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S1 Ep.10 - Class Review: Ranger · Bards and Barrels

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Bars and Barrels, the podcast for Dungeons and Dragons players, new and old.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Brett Miller, and I'm joined by my friends and co-hosts Phil Boone and Ross Drews.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be exploring the world of Dungeons and Dragons in each episode, sharing our experiences, offering tips and advice for those who play and run this classic game.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're a new player just starting out or a seasoned veteran, looking to get a new perspective on things, cards and barrels has something for everyone.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So sit back, grab a drink, and join us as we rubble for initiative and embark on this epic adventure.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, fellas.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what's up?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, are you ready for this one?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: We are jumping back into our class review.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So so far, we have reviewed the cleric, the barbarian, the warlock, and next up, the ranger.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Give me your first uh first thoughts on the ranger.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like the ranger is one of the most stereotypical classes out there.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean that in the most sincere, non-hateful way.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like when you think of a ranger, tell me you don't think of Legolas.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: So uh my initial impression after kind of reading through the material again, though, is uh versatility.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think we've siloed ourselves into that view of what a ranger looks like, and that's not the case.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what uh kind of uh caught me off guard when reviewing for this one.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna push back, Ross.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would say if you're talking Lord of the Rings, I don't think Legolas is your best example of a ranger.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Who's a better ranger?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Aragorn.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: How often does he fire a bow, though?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: He fights with a sword, he fights with a sword in like 90% of the time.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the time he's featuring more ranger uh ranger traits.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would say um Legolas is more of a ranger fighter hybrid.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, agree to disagree.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so, but okay, okay.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what other ones are out there?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh ones that other other ones that come to mind, Laura Croft.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Hawkeye.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Possibly.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Hawkeye, yep.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I I think there are versions of Robin Hood that potentially fall in that realm.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Not all, but some of them.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would agree with that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Robin Hood might be a ranger with a little bit of roguiness to him.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's multi-classing in 5e.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would say Katniss Everdeen is a very heavy, yes.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard because you can you can think of a lot of different examples that you would be a ranger, but they're not necessarily always going to be a bow wielder.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: There are some different types of rangers that don't necessarily have to use the bow.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think you you hit it on the head there, Brett, too, because uh as we kind of dip into some of these pieces later on, you know, you don't have to be a bow-wielding ranger.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: You truthfully could be maybe heavy on the defense side, or maybe your style is to use two different weapons and not even kind of harness a bow.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: You could still be a melee fighter built as a ranger.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think that's something that we think about with rangers back to your point earlier, Ross.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the initial impression you get.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so what other pro-cons do we have?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that uh I think the ranger makes it can make a great support character.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um it it is a pretty versatile damage dealer, right?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: So we've talked about, you know, you can hit range with your bow, uh, you can choose to go more of the two weapon style fighting and get some good melee damage in.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: But so you've got a couple different options there, but um their spellcasting feature tends to put them in almost more of a support class or a range support, you know, range slash support class, um, which I consider a pro.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You do get a little bit of magic mixed in there as well.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not great.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say you're not a main magic dealer wielder, but you do get some magic spell slots thrown in there.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're definitely limited in terms of your magic, like you don't get any cantrips, which I thought was interesting, and most of your spells are not damage dealing.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not battle magic, but definitely can help boost your party.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, a lot of kind of boons to yourself as well.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's there's ways around that too, and we'll we'll get to that a little later.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like depending on we when we did the character building episode, we talked about how you know we would pick class before race.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you would choose a high elf, you do get a cantrip, which would which would give you the the the option to do that.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So so there's some ways around that to give yourself some bonuses.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but but I agree 100% with you guys.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is a more versatile character than I probably gave it credit for, even though I still think it's like lost.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: Another pro that I had to here is uh this is one of the classes that gets an extra attack at fifth level, which I always think is huge.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna end up rolling a lot of dice.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So if you look at a building one of these, uh, how are you gonna structure a character?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I think if we kind of look at what the quick build um in the player's handbook has or the basic rules have, because I know we we tend to kind of start there.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, their suggestion is to hit Dex as your highest, but that is them leaning into the stereotypical bow-wielding ranger.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: So if that's not your interest, you know, you may end up building more of a strength style character than a dex character, but uh follow whichever one of those you choose up with wisdom because that's your spell casting modifier.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: So that's typically why your wisdom hits second.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, I think this is the first class that we've had so far where it's been like you need wisdom in there, but you can go this way or you can go this way.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want that melee type ranger, you you do strength instead of dexterity.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to be the long-range bow-wielding ranger, you would go Dex, right?