At 3rd level, the Gloom Stalker masters the art of ambush and gains a +10 bonus to their speed on their first turn during combat. They also gain darkvision out to a range of 90 feet, increasing its range by 30 feet if already equipped with darkvision. One of the best spells for the Gloom Stalker 5e is a rope trick, which allows the ranger to imagine creeping into a place for a particular strike.
Gloom stalkers thrive on being unseen, making them powerful insurance against enemies attacking while the ranger is not in total darkness. They master spells useful in navigating the Underdark, and their combat tactics focus on ambush, surprise, and stealth. They have “freebie” spells that don’t take spell slots and are always prepared, in addition to their usual spells at the appropriate level.
The Deep Stalker Conclave is a unique class of Rangers, living beneath the surface and focusing on ambush, surprise, and stealth. They have abilities such as Overwhelm, Scare, Acid Spit, and Slowing Spit. Starting at 11th level, players can spend an action to roll d20 and add their ranger level, analyzing a creature that lives underground.
With Disguise Self and Seeming being useful illusion spells, the Deep Stalker Conclave could be made for disguising themselves or the party, rather than hiding. From 3rd level, the ranger gains access to additional spells, such as Shadow Sorcerer Quirks, Disguise Self, Hunter’s Mark, Pass Without Trace, Rope Trick, Glyph of Warding, Meld into Stone, Freedom of Movement, and Greater.
📹 The History of the Invisible Stalker in D&D – Deep Dive
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Are gloom stalkers evil?
Gloom stalkers were rangers who felt at home in the dark and gloomy places of the Realms, standing bravely against dark-originating dangers to protect innocents. They often explored the depths of the Underdark, tirelessly tracking down evil threats and remaining patient until the right moment to attack presented itself. Gloom stalkers were not afraid of the dark, as befitting their chosen line of work. They were known for their bravery and patience in the face of umbral threats.
What is gloom stalker 5e?
Gloom stalkers are elusive creatures that reside in the darkest places, such as deep underground, gloomy alleyways, and primeval forests. They venture into these areas boldly, seeking to ambush threats before reaching the broader world. These rangers are often found in the Underdark but can be found anywhere where evil lurks in the shadows. Starting at 3rd level, they learn an additional spell, which counts as a ranger spell but doesn’t count against the number of known ranger spells. Mastering the art of ambush at 3rd level can give a bonus to initiative rolls.
What is graviturgy magic?
Graviturgy Magic, a subclass of Matthew Mercer’s Magic, involves wizards controlling and altering the force of gravity. These wizards, known as graviturgists, use dunamis energy to manipulate gravity for their own benefit. The practice of dunamis was prevalent during the Age of Arcanum, where sages experimented with reversing the flow of time without dying. It is unclear if equivalent experiments were conducted to understand and alter gravity, but the famous floating cities of this era, supported by brumestone, demonstrate the desire of mortal arcanists to defy gravity. The manipulation of dunamis was practiced during this era, and the use of dunamis energy in magic is still practiced today.
What is Chronurgy magic?
Chronurgy Magic, also known as chronomancy, is a subclass of wizardry that manipulates the flow of time using anticipatory dunamis energy. This practice, which was introduced by Matthew Mercer, involves manipulating localized gravity to alter the time around spells, themselves, and other creatures. The practice of manipulating dunamis was prevalent during the Age of Arcanum, where the greatest sages experimented with reversing the flow of time without being killed around six or seven centuries before the Divergence.
What is dunamancy?
Dunamancy is an ancient and esoteric study of the magic called dunamis, which is based on potentiality and probability. Dunamis is the primal magical energy of potentiality and actuality, an anticipatory arcane force that helps shape the multiverse and may be what holds its elements together. It allows individuals to control and tap into Dunamancy, which can subtly bend the flow of time and space by controlling localized gravity, peering into possible timelines to shift fate in their favor, and scattering the potential energy of enemies to rob them of their potency.
Caleb Widogast described it as existing between the fabric of all other forms of power and as one of the oldest and most fundamental forces within Exandria and beyond. Allura Vysoren called it an “esoteric form of magic” and noted that some elements of gravity, time, and entropy are borrowed and tapped into by the arcana we understand.
What is the darkness ranger spell?
The Darkness spell generates a 15-foot radius sphere of magical darkness, centered on a point within the specified range. The casting of this spell results in the complete obscuration of the area in question, encompassing corners and non-magical light sources. The spell requires a single action, has a range of 60 feet, targets a point within range, and can last up to 10 minutes.
