Not All Rangers…

So, I just have a brief rant in response to a couple of recent reviews that hit the same note. The gist of them was “Rangers don’t fight melee, they use bows!

NOT ALL RANGERS ARE ARCHERS.

And if your primary exposure to Rangers is from WoW or other MMOs, then I can see how that might surprise you. However, for much of their history in TTRPGs, Rangers have been known for two-weapon fighting as much as archery. In some editions, two-weapon fighting was a defining feature of the class. So much so that perhaps the most iconic literary Ranger, Drizzt Do’Urden, is famous for his duel scimitars and almost never lifts a bow. Try googling an image of Drizzt using a bow. I’ll wait.

You back?

You probably only found images of Catti Brie. Congrats.

Then there’s Aragorn! Perhaps the proto-typical Ranger of literature. He’s predominantly a swordsman, and rarely touches a bow throughout the books or movies.

One of my favorite classes to play in TTRPGs is the Ranger class, almost always in a melee focus. And there’s a reason I named the first world in OVR World Online that Zee visits is Gygax. Sure he’s in a VRMMO, but it has definite TTRPG roots for me. I’ve played MMOs, most specifically City of Heroes/Villains. I tried EverQuest and WoW at various points. They never sunk their hooks into me.

So, yeah, Zee gets into quite a bit of melee, even when he’s trying to focus on being an archer. Cause shit goes wrong sometimes, and more importantly, Zee makes mistakes. He’s not a perfect player. And his character build is, intentionally on my part as an author, is less that optimal. That’ll come up in Book 2. But for all the complaining I see on r/litrpg about over powered main characters, it just makes me chuckle how many people complain when a character makes mistakes and doesn’t min/max perfectly.

OK…rant over. #notallrangers