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is the first time, this is definitely the first time we've seen that in the character or characters, the classes that we've gone through, uh, which probably makes this like right off the bat the most uh the the best character for like making decisions.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like it can really be what you want it to be.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say if you're going, especially more of a melee dealing character, constitution needs to be up there.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: True.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: From range, you might be able to get away with a little bit lower constitution.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would say though, intelligence is one we haven't touched on.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on your style of character, that could be really important as well.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the the skills that factor into an intelligence score, things like investigation, um, nature is probably gonna be pretty strong in some sort of uh ranger.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say be careful about throwing charisma as being like uh obviously with how we've been talking about so far, it's your dump stat, right?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're either gonna put nothing there, or depending on how you want to play the character, you may put some in charisma.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Again, going back to the stereotypical type of ranger, they're that, you know, black sheep of the party, so to speak, because people don't put stuff in charisma, and so they don't do a ton of talking, they don't do a lot of the persuading, any of that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like if you want to get away from that, move charisma up a little bit, but you're not gonna be able to move it too far because the other things constitution, strength, dexterity, wisdom, all need to be higher.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's just how this class works.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna end up with probably a lower charisma just based on the all the things we've already talked about that are more important in the in the short term.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think if you stick to the the build as well or the suggested build, they talk about using the outlander background, so it makes charisma like a pretty easy dump stat of hey, you know, I've been living in the woods, I haven't been around anyone, I'm a dirty little scoundrel, and uh, you know, that just is what it is.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I would say though, that's that's a dangerous way to go because if you're gonna be the lone wolf ranger, it's gonna be hard to fit into a party.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think you need to make sure you're building a type of ranger that is willing to talk to people, willing to be a part of a group that isn't just going to go off on their own all the time.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be a part of a party.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it could it could present itself in a way where like maybe they have a relationship with a specific character, so they still have those personality traits, but they save somebody's life, and so that's how they end up part of the party or something like that.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I I don't know.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I I think it could go both ways, but I see what you're what you're going for there.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think you can get uh attached to the rest of the party too by giving them a common enemy, because in essence, like a ranger is what stands between civilization and either a beast or anotherworldly being or something along those lines.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: So if you can give them a common em an enemy, I think you can still kind of unify a party that way as well.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh one f not final thing, but one more thing to throw in here is like when we talk about dump stats, it it it's like that's also thinking in the way of the the standard array for assigning your roles.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you YOLO and you roll good everywhere, you could have a ranger that's good across the board and also is very charismatic and can talk.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it all kind of depends on how you rolled or how you did your point by or whatever.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you guys just wait until I talk about my YOLO role.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but like we talked about when building a character, you're not set in those skill or those numbers forever.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: As you level up, you can continue to add to those.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you need to learn how to talk to people a little bit more and improve your charisma as part of your character development, that can be part of your leveling up.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, at the end of the day, if you still want to talk and try to persuade somebody, you can hope your DM gives you inspiration, you get an advantage on that role.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: So that's because you smell so bad, right?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's why you get intimidation, not persuasion.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you got a stank on you.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so guys, uh speaking of stank, I think we need to come clean a little bit.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: None of us have actually played a ranger.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: True, no.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So one thing we did coming into this episode was we set out on building our own rangers for the first time.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Going through it, we just went to level one.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So just getting started, what are you gonna pick?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so let's introduce it.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh introduce our characters.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Phil, why don't you kick us off?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, sure.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I created Farhorn Ill font and obviously Ranger class.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I went ahead and I chose the wood elf race because I wanted some of the benefits that come along with that race.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I YOLO'd my ability scores.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I went decks as my highest.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: Trying to figure out how to get to my raw scores here.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: Hold on, so you can see how bad it really was.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: You live by the dice dice.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: I rolled really well and then really not well, and that's kind of how mine went.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure how your guys ended up.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: You should have gone with the point buy and done the 15s and the zeros.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I dumped my 18 in dex, but then it also has a plus two, so my Dex is already a 20.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Plus five modifier.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Then I got a 14, and I decided I wanted constitution, so I hit constitution next.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I hadn't decided yet if I was going to be a melee fighter or a ranged fighter, so I put it in con.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I rolled two 13s, so I put one in strength and one in wisdom.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: I get an additional bump to my wisdom of plus one, so I'm up to 14 there, which matches my constitution.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I rolled a 10, put that in intelligence because I thought that I probably needed it there, because that flushes out as a zero.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then I rolled a five.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, which gives me a minus three to every charisma roll.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, talk about a dump stat.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where she went.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but as I was kind of looking through, you know, the different things that you can assign out to your character if you roll on the different tables for um the the details and traits and those types of things, characteristics, uh, there was one that I thought had fit pretty well.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was in fact raised by wolves, and I felt like that kind of negative charisma score.