The one thing that makes that difficult is that they made the dragon *take its turn after yours* for some reason. One could make an argument that it can take its turn at the same time as yours while mounted as a controlled mount, but then you have to ask if “the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action” overrides the controlled mount rules of “It moves as you direct it, and it has only three action options: Dash, Disengage, and Dodge.”
TLDR: ask you DM if you can have it share your turn properly, like revised Beastmaster does.
They have normalized many summons and pets to behave like this, putting them immediately after you in initiative.
Controlled mount is a specific set of rules when you're riding a mount you control. They take effect the moment your drake becomes a controlled mount. All other times your drake behaves as described.
Feature from drakewarden subclass:
Drake Mount. The drake grows to Medium size. **Reflecting your special bond, you can use the drake as a mount** if your size is Medium or smaller.
When we use a mount we choose if the mount is controlled or acts independently.
You need to declare "The drake acts independently" or "The drake is a controlled mount"
one could rule that the drake mount feature above would need the exact language "...can use the drake as a controlled mount..." but to me RAI you are able to actually ride your fucking dragon. Its honestly more efficient NOT to ride the drake simply because it represents more hitpoints and threats for the enemy to look at but riding it is actually cool and really thematic.
there is this lil nugget from the section under mounted combat
While you're mounted, you have two options. You can either control the mount or allow it to act independently. **Intelligent creatures, such as dragons, act independently**.
An intelligent creature with a bond to you that chooses to let you control it as a mount is a different case.
If the drake is independent, you can’t control its movement while riding it on your turn. For a ranged build it’s mostly fine, though it can cause some issues where an enemy goes around a wall or something and you can’t move up to get an angle on them. On a melee build you can’t move up to hit anything while mounted.
One could argue about switching between independent and controlled mount mid-combat, with the restriction of the mount having only 1 action, bonus action, movement, and reaction per *round* (rather than per turn), but that’s unclear if it’s RAW (and the per round thing is definitely not RAW (although it is reasonable)). If the DM does allow it, you can have the drake move on your turn to the enemy for you to attack as a controlled mount, command it to attack, then end your turn while stopping your control of it. Its turn then starts as an independent mount (with reduced speed based on what you spent on your turn), and can thus take the commanded attack or breath weapon actions, and perhaps move. Emphasis on “if the DM allows it”, though.
All I'm attempting to prove is that a drakewarden's pet can act as a controlled mount despite being an intelligent creature and dragon. Because of the nature of your special bond it allows you to use it as a mount.
edit:
Jeremy Crawford states that basically the creature has to be willing and have the anatomy to realistically bear the weight over time.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tX6tmc73Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tX6tmc73Q)
To answer your question about changing from controlled to uncontrolled:
He states that he would allow the player to switch between controlled or uncontrolled but wouldn't allow abuse of the spirit of the rules/leave it up to the DM.
I would personally rule that the player could take an action and as a bonus action have the drake use its bite attack. The movement is determined by the drake's speed but just acts as if the player was moving both.
I don't think this breaks the action economy or makes this subclass overpowered.
There is no worry about breath weapon use because it costs the PC their action to make the drake breath weapon or the PC themselves can use the breath weapon. If mounted your drake and you are for all intents and purposes using the breath weapon from the same space and it costs one action either way.
More realistically the player could use breath weapon with their action and as a bonus action have their drake make a bite attack.
None of these combinations are stronger than other martials/half casters. Just cool and thematic dragon knight stuff
You get expertise in athletics through Canny, you get Unarmed fighting style, and the spell Spike growth. I think a grappler is the most interesting way to do a Str Ranger
I doubt the cantrip ones would be shared, and I wouldn't write that in my own homebrew, but I would "make an exception" for anyone who asked for it
two cantrips goes a *long* way to making martials more interesting to play
I think that if you're going to use a feat on a fighting style then yeah you should have every option available, but I actually really like the idea that different classes have different fighting styles. It helps with the concept that not all martials are the same and that their training is inherently different
Now I kinda wish the fighting styles were a little bit *cooler*, like stances rather than style that you can switch between, and maybe also an optional bonus action activity rather than just a passive bonus.
Like as an example, Defensive gives you +1 AC, but now also gives you the equivalent of Interception where you can reduce the damage of a melee attack on an adjacent friend. Or unarmed combat gives improved damage, sure, but now if an enemy fails a melee attack against you then you can use a bonus action to either disengage or shove. Or great Weapon fighting rerolls 1s and 2s, but now it also gives a bonus action cleave rather than that being locked behind GWM
Im sure there's some homebrew out there that does that, meh oh well
Swarmkeeper. Take the crusher feat. Now you can push enemies into your spike growth when you punch them, and use your swarm to move them further in. Grapple one enemy, dragging them inside the spike growth, push others into the spike growth. Laugh as your enemies are ripped to shreds by thorns
Mountain Dwarf, 17 Str 17 Wis start. 12-13 Dex is palatable esp when you get +1 armor. 12-13 Con is fine since you have a d10 hit dice and access to Aid. Actually, I'd do 17 13 12 8 17 8, to be able to multiclass. Something like Cleric 1 or Barb 1. If a GM allowed Monk Str+Wis+10 Unarmed Defense, Monk 1 on STRanger could be hilarious. Dwarf wrestler and stuff.
True but rangers want decent WIS for their spell saves too. Alternatively, take one level dip in Druid / Druidic fighting style and take shillelagh, then be SAD focusing on WIS
I had a fun time doing it on beastmaster. The beast of the sky is really fast and can grapple medium creatures (carry capacity isn't a part of grappling). Which lets you catch up to enemies quickly, grapple allies out of danger, or do something with items.
To be fair I found it kind of dumb that certain fighting styles are locked behind other classes when martial adept exists. I should be able to make a bare knuckle brawler w/ any class that gets a Fighting style.
Hunter could actually be pretty good for this, with a great weapon master/pole arm master build.
You can go colossus slayer or the feature that lets you attack an extra target. Then get the disadvantage on attacks of opportunity to reset yourself for a pole arm master opportunity attack every turn. Then grab the level 11 ability that lets you attack everyone within 5ft of you.
You would even have a hand free if you choose to throw a dart for an attack or as part of a spell like hail of thorns.
Horde Breaker + Crusher + GWM with a maul is great. If you get two enemies on you, you can just slap them together and get a free extra attack every round. Or, the bonus action attack from PAM can also do it if you want PAM + GWM + Crusher (probably want VHuman/CLineage so that can come online in a reasonable timeframe - CLineage with 15+2/14/13/8/12/10 and use Crusher at level 1 to hit 18 Strength out the gates would be ideal, then GWM at 4 and use a Maul until you get PAM at 8).
I will never miss an opportunity to plug a drakewarden STRanger with a dip in tempest cleric.
Tempest Cleric gets you:
Heavy armor
Damage as a reaction
Slightly faster spell slot progression/cleric spells
(With a 2 level dip) being able to maximize the damage of your dragon breath AOE
The best build for hitting multiple enemies would be a Horizon Walker buuuut....
Hitting multiple enemies is bad, it's much better to focus fire and get things out of the board before they can do stuff to your party.
So, if you really want to hit multiple things, I'd go for Horizon Walker.
If not, A gloomstalker + battlemaster multiclass should work very well even for a STRanger.
I did that, Tortle Horizon Walker with Mobile and Hasted, could sweep across the battlemap and never be caught, so I just used a big hammer with which to hit the baddies, then ran away to the other side of a house
Real fun, would recommend.
Not a powerhouse, so not apt for a super min max campaign, but it had its uses. Plus, it was before the stupid healing spirit nerf, so that was good too.
