Alpha Ranger Rough and wild looking, a human stalks alone through the shadows of trees, hunting the orcs he knows are planning a raid on a nearby farm. Clutching a shortsword in each hand, he becomes a whirlwind of steel, cutting down one enemy after another. After tumbling away from a cone of freezing air, an elf finds her feet and draws back her bow to loose an arrow at the white dragon. Shrugging off the wave of fear that emanates from the dragon like the cold of its breath, she sends one arrow after another to find the gaps between the dragon's thick scales. Holding his hand high, a half-elf whistles to the hawk that circles high above him, calling the bird back to his side. Whispering instructions in Elvish, he points to the owlbear he's been tracking and sends the hawk to distract the creature while he readies his bow. Far from the bustle of cities and towns, past the hedges that shelter the most distant farms from the terrors of the wild, amid the dense-packed trees of trackless forests and across wide and empty plains, rangers keep their unending watch. Deadly Hunters Warriors of the wilderness, rangers specialize in hunting the monsters that threaten the edges of civilization: humanoid raiders, rampaging beasts and monstrosities, terrible giants, and deadly dragons. They learn to track their quarry as a predator does, moving stealthily through the wilds and hiding themselves in brush and rubble. Rangers focus their combat training on techniques that are particularly useful against specific foes, learning to counter their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. To this aim, rangers spend a considerable time studying and observing their quarry, so they may learn its anatomy and tactics and prepare spells and weapons accordingly to overcome it. Thanks to their familiarity with the wilds, rangers acquire the ability to cast spells that harness nature's power, much as a druid does. Their spells, like their combat abilities, emphasize speed, stealth, and the hunt. A ranger's talents and abilities are honed with deadly focus on the grim task of protecting the borderlands. Independent Adveturers Though a ranger might make a living as a hunter, a guide, or a tracker, a ranger's true calling is to defend the outskirts of civilization from the ravages of monsters and humanoid hordes that press in from the wild. In some places, rangers gather in secretive orders or join forces with druidic circles. Many rangers, though, are independent almost to a fault, knowing that, when a dragon or a band of orcs attacks, a ranger might be the first-and possibly the last-line of defense. This fierce independence makes rangers well suited to adventuring, since they are accustomed to life far from the comforts of a dry bed and a hot bath. Faced with city-bred adventurers who grouse and whine about the hardships of the wild, rangers respond with some mixture of amusement, frustration, and compassion. But they quickly learn that other adventurers who can carry their own weight in a fight against civilization's foes are worth any extra burden. Coddled city folk might not know how to feed themselves or find fresh water in the wild, but they make up for it in other ways. Creating a Ranger As you create your ranger character, consider the nature of the training that gave you your particular capabilities. Did you train with a single mentor, wandering the wilds together until you mastered the ranger's ways? Did you leave your apprenticeship, or was your mentor slain? Or perhaps you learned your skills as part of a band of rangers affiliated with a druidic circle, trained in mystic paths as well as wilderness lore. You might be self-taught, a recluse who learned combat skills, tracking, and even a magical connection to nature through the necessity of surviving in the wilds. Is your adventuring career a continuation of your work in protecting the borderlands, or a significant change? What made you join up with a band of adventurers? Do you find it challenging to teach new allies the ways of the wild, or do you welcome the relief from solitude that they offer? Quick Build You can make a ranger quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. (Some rangers who focus on melee-weapon figthing make Strength higher than Dexterity.) Second, choose the outlander background. Class Features As a ranger, you gain the following class features. Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d10 per ranger level

1d10 per ranger level Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier

10 + your Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per ranger level after 1st Proficiencies Armor: Light amor, medium armor, shields

Light amor, medium armor, shields Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons

Simple weapons, martial weapons Tools: None Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity

Strength, Dexterity Skills: Choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth and Survival Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: (a) scale mail or (b) leather armor

