My friends and I are starting a D&D campaign and most of us are brand new except the DM who's played for a long time...

My friends and I are starting a D&D campaign and most of us are brand new except the DM who's played for a long time. For the sake of diversity I'd like to play a human ranger. The DM pretty much has to help everyone with their characters sheets so I thought to make his life a little easier I'd come here for help. I honestly haven't the slightest idea as what I should be doing in terms of stats, abilitys, archtype and whatever else. I'm not exactly sure how well balanced 5e is but I have no problem just doing the most blatantly over powered, well anything, especially because it's my first campaign. Thanks.

Also I don't know if archtype and subclass are the same thing. Either way I wouldn't know what to go with.

Download the Revised Ranger Unearthed Arcana

I wasn't aware that rangers were an extremely weak class. I assume with this revision rangers are pretty damn strong?

Yep. Went from worst to quite good.

One other thing if you don't mind as you seem to be very knowledgeable. For the sake of curiosity, what would you say are the best classes in the game right now? Classes that you would just admit are over powered. Thanks for you time, I do really appreciate it.

What do you want to do?

Do you want to be really good at bows? Because bow users aren't necessarily rangers, and rangers don't necessarily use a bow. Dual swords ranger and greatsword ranger are archetypes too.

In fact, if you only want to be really really good with a bow (Legolas), and not cast nature spells so much, go for a dex-based Fighter.

If you want to be more Aragorn (tracking, hiding, innawoods, some healing magic), then go Ranger.

If you only want to be stealthy and good with a bow, without the magic part, you can even go Rogue.

Overpowered? Eh...Diviner Wizards are really good. Clerics are great and also a super diverse class. Paladins are probably the best at beating on people with weapons.

>In fact, if you only want to be really really good with a bow (Legolas), and not cast nature spells so much, go for a dex-based Fighter.
>If you only want to be stealthy and good with a bow, without the magic part, you can even go Rogue.
Those 2 sound the most appealing. I'd lean towards whichever of the 2 excels more at combat.

Fighter gets the most attacks and ability score increases (which you can also use for feats like Sharpshooter, if your table allows feats). Rogue gets only one attack per turn, but that one attack can get big bonus damage if you're hidden or an ally of yours is next to the target.

If you go Fighter, you'll probably want the Battlemaster archetype, which means you can e.g. trip or disarm enemies with your attacks, or make more precise attacks (good combo with Sharpshooter).

If you go Rogue, the Assassin subclass is what you want. It gives you advantage on (and thus Sneak Attack damage) on any creature that hasn't acted in that combat yet.

Fighter is probably more consistent in damage, and action surge and second wind are a big help, while Rogue has more skills and out-of-combat utility.

>I'd lean towards whichever of the 2 excels more at combat

(new to the conversation)

I understand where you are coming from, but I think you are making a mistake. Go with what you want to play as a 'that would be cool' and worry less about trying to be the most powerful character. There really isn't that much difference between the classes in regards to balance, so focus on what you think would be 'cool' from the perspective of 'I imagine myself as...' daydream thing.

I get why you have your opinion, in earlier editions balance was a serious issue with some classes and building properly was always important. But that isn't so much the case with 5e (the Beastmaster Ranger and the monk have some issues straight from the book I admit).

For your first character I would suggest going with something that does not use spells, unless you are willing to look in to them. If you are willing to do that I think Paladin is a pretty good way to go for a new player, good solid combat class with plenty of options for play.

Rogue is another good option, you will almost always have something to do in and out of combat and when you crit you get a great 'I am overpowered' feeling.

Revised ranger UA kinda even fixes beastmaster

My DM for sure allows feats so this dex based fighter that uses a bow seems perfect for me. I do have a few more questions if that's alright.

1. What's the difference between an archtype and a subclass? Do fighters get archtypes while rogues get subclasses?
2. As far as abilitys/attacks/feats go, is the a big list of those and get to pick specific ones which I write on my character sheet?
3. Assuming #2 is true would you mind generally telling me my best options?

Thanks again mate.

If you want to be good with a bow, but don't want to deal with Rangers especially, look into Fighter. Fighters are built around combat, and can be made quite amazing with bows and ranged weapons.

Whats the deal with rangers? Apparently they're the weakest class in the game but somewhat recently they got revamped? Is this "Unearthed Arcana ranger" a buff to rangers, or is it a specific type of new ranger, or something else entirely?