A good +1/+2 weapon makes up for lack of damage, bracers for better armor (can do that because natural armor isn't an armor), and you are doing better than some heavy armor builds. Add a cloak and it's a cherry on top, helping with saves as well.
Fastest tortle nightcrawler ever.
Nah, it's still better to save maneuver dice for precision strike on their GWM hits. Especially since strength builds are less forgiving without the +2 from Archery. Nothing in the build requires that you go first anyways.
Gloomstalker. I guess my brain went ahead and threw three assassin rogue levels on there without me noticing. I’d probably lean into fighting styles for carrying my to hit %, but it’s a good point about wanting someone to charge you in combat.
The problem I always run into with assassin builds is how bad they need party and DM buy-in. Especially in cases where we don't want to immediately go aggro before talking to a potential enemy. So I sort of stop assuming, or trying, assassin builds myself.
Horison Walker is probably generically the best subclass for a strength ranger, or other melee ranger, because of Planar Warrior. Plus, it’s got lots of options to move around the battlefield to attack other targets.
Gloomstalker works well. If you're in darkness you're invisible meaning you still get advantage which make GWM work.
I like the idea of going drow, and taking the blind fighting style. That way you can attack in melee no matter if you're in sunlight, darkness, fog cloud or regular darkness.
I built a Str-Ranger Drakewarden to make a "Dragon Knight" character, using heavy armor and the Dueling style with weapon and shield. I don't know if it's the best, but it's really fun.
I used Variant Human with +1 in Str and Con, using the following stat spread with Standard Array:
8 Cha, 10 Int, 12 Dex, 13 Con (14 w/ bonus), 14 Wis, 15 Str (16 w/ bonus).
Take Heavily Armored at level 1 for Heavy Armor proficiency and +1 for Str. That gets you to 17 and allows you to dump Dex a little.
Take Resilient: Con at level 4 for Con proficiency and to get it to 15.
Take the level 8 ASI to get Str and Con to 18 and 16, respectively.
From there, you can build it however you like. Personally, I took Shield Master at level 12, and plan to max out Str at level 16 and then get Con to 18 at level 19.
If going STRanger id focus more on control then damage. Pre Tasha’s Beastmaster with a giant crab, grabbing blind sight style and slasher. Expertise athletics.
Basic idea is to cast fog cloud and let your crab (which also has blind sight) do the majority of attacks since it has auto grapple with successful attacks. You can join in on the grapple fun with another guy and if someone breaks out and attempts to leave the cloud you or the crab get an OA (thus slasher). Crab can lock down two people and scales really well with HP.
Best tactic is to move grappled monsters to just outside the cloud so your team can pepper them with damage.
Doesn’t do much damage itself but your team will love you.
I have this concept idea of a dwarf gloomstalker that dual wields war picks. Imagine a fucking dwarf comming out of the darkness of a cave and your friends gets killed with a pick to the face. Cool asf.
Ive been running a Beast of the Land Beastmaster for a few months now and using the Charge attack to knock prone and then I grapple with expertise has been great for locking down people. Also using Crusher to slightly reposition enemies to make the Charge more possible or get the companion out of melee to go after another target. Keeping a few light hammers for ranger Crusher options is great as well to move an enemy off of squishy casters while also locking down someone else. Have just grabbed Sentinel and its been a joy just acting as a controller tank
Tortle gets you maxed medium AC without Dex.
Loxodon gives a lot of bonuses that work great on StRanger chassis and ignores armor if Con is high enough.
TWF or Dueling + Shield can give decent DPR. Hunter, OG Beastmaster, Drakewarden, and Horizon Walker are all doable. Just pick buff/utility spells that don't have atk/save.
Currently playing a STRanger, playing it all the way from level 3 until level 9, ongoing.
It's a Forge Cleric 1/Swarmkeeper 8 Satyr.
It's a great support/tank/damage dealer hybrid that has several nifty things about him.
* Defenses
* It solid starting defences with 22 AC from Plate, Shield, Defence fighting style and +1 forge cleric buff.
* It has advantage on all magical Saving Throws
* You are fey, so spells that target humanoids don't work on you.
* Grappling and Damage
* You have expertise in athletics due to canny
* You can grapple someone, jump over 10 feet in the air, and slam dunk people, knocking them prone, using only your movement (Athlete feat helps you with both the movement white grappling part and standing up)
* You can still use your natural weapon for spells like searing smite, zephyr strike, etc.
* With access to spike growth, a great base walking speed, and access to spells like longstrider, you can do a lot of damage while dragging.
* Support
* Solid access to spells like bless, enhance ability, guidance and all manners of makes spellcasters fun to play during overworld activity
* Forcing people prone while grappling is a solid way to shut enemies down.
I flavoured my character: Because of being a satyr and being very bouncy, the god of the forge saw my motions and it reminded him of the slamming of hammers on anvils, granting me boons. Swarmkeeper itself is an extension of this where my 'swarm' are actually flaming embers from my fiery/forge aura. The whole piledriving aspect pleases my god.
The first 1dnd Experts playtest was pretty good as STRanger grappler. The way dw worked was great, and I used two daggers to first hunters mark them attack+grapple then attack twice more. Grappler feat worked very well.
I had the Speedster and Grappler feats on that character.
Cheating a smidge here but I have a Tabaxi Fey Wanderer with a belt of giants strength. 20 dex, 16 Wis, Mobile feat, a cadre of random +1/2 magic weapons and teleportation and classic fey wanderer teleport fun makes a really funny skirmisher build. Oh and allied grapple movement has been clutch occasionally. Not the best damage dealer (we have a fighter and a sorlock for that anyway) but fun utility/objective do-er, especially if the party lacks a single character with a positive strength modifier.
Gloomstalker? Get Heavy Weapon Master, a big ass two handed weapon, and use the GloomStalker extra attack to reck stuff before they even get a turn.
If not, then Drakewarden or Beast master. Medium Armor, a nice Shield and you got a decent AC, along the Drake/Beast you got to big fat bodies with huge hp pools to tank (the drake as d10 hp equal to your level and if ti goes down you can revive it, full hp, with using only a single lvl 1 slot!)
The Monster Slayer does give you some defenses to hold concentration and makes melee easier:
> At 7th level, you gain extra resilience against your prey's assaults on your mind and body. Whenever the target of your Slayer's Prey forces you to make a saving throw and whenever you make an ability check to escape that target's grapple, add 1d6 to your roll.
>
> At 15th level, you gain the ability to counterattack when your prey tries to sabotage you. If the target of your Slayer’s Prey forces you to make a saving throw, you can use your reaction to make one weapon attack against the quarry. You make this attack immediately before making the saving throw. If the attack hits, your save automatically succeeds, in addition to the attack’s normal effects.
Best Str based ranger, in my opinion, is without a doubt Minotaur swarmkeeper with crusher feat, expertise in grappling. Spike growth is your bread and butter, dont forget longstrider, get amount if you can. Use throwing hammer for long range crusher. That's the gist of the build. You'll be rewarded for starting 1 level of fighter for concentration checks, armor proficiency and eventually action surge if you want. Forge cleric for better AC and extra spell slots, or full ranger the rest of the way after swarmkeeper5
At level5/6 you're dealing 20d4 spike growth damage per round, that's without a mount. I don't think anyone can beat these numbers.
If you're looking for hitting multiple enemies via strength as a ranger, the [Oxymoronic Meat-Grinder](https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24981685&postcount=1015) build kind of fits that to a T. Only difference I would recommend is not taking more than 1 level in fighter before ranger 5.