What level ranger is Drizzt?
Drizzt, a legendary hero in Dungeons and Dragons, has a rich history of adventuring and has been upgraded to 16th level in 1998. Under the current 5th edition rules, he is level 19, but not strictly a Ranger anymore. Instead, he has 11 levels in the Fighter class and 8 as a Ranger. Most of his levels were accrued during his Underdark days before Sojourn. As level progression slows down, Drizzt has more levels as a Fighter than as a Ranger, despite most of his books being set after his switch.
Despite his high level, Drizzt’s image as an unbeatable warrior makes him an appropriate designation. His abilities as a Ranger and Fighter are largely due to years of weapons training, fighting, and tracking. However, some of his positive attributes are natural, as each race in Dungeons and Dragons comes with special bonuses, and being a Drow provides more than its fair share of benefits in combat situations.
What is the best Ranger subclass for Owlin?
At level 10, Rangers in Strixhaven can use the Hide in Plain Sight ability to enhance their Stealth check, a skill that can be combined with Owlin proficiency. The Gloom Stalker is the best subclass for an Owlin Ranger. Dread Ambusher boosts walking speed by 10 feet during combat, and Umbral Sight grants Darkvision if not already present. Owlin characters are often spellcasters, making them great Wizard characters. At second level, players should choose the arcane tradition of Bladesinging for their Wizard subclass.
Being a Bladesinger Owlin grants access to light armor and proficiency in one one-handed melee weapon. The Bladesong ability boosts speed by 10 feet while active, and gives a bonus to AC equal to the character’s Intelligence modifier. This allows the Owlin to choose between firing spells from the air or joining melee combat, making them a versatile party member.
What does the Longstrider spell do?
Contact with a creature results in a 10-foot increase in its speed until the conclusion of the spell. It should be noted that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by an extension or browser that does not support cookies.
What subclass of Ranger is Drizzt?
Drizzt Do’Urden, also known as Drizzt Daermon N’a’shezbaernon, was a male drow ranger who forsaken his people’s evil ways and their home in the Underdark to become the legendary hero of the North. Standing about 5 feet and 4 inches tall, he weighed 130 pounds. Drizzt’s handsome features included black skin, long, thick, and flowing white hair. His eyes were a lavender hue, different from the drow race’s typical red, even when using his infravision.
His vision was once accustomed to the pitch-blackness of the Underdark, but many years after his first venture onto the surface, his eyes adapted to the bright light of the world above. When using his infravision, prolonged exposure to these images caused headaches and other strain symptoms. Drizzt’s bravery and determination made him a formidable warrior in the North.
What is gloomstalker magic?
At the third level, the learner gains the capacity to learn an additional spell upon reaching certain levels in Gloom Stalker Magic. This spell is considered a ranger spell for the purposes of knowledge, yet it does not contribute to the total number of ranger spells known. The number of hit points is calculated using a d10 for each ranger level, with a value of 10 at the first level and a value of 1d10 at higher levels after the first level. The minimum value for the roll is 2.
📹 Gloom Stalker is the best Ranger in Dnd 5e! – Advanced guide to Gloom Stalker Ranger
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DS – Good content and thorough research. I agree that the Invisible Stalker is criminally underused. I’m currently running a campaign with heavy elemental involvement and the BBEG is an evil wizard who has mastered the art of summoning elementals. He uses Stalkers on the regular and they have proven to be effective spies, retrievers, and assassins.
I once played a gloomstalker. Pass without trace is absolutely busted. Once during downtime in a large city, all the players were doing important shit. I told the dm that i would break into the house of one nobleman every night, stealing something very prominent but also inexpensive. Something that would be noticed missing, but no one would give a shit. Expertise in stealth, pass without trace, invisibity in darkness. I snuck in and out like a ghost(we were just level 7 at the time). On the final day of downtime, i went to a central, but abandoned at night fountain and arranged those items in like a demonic like circle with red stains and black roses. Fair to say the players and the people in the city went apeshit crazy. Gloomstalkers are great people
Fun fact: Dipping just 2 levels of fighter with gloomstalker becomes one of the most potent first round nova builds in the game. If you surprise the enemy, at level 7, you can make two attacks from ranger, plus another attack from the ambush feature. Do this all again with action surge. You get two more attacks plus the bonus attack again, since the bonus attack comes from using the attack action on your first turn, which you have just done a second time. That’s 6 attacks all at advantage, two of which deal bonus damage. That’s a lot of damage, especially if you have sharpshooter. You can crank that up to absurdity by going 3 levels in assassin rogue. Now all of the surprise attacks that hit are now all critical hits. I have seen this in person and it is just as crazy as it sounds.
