D&D 5E Basic Build Series: Ranger

Author: Solardwagon

The Ranger is a much maligned class that is actually a powerful asset to any party, contributing strong, reliable weapon damage while supplementing the party with utility and adding more damage from its Spellcasting. This build, part of our Basic Build Series, uses the Hunter archetype in combination with the Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter feats to make a powerful ranged damage dealer. While the Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything optional class features are included in the build, using only the Player’s Handbook features they replace does not impact the overall structure or tactics of the build, or result in anything more than a minor loss in comfort and power. The Hunter subclass gives us a suite of damage boosts, as well as some comfortable defensive tools, to complement the damage and control that base Ranger provides.

Race: Human (Variant)

Ability Score Increases – +1 Dex, +1 Wis. These are important stats for us and we will only be taking one “half feat” during our progression.
Feat – Crossbow Expert. This will give us an additional attack on our turn using our bonus action. While at higher levels we have some competition for this bonus action, this is always going to be a strong option. It also allows us to ignore any penalty from enemies getting into melee with us, and therefore continue using the attacks we’ve specialized into.
Skill – Perception. The most used skill in the game, important for every character. 
Languages – Common and Elvish. The language choice doesn’t really matter, as it is campaign dependent and should be discussed with the DM. It can be useful to speak different languages from the rest of the party, or to have one obscure non-Common language that the entire party shares, so you can converse without the NPCs knowing what you’re talking about. 

Class: Ranger

Skills – Nature, Stealth, Survival. We’re a Ranger, we’re going to act like it. Stealth is important for gaining surprise, and we have the tools to achieve this. Survival and Nature are handy but also the bread and butter of what players think of for a “Ranger,” but are less important than Stealth.
Favored Foe (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – This gives us some minor free damage, replacing the very low-impact and campaign dependent Favored Enemy.
Deft Explorer (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – Canny. Perception, Draconic, Dwarven. The languages should be picked with some thought to the campaign, or towards the party. Stealth is an alternate Expertise that can be worth having at higher levels, or knowledge based skills that we might otherwise struggle with. This replaces the again low-impact and campaign dependent Natural Explorer.

Ability Scores

8 Str, 15+1 Dex, 15 Con, 8 Int, 15+1 Wis, 8 Cha

Dexterity is our main attacking stat and helps with initiative to give us a better chance of going first to damage or even kill important targets. Wisdom helps with Perception, an extremely important skill, and plays into the Ranger archetype strongly.

Background (Custom)

Skills – Acrobatics, Animal Handling. Acrobatics will help us escape grapples, and Animal Handling is a nice thematic pick, but feel free to choose something else if you would like, as it’s not an important choice.
Tools – Pan flute, smith’s tools. A wind instrument is always worth a consideration for potential pipes of haunting.
Feature – Wanderer. We get actual wilderness stuff. Nice.
Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW. Page 125 of the PHB states: “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and roleplaying suggestions. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.” Using this, we are making a custom background and using the Wanderer feature.

Equipment

Ranger Starting Equipment

• Scale mail. This gives us much better AC, and gets us used to the downsides of medium armor.
• 2 shortswords. Worth the most to sell for our hand crossbow.
• Explorer’s pack (or Dungeoneer’s, depending on your campaign). Torches and stuff. Useful.
• Longbow. Thankfully worth a lot to sell for our hand crossbow.

Outlander Background Starting Equipment

• A staff
• Hunting trap
• A trophy from an animal you killed
• Set of traveler’s clothes
• Pouch containing 10 gold

Purchasing Goals

• Hand crossbow. Between background, longbow, and short-swords we have 80 gp worth to buy the crossbow, and arrows should be convertible by value similarly. If not, we’ll use the longbow until we get a chance to buy up.
• Supplies of bolts. We shoot quite rapidly, so having large supplies will be necessary for tables that track per piece. Use unencumbered party members as packhorses if necessary.
• Half plate. The best AC we are proficient with.
• Bullseye lantern. A directional light source.
• Consumables: potions of healing, caltrops, ball bearings, the works.
• A magic hand crossbow as we head into higher levels to keep at least our own damage relevant against creatures with resistance or immunity to non-magical attacks.
• A riding horse, to both carry our cargo and serve us as a mount in battle.