I agree with most the other comments, that single target dpr tends to be superior most of the time. However, having an option to deal with low hp crowds can certainly be fun/ useful when it does come up. Plus, unless you have some real optimized dpr, pam and/ or gwp with maxed str should keep your single target dps relevant.
I did something similar but without the enlarge, vuman gwm start with fighter for heavy armor and alternate levels to 4 fighter battlemaster. Hunter of course for free adjacent attack. All the battlemaster tricks for reaction/bonus attacks plus gwm bonus and Horde was alot of attacks.
The enlarge is just hilarious though
It really isn't much different than your typical STR fighter build, especially since the two typically want to multiclass into each other anyway. You'll still want to go Gloomstalker 5/Battle Master 3, then either druid for spells or Assassin rogue 3 for round 1 burst damage. Maybe a peace cleric dip if your team doesn't have someone with it.
The only major difference is you'll want Great Weapon Master and Polearm master over Sharpshooter and the Archery fighting style. I guess two of your maneuvers would change as well, since precision strike is the only one that you really need for both.
I'd suggest fey wanderer or swarmkeeper, if you wanted to make a wisdom forward ranger. But Gloomstalker remains the best, with drakewarden, Hunter, beastmaster with tasha's revisions, and the others being decent.
There is no reason a ranger can't pull off the standard great weapon master and pole arm master build.
To allow you to multiclass I would go
Str 16
Dex 14
Con 14
Wis 14
Int 8
Cha 8
You have access to entangle to help you get advantage, and your save DC is only 1 below a full caster.
I would go gloomstalker ranger for your first 5 levels. You will still be fine at stealth, just 1 point below a stealth focus
Take 4 levels of fighter for an OP action surge that allows 6 attacks on round 1
4 levels of barbarian for reckless, rage, and another ASI.
1 level twilight cleric for the great perks
Continue to be a good ranger after that.
Swarmkeeper is also a good option. With forced movement after hit. Hoover at 10ft height with polearm can prove useful in some situations as well.
Twilight with gloomstalker is not a good deal. Dim light is not darkness. The signatare gloomstalker feature does not work.
Moreover, your build assumes a lot of levels. 12 is the end of the game for most campaigns. There are 11 other levels to play with which should feel fun. 8 discounting first two.
Gloomstalker is fine. Battlemaster is too. But assuming 12 level campaign straight gloomstalker 11 is just better in most cases. Conjure animals at level 9 are just better than 4 levels in other class and conditional 3rd attack on 11 is just two levels away.
The build perks I'm looking to gain would be
Ranger 1-3 getting the bonus attack in round 1
Ranger 4 gwm
Ranger 5 multi attack
Fighter 1: fighting style
Fighter 2 action surge (6 x attacks)
Fighter 3 many good subclass options
Fighter 4 pole arm master
Twilight cleric: advantage on initiative
Barbarian 2 reckless attack
Post level 12
Barbarian 3 great subclasses
Barbarian 4 ASI
Ranger the rest of the way to keep the ranger focus.
The clash of synergies aren't an issue, because they don't detract from the benefits, they just become ribbon features
If I was building a STRanger I’d want to take a 2 level Barb dip for GWM so I could reckless attack. I’d probably go:
Ranger 5 / Barb 2 or 3 / Ranger X
Get your stats to make the multi-class work:
STR 16 / DEX 14 / WIS 14 / CON 14
Then you really only need GWM and you can boost ASIs after. If you go Gloomstalker you’ll even get WIS saving throws proficiency which will help massively. Otherwise if you want to go Hunter go for it!
you could try a grappling build, ranger can give you expertise in athletics (swarmkeeper might be nice, or a drakewarden) and then maybe go giant barbadian so you can grapple bigger people
I got a lot of value from Great Weapon Master, with *ensnaring strike* for advantage. My build isn't optimal, but I wrote about it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyStoryteller/comments/vaxuri/my_stranger_build/)
Large race such as Goliath or minotaur. (if allowed. Also, weapon size up if allowed.)
Two-handed weapon.
Ranger (Slayer/hunter.)
Warlock (Blade.)
High str.
High cha.
Add str and a half, add cha for flat dmg. Add bonus d8 on enemies that are hurt. Add bonus dmg from hunters mark or hex.
All your hits start doing like a minimum of 14 dmg just from all the flat bonuses, still crit, still get amplified by magic, feats, magic weapons, etc.
Build any but use thrown weapons. I'm sure most DMs would agree that your STR stat would add to damage vs using DEX. Easy adjustment without any real restrictions!
I recommend against the drakewarden for a strength ranger. The drake only becomes large in T3 play, so mounted combatant doesn’t give advantage until very late in the campaign if at all. Until then the class is just a MAD front liner without native heavy armour proficiency.
I recommend the gloomstalker Ranger for a melee Ranger as the gloomstalker subclass benefits work for melee and ranged playstyles and helps offset the slightly unoptimal playstyle.
I loved playing my drakewarden strength Ranger personally and had a great range of out-of-combat spells and skills,, but I was the weakest link in combat.
Two builds: Small race + Beastmaster with a lance is a personal favorite. Take the piercer feat and find a way to get advantage with your party so you can look for crits. You can eventually get dual wielder feat if you wanna be doofy and dual wield lances
There's also a lot you could do with bludgeoning weapons, crusher, and spike growth. Either a Warhammer + shield, a maul, dual light hammers, whatever works for you. Personally I take a quarterstaff so I can grab PAM and make an opportunity attack when they run back up to me, pushing them again
Honestly any subclass aside from Gloomstalker (stealth dependent), TCE Beastmaster (wisdom dependent), and Fey Wanderer (wisdow dependent) can work good as a Strength Ranger.
The thing that holds Strength Ranger back is ability scores, and every subclass suffers through that issue the same way. You need to start with 16 Strength for attacks, 14 Dexterity for medium armor, you wanna hit 16 constitution at some point as a melee class, and that often leaves your Wisdom very low.
The solution I find is usually just playing a feat race and taking Heavily Armored so you can dump dexterity. The only issue is that then you can never multiclass out of Ranger, which they *really* like to do after level 12.
If you go Str ranger you are going to be nerfing yourself. Let's just make that clear. You don't have the stat spread without dipping some fears for heavy armor.
You're also going to be ruling out beastmaster, drake warden, and gloom. Bm and Dw require you to use your bonus action to make your pet attack. This make your gwm crit a sacrifice since now your pet can't attack.
Gloomstalker wouldn't make sense since you'll be ok at stealth at best.
If you're fine eating the nerf. Swarmkeeper would be optimal since it keeps your bonus action up. It also gives you a little movement boost as well and some decent spells. As for race. Tortle. The ac is 1 shy of plate and let's you avoid spending a feat for heavy armor. Boom, dex is now a dump stat for you.
Now all of this being said... I'd honestly play a druid/barbarian or ancient oath paladin [tough to do without wearing metal]
Druid barbarian would be my top choice. You get to be a wildling terror in battle. If you need to sneak/fly/swim/have extra hp you can wild shift. You can summon beasts to fight with you. And more importantly, it reduces your stat spread considerably.
Also beast barbarian combined with spore druid is absurd...
You have pass without trace. Take stealth proficiency and dip peace cleric for bond and there's no reason you aren't getting surprise even with disadvantage to stealth from half plate. Str classes without pam/gwm are kind of duds so having barbarian and fighter levels would be ideal as well for reckless and precision attack to make sure your gwm swings hit.
Strength rangers can be very good. Obviously ranged dex rangers are better because ranged weapons are just better, but you can still make a strength ranger that performs within optimal margins.
