Epic Ranger

Family: NPC

Small humanoid (rock gnome), neutral ranger (hunter, monster slayer) 23

Armor Class 21 (+3 studded leather, ring of protection)
Hit Points 233 (23d10+92)
Speed 25 ft. (while mounted 30 ft., fly 60 ft.)

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	20 (+5)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)

Saving Throws Str +7, Dex +13, Con +5, Int +1, Wis +4, Cha +2; Proficiency +7
Skills Athletics +6, Insight +10, Investigation +7, Nature +7, Perception +10, Stealth +12, Survival +10
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages Celestial, Common, Elvish, Gnomish

ACTIONS

• Artificer’s Lore. The epic ranger adds +14 to any Intelligence (History) check related to magic items, alchemical objects, or technological devices.
• Declare Prey. The epic ranger can use a bonus action to choose one creature within 60 feet, marking it as prey. On each of the epic ranger’s turns, their first weapon attack against their prey deals an additional 1d6 damage. Once marked, a creature remains the epic ranger’s prey until the epic ranger marks a different creature as prey, or finishes a short or long rest. In addition, the epic ranger gains +1d6 on checks to escape their prey’s grapple and on saving throws against it. Defensive Tactics: Multiattack Defense. When a creature hits the epic ranger with an attack, the epic ranger gains a +4 bonus to AC against all subsequent attacks made by that creature for the rest of the turn.
• Favored Enemy. The epic ranger has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track elves, humans, halflings (or another 3 types of humanoids of the GM’s choice), and dragons, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. Feral Senses. When the epic ranger attacks a creature they can’t see, their inability to see it doesn’t impose disadvantage on their attack rolls against it. The epic ranger is also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of them, provided that the creature isn’t hidden from them and the epic ranger isn’t blinded or deafened.
• Foe Slayer (1/Turn). The epic ranger adds +3 to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack they make against one of their favored enemies.
• Gnome Cunning. The epic ranger has advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws made against magic.
• Hide in Plain Sight. The epic ranger can spend 1 minute creating camouflage for themself. They must have access to fresh naturally occurring materials with which to create their camouflage. Once the epic ranger is camouflaged in this way, they can try to hide by pressing themself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or wall, that is at least as tall and wide as they are. The epic ranger gains a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as they remain there without moving or taking actions. Once the epic ranger moves or takes an action or a reaction, they must camouflage themself again to gain this benefit.
• Hunter’s Prey: Colossus Slayer (1/Turn). When the epic ranger hits a creature with a weapon attack, the creature takes an extra 1d8 damage if it’s below its hit point maximum.
• Land’s Stride. Moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs the epic ranger no extra movement. The epic ranger can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. In addition, the epic ranger has advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement.
• Natural Explorer. When the epic ranger makes an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to the forest, grasslands, swamp, or underground, their proficiency bonus (+7) is doubled if they are using a skill that they’re proficient in. While traveling for an hour or more in their favored terrain, the epic ranger gains the following benefits:
  • Difficult terrain doesn’t slow their group’s travel.
  • The epic ranger’s group can’t become lost except by magical means.
  • Even when the epic ranger is engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), they remain alert to danger.
  • If the epic ranger is traveling alone, they can move stealthily at a normal pace.
  • The epic ranger finds twice as much food as normal when foraging.
  • While tracking other creatures, the epic ranger also learns their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.
• Pet Companion. The epic ranger has trained a chimera they use as a mount. The chimera is friendly to the epic ranger and their allies. Unless commanded not to, the chimera remains adjacent to the epic ranger. Otherwise it obeys any verbal commands that they issue to it (no action required). If the epic ranger doesn’t issue any commands to their pet companion, it defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions. The epic ranger’s pet remains with them and under their command until it dies, they dismiss it, the epic ranger is unable to feed it, or they designate a new pet.
• Prestige. Commoners and other NPCs recognize the epic ranger or at the very least know their name, and they are treated as an equal (or nearly as much) by empresses, monarchs, and other heads of state. Campfires, hunting lodges, and taverns the world over are rife with legends of the epic ranger’s exploits. Parties of other adventurers, druids, and other rangers know who the epic ranger is and about some of their greatest hunts. Lesser adventurers come to the epic ranger with quests or perils beyond their own abilities, and rulers frequently send offers promising gold for the slaying or capture of dangerous creatures within their lands.
• Primeval Awareness. The epic ranger can use an action and expend one epic ranger spell slot to focus their awareness on the region around them. For 1 minute per level of the expended spell slot, the epic ranger can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile (or within up to 6 miles if in their favored terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn’t reveal the creatures’ location or number.
• Spellcasting. The epic ranger is a 23rd-level spellcaster that uses Wisdom as their spellcasting ability (spell save DC 18; +10 to hit with spell attacks). The epic ranger knows the following spells:
  • 1st-level (4 slots): cure wounds, longstrider, protection from evil and good, speak with animals
  • 2nd-level (3 slots): silence, spike growth, zone of truth
  • 3rd-level (3 slots): magic circle, nondetection, speak with plants
  • 4th-level (3 slots): banishment, freedom of movement, locate creature, stoneskin
  • 5th-level (2 slots): hold monster, tree stride
  • 6th-level (2 slots): find the path, wind walk
• Vanish. The epic ranger can use the Hide action as a bonus action on their turn. Also, they can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless the epic ranger chooses to leave a trail.

ACTIONS

• Extra Attack. The epic ranger attacks three times.
• Volley. The epic ranger can use their action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point they can see within their weapon’s range, making a separate attack roll for each target.
• +1 Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d6+6) magical piercing damage.
• +3 Pistol of Endless Shot. Ranged Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, range 30/90 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (1d10+8) piercing damage.
• +3 Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (1d8+8) magical piercing damage.
• Sense Foe (3/Long Rest). The epic ranger immediately learns any damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities that a creature within 60 feet has. Nondetection negates this feature.

REACTIONS

• Uncanny Dodge. When an attacker that the epic ranger can see hits them with an attack, they can use their reaction to halve the attack’s damage against them.

ABOUT

No matter where they might find themselves, there’s a good chance the epic epic ranger is master of the world around them. There is no trail too rigorous, no locale too remote, or river too far for the epic ranger to traverse it and they’ve got the worn boots to prove it, having traveled around the world and back. Each journey has yielded great progress, testing their skills and teaching new ways to spot a foe’s tracks.

New Hunts. The world’s greatest fireside tales involve the epic ranger hunting down a legendary quarry, but there are monsters yet that will make for a more mythical deed. The epic ranger knows that their finest hunt is yet to come. New Lands. Having traveled the world over has left the epic ranger without any means to satisfy their wanderlust for exploring-to realize their true potential they must venture beyond the realms material, tracking never before seen prey across landscapes not meant for mortals to tread.

New Trophies. The epic ranger seeks a proper hunt once more and for the thrill of the kill, but they also long for a token more unique than any other, the sort of memento that will foster envy from gods and mortals alike.