All sources are open.

Look, it’s 2023. Third edition D&D came out in the year 2000. Version 3.5 came out in 2003. If you’re still playing 3.5 in 2023 you’re probably the sort of player playing in the sort of group that’s willing to let you go book diving for options. And if you’re not... well, I’m sorry, a lot of this guide is not for you. And that’s okay! You’re valid, even if I don’t agree with your approach. But I am probably going to be unable to help you much.

Anyway, to be more explicit about what this means: I am considering all “official D&D content” sources to be valid. This includes Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine. This includes Diablo II: Diablerie. It includes options listed in the sidebars and appendices of official adventure modules. It includes the Dragonlance Campaign Setting and Oriental Adventures, though not their third-party expansions. It does not include Kingdoms of Kalamarand similar books, because they’re third-party-produced licensed material without a “this is 100% official D&D content” sticker like Dragon and Dungeon do. Is that arbitrary and maybe a little petty? Yes, but it’s what I’m going with. Likewise, Pathfinder content is not being considered, for the same reason.

In addition, I'm considering setting splatbook options to be setting-agnostic. Some books, like Oriental Adventures, explicitly made their setting-specific options setting agnostic (with notes in the prestige class and feat sections directing you to outright ignore the clan/race/ancestry requirements if not playing in Rokugan, and even encouraging doing so in Rokugan), while others didn’t think to do that. Similarly, Player’s Guide to Faerûn directs you and your DM to ignore regional requirements for Faerûnian options if you don’t want to use them, and only asks that you come up with some kind of interesting backstory tidbit to justify it. I’m extending this mindset to everything. Some options have specific mechanics that don’t work outside of the setting they take place in (such as Rokugan shadowlands stuff or Forgotten Realms’ spellfire channelers), so they may not be relevant unless your group’s world has something similar, but for everything else, I’m calling it fair game.

Some degree of cheese is allowed.

I’m assuming a permissive, but reasonable DM when it comes to RAW exploits. Theoretical optimization tricks are absolutely not going to be encouraged here, but things like alternative class feature chaining (which have a very strong RAW argument for being valid), early entry into prestige classes, and so on are going to be mentioned. For some stuff, they’ll be cordoned off into their own little section with a guide, and for others I will generally add a note about existing RAW ambiguities or citeable-but-ignored RAI, but like with the stuff above… it’s 2023 and the reason I still play 3.5 is because it has a truly massive library of options, many of which interact in unexpected and interesting ways. When I want to play a more coherent, stable game I will play 4e, Lancer, Pathfinder 2e, 5e, or any number of non-D&D-based tabletop games like Anima Prime or Olaf Hits the Dragon with His Sword. But this guide is for 3.5. I’m a weirdo cheesemonger, and you’re going to find cheese, within limits, in this handbook.

You have some understanding of how 3.5 plays in practice.

While this guide will hopefully be useful even for beginners, there’s a degree of expectation in my ratings that you have a general foundation with regards to the game itself. Things like “casters tend to scale better than noncasters because of having way more options and often better options,” “Weapon Focus is a bad feat on its own because a feat slot for only a +1 isn’t worthwhile,” and “multiclassing and prestige classes are a normal part of the game, not a cheating cheese thing” are assumptions I’ve made without including a formal proof of them in the guide itself, and many of the ratings will assume certain things about how the game is played that may not be obvious if you’re brand-new to the game. If you have questions, feel free to ask them, though the answer may end up being a link to some essay or other that a person wrote before me. The game is 23 years old and so is the community’s understanding of it. There’s a lot of ground to cover!

You don’t have an adversarial relationship with your DM.

Not every option requires DM adjudication, but some do, particularly things like unupdated 3.0 content occasionally. In addition, the ranger has abilities like tracking that can affect the flow of the campaign, and favored enemy, which relies on the DM to make things useful (though optimizing the ranger is generally about mitigating the need for the DM to give you specific enemies to fight as much as possible). It’s not as much ‘whoops, I need to work with the DM now’ as a lot of full caster options, but it’s still there, and still notable. If your DM is the type of person to, once you have a favored enemy build, never have you face those enemies again, you probably shouldn’t be playing a ranger in their game (but also should probably be having a talk with them about expectations at the tabletop).

Rangers don’t have to be racist.

This may seem like an oddly random and specific thing to put into a preface for a game mechanics handbook, but it’s important to me so I’m going to add it anyway. I’ve never liked the “rangers are The Racism Class” jokes. There’s nothing in the class itself that ever even implies that—the class’s gimmick is knowing your enemy and gaining bonuses from that. No one calls the archivist a racism-based class because they can use Dark Knowledge to get bonuses based on creature types. No one says Knowledge Devotion is racist. And yet, people get weird about rangers. Even the humanoid subtype favored enemies aren’t racism-based, but “hey I have a handle on the general skills and practices of a specific culture of people when it pertains to combat,” and there’s a lot of reasons a character might be like that other than racism (and really, racism tends to make a person not understand the culture and practices of others, so like… what even). While there are places in the game where writers for splatbooks took the “you really hate them” meme and wrote it into some option or other, I don’t particularly care for the approach being assumed to be the default.