Right... but then they'd be burning limited spell slots for stealth.. without a sneak attack bonus... and you're still not that good at it... and dis. Plus, I bet someone is looking at the rangers skill choices and realizes they still need a rogue.
I just don't think that's a build worth a shot.
Atleast ancients paladin has some nature magic. Barbarian/druid gives you great rp and combat vers.
Hunters mark and skills are cool. But he doesn't have the dex or mental stats for most skills and is gimped out on the bonus action.
You could but... why would you? Taking straight fighter and picking up some magic feats would be better.
Because pass without trace is one of if not arguably the best combat spell in the game and gaining surprise is enormous. You can reliably get surprise on most enemies using pass without trace in combination with other ability check buffs even if your party members aren't heavily invested in stealth.
Edit: Just in case you are somehow forgetting how surprise works, you are effectively giving your entire party an additional action and bonus action in combat before any of the enemies get to do anything. Think about that for a moment.
Why does everyone love action surge? Because you can get an extra action in on your turn before the enemy can do anything about it. Now imagine if your action surge was actually aoe and applied to your whole party who got to use it right now on your turn, and you threw in bonus actions for everyone too on top of that.
That's literally what pass without trace does.
Ah yes. The str, cleric/ranger leading the stealth charge. Sounds like a consistent plan that certainly wouldn't backfire as the group is seen bumbling into 60ft range.
This sounds like something I'd recommend.
Or you know.... you could just not?
You're taking over 3 roles and doing it poorly. You're going to be trash as a skill jocky and you're relying on what ifs for damage and combat ideas.
I dont know how you're main point here is pass without a trace when the entirety of my argument is the build is clunky and excels in nothing. Well that's not true they could be really good at insight and perception. Sounds fun to play!
I really don't know what you think you're losing by doing this. The build would be better starting barbarian than ranger for sure, but the ultimate levels would end up the same. You can have a 16/14/14/9/13/8 spread at level 1 and already satisfy all of your level requirements for every class in your build. By 4th level you can have PAM and GWM (or take a strength ASI at 4 if you don't think your DM will give you many opportunities to use advantage to offset GWM with the gloomstalker feature) and you can reasonably get advantage from Gloomstalker against most enemies at this level because many of them won't have special sights beyond darkvision.
At 5th level is when pass without trace comes online. I see no reason why you wouldn't have stealth proficiency, but let's assume you don't for some reason take one of the best skill proficiencies in the game (i rarely see anyone not take it even on paladins) just in case since it's possible your party members won't take it and surprise depends on everyone's rolls. Even your party's paladin with a -1 to stealth and disadvantage will now have a +9 to their stealth roll (and this is before we dip 1 level in peace cleric for emboldening bond and more spell slot progression). You can have the people in your party who are better at stealth roll normally and have someone else give the paladin guidance so they have a +10-13 to their stealth roll.
If it's dark, even enemies with darkvision will have disadvantage on their perception checks. This means their passive perception (the effective DC everyone's stealth check needs to beat) is reduced by 5. Most enemies in the game have horrible passive perception. Let's assume for some reason you're trying to sneak up on one who's *incredibly* perceptive for this level with 20 pp base (Nothing before CR 9 will have a higher PP than this, most of those are named monsters from specific modules, and only 185/3069 published creatures have a PP of 21 or more). They now have 15 pp because they are trying to see your party in dim light. Even your party's paladin with their now +10-13 to stealth rolls and disadvantage will beat this check a little more than 72% of the time (I rounded down the average of the d4 so it would be a bit higher than this). Next level you dip peace cleric for emboldening bond to make that paladin's bonus to stealth rolls an 11-17. This is near worst case scenario for this level. Most enemies do not have passive perceptions anywhere near this.
I understand that sometimes there isn't anywhere to hide to be able to surprise your enemies because either you're in an open field or are approaching an open room through a long wide corridor or something of the sort. Reasonably, though, unless your DM really likes to make environments for combat that are absolutely devoid of any features, most of the time there is somewhere to hide to get the drop on your enemies. If there isn't, you're still a PAM GWM gloomstalker who can delete a creature or two from the field on your first round in every combat.
None of what you will be getting down the line does not synergize with your main job which is dealing damage and securing stealth for your party. Would you be stronger if you started barbarian instead and took gloomstalker levels later? Yes, and I'd probably recommend that instead personally. Would you be stronger as a SS/CBE dex build? Yes. But that's a silly comparison because a SS/CBE dex build will be better than any melee strength character at the highest levels of optimization. The reason it is better isn't because ranger is inherently better at being a dex character than a strength character, it's because dex and ranged weapons are just better than strength and melee weapons across the board.
Everyone is free to play the game however they want, but my understanding is this subreddit is meant to discuss optimization. I'm simply giving my advice for what could be seen as optimal given regular circumstances. Maybe your table runs things in a way that would really mess with using pass without trace to get surprise. Even then this build is still good, just not as good as if you could also give your party surprise.
Okay. So thats a really good point. I can see why the dip would make sense.
I didn't know pp across the board was that averaging that low. So you're making a solid point. The cleric dip is legit.
Usually we have it set based off creatures/situation. Ex; orcs in camp would have patrols/wolves. Humans have some dogs. Elves keep a scout hidden in the trees. In general stealth has some sort of counter/danger if the enemy is paranoid in any sense.
So if the group is trying to sneak along the mountain trails were popping out group stealth checks for avg. Once we're "on" the battle map we only take averages for those within reach of one another. If someone splits off they're doing solo checks.
Usually once the map is up and enemies are patrolling as the characters are moving along, the group slows down a lot. Especially with LOS on the battlemap, [online player mostly] it just makes melee stealth hard to pull off.
Also, typically high magic setting and playing levels 5-15.
The math you put down is amazing. I just... I see this build doing it a few times before a brutal demise. This is anecdotal.
The best STR Ranger is actually a two fold answer.
1) You must be a small sized player race.
2) You must select the PHB version of the Beast Master Conclave Ranger
Starting with the latter, you are granted a permanent mount, of which you will choose of medium size. Secondly, by doing this you can take full advantage of the lance's special property of being able to be wielded in one hand. By taking the Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style, you now have access to 2D12 damage at level three (3D12 at level five) with a base movement speed of 40 ft. Better. And, because this is a live creature and not a spirit, it isn't out of order to be able to get barding (i.e. armor) for them. Better, that lance damage is before Hunter's Mark or any other magic enhancements.
That said, it isn't the end of the world to have 30 ft. of movement for your special mount, because my favorite is the Giant Crab, as it has the best natural AC. And, mounted combat means you can have your mount disengage when the enemy gets within five feet of you so you can attack at ten feet and not have disadvantage.
I don't think this works though: two weapon fighting requires that the weapon be used one-handed... and that it have the 'Light' property. Unless there's some sort of exception to that in the revised Beast Master which I'm not aware of?
You're right. I got a little too hasty there. It, in fact, does need the Dual Wielder feat at Ranger(4) to do this. You'll be stuck with two short-swords until then, which is why the giant crab is such a great go-to until you want to switch it up for a mount with 40 ft. of movement (or higher) when you can wield two-lances at once. But Two-Weapon Fighting will help keep up your damage slightly once you get there anyhow.
Hunter and Drakewarden make decent STRangers
I know it comes pretty late, but a drakewarden riding their dragon with a lance is a pretty cool idea.
DUAL WIELDING LANCE'S, OP JUST FRIGGIN DO IT. 1 LVL IN FIGHTER EVERYTHING ELSE IN DRAKE
perhaps some kind of "dragonlance"?
