Rangers & Gods

[Bishop Cornelius]

I will let the Campaign Setting guide speak for itself:

According to the 3.0 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting pg. 24

"Unlike clerics, druids, and paladins, Faerunian rangers do not have to choose a patron deity until they reach 4th level and acquire divine spellcasting ability (without a patron deity, a ranger cannot cast spells) Many rangers choose a patron deity before then, but others start by devotion to a ranger's way of life instead of to one of the gods. Rangers and druids have similar preferences for deities, although some rangers with odd interests (such as hunting undead) choose different patrons."

[Phantom Lamb]

Is that the same in 3.5? I'm always leary of 3.0 quotes.

[Fezzik]

I will let the Campaign Setting guide speak for itself:

According to the 3.0 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting pg. 24

"Unlike clerics, druids, and paladins, Faerunian rangers do not have to choose a patron deity until they reach 4th level and acquire divine spellcasting ability (without a patron deity, a ranger cannot cast spells) Many rangers choose a patron deity before then, but others start by devotion to a ranger's way of life instead of to one of the gods. Rangers and druids have similar preferences for deities, although some rangers with odd interests (such as hunting undead) choose different patrons."

According to the 3.5a Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Book 2.1 pg. 458-subparagraph b

"Unlike clerics, druids, and paladins, Faerunian rangers do not have to choose a patron deity until they reach 4th level and acquire divine spellcasting ability (without a patron deity, a ranger cannot cast spells) Many rangers choose a patron deity before then, but others start by devotion to a ranger's way of life instead of to one of the gods. Rangers and druids have similar preferences for deities, although some rangers with odd interests (such as hunting undead) choose different patrons. We changed one sentence in this book so you'd have to buy all of them over again.... ok, 2 sentences, because we're money grubbing [edited for content]"



Of course, that could just be my opinion of things...

[Intrepid42]

Is that the same in 3.5? I'm always leary of 3.0 quotes.

As of March 2004, I think that it is.

From Page 5, Players Guide to Faerun (v3.5e), March 2004:

FORGOTTEN REALMS Campaign Setting: Chapters 1 through 3 of Player’s Guide to Faerûn update and supersede Chapters 1 and 2 of the FORGOTTEN REALMS Campaign Setting. The rest of the Campaign Setting is unchanged by the v.3.5 revisions to the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game.

No mention of rangers, or any base classes, are made in Chapters 1 through 3 of Players Guide to Faerun.

[Phantom Lamb]

Gotcha. I'll leave this to a dev to decide if it's worth investing the time to change.

[Maevan2]

*looks around to make sure nobody is watching him*

I would get rid of deity restrictions for rangers instead. I remember a fighter of mine that worshiped Tyr and took a a evel as ranger to get access to the favoured enemy "undead" etc. feats. And suddenly i had to pick a new deity. wtf?

Delaying this to level 4 would improve this situation. But is it really necessary at all? The spells that rangers get are not much more than what you can make with some alchemy.

Aragorn was a ranger. Did he hug trees because of that?

*runs away before anybody sees him*

[Peridan]

Actually, I've always thought along those lines Maevan. A ranger isn't always some servant of a nature deity (that's more of a druid bag than anything else), and I never thought rangers would need one for anything besides spells.

At the same time I don't know if just saying they 'get spells' for no apparent reason would be a workable solution. Alchemy or no, there are some things you can't reproduce. Maybe make a deity optional? Limited spells or some such if you don't have one, or an increase in skills of some kind?

And yes, I see you.

[DM_Equinox]

I remember a fighter of mine that worshiped Tyr and took a a evel as ranger to get access to the favoured enemy "undead" etc. feats.

Taking a class just for the feat? Tut tut

[LeakyBoat]

Actually, perhaps it's possible to increase the pool from which deities are choices when taking Ranger? Because contrary to what NWN2 is trying to infer, there are things such as Urban Rangers. And there's no reason why Tyr can't sponsor a Lawful Good (or Neutral Good/Lawful Neutral) Ranger that wants to follow him.

[Quoth The Raven]

The tree hugger thing came with 3rd edition, sadly.

AD&D rangers were not protectors of the wild, they protected people FROM the wild - a la Aragorn.
Same with druids: they started as sages who learnt to manipulate the power of nature, then they were turned into ecoterrorists and hippies.

Curse you, 3rd edition!

[Maevan2]

Taking a class just for the feat? Tut tut

Well, he had his RP reasons. Or do you know a better way for creating a undead hunter similar to Geralt from "The Witcher"?

[gbbishop]

Taking a class just for the feat? Tut tut

Fav Enemy is a class ability not a feat... so taking ranger to get it IS the only way to get it.

Sides if you are a dead hunter fighter it stands to reason that you might learn something from the ranger profession.

I think the multiclass rules are harsh enough, please try not to bang people up for trying to make their characters as they see them.

Sure it feels kind of dirty if all they are going for is the extra to hit and damage. But I'd say even the power-builders on this server give due consideration to adding a level of X to their character, and it shows in back stories and RP.

[DM_Equinox]

You did see the "" in that, right, GBB? The smileys exist for a reason.

While I'm not a fan of the 1-level-of-something-to-gain-something-singular-to-the-class kind of builds, I am certainly not stopping anyone from making one.

Anyway. Back on topic then... to which I've little to add that hasn't been said.

[Quoth The Raven]

I actually find it appealing to widen the Gods selection for rangers, and by extension, druids. An example that comes to my mind right now is Oghma (god of knowledge and writing). It would be an appropriate patron for a druid like Merlin.

[gbbishop]

I know Eq. but I do hear that kind of thing a lot. I didn't mean to sound snarky or angry.


'sides i have seen examples where one class can add a ton to a character concept. I have also seen serves that enforce '5 level' rules and that just hinders creativity imho.