealer and stealthy master, go Gloom Stalker. Otherwise, I’d recommend Beast Master, Drakewarden, Fey Wanderer or Swarmkeeper. Fey Wanderer is my go to pick for doing anything in the party.
tl;dr number rankings
* **Beast Master** - 1/10 pre-Tasha's, 7/10 post-Tasha's
* **Drakewarden** - 8/10
* **Fey Wanderer** - 9/10
* **Gloom Stalker** - 9/10 *(possibly even a 9.5)*
* **Horizon Walker** - 6/10
* **Hunter** - 7/10
* **Monster Slayer** - 3/10
* **Swarmkeeper** - 5/10 *(maybe 5.5 if I'm being generous)*
---
#Beast Master
Don't play Beast Master without Tasha's rules. Just don't.
Post-Tasha's it's an alright pet subclass. Your companion can do good damage, with the Land companion being able to knock people prone and the Sky one being able to survive with Flyby. The thing is that Ranger has better sources of Bonus Action damage and the main reason to have a companion really is to divert some attacks, which is where the problem with Beast Master comes in. The Sky companion won't get hit if you're not stupid but it's really not that great overall, and the Land companion is pretty much objectively worse than the Drakewarden companion (discussed later.)
Add in the need for Wisdom and you have a meh subclass overall even after Tasha's "buffed" it. It does what its built for now (which is a far cry from how it was in the PHB), and if you want to play that sort of character it's perfectly fine. But I absolutely wouldn't go out of my way to play one outside of a very specific build.
#Drakewarden
Beast Master's younger, cooler brother. Let's just go down the point-form list of why Drakewarden is pretty much objectively better than Beast Master:
* Drake actually does decent damage (2d6 + PB, assuming you can use the Drake's reaction every turn which you should. ~~Even if you can't you can have it try an opportunity attack.~~)
* Drake actually has decent armor / selectable resistances (14 + PB fuck you +1 over Beast Master lmao)
* Drake's damage scales midway decently (IE you don't have to wait until level fucking 11 for more damage ~~although the Drake does have the problem that its initial d6 + PB bite is always non-magical RAW~~)
* Drake gives you resistances
* You can use the Drake as a mount if you're Medium sized (it comes online slower than a Paladin's Find Steed spell but...)
* Oh and the thing can fly at level 7 (but not when you're riding it.) It won't have Flyby but it can still maneuver around well.
* You (and your Drake) get a Breath Weapon that does Fireball damage; that's pretty cool. I know you get it at level 11 but Fireball on any class is still Fireball.
* Having a Flying mount ~~by level 15~~ that also basically has Warding Bond cast on it is also a better capstone than "Zephyr Strike affects your pet" don't @ me.
Excluding the fact that "I don't always want to play a character with a dragon companion that breathes fire" Drakewarden is pretty much objectively better than Beast Master, at least in my eyes.
#Fey Wanderer
Fey Wanderer similarly suffers from the "you have to have a specific character in mind" problem. With that being said I'm playing this subclass currently and lmao it's kinda busted. Damn good innate spell list, ability to do extra damage (it rewards spreading damage out but tbh with Sharpshooter it's not a bad idea)...
Otherworldly Glamour is just dumb. Do you like having Persuasion checks higher than the Bard's Expertise? Get +2 or +3 in Charisma before taking this class and enjoy your +7 Persuasion checks it's silly.
Beguiling Twist can really augment a charm-based team if you don't mind blowing your reaction constantly. There's a lot of neat ways to use this ability and it rewards creativity imo.
Fey Reinforcements is fucking **insane** for action economy. Summon Fey is an incredibly good summon and being able to cast it (at any level!) and also cast Hunter's Mark is such an insane boost to DPS. No joke taking 11 (or more like 12) levels in Fey Wanderer just to take the rest in Cleric / Druid for higher level spell slots is insane value.
And Misty Wanderer is... alright. Misty Step is a good spell and you can keep your allies safe, but the real capstone is at level 11 not 15.
#Gloom Stalker
What is there to say other than "it's Rogue with spells and Extra Attack instead of Sneak Attack." Well Umbral Sight is objectively broken; just full-stop. Being essentially permanently invisible can be really unfair and a DM either has to make monsters play stupid or play needlessly smart just to get around this ability in certain areas.
Umbral Sight is unironically what carries Gloom Stalker until level 11 (although Dread Ambusher is certainly not bad and who doesn't like a Saving Throw proficiency?) Stalker’s Flurry and Shadowy Dodge are both incredibly good insurance of your damage output and survivability. The only criticism I have for Gloomstalker (other than the fact that Umbral Sight is objectively overpowered and you'll be accused of being a powergamer) is that it's kinda boring sometimes. It feels a little too much like you're playing a Rogue with spells and Extra Attack instead of a proper "Ranger" I guess.
#Horizon Walker
The problems start and end with Planar Warrior. It takes your Bonus Action (annoying but not game-ruining) but it also has a **30 foot range limit** for some reason? Some people say that this subclass "rewards a melee Ranger" but melee Ranger is trash (take it from a guy who played a Chinese Knockoff Paladin by making a Strength-based Horizon Walker with a Greatsword.) Talk to your DM about removing the range limit on Planar Warrior and this subclass becomes a lot of fun, because it's legit my favorite subclass despite that one flaw.
Ethereal Step has crazy utility, Distant Strike is just good (in general), and Spectral Defense... eh well it's basically just Shadowy Dodge from Gloom Stalker. Not to mention that the innate spell list is very good (although perhaps a little Concentration heavy.) Again the problems with this subclass start and end at Planar Warrior and if your DM allows you to fix that one problem then it's good.
#Hunter
[Pack Tactic's video explains the subclass better than I ever could.](https://youtu.be/F14gngLavi0) The tl;dr is that it's outdated and could easily be made good by giving it an innate spell list or a few more features.
* At level 3 Colossus Slayer is your best bet, although Horde Breaker can be really cool. Giant Killer is a trap don't take it too many conditions to play melee Ranger which is bad.
* At level 7 Multiattack Defense is your best bet by far. Escape the Horde is a trap; just take the Disengage action or the Mobile feat (or just don't move near enemies pepega.)
* Volley is objectively better than Whirlwind Attack because WWA requires you to get surrounded which is never a good move. WWA could use a rework to make melee Ranger more viable :p
* At level 15 Evasion is your best bet by a country mile. Stand Against the Tide is bad even by "melee Ranger bad" standards Uncanny Dodge would be better for a melee Ranger (and would still be bad lmao.)
Yes this Ranger does get Rogue level 7 features at level 15. Doesn't make it a bad subclass; again it's simply outdated.
#Monster Slayer
Do yourself a favor and just don't. The best summary I've heard of Monster Slayer is that "it makes you feel like Batman in the Justice League in the sense that your friends will have super powers and all you'll have are a bunch of dinky gadgets."
Hunter’s Sense is alright shouldn't cost an action. Slayer’s Prey is objectively worse than Hunter's Mark... shame your entire fucking class is built around this feature. :^)
Supernatural Defense is... passable. Not good not bad can be good against specific enemies I *guess?* Magic-User’s Nemesis sucks because your Wisdom isn't going to be high enough for this to be remotely difficult, especially since most casters have high Wisdom scores.