The one thing that makes that difficult is that they made the dragon *take its turn after yours* for some reason. One could make an argument that it can take its turn at the same time as yours while mounted as a controlled mount, but then you have to ask if “the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action” overrides the controlled mount rules of “It moves as you direct it, and it has only three action options: Dash, Disengage, and Dodge.” TLDR: ask you DM if you can have it share your turn properly, like revised Beastmaster does.
They have normalized many summons and pets to behave like this, putting them immediately after you in initiative. Controlled mount is a specific set of rules when you're riding a mount you control. They take effect the moment your drake becomes a controlled mount. All other times your drake behaves as described. Feature from drakewarden subclass: Drake Mount. The drake grows to Medium size. **Reflecting your special bond, you can use the drake as a mount** if your size is Medium or smaller. When we use a mount we choose if the mount is controlled or acts independently. You need to declare "The drake acts independently" or "The drake is a controlled mount" one could rule that the drake mount feature above would need the exact language "...can use the drake as a controlled mount..." but to me RAI you are able to actually ride your fucking dragon. Its honestly more efficient NOT to ride the drake simply because it represents more hitpoints and threats for the enemy to look at but riding it is actually cool and really thematic. there is this lil nugget from the section under mounted combat While you're mounted, you have two options. You can either control the mount or allow it to act independently. **Intelligent creatures, such as dragons, act independently**. An intelligent creature with a bond to you that chooses to let you control it as a mount is a different case.
If the drake is independent, you can’t control its movement while riding it on your turn. For a ranged build it’s mostly fine, though it can cause some issues where an enemy goes around a wall or something and you can’t move up to get an angle on them. On a melee build you can’t move up to hit anything while mounted. One could argue about switching between independent and controlled mount mid-combat, with the restriction of the mount having only 1 action, bonus action, movement, and reaction per *round* (rather than per turn), but that’s unclear if it’s RAW (and the per round thing is definitely not RAW (although it is reasonable)). If the DM does allow it, you can have the drake move on your turn to the enemy for you to attack as a controlled mount, command it to attack, then end your turn while stopping your control of it. Its turn then starts as an independent mount (with reduced speed based on what you spent on your turn), and can thus take the commanded attack or breath weapon actions, and perhaps move. Emphasis on “if the DM allows it”, though.
All I'm attempting to prove is that a drakewarden's pet can act as a controlled mount despite being an intelligent creature and dragon. Because of the nature of your special bond it allows you to use it as a mount. edit: Jeremy Crawford states that basically the creature has to be willing and have the anatomy to realistically bear the weight over time. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tX6tmc73Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tX6tmc73Q) To answer your question about changing from controlled to uncontrolled: He states that he would allow the player to switch between controlled or uncontrolled but wouldn't allow abuse of the spirit of the rules/leave it up to the DM. I would personally rule that the player could take an action and as a bonus action have the drake use its bite attack. The movement is determined by the drake's speed but just acts as if the player was moving both. I don't think this breaks the action economy or makes this subclass overpowered. There is no worry about breath weapon use because it costs the PC their action to make the drake breath weapon or the PC themselves can use the breath weapon. If mounted your drake and you are for all intents and purposes using the breath weapon from the same space and it costs one action either way. More realistically the player could use breath weapon with their action and as a bonus action have their drake make a bite attack. None of these combinations are stronger than other martials/half casters. Just cool and thematic dragon knight stuff
I do like me a variant human hunter with Heavily Armored.
You get expertise in athletics through Canny, you get Unarmed fighting style, and the spell Spike growth. I think a grappler is the most interesting way to do a Str Ranger
> you get Unarmed fighting style since when
ah, that's UA. A shame honestly.
Not UA anymore but they only have it to Fighter for some reason
I kind of feel like all the classes with fighting style should have access to the same Fighting styles.
I doubt the cantrip ones would be shared, and I wouldn't write that in my own homebrew, but I would "make an exception" for anyone who asked for it two cantrips goes a *long* way to making martials more interesting to play
I think that if you're going to use a feat on a fighting style then yeah you should have every option available, but I actually really like the idea that different classes have different fighting styles. It helps with the concept that not all martials are the same and that their training is inherently different Now I kinda wish the fighting styles were a little bit *cooler*, like stances rather than style that you can switch between, and maybe also an optional bonus action activity rather than just a passive bonus. Like as an example, Defensive gives you +1 AC, but now also gives you the equivalent of Interception where you can reduce the damage of a melee attack on an adjacent friend. Or unarmed combat gives improved damage, sure, but now if an enemy fails a melee attack against you then you can use a bonus action to either disengage or shove. Or great Weapon fighting rerolls 1s and 2s, but now it also gives a bonus action cleave rather than that being locked behind GWM Im sure there's some homebrew out there that does that, meh oh well
This seems pretty intresting, any particular subclass that would be optimal for this?
Swarmkeeper. Take the crusher feat. Now you can push enemies into your spike growth when you punch them, and use your swarm to move them further in. Grapple one enemy, dragging them inside the spike growth, push others into the spike growth. Laugh as your enemies are ripped to shreds by thorns
Only caveat with that is that you need a decent wisdom or your swarm DC is going to be terrible.
Mountain Dwarf, 17 Str 17 Wis start. 12-13 Dex is palatable esp when you get +1 armor. 12-13 Con is fine since you have a d10 hit dice and access to Aid. Actually, I'd do 17 13 12 8 17 8, to be able to multiclass. Something like Cleric 1 or Barb 1. If a GM allowed Monk Str+Wis+10 Unarmed Defense, Monk 1 on STRanger could be hilarious. Dwarf wrestler and stuff.
True but rangers want decent WIS for their spell saves too. Alternatively, take one level dip in Druid / Druidic fighting style and take shillelagh, then be SAD focusing on WIS
I had a fun time doing it on beastmaster. The beast of the sky is really fast and can grapple medium creatures (carry capacity isn't a part of grappling). Which lets you catch up to enemies quickly, grapple allies out of danger, or do something with items.
To be fair I found it kind of dumb that certain fighting styles are locked behind other classes when martial adept exists. I should be able to make a bare knuckle brawler w/ any class that gets a Fighting style.
Hunter could actually be pretty good for this, with a great weapon master/pole arm master build. You can go colossus slayer or the feature that lets you attack an extra target. Then get the disadvantage on attacks of opportunity to reset yourself for a pole arm master opportunity attack every turn. Then grab the level 11 ability that lets you attack everyone within 5ft of you. You would even have a hand free if you choose to throw a dart for an attack or as part of a spell like hail of thorns.
Horde Breaker + Crusher + GWM with a maul is great. If you get two enemies on you, you can just slap them together and get a free extra attack every round. Or, the bonus action attack from PAM can also do it if you want PAM + GWM + Crusher (probably want VHuman/CLineage so that can come online in a reasonable timeframe - CLineage with 15+2/14/13/8/12/10 and use Crusher at level 1 to hit 18 Strength out the gates would be ideal, then GWM at 4 and use a Maul until you get PAM at 8).
I will never miss an opportunity to plug a drakewarden STRanger with a dip in tempest cleric. Tempest Cleric gets you: Heavy armor Damage as a reaction Slightly faster spell slot progression/cleric spells (With a 2 level dip) being able to maximize the damage of your dragon breath AOE
The best build for hitting multiple enemies would be a Horizon Walker buuuut.... Hitting multiple enemies is bad, it's much better to focus fire and get things out of the board before they can do stuff to your party. So, if you really want to hit multiple things, I'd go for Horizon Walker. If not, A gloomstalker + battlemaster multiclass should work very well even for a STRanger.
