After an icy response to the D&D 2024 Ranger's proposed reliance on spells, lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford says don't worry, the spells should help
You can't help but feel a little sorry for the old Ranger—it's a class that was much-maligned in the initial 2014 release of the D&D Player's Handbooks for a lacklustre suite of features, then polished to a mirror sheen with supplements like Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Now, in 2024, it looks like we're having the exact same conversations about the poor sod again. Rangers just can't catch a break.
Late last month, the blog post 2024 Ranger vs. 2014 Ranger: What's New was met, for the most part, with an icy reception.
In case you don't speak fluid min-max, here's the breakdown: Many of the new and exciting features from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything have been stripped back. Hunter's Mark, a now-mandatory ranger's spell that deals Force damage (which is a buff, as Force is a rarely-resisted damage type), is now a core class feature—and the focus of the entire package.
What's more, the Ranger has replaced a bunch of its interesting, though undertuned class features with extra spells and skill expertises. This has, in a word, frustrated the living daylights out of players—mostly because it signals a return to the 2014 Ranger woes—except this time, instead of hyper-specific features that never get used, it's all looking a little bland and underpowered.
The offloading of design responsibility onto spells is a considerable bugbear in particular, however, in a recent interview with ScreenRant, lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford sought to put players' minds at ease by saying hey, don't worry, those Ranger spells are better now:
«While there are certain things like Hunter’s Mark that required concentration in 2014 and continue to require it in 2024, there are other things that used to require concentration that no longer do. And we were particularly mindful of that for classes like the Ranger that have key features that require concentration.»
Concentration is a label applied to certain spells that requires you to roll to maintain them whenever you take damage, as well
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