Level 1 Strategy

We don’t have any concentration spells to worry about yet, so throwing Favored Foe at anything likely to not die instantly is a good trick. Stay at the back, shoot things, and stay out of trouble. This doesn’t really change significantly for a while.

Level 2 Ranger

Fighting Style – Archery. This gives us a significant to-hit bonus which will be even more impactful once we get the Sharpshooter feat later.
Spellcasting – Being a half caster elevates ranger above the oft quoted “Fighter with a bow.” Spells known is a difficult system to navigate but the standouts on the Ranger list make it easy for us.

Absorb elements – This spell can be a literal lifesaver when faced with elemental blasts. These blasts are uncommon at this level, so if you find yourself not using it, entangle can be a great alternative to solve encounters early. However you’ll want absorb elements back in your list permanently by tier 2 at the latest, as blasts become much more common.
Goodberry – This spell is a great workhorse for stretching party hit points. Cast it at the end of a day, eat the berries tomorrow when you need to. 24 hour duration!

Level 2 Strategy

No hunter’s mark? We don’t need it! Because we use Crossbow Expert, we have a much more consistent source of bonus attack damage. Because of the constant switching of targets for the spell eating bonus attacks, it’s just not worth it for us to concentrate on; the math doesn’t work out in hunter’s mark’s favor until you have an unusually long combat with  a single enemy. We make sure to use our spells to enhance the survival of ourselves and our party instead. Otherwise, keep shooting.

Level 3 Ranger

Ranger Archetype – Hunter. This subclass has a suite of abilities that boost our damage or defense in commonly encountered situations. 
Hunter’s Prey (Hunter feature) – Horde Breaker. This gives us frequent extra attacks simply from fighting enemies that stand next to each other. More attacks, more damage output. Colossus Slayer is also a great option here for better focus fire if your DM mainly uses single big enemies in encounters.
Primeval Awareness – Sometimes it’s just really good to know what is nearby. Spending a spell slot, or 10 hit points if you assume it was going to be a cast of goodberry, to know that the green dragon you have been hunting is within a mile is a great piece of information! Similarly, if you’re on watch expecting an attack from Zargon, Prince of Undead, and there weren’t undead within a mile earlier, and you do this again and now there are, that’s suspicious! This can be swapped for the more straightforward Primal Awareness if you prefer a handful of utility spells, but either is fine.
Spell Changes: +fog cloud.

Fog cloud – This is a very convenient spell for equalizing bad situations. Obscurement turns attack rolls into flat rolls without Blindsight, thanks to advantage and disadvantage cancelling out, and hinders casters as many useful spells require line of sight. Creatures that don’t take the Hide action should still have their location known according to the Rules as Written

Level 4 Ranger

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Sharpshooter. Taking this improves our effective range significantly, as we no longer suffer disadvantage between 30 and 120 feet. For most AC’s that we will see, taking the penalty to hit is worth it to use the -5/+10 portion of this feat. The only common exception is enemies that would die to a non-Sharpshooter attack, or very high AC targets.

Level 5 Ranger

Extra Attack – We do more damage. Great. Our main job!
Spell Changes: +aid, +pass without trace, -fog cloud.

Aid – If you don’t have a full caster with the spell already, this can be a fantastic boost to the durability of a party, and can also be used in combat as a multi-target pickup. Darkvision can also be considered for this spot if it’s regularly an issue, as can lesser restoration.
Pass without trace – This is one of the standout spells in the entire game. It makes gaining surprise according to the rules entirely realistic, since it brings up the minimum possible Stealth roll for everyone. We use this whenever we think we’re likely to meet significant encounters, as successful surprise is a literally free round of actions for our party.

Level 5 Strategy

We’ve got some meatier spells now, so finding the right time to precast pass without trace between combats is going to produce some great results. We’re also doing a lot of damage with Extra Attack, Sharpshooter, our bonus action hand crossbow attack, and Horde Breaker all singing along, but we still prefer to sit in the back and keep shooting. Goodberry is happy to use up any unspent higher level slots on easy adventuring days just as well as 1st level slots.

