Odd. I always found the RANGE in ranger to be a verb, as in to range. Which means, to go or move great distances. To wander and explore. Not to attack from range. That was always the archer's (a sub type of soldier) forte.
While being in bright light does negate your invisibility feature, it also probably means you’re not in that much trouble. Fighting during the day usually means the rest of your party can see are able to use their features and spells effectively. It’s not like a gloomstalker engaged in combat in broad daylight is going to perform badly.
In terms of class synergy, you should focus on a few things that are vital to the ranger: Does it take your bonus action? Rangers already have many spells and abilities that rely on your bonus action, so if possible, you don’t wanna clog that up. Does it coincide with multiattack? The ranger is a mostly martial class damage-wise so you want abilities that don’t detract from that. Does it improve the Ranger’s existing abilities of stealth, survival, ambush, & tracking? Does it synergize with existing ranger spells? Most low level ranger spells are incredibly good for the class combat wise and are pretty defining for the class as a whole. So let’s take a peek at some things I consider synergy with the spells. In the case of the ever-prevalent hunter’s mark, you want more attacks per turn at a single target to add more d6’s, but you don’t want those attacks to take a bonus action you want them to be purely additional. With hail of thorns, you want abilities that prevent missing or abilities that focus on attacking enemies in close proximity of each other. Similarly with ensnaring strike, you want to prevent missing, and generally have a build that prioritizes wisdom as a stat, and fighting medium or smaller creatures. Zephyr strike doesn’t require any explicit synergy, but it synergizes with subclass that promote mobility. In my opinion the ranger class as a whole is going to be hard to rate on synergy, but it should somewhat be based off of its synergy with the preexisting spells due to how integral those spells are to the class as a whole.
Great video, but I think the combat side of things should have been a 5/5. Gaining darkvision is huge bonus (especially since it "opens up" sneaky night time-missions to Halflings and Variant Humans), not being seen in darkness comes up more often than you would think - and the spells are also better than you give them credit for: Rope Trick pretty much guarantees a safe short rest, Fear is great to make scores of enemies flee when surrounded and Greater Invisibility is essentially Guardian of Nature (the best 4th level Ranger spell) on steroids against anything not having blindsight/truesight. Since every (archery) Ranger should take the Sharp Shooter feat anyway, Stalker's Flurry grants Gloom Stalkers a "3rd attack" more often than not against most foes. Combine this with Swift Quiver and you have the potential for "5 attacks" per turn (not quite comparable to a ranged Fighter, but you have all of the added defense, versatility and utility of the Ranger's excellent spell list).
I honestly loved playing my gloomstalker ranger who just got sacrificed to Strahd this week but overall I can say out of the group I was in I was consistantly dealing some of the most damage especially in the first round with advantage 3 attacks and sharpshooter bonuses very much looking forward to playing another one in the future.
I feel like gloomstalker is the best damage dealing ranger class. I've had two different ones at my weekly game and they both outperform my hunter/assassin in terms of consistent damage. Role play, and social interactions not so much though.
I've designed a Half-Orc Barbarian 6 Bear Token Warrior who will multiclass into a Gloom Stalker Ranger 4 with Fiends as Favored Enemies. It's for Descent Into Avernus. What's special about him is his Powerful Build that allows him to use a magical greataxe one-handed, and his Half-Gnome parentage that gives him advantages on Int, Wis, and Cha saving throws against magic. He is a Magic Initiate with an expensive Coure (eladrin) familiar, Chill Touch and Mage Hand cantrips. So by 10th-level (Barbarian 6 + Ranger 4), he's almost like a high-initiative, 40'-move, super-strong, axe-and-shield-fighting tankish rogue that difficult to charm, hold, or frighten.
What I like about this subclass is that it fits pretty perfectly with the UA variant Ranger. So I'm suddenly jazzed about this. Tbh I like situational mechanics I think the problem in some 5e design is that more stuff isn't situational.
If you take the Skulker feat and go with a race like Goblin or multiclass into rogue for hide on a bonus action you can be almost as stealthy in daylight as you can in darkness, almost.
Working on a Gloomstalker/Swashbuckler multiclass right now and I’m finding I’m getting a lot of things from rogue that shore up some of the combat weaknesses Gloomstalker has. So far level 8, 5/3 split favoring Gloomstalker.
Hi there! Glad to see you guys are back in action! Recently Wizards of the Coast revisited the Genie Warlock subclass! While it is an Unearthed Arcana so probably not up your alley with a video, I was wondering if I could get either of your 10¢ on the class!
Gloomstalkers are one of the best class variants- for multi class. They are considered by most even as a single class as really high up there. There abilities synergies great with ranger spells and having a conditional always on invisibility is really powerful. At level5with sharpshooter and archery style you can fairly reliably have a first round better then 2 of 3 attacks delivering at min 22 points but if you have darkness you almost always will lay down 33 points at min most of the time with a numbers far higher with any good luck. Most monsters you hit are either dead or badly hurt with the one character’s attack. The spells work great with the natural enemy ability of the Ranger giving you opportunities usually not available. The biggest weakness is that multiclassing give you so many more powerful options that many don’t stay in the class (action surge and rogue abilities easily stacking on the offincr and Monk for movement as examples). Nice opinion but you vastly under rated it.
i took an arrakokkra arcane archer with gloomstalker ranger im gonna go 15 lvl gloom and 5 lvls of arcane archer fighter in this manner i make up for the lack of power in the day and have more spells plus the feat im gonna use sharp shooter and i have action surge i think with how im gonna build its going to be nasty
Elf Gloom Stalker Ranger with Elven Accuracy basically gives you lucky on every ranged attack roll in darkness. Take a level or two of Druid to pick up Faerie Fire and even when you aren't invisible you're still getting 3 d20 rolls to hit for one attack action
Having played a Gloom Stalker the combat rating is a 5. Dread Ambusher makes you a wrecking ball in the first round of combat. Darkness is situational, but when It comes up you are very, very OP. In one of my campaigns I had a discussion with my DM, because he wanted to limit the number of times I could use Dread Ambusher, essentially nerfing my character. Human Varriant w Cross Bow Expert, then get Sharpshooter at Level 4. At Level 5 you’re making 4 attacks on the first round of combat.
Best assassin character in the game…. Easily get 3 attacks early on, with advantage, and with an extra D8…. Plus can use zephyr strike or hunters mark or hail of arrows bonus action.
The gloom stalker gets a lot of first combat round benefits. If you can't reach the enemy in the first round a lot is wasted. Archery is the best option for fighting style for this subclass.
Not exactlly; if you pick a multi class in Shadow Monk, its going to be very good. You could make a Tabaxi, get mobile, do at the very least 3/3 level dip, and at lower levels, you will be able to move through shadows, thrown a darkness magic, have vantage at your attacks, hunters mark, et cetera. It got a very good damage output, mobility and surprise attack. You can then go to at least some more levels in monk or do a dip in assassin to get sneak attack and assinate.
As a rule Rangers are archers and this class rewards that play. If you need to be close then you can get in there before triggering the fight. If they are jumping you in the day light and you did not notice and they did is at range you can react to attack or cover as needed.
The RUclips channel dungeon dudes have a campaign called Shadows of Drakkenheim that has a Gloom stalker Ranger that is a damaged dealing machine they're also good players. Definitely worth the watch. Maybe even better then Crystal Roll
Amen! Archers are a sub class of fighters (i.e. in the army the longbowmen and the crossbowmen), not rangers. Rangers are always like the guerrilla types. Versatile and stealthy. They can use ranged weapons if the situation requires it, but will also go melee.
I built a Orc-Human (GM allowed +2 DEX, +1 CON) Gloonstalker Ranger. I never met my Human father. I hunt the Orcs that burned my half-blood mother, and my Orc stepfather after they fled to the forest in the Orc Blood War.
Having played a Gloom Stalker, I had fun with the role playing (disguise self is a lot of fun). Good grades, as I did find it a little frustrating to be a character class that really would be great if ran alone, but within a team mixed with humans, halfiings and a half-elf (Drow) Gloom Stalker.. I found the DM really tailored things to help the larger group (i.e. combat was always in well lit areas). I did have fun with him, and we're finishing LMoP so I'm excited to see how a 5th level GS handles the finale. Would definitely play the class again, as I like the Ranger's swiss army value... might play a Monster Slayer next... obviously call Jack Brooks..
Lots of spell casters get access to disguise self. It is a good RP spell, but rangers are half casters and have fewer spell slots to play with. When scoring, we look at a couple factors such as how many of the abilities/features of the subclass are used for a category and how potent those abilities are (and other things like if there are limits on numbers of uses). Hope that makes sense. Thanks for watching!
yeah but most parties lead with some sort of light source...it's rare if everyone is moving in darkness...so where would this type of character linger? In the back or something? Doesn't that go against a typical ranger in a group who would be expected to scout and detect enemies and maybe traps?
104 minutes of explaining what your RP rating is when, if people don't get your intent, can spend 104 minutes of their own time figuring it out...and if they can't...then maybe they should be playing Checkers instead of D&D. Just saying...you guys should ditch the constant explanation...really...nearly 2 hours of time taken from viewers that do get it to cater to brainlets.
Before we mentioned our RP rating, we would get TONS of comments about fantasy, lore value etc that we would respond to in comments. Since explaining, we get basically 0 comments of that sort, so it has helped us out tremendously trying to explain. Also, not everyone has seen every video, so we want even new viewers to understand our systems. Our unique viewer count is significantly higher than our sub count, so we have to assume a lot of new people are seeing our videos! If you don't want to hear it, feel free to do the double tap and skip forward 10 seconds. Thanks for your input and most of all, Thanks for watching!
Odd. I always found the RANGE in ranger to be a verb, as in to range. Which means, to go or move great distances. To wander and explore. Not to attack from range. That was always the archer's (a sub type of soldier) forte.
This ranger class, plus rogue scout on a bugbear with spell sniper eldritch blast = The Predator.
Good stuff.
While being in bright light does negate your invisibility feature, it also probably means you’re not in that much trouble. Fighting during the day usually means the rest of your party can see are able to use their features and spells effectively.
It’s not like a gloomstalker engaged in combat in broad daylight is going to perform badly.
In terms of class synergy, you should focus on a few things that are vital to the ranger:
Does it take your bonus action?
Rangers already have many spells and abilities that rely on your bonus action, so if possible, you don’t wanna clog that up.
Does it coincide with multiattack? The ranger is a mostly martial class damage-wise so you want abilities that don’t detract from that.
Does it improve the Ranger’s existing abilities of stealth, survival, ambush, & tracking?
Does it synergize with existing ranger spells? Most low level ranger spells are incredibly good for the class combat wise and are pretty defining for the class as a whole. So let’s take a peek at some things I consider synergy with the spells.
In the case of the ever-prevalent hunter’s mark, you want more attacks per turn at a single target to add more d6’s, but you don’t want those attacks to take a bonus action you want them to be purely additional.
With hail of thorns, you want abilities that prevent missing or abilities that focus on attacking enemies in close proximity of each other.
Similarly with ensnaring strike, you want to prevent missing, and generally have a build that prioritizes wisdom as a stat, and fighting medium or smaller creatures.
Zephyr strike doesn’t require any explicit synergy, but it synergizes with subclass that promote mobility.
In my opinion the ranger class as a whole is going to be hard to rate on synergy, but it should somewhat be based off of its synergy with the preexisting spells due to how integral those spells are to the class as a whole.
Great video, but I think the combat side of things should have been a 5/5. Gaining darkvision is huge bonus (especially since it "opens up" sneaky night time-missions to Halflings and Variant Humans), not being seen in darkness comes up more often than you would think - and the spells are also better than you give them credit for: Rope Trick pretty much guarantees a safe short rest, Fear is great to make scores of enemies flee when surrounded and Greater Invisibility is essentially Guardian of Nature (the best 4th level Ranger spell) on steroids against anything not having blindsight/truesight.
Since every (archery) Ranger should take the Sharp Shooter feat anyway, Stalker's Flurry grants Gloom Stalkers a "3rd attack" more often than not against most foes. Combine this with Swift Quiver and you have the potential for "5 attacks" per turn (not quite comparable to a ranged Fighter, but you have all of the added defense, versatility and utility of the Ranger's excellent spell list).
I honestly loved playing my gloomstalker ranger who just got sacrificed to Strahd this week but overall I can say out of the group I was in I was consistantly dealing some of the most damage especially in the first round with advantage 3 attacks and sharpshooter bonuses very much looking forward to playing another one in the future.
I feel like gloomstalker is the best damage dealing ranger class. I've had two different ones at my weekly game and they both outperform my hunter/assassin in terms of consistent damage. Role play, and social interactions not so much though.
I’m making one for a mini campaign with a multi class with fighter. Action surge on the first turn to trigger the extra attack again
Gloomstalkers are the reason Drow have Faerie Fire. We just don't know it because we never even knew they existed until now.
I've designed a Half-Orc Barbarian 6 Bear Token Warrior who will multiclass into a Gloom Stalker Ranger 4 with Fiends as Favored Enemies. It's for Descent Into Avernus. What's special about him is his Powerful Build that allows him to use a magical greataxe one-handed, and his Half-Gnome parentage that gives him advantages on Int, Wis, and Cha saving throws against magic. He is a Magic Initiate with an expensive Coure (eladrin) familiar, Chill Touch and Mage Hand cantrips. So by 10th-level (Barbarian 6 + Ranger 4), he's almost like a high-initiative, 40'-move, super-strong, axe-and-shield-fighting tankish rogue that difficult to charm, hold, or frighten.
What I like about this subclass is that it fits pretty perfectly with the UA variant Ranger. So I'm suddenly jazzed about this. Tbh I like situational mechanics I think the problem in some 5e design is that more stuff isn't situational.
Great video, I've been waiting for this one.
Big fan of the gloomstalker as it has been my favourite subclass I've played.
If you take the Skulker feat and go with a race like Goblin or multiclass into rogue for hide on a bonus action you can be almost as stealthy in daylight as you can in darkness, almost.
I'm new here but I'm here to stay, keep doing what your doing
Lol you guys got good chemistry. Thanks for the info. Ima play a gloomstalker now
Working on a Gloomstalker/Swashbuckler multiclass right now and I’m finding I’m getting a lot of things from rogue that shore up some of the combat weaknesses Gloomstalker has. So far level 8, 5/3 split favoring Gloomstalker.
Hi there! Glad to see you guys are back in action! Recently Wizards of the Coast revisited the Genie Warlock subclass! While it is an Unearthed Arcana so probably not up your alley with a video, I was wondering if I could get either of your 10¢ on the class!
Rope trick is a great way to get a sort rest for you and your party.
Finally a good ranger subclass
Gloomstalkers are one of the best class variants- for multi class. They are considered by most even as a single class as really high up there. There abilities synergies great with ranger spells and having a conditional always on invisibility is really powerful. At level5with sharpshooter and archery style you can fairly reliably have a first round better then 2 of 3 attacks delivering at min 22 points but if you have darkness you almost always will lay down 33 points at min most of the time with a numbers far higher with any good luck. Most monsters you hit are either dead or badly hurt with the one character’s attack. The spells work great with the natural enemy ability of the Ranger giving you opportunities usually not available. The biggest weakness is that multiclassing give you so many more powerful options that many don’t stay in the class (action surge and rogue abilities easily stacking on the offincr and Monk for movement as examples).
Nice opinion but you vastly under rated it.
I think Gloomstalker Hexblade would be a pretty sweet multiclass.
Go guys. Good work and keep it up
Nice review. I am seriously making this my next character class.
Im planning on making a Gloomstalker with Alert, Sharpshooter and Lucky
i took an arrakokkra arcane archer with gloomstalker ranger im gonna go 15 lvl gloom and 5 lvls of arcane archer fighter in this manner i make up for the lack of power in the day and have more spells plus the feat im gonna use sharp shooter and i have action surge i think with how im gonna build its going to be nasty
Elf Gloom Stalker Ranger with Elven Accuracy basically gives you lucky on every ranged attack roll in darkness. Take a level or two of Druid to pick up Faerie Fire and even when you aren't invisible you're still getting 3 d20 rolls to hit for one attack action
Having played a Gloom Stalker the combat rating is a 5. Dread Ambusher makes you a wrecking ball in the first round of combat.
Darkness is situational, but when It comes up you are very, very OP.
In one of my campaigns I had a discussion with my DM, because he wanted to limit the number of times I could use Dread Ambusher, essentially nerfing my character.
Human Varriant w Cross Bow Expert, then get Sharpshooter at Level 4. At Level 5 you’re making 4 attacks on the first round of combat.
Best assassin character in the game…. Easily get 3 attacks early on, with advantage, and with an extra D8…. Plus can use zephyr strike or hunters mark or hail of arrows bonus action.
The gloom stalker gets a lot of first combat round benefits. If you can't reach the enemy in the first round a lot is wasted. Archery is the best option for fighting style for this subclass.
Not exactlly; if you pick a multi class in Shadow Monk, its going to be very good. You could make a Tabaxi, get mobile, do at the very least 3/3 level dip, and at lower levels, you will be able to move through shadows, thrown a darkness magic, have vantage at your attacks, hunters mark, et cetera. It got a very good damage output, mobility and surprise attack. You can then go to at least some more levels in monk or do a dip in assassin to get sneak attack and assinate.
As a rule Rangers are archers and this class rewards that play. If you need to be close then you can get in there before triggering the fight. If they are jumping you in the day light and you did not notice and they did is at range you can react to attack or cover as needed.
The RUclips channel dungeon dudes have a campaign called Shadows of Drakkenheim that has a Gloom stalker Ranger that is a damaged dealing machine they're also good players. Definitely worth the watch. Maybe even better then Crystal Roll
MrBiloxifireman multi classes with rogue and sharpshooter makes Vejo an archery beast
@@robertbeach71 definitely. Her Dps was very high.
@@MrBiloxifireman a Battlemaster archer with sharpshooter could probably get close
I think Aragorn/Strider is the Tolken Ranger(lol) not Legolas, but that's my opinion
Amen! Archers are a sub class of fighters (i.e. in the army the longbowmen and the crossbowmen), not rangers. Rangers are always like the guerrilla types. Versatile and stealthy. They can use ranged weapons if the situation requires it, but will also go melee.
That thumbnail art tho
I built a Orc-Human (GM allowed +2 DEX, +1 CON) Gloonstalker Ranger. I never met my Human father. I hunt the Orcs that burned my half-blood mother, and my Orc stepfather after they fled to the forest in the Orc Blood War.
Welcome back!
Bugbear Gloomstalker..first round is DEADLY
Having played a Gloom Stalker, I had fun with the role playing (disguise self is a lot of fun). Good grades, as I did find it a little frustrating to be a character class that really would be great if ran alone, but within a team mixed with humans, halfiings and a half-elf (Drow) Gloom Stalker.. I found the DM really tailored things to help the larger group (i.e. combat was always in well lit areas). I did have fun with him, and we're finishing LMoP so I'm excited to see how a 5th level GS handles the finale. Would definitely play the class again, as I like the Ranger's swiss army value... might play a Monster Slayer next... obviously call Jack Brooks..
Where did the thumbnail picture come from?
So, a class gives you disguise self and that literally allows you to roleplay as pretty much anything you want and they get a 3 for rp?
Lots of spell casters get access to disguise self. It is a good RP spell, but rangers are half casters and have fewer spell slots to play with. When scoring, we look at a couple factors such as how many of the abilities/features of the subclass are used for a category and how potent those abilities are (and other things like if there are limits on numbers of uses). Hope that makes sense. Thanks for watching!
Yayyy they are back!!!!
Gloomstalker Ranger / Arcane Trickster
= A NASTY Combo...
Assassin rouge 4/ gloomstalker ranger4/ champion fighter 12= best assassin build
Guys best bounty Hunter; assassin rouge 4 gloomstalker4 fighter 12. A terror of fayrune
yeah but most parties lead with some sort of light source...it's rare if everyone is moving in darkness...so where would this type of character linger? In the back or something? Doesn't that go against a typical ranger in a group who would be expected to scout and detect enemies and maybe traps?
I'm a base Ranger, I take slight offense ;w;
Icewindel
I don't like this subclass because it is a one shot character.
104 minutes of explaining what your RP rating is when, if people don't get your intent, can spend 104 minutes of their own time figuring it out...and if they can't...then maybe they should be playing Checkers instead of D&D. Just saying...you guys should ditch the constant explanation...really...nearly 2 hours of time taken from viewers that do get it to cater to brainlets.
Before we mentioned our RP rating, we would get TONS of comments about fantasy, lore value etc that we would respond to in comments. Since explaining, we get basically 0 comments of that sort, so it has helped us out tremendously trying to explain. Also, not everyone has seen every video, so we want even new viewers to understand our systems. Our unique viewer count is significantly higher than our sub count, so we have to assume a lot of new people are seeing our videos! If you don't want to hear it, feel free to do the double tap and skip forward 10 seconds. Thanks for your input and most of all, Thanks for watching!