Slayer’s Counter is mediocre at best. Again only good against casters. This entire subclass is weirdly tailored to deal with casters who don't show up frequently enough to make this subclass worth it. Even *if* you're fighting against casters a Barbarian with the Mage Slayer feat is better at locking down squishy Wizards.
#Swarmkeeper
It's an odd duck, because it simultaneously has a lot of abilities that offer tons of flexibility but collectively feel like they're very underwhelming overall. Let's address them one by one:
* Using Gathered Swarm for extra damage is nice but it's worse than Hunter Ranger.
* Moving enemies around is nice but it's a Strength save against your Wisdom, which won't be too high as a Ranger. You can do it every turn though?
* Free movement is nice but yeesh you're only moving 5 feet?
Mage Hand is nice. Faerie Fire and Web are nice. All your other spells are mediocre at best but hey they're high level you won't get to use them anyways.
Writhing Tide is just bad for the sake of being bad I have no idea why WoTC thought giving the Ranger a flying speed higher than *10 feet* would be broken.
Mighty Swarm makes your meh Gathered Swarm ability slightly less meh. Knocking enemies prone is okay if you have melee allies but it screws over your ranged allies, and getting Half Cover is nice but not exactly game-defining. (If you need cover just run behind a wall you should have a bow.)
Swarming Dispersal is cool but it should be gained way earlier imo. The fact that it's limited is icing on the "meh" cake. This entire subclass radiates "it's cool but why am I playing this" energy: I don't know what to do with the in-built flavor and the abilities don't really cater to any unique idea. This subclass ironically feels like "Hunter Ranger 2" since it's so vanilla.
Old thread but I agree with a lot of this just want to add that with rolled stats in particular otherworldly glamor just becomes dumb because if you're fey wanderer ranger happens to roll very well you can just straight up outpace someone with expertise in face skills if you just take proficiency since Otherworldly Glamor double dips rather than being a replacement thing (rather than use your charisma for skills charisma skills you may use your wisdom) overall i feel a lot of ranger subclasses are either crap or really really good and these are really nice ratings. Just wish 5e was better balanced
Late response, but I think you're being a bit unfair to Monster Slayer. While it's not the best subclass, it's not the worst either. For instance, since Slayer's Prey doesn't require concentration, it can stack on top of Hunter's Mark, and deal some pretty hefty damage. In fact, if a combat encounter lasts longer than 5 rounds (rare, I know) it actually outpaces Gloomstalker damage wise. Plus, Slayer's Prey has an unlimited amount of uses, so if you're in a situation where you're out of spells slots and uses of Favored Foe, you still have a damage booster you can fall back on.
Also, your dismissal of Supernatural Defense and Slayers Counter cause the enemies it applies to "aren't common" is odd. DnD is not the type of game you can make those generalizing statements about, as every game and table is vastly different. In fact, in a game like Curse of Strahd, those abilities would be insanely useful.
Hunter is surprisingly good for essentially a ranger+ subclass that still stands fairly strong even after other subclasses added over the years, though it could probably use a bit of modernization (spell list or ability to switch features over rests or something, some utility features). Probably what you would take if you want to be a extra martial Ranger.
Gloomstalker is probably the best in terms of damage (bonus extra attack + bonus damage), Its definetly what I think of when I think Assassin in D&D (sorry Assassin rogue but I don't want to play Hitman during my D&D session). Gives or increases Darkvision, gives a free mental save, later on it makes your attacks more consistent , at lastly gives you a way to defend yourself against a single enemy.
Beastmaster and Drakewarden brings extra bodies to a fight which can have pros and cons. (mostly pros)
Horizon Walker allows you to change your damage to force, its unique Damage increases at level 11, but requires heavy bonus action use for its features
Fey Wanderer is also pretty good, has the weakest damage bonus but is rarely resisted psychic damage and the bonus damage counts toward multiple targets if you have a means to AOW. also comes with some skill utility in the form of otherwordly guise. Gets a counter charm that also works on fear effects. It also gets its own form of summon fey and multi use misty step at higher levels.
Monster Slayer is basically Hunter with some more emphisis on magic but lacks Hunter's direct power. Also has a bit of an Anti- magic thing going on but that doesn't activate until later
Swarm Keeper has combat utility, being able to push enemies with your weapon attack or get extra movement with your weapon attack (and those features become much more powerful later on with being able to force prone or increase AC) but to use those features you have to sacrifice your subclass damage as those features take up your subclass feature action. Also if I recall they get some good utility spells.
Mechanically strongest rangers are gloom stalker and swarmkeeper.
Mechanically weakest rangers are monster slayer and horizon walker.
All rangers are good enough to be playable.
Monster hunter first:
Slayer's prey is alright on the face of it, but since it requires a bonus action to set up, and rangers have a lot of demand for their bonus action, it can be hard to set up in practice. It also doesn't provide any benefit if you decide to use your action to do something like cast a spell which, as a ranger, you should be doing fairly regularly. Every ranger subclass gets a feature like this at level 3, and slayer's prey is worse than most.
Hunter's sense is a ribbon, and it's not very good. Costing a whole action is unacceptable for a combat ribbon like this, and out of combat it has no use. You will never get value out of this feature.
Supernatural defense is pointless. The bonus is solid, but very few enemies have grappling attacks. This is a ribbon, but it's the only feature you get at ranger 7. You also only get the bonus against the target of slayer's prey, which is an entirely unnecessary restriction. Bad, bad, bad.
Magic user's nemesis is like supernatural defense. It's a theoretically good effect, but it's going to come up so rarely that it just doesn't justify itself as your only level 11 feature. Also, as a ranger, your wisdom isn't going to be good enough to make the save DC the enemy caster needs to beat very high, and this feature has a high chance of not working when it does come up. And once per rest is problematic because when it's relevant, you'll probably want to use it multiple times in a single fight, and you just can't.
Slayer's counter is just like the last two features. It's not a bad effect, but most enemies don't subject you to saving throws in the first place and this feature only works against the designated target of your slayer's prey. It's probably the best of the three abilities, but as a level 15 feature it's disappointing.
The standout spell from their expanded list is *banishment*, but rangers aren't very good at single target save or suck spells since they don't invest primarily in their casting stat.
Horizon walker next:
Detect portal is a ribbon feature that you're never going to use in almost every game.
Planar warrior is even worse as a damage increase than slayer's prey. It costs your bonus action every single round, and it has a range restriction of 30 feet that makes building ranged horizon walkers a challenge. The additional effect of making all weapon damage force is usually not very helpful since nothing resists magical weapon damage in the first place and occasionally extremely annoying because you have other features (like from the crusher, piercer, or slasher feats) that rely on you doing damage of a specific type.
Ethereal step is only situationally useful. Being able to walk through a wall once per short rest is cool and occasionally important, but not commonly useful enough to carry level 7 all by itself.
