A woodsman and tracker, as well as dangerous fighter, the Ranger combines good combat skills with a few extra abilties that give them many options and decisions during adventures. The Ranger boasts the courage of a Warrior, and the stealth and self-reliance of a Rogue, and the Druid's affinity for the outdoors. They are hunters, trackers, and survivalists. By temperment and by choice, they are loners, often preferring the company of animals to people. Without question, they are one with Nature, sworn to protect the inhabitants of the wildernesss and perserve the integrity of the land.
The Ranger's origins can be traced to the time when isolated settlements were first founded in unclaimed areas of wilderness, or in areas occuppied only by savage humanoid tribes. Those who were at first hunters, trappers, and guides were turned by the necessities of survival into canny wilderness warriors; and ultimately into the principle protectors of the scattered settles of humans and demihumans, which had to fend off countless humanoid raids.
Few in number, but effective far beyond the power of local militias or the occasional military patrol of the ruling lord, the Rangers have kept a protective watch on the forward fontier areas of civilization. There are seldom more than one or two to be found in any place, but somehow, as a group, they manage to cover huge areas of the frontier. Where the tide of expansion has been turned back, they are the last to fight a desperate rear guard action against the encroaching hordes of marauding humanoids.
