Dungeons & Dragons Reveals Redesigned Ranger Class

The Ranger is the next class to get a redesign in the 2024 Player's Handbook.

By Christian Hoffer

Dungeons & Dragons has revealed its updated Ranger class rules. Today, Wizards of the Coast revealed the latest preview of the 2024 Player's Handbook, with today's preview focused on the Ranger class. The Ranger receives several updated features along with more ready access to Hunter's Mark, the class's signature spell. Many of the Ranger's updates either come from previous improvements made in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything or continue those refinements in some way. The Ranger also gains some additional speed and functionality in and out of combat, with Wizards stressing that the class now functions totally different than it did under the 2014 rules. 

The Ranger notably gains access to spellcasting at Level 1, along with several "free" castings of Hunter's Mark that don't use a spell slot. Hunter's Mark is an integral part of the Ranger, with several other abilities either utilizing or improving Hunter's Mark in some way. For instance, the Relentless Hunter feature (at 10th Level) allows Rangers to ignore saving throws to maintain concentration, while Precise Hunter ability (at 17th Level) gives the Ranger advantage against the target of Hunter's Mark. 

Several of the Ranger's 2014 abilities were removed or replaced with more functional abilities. For example, the Natural Explorer option was replaced with Deft Explorer, with the player able to choose an additional ability proficiency, and Primeval Awareness was removed as the Ranger has more access to their spells. Land's Stride was also removed in favor of a new Expertise ability (which adds more expertise/proficiency to skills of a Ranger's choosing), while Hide in Plain Sight was replaced by Tireless, an ability that grants the Ranger a temporary pool of hit points at their choosing and also allows the Ranger to remove a level of Exhaustion during a Short Rest.

The Ranger's four subclasses in the 2024 Player's Handbook include the much maligned Beast Master, the Hunter, the Gloom Stalker, and the Fey Wanderer. The Beast Master's overhaul is similar to that seen in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, while the Hunter receives a new ability that tells the Ranger all of a target's Vulnerabilities, Immunities, and Resistances when marked with Hunter's Mark. The Gloom Stalker can now deal extra damage several times a day, while the Fey Wanderer is mostly unchanged from its appearance in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. 

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While the Ranger seems improved, a lot of the class's underlying usefulness will come down to its access to spells and how useful those spells are. If the Ranger's spell list still consists of Concentration-heavy spells, the class will remain underwhelming, but if it's spell list is improved, it could be a very versatile and functional class. 

You can check out more 2024 Dungeons & Dragons changes here.

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