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so that's that's kind of how I tied that in a little bit more.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um inventory-wise, I did end up deciding that I with dumping that high into my decks, I was gonna go um longbow.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I went ahead and chose a longbow.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um picked up quarter staff, the two short swords.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um let's see.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think there was really anything other anything big at first level.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, my favorite enemy.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I decided to pick dragons.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite enemy.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll talk, I mean, we can talk about those pieces later, so that's one thing we have to pick.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then um, as far as my favorite terrain type, which you get as a ranger, I went with mountain.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of just trying to tie back to dragons.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, that's gonna be s that's something that's gonna be important to a campaign.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's sort of the route that I went, but so wood elf is a a good fit for a ranger.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because don't you get some innate abilities as a wood elf that fit really well there?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: You do, so you get dark vision, which helps um obviously kind of around the board with any sort of attacks, but you get it up to 60 foot, which I thought would be helpful for a range fighter.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you get proficiency in perception, which also helpful when you're trying to perceive things from the distance.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, advantage on saves against being charmed, you can't magically be put to sleep.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you can trance so you don't actually have to do like a full rest.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: You can basically gain the same benefits from a short like four hours um of sleep.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Proficiency with the long sword, short sword, short bow, and long bow.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: So just some additional weapon proficiencies.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um bumped my walking speed up to 35 foot, which I thought would help potentially get around the outskirts of a battle as well if I'm gonna shoot from range.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I can also attempt to hide, even when only lightly obscured, which would also help you know.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's a big one.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's a big one uh that fits well with being a ranger.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So far horn is our first one up.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ross, what about you?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Who did you come up with?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly thought you when you said that the first time it was Farthorn.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Might have to change it to that.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh bad.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh, I went uh my character's name is Dunellus Lalayan.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they are a high elf ranger.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so in a lot of ways, very similar to Phil's character.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: The one advantage that I will say but before I talk about uh where my roles ended up was I do get a cantrip because I'm a high elf.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh nice, which you wouldn't normally get as a ranger, and then I took true strike as that cantrip.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: So basically they would point at the enemy, and then on the next turn, they get advantage on that attack roll.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: So as a ranger, especially if you're at a distance, uh that could come in very handy.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um as far as roll went, I did not do a YOLO roll, I did the standard array.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did do Dex and Wisdom as my top two, and then uh I went charisma as my next one with constitution, intelligence, and then strength.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I am the again the stereotypical ranger with a bow at a distance, but I did take two daggers, so it's like if I did get close enough, um, I could do a wield if I needed to.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: So see, I knew I wouldn't have to take high charisma because Ross would.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say it's high, but I at least got the plus one.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go, let's go, let's go with Ross is never gonna play a character that just sits in the corner and is quiet.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, I like okay, just me as a person, I like to talk too much.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's never Oh, that's why we're doing a podcast.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I see, I see.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just trying to think if there was anything else.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: I took a quarter staff too.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh because we're both elves, I have very similar things to what to what Phil has.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um I think other than that, I mean, there wasn't really anything that was too much different.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Nice because that decks, I get the initiative of plus three, so coming off of not that I'm gonna play this character in a campaign anytime soon, but I don't think Thorne, my paladin, ever had more than a plus one to his initiative.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like he wanted to be the tank so so bad, but could not move fast enough to get up there to do it.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: This guy can.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I went a very different route.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I have my ranger is Carl Swiftfoot, who is a light foot halfling ranger.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, sweet.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of going one of those big burly characters, I'm doing a a small sniper.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So with a halfling, you get um you're small.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you get halfling nimbleness, so moving through spaces of larger creatures, um, and you're also naturally stealthy, so which fits really well as a sniping ranger.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can hide even when obscured, uh, you can attempt to hide even when you're obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: You can hide behind the person in front of you in your party.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that's cool.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And luck, being lucky.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, they have the lucky trait.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: So there's so many like little sneaky things that a halfling comes into play.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: And if it can't be so for new players or people that aren't familiar, what is the lucky trait?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: What does that do?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So when you roll a one on your d20 roll for an attack, ability check or saving throw, you get to re-roll the dice, and you have to use the new roll.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it potentially prevents you from crit failing.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you get like a get out of jail free card, basically.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's huge.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but as far as as far as the stats, I went pretty similar to you guys, decks and wisdom are my top two.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just took the standard array, so decks ended up as a plus three or at 17.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then after that, I took intelligence as my number three, uh, my next and my third highest stat.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I wanted to get some of those um the ones that I mentioned earlier, nature, investigation, um, bump up some of those skills so that as I'm researching and trying to track characters down later on in a party, it comes into play.