(a) two shortswords or (b) two simple melee weapons

(a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack

A quiver of 20 arrows and (a) a longbow or (b) a shortbow

The Ranger Level Proficiency Bonus Features 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 1st +2 Favored Enemy, Deft Explroer — — — — — 2nd +2 Fighting Style, Spellcasting 2 — — — — 3rd +2 Ranger Conclave, Primeval Awereness 3 — — — — 4th +2 Ability Score Improvement, Deft Explorer 3 — — — — 5th +3 Extra Attack 4 2 — — — 6th +3 Greater Favored Enemy, Deft Explorer 4 2 — — — 7th +3 Ranger Conclave feature 4 3 — — — 8th +3 Ability Score Improvement, Deft Explorer 4 3 — — — 9th +4 — 4 3 2 — — 10th +4 Expert Ambusher, Deft Explorer 4 3 2 — — 11th +4 Ranger Conclave feature 4 3 3 — — 12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 4 3 3 — — 13th +5 — 4 3 3 1 — 14th +5 Feral Senses, Deft Explorer 4 3 3 1 — 15th +5 Ranger Conclave feature 4 3 3 2 — 16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 4 3 3 2 — 17th +6 — 4 3 3 3 1 18th +6 Pack Hunter 4 3 3 3 1 19th +6 Ability Score improvement 4 3 3 3 2 20th +6 Foe Slayer 4 3 3 3 2 Favored Enemy Beginning at 1st level, you can mentally prepare to hunt a particular prey, focusing on your quarry's weaknesses. Choose a type of favored enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, humanoids, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. You gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against creatures of the chosen type. Additionally, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can change the creature type of your favored enemy. Deft Explorer Starting at 1st level, you are an unsurpassed explorer and survivor. Choose one of the following benefits, and then choose another one at 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 14th level. Canny Choose one skill: Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Stealth, or Survival. You gain proficiency in the chosen skill if you don't already have it, and you can add double your proficiency bonus to ability checks using that skill. In addition, thanks to your extensive wandering, you are able to speak, read, and write two languages of your choice. Roving Your walking speed increases by 5 feet, and you gain a climbing speed and a swimming speed equal to your walking speed. Tireless As an action, you can give yourself a number of temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier. You can use this special action a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Additionally, whenever you finish a short rest, your exhaustion level, if any, is decreased by 1. Tracer You are an expert trailer, gaining the following benefits: When you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.

If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.

If you have been traveling for an hour or more, difficult terrain doesn't slow your groups travel.

