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168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons’ rangers are known for relentlessly pursuing their prey, but none more so than the Monster Slayer. Dedicated to hunting the largest and most dangerous threats, Monster Slaye♈rs specializes in taking on vampires, dragons, f🦋iends, and other magic-using foes.
Monsters Slayers also gain a supernatural ability to determine the weaknes🐓ses of enemies and foil their magical machinations. If you want to have all the benefits of being quick with a blade or bow while still being able to counter spells like a wizard, then being a Monster Slayer ranger might be the class for you.
Monster Slayer Ranger Features
You can dedicate yourself to the slaying of monsters starting at level three. Once you embark on this path, you gain several benefits, including Hunter's Sense, Slayer's Prey, and Monster Slaying Magic, which provides you with sꦡpells at certain levels detaile🍃d in the table below.
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Ranger Level |
Spell |
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Third Level |
Protection from Good and Evil |
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Fifth Level |
Zone of Truth |
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Ninth Level |
Magic Circle |
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13th Level |
Banishment |
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17th Level |
Hold Monster |
Hunter's Sense allows you to determine the damage immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities of a creature you can see within 60 feet as an action. However, this feature doesn't work if the creature is hidden from divination magic.
Slayer's Prey lets you designate♏ a creature you see within 60 feet to be your prey as a bonus action. This adds an extra 1d6 to your weapon damage against this creature o🔥n the first successful attack each turn. This benefit lasts until you take a rest, the creature dies, or you designate a different creature.
Because Slayer's Prey will almost always use your bonus action on the first turn of combat, and Hunter's Mark is likely to use your second, crossbows and two-weapon fighting is a less effective strategy for Monster Slayers.
Supernatural Defense at level seven lets you add 1d6 to saving throws and ability checks against being grappled by the target of your Slayer's Prey.
At level eleven, Magic-User's Nemesis can foil the magical spell or teleportation ability of a creature within 60 feet of you. The creature must makꦗe a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, otherwise, the teleport or spell fails.
Finally, Slayer's Counter at level 15 lets you use your reaction to make a weapon attack against the target of your Slayer's Prey ability whenever that target forces you to make a saving throw. This attack is made before the saving throw, and if your attack hits, the saving throw automatically succeeds.
Best Species For A Monster Slayer Ranger
Any species can slay monsters with reasonable efficacy, but there are a few species that are a bit better at being a Monster Slayer than others. Here are a few suggestions to consider.
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Autognome |
Armored Casing provides you with all the benefits of Studded Leather armor without actually needing to find it. Build For Success is a fantastic ability that can help with any of your rolls. Mechanical Nature provides a great resistance and advantage against being paralyzed or poisoned, and Healing Machine gives you a good reason to🔥 take Mending as a cantrip. |
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Bugbear |
Although not as good as when paired with the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gloom Stalker, Surprise Attack is still very strong for a high-Dex build. An extra five feet of reach be very helpful for melee-focused rangers, and charm resistance and Darkvision are both great to have. |
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Duergar |
Enlarge/Reduce is a useful buff or debuff, but Invisibility is the real reason to be a Duergar. Poison resistance, advantage against being charmed or stunned, and Darkvision to 120 feet are also great perks. |
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Eladrin |
Horizon Walkers will rarely have a free bonus action, but Fey Step provides very useful effects for a more melee-focused build. Darkvision, charm resistance, and perception are also good to have. |
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Half-Elf |
Rangers want a lot of ability score increases, and half-elves provide just that. Darkvision, charm resistance, and a pair of skills are also good to have. |
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Human |
Want ability score increases? Humans have lots of those. Or you could go variant human to start with a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:free feat. |
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Harengon |
You've likely already got a strong Dexterity score, so Hare-Trigger will often put you first in the turn order. Lucky Footwork can help with Dexterity saving throws, and Rabbit Hop can get𝕴 you out of or into sticky situations, so long as you can spare a bonus action. |
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Kenku |
Rangers are often the rogue replacement for parties without them. Kenku Recall goes a long way to providing useful skill proficiencies to keep your party rolling. Low Charisma means Mimicry won't be as useful, and Expert Duplication is situational at best. |
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Owlin |
Flying speed, stealth proficiency, and Darkvision. What more do you need? |
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Thri-Kreen |
Your bonus action is spoken for, so don't expect those Secondary Arms to do more than carry an extra object. Chameleon Carapace is the real prize here, providing an incredible AC boost advantage on hide checks. Telepathy and Darkvision are also nice perks. |
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Warforged |
Extra armor class, a skill proficiency, advantage against and resistance to poison, and immunity to disease and sleep effect🐬s makes warforged an excellent choice for a tough-a🌟s-nails ranger. |
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Yuan-Ti |
Poison Spray is garbage, but Animal Friendship and Suggestion can be useful. What makes Yuan-Ti desirable is Magic Resistance and Poison Resilience, giving you protection from the most common threats in D&D. Darkvision is also great. |
Try to avoid small or tiny species. You're going to almost certainly use a longbow as your primary ranged weapon, which unfortunately can't be wielded effectively by any creature smaller than medium-sized.
Best Ability Scores For A Monster Slayer Ranger
Most of your abilities require weapon damage to work, so you'll want to either focus on Strength or Dexterity as your primary ability score. But because rangers don't get heavy armor proficiency, and you'll have trouble using crossbows due to Slayer's Prey, your best bet is to maximize Dexterity.
Dexterity not only improves your attack and damage with bows and finesse weapons, but it also improves your armor class.
Wisdom should be your next priority as this empowers your (somewhat limited) spells. Constitution is next as it provides more hit points and better saving throws to maintain concentration on spells like Hunter's Mark.
Have a few points in Strength to avoid negative modifiers, and Intelligence is nice for a stronger Nature skill check, but Charisma should be completely ignored.
If you're using the points buy system for D&D, a good starting ability score spread might look something like this:
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Strength |
Dexterity |
Constitution |
Intelligence |
Wisdom |
Charisma |
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10(+0) |
16(+3) |
14(+2) |
10(+0) |
16(+3) |
8(-1) |
Best Starting Equipment For A Monster Slayer Ranger
The longbow is the ranger's bread-and-butter ranged attack. Expect to keep this weapon for a long time. You can pair that with two shortswords or two simple melee weapons, but the❀ shortswords are 🔯likely to be your best option to start.
Keep in mind that you'll quickly close your bonus action to Slayer's Prey at level three, so don't expect to dual-wield those shortswords for very long.
Scale mail will provide you with 16 AC with a 16 Dexterity score, but disadvantage on stealth checks. Leather armor will provide you with 14 AC, but no disadvantage on stealth. Th🐽e armor you pick will depend largely on whether you expect the party to💞 opt for stealth rather than frontal assaults.
Try to find Studded Leather armor as soon𝕴 as possible. This will give🔜 you the highest possible armor class when you max your Dexterity at 20.
A dungeoneer's pack provides more useful goodies than the explorer's pack, so pick that to start your adventure.
Best Spells For A Monster Slayer Ranger
As a half-caster class, rangers get limited spell slots to augment their physical abilities. As such, you'll want to get the most out of these spell slots by choosing the most potent spells. Here are a few suggestions at each ranger level.
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First Level |
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Second Level |
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Third Level |
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Fourth Level |
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Fifth Level |
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