The Ranger Class Through The Ages part 2: AD&D 2nd Edition

[roumonada]

16:53 AD&D 2nd Edition Bards were rockstars because they made it easy to recruit henchmen by altering the mood of a crowd. Also, they could choose any weapon AND non-weapon proficiency and could cast bardic notation spells while wearing chainmail. So eventually they were chainmail wearing gunfighters with loads of henchmen and shot fireballs while playing guitar to boost friendly saving throws AND pick pockets, climb walls, detect noise, and read languages to boot.

[Murph_.]

Without the 2nd Edition Ranger, there would never have been a Drizzt Do'Urden. I love the two handed fighting, and liked to play Ranger with it. Our DM also allowed Cure Light Wounds and the Combat sphere (Rangers are fighting men, after all) as well.

[roumonada]

23:11 The purpose of the tree spell is so the caster has plant matter to work with in order to cast other plant spells in a dungeon, such as plant growth, good berry, etc. Plant spells are much like The Creep in Star Craft. There has to be plant matter present in order to cast most plant spells. So first become a tree, then cover the dungeon floor with plant growth to cover the ground in grass to increase the size of AOE spells, then the ranger can cast entanglement, good berry, etc.

[roumonada]

21:38 Animal Friendship is by far the most important spell for Rangers. It essentially allows the Ranger to magically make friends with animals in the wild so they will become his pets for the long term, and he is limited by his level in how many pets he can have.

[griffinblue]

The Ranger Handbook, like all the other Handbooks are great. The favor of the writing and that unique 2nd Edition artwork is well worth it to pick them up.

[roumonada]

4:57 Later on, this is revised in the Player's Option book series. The Ranger class is given free proficiency in two-weapon fighting style and can then wear any type of armor, making the Ranger class much more powerful, at least in melee combat. The studded leather restriction is still kept regarding the Ranger's other abilities.

[TaoZ]

The designs of the classes in this edition convey the atmosphere of the game well, simply wonderful.

[carlwoods]

My favourite class. Being English, archery is in my blood. I also love the outdoors, bushcraft, camping, hiking etc. Rangers lead the way!

[NoMythology]

2nd Edition was my first experience with Ranger class. I did play an elven ranger and at the time had no idea they couldn't be rangers in 1st edition. The Complete Ranger's Handbook I thought was great. It had options for Dwarven, Gnomish, and Halfling rangers and some of the kits were really good as well. I liked the Guardian kit a lot. There was also a kit called the Greenwood Ranger, your character was slowing turning into a tree and could grow a third arm for Three-Weapon Fighting.

[mrs.paperweight]

I always played Rangers. Bows and hand axe's. Plus would get a animal companion.

[perryshaffer]

I think the bonus experience qualifications were worded the way they were in first edition because it was theoretically possible to gain fractional ability points. As I recall, a wish would gain you 1 stat point until you got to 15 and 0.1 stat point thereafter. So if you were on the edge, you could put yourself over if you were willing to expend the wish(es) to do so.

[vengfulvigilante]

I know this is an old video, but I'm new to D&D 2e, and as a Ranger fan, this was the best ranger D&D has ever had. Everything after this is just weaker and less ranger like. The only thing I like more is that later editions get more favored foes.

[griffinblue]

I've never liked that Rangers were the "two weapon fighter class".
Why was this a thing?
I would think a Swashbuckler or Duelist Class should be the Class that gives the two weapon bonus, not the expert woodsman.

[backcountry]

The 2e class handbooks introduced class kits, which were sort of the precursors to 5e subclasses. If anyone else is old enough to remember Grizzly Adams, he was definitely the inspiration for my first Beastmaster Ranger. It was actually a pretty good option. Your animal companions were treated like henchmen and you had a telepathic link to them.
Seeker is the other kit I remember using, you got spells sooner and up to 4th level. Getting spells at later levels didn't matter as much in 1st and 2nd edition because spells upcast by character level. So you got access later but they were more powerful when you did.

[johnstuartkeller]

Ah, spell spheres! Because divine spellcasting is like a lady's stocking: it's important to keep the theme straight.

[RichKingston]

Hi
Rangers can fight with equal length swords. Not as you stated a longer and shorter. The phb doesn’t say that. It’s also why Drizzt uses 2 scimitars

[DaBigCheeso]

Ah yes, the 2E Ranger. My first Ranger. I wanted to play a fighter class other than a Paladin for once and was happy I did

[brettjansen]

I am always amazed by the design decisions of older editions. XP requirements were different for each class. THAC0 of course. Percentage chance on skill success. Just why?
Keep doing these throwbacks. Very informative. 3rd edition was my start as well.

[RIVERSRPGChannel]

I know I played 2nd edition for a brief time but I don’t remember it well at all.
1AD&D is where I started and played a lot then.
3 and 3.5 is where I’ve spent more of my 3 and half decades of playing D&D.

[ObatongoSensei]

I've always found the 2nd Edition's ranger to be rather weak, except, maybe, for a couple kits from the late Complete Ranger's Handbook.

Everything it did, a multiclass fighter/thief could do better, even without the mostly useless spells. It needed a bit more xps to advance in levels, but it was a lot easier to get the xp bonus from high scores. It didn't have the "favored enemy", but it could backstab everything, not just one specific creature. And as a fighter, it could specialize in every style, so you could have a dual-wielder axe and knife, but also a spear & shield guy, axe and shield, single handed scimitar, or a two-handed spetum or ranseur wielder (polearms derived from hunting spears), and so on.

Maybe with the optional point system it could be tweaked a bit more, but otherwise the ranger was not that useful of a class in my opinion. And this relative weakness was translated in the 3.0 version, which was rightfully considered to be trash.