You have advantage on initiative rolls, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. You also ignore difficult terrain. Vanishing You can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn, and you can't be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail. You can also use a bonus action to magically become invisible, along with any equipment you are wearing or carrying, until the start of your next turn. Once you do this, you can't do so again until you finsih a short or long rest. Fighting Style At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. Archery You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons. Defense While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC. Dueling When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. Two-Weapon Figthing When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack. Spellcasting By the time you reach 2nd level, you have learned to use the magical essence of nature to cast spells, much as a druid does. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting and chapter 11 for the ranger spell list. Preparing and Casting Spells The Ranger table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your ranger spells. To cast one of your ranger spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You prepare the list of ranger spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the ranger spell list. When you do so, choose a number of ranger spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + half your ranger level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, if you are a 5th-level ranger, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Wisdom of 14, your list of prepared spells can include four spells of 1 st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st-level spell cure wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn't remove it from your list of prepared spells. You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of ranger spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list. Spellcasting Ability Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your ranger spells, since your magic draws on your attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a ranger spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. Spell save DC= 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier Spell attack modifier= your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier Ranger Conclave At 3rd level, you choose to emulate the ideals and training of a ranger conclave: the Beastmaster Conclave or the Hunter Conclave, detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level. Primeval Awareness Beginning at 3rd level, your mastery of ranger lore allows you to establish a powerful link to beasts and to the land around you. You have an innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize you as a kindred spirit. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas to a beast as an action, and can read its basic mood and intent. You learn its emotional state, whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs (such as food or safety), and actions you can take (if any) to persuade it to not attack. You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within the past 10 minutes. Additionally, you can attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from you. If there are multiple groups of your favored enemies within range, you learn this information for each group. Ability Score Improvement When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. Extra Attack Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Greater Favored Enemy At 6th level, you are ready to face your prey's most deadly assaults, and to exploit their weaknesses even further. You can now choose two favored enemies at the end of a long rest. Your bonus to damage rolls against your favored enemies increases to +4. Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities used by your favored enemies. Expert Ambusher At 10th level, you have mastered the art of ambuscading your foes. On the first round of combat, you and your allies have advantage on attack rolls against any creatures that haven't taken a turn in the combat yet. Additionally, when you attempt to hide, you can remain perfectly still. As long as you don't move on your turn, creatures attempting to detect you suffer a -10 penalty to their Wisdom (Perception) checks to do so until the start of your next turn. You lose this benefit if you move or fall prone, either voluntarily or by an outside force. You are still automatically detected if any effect or action causes you to no longer be hidden. If you are still hidden on your next turn, you can continue to remain motionless and gain this benefit until you are detected. Feral Senses At 14th level, you learn to focus all your senses to help you fight creatures you can't see. An inability to see a creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it or grant it advantage on attack rolls against you. You are also aware of the location of any creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn't hidden from you and you aren't blinded or deafened. Pack hunter Beginning at 18th level, you can share your knowledge of monsters and the tactics you use to best them with your allies, preparing them for the dangers ahead. When you finish a long rest, choose a number of allies equal to your Wisdom modiier (minimum of one) who you teach your tactics to and share tricks with. They gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against your favored enemies, and advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities used by them. This bonus lasts until you finish a long rest. Foe Slayer At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Every creature type is considered a favored enemy, and you no longer have to choose them at long rests. In addition, once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied. Ranger Conclaves Across the wilds, rangers come together to form conclaves: loose groups whose members share a similiar outlook on how to best protect nature from those who would despoil it. Beastmaster Conclave Many rangers are more at home in the wilds than in civilization, to the point where critters consider them kin. Rangers of the Beastmaster Conclave develop a close bond with a beast, strengthened by their druidic magic. Animal Companion At 3rd level, you learn to use your magic to create a powerful bond with a creature of the wilds. With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 50 gp worth of rare herbs and fine food, you call forth an animal from the wilderness to serve as your faithful companion. Choose any beast no larger than Medium and that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower. Typical companions include an ape, a blood hawk, a black bear, a boar, a flying snake, a giant badger, a giant bat, a giant wolf spider, a panther, or a wolf. At the end of the 8 hours, your animal companion appears and gains all the benefits of your Companion's Bond ability. You can have only one animal companion at a time. If your animal companion is ever slain, the magical bond you share allows you to return them to life. With 8 hours of work and 25 gp worth of rare herbs and fine food, you call forth your companion's spirit and use your magic to create a new body for them. You can return an animal companion to life in this manner even if you do not possess any part of their body. If you use this ability to return a former animal companion to life while you have a current animal companion, your current companion leaves you and is replaced by the restored companion. Companion's Bond Your animal companion gains a variety of benefits while they are linked to you, and loses their Multiattack action, if they have one. The companion follows your cues as best as they can. They take their turn on your initiative. You decide where they move during their turn, and you can use your action to signal them to take any action available to them. If you don't give any cues, the companion takes the same action they took on their last turn. If they can't, they take the Dodge action. Your companion never requires your signal to use their reaction or any bonus actions. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on their own. When you gain the Tracer feature, you and your animal companion can both move stealthily at a normal pace. Your companion uses your proficiency bonus rather than their own. In addition to the areas where they normally use their proficiency bonus, an animal companion also adds their proficiency bonus to their AC and to their damage rolls. Your animal companion gains proficiency in two skills of your choice and becomes proficient with all saving throws. For each ranger level you gain after the 3rd, your animal companion gains an additional hit die and increases their hit points accordingly.