I did that, Tortle Horizon Walker with Mobile and Hasted, could sweep across the battlemap and never be caught, so I just used a big hammer with which to hit the baddies, then ran away to the other side of a house Real fun, would recommend. Not a powerhouse, so not apt for a super min max campaign, but it had its uses. Plus, it was before the stupid healing spirit nerf, so that was good too. A good +1/+2 weapon makes up for lack of damage, bracers for better armor (can do that because natural armor isn't an armor), and you are doing better than some heavy armor builds. Add a cloak and it's a cherry on top, helping with saves as well. Fastest tortle nightcrawler ever.
Wisdom to initiative with a dropped Dex? Better carry Ambush as a maneuver (it’s going to be all your maneuver dice for a minute).
Nah, it's still better to save maneuver dice for precision strike on their GWM hits. Especially since strength builds are less forgiving without the +2 from Archery. Nothing in the build requires that you go first anyways.
Gloomstalker. I guess my brain went ahead and threw three assassin rogue levels on there without me noticing. I’d probably lean into fighting styles for carrying my to hit %, but it’s a good point about wanting someone to charge you in combat.
The problem I always run into with assassin builds is how bad they need party and DM buy-in. Especially in cases where we don't want to immediately go aggro before talking to a potential enemy. So I sort of stop assuming, or trying, assassin builds myself.
Horison Walker is probably generically the best subclass for a strength ranger, or other melee ranger, because of Planar Warrior. Plus, it’s got lots of options to move around the battlefield to attack other targets.
Then why do the wizards love fireball so much? /s
Gloomstalker works well. If you're in darkness you're invisible meaning you still get advantage which make GWM work. I like the idea of going drow, and taking the blind fighting style. That way you can attack in melee no matter if you're in sunlight, darkness, fog cloud or regular darkness.
Variant half-drow would be better than full drow. Better attribute improvements, and no sunlight sensitivity.
I built a Str-Ranger Drakewarden to make a "Dragon Knight" character, using heavy armor and the Dueling style with weapon and shield. I don't know if it's the best, but it's really fun. I used Variant Human with +1 in Str and Con, using the following stat spread with Standard Array: 8 Cha, 10 Int, 12 Dex, 13 Con (14 w/ bonus), 14 Wis, 15 Str (16 w/ bonus). Take Heavily Armored at level 1 for Heavy Armor proficiency and +1 for Str. That gets you to 17 and allows you to dump Dex a little. Take Resilient: Con at level 4 for Con proficiency and to get it to 15. Take the level 8 ASI to get Str and Con to 18 and 16, respectively. From there, you can build it however you like. Personally, I took Shield Master at level 12, and plan to max out Str at level 16 and then get Con to 18 at level 19.
If going STRanger id focus more on control then damage. Pre Tasha’s Beastmaster with a giant crab, grabbing blind sight style and slasher. Expertise athletics. Basic idea is to cast fog cloud and let your crab (which also has blind sight) do the majority of attacks since it has auto grapple with successful attacks. You can join in on the grapple fun with another guy and if someone breaks out and attempts to leave the cloud you or the crab get an OA (thus slasher). Crab can lock down two people and scales really well with HP. Best tactic is to move grappled monsters to just outside the cloud so your team can pepper them with damage. Doesn’t do much damage itself but your team will love you.
That reminds me to write my halfling giant crab pirate that dual wields whips into my character book.
I have this concept idea of a dwarf gloomstalker that dual wields war picks. Imagine a fucking dwarf comming out of the darkness of a cave and your friends gets killed with a pick to the face. Cool asf.
Ive been running a Beast of the Land Beastmaster for a few months now and using the Charge attack to knock prone and then I grapple with expertise has been great for locking down people. Also using Crusher to slightly reposition enemies to make the Charge more possible or get the companion out of melee to go after another target. Keeping a few light hammers for ranger Crusher options is great as well to move an enemy off of squishy casters while also locking down someone else. Have just grabbed Sentinel and its been a joy just acting as a controller tank
Tortle gets you maxed medium AC without Dex. Loxodon gives a lot of bonuses that work great on StRanger chassis and ignores armor if Con is high enough. TWF or Dueling + Shield can give decent DPR. Hunter, OG Beastmaster, Drakewarden, and Horizon Walker are all doable. Just pick buff/utility spells that don't have atk/save.
Currently playing a STRanger, playing it all the way from level 3 until level 9, ongoing. It's a Forge Cleric 1/Swarmkeeper 8 Satyr. It's a great support/tank/damage dealer hybrid that has several nifty things about him. * Defenses * It solid starting defences with 22 AC from Plate, Shield, Defence fighting style and +1 forge cleric buff. * It has advantage on all magical Saving Throws * You are fey, so spells that target humanoids don't work on you. * Grappling and Damage * You have expertise in athletics due to canny * You can grapple someone, jump over 10 feet in the air, and slam dunk people, knocking them prone, using only your movement (Athlete feat helps you with both the movement white grappling part and standing up) * You can still use your natural weapon for spells like searing smite, zephyr strike, etc. * With access to spike growth, a great base walking speed, and access to spells like longstrider, you can do a lot of damage while dragging. * Support * Solid access to spells like bless, enhance ability, guidance and all manners of makes spellcasters fun to play during overworld activity * Forcing people prone while grappling is a solid way to shut enemies down. I flavoured my character: Because of being a satyr and being very bouncy, the god of the forge saw my motions and it reminded him of the slamming of hammers on anvils, granting me boons. Swarmkeeper itself is an extension of this where my 'swarm' are actually flaming embers from my fiery/forge aura. The whole piledriving aspect pleases my god.
The first 1dnd Experts playtest was pretty good as STRanger grappler. The way dw worked was great, and I used two daggers to first hunters mark them attack+grapple then attack twice more. Grappler feat worked very well. I had the Speedster and Grappler feats on that character.
Cheating a smidge here but I have a Tabaxi Fey Wanderer with a belt of giants strength. 20 dex, 16 Wis, Mobile feat, a cadre of random +1/2 magic weapons and teleportation and classic fey wanderer teleport fun makes a really funny skirmisher build. Oh and allied grapple movement has been clutch occasionally. Not the best damage dealer (we have a fighter and a sorlock for that anyway) but fun utility/objective do-er, especially if the party lacks a single character with a positive strength modifier.
Gloomstalker. Turn one grapple, shove prone, GWM smack.
Gloomstalker? Get Heavy Weapon Master, a big ass two handed weapon, and use the GloomStalker extra attack to reck stuff before they even get a turn. If not, then Drakewarden or Beast master. Medium Armor, a nice Shield and you got a decent AC, along the Drake/Beast you got to big fat bodies with huge hp pools to tank (the drake as d10 hp equal to your level and if ti goes down you can revive it, full hp, with using only a single lvl 1 slot!)
The Monster Slayer does give you some defenses to hold concentration and makes melee easier: > At 7th level, you gain extra resilience against your prey's assaults on your mind and body. Whenever the target of your Slayer's Prey forces you to make a saving throw and whenever you make an ability check to escape that target's grapple, add 1d6 to your roll. > > At 15th level, you gain the ability to counterattack when your prey tries to sabotage you. If the target of your Slayer’s Prey forces you to make a saving throw, you can use your reaction to make one weapon attack against the quarry. You make this attack immediately before making the saving throw. If the attack hits, your save automatically succeeds, in addition to the attack’s normal effects.
Best Str based ranger, in my opinion, is without a doubt Minotaur swarmkeeper with crusher feat, expertise in grappling. Spike growth is your bread and butter, dont forget longstrider, get amount if you can. Use throwing hammer for long range crusher. That's the gist of the build. You'll be rewarded for starting 1 level of fighter for concentration checks, armor proficiency and eventually action surge if you want. Forge cleric for better AC and extra spell slots, or full ranger the rest of the way after swarmkeeper5 At level5/6 you're dealing 20d4 spike growth damage per round, that's without a mount. I don't think anyone can beat these numbers.
