Skilled hunters and outdoorsmen, Rangers are often more at home in the wild than they are in civilization. While some Rangers are to Druids as Paladins are to Clerics, a more weapon-focused iteration on the same concept, most Rangers have have little in common with Druids at all. The skills suited for stalking and tracking game in the wild are just as well suited to hunting more dangerous prey, and Rangers rival Rogues for making excellent, if specialized, assassins.
As wardens of the wilderness, Rangers frequently put their experience to use guiding others through hostile terrain, or aiding those for whom a night alone outside would be a death sentence. Of all classes in Realm of Runes, Rangers have the largest quantity of available teamwork feats, which tend to help other characters more than the one who took the feat itself. While skilled combatants themselves, their wisdom and experience helps to ensure that any party they choose to travel with is at the top of its game. No matter an adventuring party's construction, everyone benefits from having a Ranger on board.
HUNTING TARGETS & MASTERING TERRAIN
Ranger expertise tends to center around a total understanding in two areas: monster knowledge and terrain mastery. These focuses can be narrow, with an individual Ranger paying especial attention to one specific creature type or environment, or broadly encompassing many possibilities. When these focuses overlap, the combination becomes especially devastating and drawing the enmity of a Ranger in its favored terrain is a recipe for swift defeat.
One of the Ranger's most fundamental tools is the ability to hunt targets. Any Ranger can designate a single foe it sees, or is tracking, as its hunted target. This singular focus grants several potent benefits for the hunter, including better accuracy and damage, and these last until the target is dead or the Ranger picks a new target to hunt. With more levels, Rangers can improve the basic benefits further, add new uses, or even grant these bonuses to allies. The most common strategy employed by these hunters is to pick one enemy at a time and focus on it until defeated.
As Rangers level up they have the ability to become unparalleled in a specific type of terrain, gaining several passive bonuses just for being in that location. These bonuses can be added to with class feats such as Camouflage, which makes a Ranger almost invisible when in its favored terrain, or Horizon Walker which adds another type of terrain that the Ranger gain mastery over. Some Rangers even have the ability to extend the benefits of their terrain mastery to those that travel with them, turning a whole party into survivalists as long as they stick together.
HUNTING LODGES
While all Rangers are skilled hunters, each one has its own preferred style, and groups of the like-minded organize into lodges. These lodges are often actual buildings where Rangers gather to compare techniques and take on clients, but in remote locations a lodge might just be a shared focus between rangers that might never meet each other. These Hunting Lodges represent several of the most common ways that Rangers hone their skills, and each one grants exclusive abilities and a bonus feat. Many Ranger class feats provide additional benefits for rangers belonging to a particular lodge, and these have the matching trait for easy identification. The lodges available in Realm of Runes are the Game Warden, Hound Master, Marksman, Skirmisher, Slayer, and Trapper. No matter what lodge a character belongs to, all class feats are available to every Ranger, though the greatest synergy can usually be found by matching feats to lodges.
GAME WARDEN
A game warden focuses on keeping balance between the wilderness and the ever-encroaching tide of civilization. They achieve this through education and leading by example, and these Rangers are able to turn even the most urban city-slickers into expert survivalists, at least while they're around to provide guidance. Many game warden class feats are also teamwork feats, and these rangers are especially effective when providing bonuses to allies with these feats. Game wardens gain Monster Hunter as a bonus feat, which provides the Ranger and allies with offensive bonuses against a foe that the Ranger identifies with Recall Knowledge or Recall General Knowledge.
HOUND MASTER
A hound master hunts with a specially trained animal companion that is often closer to it than family. While many Rangers that live close to civilization make use of dogs specifically, some train and use more exotic creatures than the name of the lodge suggests. Hound masters gain Animal Companion as a bonus feat, and their animal companion advances faster than other Rangers' animal companions. Most hound master class feats focus on improving the animal companion instead of the Ranger itself, although many provide extra bonuses to both when they work together.
MARKSMAN
A marksman has special aptitude with attacking from range, and tends to avoid letting enemies get close to them. While many Rangers from this lodge still carry and use melee weapons for emergencies, they give special treatment to their ranged weapon of choice, often naming it and even talking to it. When a marksman makes ranged attacks, it adds it Dexterity modifier to the damage and doubles the range increment. This allows them to attack harder and from farther away than others. Marksmen gain Hunted Shots as a bonus feat, which lets the Ranger make two ranged attacks against the same target at once, and a marksman's attacks are especially debilitating if they both hit. Marksman class feats tend to improve the Ranger's accuracy or action economy with ranged attacks.
SKIRMISHER
A skirmisher prefers to get up close and personal with its hunted target, then back away before the target has a chance to retaliate. These Rangers can make their foes wear themselves out trying to keep up, while dealing devastating blow after blow and constantly retreating. A skirmisher gains Offensive Retreat as a bonus feat, which not only provides a bonus to the Ranger's Armor Class against reactions triggered by their movement, but if an enemy tries it anyway and fails it triggers an Attack of Opportunity from the Ranger. If a skirmisher is ever allowed to use a move without triggering reactions, they can instead increase their bonus to AC against reactions further, baiting enemies into leaving themselves open to this sneaky maneuver. Skirmisher class feats tend to improve the Ranger's mobility and damage with melee attacks.
SLAYER
A slayer trains to be especially proficient against a specific creature type. While still effective against other types of enemies, slayers are most dangerous to those foes that are unlucky enough to belong to the species that, for whatever reason, the slayer has enmity toward. Slayers gain Favored Enemy as a bonus feat, which provides bonuses to attacks and damage against creatures with a specific creature type chosen by the Ranger. Each time a slayer gains Favored Enemy they can either choose two types at once, or can double-down on a single type and become extra devastating to it. Slayer class feats tend to add additional utility to anything the Ranger does if it happens to be done to their favored enemy.
TRAPPER
A trapper prefers to ambush enemies with traps, and control an encounter by making the environment itself their ally. While many Rangers turn to this style for catching food, more advanced and portable traps can be created and deployed on the fly to catch even intelligent foes off their guard. When a trapper sets a trap, it is especially dangerous and harder than normal to spot. Trappers gain Snare Savant as a bonus feat, which immediately grants the Ranger several formulas for making snares, and several more as it levels up. Trapper class feats tend to focus on making snares easier to use in combat, by making them quicker to deploy and cost less to make.
CLASS FEATS
In addition to class feats that are designed to have synergy with Hunting Lodges, there are also several more generally useful feats available. One category of these feats grants a Ranger primal spells that it can cast with Spell Points, allowing these nature warriors to be effective secondary spellcasters as well if they choose, or even undergo Druidic initiation. Others provide exclusive variations of action economy enhancing abilities tailored to work with their primary class features, helping them to get and maintain an edge with their preferred combat style, regardless of Hunting Lodge of choice.
Rangers are wilderness-themed variant on the primary combatant chassis designed to make a character that feels like a self-sufficient master of the outdoors. Their Hunting Lodges helps keep the class diverse and replayable, without excluding options from other Rangers. Next time we'll explore how Realm of Runes handles languages and fluency, which is a topic that impacts everyone, regardless of class.
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