How integral to the identity of the Ranger class is the use of a small repertoire of magic?

>key elements of rangers

They are paladins that dual weild in the woods.

Instead of smites they sometimes use a bow.

Instead of hating undead they hate whatever races that have been fucking up their forest.

Fuck ranger spell-casting. I'm sorry but I really just hate it. I understand where it comes from, though, and I don't mind it to some degree. A ranger should have a few tricks up his sleeve like entangle or minor healing.

The problem is that ranger is just a shittier fighter, and for people to be okay with playing a shittier fighter you need to give them class features that make them happy with that. The problem is, rangers get neither fighter feature, nor rogue sneak attack. So they can't fulfill either of their potential combat roles. Personally, I would give fighter sneak attack that increases every 3rd level (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th) and give them a single favored enemy they get bonuses against in combat. Their spellcasting would be an optional archetype. They would get tracking and survival skill as usual.

The problem is that I loved playing rangers because I loved playing an outdoorsy character, but no one ever would give me the spotlight to play my ranger. Yeah, it was okay for the psion to get an entire fucking session dedicated to him just wandering off and doing a whole sidequest himself while the rest of us sat and listened, but if I want 5 minutes to RP my character, I get shit on? Fuck off.

>"Oh we are camping for the night? Can I roll to see how good of a camping spot I find?"
>"Sure user"
>"Okay now can I roll to hunt?"
>"Nah we'll just eat our trail rations that we never mark off using so 3 days rations have lasted us the entire campaign"
>"Oh ok well I want to go hunt"
>"ok ok you find some rabbits"
>"well maybe I can find some fish in the stream nearby as well as clean fresh mountain spring water?"
>"uhh bro we have create water"

I know I should just fuck off and play Ryuutama or whatever, but it annoys me that I am basically useless due to characters cheating and also magic users being able to do everything.
>As it is, Rangers only make sense at the lower levels of DnD.

Very true, sadly.

Another ranger story, from the same group

> play elf ranger
> go hunting
> party sorc who is 4 levels lower wants to come along
> grudgingly agree since at least he isn't wearing armor
> on the way back, dire boar shows up
> i hide, getting something like a 32 for my Hide check
> stupid-ass sorcerer decides to climb a tree and shoot magic missiles at the dire boar
> boar rams tree, knocks him down
> sorc gets gored
> finally I realize he is about to die and I run to save him
> engage boar, deal 30 or so damage to it. It does about the same to me
> my standard fighting arrangement is -2 atk +2 AC for my deadly defense, mixed with TWF
> decide to go -4/+4 just in case
> it actually matters and saves me
> finish off the boar
> meanwhile, stupid ass sorcerer is running away not even casting spells while boar is focused on me

This was in the same adventure they mocked my ranger for being "useless." The sorc could have had invisibility and been fine but he didn't pick that spell.

Rangers should be converted into witchers

this. this. this.

>what do you consider the key elements of the identity of the Ranger in fantasy RPGs?

Dual wielding, wilderness survival, and a mysterious past, ...but hobbits are optional.

Old-school D&D rangers could learn low-level arcane and divine magic because they were dabblers, treating spells as tools and picking up anything that seemed useful in the wilderness.

And their fluff was "protectors of frontier settlements, who specialize in fighting large enemies and in turning any kind of creature into an ally, no matter how weird (unlike fighters who are limited to recruiting humanoids)".

No. Take your shitty video game crap back to /v/. Rangers are a fine class concept, they have just been shittily executed in every edition since AD&D. Oh, they were pretty good in 4th, too.

I think it sorta makes sense. You become so intimately familiar with nature that it imparts on you a small sorcerer-like spellcasting ability rather than the wizard-like spellcasting ability of the druid. As soon as you start actively studying nature magic instead of it being a side effect of whatever it is you're doing, then you're crossing into druid territory.

Still a little too niche to be a class feature though, imo. It gets a little silly when you have people like Minsc using cure magic.

You shouldn't confuse a mutant with special racial abilities who rely on alchemy, with their multiclass to function as Witchers.