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Ross, one thing we didn't touch on was what favorite enemies and natural terrains are your characters?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm glad you brought that up.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so my favorite, favorite, favorite.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Jeez.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Favorite enemy.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I went with humanoids.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that would include uh orcs, goblins, dwarvish.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it doesn't say humans though.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is are humans like a separate one?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're not those are still humanoids, but it's just interesting that they're not included in that list.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't pick them as a favorite enemy.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think you could, now that I think about it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, humanoids, at least in in what you pick in DD Beyond, is orcs, goblins, dwarves.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the terrain, I went forest.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that I mean it's yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I also picked Forest for mine, um, but my favorite enemy was giants.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I was already trying to think through some sort of backstory for my character where maybe um what was his name even?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Carl.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Carl was the the sniper of his little halfling village, and then in comes a giant to tromp through the forest and accidentally stomps on some of the the village, and he takes it upon himself to go um dispatch some giants from the world.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also curious, is it Carl with a K?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's Carl with a C.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I expected that to be Carl with a K.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was looking up uh halfling names, and most of them were like Brandyfoot, Tuk Took, and you know, all those typical Lord of the Rings names.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, hobbits are not halflings, right?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right, correct, correct.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: But are halflings hobbits?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, ooh, interesting.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So with Rangers, you've got some big decisions that you have to make um pretty much all the way through.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've touched on a few of them.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but Phil, what are some of the big ones that you have to make as your character levels up?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we hit on kind of the two uh first level ones, right?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Which are your favorite enemies.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna pick a type of favorite enemy, and what that grants you is you end up having advantage on um like survival checks to track them, and then um your intelligence checks when you're trying to recall information about them.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you get to learn one of the languages that's spoken by them.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: So, like I learned draconic since I chose dragons.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then as you kind of advance in levels, you actually at two other points get to pick another type of favorite enemy.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: So you can end up with up to three of those different types.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I really like that feature because as your campaign progresses, you're gonna start coming across character or creatures that make you mad, and you can add them as a favorite favorite enemy and it adds to your backstory.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's funny because you since you have to make this at first level, if you don't really know a ton about your campaign, uh if you think to our Avern's campaign, if you guys would have picked a favorite enemy when you hadn't even entered the nine hells yet, yeah.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: You wouldn't have picked something that you would even ever come up against.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: In that campaign.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it gives you some versatility later on in the character, too.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's one I think you need to talk to your DM about before you get too settled into a character.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is what is this camping going to look like?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Who are we actually going to come up against?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not just wasting that selection.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Your other first-level decision isn't natural explorer, and that's one where we were picking a natural environment that basically you're good at traveling at, you're familiar with.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: You get a bunch of kind of bonuses when you're traveling in that area.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't slow your group's travel down.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: You can't get lost unless it's magically.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Different things like that that kind of help out in those terrains.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Just like your favorite enemy, you get to choose a second and a third favorite terrain type later on as you progress in levels.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: When you bump up into the second level, that's the one that I think is your first major decision, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: You pick a fighting style.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: So if we just are looking at the basic rules in the player's handbook, which are, you know, the big two, um, you've got four options there.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Archery, which is your iconic um ranger, so you get a plus two bonus to your attack rolls that you're making with your bow or your ranged weapons.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can pick a defense style, so as long as you're wearing armor, you get a gain a plus one bonus to your AC, which makes you tougher to hit.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh dueling, if that's your style and you're wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you get a plus two bonus to your damage roll, which is always nice to hit those bonuses with that weapon.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then your fourth choice there is two weapon fighting.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: We alluded to this a little bit earlier.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when you engage in two weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack, which normally when you do little weapons, um, you don't get to do that.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: So once again, you just get to do a little extra damage there.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: There are some options in uh Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, so she added three more out there.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Blind fighting.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: So you get blind sight to a range of ten feet.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you can effectively see anything that's not behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you can see an invisible creature within those ten feet uh unless it can successfully try to hide from you.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um next option there is a druidic warrior.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: This is one of those that opens up some cantrips to you again.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: So you learn two cantrips of your choice uh from the druid spell list.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So this would potentially give you options for battle magic.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh throne weapon fighting, which I thought was kind of interesting.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: So uh it lets you draw and throw your weapon in the same action if you're playing by the real rules.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: That might be one we don't really follow.