My kenku Gloom Stalker was an absolute powerhouse in the brief campaign I got to play him in. Goodberry juggling, terrain manipulation, and he was built as a pretty darn good archer too. There was a LOT of great synergy too between the Sorcerer using Hadar spells and the Cleric using Spirit Guardians. It was terrific! I made sure to give him the tools to fill the role of party Rogue too, with proficiency in thieves tools, stealth, and slight of hand. Good stuff. I called him the team healer because of the Goodberry juggling. The reaction was great. XD I’d love to play that character again one day. <3
I recommend you talk to your DM to set expectations before choosing the Gloom Stalker. I just finished playing a Gloom Stalker in a campaign that lasted around 11 months and here is how it went: At level 1 and 2 we had a few encounters in total darkness, but I didn’t yet have Umbral Sight or Darkvision. At 3rd level I got Umbral Sight and was ready to kick some butt, but only had two encounters in darkness and in both, the other party had Blindsight. Before reaching level 4, our DM teleported us to a Feywild-like place where the sun never set and there was no dungeon delving planned. During the rest of the campaign (~10 months), we only had one fight in darkness and here the enemy also had Blindsight (and VERY nearly wiped the party). I managed to find a dark place during one later encounter and play one or two rounds against a creature that couldn’t see me. So an 11 months campaign and only one or two rounds of invisibility from Umbral Sight, which is kind of the point of a Gloom Stalker 😐
As someone who’s been playing a pure fighter at level 10, yeah… Yeah… Worse yet, it really hadn’t dawned on me how restricting it would be to play a martial in a high magic campaign. If I had made a gloom stalker instead (since this character is already a stealthy fighter with a strong attunement to nature, literally a perfect fit.), I’d actually be able to pull my weight in the party. Now I’m just biding my time until I can get some levels in ranger. Like, I should’ve known better when I saw that the group I joined was spellcasters and a barbarian that multiclassed into druid that my fighter needed to be adjusted. It does make for good character angst though. Moral of the story, 5e (and maybe OneD&D/6e) is not kind to martials.
I loved my gloomstalker but their once was a time where I almost died because nobody could see me. I went down because of an AoE spell (Tidal Wave I think) and the cleric, bless her, tried to bonus action healing word but I pointed out she couldn’t see me. Luckily I made my death saves and ended up getting healed after the fight was done.
Playing a Gloom Stalker for the first time in my first proper long term campaign and I love it 🏹 yesterday we had to sneak into a zombie/deathlock castle and my Umbral Sight was key part to the plan and helped me avoid the Furious Deathlock multiple times. That paired with being a sharpshooter, I took out enemies from my dark little corners like it was nothing, adding the Dread Ambusher bonus 💪🏼
If you combine gloom stalker ranger with 1 level of twilight cleric you’ll be even more powerful/useful. 300 feet of darlvision that you can share with people? Yes please! Advantage on initiative to the whole party increasing the chance that everyone gets 2 whole rounds before the enemy gets to go once? Why not?! If you want to be even scarier in combat you can also top that off with 3 levels of assassin rogue for expertise, cunning action, 2d6 sneak attack damage and assassinate. (If you want to push it even further you can take the eleven accuracy feat and 3 levels of samurai fighter for action surge and fighting spirit) I recently played this exact chater for a one shoot and I absolutely loved it, and I’m seriously considering playing it for a complete campaign.
Don’t know why, but this is my first time reading pass without trace. Holy crap, I was not prepared for how broken that wording is. Every creature you chose within 30ft gets a +10 to stealth!? This is the kinda crap that makes DMs cry, especially if the entire party has half way decent dex scores or proficiency in stealth.
the headache for the gloomstalker and any ranger is that the power level depends on taking advantage of the two busted spells listed in the article: conjure animals and pass without trace. those two spells are so much better than anything else the gloomstalker gets, and without them (some DMs are going to nerf conjure animals and surprise because they are obnoxious) the ranger loses a lot of luster, especially at higher levels. I hope wotc rebalances this over their onednd playtest
Holy hell I love this article. You’re one of the few people I’ve come across that recognizes the ways to use broken spells on Ranger. Everyone else wants to play Fighter/Rogue and is disappointed that Ranger doesn’t do that as well. If your group is playing Optimally, then it should be braindead obvious to skew in a way to allow the Ranger to feast. If it’s not, then comparisons don’t matter to begin with and people can stop crying about powerlevels.
