Chapter 05 · Classes
Ranger
Portrait
The Ranger is an armed hunter, tracker, and instinctive caster of red mana. The class fights as naturally with a bow, two weapons, or a melee weapon. Its specialty is not a weapon, but a relationship—with territory it can read and a true animal that chooses to live at its side.
This magic bears no resemblance to a wizard's architecture. It overflows into muscle, claw, wood, wind, and earth. The spell list is short and rough, and each formula is learned one at a time, in the field rather than in a library.
Action Reserves
| Level | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attacks | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 |
| Spells | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| General Actions | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Dedicated Dodges | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Through Level 7, the Ranger has two spell actions: exactly enough to cast and then release one Standard spell. At Level 8, it gains a third. This additional action can add a Swift spell, maintain an effect, or prepare a magical step, but two Standard spells would require four actions and remain beyond reach.
Attacks set the board's width. At Level 9, nine attacks open nine slots over the round, three per tick. The three spell actions can go anywhere, but every one used replaces an attack. Learning magic never stops the Ranger from being a fighter.
Hit Points
Base 8 per point of Strength, like the Rogue.
| Level | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP per Strength Point | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 256 |
Saves, Speed, and caster level
- Good Saves: Reflex and Fortitude. The Ranger survives through reflexes, endurance, and familiarity with hostile climates.
- Standard Save: Will. Its magic is instinctive rather than contemplative; illusion and domination remain openings.
- Speed: Trained. 30 ft at Level 1 to 65 ft at Level 9, 130 at Level 10. Natural obstacles do not slow the Ranger in favored terrain.
- Caster level: ½ CHA, the human rate. The Ranger's magic is instinctive in its expression, not in its acquisition: every formula is still learned, one at a time, from a restricted list.
- Slots: 4 per spell level + ½ CHA. Each spell level has its own reserve.
Animal Companion
The companion is a living animal, not a creature made by Summon. It has its own temperament, acts with the attacks listed in its template, and obeys commands an animal of its intelligence can understand. Giving a learned command is free; improvising complex behavior may require a general action or prescribed chance roll.
The Ranger chooses a creature with which a genuine bond has formed: dog, wolf, cat, raven, owl, snake, or another animal approved by the GM. The Ranger's red mana continually overflows into this companion, granting +25% maximum HP and damage after every other calculation in its profile.
As the Ranger advances, the companion uses the corresponding column of its Polymorph template. CL-dependent values use the Ranger's caster level. The animal retains its species and size: a dog using Column 9 remains a Medium dog rather than becoming Gargantuan.
| Ranger Level | Companion Profile |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | animal's natural profile |
| 3–4 | Polymorph Column 2 |
| 5–6 | Polymorph Column 4 |
| 7–8 | Polymorph Column 6 |
| 9 | Polymorph Column 8 |
| 10 | Polymorph Column 10 |
The companion truly dies if its body dies. The class neither turns it into particles nor grants the aegis of Polymorph. To form a new bond, the Ranger must meet another beast, earn its trust, and live beside it. The Pack's Rest feat allows a surviving companion to recover with supernatural speed while sleeping beside its master.
In combat, Ranger and companion form a coordinated group. They can act and react in the same instant using the Ranger's Reflex roll, while retaining separate actions, reactions, HP, and targets (see 8).
Favored Terrain
The Ranger has a native terrain chosen with the GM: forest, mountain, swamp, desert, tundra, underground, urban, or another region defined enough to have an identity. In this terrain:
- weapon and natural attacks deal additional damage from the table below; this bonus applies to neither spells nor the companion;
- prescribed chance rolls for stealth have advantage;
- ordinary tracks are followed automatically, and concealed trails receive better odds;
- natural difficult terrain causes no slowdown;
- the GM treats the Ranger's experience as a major factor in survival, preparing an ambush, building an improvised trap, or finding a passage.
| Level | Damage Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | +10 % |
| 3 | +20 % |
| 5 | +30 % |
| 7 | +40 % |
| 9 | +50 % |
Native terrain never disappears. After three true rests spent traveling, hunting, and sleeping in a new region, the Ranger can acclimate to it. Only one acclimated terrain may be retained at a time; studying another replaces the previous one without affecting the native terrain.
Spell List
Ranger tradition gathers physical and elemental formulas, or those directly useful to the hunt. None are known automatically; each formula must be learned in play.
Mobility and adaptation: Jump · Speed · Feather Fall · Air Walk · Walk on Water · Fish Lung · Arcane Body · Elusive Nature
Terrain and concealment: Obscuring Mist · Bramble Maze · Smoke Sight · Darkness · Whispering Wind · Ironwood
Poison and survival: Detect Poison · Poison · Remove Poison
Offensive red magic: Burning Hands · Ray of Frost · Hurl Rock · Tempest Gale · Elemental Wall · Sound Assault · Stormblood
Martial Experience
A character of this class becomes substantially more effective in martial combat through experience. They should develop a fighting style appropriate to their weapons, body, and history through organic progression. Basic Fighting Style provides a reliable benchmark when designing that style; it is not granted automatically.
Predilection Feats
Archery and weapons: Double Arrow · Combat Tactics · Deflect Projectiles · Lightning Reload · Empty the Cylinder
Hunting and movement: Opportunity Attack · Heroic Reflex · Lightning Reflexes
Animal bond: Pack's Rest · One Predator
Playing a Ranger
- Your terrain transforms combat. Outdoors, you choose lines of fire, ignore obstacles that slow others, and strike up to 50% harder.
- Your companion is alive. It can die, learn, or disobey an incomprehensible command. Protect it like an ally.
- Your magic replaces attacks. A Standard spell consumes two spell actions and occupies two slots. Choose one that truly changes the situation.
- Charisma feeds two bodies. It sets your caster level, strengthens your few spells, and calculates variable values in the companion's template.