Rangers

Since 4e's release, there have been many ideas for a Martial Controller class. I felt the Savant class I proposed a while back could make a good Martial Controller, but an idea that slowly gained currency in my mind is making the ranger a Martial Controller. Indeed, here are a few choice excerpts from the ranger class description in the 4e PH:

"Rangers are watchful warriors who roam past the horizon to safeguard a region, a principle, or a way of life...

"As a ranger, you possess almost supernaturally keen senses and a deep appreciation for untamed wilderness. With your knowledge of the natural world, you are able to track enemies through nearly any landscape..."

This is not unlike my idea for a savant class - a warrior who's percepting and cunning. So why totally reinvent the wheel? It's far better in my opinion to use traditional elements in a new way.

However, to make this work, I don't think rangers can continue to be primarily based on Strength or Dexterity. I think these ability scores should remain important for rangers, but I'm beginning to think that Wisdom would make the best primary score for this class. And once you think of Wisdom as being the primary ability score for rangers, the feel of the class changes dramatically. Now we have warriors who are keen-eyed, able to exploit openings as they perceive them. Their instincts would be honed to perfection, allowing them to react to situations with amazing quickness. And a high Wisdom helps firm up the instinctual connection between beastmaster rangers and their beasts.

So thematically I think it's great. But the class would have to change. Oh, it still would be composed of melee and ranged specialists, but ranger exploits would change to accommodate their new Controller role. For example, I'm thinking of making Twin Strike a melee power (bow rangers would get Rapid Shot as a ranged equivalent) that would be something like this:


I like this because it makes fighting the ranger a matter of positioning. If monsters don't want to have the -2 penalty to hit, they will have to move away. Depending on how the ranger positions himself, this may lead to further headaches for the creature. This is, in my opinion, the essence of the Controller role.

Obviously more work needs to be done. But I'll try to keep chipping away at it until I get a nice suite of powers.