Northern Ranger (5e Class)
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Northern Ranger
These are rangers that have been living in the north, learning to endure harsh conditions and challenging encounters. They are called by many names, the wolfs of the north, the protectors of the realm, the frozen heralds. They are the first line of defense between the north and everything else. They show a great mastery on sword and combat skills, but they also show important abilities such as surviving in the wilderness, making less sound than a falling leaf, or tracking even the most untraceable beasts. The Northern Rangers don't live in one place, nor do they stay a long time in one, they are always on the move, and the challenges the north represent have caused not many northern rangers to be left alive, but those that still survive consider each other brothers, and will come to aid in even the most difficult of times.
- Quick Build
You can make a Northern Ranger quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by wisdom. Second, choose the outlander background. Third, choose a longsword or bow as your main weapon.
Class Features
As a Northern Ranger you gain the following class features.
- Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per Northern Ranger level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Northern Ranger level after 1st
- Proficiencies
Armor: Light or medium.
Weapons: Martial weapons.
Tools: none.
Saving Throws: Dexterity, and Wisdom.
Skills: Choose three from acrobatics, athletics, survival, medicine, perception, nature and stealth.
- Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) Leather armor and a fur cape m or (b) chain mail armor with a hooded cape
- (a) A longsword and a longbow with 20 arrows or (b) two simple melee weapons or (c) a shorts bow with 20 arrows and a shortsword
- A dagger
- (a) A dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
- If you are using starting wealth, you have 5d4 x 10 in funds.
| Level | Proficiency Bonus |
Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Weapon Training, Unarmored Defense |
| 2nd | +2 | Wild Life and Tracking Expertise |
| 3rd | +2 | Ranger Discipline |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 5th | +3 | Extra Attack, Dexterous Movement |
| 6th | +3 | Kiss the Steel |
| 7th | +3 | Reflexive initiative |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement, Discipline Feat |
| 9th | +4 | Northern's Eye |
| 10th | +4 | Extra Attack (2) |
| 11th | +4 | Strength of the Wolf |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement, Discipline Feat |
| 13th | +5 | Precise Critical |
| 14th | +5 | Discipline Feat |
| 15th | +5 | Warden of the North |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 17th | +6 | Master Execution |
| 18th | +6 | Elite Ranger |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 20th | +6 | Master Ranger, Last Discipline Feat |
Weapon Training
The Brother in Black are trained mostly in sword and bow. At the first level, you may choose either Longsword training, or Archery training as your favoured fighting style. You gain a +2 to attack rolls and deal 1d4 extra damage while wielding your weapon of choice. Additionally when using longswords you can use dexterity instead of strength as your modifier.
Unarmored Defense
Your training has allowed you to predict incoming attacks, while you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier. You can still use a Shield and gain this benefit.
Wild Life and Tracking Expertise
Starting at level 2, the ranger has learnt to use his wit to his advantage in any difficult situation, as sharp as a sword can be, the mind is firstly and always the most important weapon of a ranger, he must use his focus and sight to his advantage. You may add double your proficiency modifiers with a single skill of your choice: Investigation, Perception.
Also Starting at level 2 the ranger has dedicated most of its time in practice, and even if combat is important a northern ranger must learn to survive even in the most dreadful of situations, they must be one with the nature and one with their environment, they are now masters of their surroundings. You may add double your proficiency modifiers with 3 skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, Stealth, Acrobatics, Athletics and Survival.
Ranger Disciplines
At 3rd level, you choose the discipline of training you wish to undergo. Detailed at the bottom of the page.
Blade savant
Bow Master
Defender
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
The number of attacks increases to 3 when you reach 10th level in this class only if you are Blade Savant or Bow Master.
Dexterous Movement
Starting at 5th level, while you are wearing light, medium or no armour, you gain these benefits. You gain a +10 to movement, and Your climbing and swimming speeds equal your moving speed. When jumping you can use your dexterity modifier instead of your strength modifier.
- Additionally at level 8, You can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your ranger level.
Kiss the Steel
At the sixth level, you deal an additional damage die of damage with weapons you are proficient with.
Reflexive Initiative
By 7th level, your split-second reactions are so honed that you have advantage on initiative rolls.
Northern's Eye
You are so perceptive to your surroundings, that at 9th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon’s lightning breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.
Strength of the Wolf
Beginning at 11th level if you fail a saving throw you can choose to succeed instead. You can use this feature a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus rounded down. You regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Precise Critical
Beginning at 13th level, you can roll one additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with an attack (if you normally double de dice, now you triple them).
Warden of the North
So much time in the north has adapted you to the weather, you become immune to cold damage and gain resistance to fire damage, you can ignore difficult terrain created by snow or ice, and you can tolerate temperatures as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit without any additional protection or -150 degrees if wearing clothes and -200 if wearing heavy clothes.
Additionally, you have faced so many terrors of the North, you can't be frightened anymore and you have advantage on any Wisdom and Dexterity Saving Throws.