Loved the article, I personally have a character built around a heavy crossbow. The point you made early in the article of beating out fighters except battle master I agree with a lot but even more fun is using it in tandem. Battle master 5 to get extra attack plus some help with accuracy and long range control like taunting or disarming strike work great for when you have a party of melee users and combined with gloomstalker the extra attack feature in addition to get an additional attack earlier although Im not sure if it stacks since it isnt called extra attack in RAW but does have the effect. This combined with something like 3 levels in rogue for assassins crit attacks on suprise means you can get advantage to auto crit and double batte master’s superiority die in addition to having 2/3 crits on the first suprise round allows for long range assassination. EDIT: Forgot to mention this is with variant human to get crossbow expert and sharpshooter at levels 1 and 4
I don’t think conjure animals should be considered so heavily when it comes to optimization. A lot of dms straight up won’t allow you to summon 8 creatures and they’re right to do so. Even splitting them up into groups for different party members slows down the game, it’s the fastest way to piss off your dm because they suddenly have to track 8 additional creatures, it also means that any class that gets conjure animals is better than any that does not if you consider it so heavily
Though of a good uses for invisibility using if you can cast it on anyth8ng but yourself, turn a rock invis and throw it. This can then do one of two things be a distraction tactic (throw it in a different direction than the one your going in or to move/lure guards out of the way) or to interrupt a spell or other thing that needs to be interrupted but you don’t want to be targeted by said thing
I have a feeling that the build I’ll be using for my next campaign is going to be one of my favorites. It’ll be an Owlin Gloom Stalker Ranger build with specialization in archery. What’s really insane is that Umbral Sight combined with my race features gives me a whopping 150 ft of darkvision! I’m going to have so much fun sniping my opponents from so far away with a variety of specialty arrows.
I do want to make a minor addition, your info on how many creatures have darkvision only loosely correlates to when you get to use umbral sight, as many creatures who have darkvision (such as almost any race of monster that has it and all devils) live in light most of the time either by choice or because their habitats are bright, I noticed that you end up using that feature about as much as the advantage from shadowblade, as you need proper light condition (easier in dungeons and caves of course) but you can still be screwed by tremorsense or blindsight even when fighting cave dwellers
conjure animals doesn’t make me feel powerful it makes me feel cheap. CA is only good because splash damage is so rare. On top of that it can become a tedious and messy spell if multiple players and enemies start casting it all turn 1( the problem gets even worse with upcasting). My simple home brew is that players and enemies can only take the the one cr2 creature otherwise you just end up with 48 – 1/4 CR creatures running around. Thoughts?
Ranger is also my favorite class tied with Rogue, and Gloom Stalker is my favorite subclass. Issue is, one of my friends who DMs for us straight up doesn’t allow the invisibility in darkness part, which is one of the best parts of the subclass. I tried to explain that it’s literally magic from your experience and talent at navigating and fighting in the darkest parts of nature, and he still insists it “doesn’t make sense” and refuses to let that feature work. It all stems from a campaign years ago where I played my first Gloom Stalker (first Ranger too, actually) and tried to hide inside of a mansion in the darkness, and he reasoned there was nothing for me to hide behind. But like, darkness is heavy obscurement, which is literally all you need to hide, and only Skulker or being a Wood Elf lets you hide when lightly obscured. I tried to explain it to him then, and again recently, and he still insists it’s stupid and doesn’t make sense. And yes, he’s also one of those people who says that Rangers are the weakest class, right next to Monks. So how am I supposed to explain that Umbral Sight is literally magic and doesn’t HAVE to make sense in the way he’s saying, when he still acknowledges it’s magic but thinks it’s nonsensical anyhow?
A better option than the bullseye lanterns trick might be to take a dip into Twilight Cleric for the 300ft Darkvision that you can share for an hour and the advantage on the initiative roll. The Gloom Stalker takes point instead of being at the back of the group. If someone in the group doesn’t have Darkvision, take the Light cantrip as part of your Claric dip, give them a pebble or something that you cast light on every hour, and have them be at the back. With the Gloom Stalker taking point, they can see bandits and such well in advance, have those with a light pebble put the pebble in their pocket to hide the light, and then share your 300ft of Darkvision with the whole group. Toss in Pass Without Trace and you can either bypass or ambush the bad guys lol. If you really want the range of a bullseye lantern, maybe still get it but cast light on the wick instead of carrying around a possibly dangerous fire hazard… or maybe put the light pebble into a cheap monocular or such if you really want a flashlight lol.
I’ve been enjoying the Scout Rogue/Gloom Stalker Ranger build, only downside being the episodic games I’ve been part of have no darkness to utilize the invisible side of Umbral Sight yet. So I just got a Human with Darkvision and nifty Stealth boosts, 3 attack salvo on first rounds and bonus initiative.
I am a #ForeverDM so I can’t play often, but I did include a Gloom Stalker as a recurring enemy in a campaign. I made sure to not optimize his nova dmg too much so I wouldn’t just delete a player on turn 1 because that would be unfair. He was a legal lvl 10 player character going up against lvl 7 players on his own, so if he was ever caught unprepared he would just be deleted (and almost was on several occasions). But between Stealth Expertise, 20 Dex, Pass Without Trace and Umbral Sight, they could never beat his stealth score or track him down since none of them had a form of magical scrying. He would show up at the worst possible times and add a layer of difficulty to whatever quest they were on. Fun character and definitely a showcase of how even unoptimized Gloom Stalkers can punch way above their weight.
So if the 15th level capstone isn’t worthwhile, then it sounds like you could get away with multiclassing into something else. What level would you recommend this be at, and to what? Perhaps fighter for the extra Fighting Style and Action Surge? Perhaps rogue for the sneak attack, Roguish Action, and expertise? Maybe a bit into both? The end goal is a competent first turn assassin with the ability to deal sustained damage after turn 1.
Depends on the campaign. Gloomstalkers are amazing in the UnderDark. They are far less exciting in campaigns where almost everything happens in daylight. Also they are so heavily front-loaded that Gloomstalker 3/Fighter 17 seems much better than Gloomstalker 20. Especially if you take Samurai or Battlemaster. Conjure Animals your mileage may vary wildly as technically the DM gets to pick the animals and in many environments that can mean lower CRs than you desire.
Let’s do some math rq Rangers and Rogues both (usually) rely on dexterity, so a +5 won’t be uncommon (by mid/late game) both classes get expertise early (canny ability on rangers) and both could grab stealth via class profs (or backgrounds) by late game you have a +6 prof bonus (+12 if expert) rogues get reliable talent: you can’t roll less than 10 on proficient skills (27+ stealth, max 37) if you can get a luckstone (+1 to all skills and saves) you bump it to 28/38 with PWT you bump it by +10, 38/48 vs Passive Perception (33: 5 from max wis, 12 from expertise, 1 from luckstone, 5 from observant feat; +10 base from passives) you won’t be detected
Kobold, I’m just wondering how you like the combo of Gloomstalker with Assassin Rogue? Is it worth it to go say 5 Levels in Gloomstalker, then take the rest as Rogue for sneak attack? That way you’re critting on every attack if you use pass without trace to secure surprise, and you also get some sneak attack damage.
I’m playing an Eladrin Drakewarden atm. I rolled max on dex and I’m pretty much hard leading our overall dmg with range attacks Supplements with the Reaction Action of my Drake on lvl 3. I love my Ranger and i don’t see all the problems. The original Beasttamer was problematic with his action economy going into making his companion usefull. But since the reworks this problems are gone. Why do Rangers get d10’s for hitdice? The only one in my Party who’s got more (1!!!) HP ist the Fighter Chevalier full Tank (whom is also the only one with more ac than me). I love the ranger and allways will
Comparison is at 8th level. Creature has a +6 on str saves, Druid is summoning panthers, and the average adventuring day is 18 rounds long with 2 short rests. The math: Conjure animals: 8(0.5(3.5+2)+0.05(3.5)= 23.4 DPR. Primal Savagery : (0.70(5.5×2)+.05(5.5×2))=8.3 DPR. This brings our total DPR for the druid up to 31.7. Fighter (CBE/SS battlemaster, all dice spent on tripping attacks): 3(0.50(3.5+4+10)+0.05×3.5)+3/18(2(0.50(3.5+4+10)+0.05×3.5))+2/3(4.5+0.4(2(0.75(3.5+4+10)+0.0975×3.5)-2(0.5(3.5+4+10)+0.05×3.5))=35.2 DPR. So yes, fighter does offer better DPR, even against conjure animals.
