We ran into an issue in our game today, and I’m just wondering if anyone else has seen this or might know a solution.
One of our players is (well, was…) a ranger. Every time he would use animal companion (after level 5, this wasn’t always the case), it would instantly aggro him and start a combat. No one else had him marked as an enemy, only the ranger. We once tried attacking it when we were in camp, and Astorian ran over to heal it. If no one made any moves and just ended their turn, the combat rotation just went in circles and nothing would happen. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Was your ranger wearing the Abyss Beckoner gloves?
Abyss Beckoners (Found in the back of the Zhentarim cave at Waukeen’s Rest)
Very Rare
“Demonspirit Aura: The wearer’s summoned creature has resistance to all damage except Psychic damage.
At the start of the summoned creature’s turn, it must succeed a Wisdom Saving Throw or be driven Mad.”Someone actually played a ranger? That does sound like a bug.
Some people roleplay in this RPG that, even on the hardest difficulty, requires 0 min/maxing whatsoever
Gloom 5 / Thief 4 / Battlemaster 3 leveraging hand xbows is very strong.
The problem is Swords Bard 7/Thief 3/Fighter 2 does everything that build does but better.
Swords Bard 6 is double Gloomstalker Ranger 5’s damage in every situation, it gains more expertise and proficiencies, and it’s full spell casting is insanely useful in dialog and combat. Enhance Ability basically means never failing a skill check from Bard 3 on.
Even the Fall back of SB 8/Thief 3/Fighter 1 outpaces the Ranger build on all fronts.
Completely agree - I was responding to someone who expressed surprised at anyone playing Ranger at all. The Gloomstalker build is certainly overshadowed by the swords bard build, but it’s still a very strong build and perfectly viable in tactician - as you know, it just isn’t that tough. And while swords bard is stronger, it too is overshadowed by Sorlock EB rider-stacking builds which are in turn completely ec;lipsed by simple tavern brawler zerker throw builds.
All I was saying is that it’s not completely unreasonable for someone to play Ranger and while it’s certainly not the best it’s still a very strong build and perfectly capable of destroying tactician.
Gloom/Assassin is literally the only way to make rogues or rangers playable, so it’s not impossible someone accidentally started that combo with a ranger
Why don’t you fine rogues playable/useful ? I fight myself practically married to Astarion (and Shadowheart) In pretty much every playthrough because rogue is so useful/core. Not just for lock picking and trap disarming when needed, but also just for raw damage. In my first playthrough I had Astarion sneaking around and one shot nearly the entire goblin camp with stealth archery by himself. He killed everything with one arrow but the ogre and the two goblins next to it and the two goblins high up in their towers.
Outside of sneak damage (which in longer combats/higher difficulties is micromanaging hell in combat) every other class except cleric* consistently out-damages rogues. You can kinda make up the difference with the dual hand crossbow/Thief subclass cheese, but only until level 6 where every other class (except cleric*) awakens and can consistently do more damage per round after the first round. If you never get into combat, like your example, rogues can be powerful, but realistically a barbarian with half the levels will have better action economy and damage per turn the second combat starts.
*This isn’t to say clerics can’t be powerhouses, but the best/consistent damage output for clerics isn’t online until level 8+(war domain multi with either paladin or fighter, or monk if you want to be extra spicy), at which point your cleric really should be focused on healing/buffing and not doing practically any damage themselves.
Rogues aren’t meant to be your primary damage dealers…? They’re best employed for their skills (talking, opening shit, stealing, being your lover, etc) over their combat abilities. They generally have more skill points to spend and more proficiencies. But I still agree that in the video game, stealth kinda sucks. Cones of vision are too wide for the smallish areas pretty much every encounter happens in. Plus there is no day/night cycle, and most of the game is spent in the sun.
Unlike something like WoW, d&d rogues aren’t “dps.” Clerics too. They focus more on healing, history, religion, and control through buffs/debuffs.
If you just want maximum damage output: Be a monk.
Thief Rogue is THE best 3 dip, but Rogues offer nothing between 3 and 11 that matters for this game. Reliable Talent is amazing but comes on line too late to matter for a 12 lvl campaign.
And Sneak Attack is functionally worthless. It’s a once per round damage buff (I’ve pulled off the Reaction SA twice in one campaign with a Battle Master). It gets out paced by Smite and fricking ring/gauntlet bonuses.
If your class feature is outpaced by ring bonuses it’s pretty much doomed.
I’m able to get a sneak attack almost every round what? Do you just never get advantage?
Please read the comment again. You missed the point.
I was referencing that I was only able the set up the opportunity attack SA twice in one run. SA is normally only 6d6 per turn but this brings it up to 12d6 for the round via a proc on an enemy’s turn.
Ring bonuses are 2-8 damage per attack, in a game that allows several builds to make 12+ attacks per round. The rings alone have dealt a round’s worth of SA at 5 attacks.
SA in 5e is pretty bad. It WAS really good in former editions when it was added to every attack in the form of Precision damage.
My ranger did not encounter that bug but beast summons and certain druid forms do count as crimes in the game. Maybe for whatever reason, the companion is bugging out the crime system, leaving the players faction and becoming part of its own? Summon and shape based Ranger and druid is honestly borderline unplayable without the mod that essentially removes it as a crime.
And honestly, having played ranger until probably halfish of act 2… ranger doesn’t only feel bad with no niche it excels at, no powerful feelings abilities, but also just unpolished. Want an archer that does lockpicking, etc? Roll a rogue. Want someone that has first aid and summons? Roll a druid. Want someone that can front line with swords and/or magic ? Go fighter and/or bladelock. I’m honestly thinking about remaking this character as something else but it would be yet another playthrough where I am married to Astarion because rogue is so useful.
I have limited experience with ranger. I have had episodes where non-companion NPCs are afraid of my familiar and/or summoned companion and run away from them or make comments like “go away”. I have not had an animal companion instantly aggro my ranger Tav or anyone else. Definitely sounds like a bug.
I haven’t picked up that game in a bit, but will now be trying it out for science.
pretending not to read the parenthesis have they tried NOT being a ranger? I’m sure it’s just a phase like the time they kept insisting that bears eat beets 🤷
