So I will soon join a DND 5e campaign and was planing on playing a ranger. Since I am new to DND 5e and mostly played pathfinder before I would need some recommendations on subclasses or alternatives.
What strong ranger like classes does 5e offer?
>>46560819
Well, the Hunter archetype does reasonably well for most of the game, but if your just looking for "really good, outdoorsy archer man" Battlemaster Fighter with the Outlander background is nearly as good as a ranger at what the ranger does best, and is far far superior mechanically.
>>46560819
>What strong ranger like classes does 5e offer?
Well... Ranger, I guess.
If you're just looking for the shooty longbow action then fighters are a better choice in terms of raw damage output.
So if I choose the Hunter archetype would it make sense to take levels in fighter or rogue?
Depends what you want.
Like the other anons have said, if you want to be a cool archer man you should just go fighter and take the outlander feat to do most of your "outdoorsman" things through RP.
Rangers as a class hold up pretty well until about level 10, after which they start to get overshadowed by the other martial classes. That being said, this is 5e so you'll at least be somewhat useful unless your group are powergaming fuckwits who only care about maxing DPR.
>>46560856
Multiclassing usually isn't worth it in 5e, unless you are getting one of a few specific front loaded features, such as the Assassination rogue, or anything warlock related. Fighter is a mediocre dip, although Action Surge is fantastic.
I would highly recommend either going full on with the hunter, maybe dipping rogue if you want to be stealthy, or just playing a woodsy fighter, you can even take Magic Initiate for a bit of the spell casting flavor.
>>46560856
I've never played a ranger myself, but I've played a couple of battlemaster fighters and their 'combat manuevers' are a lot of fun to use. You could always take a couple of levels in each class.
Beastmaster can be quite powerful as well, but it can depend quite heavily on how your DM runs the companion.
>>46560819
Well, first of all let me warn you away from the Class actually called Ranger. Or at least the beast master subclass. It's gimped very hard so as not to abuse action economy but ends up making you sacrifice class features for situational gains. The hunter subclass is marginally better and gives some nice flavorful options to make you adept at dealing with all manner of monsters. The main class is a martial and gets medium armor and martial weapons, extra attack, and a fighting style and a half-caster with a handful of spells that are useful with some preparation time.
Now, the better option if your idea of a ranger is a bow guy who shoots things is probably going to be the Battlemaster Fighter. It gets more attacks, more survivability, more damage output and more neat tricks you can do through superiority dice, more attribute bonuses/feats, and action surge for moments of true heroism. And everything recovers on a short rest, making you able to be a little more trigger happy than the ranger.
Now, if your DM allows Unearthed Arcana content (WotC published playtest supplements on their website) both the Scout Fighter subclass and the Monster Hunter Fighter subclass might be a good fit. They also have a new, better ranger subclass and rework of the ranger itself but it is highly imbalanced and only goes up the first 5 levels if I recall.
>>46560890
BM and 4 elements monks are pretty much the worst available archetypes, followed by bladelock.
That being said, 5e is relatively balanced, and so even the weakest archetypes aren't unplayable, just noticeably less effective if you compare them directly.
>>46560819
If you're after being a utility tracker/hunter then sure, Ranger. They're actually better suited to a sort of crowd control role and shine more in fights with multiple, weak opponents. Kind of your light cavalry who can cover the Wizard and support the front line. Grab a few utility spells to cover up spots your main casters can't and protect the party from ambushes.
If being Legolas is what you want, you want a Fighter with Archery Style.
>>46560899
Purely mechanically, I agree. But having a six-foot bear following you around can do some great things in terms of indimidation checks, or a hawk for tracking and survival, that kind of thing. That's why I specified that it's quite GM reliant.
Anyone has exp with the deep stalker archetype of unearthed arcana?
I think after reading all your suggestions, maybe the ranger isnt super weak, as I anticipated
>>46560952
I'm not saying your wrong, and i even said its playable, but there is little an animal companion really provides over Magic Initiate/Find Familiar that is mechanically viable.
The biggest limiting factor, and why your bear example isn't actually applicable, is that you can only have a CR 1/4 companion, and that never changes. Sure, it's more effective in combat than the normal 1/4 cr version of itself, but it still is going to be extremely limited.
>>46560984
To be more specific, a black bear is CR 1/2, a brown bear CR 1, and a polar/cave bear is CR 2.
If you have any desire to play a BM, i strongly urge you to talk to your DM about changing that restriction, especially at higher levels.
>>46560999
The one I was basing my assertion on was a falconer type character. He'd use speak with animals, and send the bird out to scout for us whilst he stayed with the group. That's probably why the CR limit didn't come into it.
I'm a little fuzzy on the details, because it wasn't me playing the character, but that's what I saw from an outside perspective.
So guys, have you ever had a group go up against an encounter you warned them not too, an encounter you EXPLICITLY tell them will get them killed, and they do it anyway and win?
My party of 5 (2 lvl 4s and 3 lvl 3s) went up against a vampire spawn nest of 6, each CR5, and won. There was a ludicrous amount of tactics used of course, but still, I'm amazed.
Bard with advantaged stealth sees them upstairs in undertakers house, party uses ball bearings and caltrips on stairs leading down, fighter and paladin tanks position themselves around bottom landing and make noise after bard is done. Vamps charge after first fails perception of BBs and CTs, 4/6 fall prone at bottom of stairs after hitting 2 squares of CTs. Druid uses Entangle, Light Cleric uses Fire Sphere directly on pile of fallen Vamps, bard uses viscous mokery on any spawn that manages to stand on BBs and beat Druid's Entagle. Every round Vamps have flame sphere, devotion pally's channel Divinity weapon, fighter's normal Gr8 Swd, and Cleric & druid dmg cantrips doing dmg. Bard has cast Bane on 3/6 successfully, so their rolls are cut. I had the one in the back who finally freed himself from triple disadvantage restrained double around and try to get outside and attack from behind, but in 3 rounds he couldn't get to the party before the other 5 are killed.
>>46561275
>DnD Swat Team busting in Vampire Dens
Sick
>>46561275
That's awesome. It shows that your players are ready for greater challenges. Hit them with harder shit. Make them think and work for their victories.
>>46561275
>2 lvl 4s and 3 lvl 3s
Why are you running for different-leveld PCs?
You didn't do something as stupid as have them earn XP at separate rates, did you?
