Ranger (Dungeons & Dragons)
| A Dungeons & Dragons character class | |
|---|---|
| Publication history | |
| First appearance | The Strategic Review Volume 1, Number 2 |
| Editions | All except BD&D |
| (as an alternate class) | OD&D |
| Image | Wizards.com image |
| Stats | OGL stats |
The ranger is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They are hunters, skilled woodsmen, and often live reclusive lives as hermits.
The ranger was primarily based on the character Aragorn, and the Rangers of the North of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos, as warriors who use tracking and other wilderness skills to hunt down their enemies. The AD&D second edition handbook mentions several other inspirations from myth and legend, such as Robin Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, the huntresses of Diana, and the Greek hero Orion.
Although it is commonly thought that the ranger character Drizzt Do'Urden may also have influenced the development of the class, particularly with regard to the second edition inclusion of the ability to fight with two weapons, this notion has been rejected by the lead designer of that rule set, David "Zeb" Cook, and the lack of provision for players to be able to emulate Drizzt using the ranger class as it appears in the PHB seems to support his assertion. More likely, the Drizzt character was influenced by Unearthed Arcana, which introduced the drow as a player character race and contained somewhat ambiguous wording that allowed them to use a secondary weapon not normally permitted in AD&D. Drizzt appeared as a first edition character in the 1988 release FR5 The Savage Frontier. Few AD&D computer games based on the second edition rule set included provision for fighting with two weapons, and those that did seem to have not have included the ranger class ability (most notably, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, which provided rangers with an extra attack when not using a shield.)
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