D&D: The Ranger Is Getting Revised – New Errata Previews
In a Q&A session with D&D lead rules designer, Jeremy Crawford, we get a look at what’s new for the Ranger and other upcoming errata.
As part of a special Q&A stream, the lead rules designer for D&D, Jeremy Crawford, sat down to answer your questions. In the course of an hour we get a few interesting tidbits, a sneak preview of some of the villains you can find in Dungeon of the Mad Mage–but towards the end, we get a glimpse of the errata to come.
To contextualize the details that get previewed: in November, D&D will be offering the 5th Edition Core Book gift set (or special edition gift set), and included with it will be a set of new errata and tweaks to the rules. This is expected to clarify and codify some of the changes we’ve seen from Crawford’s rulings on Twitter or compiled in the Sage Advice column, but now we have a hint that the Ranger will be seeing some love in the new printing as well.
So what awaits those of us with favored enemies and terrain? Well the Beastmaster subclass is getting two tweaks to help bring it in line with the rest of the classes:
- Beast companions will now gain an ability to deal damage as though their natural weapons were magic, enabling them to deal damage around creatures with resistance to non-magical weapons.
- Beast companions will also act a little more independently now. If the Ranger doesn’t issue a command to their animal companion, the beast in question will take the dodge action instead.
This gives your animal companion a little more resiliency without you having to tell it to do things, and as well it lets your animal companion stay contributing damage to fights as you level up. Otherwise there isn’t really a way to give your beasts the ability to deal competitive damage to creatures with resistance.
Now this isn’t the Revised Ranger that some of the community seems to be hoping for–that little bit of Unearthed Arcana continues to have its die-hard fans, but I think it speaks to what has been said in the past. There’s one ranger, and it’ll get new subclass options right alongside everyone else. And for all that Beastmasters get looked down on, I think these new tweaks will help give them a leg back up.
A few other tricks you might have missed–Find Familiar can let you bamf your familiar back into existence somewhere out of your line of sight. You only have to see the original space you’re summoning your familiar into when you first cast the spell. Afterwards, you can cause them to reappear wherever you want, within 30ft. Including behind locked doors, on the other side of walls, and so on.
We’ll end with one last look at the Dungeon of the Mad Mage (for now). This time the disclaimer on the inside cover, as well as a description of the cover art.
Happy Adventuring!