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you get on later on, you got spell casting at second level too.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: At third level, your next big decision comes, and that's your archetype.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um you only get one option in the basic rules.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: Did you guys see that?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I missed that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: The core rules have one, the hunter.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's your only choice.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess that makes it easy.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't allow for a lot of versatility.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: The beastmaster in the player's handbook lets you get a beast companion, which is way more badass.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Which I'm guessing is what trinket is in Vox Machina.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh maybe.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: I looked into that a little bit because I was curious, and a bear is not considered a challenge rating quarter or lower, sure, medium or smaller creature.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: So there's black bear and brown bear, and one of them is a CR quarter, but I think it's a large creature, so technically that falls outside of the rules.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: So this is going to be like a boar, a hawk, a giant badger, um, a mastiff, a panther, a velociraptor, a wolf.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: I know velociraptor.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: What's I look through the book and I look for everything that I can do?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: We have a velociraptor, but bear, no.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's going too far.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, but what I thought was cool, so it's when you get outside of those that you really open things up.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: So in uh Fizzman's Treasury of Dragons, which is a pretty new source book, they've got one called a Drake Warden.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: So you actually bond with a draconic spirit, and instead of that like quarter or see it challenge rating quarter companion, you get a Drake companion, which is basically like uh it levels up with you.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: So as you level up, it gains wings, you gain the ability to have a breath weapon.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool, super sweet.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Tasha's has a Faye Wanderer, so you get your um you basically acquire Fey magic.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um you get things like Misty Step, Dimension Door, you get a little do a little extra damage on your attack rolls, you can eventually summon Fey.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, still cooler than the Hunter, but uh the Gloom Stalker from Xanther's Guide to Everything, basically here.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um this one gets you access to additional spells here too.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're trying to stop threats before they reach the broader world, um, basically.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: You kind of stand between the world and the darkness.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it gives you some you know abilities um to be invisible to creatures that rely on dark vision.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um you can make another weapon attack on your turn when you miss with your initial weapon attack, so it gives you some extra bonuses to attacks there.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um you've got the monster slayer from Xanthar's Guide to Everything.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: You dedicate yourself to hunting down creatures of the night and wielders of grim magic, so almost like a vampire hunter.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of what you can think of there.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the horizon walker from Xanthar's Guide to Everything.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you stand between the world and threats from other planes.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's kind of where that one lands.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: You learn how to step through the ethereal plane, you can do extra damage on your attacks.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when you make your attack action, you can teleport up to 10 feet when you're doing those types of things.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then the last one, there are a lot of these.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the last one is the swarm keeper.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, you get a swarm of whatever insects basically.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it gives you some access to some additional spells.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: But what I thought was cool, you can use your swarm to hover, and then eventually you can also vanish into your swarm, like teleport to an unoccupied space, and then reappear with the swarm.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just thought that was pretty cool.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can have some really fun play moments with that being able to use that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: I say, like, honestly, this one is one where I'm like, eh, the player's handbook of the basic rules options are okay, but these uh supplemental sources are pretty awesome.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's uh Ranger is one of those that you as you continue to level up, you can go a lot of different routes, and there's a lot of interesting ways that you can develop your character over time.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I completely agree.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but what are your guys' final thoughts?
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Ranger.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty fun one.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good class that is far more versatile than I originally gave it credit for.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is more than just a Legolas, even though I'm gonna stick to those guns until it's an air gorn.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not an air horn.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Stop it.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is not an aragorn.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, maybe, I don't know.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll we'll talk about that later.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the one thing that I would say, and I Phil, I think you hit on that by going through all the archetypes, is this is probably a character where it's worth going beyond not only the core rule book, but beyond the player's handbook so that you can really get what you want out of the character.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do think it presents a lot of decision points for a new character or for a new player.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you just stick with the basic rules or the core rules and the um player's handbook, you know, you do have more limited options so you can kind of rein it in.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: Just know that you're probably gonna play more of the stereotypical ranger, and there's nothing wrong with that.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that the next campaign that I play in, I'm gonna try to probably play a ranger and see if I can use some of these uh supplemental pieces because obviously if the DM doesn't want to run those, I won't play it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what I think.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you guys very much.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna wrap it up there.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and please, if you want to find out more about some of our characters, if you want to know about Farhorn, DaNylus, and Carl, we're gonna be posting those on Facebook.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so check those out.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be posting the link to our character sheets.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and while you're on Facebook, give us a like at Bars and Parables.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And drop a comment, Aragorn versus Legolas.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Who is the better ranger?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And why is it why is it Aragorn?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right, is Legolas.