Level 6 Ranger

Favored Foe improvement – Going from 1d4 to 1d6 means 1 more average damage per turn. Not a big deal, but we’re not complaining. 
Deft Explorer (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – Roving. Climb speed can be a fantastic boost, and the extra 5 feet of movement can open gaps against many standard enemies.

Level 7 Ranger

Defensive Tactics (Hunter feature) – Steel Will. Being frightened will cut our damage significantly, and can hinder movement, and we don’t have proficiency in Wisdom saves so having this boost is important.
Spell Changes: +fog cloud.

Level 8 Ranger

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Resilient (Con). This gives us a boost to our Constitution score, upping our total hit points as the game gets tougher, and more importantly makes our concentration much harder to break, as we have multiple casts of pass without trace a day to protect, and are about to have even more powerful concentration spells next level. 
Land’s Stride – Neat. Moving easier is nice.

Level 9 Ranger

Spell changes: +conjure animals, +plant growth, -fog cloud.

Conjure animals – Depending on the level of control you have over this spell, it can range from absolutely fantastic to merely solid. Our What to Ask Before Playing a Druid guide covers a lot of the important points to talk about with your DM regarding this spell. Wolves are a great option for raw damage, but control and even out of combat mounts are available as well. See the specific entry in Top 5 Damage Dealing Spells for damage calculations.
Plant growth – A potentially powerful spell (also discussed in the above “Druid Questions” post) that can absolutely shut down entire encounters in the right place and ruling. Revivify is a competitor for this slot.

Level 9 Strategy

At this level, we pick up a potentially huge damage and utility bump in the form of conjure animals. While well worth casting even in combat, if we can manage to precast this and then keep it through multiple combats, this is a huge bump in our overall power. As we did for the Druid Basic Build, we are assuming that you have worked with your DM to identify acceptable creatures in advance and can choose between them freely. In our experience, this approach speeds up play without unbalancing the game.. Wolves are a great animal to use as a baseline for comparison thanks to Pack Tactics, whereas velociraptors are a touch too strong or off-theme for some games. With nearly any house rules for handling conjure animals short of an adversarial DM giving you quippers (on land) when you cast the spell, it will be effective. Pass without trace remains fantastic to intersperse with our conjure animals, giving us options to concentrate on for most of a day if we can manage to not lose them during combat. Aid upcasts nicely as a buff as well.

Conjure animals does lose some steam against resistant enemies here as we approach tier 3 play, but can still be a solid boost, especially if using animals with utility such as giant constrictor snakes. Taking Help actions to aid the party instead can also be an option that even has value against entirely immune enemies. “Conjure Airstrike” as laid out in the What happens when a creature wants to drop from high up and fall on an enemy? section of the Druid questions article can also be an option even against immune enemies, as fall damage is not attack damage. This spell will do us well for the rest of our career.

Level 10 Ranger

Deft Explorer (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – Tireless. Being able to give ourselves temporary hit points before combat is great, as they last until a long rest is completed. Exhaustion isn’t normally a big deal most days, but getting rid of it faster is nice.
Nature’s Veil (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – This is probably the most significant of the Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything optional features, especially for Hunter, as being able to give ourselves what is effectively greater invisibility for a turn is a pretty solid burst damage increase thanks to the advantage granted, both for using Volley and even potentially for focus fire depending on situation. The default feature Hide in Plain Sight is highly situational, only useful for setting up ambushes on our own.

Level 11 Ranger

Multiattack (Hunter feature) – Volley. Obviously we’re taking the ranged option over the melee one, given our decisions up to this point.
Spell Changes: +revivify.

Revivify – One more person being able to cast this is hard to argue against. Someone might have to occasionally revivify the Cleric, after all.