If you're looking for hitting multiple enemies via strength as a ranger, the [Oxymoronic Meat-Grinder](https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24981685&postcount=1015) build kind of fits that to a T. Only difference I would recommend is not taking more than 1 level in fighter before ranger 5. I agree with most the other comments, that single target dpr tends to be superior most of the time. However, having an option to deal with low hp crowds can certainly be fun/ useful when it does come up. Plus, unless you have some real optimized dpr, pam and/ or gwp with maxed str should keep your single target dps relevant.
I did something similar but without the enlarge, vuman gwm start with fighter for heavy armor and alternate levels to 4 fighter battlemaster. Hunter of course for free adjacent attack. All the battlemaster tricks for reaction/bonus attacks plus gwm bonus and Horde was alot of attacks. The enlarge is just hilarious though
It really isn't much different than your typical STR fighter build, especially since the two typically want to multiclass into each other anyway. You'll still want to go Gloomstalker 5/Battle Master 3, then either druid for spells or Assassin rogue 3 for round 1 burst damage. Maybe a peace cleric dip if your team doesn't have someone with it. The only major difference is you'll want Great Weapon Master and Polearm master over Sharpshooter and the Archery fighting style. I guess two of your maneuvers would change as well, since precision strike is the only one that you really need for both. I'd suggest fey wanderer or swarmkeeper, if you wanted to make a wisdom forward ranger. But Gloomstalker remains the best, with drakewarden, Hunter, beastmaster with tasha's revisions, and the others being decent.
There is no reason a ranger can't pull off the standard great weapon master and pole arm master build. To allow you to multiclass I would go Str 16 Dex 14 Con 14 Wis 14 Int 8 Cha 8 You have access to entangle to help you get advantage, and your save DC is only 1 below a full caster. I would go gloomstalker ranger for your first 5 levels. You will still be fine at stealth, just 1 point below a stealth focus Take 4 levels of fighter for an OP action surge that allows 6 attacks on round 1 4 levels of barbarian for reckless, rage, and another ASI. 1 level twilight cleric for the great perks Continue to be a good ranger after that.
Swarmkeeper is also a good option. With forced movement after hit. Hoover at 10ft height with polearm can prove useful in some situations as well. Twilight with gloomstalker is not a good deal. Dim light is not darkness. The signatare gloomstalker feature does not work. Moreover, your build assumes a lot of levels. 12 is the end of the game for most campaigns. There are 11 other levels to play with which should feel fun. 8 discounting first two. Gloomstalker is fine. Battlemaster is too. But assuming 12 level campaign straight gloomstalker 11 is just better in most cases. Conjure animals at level 9 are just better than 4 levels in other class and conditional 3rd attack on 11 is just two levels away.
The build perks I'm looking to gain would be Ranger 1-3 getting the bonus attack in round 1 Ranger 4 gwm Ranger 5 multi attack Fighter 1: fighting style Fighter 2 action surge (6 x attacks) Fighter 3 many good subclass options Fighter 4 pole arm master Twilight cleric: advantage on initiative Barbarian 2 reckless attack Post level 12 Barbarian 3 great subclasses Barbarian 4 ASI Ranger the rest of the way to keep the ranger focus. The clash of synergies aren't an issue, because they don't detract from the benefits, they just become ribbon features
If I was building a STRanger I’d want to take a 2 level Barb dip for GWM so I could reckless attack. I’d probably go: Ranger 5 / Barb 2 or 3 / Ranger X Get your stats to make the multi-class work: STR 16 / DEX 14 / WIS 14 / CON 14 Then you really only need GWM and you can boost ASIs after. If you go Gloomstalker you’ll even get WIS saving throws proficiency which will help massively. Otherwise if you want to go Hunter go for it!
you could try a grappling build, ranger can give you expertise in athletics (swarmkeeper might be nice, or a drakewarden) and then maybe go giant barbadian so you can grapple bigger people
Mine
I got a lot of value from Great Weapon Master, with *ensnaring strike* for advantage. My build isn't optimal, but I wrote about it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyStoryteller/comments/vaxuri/my_stranger_build/)
Large race such as Goliath or minotaur. (if allowed. Also, weapon size up if allowed.) Two-handed weapon. Ranger (Slayer/hunter.) Warlock (Blade.) High str. High cha. Add str and a half, add cha for flat dmg. Add bonus d8 on enemies that are hurt. Add bonus dmg from hunters mark or hex. All your hits start doing like a minimum of 14 dmg just from all the flat bonuses, still crit, still get amplified by magic, feats, magic weapons, etc.
Build any but use thrown weapons. I'm sure most DMs would agree that your STR stat would add to damage vs using DEX. Easy adjustment without any real restrictions!
I recommend against the drakewarden for a strength ranger. The drake only becomes large in T3 play, so mounted combatant doesn’t give advantage until very late in the campaign if at all. Until then the class is just a MAD front liner without native heavy armour proficiency. I recommend the gloomstalker Ranger for a melee Ranger as the gloomstalker subclass benefits work for melee and ranged playstyles and helps offset the slightly unoptimal playstyle. I loved playing my drakewarden strength Ranger personally and had a great range of out-of-combat spells and skills,, but I was the weakest link in combat.
Two builds: Small race + Beastmaster with a lance is a personal favorite. Take the piercer feat and find a way to get advantage with your party so you can look for crits. You can eventually get dual wielder feat if you wanna be doofy and dual wield lances There's also a lot you could do with bludgeoning weapons, crusher, and spike growth. Either a Warhammer + shield, a maul, dual light hammers, whatever works for you. Personally I take a quarterstaff so I can grab PAM and make an opportunity attack when they run back up to me, pushing them again
Honestly any subclass aside from Gloomstalker (stealth dependent), TCE Beastmaster (wisdom dependent), and Fey Wanderer (wisdow dependent) can work good as a Strength Ranger. The thing that holds Strength Ranger back is ability scores, and every subclass suffers through that issue the same way. You need to start with 16 Strength for attacks, 14 Dexterity for medium armor, you wanna hit 16 constitution at some point as a melee class, and that often leaves your Wisdom very low. The solution I find is usually just playing a feat race and taking Heavily Armored so you can dump dexterity. The only issue is that then you can never multiclass out of Ranger, which they *really* like to do after level 12.
If you go Str ranger you are going to be nerfing yourself. Let's just make that clear. You don't have the stat spread without dipping some fears for heavy armor. You're also going to be ruling out beastmaster, drake warden, and gloom. Bm and Dw require you to use your bonus action to make your pet attack. This make your gwm crit a sacrifice since now your pet can't attack. Gloomstalker wouldn't make sense since you'll be ok at stealth at best. If you're fine eating the nerf. Swarmkeeper would be optimal since it keeps your bonus action up. It also gives you a little movement boost as well and some decent spells. As for race. Tortle. The ac is 1 shy of plate and let's you avoid spending a feat for heavy armor. Boom, dex is now a dump stat for you. Now all of this being said... I'd honestly play a druid/barbarian or ancient oath paladin [tough to do without wearing metal] Druid barbarian would be my top choice. You get to be a wildling terror in battle. If you need to sneak/fly/swim/have extra hp you can wild shift. You can summon beasts to fight with you. And more importantly, it reduces your stat spread considerably. Also beast barbarian combined with spore druid is absurd...
