| Classes - Ranger |
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The forests are home to fierce and cunning creatures, such as bloodthirsty owlbears and malicious displacer beasts. But more cunning and powerful than these monsters is the ranger, a skilled hunter and stalker. He knows the woods as if they were his home (as indeed they are), and he knows his prey in deadly detail.
Adventures: Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. In addition, they often carry grudges against certain types of creatures and look for opportunities to find and destroy them. Additionally, rangers may adventure for all the reasons that fighters do.
Characteristics: The ranger is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and capable in combat. His skills allow him to survive in the wilderness, to find his prey, and to avoid detection. He also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. This knowledge makes him more capable of finding and defeating those foes. Finally, an experience ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on nature power to cast diving spells, much as a druid does.
Alignment: Rangers can be of any alignment. Most are good, and they are protectors of the wild areas. In this role, a ranger seeks out and destroys or drives off evil creatures that threaten the wilderness. Good rangers also protect those who travel through the wilderness, serving sometimes as guides and sometimes as unseen guardians. Rangers are also mostly chaotic, preferring to follow the ebb and flow of nature or of their own hearts instead of rigid rules. Evil rangers, though rare, are much to be feared. They revel in nature’s thoughtless cruelty and seek to emulate her most fearsome predators. They gain divine spells just as good rangers do, for nature herself is indifferent to good and evil.
Background: Some rangers gained their training as part of special military teams, but most learned their skills from solitary masters who accept them as students and assistants. The rangers of a particular master may count themselves as cohorts, or they may be rivals for the status of “best student” and this the rightful heir to their master’s fame.
::GAME RULE INFORMATION::
Paladins have the following game statistics:
Abilities: Dexterity is important for a ranger because rangers tend to wear light armor and because several ranger skills are based on Dexterity. Strength is important for them because rangers frequently get involved in combat. Several ranger skills are based on Wisdom, and a Wisdom score of 14 or higher is required to get access to the most powerful ranger spells. A Wisdom score of 11 or higher is required to cast any ranger spells at all.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A ranger is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields. When wearing light armor or no armor, a ranger can fight with two weapons as if he had the feats Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting. He loses this special bonus when fighting in medium or heavy armor, or when using a double-healed weapon (such as a double sword).
Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a ranger gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the ranger must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a ranger with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Ranger bonus spells are based on Wisdom and saving throws against these spells have a Difficulty Class of 10 + spell level + Wisdom modifier. When the ranger gets 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st level spells at 4th level, the ranger gets only bonus spells. A ranger without a bonus spell for that level cannot yet cast a spell of that level. A ranger has access to any spell on the list and can freely choose which to prepare. A ranger prepares and casts spells just like a cleric does (though the ranger cannot use spontaneous casting to lose a spell and cast a cure or inflict spell in its place. Through 3rd level, a ranger has no caster level. Starting at 4th level, a ranger’s caster level is one-half his class level.
Track: A ranger gains Track as a bonus feat.
Favored Enemy: A 1st level, a ranger may select a type of creature (dragon, giants, goblinoids, undead, etc.) as a favored enemy. (A ranger can only select his own race as a favored enemy if he is evil.)Due to his extensive study of his foes and training in the proper techniques for combating them, the ranger gains a +1 bonus to Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, and Wilderness Lore checks when using these skills against this type of creature. Likewise, he gets the same bonus to weapon damage rolls against creatures of this type. A ranger also gets the damage bonus with ranged weapons, but only against targets within 30 feet ( the ranger cannot strike with deadly accuracy beyond that range). The bonus doesn’t apply to damage against creatures that are immune to critical hits. At 5th level and at every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th), the ranger may select a new favored enemy, and the bonus associated with every previously selected favored enemy goes up by +1.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: A ranger with a base attack bonus of at least 9 can choose to gain the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feat even if he does not have the other prerequisites for the feat. The ranger must be wearing light armor or no armor in order to use this benefit.
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