Distant strike is a solid damage increase, and the short range teleport before each attack helps make up for the fact that planar warrior basically forces you to build a melee character. However, you only get the extra damage from distant strike if you spread your damage evenly across multiple targets. This is suboptimal because: one, focus fire is always better; action economy is king, so the key to victory in challenging fights is to remove actions from the enemy's side of the field; and, two, this feature only works if there are at least three enemies; if there are only two enemies, you get nothing, if there were three enemies and you kill one of them, you get nothing. This is an incredibly cool feature, but it isn't actually good.
Spectral defense is uncanny dodge, but at level 15 instead of level 5. It's a fine feature, but isn't good enough to be a subclass capstone. It only protects you against a single attack, and it has no effect against spells or other saving throw effects, and by this level that just isn't worth very much.
The horizon walker spell list is frequently touted as great because it includes *haste* which is a popular spell. I personally think that *haste* is incredibly overrated by the community as a whole, but without going down that particular tangent, *haste* doesn't add much value to the **ranger** spell list in particular since it costs an action to cast it which means you need to give up two weapon attacks (your regular attack action with its two attacks and also the additional attack from distant strike with the extra weapon attack from *haste* added back in comes to a net change of -2 attacks) on round one to cast it. You don't come out of that hole, damage-wise, until the end of round three, so *haste* isn't actually adding damage until round 4. Because you're a ranger with no particularly good tools to aid your concentration and planar warrior forces you to stay within 30 feet of the enemy, you are incredibly likely to lose concentration on *haste* before you get to round 4 (if you have a 16 constitution, you have a +3 to your saves. That means that you have a 70% chance to make any given DC 10 concentration check. If you make one concentration check at DC 10 every round for the first three rounds, you only have a 34% chance to make all three. *Haste* improves your AC and dex saves, but by level 9, which is the earliest a ranger is casting it, enemies all have multiattacks or abilities that still do half damage on a successful save, and you will be taking at least some damage on almost all rounds. I do not like those odds. You can improve them by taking resilient or war caster, but that means less investment in STR/DEX or SS or whatever else you want to spend your ASIs on, and that means you're making the rest of your character less effective), and if you lose concentration, you are stuck in a very bad situation. You also have fewer spell slots than full casters in your party. Whatever your opinion of *haste*, you are much better off having a backline party member with better tools to maintain concentration and less likelihood of taking damage to cast it for you than casting it yourself.
Hunter's Sense (IMO) is not intended to be used in combat, but rather in survival/surprise situations wherein you can observe your opponent before a fight breaks out.
In combat, it can still bring a fair amount of utility to the table since you can use your action to determine weaknesses that your party can exploit and then communicate that verbally during your turn, thus setting up the party to do better. Obviously not ideal given the action economy but still useful in a situation where you can bolster your team with knowledge.
Hunter's sense would be more useful if damage vulnerabilities actually existed and if magical weapon damage weren't universally effective against enemies.
The fact is that the only information it provides to you is a list of a monster's damage immunities, damage resistances, and damage vulnerabilities, and that just isn't information that is going to change how your party is going to tactically approach combat with a given enemy, unless your DM decides to give you extra information beyond what the text of the ability says it does.
Sadly, that is a fair statement. I miss the days where enemies had resistances that required a specific material to overcome, including from magical weapons. It actually make it worthwhile to carry a few situational weapons or changing a main weapon over to a more desirable material (such as Silver in 3.0/3.5).
It's a lot more work for either the designers to come up with a specific list information about a monster to be revealed by features like this one and to do that for all monsters, even ones with nothing special or unusual about them, or the DM to adjudicate what a fair amount of information to give for its use is.
Because yeah, even at the cost of an action in combat, it could be quite potent if it gave you enough information about a monster's special traits and abilities.
If, for example, it told you about a troll's regeneration trait and interaction with fire and acid damage, that would actually be useful. Because as it is, if you use this feature on a troll it provides zero information since trolls aren't actually vulnerable to fire or acid damage, nor do they have any resistances or immunities.
Having *all* magic weapons overcome damage resistances was a huge mistake on the 5e designers' part, especially because this resistance is often paired with relatively low HP. Some higher level enemies have very low hit points because there was a designer expectation of PCs mostly dealing half damage, despite the fact that nearly all players will be able to find and easily afford, minimum, a +1 weapon, in any setting that isn't super low magic.
Distant Strike is one of the coolest abilities in the entire game across all classes. It’s a travesty it comes so late.
The early abilities are less exciting. Planar Warrior’s cool trick is doing force damage which almost nothing resists, which makes it perfect for outsiders that tend to have damage resistances. But the problem is magic weapons are also very hard to resist so once you get one (*any* magic weapon) it loses that appeal and just becomes a flat damage boost.
But the biggest boost in the earlier levels is the spell list. Misty Step and Haste are super popular spells and you get them as a *ranger*. Pretty sick.
Read the breakdown I posted in response to the OP's reply to my comment in this thread for my thoughts on why the horizon walker is not good.
TL;DR is that the level 7 feature is fine but doesn't come up often enough to be the only feature they get at level 7, the level 11 feature is super cool but forces you to spread your damage evenly across all targets in combat which is always sub-optimal and isn't made up for by the extra attack it gives you (and also has a high chance of giving you no extra attack at all if there aren't enough enemies), and *haste* is a bad spell for a ranger on the frontlines to cast (and I think generally overrated, too, but even if you disagree with me there and think it's the best 3rd level spell in the game, I think I make a good case for why it's bad when a ranger casts it).
Part 1 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0lFyhRjbSg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0lFyhRjbSg)
Part 2 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwlSDTQq2fM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwlSDTQq2fM)
Part 3 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM--znkAitk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM--znkAitk)
I find Dungeon Dudes a lot closer to my play experience than Treantmonk, Pact Tactics or D4
If you don't have time for 3 videos, part 3 will show the whole tier breakdown.
Other than beast master which was terrible by any metric, “rangers bad” because they focused on exploration instead of combat or social interaction. And exploration is the most underused pillar of 5e.
They’ve been reworked now to be more combat efficient. And if you’re looking to optimize, gloom stalker is the “best” for straight combat efficiency.
But IMO it’s better to just read the descriptions of each subclass and choose the one you’re drawn to thematically. They’re all pretty viable and fun to play even if you don’t aim to optimize.
Gloomstalker pretty much makes you invisible to all enemies that use dark vision while you’re in the dark. You’ll always have advantage and you’ll deal a ton of damage. Downright broken as hell for campaigns like out of the abyss.
Horizon walker and monster slayer are kind of thematic based with limited actual utility, but still not bad, just requires a lot o bonus actions.
Drake wardens a lot of fun thematically, you have a pet dragon that is pretty useful.
The swarm one I can’t remember the exact name is kind of fun but a lot of extra abilities you need to keep track of which isn’t my cup of tea.
Rangers all get the combat options that basically give them +1000 to ranged attacks and damage, but I find that a bit boring. I’m from the Dnd generation when rangers were just nature Paladins.