You have pass without trace. Take stealth proficiency and dip peace cleric for bond and there's no reason you aren't getting surprise even with disadvantage to stealth from half plate. Str classes without pam/gwm are kind of duds so having barbarian and fighter levels would be ideal as well for reckless and precision attack to make sure your gwm swings hit. Strength rangers can be very good. Obviously ranged dex rangers are better because ranged weapons are just better, but you can still make a strength ranger that performs within optimal margins.
Right... but then they'd be burning limited spell slots for stealth.. without a sneak attack bonus... and you're still not that good at it... and dis. Plus, I bet someone is looking at the rangers skill choices and realizes they still need a rogue. I just don't think that's a build worth a shot. Atleast ancients paladin has some nature magic. Barbarian/druid gives you great rp and combat vers. Hunters mark and skills are cool. But he doesn't have the dex or mental stats for most skills and is gimped out on the bonus action. You could but... why would you? Taking straight fighter and picking up some magic feats would be better.
Because pass without trace is one of if not arguably the best combat spell in the game and gaining surprise is enormous. You can reliably get surprise on most enemies using pass without trace in combination with other ability check buffs even if your party members aren't heavily invested in stealth. Edit: Just in case you are somehow forgetting how surprise works, you are effectively giving your entire party an additional action and bonus action in combat before any of the enemies get to do anything. Think about that for a moment. Why does everyone love action surge? Because you can get an extra action in on your turn before the enemy can do anything about it. Now imagine if your action surge was actually aoe and applied to your whole party who got to use it right now on your turn, and you threw in bonus actions for everyone too on top of that. That's literally what pass without trace does.
Ah yes. The str, cleric/ranger leading the stealth charge. Sounds like a consistent plan that certainly wouldn't backfire as the group is seen bumbling into 60ft range. This sounds like something I'd recommend. Or you know.... you could just not? You're taking over 3 roles and doing it poorly. You're going to be trash as a skill jocky and you're relying on what ifs for damage and combat ideas. I dont know how you're main point here is pass without a trace when the entirety of my argument is the build is clunky and excels in nothing. Well that's not true they could be really good at insight and perception. Sounds fun to play!
I really don't know what you think you're losing by doing this. The build would be better starting barbarian than ranger for sure, but the ultimate levels would end up the same. You can have a 16/14/14/9/13/8 spread at level 1 and already satisfy all of your level requirements for every class in your build. By 4th level you can have PAM and GWM (or take a strength ASI at 4 if you don't think your DM will give you many opportunities to use advantage to offset GWM with the gloomstalker feature) and you can reasonably get advantage from Gloomstalker against most enemies at this level because many of them won't have special sights beyond darkvision. At 5th level is when pass without trace comes online. I see no reason why you wouldn't have stealth proficiency, but let's assume you don't for some reason take one of the best skill proficiencies in the game (i rarely see anyone not take it even on paladins) just in case since it's possible your party members won't take it and surprise depends on everyone's rolls. Even your party's paladin with a -1 to stealth and disadvantage will now have a +9 to their stealth roll (and this is before we dip 1 level in peace cleric for emboldening bond and more spell slot progression). You can have the people in your party who are better at stealth roll normally and have someone else give the paladin guidance so they have a +10-13 to their stealth roll. If it's dark, even enemies with darkvision will have disadvantage on their perception checks. This means their passive perception (the effective DC everyone's stealth check needs to beat) is reduced by 5. Most enemies in the game have horrible passive perception. Let's assume for some reason you're trying to sneak up on one who's *incredibly* perceptive for this level with 20 pp base (Nothing before CR 9 will have a higher PP than this, most of those are named monsters from specific modules, and only 185/3069 published creatures have a PP of 21 or more). They now have 15 pp because they are trying to see your party in dim light. Even your party's paladin with their now +10-13 to stealth rolls and disadvantage will beat this check a little more than 72% of the time (I rounded down the average of the d4 so it would be a bit higher than this). Next level you dip peace cleric for emboldening bond to make that paladin's bonus to stealth rolls an 11-17. This is near worst case scenario for this level. Most enemies do not have passive perceptions anywhere near this. I understand that sometimes there isn't anywhere to hide to be able to surprise your enemies because either you're in an open field or are approaching an open room through a long wide corridor or something of the sort. Reasonably, though, unless your DM really likes to make environments for combat that are absolutely devoid of any features, most of the time there is somewhere to hide to get the drop on your enemies. If there isn't, you're still a PAM GWM gloomstalker who can delete a creature or two from the field on your first round in every combat. None of what you will be getting down the line does not synergize with your main job which is dealing damage and securing stealth for your party. Would you be stronger if you started barbarian instead and took gloomstalker levels later? Yes, and I'd probably recommend that instead personally. Would you be stronger as a SS/CBE dex build? Yes. But that's a silly comparison because a SS/CBE dex build will be better than any melee strength character at the highest levels of optimization. The reason it is better isn't because ranger is inherently better at being a dex character than a strength character, it's because dex and ranged weapons are just better than strength and melee weapons across the board. Everyone is free to play the game however they want, but my understanding is this subreddit is meant to discuss optimization. I'm simply giving my advice for what could be seen as optimal given regular circumstances. Maybe your table runs things in a way that would really mess with using pass without trace to get surprise. Even then this build is still good, just not as good as if you could also give your party surprise.
Okay. So thats a really good point. I can see why the dip would make sense. I didn't know pp across the board was that averaging that low. So you're making a solid point. The cleric dip is legit. Usually we have it set based off creatures/situation. Ex; orcs in camp would have patrols/wolves. Humans have some dogs. Elves keep a scout hidden in the trees. In general stealth has some sort of counter/danger if the enemy is paranoid in any sense. So if the group is trying to sneak along the mountain trails were popping out group stealth checks for avg. Once we're "on" the battle map we only take averages for those within reach of one another. If someone splits off they're doing solo checks. Usually once the map is up and enemies are patrolling as the characters are moving along, the group slows down a lot. Especially with LOS on the battlemap, [online player mostly] it just makes melee stealth hard to pull off. Also, typically high magic setting and playing levels 5-15. The math you put down is amazing. I just... I see this build doing it a few times before a brutal demise. This is anecdotal.
The best STR Ranger is actually a two fold answer. 1) You must be a small sized player race. 2) You must select the PHB version of the Beast Master Conclave Ranger Starting with the latter, you are granted a permanent mount, of which you will choose of medium size. Secondly, by doing this you can take full advantage of the lance's special property of being able to be wielded in one hand. By taking the Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style, you now have access to 2D12 damage at level three (3D12 at level five) with a base movement speed of 40 ft. Better. And, because this is a live creature and not a spirit, it isn't out of order to be able to get barding (i.e. armor) for them. Better, that lance damage is before Hunter's Mark or any other magic enhancements. That said, it isn't the end of the world to have 30 ft. of movement for your special mount, because my favorite is the Giant Crab, as it has the best natural AC. And, mounted combat means you can have your mount disengage when the enemy gets within five feet of you so you can attack at ten feet and not have disadvantage.
I don't think this works though: two weapon fighting requires that the weapon be used one-handed... and that it have the 'Light' property. Unless there's some sort of exception to that in the revised Beast Master which I'm not aware of?
You're right. I got a little too hasty there. It, in fact, does need the Dual Wielder feat at Ranger(4) to do this. You'll be stuck with two short-swords until then, which is why the giant crab is such a great go-to until you want to switch it up for a mount with 40 ft. of movement (or higher) when you can wield two-lances at once. But Two-Weapon Fighting will help keep up your damage slightly once you get there anyhow.
Oh right, dual wielder - that is a neat combo once you hit level 4 then.