Up next in 10
Can we detach #dnd’s Ranger from Hunter’s Mark?
65 views
Jun 11, 2025
Can we detach #dnd’s Ranger from Hunter’s Mark? I think so! #dnd5e #2024dnd #ttrpg #characteroptimization #dungeonsanddragons #ranger
View Video Transcript
0:00
is there a meaningful way to detach
0:02
D&D's ranger from the spell Hunter Mark
0:06
that's an awesome question and it gets
0:08
to a lot of really interesting design
0:10
issues with the ranger itself because
0:12
their spell list and Hunter Mark
0:14
specifically have been a huge problem
0:16
for the entire lifetime of 5e in the
0:19
2014 rules Hunter Mark was this great
0:21
low-level buff it works really really
0:23
well with two weapon fighting with
0:25
crossbow exert basically if you're
0:27
making a ton of attacks hunter's Mark
0:29
was a nice damage buff and it lasted a
0:31
really long time so when you got only a
0:34
few spell slots it was really efficient
0:36
but actually higher level buffs like
0:38
magic weapon and elemental weapon
0:40
actually provided more increase to your
0:42
damage output because the additive bonus
0:45
of a bonus to your attack roll
0:46
significantly increases your damage
0:48
output hunter's Mark is an additive buff
0:52
magic weapon and elemental weapon are
0:55
multiplicative buffs so as long as like
0:57
your ability score increase was good if
0:59
you had other sources of jam damage
1:01
bonuses the multiplicative buff was more
1:05
impactful than the 1d6 additional damage
1:07
from Hunter's Mark but the 2024 rules
1:10
made a lot of changes to that thinking
1:12
first we're locked into Hunter Mark at
1:14
least being available thanks to the the
1:16
updated favorite enemy feature and the
1:21
updated version of magic weapon no
1:23
longer takes concentration so you can
1:25
now use both of those things at the same
1:28
time and that really is pretty good
1:31
damage output you're getting the flat
1:33
damage bonus and the attack bonus from
1:35
magic weapon plus that additional 1d6
1:37
damage from hunter's mark but the
1:40
problem there is that is basically the
1:42
only way that they expect you to play
1:44
the ranger regardless of your subclass
1:46
regardless of your build they expect you
1:48
to be concentrating on hunter's mark and
1:50
that's deeply dissatisfying now they
1:53
knew that concentration was too scarce a
1:55
resource for the ranger in the 2024
1:57
rules so they did remove concentration
1:59
from a ton of the rangers spells but the
2:02
problem is all of those spells like
2:05
lightning arrow and such they suck
2:08
they're bad spells they're not a good
2:10
use of a spell slot compared to
2:12
basically anything else that anyone can
2:14
do so they removed concentration from
2:17
those spells hoping to make them more
2:19
readily available and they're just not
2:21
worth using so what I think they should
2:24
do is they should start treating
2:26
Hunter's Mark the same way that they
2:28
started treating Wild Shape late in the
2:30
2014 rules and now in the 2024 rules use
2:33
those free castings of Hunter Mark from
2:36
Favored Enemy and instead of using them
2:38
specifically and only for casting Hunter
2:41
Mark use that as an additional pool of
2:43
resources to fuel subclass abilities let
2:47
players do other things with that
2:49
resource and let them do something other
2:52
than Hunter's Mark if they want
#Hunting & Shooting
#Roleplaying Games