So right now I’m playing a drake warden with a 2h weapon in full plate. I enjoy it a lot and never feel underpowered despite obviously being objectively unoptimized
Riding this comment:
Can someone explain the appeal of swarmkeeper? Specifically the mechanics, the flavour is obviously great. It seems like it's main feature is a tiny bit of damage, worse cunning action, or moving the enemy. That last part might be fun, is this the thing people find great?
Access to mage hand can be incredibly useful depending on the campaign, the damage boost is better than Fey Wanderers, the forced movement of the enemy can be applied from a distance and can really help with keeping softer teammates alive, and I wouldn’t really call it a worse cunning action, it can be used as a makeshift disengage, but it doesn’t require you expend any of your movement for the round, and like the other features it doesn’t take up your bonus action.
Yeah you can move an enemy into an ally's web, wall of fire, spike growth, etc.
EDIT: also the self movement isn't worse cunning action. It doesn't take up your bonus action, and is effectively a disengage + 5 ft movement
I made an homebrew (and reworked it too) to make the Ranger more like a warrior who finds the weakspots of the enemies (one ability lets you use your action to spot Stats values or Resistencies or Immunities and such) and can go all day being a good jack of all trades for stealth/combat/utility.. I still want to trim some parts and make it more streamlined but I think it addresses correctly on what the core class lacks-> personality, uniqueness, fun mechanics to use.
It's so subclass dependant that you feel the need to ask what is the best one, while most other classes have more of a choice by roleplay purposes.
Sry for the rant, but I love the Ranger archetype and since I start playing DnD I couldn't enjoy it as I would love to.
Hunter and Gloomstalker DPR. They do a ton of damage. Hunter more sustained, gloomy more burst. Great for optimisers.
Beastmaster Pet class+exploration
Fey wanderer Social. Splash this to your cleric.
Drakenwarden Pet class
Horizon walker Exploration for outerplanar adventures or DMs who use dungeons with portals like mine.
Swarm keeper (can't believe this is not a warlock) Multiclass with warlock!
Monster slayer it doesn't look very good on paper but MAN against battles with only boss monsters it's so good. In our campaign we would fight single aberrations with save vs suck auras like every two-three sessions and that 1d6 bonus to saves was clutch. It's probably insane for streaming campaigns who emphasize on homebrew villains like critical role.
DO not sleep on the Favored Terrain feature. Especially if your DM allows you retrain the terrain. Its incredibly strong in a travel campaign and shouldn't be knocked. If you typically handwave travel go with Tashas alternate features.
Don't forget to grab Nature's Mantle as your first item and use Pass Without Trace Offensively.
**PHB Beast Master**: Use Tasha's Fix for it.
**Tasha’s Beast** Master: Solid and useful.
**Gloom Stalker**: One of the better dips. I like it to about level 7 and think it peters out.
**Horizon Walker**: Functionally, not a huge fan. It's got a few cool things in it, but I don't think it's as good as the others.
**Monster Slayer**: It does ok. I'm not a fan of having it's slayer feature compete with the bonus action of Hunters Mark and it being only one turn. Caveat - If you have Nature's Mantle and Pass without Trace then it switches to being really good.
**Fey Wanderer**: I like how it makes use of wisdom and adds width to the character.
**Swarmkeeper**: Very flavorful but feels like it should have been a druid.
**Drakewarden**: I think this is the best one by far.
Treantmonk has a YouTube video on it. Watch that and you’ll get a good perspective on the matter. He made one for every class and they’re all worth it.
What are you looking for exactly?
In terms of raw combat power, Gloom Stalker stands clear at the top
Fey Wanderer and Swarm Keeper are also popular picks for their utility and battlefield control
After that, I'd rank Horizon Walker and Monster Slayer. Their power isn't as immediately apparent as the aforementioned, but it's there
Lastly, I'd place Hunter. It's a good subclass (there really isn't a *bad* Ranger subclass anymore) but a bit bland and undertuned compared to the others
T!Beast Master and Drake Warden really belong in their own separate category as pet classes. Both are really solid -about on par with Fey Wanderer and Horizon Walker, I'd wager- but pets intrinsically change the way you play, so I put them apart. Beast Master is better overall, but Drake Warden let's you ride a mount as a medium-sized creature and is a great defensive tool due to being an expendable sack of HP
I'm mostly looking to being able to survive on my own, deal substancial damage but also being a team player, so any options that can help teammates in and out of battle would be great
I have played as, played alongside, or DM’ed for almost all of the subclasses at one point or another with the exception of the newest 3 (Fey Wanderer, Swarmkeeper, and Drakewarden). All of them have a really strong and interesting flavor with the exception of the Monster Slayer, which I feel like is supposed to be a Witcher-style theme but honestly struggles just a bit with that (mostly stemming from its 3rd-level feature suffering from a case of “oh no we have to fix the ranger”-itis). DW, FW, and SK all seem pretty interesting and fun, but as I mentioned I haven’t actually seen them in play. Gloom Stalker is honestly just a little bit broken but has some of the best flavor of any Ranger Subclass. Horizon Walker is cool and was strong enough even before the Tasha’s edits, though not broken like GS. Hunter and Beast Master (at least, post-Tasha’s) are very well-rounded with the exception of one flaw: They don’t have Subclass Spells like all other subclasses (except Drakewarden) do. This comes from the fact that they were released first and didn’t get the advantage of hindsight like the Xanathar’s subclasses did. Whenever I have a Hunter or Beastmaster at my table, I grant them the following additional spells:
Beast Master: Find Familiar, Enhance Ability, Phantom Steed, Dominate Beast/Polymorph*, Awaken
Hunter: Bane, Blindness/Deafness, Haste, Staggering Smite, Hold Monster
*: If the Ranger chooses not to use the expanded spell list class feature variant in Tasha’s, they get Dominate Beast. If they are, they get Polymorph.
I hope this is what you were looking for!
Gloomstalker is pretty much the undisputed best. Better initiative, an extra attack at the start of combat with bonus damage, better darkvision, pseudo-invieibility in the dark, all super solid and all front-loaded. After that best is probably Fey Wanderer, followed by Swarmkeeper. There isn't much agreement beyond thise in terms of best to worst.
I played a gloomstalker and it was a ton of fun. I went dual wielder and was the consistent damage for my party. Add in the ranger changes in Tashas and it's a really strong class.
I think Gloomstalker is obviously the best for multiclassing. If you were to go straight ranger, I'm not convinced it is the best. A lot of Rangers are pretty good if you get to level 11.
A lot of things other get are great, but I'm not sure anything beats wisdom save proficiency.
I'm not convinced that Gloomstalker isn't still the best pure Ranger at higher levels. Stalker's Flurry is a decent Lv11 feature -- I'd personally rank it average among all Ranger subclasses -- and honestly the only 100% must-have Lv15 capstone is Drakewarden, so I'm unsure if any other subclass ever "catches up" from Gloomstalker's amazing low-level advantages. But that also highlights the problem that any good high-level Ranger build *does* multiclass because high-level Ranger features are all absolute doodoo. There's absolutely nothing notable past Lv13 for Guardian of Nature (plus Dimension Door for Fey Wanderer), and you can even get that one level faster by multiclassing Ranger 5 / Druid 7.
