What's the draw of rangers and hunters?

[snuggleform]

I couldn't quite understand their role in a party. Their martial damage seems outclassed by sneak attack or fighters.

For ranger I suppose it revolves around passing out the ranger bond and stacking all your bonuses on one type of enemy with instant enemy?

I noticed both have natural access to a collection of spells, but I couldn't really tell if this makes up for their lack of martial dps. It feels like you'd have to stretch them thin with spell penetration and other stuff to make them worth it.

How do you guys build them?

[noobie123]

high bab, attacks per round + sense vitals spell, and they're pretty good. and toss in a pet (ranger or divine hound), and you have a solid class.

[Bonusgold]

Spell Penetration on a martial class that has only / mostly buffs ? Yes its about favored enemy. (in this game). Lead Blades, Scythe, Trickster/Crits or Vital Strike/Whatever Path should make for a LOT of damage.

[Vae Victis]

Ranger doesnt need to qualify for feats. You can go strength and use scimitars or shield bash no problem. They also get an animal companion. Ranger has a nice demonslayer subclass that works well for this campaign. You only get like level 4 spells or something but thats fine, its just a small bonus for little investment.

[gmwaddington]

Divine Hound is pretty good: pet with sharable Teamwork feats/Judgments. A halfling can ride the dog from lvl 1. A high-dex build wielding a scimitar is effective with Slashing Grace.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

I find hunter kinda mediocre, but Ranger is godlike. Lead Blades and a mount with full BAB? Yum yum. You can also go full strength with no dex at all, because combat trick lets you get all the dual wieldy type skills. Tbh though any class that rides an animal companion and hits things in melee is always going to be powerful.

[t]

Rangers are full bab, get a pet and favored enemy. The demon hunter archetype is considered one of the better classes in the game. Very solid class. Sneak attack is largely overrated and rangers should primarily be fighting at range while fighters are in the frontline.

Hunter is just garbage. It is a worse Ranger when it comes to combat and it is a worse Druid when it comes to casting. It is an role playing class only.

[AnemoneMeer]

Rangers are full base attack bonus characters with spellcasting, a pet, and an unreliable but potent damage steroid, as well as means to make it potent. They get magic that gives them inherent sneak attack and size bonus, bonus feats, and a number of largely unique spells.

Ranger is not as powerful as Slayer on its own. Its damage and accuracy steroids are just plain worse than Slayer's. However, Ranger has a pet, and the full range of pet options. Leopards can serve as party main tanks all the way up through Unfair if built properly, Smilodons are combat monsters. A Dog in Aeon Runs can invert their name and become God. Velicoraptors are attack machineguns. So on and so forth. And the Ranger has them in their kit, creating a character who is simultaneously capable of most tasks while excelling in some.

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Hunter leans more towards the Druid side of the equation, and I rarely ever find a use for it. It has its niche to be sure, but it's too easily overlapped by other options these days in the tabletop, and has the unfortunate case of the options that overlap with it being in Wrath.

[mudakonn]

Hunter gets 6 levels of spells and is spontanious caster, Divine Hunter gets cleric domain and can select impossible domain to get spells otherwise unavailable for the class.

Basically it is weaker spontanious caster cleric with animal companion and some added perks.

Since Oracle and Cleric can get animal companion from mythic path it is rather niche class. It is better than Oracle and Cleric in the first part of game maybe but then falls off because of 6 spell levels

[w.f.schepel]

Animal companion + mythical animal companion = lots of problems solved early on. (They get to ignore most damage reduction effects.) Plus, animal companions resurrect for free on a rest. So you can move them in to start awkward fights. Hunter gives you an animal companion from the get go compared to ranger that needs to wait until level 4 (or 5, I am not 100% sure).

It is hard to overstate the relevance of an extra body in a fight. Animal companions are extremely powerful, much more so than summons, if only because you get to equip them. So the draw is quite simple: it is a 2 for 1 deal. It is also a niche not really covered by the companion roster.

Anybody who thinks hunters are trash haven't really played them. They are fine. Perhaps there are much stronger MC clown builds possible, but for everybody not willing to go down that road, this is a valid approach that allows one to deal with everything on core. From start to finish.

[mudakonn]

Yes - Animal Companion can also cast spells from scrolls, use items to summon more bodies, make skill checks. And there are intresting niche animals like Centipede (High INT and 4 skill points, immune to mind and movement impaired spells) Velociraptor (High CHA 14 so can take Use magic device to use high level scrolls, Persuasion to Cornugon Smash)

[jsaving]

Divine hound hunter is one of the best archtypes in the game and should not be overlooked even though hunter as a whole is a relatively weak class.