Introduction
We’re taking a look at building single-class parties. Building a party around a single class presents unique challenges often due individual classes’ limited capabilities. DnD is fundamentally a game about a party of diverse characters pooling their abilities to become more than the sum of their parts. The single-class party flips that on its head, introducing fun new challenges.
Rangers are generally considered one the weakest classes in 5e, weighed down by a lot of interesting ideas competing for space on a single class. While they’re versatile and capable, there are few things that they’re uniquely good at. In the context of a single-class party, the Ranger is forced to fill roles where they previously only dabbled.
The Rules
- No multiclassing
- 4 party members
- Must attempt to cover all party roles
Strengths and Weaknesses of the All-Ranger Party
Rangers are at their best as a Scout and a ranged Striker, focusing on Dexterity and Rogue-like skills, and using their limited spellcasting for buffs and occasionally utility. Their role in the party closely resembles that of the Rogue, but their spellcasting and subclasses offer more diversity. Ranger spells also offer basic Healer options as well as some crucial Support options.
The Ranger’s biggest weaknesses are mostly problems with specific class features and subclasses. Allowing the Optional Class Features introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything does a lot to improve things. Since Rangers are also MAD, they’ll struggle with any roles that don’t fit their typical Dex/Con/Wis ability scores, making the Face and Scholar roles difficult.
The Party
Member 1: Beast Master Ranger or Drakewarden Ranger
Either pet subclass makes for a good Defender. A second body to absorb damage and to take up space on the battlefield stretches the effectiveness of a defender. We’ll build for melee here, focusing our spellcasting on buffs in combat.
Member 2: Swarmkeeper Ranger
The Swarmkeeper’s subclass spells offer some great Controller and Utility options, and our example build conveniently builds around Wisdom using Magic Stone as our go-to offensive option.
The example build puts several Ability Score Increases into Constitution, but we could make a few adjustments to invest in Intelligence and also make this our Scholar. We don’t get enough skills even with the Canny Explorer Optional Class Feature, so strongly consider a race that provides extra skill proficiencies.
Member 3: Fey Wanderer Ranger
Otherworldly Glamour is the only Ranger feature that gives us anything help for Face skills, so the Fey Wanderer is the natural choice for our Face. We can build around Wisdom with Fighting Style (Druidic Warrior), leaving us resources to invest more in Wisdom and to put a little bit into Charisma.
With higher Wisdom than a typical ranger, we can look at area damage spells like Hail of Thorns and Conjure Barrage so that we can take the Blaster role. Our options here are extremely limited, but it’s enough to count.
Member 4: Gloom Stalker Ranger
The roles are largely covered, but it came at the cost of typical Ranger optimization, so the rest of the party’s damage is likely less than what we would expect from a typical ranger. We’ll build a straightforward ranged Striker to compensate.
The Report Card
| Role | Member(s) |
|---|---|
| Blaster | 3 |
| Controller | 2 |
| Defender | 1 |
| Face | 3 |
| Healer | Everyone |
| Scholar | 2 |
| Scout | Everyone |
| Striker | 4 |
| Support | Everyone |
| Utility Caster | 2 |
Biggest Strength
The party’s damage output is pretty good and everyone can be sneaky, so relying on Surprise can be a very effective tactic, giving the party a full round to act before enemies can respond.
Biggest Weakness
Many of the non-combat roles will rely on the Ranger’s limited spellcasting to accomplish, and the Ranger’s spell options for those rules are both weak and few in number. Even healing is extremely limited. While they can get by, this party isn’t excelling outside of combat.
Conclusion
A party of rangers could be a lot of fun crawling dungeons and exploring dangerous wilderness, but they’re certainly going to struggle in a few places. A party of explorers, monster hunters, or military scouts could be a fun concept for this bunch.