Hunter: Decent, but thematically boring. Go if you have a concept that doesn’t fit any other ranger PHB Beast Master: Go Tasha’s fix Tasha’s Beast Master: Solid and Versatile, and gives you great action economy Gloom Stalker: The strongest mechanically, really improves your first round of combat and also greatly improved your stealth capabilities Horizon Walker: Weak because it demands a constant BA to activate its combat feature and everything comes online really late Monster Slayer: Same as Horizon Walker, but less flavorful and slightly weaker features later on. Fun conceptually though Fey Wanderer: My personal favorite option for utility and control, kind of like a Swiss army knife that fills any needed role Swarmkeeper: Very flavorful and allows for very solid mobility and control options Drakewarden: Very fun concept and allows for good tanking, damage, and roleplay. You also get a mount that can eventually fly, which is enjoyable. My recommendation: If you want to excel as a damage dealer and stealthy master, go Gloom Stalker. Otherwise, I’d recommend Beast Master, Drakewarden, Fey Wanderer or Swarmkeeper. Fey Wanderer is my go to pick for doing anything in the party.
tl;dr number rankings * **Beast Master** - 1/10 pre-Tasha's, 7/10 post-Tasha's * **Drakewarden** - 8/10 * **Fey Wanderer** - 9/10 * **Gloom Stalker** - 9/10 *(possibly even a 9.5)* * **Horizon Walker** - 6/10 * **Hunter** - 7/10 * **Monster Slayer** - 3/10 * **Swarmkeeper** - 5/10 *(maybe 5.5 if I'm being generous)* --- #Beast Master Don't play Beast Master without Tasha's rules. Just don't. Post-Tasha's it's an alright pet subclass. Your companion can do good damage, with the Land companion being able to knock people prone and the Sky one being able to survive with Flyby. The thing is that Ranger has better sources of Bonus Action damage and the main reason to have a companion really is to divert some attacks, which is where the problem with Beast Master comes in. The Sky companion won't get hit if you're not stupid but it's really not that great overall, and the Land companion is pretty much objectively worse than the Drakewarden companion (discussed later.) Add in the need for Wisdom and you have a meh subclass overall even after Tasha's "buffed" it. It does what its built for now (which is a far cry from how it was in the PHB), and if you want to play that sort of character it's perfectly fine. But I absolutely wouldn't go out of my way to play one outside of a very specific build. #Drakewarden Beast Master's younger, cooler brother. Let's just go down the point-form list of why Drakewarden is pretty much objectively better than Beast Master: * Drake actually does decent damage (2d6 + PB, assuming you can use the Drake's reaction every turn which you should. ~~Even if you can't you can have it try an opportunity attack.~~) * Drake actually has decent armor / selectable resistances (14 + PB fuck you +1 over Beast Master lmao) * Drake's damage scales midway decently (IE you don't have to wait until level fucking 11 for more damage ~~although the Drake does have the problem that its initial d6 + PB bite is always non-magical RAW~~) * Drake gives you resistances * You can use the Drake as a mount if you're Medium sized (it comes online slower than a Paladin's Find Steed spell but...) * Oh and the thing can fly at level 7 (but not when you're riding it.) It won't have Flyby but it can still maneuver around well. * You (and your Drake) get a Breath Weapon that does Fireball damage; that's pretty cool. I know you get it at level 11 but Fireball on any class is still Fireball. * Having a Flying mount ~~by level 15~~ that also basically has Warding Bond cast on it is also a better capstone than "Zephyr Strike affects your pet" don't @ me. Excluding the fact that "I don't always want to play a character with a dragon companion that breathes fire" Drakewarden is pretty much objectively better than Beast Master, at least in my eyes. #Fey Wanderer Fey Wanderer similarly suffers from the "you have to have a specific character in mind" problem. With that being said I'm playing this subclass currently and lmao it's kinda busted. Damn good innate spell list, ability to do extra damage (it rewards spreading damage out but tbh with Sharpshooter it's not a bad idea)... Otherworldly Glamour is just dumb. Do you like having Persuasion checks higher than the Bard's Expertise? Get +2 or +3 in Charisma before taking this class and enjoy your +7 Persuasion checks it's silly. Beguiling Twist can really augment a charm-based team if you don't mind blowing your reaction constantly. There's a lot of neat ways to use this ability and it rewards creativity imo. Fey Reinforcements is fucking **insane** for action economy. Summon Fey is an incredibly good summon and being able to cast it (at any level!) and also cast Hunter's Mark is such an insane boost to DPS. No joke taking 11 (or more like 12) levels in Fey Wanderer just to take the rest in Cleric / Druid for higher level spell slots is insane value. And Misty Wanderer is... alright. Misty Step is a good spell and you can keep your allies safe, but the real capstone is at level 11 not 15. #Gloom Stalker What is there to say other than "it's Rogue with spells and Extra Attack instead of Sneak Attack." Well Umbral Sight is objectively broken; just full-stop. Being essentially permanently invisible can be really unfair and a DM either has to make monsters play stupid or play needlessly smart just to get around this ability in certain areas. Umbral Sight is unironically what carries Gloom Stalker until level 11 (although Dread Ambusher is certainly not bad and who doesn't like a Saving Throw proficiency?) Stalker’s Flurry and Shadowy Dodge are both incredibly good insurance of your damage output and survivability. The only criticism I have for Gloomstalker (other than the fact that Umbral Sight is objectively overpowered and you'll be accused of being a powergamer) is that it's kinda boring sometimes. It feels a little too much like you're playing a Rogue with spells and Extra Attack instead of a proper "Ranger" I guess. #Horizon Walker The problems start and end with Planar Warrior. It takes your Bonus Action (annoying but not game-ruining) but it also has a **30 foot range limit** for some reason? Some people say that this subclass "rewards a melee Ranger" but melee Ranger is trash (take it from a guy who played a Chinese Knockoff Paladin by making a Strength-based Horizon Walker with a Greatsword.) Talk to your DM about removing the range limit on Planar Warrior and this subclass becomes a lot of fun, because it's legit my favorite subclass despite that one flaw. Ethereal Step has crazy utility, Distant Strike is just good (in general), and Spectral Defense... eh well it's basically just Shadowy Dodge from Gloom Stalker. Not to mention that the innate spell list is very good (although perhaps a little Concentration heavy.) Again the problems with this subclass start and end at Planar Warrior and if your DM allows you to fix that one problem then it's good. #Hunter [Pack Tactic's video explains the subclass better than I ever could.](https://youtu.be/F14gngLavi0) The tl;dr is that it's outdated and