Speaking about PWT, i got the staff of woodlands on my druid. This is the best stealth item in the whole game. You can cast PWT for free! an unlimited amount of times per day! Cast it when in stealth, the cast a conc. spell in combat, without wasting PWT Just always have PWT up, all the time! it’s busted!
Hmm. If you’re playing a Gloom Stalker, in my experience, you should spend your first turn of combat and all that alpha strike goodness killing the rest of the party then complete the dungeon on your own. Your greatest enemy is your ‘friends’. The problem is any DM is rapidly going to get po’d with this and introduce the Cult of Light, or somesuch, who all have Daylight 1/day. Invisibility to darkvision is great and all but it’s so overwhelming, assuming you followed my advice and killed the rest of your party, that the DM won’t stand for it long. Welcome to the tremorsense dungeon, or fluorescent granite or whatever. Maybe you should spend your second turn killing the DM. Hmm.
Something people are missing, is Pass Without Trace never states you are in darkness. It says it engulfs you in shadow and silence, but does not give you anything do to with light shifting into Darkness. It does not say you count as BEING in Darkness, and would state otherwise if it really did. That’s the issue with saying Pass Without Trace can help this. It can’t. The Benefits of pass without trace are: A) You and all allies gain a +10 to all stealth checks while within the area of the spell B) You do not leave behind tracks C) You can not be tracked by Magical means. Those are the only three, and unfortunately, has nothing to do with benefiting GloomStalker’s Umbral Sight
Hi team, I am playing a campaign with only content from PHB. So unfortunately gloomstalker is not available to me. I am Vhuman with SS (not taking cbe, I like longbows) I plan to take a hunter ranger to level 5, then go war cleric. PHB ranger has a real flat spot between kevel 5 and 9 which i am trying to elimenate. It’s only a 2 player campaign, so I am trying to build a ranged support class for my tank. Any tips? Was thinking of dips into fighter or rogue. TIA
If I was to build this ranger build I would have Harefolk as my race almost guaranteeing I’ll be acting first Especially at higher levels At 17th level with a plus 5 in dexterity and wis add the alert feat plus proficiency you’ll have plus 21 on initiative roles meaning that the lowest you could roll is 22 and the highest you could roll is 41 This means you have the fastest reaction time in the game when it comes to reacting to an attack I know you can get even more if you multy class And the rules state that initiative is a skill so you could get double proficiency if your DM allows it This means that your initiative would be d20 roll plus dex plus wis plus alert feat plus proficiency times two this equals 5+5+5+6+6+your d20 roll Enjoy I know I will be ☺️
Dark vision treats dim light as bright light and darkness as dim light. It’s heavily terrain dependent and gets solved by any sort of light. Unless you are explicitly on a night raid, most dark locations are also cramped locations, so single light sources are much more effective. So a realistic criteria is that either the creature must like living in full darkness or the space must be wide enough that whatever light source the creature has allows for darkness. That said, most of your adventures will take place during the day because the rest of your party isn’t built for this.
I made a Gloomstalker with a dip in Life Cleric as there was no dedicated healer. Custom Lineage half Goblin half Ettin named Gobb and Linn they were told by their mother that their father was a good for nothing, Linn sort of thought she might be hiding a bit much about dad and Gobb couldn’t ever be persuaded that mother Mae would ever lie or do wrong by them. I used the voices of Nappa and Vegeta. Gobb was a cheerful lovable caring fellow a bit dim but had a definite self confidence. Linn was proud to be a goblin a warrior and would grumble grimace sneer and grate, he wasn’t well liked but he made sure they survived. It was fun as hell to play “two” characters.
What happens when you make a gloomstalker mercy monk zombie? You make the dm cry because they have no idea how to keep the party down with you being over a mile away shooting arrows coated in zombie fluids, monks are good at range, so are rangers, have fun having any creature that can be zomified get zombified.
