Baldur's Gate 3 - Will the Ranger Class be changed?

TheGamer thinks that the Ranger Class will be enhanced in Baldur's Gate 3:

Baldur's Gate 3 And Dungeons & Dragons Will Be Changing The Ranger Class In The Future

The ranger is one of the weaker classes in the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but that will be changing soon, as the class will be different in both Baldur's Gate III and in some new updates for Dungeons & Dragons in the future.

The future of the ranger class was discussed by Mike Mearls, who is the creative director for Dungeons & Dragons, and Swen Vincke of Larian Studios, which is the development studio that is currently working on Baldur's Gate III. The two appeared on an episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, where they talked about both Baldur's Gate III and Dungeons & Dragons.

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The ranger class can be very powerful in D&D 5e. With colossus slayer and hunter's mark they do some of the best damage of any class. Early on, I would say they are the best damage dealers, until the mid lvls.

My Arcane Archer was lagging behind the rangers that I have played with. I decided to splash him with 3 lvls of the ranger class to get colossus slayer and the spell hunter's mark.

They should do something with favored enemies though. That skill is not very good in 5e compared to AD&D. Rangers in AD&D just crushed their favored enemies and all giant archetypes.

I'm curious how the bard class will play, I'm a bard guy after all.

I personally tend to avoid the ranger class, so this is likely not to have a huge impact on how I play. My biggest hope is that they might go classic-retro, and bring back the second edition rules!

Given what they've said about combat so far (which admittedly isn't much) I'm expecting changes to all the classes to be honest. I'm thinking specifically of Swen's comment that players don't like missing attack rolls and that they would fix this. I don't see how you make changes like that without changing lots about the classes etc. It will be interesting to see what they have in mind - hopefully they don't make the combat too DOS2ish.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I personally tend to avoid the ranger class, so this is likely not to have a huge impact on how I play. My biggest hope is that they might go classic-retro, and bring back the second edition rules!

They already said that it'll be (modified) 5ed.

Originally Posted by DarkOzric
I'm curious how the bard class will play, I'm a bard guy after all.

The bard class is very powerful in D&D 5e. Some great spells and sword bards can do some nice melee damage.

Its a good thing that they're working this closely with WotC to the point that they'll release it with whatever last minute update they make to the PnP version.

About things that would differ from DnD, I hope the game won't hard force you to take a whole party so you can play solo to challenge yourself on a second playthrough. That's one of the things I enjoyed the most in the original Infinity games and later in DOS and PoE too. They like to fling about the "gather your party" motto, so we'll see I suppose.

Well, that's bad news on the fifth edition rules, but I'm glad to hear that bards are sounding like they'll be in a good spot, as that's a class I tend to favour.

I'm not really a Ranger fan anyway. I just find the bow thing pretty boring. And the pet thing doesn't thrill me either. When I played Everquest, I played a Ranger, but not with a bow, he was an up and close melee fighter.

Meh, kind of dull, as fighter with bow/stealth. Focus more on traps'n'ambush with animal combos.
Also, extra Ruggedness dialogue options. This way you get to experience roleplaying as a Croat!

Originally Posted by Nereida
About things that would differ from DnD, I hope the game won't hard force you to take a whole party so you can play solo to challenge yourself on a second playthrough. That's one of the things I enjoyed the most in the original Infinity games and later in DOS and PoE too. They like to fling about the "gather your party" motto, so we'll see I suppose.

That would be nice! I have fond (and some frustrating) memories of solo'ing the BG trilogy (BGT mod) with a rogue. With "Use magic device" this was kinda fun.

To me the Ranger wasn't a particularly impressive class even in the original BG games. Rangers really should be a more terrain-savvy class, but I rarely see that implemented. I.e. they should get things like defensive, movement, and positioning bonuses when they can exploit terrain features, even in a city.

I used the Ranger a lot for soloing in NWN-Modules. Like the Bard he's a Jack of all trades and Master of nothing. The pet can be a life saver.

It's sort of a rhetorical question isn't it? I think it would be naive to believe there aren't going to a lot of changes in general from the PnP game.

There's a lot of money going into this project. They're going to try to appeal to as many gamers as possible.

hope this increase in funds will make them able to do day/night cycles as well as various weathers, they're seriously behind other games there, even many indies (in Divinity Original Sin 1-2)

Well, I just hope they don't take too many liberties and stick as close to the core rules as possible.

I'd love to see a TOEE type implementation within the D:OS engine. Just the rules implementation, obviously with D&D 5e now though.

That would work for me, a full implementation of the ToEE tyoe, with the fifth rules edition in effect. Might even be a solid way to learn the newest rules, since I've not read or picked up the newest books.

It's a pipe dream to think it might be anywhere near as hardcore as something like ToEE. They're investing too much money into this to take that kind of risk. BG III is going to be a much more mainstream product.

Mainstream doesn't mean bad though. I expect a high-quality experience, but there's going to be more emphasis on production values than having a complex rules implementation that might turn some gamers off. Swen has already hinted at that.

Originally Posted by JDR13
It's a pipe dream to think it might be anywhere near as hardcore as something like ToEE. They're investing too much money into this to take that kind of risk. BG III is going to be a much more mainstream product.

Mainstream doesn't mean bad though. I expect a high-quality experience, but there's going to be more emphasis on production values than having a complex rules implementation that might turn some gamers off. Swen has already hinted at that.

I also think this. It is the reason they have not talked about or shown any of the systems and mechanics yet. They want to keep the hype of the core fans for as long as possible. Atm, I think we are in for a surprise not everybody will like.