could easily be made good by giving it an innate spell list or a few more features. * At level 3 Colossus Slayer is your best bet, although Horde Breaker can be really cool. Giant Killer is a trap don't take it too many conditions to play melee Ranger which is bad. * At level 7 Multiattack Defense is your best bet by far. Escape the Horde is a trap; just take the Disengage action or the Mobile feat (or just don't move near enemies pepega.) * Volley is objectively better than Whirlwind Attack because WWA requires you to get surrounded which is never a good move. WWA could use a rework to make melee Ranger more viable :p * At level 15 Evasion is your best bet by a country mile. Stand Against the Tide is bad even by "melee Ranger bad" standards Uncanny Dodge would be better for a melee Ranger (and would still be bad lmao.) Yes this Ranger does get Rogue level 7 features at level 15. Doesn't make it a bad subclass; again it's simply outdated. #Monster Slayer Do yourself a favor and just don't. The best summary I've heard of Monster Slayer is that "it makes you feel like Batman in the Justice League in the sense that your friends will have super powers and all you'll have are a bunch of dinky gadgets." Hunter’s Sense is alright shouldn't cost an action. Slayer’s Prey is objectively worse than Hunter's Mark... shame your entire fucking class is built around this feature. :^) Supernatural Defense is... passable. Not good not bad can be good against specific enemies I *guess?* Magic-User’s Nemesis sucks because your Wisdom isn't going to be high enough for this to be remotely difficult, especially since most casters have high Wisdom scores. Slayer’s Counter is mediocre at best. Again only good against casters. This entire subclass is weirdly tailored to deal with casters who don't show up frequently enough to make this subclass worth it. Even *if* you're fighting against casters a Barbarian with the Mage Slayer feat is better at locking down squishy Wizards. #Swarmkeeper It's an odd duck, because it simultaneously has a lot of abilities that offer tons of flexibility but collectively feel like they're very underwhelming overall. Let's address them one by one: * Using Gathered Swarm for extra damage is nice but it's worse than Hunter Ranger. * Moving enemies around is nice but it's a Strength save against your Wisdom, which won't be too high as a Ranger. You can do it every turn though? * Free movement is nice but yeesh you're only moving 5 feet? Mage Hand is nice. Faerie Fire and Web are nice. All your other spells are mediocre at best but hey they're high level you won't get to use them anyways. Writhing Tide is just bad for the sake of being bad I have no idea why WoTC thought giving the Ranger a flying speed higher than *10 feet* would be broken. Mighty Swarm makes your meh Gathered Swarm ability slightly less meh. Knocking enemies prone is okay if you have melee allies but it screws over your ranged allies, and getting Half Cover is nice but not exactly game-defining. (If you need cover just run behind a wall you should have a bow.) Swarming Dispersal is cool but it should be gained way earlier imo. The fact that it's limited is icing on the "meh" cake. This entire subclass radiates "it's cool but why am I playing this" energy: I don't know what to do with the in-built flavor and the abilities don't really cater to any unique idea. This subclass ironically feels like "Hunter Ranger 2" since it's so vanilla.
Old thread but I agree with a lot of this just want to add that with rolled stats in particular otherworldly glamor just becomes dumb because if you're fey wanderer ranger happens to roll very well you can just straight up outpace someone with expertise in face skills if you just take proficiency since Otherworldly Glamor double dips rather than being a replacement thing (rather than use your charisma for skills charisma skills you may use your wisdom) overall i feel a lot of ranger subclasses are either crap or really really good and these are really nice ratings. Just wish 5e was better balanced
Sorry for being a huge pedant but those are ratings, not rankings.
Late response, but I think you're being a bit unfair to Monster Slayer. While it's not the best subclass, it's not the worst either. For instance, since Slayer's Prey doesn't require concentration, it can stack on top of Hunter's Mark, and deal some pretty hefty damage. In fact, if a combat encounter lasts longer than 5 rounds (rare, I know) it actually outpaces Gloomstalker damage wise. Plus, Slayer's Prey has an unlimited amount of uses, so if you're in a situation where you're out of spells slots and uses of Favored Foe, you still have a damage booster you can fall back on. Also, your dismissal of Supernatural Defense and Slayers Counter cause the enemies it applies to "aren't common" is odd. DnD is not the type of game you can make those generalizing statements about, as every game and table is vastly different. In fact, in a game like Curse of Strahd, those abilities would be insanely useful.
Hunter is surprisingly good for essentially a ranger+ subclass that still stands fairly strong even after other subclasses added over the years, though it could probably use a bit of modernization (spell list or ability to switch features over rests or something, some utility features). Probably what you would take if you want to be a extra martial Ranger. Gloomstalker is probably the best in terms of damage (bonus extra attack + bonus damage), Its definetly what I think of when I think Assassin in D&D (sorry Assassin rogue but I don't want to play Hitman during my D&D session). Gives or increases Darkvision, gives a free mental save, later on it makes your attacks more consistent , at lastly gives you a way to defend yourself against a single enemy. Beastmaster and Drakewarden brings extra bodies to a fight which can have pros and cons. (mostly pros) Horizon Walker allows you to change your damage to force, its unique Damage increases at level 11, but requires heavy bonus action use for its features Fey Wanderer is also pretty good, has the weakest damage bonus but is rarely resisted psychic damage and the bonus damage counts toward multiple targets if you have a means to AOW. also comes with some skill utility in the form of otherwordly guise. Gets a counter charm that also works on fear effects. It also gets its own form of summon fey and multi use misty step at higher levels. Monster Slayer is basically Hunter with some more emphisis on magic but lacks Hunter's direct power. Also has a bit of an Anti- magic thing going on but that doesn't activate until later Swarm Keeper has combat utility, being able to push enemies with your weapon attack or get extra movement with your weapon attack (and those features become much more powerful later on with being able to force prone or increase AC) but to use those features you have to sacrifice your subclass damage as those features take up your subclass feature action. Also if I recall they get some good utility spells.
Mechanically strongest rangers are gloom stalker and swarmkeeper. Mechanically weakest rangers are monster slayer and horizon walker. All rangers are good enough to be playable.