There will be zero jokes about racist rangers in this guide, and if you come into a thread for this guide commenting with them or assuming that rangers somehow must be racist against their favored enemies, I’m going to sigh and move on and ignore it but will internally be fairly cross about it. That’s all I’m going to say about this topic.

• A&EG—Arms and Equipment Guide
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The ranger base class can be found legally on the d20srd, at this link.

The Chassis

A d8 hit die, 6+Int mod skills per level, full BAB, good Fortitude and Reflex saves, all simple and martial weapons, and light armor+shields. Ranger’s chassis is honestly one of the best in the game, which gives them a good foundation to support their numerous ACFs and possible prestige class entries.

Class Skills

The ranger’s skill list is a decent spread of generally-useful skills. Though it doesn’t have standouts like Use Magic Device, it’s not bad by any means, and can get you a good level of skillmonkeying even if not specializing in it.

• Climb (D): Alright at low levels and for prerequisites, but obviated by a lot of spells and items.
• Concentration (A): You’ll want this eventually if you use a lot of spells, but ranger’s “cast defensively” DC caps out at 19 so it’s not a huge priority.
• Craft (D): Not particularly necessary or useful outside of prerequisites for most rangers. The exceptions to this are for reducing the costs of mundane items at low-levels (if your DM allows you to make items in backstory), and the Craft (alchemy) and (poisonmaking) skills, each of which carry direct combat benefits and are C-rated.
• Handle Animal (S or C): If you’re doing anything with the base animal companion, this is mandatory. If you’re not, then its value scales with how much effort you put into it. You can do a lot with even non-companion animals, given downtime and a willingness to engage with the Handle Animal mechanics, even if it’s just having some trained dogs to keep watch at night.
• Heal (F): Absolutely except at very low levels in niche situations that rarely, if ever come up.
• Hide (A): A strong pick for most rangers. S-rated if you’re speccing into a scouting/stealth focus, but it’s still not a bad pick even without specializing in it. If you’re looking to sneak, I do recommend familiarizing yourself with the stealth rules, because they’re a mess. This guide by Roguish on Wordpress is a good outlining of the weirdness of the Hide skill.
• Jump (C): Not particularly good unless using it for Leap Attack. Like Climb and Swim, it can be alright at low levels before getting made redundant by alternate movement speeds. 5 ranks does give you a synergy bonus on Tumble checks though.
• Knowledge (dungeoneering) (A): Aberrations and oozes are not uncommon monsters at any level.
• Knowledge (geography) (D): Nearly worthless mechanically outside of prerequisites.
• Knowledge (nature) (S): Animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, and vermin! This is one of the best Knowledge skills in the game. If you can afford it, take it.
• Listen (A): Perception is important for not getting caught unawares, and it’s useful for a lot of modules and campaigns for overhearing NPC conversations too.
• Move Silently (B): Slightly less good than Hide, but still a strong pick on its own. A-rated if you’re speccing into a scouting/stealth focus.
• Profession (F): Don’t take this unless it’s a prerequisite. Functionally useless for adventurers; it’s an NPC simulationism skill. The books even say not to take it for fluff reasons.
• Ride (S or F): If you’re doing mounted combat stuff, this is mandatory. Otherwise, it’s near-useless.
• Search (B): This is a good skill for finding hidden things, though you’re probably not super needing it unless you’re the party’s trapfinder. Becomes S-rated if you’re taking the trapfinding ACF.
• Spot (A): Like Listen, it’s super useful for not getting caught unawares.
• Survival (C): This skill is mostly prerequisites fodder, but in a campaign where your DM likes to let you use the tracking rules to sequence-break adventures, I give it an A rating.
• Swim (B): Unlike Climb and Jump, this one is actually useful to drop a couple ranks in because falling into water can be a death sentence. Even if you get a swim speed, you still use the skill.
• Use Rope (F): This is rarely, if ever, any good. Even just using manacles makes it basically meaningless.

With the Skilled City-Dweller ACF from the Cityscape web enhancement, you can swap out some of your class skills for other ones, as follows:

• Gather Information (B): Gives up Handle Animal. This is a solid skill for getting necessary adventure information in some campaigns. Ask your DM if it will be relevant before taking it, though.
• Knowledge (local) (C): Gives up Knowledge (nature). This one will often net you very useful information about local people of power, and can also be used to ID the weaknesses of humanoid creatures. However, it’s much worse than Knowledge (nature) for monster identification, so I don’t recommend this swap in most cases.
• Sense Motive (A): Gives up Survival. Unless you need Survival for prerequisites or are using tracking actively, this is a good trade. Sense Motive lets you avoid being lied to by NPCs, which can save your life.
• Tumble (S): Gives up Ride. One of the best skills in the game, as it lets you move through enemies and avoid attacks of opportunity in combat. Unless you’re using mounted combat, take this and don’t look back.

