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Building a DnD Ranger isn’t complicated, but a few tips will help you succeed. Focus on Dexterity, and use your spells to support your weapon use and skills. Also, Animal Handling is a bad skill.
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Rangers can be a great first D and D
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character. So, let's talk about how to
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build your first D and D ranger.
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Dexterity is usually going to be your
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most important ability score.
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Strength-based builds are possible, but
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very difficult, so I don't recommend it.
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Wisdom based builds can also work, but
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they're a little complicated for your
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first character, so maybe save that for
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another time. Beyond dexterity, you want
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high constitution for hit points and
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wisdom for skills and spells. But
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remember, you are not primarily a
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spellcaster, so you are not going to
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worry too much about your spell DC.
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Rangers generally split between melee
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builds and range builds. If you're
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building for range, you probably want to
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use weapon mastery for either long bow
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or short bow, depending on your
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preference. If you're building for
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melee, you're going to go for two weapon
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fighting almost every time. Try not to
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fall into the trap of two identical
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weapons. I know it looks cooler. I
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totally get it. But mechanically, it's
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much better to have like a a regular
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primary weapon like a shortsord or
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something, and then your off-hand weapon
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is going to be something with the nick
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mastery like a scimitar. Rangers
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typically take a space in the party
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filled by a rogue. And rangers don't get
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quite as many skills as rogues do, but
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they do still get expertise, so you
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still can be really good at one thing,
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like stealth or perception. If you want
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extra skills, consider a species that
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gives you extra skills, like taci or
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human or coravar. Your spells are mostly
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going to be useful for utility,
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occasionally for area control, and buffs
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for yourself. Once you get high enough
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level, you're going to get a ton of
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value out of buffs like elemental weapon
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and magic weapon. In combat, your job is
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primarily to do a ton of damage to
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single targets at a time. You get
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favored foe, which lets you cast
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hunter's mark repeatedly, like without
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spending a spell slot, so you get some
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extra castings there. And hunter's mark
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can be a huge damage boost if you're
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making several attacks. So, two up and
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fighting is a very popular strategy for
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rangers. But, it also monopolizes your
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concentration, which can limit your
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spell casting options. So, A lot of
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rangers end up casting Hunter's Mark and
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then magic weapon. And really, those are
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your two most important spells. And
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those are going to get you a ton of
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damage output. Outside of combat, you've
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got high dexterity and wisdom, which
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supports some of the most important
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skills of the in the game like stealth,
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slight of hand for picking locks and
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disarming traps, and of course,
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perception for noticing problems before
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they become problems. So, while rangers
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can always kind of fall into a few very
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small niches, they are very, very useful
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and they're very good at what they do
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and they can really be a ton of fun to
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Bye.