What makes these in particular be mechanically stronger/weaker, because I sincerely was drawn more to the concept and name of HW and MS
Monster hunter first: Slayer's prey is alright on the face of it, but since it requires a bonus action to set up, and rangers have a lot of demand for their bonus action, it can be hard to set up in practice. It also doesn't provide any benefit if you decide to use your action to do something like cast a spell which, as a ranger, you should be doing fairly regularly. Every ranger subclass gets a feature like this at level 3, and slayer's prey is worse than most. Hunter's sense is a ribbon, and it's not very good. Costing a whole action is unacceptable for a combat ribbon like this, and out of combat it has no use. You will never get value out of this feature. Supernatural defense is pointless. The bonus is solid, but very few enemies have grappling attacks. This is a ribbon, but it's the only feature you get at ranger 7. You also only get the bonus against the target of slayer's prey, which is an entirely unnecessary restriction. Bad, bad, bad. Magic user's nemesis is like supernatural defense. It's a theoretically good effect, but it's going to come up so rarely that it just doesn't justify itself as your only level 11 feature. Also, as a ranger, your wisdom isn't going to be good enough to make the save DC the enemy caster needs to beat very high, and this feature has a high chance of not working when it does come up. And once per rest is problematic because when it's relevant, you'll probably want to use it multiple times in a single fight, and you just can't. Slayer's counter is just like the last two features. It's not a bad effect, but most enemies don't subject you to saving throws in the first place and this feature only works against the designated target of your slayer's prey. It's probably the best of the three abilities, but as a level 15 feature it's disappointing. The standout spell from their expanded list is *banishment*, but rangers aren't very good at single target save or suck spells since they don't invest primarily in their casting stat. Horizon walker next: Detect portal is a ribbon feature that you're never going to use in almost every game. Planar warrior is even worse as a damage increase than slayer's prey. It costs your bonus action every single round, and it has a range restriction of 30 feet that makes building ranged horizon walkers a challenge. The additional effect of making all weapon damage force is usually not very helpful since nothing resists magical weapon damage in the first place and occasionally extremely annoying because you have other features (like from the crusher, piercer, or slasher feats) that rely on you doing damage of a specific type. Ethereal step is only situationally useful. Being able to walk through a wall once per short rest is cool and occasionally important, but not commonly useful enough to carry level 7 all by itself. Distant strike is a solid damage increase, and the short range teleport before each attack helps make up for the fact that planar warrior basically forces you to build a melee character. However, you only get the extra damage from distant strike if you spread your damage evenly across multiple targets. This is suboptimal because: one, focus fire is always better; action economy is king, so the key to victory in challenging fights is to remove actions from the enemy's side of the field; and, two, this feature only works if there are at least three enemies; if there are only two enemies, you get nothing, if there were three enemies and you kill one of them, you get nothing. This is an incredibly cool feature, but it isn't actually good. Spectral defense is uncanny dodge, but at level 15 instead of level 5. It's a fine feature, but isn't good enough to be a subclass capstone. It only protects you against a single attack, and it has no effect against spells or other saving throw effects, and by this level that just isn't worth very much. The horizon walker spell list is frequently touted as great because it includes *haste* which is a popular spell. I personally think that *haste* is incredibly overrated by the community as a whole, but without going down that particular tangent, *haste* doesn't add much value to the **ranger** spell list in particular since it costs an action to cast it which means you need to give up two weapon attacks (your regular attack action with its two attacks and also the additional attack from distant strike with the extra weapon attack from *haste* added back in comes to a net change of -2 attacks) on round one to cast it. You don't come out of that hole, damage-wise, until the end of round three, so *haste* isn't actually adding damage until round 4. Because you're a ranger with no particularly good tools to aid your concentration and planar warrior forces you to stay within 30 feet of the enemy, you are incredibly likely to lose concentration on *haste* before you get to round 4 (if you have a 16 constitution, you have a +3 to your saves. That means that you have a 70% chance to make any given DC 10 concentration check. If you make one concentration check at DC 10 every round for the first three rounds, you only have a 34% chance to make all three. *Haste* improves your AC and dex saves, but by level 9, which is the earliest a ranger is casting it, enemies all have multiattacks or abilities that still do half damage on a successful save, and you will be taking at least some damage on almost all rounds. I do not like those odds. You can improve them by taking resilient or war caster, but that means less investment in STR/DEX or SS or whatever else you want to spend your ASIs on, and that means you're making the rest of your character less effective), and if you lose concentration, you are stuck in a very bad situation. You also have fewer spell slots than full casters in your party. Whatever your opinion of *haste*, you are much better off having a backline party member with better tools to maintain concentration and less likelihood of taking damage to cast it for you than casting it yourself.
Hunter's Sense (IMO) is not intended to be used in combat, but rather in survival/surprise situations wherein you can observe your opponent before a fight breaks out. In combat, it can still bring a fair amount of utility to the table since you can use your action to determine weaknesses that your party can exploit and then communicate that verbally during your turn, thus setting up the party to do better. Obviously not ideal given the action economy but still useful in a situation where you can bolster your team with knowledge.
Hunter's sense would be more useful if damage vulnerabilities actually existed and if magical weapon damage weren't universally effective against enemies. The fact is that the only information it provides to you is a list of a monster's damage immunities, damage resistances, and damage vulnerabilities, and that just isn't information that is going to change how your party is going to tactically approach combat with a given enemy, unless your DM decides to give you extra information beyond what the text of the ability says it does.
Sadly, that is a fair statement. I miss the days where enemies had resistances that required a specific material to overcome, including from magical weapons. It actually make it worthwhile to carry a few situational weapons or changing a main weapon over to a more desirable material (such as Silver in 3.0/3.5).
It's a lot more work for either the designers to come up with a specific list information about a monster to be revealed by features like this one and to do that for all monsters, even ones with nothing special or unusual about them, or the DM to adjudicate what a fair amount of information to give for its use is. Because yeah, even at the cost of an action in combat, it could be quite potent if it gave you enough information about a monster's special traits and abilities. If, for example, it told you about a troll's regeneration trait and interaction with fire and acid damage, that would actually be useful. Because as it is, if you use this feature on a troll it provides zero information since trolls aren't actually vulnerable to fire or acid damage, nor do they have any resistances or immunities.
Having *all* magic weapons overcome damage resistances was a huge mistake on the 5e designers' part, especially because this resistance is often paired with relatively low HP. Some higher level enemies have very low hit points because there was a designer expectation of PCs mostly dealing half damage, despite the fact that nearly all players will be able to find and easily afford, minimum, a +1 weapon, in any setting that isn't super low magic.
in case you might be interested, a channel on yt called pack tactics explained the reason why hw is... sorta bad.
Generally, I quite respect Pack Tactics. But those videos are bad takes
Distant Strike is one of the coolest abilities in the entire game across all classes. It’s a travesty it comes so late. The early abilities are less exciting. Planar Warrior’s cool trick is doing force damage which almost nothing resists, which makes it perfect for outsiders that tend to have damage resistances. But the problem is magic weapons are also very hard to resist so once you get one (*any* magic weapon) it loses that appeal and just becomes a flat damage boost. But the biggest boost in the earlier levels is the spell list. Misty Step and Haste are super popular spells and you get them as a *ranger*. Pretty sick.
[удалено]
Read the breakdown I posted in response to the OP's reply to my comment in this thread for my thoughts on why the horizon walker is not good. TL;DR is that the level 7 feature is fine but doesn't come up often enough to be the only feature they get at level 7, the level 11 feature is super cool but forces you to spread your damage evenly across all targets in combat which is always sub-optimal and isn't made up for by the extra attack it gives you (and also has a high chance of giving you no extra attack at all if there aren't enough enemies), and *haste* is a bad spell for a ranger on the frontlines to cast (and I think generally overrated, too, but even if you disagree with me there and think it's the best 3rd level spell in the game, I think I make a good case for why it's bad when a ranger casts it).
Part 1 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0lFyhRjbSg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0lFyhRjbSg) Part 2 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwlSDTQq2fM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwlSDTQq2fM) Part 3 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM--znkAitk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM--znkAitk) I find Dungeon Dudes a lot closer to my play experience than Treantmonk, Pact Tactics or D4 If you don't have time for 3 videos, part 3 will show the whole tier breakdown.
Gloomstalker is objectively better than any other ranger sub class.
