Ranger

Rangers are very similar to fighters and paladins and can use nearly every weapon and piece of armor. Unlike fighters and paladins, rangers are devoted to protecting nature and their own survival whilst doing their duty. Because of that, they must be strong, wise, tough and agile to survive long. Because they have four primary abilities, and they have a high minimum they are the strongest class in ability points and they can get 90 or more ability points easily. They have stealth mode, racial enemy and charm animal/mammal as special abilities.

Only humans, elves and half-elves can become rangers. Rangers have three prime requisites: Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom. They can only dual-class with clerics.

If the player character is a ranger and commits a murder, for example, they will become a Fallen Ranger, which is a ranger without the special abilities and they will lose a lot experience points. Only in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition at the end of Ranger - Protector of the Umar Hills, they can become normal rangers once more.

Character abilities table
Notes:
 * Prime Requisites for Dual-Classing. Humans require a minimum of 15 strength and dexterity and a 17 in wisdom in order to dual class to a cleric.


 * The primary abilities table is based on the human class, because humans don't have any bonuses to primary abilities compared to the other races and acts as a 'neutral'.

Charm animal
Rangers can charm animals to prevent fights or to gain advantages. This ability becomes available at lvl 3.

Stealth
Rangers can hide in shadows if they wear leather armor, studded leather armor or no armor. Every ranger starts with 15% (not confirmed) modified by racial and dexterity bonuses at level 1 to successfully hides in shadows. Attempting to hide in shadows during the day or while not in shadows incurs a penalty to the hide check. Melee attacks receive a +4 to-hit bonus if performed while hidden.

Class Kits
Rangers have three class kits available with each their strengths and weaknesses:

Archer
The archer is the epitome of skill with the bow. He is the ultimate marksman, able to make almost any shot, no matter how difficult. To become so skilled with the bow, the archer has had to sacrifice some of his proficiency with melee weapons and armor.

Advantages: Disadvantages:
 * +1 to hit and +1 to damage with any missile weapon every 3 levels (applies to all missile weapons, including thrown weapons)
 * May achieve Grand Mastery (five slots) in Longbows, Shortbows, and Crossbows - may specialize (two slots) in slings and darts
 * May use Called Shot ability once per day every 4 levels: All successful ranged attacks within the next 10 seconds have the following cumulative effects beside normal damage, according to the level of the Archer:  4th level: -1 penalty to target's THAC0, 8th level: -1 penalty to target's Saving Throws vs. Spell, 12th level: -1 penalty to the target's Strength score, 16th level: +2 bonus to damage roll.
 * May not wear any metal armor.
 * May only put one dot in melee weapon proficiencies. May only put one dot in two-handed weapon style, single weapon style and sword and shield style.
 * May not use Charm Animal ability.
 * The only missile weapon available to dual-classed Archer/Clerics is slings, which they can only become specialized in

Stalker
Stalkers serve as covert intelligence-gatherers, comfortable in both wilderness and urban settings. They are the spies, informants, and interrogators and their mastery of stealth makes them deadly opponents.

Advantages: Disadvantages:
 * +20% to Move Silently and Hide In Shadows.
 * May use Backstab ability, although for a lower damage multiplier than Thieves: (Lvl 1-8: x2, Lvl  9-16: x3, Lvl 17+: x4) - can only backstab with melee weapons usable by a single-class thief (long sword, short sword, katana, scimitar/wakizashi/ninja-to, club, dagger, quarterstaff)
 * 12th level: May memorize 3 Mage spells: Haste, Protection from Normal Missiles, and Minor Spell Deflection. They are treated as level 3 priest spells.
 * May not wear armor heavier than studded leather.
 * Dual-classed Stalker/Clerics may only backstab with clubs and quarterstaffs (Luckily, Staff of the Ram is the hardest hitting weapon in the game for sneak attack damage so there is no problem late game.)

Beast Master
This Ranger is a wanderer and is not comfortable in civilized lands. He maintains a natural affinity for animals; they are his friends and comrades-in-arms, and the Beast Master has a limited form of telepathic communication with them.

Advantages: Disadvantages:
 * +15% to Move Silently and Hide In Shadows.
 * May use Find Familiar special ability to summon a pseudodragon (if lawful or neutral good) or fairy dragon (if chaotic good) companion.
 * 8th level: May cast Animal Summoning I.(level 4 spell treated as a level 1 spell)
 * 10th level: May cast Animal Summoning II.(level 5 spell treated as a level 2 spell)
 * 12th level: May cast Animal Summoning III.(level 6 spell treated as a level 3 spell)
 * May not use any metal weapons (for example: swords, halberds, war hammers, or morning stars) - may only put proficiency points in clubs, quarterstaffs, crossbows, longbows, shortbows, darts and slings.
 * Dual-classed Beast Master/Clerics may only use clubs, quarterstaffs and slings. The game will not let you level up if you gain a proficiency point and cannot spend it!!! Therefore, wasting all proficiency points beyond the 5th (received at level 3) while still a Ranger into crossbows, longbows, shortbows, and darts is highly advised. (This also accounts for the 3 proficiency points that will need to be wasted into flail, mace, and war hammer as a cleric at higher levels)
 * May not wear armor heavier than studded leather.