G.S. perfect as anti Illithid hit-squad!BTW Hilarious timing! After my 6 man + D.m group finished our session yesterday, we got to lvl up to 3 as homework. And for one of my hooman Rangers I will go Gloom Stalker. The other will be Drake Warden. The D&D One Ranger NEEDs the dmg bonus for Sharpshooter back!! Hunter and Monster Slayer should be combined. Beast Master and Drake Warden should be separate, different enough with good margin, messy to combine them due to mechanics. Drake Warden should state uou can use Gem dragon aspects of dmg/ resistances too!! Beast Master should at getting it sllow you to choose the Air/Land/Water spirit version( that never die ) from Tasha OR a beefed up ( with Tashas lessions learned) version from the P.HB. where the animal is more bondly, can die! Swarm Keeper, Horizon Walker and Fey Wanderer I also hope returns!! I main Fighter, Ranger and Sorcerer my favs! One purely Martial, one Half class and one Spellcaster.
A heretical question: isn’t team optimization ultimately pointless? A good DM should be aware of how challenging their encounters are. If a team is optimized to the point that they’ve, say, doubled their damage output, a good DM should recognize that their game has become a cakewalk and adjust future encounters accordingly. Optimizing individual characters can effect how powerful they feel and—up to a point—how strong they are in relation to the rest of the party. But optimizing the party as a whole initiates a kind of arms race with the DM, and one in which the DM ultimately holds all the cards.
not sure if you watch “which ninja” from gaijin goomba, but when you look at the gloomstalker you realize it’s a better ninja than the monk ninja class. also had the thought of a fighter choosing ranger subclass for their subclass. makes sense, your milestones happen almost identically through most of the campaign, certain ranger extra attacks stack with action surge capitalizing on certain moments, most ranger subclass features do nothing for their spellcasting, and theres no good in lore reason a ranger/fighter can learn how rangers fight but suck at magic.
Ranger has ALWAYS been one of the stronger classes in 5E. Yes, there were some subclasses that added little to the character and yes if you multiclass into rogue after 5, you get an even stronger character. But the gloomstalker takes an already strong class and adds a bunch of extra power to it. How it ever got the reputation of being a weak class is a display of people making untested assumptions about things they know nothing about.
Ironically it’s official play that really hamstrings rangers. Most mods have block text that denies surprise (soon as you open the door the BBEG says X and summons allies), DMs grumble or often ban whenever you have minions, and due to their downtime days mechanics its only possible to have a max of 1 goodberry precast, and only if you spend your extremely limited gold and downtime days each session to do it. Add to that almost no mods make use the base class’s navigation skills, and the random crap shoot of favored terrain or enemy type each session makes those abilities unreliable. Even gloomstalker suffers, as randomized parties means you can’t plan for their sightedness or mechanics. Few weeks ago my gloomstalkers effectiveness was gutted because the arcane trickster refused to put out his flametongue which produced 40ft of light the catacombs despite him using it once the whole session.
I’d say my biggest problem with playing a gloomstalker is that a smart DM can easily screw over your build, I played a gloomstalker once, and I barely got any use out of my umbral sight feature most of the time due to not really having any good places to hide because of most of the encounters taking place in tight areas and most enemies having different ways of seeing me, such as blindsight, true sight, or even just bum rushing me with torches. Dread ambusher also only works if you attack on your first turn, so you have to give up casting a spell like say spike growth on the first turn if you wanna use it. Granted, the surprise mechanic exists so you could theoretically use dread ambusher and then cast a spell on your next turn without having to worry about the enemies moving away from a perfect position, but I wouldn’t rely on it since I’ve seen my fair share of DM’s who do not allow surprise rounds simply because they think it’s too broken of a mechanic, also good luck trying to get a surprise round when your teammates just wanna go loud. I still think Gloomstalker is great, just that it can easily become a trap (at least in lower tiers) if your DM plays smart enough (or just hates you). Personally though, I like swarm keeper better due to their flavor, and how their features synergizes with spike growth really well, I would love to see you make a article on that subclass in the future.
I’ve always thought it’s a little silly to pull up fighters getting three attacks at 11th level as like an own. Bestie by level eleven the game is basically over 😭 That’s really why wizards are really running shit. Because they’re getting subclass features Before level ten (coming feom a cleric fan 🙁 )
If a class is ‘good’ because you have a handful of over powered features you keep going back to, it’s not good it’s just being carried, conjured animals is fun, it’s powerful, it’s effective, it’s Over powered as it invalidates every melee idea ever. every fighter build has to clear ‘better then conjured animals?’ hurtle.
