Ruins of Adventure
Ranger
Base Class Statistics:
- Ability Requirements: Stamina 13, Aim 13, Health 14, Intuition 14
- Alignments: Good (LG, NG, CG)
- Experience Chart: Warrior
- Hit Dice: d10
- Maximum Hit Dice: 9d10
- Additional Hit Points: +3 per level beyond 9th
- Attack: Warrior
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Saves:
- Paralyzation/Poison/Death: as Warrior
- Rods/Staves/Wands: as Warrior
- Petrification/Polymorph: as Warrior
- Breath Weapon: as Warrior
- Spell: as Warrior
- Proficiencies:
- Allowed Weapons: Any
- Allowed Armor: Any
Class Features:
All warriors gain the ability to make more than one melee attack per round as they rise in level. At 7th level, they can make 3 attacks every 2 rounds. At 13th level and up, they can make 2 attacks per round.
When engaged with large numbers of weak enemies (less than 1 HD each), the warrior gains double his normal number of attacks per round (including doubling attacks with off-hand weapons). Starting at 11th level, this applies to any foe with 10 fewer HD than the warrior’s levels (so a 12th level warrior can do this against 2HD creatures).
Although he has the basic skills of a warrior, the ranger also has several advantages. When wearing studded leather or lighter armor, a ranger can fight two-handed with no penalty to his attack rolls. Obviously, the ranger cannot use a shield when fighting this way. A ranger can still fight with two weapons while wearing heavier armor than studded leather, but he suffers the standard attack roll penalties.
The ranger is skilled woodsman. Even if the optional proficiency rules are not used, the ranger has Tracking proficiency. If the proficiency rules are used in your campaign, the ranger knows tracking without expending any points. Furthermore, this skill improves by +1 for every three levels the ranger has earned (3rd to 5th level, +1; 6th to 8th level, +2, etc.).
All Rangers gain a bonus to surprise opponents, but only if the ranger is not in metal armor. Even then, the ranger must either be alone or 90 feet or more away from his party to gain this bonus. If he fulfills these conditions, he moves so silently that opponents suffer a -4 penalty to their surprise die rolls. If the ranger must open a door or screen to attack, this penalty is reduced to -2. If the ranger gains similar abilities from another source, such as being an Elf, the penalty is increased by 2.
In their roles as protector of good, rangers tend to focus their efforts against some particular creature, usually one that marauds their homeland. Before advancing to 2nd level, every ranger must select a species enemy. Typical enemies include giants, orcs, lizard men, trolls, or ghouls; your DM has final approval on the choice. Thereafter, whenever the ranger encounters that enemy, he gains a +4 bonus to his attack rolls. This enmity can be concealed only with great difficulty, so the ranger suffers a -4 penalty on all encounter reactions with creatures of the hated type. Furthermore, the ranger will actively seek out this enemy in combat in preference to all other foes unless someone else presents a much greater danger.
Rangers are adept with both trained and untamed creatures, having a limited degree of animal empathy. If a ranger carefully approaches or tends any natural animal, he can try to modify the animal’s reactions. (A natural animal is one that can be found in the real world — a bear, snake, zebra, etc.) When dealing with domestic or non-hostile animals, a ranger can approach the animal and befriend it automatically. He can easily discern the qualities of the creature (spotting the best horse in the corral or seeing that the runt of the litter actually has great promise). When dealing with a wild animal or an animal trained to attack, the animal must roll a saving throw vs. rods to resist the ranger’s overtures. (This table is used even though the ranger’s power is non-magical.) The ranger imposes a -1 penalty on the die roll for every three experience levels he has earned (round up). If the creature fails the saving throw, its reaction can be shifted one category as the ranger chooses. Of course, the ranger must be at the front of the party and must approach the creature fearlessly.
A ranger may choose to specialize in a primary terrain. This confers a +2 bonus when tracking in that terrain, a +2 bonus when training animals from that terrain, a general +2 bonus on any proficiency check associated with that terrain, and an additional -2 penalty to anyone trying to track the ranger through his primary terrain. On the other hand, the terrain-specialized ranger has a -2 penalty in all terrains except the one in which he is specialized. This specialization in terrain does not cost any proficiency slots. The ranger cannot specialize in more than one type of terrain.
Rangers can build castles, forts, or strongholds, but do not gain any special followers by doing so. At 10th level, a ranger attracts 2d6 followers. These followers might be normal humans, but they are often animals or even stranger denizens of the land. These should be rolled randomly on the table in the Complete Ranger’s Handbook appropriate to the Ranger’s current terrain.
These followers arrive over the course of several months. often they are encountered during the ranger’s adventures (allowing you and your DM a chance to role-play the initial meeting). While the followers are automatically loyal and friendly toward the ranger, their future behavior depends on the ranger’s treatment of them. In all cases, the ranger does not gain any special method of communicating with his followers. He must either have some way of speaking to them or they simply mutely accompany him on his journeys. (“Yeah, this bear’s been with me for years. Don’t know why—he just seems to follow me around. I don’t own him and can’t tell him to do anything he don’t want to do,” said the grizzled old woodsman sitting outside the tavern.) Of course, the ranger is not obligated to take on followers. If he prefers to remain independent, he can release his followers at any time. They reluctantly depart, but stand ready to answer any call for aid he might put out at a later time.
A ranger must always retain his good alignment. If the ranger intentionally commits an evil act, he automatically loses his ranger status. Thereafter he is considered a fighter of the same level (if he has more experience points than a fighter of his level, he loses all the excess experience points). His ranger status can never be regained. If the ranger involuntarily commits an evil act (perhaps in a situation of no choice), he cannot earn any more experience points until he has cleansed himself of that evil. This can be accomplished by correcting the wrongs he committed, revenging himself on the person who forced him to commit the act, or releasing those oppressed by evil. The ranger instinctively knows what things he must do to regain his status (i.e., the DM creates a special adventure for the character).
Furthermore, rangers tend to be loners, men constantly on the move. They cannot have henchmen, hirelings, mercenaries, or even servants until they reach 8th level. While they can have any monetary amount of treasure, they cannot have more treasure than they can carry. Excess treasure must either be converted to a portable form or donated to a worthy institution (an NPC group, not a player character).
A ranger can learn priest spells, but only those of the Animal, Guardian, Plant, or Travelers spheres (see Compiled Priest Spells), when he reaches 6th level. The acquisition and casting of these spells abide by the rules given for priests. Unlike a priest, the ranger does not gain extra spells for a high Intuition score. The ranger cannot cast spells from clerical or druidical scrolls nor can he use priest items unless they are allowed to the warrior group.
| Ranger | Priest Spells | |||
| Level | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
| 6 | 1 | |||
| 7 | 2 | |||
| 8 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 9 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 10 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 11 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |
| 12 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
| 13 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |
| 14 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 15 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 16 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 17 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 18 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 19 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 20 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
by:
Brand_Darklight