Stronghold
Rangers receive the ranger cabin stronghold in the Umar Hills.

High-level class abilities
High level class abilities are added the expansion Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. For all warrior classes and Monks, the pool of abilities consist of abilities which can be accesses from the special abilities menu which can be used during battle. These abilities are available to fighters when they nearing 3,000,000 xp. (exact level varies by class).
 * Power Attack, this ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Critical Strike, requires power attack. This ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Smite, requires power attack and critical strike. This ability can be selected only one time.
 * Deathblow, this ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Greater Deathblow, requires deathblow. This ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Whirlwind, this ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Greater Whirlwind, it requires whirlwind. This ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * War Cry, this ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Hardiness, this ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Resist Magic, this ability can be selected as many times you like.
 * Summon Deva (good only)
 * Summon Fallen Deva (evil only)

Priest Spellbook
Beginning at level 8, part of the priest spell-book unlocks for rangers. The cleric spells that rangers are able to use are the same as druids.They can learn up to level 3 spells. Their number of spells is determined by their level (up to a max at level 16) and is not affected by Wisdom.

If multi-classed or dual-classes with Cleric, then the number of spells is dictated by the Cleric's level and Wisdom with no additional spell slots due to ranger levels. However spells learned from the Stalker or Beast Master class kits will still appear in the spell book at the ranger appropriate level. (Example: (lvl12)Beast Master/(lvl13)Cleric will have Animal Summoning III as both a third level spell (from ranger) and as a 6th level spell(from priest).

Rangers can use the following spells by default:

Level 1 spells.

 * Cure Light Wounds
 * Entangle
 * Remove Fear
 * Bless
 * Shillelagh

Level 2 spells.

 * Slow Poison
 * Barkskin

Level 3 spells.

 * Cure Disease
 * Cure Medium Wounds
 * Summon Insects

Racial enemy
Ranger tend to focus on a particular animal, having a +4 attack roll versus the racial enemy. But they have -4 encounter reaction against that enemy, increasing the chance of meeting their enemy. Some of these are not available in original Baldur's Gate or Tales of the Sword Coast and were added when Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal were released. Several low level groups are only available in the first Baldur's Gate games. When importing a character from BG1 into BG2, you can choose a new racial enemy when you start a new game. Will someone with Enhanced Edition please expand on any changes to this? The player chooses one of the types of creatures listed below:
 * Beholders
 * Carrion Crawlers
 * Demonic/Fell creatures
 * Dragons
 * Elementals
 * Ettercaps
 * Faeries
 * Genies
 * Ghouls
 * Gibberling
 * Golems
 * Gnolls
 * Hobgoblins
 * Imps
 * Kobolds
 * Kuo-Toa
 * Lich
 * Lycanthropes
 * Mephits
 * Ogres
 * Otyugh
 * Rakshasa
 * Sahuagin
 * Shadows
 * Skeletons
 * Slimes
 * Spiders
 * Trolls
 * Umber Hulks
 * Vampires

Weapon Specialization
Rangers can invest a maximum of two points into proficiency instead of only one point compared to the other classes. It also raises the starting proficiency point from two to four.

Creative origins

 * This section uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Ranger (Dungeons & Dragons)

The ranger was primarily based on the exiled king Aragorn, and the Rangers of the North of J. R. R. Tolkien's (WP) Middle-earth mythos, as warriors who use tracking and other wilderness skills to hunt down their enemies. The AD&D second edition handbook mentions several other inspirations from myth and legend, such as Robin Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, the huntresses of Diana, and the Greek hero Orion.

Although it is commonly thought that the ranger character Drizzt Do'Urden may also have influenced the development of the class, particularly with regard to the second edition inclusion of the ability to fight with two weapons, this notion has been rejected by the lead designer of that rule set, David "Zeb" Cook, and the lack of provision for players to be able to emulate Drizzt using the ranger class as it appears in the PHB seems to support his assertion. More likely, the Drizzt character was influenced by Unearthed Arcana, which introduced the drow as a player character race and contained somewhat ambiguous wording that allowed them to use a secondary weapon not normally permitted in AD&D. Drizzt appeared as a first edition character in the 1988 release FR5 The Savage Frontier. Interestingly, few AD&D computer games based on the second edition rule set included provision for fighting with two weapons, and those that did seem to have not have included the ranger class ability (most notably, Baldur's Gate (WP) and Icewind Dale (WP), which provided rangers with an extra attack when not using a shield.)

Other notable rangers in the literature of Dungeons & Dragons include Hank from the cartoon series, King Tristan Kendrick from Forgotten Realms, and Ren from Pool of Radiance.