1. Ehh, yeah, subclass, archetype, same thing. Each class has a special name for them: fighter has "martial archetypes", rogue has "roguish archetypes", while barbarian has "primal paths".
2. The class and subclass features are all in the class section. You gain all the abilities from your class and subclass at the specified levels. You may also get some abilities from your race and subrace (stonecunning, fey ancestry). Feats are all in the feats section, and you can only choose one when you would get an ability score increase, or if you start as a variant human.
3. You'll want the sharpshooter feat as soon as possible. As for battlemaster maneuvers, you get to pick from a list of those. Get precision attack for sure, then choose whatever works with a ranged weapon and sounds cool.

It replaces the PHB ranger. Generally less situational (no favoured terrain, just good everywhere), and beast companions are better balanced.

If your DM allows variant human, go for that and (Assuming you're going for a full ranged build) Take either sharpshooter for the damage OR if you want to be able to get to high points to snipe down, athlete is very good.

This is very true. I'd avoid the UA only because he may have problems getting it accepted, but good point.

But if he allows UA there is a new fighter archetype that is all about slinging magic arrows. So that's worth looking into

It's a cool idea but as written in the UA doesn't scale at all. I expect when they release PHB2 or whatever in 2017 there will be a better version of the Arcane Archer.

Just go fighter battlemaster.

Whats this "variant human" that people are mentioning?

Also I read what sharpshooter does:
Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls.
Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.

As a new player these 3 abilitys seem lack luster, especially the 3rd one. Am I missing something?

Read the fucking book

1. Allows for you to be as far as your maximum range from your target, meaning you can initiate ranged combat and perform stealthy takedowns at range
2. No matter where your target is hiding, you never take a penalty for it. If you can see him, you can shoot him.
3. This is basically free damage at higher levels, especially if you have a method of getting advantage on your attack (Battlemaster: Feinting attack)

They are incredible and are almost mandatory for ranged characters to scale with the melee guys.

If you want m-m-m-maximum combat damage, go for a crossbow build instead of a bow. Get crossbow master feat at level 1, and use a hand crossbow for two attacks right off the bat. At level 4 get sharpshooter for that range and +10 to damage. Get battlemaster for combat maneuvers. Definitely get that one that gives you +to hit, to combo up with -5 to hit +10 to damage from sharpshooter.

At level 5 you're looking at 3 attacks per round normally, and 5 attacks with action surge.

If all hit, and you use all your maneuvers, you can deal

5d6+4d8+50+(DEX mod)*5

Which is quite a lot for a level 5 character. Most things at that level hardly have that much health.

The third one ends up doing more damage over time - even more so if you combine it with precision shot or advantage

The third ability is a mathematically significant boost to damage.

Very interesting. If I went this route I would being using a regular cross bow and hand crossbow(s)?

Hand crossbow. So you can dual wield

How do you reload a crossbow with no free hands?

Suspension of Disbelief

...

No, the problem is that it's illegal rules-wise.

Just to clarify, my only weapons are 2 hand crossbows, because of the 3rd part of the master crossbow feat? Why essentially gives me a free bonus attack?

Use one hand crossbow and attack with it. Since you just attacked with a one handed weapon (crossbow), you get an attack with the same hand crossbow as a bonus action.
Dual wielding hand crossbows sounds cool, but it's actually impossible RAW and would be inferior to wielding just one even if you could dual wield them.

Something unnecessary but cool about this build. If you take an applicable artisan tool as a battlemaster you can suggest to your DM that you work on modifier your crossbow for a reload system a la Dishonored hand crossbow.

Sorry I'm still confused. So I only use 1 hand crossbow and the 3rd part of the crossbow mastery feat doesn't offer me any kind of benefit?

I was under the impression that since you just fired your hand crossbow it isn't loaded for purposes of the extra attack, even when ignoring the loading property due to the feat.

might be an interesting way to negate this however.

>Whats this "variant human" that people are mentioning?
The one that starts with a feat

Many people consider variant humans to be too strong. Some DMs don't even allow them.

>I was under the impression that since you just fired your hand crossbow it isn't loaded for purposes of the extra attack, even when ignoring the loading property due to the feat.
What does it matter? Since you're ignoring the loading property, you can attack as many times as you can with that, meaning that you reload your weapon multiple times.