Optimization is fun to theory craft and talk about but being both a player and a DM, it’s not fun as a player unless everyone is doing it and as a DM I HATE trying to balance around an optimizer. I think the best middle ground is just playing smart. Don’t try and be optimal just be intelligent about what you do. Also optimal play is kinda boring ngl. Is melee optimal? Not compared to ranged options. Is it more exciting? Hell yes it is. Constantly just moving to be out of range to do the same “optimal” ranged option every turn is not exciting. Example of this being the case: my brother is playing a Bladesinger Wizard and was up against a Red Slaad in an arena (they all had 1-on-1 fights) he sets up turn 1 with his bladesinging and gets distance to further buff his speed on his next turn. By this point the Slaad can only catch him by dashing and then can’t attack just for the Wizard to run away again. Once it clicked with him that he was never going to be touched he asked ME if we could just like cut to the end of the fight. (There was plot business why they were there and had to prove themselves so there wasn’t much need for showmanship or anything it was just a test of power) he played the encounter optimally so much so that the encounter was irrelevant. Now this encounter was designed specifically to make them fight smartly, hence the 1v1s, but imagine a whole party of this in every encounter. It becomes borderline pointless to even have combat in games anymore outside of plot and character progression that’s necessary.
But Kobold… Umbral Sight doesn’t give your equipment the invisible condition (lol @ poor writing by wotc) so all the gloomstalkers gear can be seen by anyone with darkvision, unless they get the invisibility spell cast on them as that does specifically state it affects gear on the targets possession
I hate this subclass with a passion! No doubt it is strong, it is even too strong. Maybe acceptable as a straight ranger, but I’ve seen way to many assassin-gloomstalkers that don’t really do much rangery or rougy stuff except for constantly asking whether they can hide and absolutely murdering everything in the first turn. It ruins everyone’s fun, the party members’ because it absolutely overshadows everyone else in that turn, the DM for the constant asking and for often not giving their cool monsters a turn and frankly even their own for their damage output falling off a cliff after the first or second turn and not being so useful for anything else.
Hello fellow nerds i need help Its about barbarian rage Rule goes “Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.” I am in a debate were lads say that RAW you have to both hit and take damage otherwise you loose rage I think their interpretation is stupid I’m seeking official response like Jeremy Crawford tweets or sage advice but yet to find any on the matter i also writenan email to WOTC but haven’t gotten a response Pls help
Conjure animals don’t just die more quickly, they do less damage and are less accurate. Even with a pack tactics wolf it’s less accurate. And lets not forget bonuses from magical swag, feats, and class features that affect the user but won’t affect the summon so a Fighter can boost those attack individually in a single turn nova that no ranger ever could. they also have their own initiative which means a few of them will probably be taken out before they get a chance to act, probably all if they get caught in an AoE since they get grouped together in the same space.
For real, though, is late game ranger all about summoning trash to fight in your behalf? I hate summoning builds, and I feel like if rangers depend on conjure animals that much, they have a hidden class feature and they are a trash class design-wise. If they don’t rely on summoning, I don’t see what the freak does their spell casting is good for at later levels, multiclassing rogue always seems better…
gloomstalker/battle master/assassin rogue. custom lineage that is connected to elf 2 feat you want Elvin accuracy and sharpshooter an at level 11 on the first round of combat you can do 12d8+14d6+60+30 points of damage. (as long as you can hit with Elvin accuracy almost always hit and this would be including a Suprise round to get that free crit)
11:21 the direct math might not be simple but assuming SS so you have a 45% chance to hit, there’s a 90.8% chance for extra attack when using dread ambusher, 79.75% of an extra attack regularly, with advantage it comes out to 66.06% with dread ambusher and 51.3% normally. So it’s basically 4/5 of an extra attack normally and 1/2 of an extra attack with advantage.
I really dislike the stealth playstyle. You initiate combat pefore the other party even gets to do anything. Sure, sometimes that’s fine since you KNOW that combat was inevitable. But (at least in the games I play in) there’s a lot more ways to approach an encounter. Striking a deal, charming the leader, pacifyng the creatures in some other way are all options that are just thrown out the window when everyone stealths. They don’t always work, but sometimes they do! There’s also many cases when you get thrown into combat when you do not expect it. Stealth is also completely useless in those situations.