Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 JS20 Feb 27, 2015 21:08:31	I know many people believe the Ranger is the most underpowered class in this edition thus far, but I was thinking of rolling one for a future campaign.   I am interested in a melee ranger, either dual wielding or sword and board. Are these options gimped? It seems like some of their best spells are meant for ranged weapons?   Also, There would be no disadvantage on casting Ranger spells in melee, would there?   Is it possible to make a competent melee ranger (leaning toward sword and board for the novelty).
#2 1eejit Feb 27, 2015 23:55:55	It's definitely possible, Hunters can even be excellent tanks. Multiattack Defense is one of the best tanking abilities in 5E as you start to fight higher CRs. Grab Sentinel when you can. Whirlwind Attack is very nice when in a crowd.
#3 Gamerbug94 Feb 28, 2015 3:12:02	A melee Ranger with a beast companion and the Sentinel feat is actually rather effective. You miss out on some of the perks from the Hunter style (though the melee Multiattack option is not all that great) in exchange for easy advantage and free attacks. Wolf gets advantage because you're next to the target, knocks it prone, you get advantage because it's prone. Win-win.
#4 Macv12 Feb 28, 2015 5:11:25	It's not like a Ranger is unviable. Not being absolutely mechanically optimal is nowhere near being ineffective. Rangers are quite exploitable at range, but they're good in melee, too. You'll be fine.   Hunter's Mark means you want to pull off as many attacks as you can against one target, if you're going for damage. Dual wielding is the most obvious way to do this. I'm partial to Polearm Master, since it gives you your bonus action attack, but leaves you with a much better die on your "primary" attack, which is used for your reactions and such. This also gives you more of a controlling presence than a ranged character has (except for killing things real fast). As others suggested, Sentinel and beast master will improve your ability to control enemies further.   As a beast master, if you don't have a bonus action attack (like, you use a two-handed weapon), you can use that bonus action to make the beast Help. This gets you nearly free advantage on an attack instead of giving up the glorious damage your PC can do (which the beast can't approach, if you build for it). Helps especially with Great Weapon Master.
#5 mellored Feb 28, 2015 12:36:23	If you add revivify beast, (level 2 spell, dead beast comes back with 1HP), and give beast hit dice, they do much better.
#6 FrogReaver Feb 28, 2015 13:13:45	JS20 wrote: