Ranger

Image used by permission of Yama Orce.

Ranger

Contents

Ability Scores

Rangers gain a +2 class bonus to Dexterity or Strength, as long as it isn’t the same ability you increase with your +2 racial bonus.

Backgrounds

Possible backgrounds include: trackers, bounty hunters, beast slayers, woodsy assassins, orc slayers, and wanderers.

Gear

At 1st level, a ranger starts with light armor, a melee weapon or two, a ranged weapon or two, and other mundane gear as suggested by their backgrounds.

Gold Pieces

Rangers may start with either 25 gp or 1d6 x 10 gp.

 

Armor
Armor Type Base AC Atk Penalty
None 10
Light 14
Heavy 15 -2
Shield +1 -2

 

Melee Weapons
  One-Handed Two-Handed
Small 1d4 dagger 1d6 club
Light or Simple 1d6 shortsword, hand axe 1d8 spear
Heavy or Martial 1d8 longsword, warhammer 1d10 greatsword, greataxe

 

Ranged Weapons
  Thrown Crossbow Bow
Small 1d4 dagger 1d4 hand crossbow
Light or Simple 1d6 javelin, axe 1d6 light crossbow 1d6 shortbow
Heavy or Martial 1d8 heavy crossbow 1d8 longbow

 

Level Progression
Ranger Level Total Hit Points Total Feats Class Talents Level-up Ability Bonuses Damage Bonus From Ability Score
Level 1 (7 + CON mod) x 3 1 adventurer 3   ability modifier
Level 2 (7 + CON mod) x 4 2 adventurer 3   ability modifier
Level 3 (7 + CON mod) x 5 3 adventurer 3   ability modifier
Level 4 (7 + CON mod) x 6 4 adventurer 3 +1 to 3 abilities ability modifier
Level 5 (7 + CON mod) x 8 4 adventurer; 1 champion 4   2 x ability modifier
Level 6 (7 + CON mod) x 10 4 adventurer; 2 champion 4   2 x ability modifier
Level 7 (7 + CON mod) x 12 4 adventurer; 3 champion 4 +1 to 3 abilities 2 x ability modifier
Level 8 (7 + CON mod) x 16 4 adventurer; 3 champion; 1 epic 5   3 x ability modifier
Level 9 (7 + CON mod) x 20 4 adventurer; 3 champion; 2 epic 5   3 x ability modifier
Level 10 (7 + CON mod) x 24 4 adventurer; 3 champion; 3 epic 5 +1 to 3 abilities 3 x ability modifier

Stats

Initiative, AC, PD, MD, Hit Points, Recovery Dice, Feats, and some Talents are level dependent.

Ability Bonus +2 Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom (different from racial bonus)
Initiative Dex mod + Level
Armor Class (light armor) 14 + middle mod of Con/Dex/Wis + Level
Physical Defense 11 + middle mod of Str/Con/Dex + Level
Mental Defense 10 + middle mod of Int/Wis/Cha + Level
Hit Points (7 + Con mod) x Level modifier (see level progression chart)
Recoveries 8
Recovery Dice (1d8 x Level) + Con mod
Backgrounds 8 points, max 5 in any one background
Icon Relationships 3 points
Talents 3 (see level progression chart)
Feats 1 per Level

Basic Attacks

Melee Attack

At-Will

Target: One enemy

Attack: Strength OR Dexterity + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage

Miss: Damage equal to your level

Ranged Attack

At-Will

Target: One enemy

Attack: Dexterity + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Dexterity damage

Miss: Damage equal to your level

Class Talents

Choose three of the following class talents.

You get an additional ranger class talent at 5th level, and again at 8th level.

Animal Companion

Special: Unlike most class talents, this talent takes up two ranger class talent slots.

You have a normal-sized animal companion that fights alongside you in battle. See Animal Companion Rules.

If you would rather have a smaller beast as a pet, see the Ranger’s Pet talent.

Archery

Once per battle, reroll one of your missed ranged attacks.

Adventurer Feat Your Archery rerolls gain a +2 attack bonus and the attack’s crit range expands by 1.

Champion Feat Once per day, you can use Archery twice in the same battle.

Epic Feat Once per day, you can turn a normal hit with a ranger ranged attack into a critical hit.

Double Melee Attack

When fighting with two one-handed melee weapons, your default option is to make a double melee attack.

Your weapon damage die drops one notch, usually from d8s to d6s. If your first attack is a natural even roll (hit or miss), you can make a second attack as a free action.

If you decide you don’t want to try for a double melee attack while fighting with two one-handed weapons, declare it before rolling your attack; the single attack will deal the normal damage dice instead of using reduced damage dice.

Adventurer Feat Your second attack gains a +2 attack bonus if it is against a different target.

Champion Feat Once per battle, use Double Melee Attack after an odd attack roll.

Epic Feat Each turn, you can pop free of one enemy before one attack roll that is part of a Double Melee Attack. You can also use your move action in between your two attacks if you wish.

Double Ranged Attack

When you attack with a ranged weapon that does not need to be reloaded, your default option is to make a double ranged attack.

Your weapon damage die drops one notch, usually from d8s to d6s. If your first attack is a natural even roll (hit or miss), you can make a second attack as a free action.

If you decide you don’t want to try for a double ranged attack when firing your bow or other ranged weapon, declare it before rolling your attack; the single attack will deal the normal damage dice instead of using reduced damage dice.

Adventurer Feat Your second attack gains a +2 attack bonus if it is against a different target.

Champion Feat Once per battle, you can use Double Ranged Attack after an odd attack roll.

Epic Feat Each turn, you can pop free of one enemy before one attack roll that is part of a Double Ranged Attack. You can also use your move action in between your two attacks if you wish.

Favored Enemy

Choose a specific monster type (e.g. aberration, beast, construct, demon, dragon, giant, humanoid*, ooze, plant, or undead). The crit range of your ranger attacks against that type of enemy expands by 2.

*Choosing humanoid: Unlike other favored enemies, choosing humanoid as your favored enemy takes up two ranger class talent slots.

Adventurer Feat You can change your favored enemy by meditating when you take a full heal-up.

Adventurer FeatBoA This feat is only usable by rangers who have taken humanoid as a favored enemy. Once per day, as a free action, you may select a humanoid species you have encountered in the past. Until the end of the battle, you may use that species’ racial ability. The Gamemaster may veto overpowered or overly magical abilities—this feat represents your ability to emulate the tricks and tactics of your prey, not a supernatural power of shapeshifting.

Champion Feat Your crit range for attacks against favored enemies expands by 1 (to +3).

Epic Feat Choose a second non-humanoid monster type as a favored enemy.

Fey Queen’s Enchantments

Choose one daily or recharge spell of your level or lower from the sorcerer class. You can cast this spell as if you were a sorcerer (though you can’t gather power).

Adventurer Feat You can choose which ability score you want to use as the attack ability for sorcerer spells you can cast.

Champion Feat You can now choose from sorcerer at-will spells.

Epic Feat You gain an additional sorcerer spell of your choice that is your level or lower; a total of two from this talent.

First Strike

The first time you attack an enemy during a battle, your crit range for that attack expands by 2 (usually to 18+). A mob of mooks counts as a single enemy.

Adventurer Feat The crit range of your First Strike attacks expands by 1 (to +3).

Champion Feat Once per day, deal triple damage with a First Strike crit instead of double damage.

Epic Feat Whenever you hit with a First Strike attack, you can reroll your damage once and use the higher roll.

Green Bandit’s Secret

Source BoA

When you attack from ambush, an additional number of your allies equal to your Charisma modifier may act in the surprise round.

Once per day, when you flee, you may make a normal save (11+). If successful, this escape was just a feint; you do not take a campaign loss, and instead hide nearby. You may take a short rest, then return to the adventure without significant setback.

Once per level, you may declare that you know about a hiding place or refuge nearby. The nature of this refuge depends on the sort of terrain, but it’s always a safe, well-concealed place stocked with supplies. It might be a hidden cache in the wilderness, or the home of a trusted old friend, or just a dungeon room that you somehow intuit is safer than anywhere else. Each character in the company automatically succeeds at one recharge roll when they first take a short rest in the refuge.

Lethal Hunter

Once per battle as a free action, choose an enemy. The crit range of your attacks against that enemy expands by 2 for the rest of the battle. A mob of mooks counts as a single enemy.

Adventurer Feat The crit range of your Lethal Hunter attacks expands by 1 (to +3).

Champion Feat One battle per day, you can use Lethal Hunter against two different enemies.

Epic Feat Your Lethal Hunter crits deal triple damage instead of double damage while the escalation die is 3+.

Ranger ex Cathedral

Choose one daily or recharge spell of your level or lower from the cleric class. You can cast this spell as if you were a cleric. You can change your chosen spell each time you take a full heal-up.

Adventurer Feat You can cast the cleric class feature heal spell once per battle.

Champion Feat You can now choose from cleric at-will spells.

Epic Feat You gain an additional cleric spell of your choice that is your level or lower; a total of two from this talent.

Ranger’s Pet

You have a small animal or beast that accompanies you on your adventures. Use the rules from the Wizard’s Familiar talent with the following differences:

  1. The creature is your pet or friend instead of your familiar.
  2. Your pet is fully natural rather than partially magical.
  3. Your pet can end up with more abilities, if you choose.

Adventurer Feat Your pet gains a third ability.

Champion Feat Your pet gains a fourth ability.

Epic Feat Your pet gains a fifth ability.

Tracker

You have the Tracker background at its full possible bonus of +5, without having to spend your normal background points on it. You are an expert wilderness tracker, capable of reading clues from the environment that others can’t perceive. Tracking doesn’t work well, however, in heavily traveled urban environments.

In addition, you have the terrain stunt power.

Terrain stunt: At the start of each battle in a non-urban environment, roll a d6. Any time after the escalation die reaches that number, you’ll be able to use a quick action to execute a terrain stunt. Normally you can only use terrain stunt once per battle, but circumstances, geography, or excellent planning may suggest that you can pull it off more than once.

Terrain stunts are improvisational effects that play off your preternatural understanding of the wilderness and all the diverse forms of the natural world. Things like knocking a hornets nest no one had noticed onto your enemy’s head, maneuvering a foe onto a soggy patch of ground that slows them down, shooting the cap off a mushroom spore in a dungeon that erupts on your enemies, getting your enemy’s sword wedged into a stalactite, finding the tree branch that lets you vault up to attack the flying demon that thought it was out of axe range, and similar types of actions.

Adventurer Feat Your grasp of the way the world is put together increases; you now can use terrain stunt in urban environments.

Champion Feat You can track as well in urban areas as you do in the wilderness.

Epic Feat You can track flying creatures and creatures that normally wouldn’t be trackable, and there’s the possibility that even teleports give you a sense of direction.

Two-Weapon Mastery

You gain a +1 attack bonus when fighting with a one-handed melee weapon in each hand.

Adventurer Feat When you fight with two one-handed melee weapons, increase the damage you deal with missed attacks by adding your level to it. Most of your basic melee attacks, therefore, will deal double your level as miss damage.

Champion Feat If you fight with two one-handed melee weapons, whenever an enemy makes a melee attack against you and rolls a natural 1, you can make an opportunity attack against that foe as a free action.

Epic Feat One battle per day, increase the damage you deal with missed attacks to triple your level instead of double your level (from Two-Weapon Mastery).

Animal Companion Rules

You have a devoted animal companion who fights alongside you like a member of your adventuring party.

Recoveries

Add two recoveries to your total recoveries. You can use a recovery on yourself or your animal companion.

Actions

Your animal companion acts on your initiative turn, either immediately before or after you, depending on the animal type.

Your animal companion moves gets a move action and a standard action, but not a quick action.

If you have powers that care about the ‘first time you attack an enemy,’ an attack by your animal companion counts as your attack.

Animal Harm

Your animal companion can be healed like an ally. If it gets healed without you being healed, it uses one of your recoveries. When you use a recovery while next to your animal companion (including being engaged with the same enemy), your animal companion is also healed using a free recovery.

Instead of dying like a monster or NPC at 0 hp, your animal companion follows PC rules for falling unconscious at 0 hp and dying after four failed death saves or when its negative hit points equal half its normal hit points. If your animal companion dies, you can summon another one. If you’re still on the same adventure, you can call a new animal companion the next day, but it will be one level lower than an animal companion would normally be. At the start of a new adventure, or when you gain a level, bump the companion up to its proper level.

Stats & Levels

Each animal companion has roughly the same base stats as listed below.

Your animal companion is always one level lower than you. As a 1st level ranger, you’ll have a level 0 animal companion. Once you gain a level, your animal companion rises to 1st level.

On top of the base stats, each type of animal has a zoologically appropriate power or advantage.

Companion Bonuses

Each type of animal companion is a little different.

Bear (also Giant Badger, Wolverine)

Acts: After ranger

Advantage: The bear gains temporary hit points equal to its level each time it hits with an attack.

Champion Feat The temporary hit points increase to double its level.

Boar (also Spiky Lizard)

Acts: Before ranger

Advantage: The boar gains a +1 attack bonus when it moves before its attack during the same turn.

Eagle (also Falcon, Hawk, Owl, Vulture)

Acts: Before ranger

Advantage: It flies! Its melee damage die is dropped by one size (d6 at level 0).

Panther (also Lion, Tiger)

Acts: Before ranger

Advantage: The panther’s crit range expands by 2 against enemies with lower initiative.

Snake (also Giant Spider, Poison Toad)

Acts: After ranger

Advantage: The snake also deals ongoing poison damage equal to twice your level on a natural attack roll of 18+.

Champion Feat The ongoing damage is three times your level instead.

Epic Feat The ongoing damage is four times your level instead.

Wolf (also Big Dog, Coyote, Hyena, Jackal)

Acts: After ranger

Advantage: The wolf gains a +1 attack bonus against enemies its master attacked the same turn, or against enemies engaged with its master.

Baseline Stats

Use the following stats as the baseline for your animal companion. Remember that your companion stays a level lower than you. Generally your companion’s Physical Defense should be higher than its Mental Defense, but you could flip that if you have a good explanation.

Level Attack Damage AC PD (or MD) MD (or PD) HP
0 +5 vs. AC d8 16 14 10

20 (10)

1 +6 vs. AC d10 17 15 11

27 (13)

2 +7 vs. AC 2d6 18 16 12

36 (18)

3 +9 vs. AC 3d6 19 17 13

45 (22)

4 +10 vs. AC 4d6 21 19 15

54 (27)

5 +11 vs. AC 5d6 22 20 16

72 (36)

6 +13 vs. AC 6d6 23 21 17

90 (45)

7 +14 vs. AC 7d6 25 23 19

108 (54)

8 +15 vs. AC 8d6 26 24 20

144 (72)

9 +17 vs. AC 9d6 27 25 21

180 (90)

10 +18 vs. AC 10d6 28 26 22

216 (108)

Animal Companion Feats

Ranger animal companion feats are designed so that they do not build on each other. Unlike other feats, you don’t have to take animal companion feats progressively, one after the other as long as you qualify for the correct tier.

Adventurer Feat Once per day, your animal companion can attack twice in a round with a standard action.

Adventurer Feat Once per battle, your animal companion can turn a disengage success by an enemy it is engaged with into a failure.

Adventurer Feat Once per day, reroll one of your animal companion’s missed attack rolls.

Adventurer Feat Your animal companion adds the escalation die to its attacks.

Champion Feat Once per day, your animal companion can force an enemy to reroll an attack that hit it.

Champion Feat Your Lethal Hunter talent also applies to your animal companion.

Champion Feat Increase your animal companion’s Physical Defense and Mental Defense by +1.

Epic Feat Increase your animal companion’s damage die by one size (for example, from d6s to d8s, or d8s to d10s)

Epic Feat Increase your animal companion’s AC by +1.

Ranger Multiclass

See Multiclassing for general multiclassing rules.

You won’t get the ranger’s normal bonus talents at 5th and 8th level, instead receiving them at 6th level and 9th level.

Rangers count as skillful warriors. If your other class dies not count as a skillful warrior, your weapon dice drop one size. This means your damage dice for the Double Melee Attack and Double Ranged Attack talents drop down another size (usually from d6s to d4s) as a multiclass ranger.

Two-weapon Multiclass

Adventurer Feat While you are fighting with two melee weapons, you now gain the benefit of your Two-Weapon Mastery talent and any feats you’ve taken for it even when using attacks from your non-ranger class.

Adventurer Feat You can use your Archery ranger talent and any feats you’ve taken for it even when using ranged attacks from your non-ranger class.

Key Modifiers

Key Modifier Other class
Str/Dex Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Rogue
Str/Wis Cleric
Str/Cha Commander
Str or Dex/Int Necromancer, Occultist
Str or Dex/Wis Druid
Str or Dex/Cha Bard, Chaos Mage
Dex/Int Wizard
Dex/Cha Sorcerer

 

Section 15: Copyright Notice

13th Age Archmage Engine, version 3.0. Copyright © 2013-2015 Fire Opal Media. All Rights Reserved. Licensed under the Open Game License.

BoA: Book of Ages. Copyright © 2018 Pelgrane Press.

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