Master Execution
Starting at the 17th level, your blade is an extension of yourself, and you may take down even the mightiest of enemies with well-placed blows at an incredible speed.
You may use an action to roll all the attack rolls of your Attack Action (but making one attack less than you normally would, if you can make 4 you instead make 3, etc but with a minimum of 2 hits). Every successful strike is treated as if they were critical blows even without having rolled a nat 20 (you add the extra damage dies on every hit) and additionally adds your wisdom modifier and your proficiency bonus on top of each strike. (rolling a 1 or a nat 20 does not cause any critical hit or fumble while using this feat).
- If the attack kills or knocks unconscious the target you can use it again, if you divide your hits at least one of the enemies must die for you to use it again (you can divide as if the strikes were made with natural weapons). Otherwise you can use this skill once per combat. The ability stacks with the feats from Blade Savant and Bow Master in which a critical hit has extra effects, but no matter the amount of these hits only one of those effects can be triggered per creature (i.e one dismembering, or one of the Sharp Shoot Feats).
Elite Ranger
At the 18th level, you have become known amongst the few remaining Rangers of the North, as one of the best there ever was. Add a +4 increase to your Dexterity score, to a maximum of 24, and a +4 to your Wisdom score, to a maximum of 24.
Master Ranger
If it didn’t kill you, it will heal fast. Your entire life you have trained and endured the harsh north, you are prepared both physically and mentally so as to withstand even horrors that would certainly kill you. Your force of will is stronger than ever before, and so is your connection with yourself. Your sheer will and mental strength have become so powerful so as to grant you an unnatural control over your own body, and an incredibly fast regeneration. Some elders may even say it’s a very old type of magic, which only the wisest of men can yield and control.
- while in combat you regain hit points per turn equal to twice your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus, as long as you have at least 1 hit point remaining.
- Out of combat you regain 1d8 hp for every 10 minutes as natural regeneration (even while unconscious), and your hp maximum can't be reduced.
- You can now live the same amount of years that an elf or dwarf would, and suffer no drawbacks of old age.
In addition, severed body members such as fingers, legs, tails, and so on can be restored over the course of a short or long rest causing one level of exhaustion. If you have the severed part and hold it to the stump, the limb knits to the stump after a minute, this causes no level of exhaustion.
Ranger Disciplines
Let the spirits of the north determine the path which lies beyond you...
Blade Savant
These rangers have chosen to use the best offense-- all-out aggressive.
Opportunist
At the third level the Brother in Black has learned to attack whenever he can. If an enemy near you would take an action, reaction or bonus action that is not attacking you in specific, it provokes an Opportunity Attack for you to make.
Full Dodge
At 8th level you have mastered the ability to avoid damage as much as possible. You may try to dodge any attack directed at you. Roll a dex ability check with dc equal to 10 + your opponents dex/str modifier (whichever is used to attack), if successful you may dodge the attack receiving no damage. If you don’t succeed you don’t lose the use of that full dodge. If you are in dodge action, you have advantage in this ability. If the attack you are dodging is a critical hit, you may still dodge but doing so will only make the attack a normal hit, it won’t nullify the damage.
- You may use this feature a number of times equal to half your ranger level or your dex modifier whichever is higher. You recover your uses after a short or long rest.
Clash
At the twelfth level, you start making superhuman efforts to avoid dying, the spirits of the north are strong within you, and your force of will keeps death at bay allowing you to resist even the mightiest blows. Upon taking lethal damage, you make a wisdom ability check with a DC equal to 10 + your opponent’s dex/str modifier (whichever is used to attack), or 13 for any other purposes. Instead of the attack killing you, you drop to one hit point and deal damage to your attacker (if any) if it is in range, which equals three damage dice of the weapon you are using plus your dex and wis modifier. If the lethal damage would kill you outright, you can still try to survive, but the DC changes to 15 + your opponents dex/str modifier, or 18 for any other purposes.
- You make the roll at the end of the turn in which the damage was dealt. You may do this a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus rounded down before a long rest.
Mark of the Wolf
At the fourteenth level, whenever you take an attack action on your turn, you may make an unarmed attack as a bonus action (before or after the attacks), using the same attack bonuses of your preferred weapon and dealing 1d4 + your proficiency bonus + strength/dexterity (your choice) damage. If the hit is successful and the enemy is one size larger than you or smaller, it must pass a Dex save (8 + your proficiency bonus + your wis mod) or be knocked prone, if you score critical the save is made with disadvantage and you can affect a creature one size larger than you normally would.
Frenzy
At 20th level you can make another attack on your Attack action, it counts as per an Extra Attack (3).
Also if you roll a critical, you may not only deal double damage, but if the enemy is one size larger than you, your size, or smaller than you, you may choose one limb to dismember or disable.
Bow Master
The Archer is adept at taking enemies from afar, taking time to choose his strikes wisely.
