Well met, r/DnDnext! glad to see you around this neck of the woods! im back and so is my curiosity, in this case my favored topic is your Rangers. we may know them with other names: hunters, foresters, mountain men... fun spanish fact, the class in spanish is called Explorador (Explorer), which is a missed oportunity for me, since in Lord of the Rings aragorn was called a ranger (that's where the name of the class comes from), wich means they sould have caled the class Mountain man in spanish (Montaraz).

lets not beat around the bush and lets talk about your Rangers: who did you take inspiration from? how do they function mechanically? what about their story? where do they thrive? do you use the new 2024 rules, the old 2014 rules or a homebrew version? subclasses, favored weapons, favored spells (if they use spells), and companions, if they have any.

im not going to say "oh, ranger should be this!" or "Ranger should have a defined fantasy" because i just want to learn about you guys and have a good time, not start debates. this might give me ideas for other posts...

lets start this hunt by bringing some bait by adding a few rangers that i made.

\-Edmund, The forest watcher: a centaur adopted by a family of sheep herders, Edmund decided to travel through the world to learn the things that he cant learn about in the farm. uses a longbow and a glaive. this character inspired me to make my own version of the centaur race. a hunter ranger

\-The Great Gamatachi: a grung homebrew (replaced the poison inmunity and skin with a grease spell that can be ignited.) that is also a multiclass of Ranger and Monk. the Great Gamatachi uses darts as ninja stars, The Great Gamatachi's land companion is a bigger toad with a katana and The Great Gamatachi can summon other members if the clan.

I think if they kept Favored Enemy and had some feature that said "creatures of the X type are always treated as being under the hunter's mark spell for you" it would allow them to have the flavor they've had for decades while also not hindering them beyond belief by locking everything behind concentration, especially by Hunter's Mark

I also just like the pf2e ranger where they have different subclasses that give them different ways to really just be the menace to their targeted foe.

I think a lot of the options given to Arcane Archer would be dope for a ranger, unfortunately.

My idea is that the ranger will keep being a mess unless they make someone unhappy.

There are too many directions that class is trying to follow. But cutting some of them would take away an option from someone that grew attached to it.

Otherwise I think rangers could have a strong identity as the Pet class.
A warrior of nature with his animal/ drake/fey companion

I'm fond of a Swarmkeeper Goblin named Waxx, who was the runt in his tribe, and because of being so small, he managed to escape while most of his tribe was eaten by hill giants. Stepping up to be the hero the remaining refugees needed, he uses his beekeeping skills and hunting prowess to track down the giants who destroyed his home. (As a side note, since he was played in a one-shot and I got lucky, he actually never misses with his now canonically)

There must be a reason why they chose to make the arcane archer a fighter subclass instead of a ranger one, but i still dont know why...

but anyway, have you made any Ranger character?

"pathfinder fixes this, as always"

but lets talk about your ranger characters. what inspired you to make them?

a possible option. i also had one, but its too big of a change to be put in just one comment.

besides, this is about the rangers you made: any ranger of your creation that you preffer?

i do believe the same, you cant make everyone happy. this applies to everything.

but i want to hear about your rangers: any great ranger/ companion duo that comes to mind?

goblin apicultor, now that is something you dont see everyday. one would expect a swarmkeeper to be a druid, but i wont complain (i like combining ninja from naruto with this subclass so it works for me).

I really like PF2's ranger. Subclasses are either fewer larger hits, many smaller hits, or a monster knowledge expert (PF2 encourages you to use recall knowledge actions to help target spells at weak saves).

They can pick up a pet but don't have to. They can get opportunity attacks, which are rare and powerful in PF2, more like the Sentinel feat. They can pick up a few spells that they can cast once per encounter - but these spells are as individually strong as a full caster's top level spell, just situational, e.g at the same time the wizard gets fly the ranger can grow wings, or the ranger's heal-my-pet spell is always as big as the cleric's best single target heal. And they have reasonable builds in melee and out, dual wielding, polearm or bow.

I did, I played one until level 6. I did the hand crossbow juggling build and it was a lot of fun, but was starting to seem limiting. Damage was ok for the level, but it was getting to the point where spells were looking more appealing. Except hunters mark. I would almost always prefer to use a bonus action attack vs. hunters mark unless it was one large boss creature

Probably the arcane part. Rangers are already divine casters.

I think its simple as fighters can make fantastic archers