Dungeons & Dragons Considering Changes to the Ranger Class

Dungeons & Dragons is considering new options for the Ranger class. Earlier today, Kotaku posted an interview between Jason Schreier, Larian Studios head Swen Vincke, and D&D franchise creative director Mark Mearls about the upcoming Baldur's Gate III game that revealed possible revisions to the ranger class. During the interview, Mearls mentioned getting into contact with Larian Studios about how the D&D team was potentially going to be playtesting some new material for a class, and that Larian responded by noting they found the same issues. After some prodding by Schreier, Mearls admitted that the class being worked on was the Ranger class, which some fans consider to be woefully underpowered compared to other classes.

"One of the things we found was that the Ranger character class in tabletop, players really felt the first couple of levels, they weren't really making choices that they felt were having a real impact on gameplay," Mearls explained. While the Ranger specializes in exploration, the design team found that DMs don't use a lot of the sub-systems that focus on exploration or that the Ranger's class features didn't actually impact the narrative. Mearls noted the Ranger's favored terrain class feature as an example, stating that while it prevented players from getting lost in their terrain, that translated at the table into a truncated experience where the ranger can't really shine.

"So we're looking at maybe play-testing this summer some new options that compliment what's there without overriding it," Mearls said, referencing the Ranger's current class options.

D&D has previously looked at changes to the Ranger class before, going as far as to released a "Revised Ranger" class for playtesting. One of the keys, as Mearls notes in the interview, is that the D&D team can't necessarily override rules already printed in Player's Handbooks, as they have no way of "patching over" those rules in the same way that video game developers do. That means whatever revisions are in place will serve as additional abilities rather than replacements for current D&D rules.

Are you happy that D&D is still tinkering with the Ranger class? Let us know in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCbus to chat all things D&D!