Woeful Warriors: Rangers Face Familiar Challenges in D&D’s 2024 Update
You can’t help but feel a little sorry for the old Ranger—it’s a class that was much-maligned in the initial 2014 release of the D&D Player’s Handbooks for a lackluster suite of features, then polished to a mirror sheen with supplements like Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Now, in 2024, it looks like we’re having the same conversations about the poor sod again. Rangers just can’t catch a break.
Late last month, the blog post “2024 Ranger vs. 2014 Ranger: What’s New” was met, for the most part, with an icy reception.
Revisiting the Ranger’s Role
Hunter’s Mark Centrality:
- Many of the new and exciting features from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything have been stripped back.
- Hunter’s Mark, a now-mandatory ranger spell that deals Force damage (a rarely-resisted damage type), is now a core class feature and the focus of the entire package.
Skill and Spell Changes:
- The Ranger has replaced a bunch of its interesting, though underfunded, class features with extra spells and skill expertise.
- This shift has frustrated players as it signals a return to the 2014 Ranger woes—except this time, instead of hyper-specific features that never get used, it’s all looking a little bland and underpowered.
Community Reaction and Official Response
Jeremy Crawford’s Defense:
- In a recent interview with ScreenRant, lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford addressed concerns about spell concentration requirements.
- Crawford explained that while some spells like Hunter’s Mark still require concentration, other spells have been adjusted to no longer require it.
- This response feels counterintuitive to many players, as the primary critique is that the Ranger’s class features are being whittled away in favor of spells and skill expertise.
Major Changes in the 2024 Ranger
Core Changes:
- Favored Enemy: Now lets you cast Hunter’s Mark twice per long rest for free, with uses increasing as you level up, shifting focus from tracking and information gathering to spellcasting.
- Natural Explorer: Replaced by an option from Tasha’s Cauldron: one skill expertise, two languages.
- Primeval Awareness: Replaced by more access to spells, similar to Tasha’s Primal Awareness feature.
- Land’s Stride: Replaced by another skill Expertise.
- Level 9 and 13 Updates: More skill expertise and immunity to losing concentration on Hunter’s Mark due to damage.
- Level 17 and 20 Features: Advantage against the target of Hunter’s Mark and an increase in Hunter’s Mark damage from 1d6 to 1d10, respectively.
Community Backlash
Criticism from Prominent Voices:
- D&D YouTuber XP to Level 3 criticized the changes, comparing the situation to the infamous “Do you guys not have phones?” blunder from the Diablo Mobile announcement.
- Retired D&D and FF14 YouTuber/Streamer JoCat echoed the sentiments with frustration, as did many other community members.
Reddit Response:
- User bobbifreetisss on the dndnext subreddit expressed bafflement at the focus on Hunter’s Mark without addressing its issues.
- The thread’s author and others called for more creative solutions and a reconsideration of the Ranger’s identity.
Looking Ahead
Despite the backlash, there is hope that future supplements and errata, similar to Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, might address these issues. However, the immediate future of the Ranger class seems fraught with familiar frustrations. The first of the new 2024 ruleset is set to arrive on September 17, and players will be watching closely to see if their concerns are addressed.