Level 11 Strategy

Volley is an interesting ability that takes a bit of thinking to use well. Since using it isn’t taking the Attack action, using it means we don’t get a bonus action attack from Crossbow Expert. This means that using it on any less than 3 enemies is outright making less attacks than normal, and even at 3 enemies it means we’re spreading out our attacks rather than focusing fire on the enemies we want to, which is normally the wrong option. However, we have Nature’s Veil as a bonus action setup, giving us advantage on the whole volley, so this can still be relevant for the 3 target situation. Volley does however still activate Horde Breaker, so no need to worry about losing attacks there. Densely packed enemies make this considerably stronger, as up to 16 enemies can fit horizontally in the area, which would turn this into an impressive action. While our spells are starting to do real work, we should still remember to focus fire on targets one at a time with our own weapon attacks.

Level 12 Ranger

Ability Score Improvement – +2 Dex. We do make a lot of attacks, so finally getting to increase our attacking score is going to feel nice against the creatures with increasing Armor Class we’re facing.

Level 13 Ranger

Spell Changes: +conjure woodland beings, +guardian of nature, -revivify.

Conjure woodland beings – We want to focus on summoning useful spellcasters here, like dryads. If we can’t guarantee results, this is a much sketchier spell pick as it’s a high power slot that relies heavily on payoff, so consider other spells like revivify, or lesser restoration.
Guardian of nature – An insurance spell for giving us a boost when fighting enemies completely immune to non-magical damage from our conjure animals. This is assuming we have a magic weapon by now, which if not it might be time to reroll a full caster. The terrain control is a nice bonus.

Level 14 Ranger

Favored Foe improvement – By this point we’re concentrating on a long duration spell nearly all the time so this increasing to a d8 is basically irrelevant. But nice if it ever comes up.
Vanish – Talk to your DM about how Hide interacts with Volley. If the interpretation is that advantage only applies to one attack, this isn’t a big deal, but if it applies to the full Volley, this could be a valid strategy.

Level 15 Ranger

Spell Changes: +revivify.

Superior Hunter’s Defense (Hunter feature) – Evasion. While all of these have some value, Evasion protects us from some of the highest burst effects in the game, substantially reducing the chance of being one-shotted by blasts and some breath weapons.

Level 16 Ranger

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Lucky. Rerolling saving throws or massive critical hits would have been a potential lifesaver long before this point in the game, so it’s nice to finally have it. As a Ranger, we do not have strong defenses against many of the most debilitating spells and effects, thus we delay capping our Dexterity for now.

Level 17 Ranger

Spell Changes: +greater restoration.

Greater restoration – A fairly solid but situational spell. This is not going to be the way we spend most of our new 5th level slots, though.

Level 17 Strategy

While we picked a situational 5th level spell, conjure animals upcasts to 5th level for double the animals! Tough to pick what to use our slots on, but if someone else can normally handle greater restoration, it’s good to let them. At this point we should be concentrating on something at basically all times when adventuring.

Level 18 Ranger

Feral Senses – It is entirely reasonable for us to be fighting invisible enemies at this level, so having inbuilt counters isn’t a complete waste of a level, although half the feature doesn’t do anything if invisibility is being played correctly! Invisible creatures that have not hidden have known locations according to Rules as Written. It’s worth noting that in mutual obscurement situations this actually gives us advantage, and similarly if we have advantage from another source.

Level 19 Ranger

Ability Score Improvement – +2 Dex. We finally raise our Dexterity to 20, maximizing our attacking Ability Score.
Spell Changes: +lesser restoration.

Lesser restoration – At this point we’re just picking spells that do something useful but niche, because our main options at each level are quite reliable and flexible. But having this can save us or our party from some annoying conditions, and plenty of stuff by now is slinging conditions casually. Freedom of movement as a 4th level spell known could also be a great pick.

Level 20 Ranger

Foe Slayer – This capstone is literally useless for us. Thanks Tasha. If we had the Favored Enemy feature, this might be worth something to have a +3 to an attack roll once per turn… in the situational case we were actually fighting those Favored Enemies. Given that we’re concentrating on leveled spells around the clock by now, we’re basically never using Favored Foe, so feel free to multiclass Rogue for a tiny damage boost or Cleric for some domain features if your DM allows multiclassing.

Bonus Content: Damage per Round by Level

Author: The Pi Guy

A common criticism is that the Ranger (especially the PHB subclasses) are underpowered. Here we’ve included a DPR calculation for the above build to show that this isn’t necessarily the case on damage.