Archer
At the third level, you gain some abilities related to archery such as:
+2 to attack and damage rolls.
Attacking at long range does not impose disadvantage, and your shots ignore half-cover and three-quarters-cover.
You can choose to take a -5 to your attack roll but add a +10 to the roll's damage.
Full Dodge
At 8th level you have mastered the ability to avoid damage as much as possible. You may try to dodge any attack directed at you. Roll a dex ability check with dc equal to 10 + your opponents dex/str modifier (whichever is used to attack), if successful you may dodge the attack receiving no damage. If you don’t succeed you don’t lose the use of that full dodge. If you are in dodge action, you have advantage in this ability. If the attack you are dodging is a critical hit, you may still dodge but doing so will only make the attack a normal hit, it won’t nullify the damage.
- You may use this feature a number of times equal to half your ranger level or your dex modifier whichever is higher. You recover your uses after a short or long rest.
Swift Wind
Beginning at the twelfth level, you can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10ft of a point you can see within your weapon's range. You must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you make a separate attack roll for each target.
Sharp Shoot
At the Fourteenth level, you gain access to the following abilities.
Pin: As an action, you shoot an arrow through the leg of something, and, if the floor allows it, pin them to the floor (it can also be a wall or any other surface), and the character is treated as if it were restrained. This lasts until an action is used to have the arrow removed. This only works on large or smaller creatures. To successfully pin someone the enemy must fail a Dexterity save with DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier, they may still receive damage from the arrow without being pinned.
Disarm: As an action, you may choose to have an arrow fired by you and disarm an opponent, forcing them to drop weapons or items that they are holding in their hands. This only works on large or smaller creatures, and they must fail a Strength save with DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier.
Distracting Strike: As an action, you shoot an arrow which distracts the enemy, forcing them to loose concentration while in combat. This means their next attack on you or one of your allies will have disadvantage, and their dice will do the least damage possible (1d8 will deal 1hp of damage, 2d4 will deal 2hp, etc). This only works on large or smaller creatures, and they must fail a Wisdom save with DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier.
- You may use any of these abilities a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Point Blank
Beginning at the fourteenth level you can shoot arrows with such precision you can easily take down powerful enemies. As per the first ability gained in this discipline, you may now instead of having a -5 to your hit and a +10 to your damage, instead take a -5 to hit but a +20 to damage (for each arrow).
Also, any critical may automatically trigger one of the effects from the Sharp Shoot Feat (saves still account, but you don't need to use your action to use one of the abilities).
Defender
The Brother in Black has learned to utilize defence to the best of his ability.
Parrying Stance
While wielding a single drawn melee weapon and not wearing heavy armour or a shield, you can go into a parry stance as a Bonus Action.
While in this stance you become extremely prepared for any incoming attacks. Your Ac increases by +2. You can not be disarmed, and you only move half the distance (Rounded up) on any effect that pushes or shoves you from creatures up to one size larger than you. This includes the fact that your own movement speed is halved. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn. The Ac increases by +1 at The 8th, 12th, and 16th levels.
Additionally you can parry incoming attacks, when another creature damages you with a melee attack you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1d10 + your dex modifier + your proficiency bonus. At the tenth level this ability can parry even damage from spells. You can do this a number of times equal to half your level.
Full Dodge
At 8th level you have mastered the ability to avoid damage as much as possible. You may try to dodge any attack directed at you. Roll a dex ability check with dc equal to 10 + your opponents dex/str modifier (whichever is used to attack), if successful you may dodge the attack receiving no damage. If you don’t succeed you don’t lose the use of that full dodge. If you are in dodge action, you have advantage in this ability. If the attack you are dodging is a critical hit, you may still dodge but doing so will only make the attack a normal hit, it won’t nullify the damage.
- You may use this feature a number of times equal to half your ranger level or your dex modifier whichever is higher. You recover your uses after a short or long rest.
Parrying Riposte
By reaching 12th level, when an enemy misses an attack against you while you're in your parrying stance, you may make an attack against that enemy. This number increases from once per round to twice at 17th level.
You can do this a number of times equal to your dexterity modifier before needing a long rest.
Slashing Wind
By reaching 14th level, when you would make a Full Dodge, you may make an attack action against the enemy you dodged. You may do this once in a full round.
Perfect Parry
At 20th level, when you parry you can now do it for 2d10 + double your dex modifier + double your proficiency bonus, if this reduces the damage to 0 you knock prone the enemy if it is size large or smaller (if your parry reduces more damage than is done to you, the rest is saved as temporal hp which are destroyed at the end of the turn). additionally if something would hit you with a Critical you may make a DC 17 Dexterity Saving throw, if you pass you may treat the incoming critical as a normal attack. Your parrying stance is now a free action.
Multiclassing
Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Northern Ranger class, you must meet these prerequisites: Dexterity and Strength must both be 13 or higher.
Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Northern Ranger class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light armour and Longsword
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