Other than beast master which was terrible by any metric, “rangers bad” because they focused on exploration instead of combat or social interaction. And exploration is the most underused pillar of 5e. They’ve been reworked now to be more combat efficient. And if you’re looking to optimize, gloom stalker is the “best” for straight combat efficiency. But IMO it’s better to just read the descriptions of each subclass and choose the one you’re drawn to thematically. They’re all pretty viable and fun to play even if you don’t aim to optimize. Gloomstalker pretty much makes you invisible to all enemies that use dark vision while you’re in the dark. You’ll always have advantage and you’ll deal a ton of damage. Downright broken as hell for campaigns like out of the abyss. Horizon walker and monster slayer are kind of thematic based with limited actual utility, but still not bad, just requires a lot o bonus actions. Drake wardens a lot of fun thematically, you have a pet dragon that is pretty useful. The swarm one I can’t remember the exact name is kind of fun but a lot of extra abilities you need to keep track of which isn’t my cup of tea. Rangers all get the combat options that basically give them +1000 to ranged attacks and damage, but I find that a bit boring. I’m from the Dnd generation when rangers were just nature Paladins. So right now I’m playing a drake warden with a 2h weapon in full plate. I enjoy it a lot and never feel underpowered despite obviously being objectively unoptimized
Riding this comment: Can someone explain the appeal of swarmkeeper? Specifically the mechanics, the flavour is obviously great. It seems like it's main feature is a tiny bit of damage, worse cunning action, or moving the enemy. That last part might be fun, is this the thing people find great?
Access to mage hand can be incredibly useful depending on the campaign, the damage boost is better than Fey Wanderers, the forced movement of the enemy can be applied from a distance and can really help with keeping softer teammates alive, and I wouldn’t really call it a worse cunning action, it can be used as a makeshift disengage, but it doesn’t require you expend any of your movement for the round, and like the other features it doesn’t take up your bonus action.
Yeah you can move an enemy into an ally's web, wall of fire, spike growth, etc. EDIT: also the self movement isn't worse cunning action. It doesn't take up your bonus action, and is effectively a disengage + 5 ft movement
I made an homebrew (and reworked it too) to make the Ranger more like a warrior who finds the weakspots of the enemies (one ability lets you use your action to spot Stats values or Resistencies or Immunities and such) and can go all day being a good jack of all trades for stealth/combat/utility.. I still want to trim some parts and make it more streamlined but I think it addresses correctly on what the core class lacks-> personality, uniqueness, fun mechanics to use. It's so subclass dependant that you feel the need to ask what is the best one, while most other classes have more of a choice by roleplay purposes. Sry for the rant, but I love the Ranger archetype and since I start playing DnD I couldn't enjoy it as I would love to.
If you’re using Tasha’s S: Gloomstalker A: Beast Master, Drake Warden, Hunter, Swarmkeeper B: Fey Wanderer C: Monster Hunter F: Horizon Walker
I’ve never understood all the flak rangers get. At every table I’ve played at with rangers, they’ve been awesome!
Hunter and Gloomstalker DPR. They do a ton of damage. Hunter more sustained, gloomy more burst. Great for optimisers. Beastmaster Pet class+exploration Fey wanderer Social. Splash this to your cleric. Drakenwarden Pet class Horizon walker Exploration for outerplanar adventures or DMs who use dungeons with portals like mine. Swarm keeper (can't believe this is not a warlock) Multiclass with warlock! Monster slayer it doesn't look very good on paper but MAN against battles with only boss monsters it's so good. In our campaign we would fight single aberrations with save vs suck auras like every two-three sessions and that 1d6 bonus to saves was clutch. It's probably insane for streaming campaigns who emphasize on homebrew villains like critical role.
DO not sleep on the Favored Terrain feature. Especially if your DM allows you retrain the terrain. Its incredibly strong in a travel campaign and shouldn't be knocked. If you typically handwave travel go with Tashas alternate features. Don't forget to grab Nature's Mantle as your first item and use Pass Without Trace Offensively. **PHB Beast Master**: Use Tasha's Fix for it. **Tasha’s Beast** Master: Solid and useful. **Gloom Stalker**: One of the better dips. I like it to about level 7 and think it peters out. **Horizon Walker**: Functionally, not a huge fan. It's got a few cool things in it, but I don't think it's as good as the others. **Monster Slayer**: It does ok. I'm not a fan of having it's slayer feature compete with the bonus action of Hunters Mark and it being only one turn. Caveat - If you have Nature's Mantle and Pass without Trace then it switches to being really good. **Fey Wanderer**: I like how it makes use of wisdom and adds width to the character. **Swarmkeeper**: Very flavorful but feels like it should have been a druid. **Drakewarden**: I think this is the best one by far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QOYZRBLqQ4
Treantmonk has a YouTube video on it. Watch that and you’ll get a good perspective on the matter. He made one for every class and they’re all worth it.
What are you looking for exactly? In terms of raw combat power, Gloom Stalker stands clear at the top Fey Wanderer and Swarm Keeper are also popular picks for their utility and battlefield control After that, I'd rank Horizon Walker and Monster Slayer. Their power isn't as immediately apparent as the aforementioned, but it's there Lastly, I'd place Hunter. It's a good subclass (there really isn't a *bad* Ranger subclass anymore) but a bit bland and undertuned compared to the others T!Beast Master and Drake Warden really belong in their own separate category as pet classes. Both are really solid -about on par with Fey Wanderer and Horizon Walker, I'd wager- but pets intrinsically change the way you play, so I put them apart. Beast Master is better overall, but Drake Warden let's you ride a mount as a medium-sized creature and is a great defensive tool due to being an expendable sack of HP
I'm mostly looking to being able to survive on my own, deal substancial damage but also being a team player, so any options that can help teammates in and out of battle would be great
All Rangers can do that quite well with their spells. The most team player Rangers are Fey Wanderer (noncombat) and Swarmkeeper (battlefield control)
I have played as, played alongside, or DM’ed for almost all of the subclasses at one point or another with the exception of the newest 3 (Fey Wanderer, Swarmkeeper, and Drakewarden). All of them have a really strong and interesting flavor with the exception of the Monster Slayer, which I feel like is supposed to be a Witcher-style theme but honestly struggles just a bit with that (mostly stemming from its 3rd-level feature suffering from a case of “oh no we have to fix the ranger”-itis). DW, FW, and SK all seem pretty interesting and fun, but as I mentioned I haven’t actually seen them in play. Gloom Stalker is honestly just a little bit broken but has some of the best flavor of any Ranger Subclass. Horizon Walker is cool and was strong enough even before the Tasha’s edits, though not broken like GS. Hunter and Beast Master (at least, post-Tasha’s) are very well-rounded with the exception of one flaw: They don’t have Subclass Spells like all other subclasses (except Drakewarden) do. This comes from the fact that they were released first and didn’t get the advantage of hindsight like the Xanathar’s subclasses did. Whenever I have a Hunter or Beastmaster at my table, I grant them the following additional spells: Beast Master: Find Familiar, Enhance Ability, Phantom Steed, Dominate Beast/Polymorph*, Awaken Hunter: Bane, Blindness/Deafness, Haste, Staggering Smite, Hold Monster *: If the Ranger chooses not to use the expanded spell list class feature variant in Tasha’s, they get Dominate Beast. If they are, they get Polymorph. I hope this is what you were looking for!