#parkranger!geralt

[bubblyernie]

Hiya! I notice you’ve played a lot of dnd rangers just like me! I wanted to ask what draws you towards the class? what do you enjoy about the class? And what do you think is the classes identity what makes a ranger ?

I’ve played swarmkeeper feywanderer horizon walker drakewarden and gloomstalker, I’m drawn towards the class in part because I’m a Ranger irl it’s my day job, but I also love the jack of all trades support vibe of the class it doesn’t excel anywhere but can help every class with a little bit of something and I view the classes identity as the professional adventurer someone who spends their life balancing the threats of the world whether that be the threats of the wild the monsters who inhabit it or the people who cross it, balancing their needs, kinda like Geralt of rivia balancing the needs of “monsters” and people, they work to make the world a safer better place picking up whatever skills and magic help them survive, I also note that every dnd class is either some form of Hunter or Tamer, the gloomstalker, horizon walker ,hunter and monster slayer, hunt the creatures of the wild, while the drakewarden, the swarmkeeper, the beast master and the fey wanderer spend their time befriending and taming the monsters of the wild. I don’t mean to answer my own question but I’m interested as someone who’s played the ranger just as much as me how your opinions may differ (I also especially love your borrower style ranger the little fellow is so cute and very well drawn)

Thanks for listening to my rambling and questions you can ignore this if it’s too much for whatever vibe you’re feeling rn have a lovely day !

hi!! Fun fact, i actually havent played any rangers 🥴 I'm the kinda dnd player who plays in like 2-3 campaigns but makes like 50 ocs. ASDFJKSDJF (I've only played a cleric and a barbarian in campaigns, but for oneshots I've tried every race) Id love to play one, but its kinda hard to do that for a oneshot since so much of the ranger class is dependent on favoured terrain/knowing your surroundings and levelling.

This is SUCH a fun ask because I LOVE the ranger class for its very niche yet versatile character archetype. I think if there's one type of word I could use to describe a ranger is a survivalist — the rangers that I do have, a handful of them are fashioned after Scouts/parkrangers (because....I was one.) or famous character types that do a lot of adventuring like cowboys, pirates, explorers etc. — if I'm being honest, ranger is the most 'adventurer' type there is!

(as a note here, i know pointy hat has mentioned a ranger's big thing was an animal companion -- i think?? IDR -- which is like a fun take. I really like his stuff, but i feel like a class shouldn't be bound to smth like a pet. any class can have pets!)

To use my own as an example, I have a bounty hunter devil cowboy (monster slayer), a princess-mononoke-ish Artemis huntress (hunter), a HouYi type ancient hero with 3-legged crows (swarmkeeper), an Indiana jones style explorerer (horizon walker) and a borrower (beast master). I really love the idea of all of them being really different but all being excellent survivalists and navigators!

Im a big fan of rangers that have fighting styles other than archery too. I think archery is awesome for the fighting style, but having duelist (like the borrower) or dueling (monster hunter) gives it an extra bit of flavour to just "class that wields a bow". it also sets them apart from a fighter bc in my head a fighter is more military while a ranger is more solitary. It establishes them as a martial class for sure, but its so versatile and has that edge that comes with dex-based instead of str-based.

I particularly like monster slayer bc to me that was very like...witcher-y. The cowboy is a monster slayer with favoured foes as humanoids bc he only tracks humanoids (bounties), which is some fun flavouring. There's a lot of customization! To clarify, there's a lot of room for flavour, but not as much choice for character builds (like, mechanically, at least compared to stuff like warlocks.)

The addition of magic also helps give it some class distinction :0

TLDR: mixes the best aspects of rogues and fighters with LOTS of room for flavour text.

[notyetagain]

First chapter of my Witcher American Idol AU is up! The 2nd chapter is written and going up later this week. This was written as part of @relenafel's modern au challenge

Jaskier is a finalist on Redanian Idol which means its time for the hometown visit! The whole nation is excited to meet the families. There's only two problems: 1) Jaskier's parents are mediocre on the best of days 2) Jaskier accidentally lied about having a boyfriend on national television and now the producers have found the grumpiest park ranger in the world to play the part Oh well, it's too late to back out now unless he wants to hand the audience vote to *Valdo Marx* on a silver platter.