There are also some skills that are good enough to consider even as cross-class skills. The ranger cannot put max ranks in these without multiclassing, ACFing, or feats that add them as class skills, but it’s worth considering, with how many skill points the ranger gets.

• Balance (A): If you’re ever balancing (such as in a grease spell’s area, on top of marbles, on a shifting platform, or any similar situation), you become flat-footed unless you have 5 ranks in this skill. This can be absolutely debilitating, and it’s well worth taking the cross-class ranks to hit 5 ranks by level 7.
• Knowledge skills (A): Dropping a half-rank into Knowledge skills lets you start rolling against DCs higher than 10, and even without investment that can be useful for finding information or identifying monsters. Knowledge (arcana) in particular is worth upping to a full rank though, because one of ranger’s best ACFs, favored enemy (arcanists), requires it.
• Use Magic Device (B): I know UMD is widely considered to be the strongest skill in 3.5, but bear with me here. The thing is, ranger isn’t Charisma-based, and without UMD as a class skill, you’re never going to get your bonus high enough to reliably use the skill. However, putting a single rank in it at least lets you roll the skill, and in a pinch, being able to retry an off-class wand until you roll a 20 (success on a DC 20) or a 1 (can’t try again for 24 hours) can be useful enough to warrant getting training in the skill, even if you’ll never be good at it without much more significant investment.

Class Features

I’ll be talking about what you can take instead of these in the next chapter, but first I’d like to go over the basic information and value of the core class features.

1st – Favored Enemy (S): The bread and butter of the class (bear with me okay, I know that sounds like a remarkably silly statement). By default, it’s fairly limited, giving you a +2 on weapon damage rolls, as well as on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Survival, and Spot against your favored enemy, then scaling later. However, ranger has some very strong options that synergize with it, such as ways to add the bonus on your attack rolls as well (Solitary Hunting ACF and Tactical Advantage feat), options to increase your damage per hit, sometimes significantly (such as the Favored Power Attack feat’s 3× Power Attack multiplier), and ways to increase your favored enemy bonus further than usual (like the enemy spirit pouch and girdle of hate magic items, or using ACF chaining to advance it multiple times at later levels).

As the ranger’s favored enemy options are tied pretty heavily into their ACFs, I’ll be talking about the full type list in that section.

1st – Wild Empathy (D): Wild Empathy lets you do a weak Diplomacy check against animals, which is already fairly weak, but rangers don’t have a reason to invest in Charisma, which makes it even weaker.

2nd, 6th, 11th – Combat Style (A): Combat styles are a set of three feats that you get in sequence based on the style, while ignoring their prerequisites. This is important, because it lets you not worry about ability score requirements for things like Two-Weapon Fighting. The default combat style options are two-weapon combat (Two-Weapon Fighting at 2, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting at 6, and Greater Two-Weapon Fighting at 11) and archery (Rapid Shot at 2, Manyshot at 6, and Improved Precise Shot at 11). These are fairly solid, especially the TWF one, but the real power of this class feature is in the large variety of options you have for it in the alternative class features and ACF chaining sections.

3rd – Endurance (D): Endurance is a common prerequisite for ranger-aimed prestige classes, but is otherwise mostly irrelevant. Becomes S-rated if you’re a frostblood half-orc from Dragon Magic, because it turns into a feat of your choosing.

4th – Animal Companion (C): For most rangers, this class feature isn’t that good (overly complicated, doesn’t scale well past low levels, and doesn’t scale with prestige classes), and you’ll want to swap it out for an ACF. For rangers who want to focus on an animal pet, however, it can be made quite amazing with enough investment.

4th – Spellcasting (A): Ranger wands are really good. Ranger self-buffs are also really good. Even with the very limited spells per day, you have a pretty good list of both combat and noncombat utility spells available, especially if willing to use consumable items. You can even use cure light wounds wands to support your party’s healing between combats.

5th, 10th, 15th, 20th – Favored Enemy Advancements (S): Favored enemy’s advancement is… weird, to say the least. By RAW, anyway, unlike many class features, extra sources of favored enemy don’t ‘stack’ with your levels in ranger (i.e. unless specifically noted, a prestige class that gives a favored enemy isn’t providing seamless progression of your class feature, but merely adding an extra +2 enemy), which makes the 5th level of ranger particularly strong as a breakpoint. See the spoilered section below for more on the favored enemy advancement mess.

As written, the way favored enemy works is that at 5th level and every five levels thereafter, you get the following (separately):

• A new favored enemy, with a +2 bonus.
• One of your existing favored enemy bonuses (be it from ranger or another class) increases by +2. You can pick the new favored enemy with this if you want.

This means that a ranger goes either tall or wide with favored enemies. You can pick one single enemy to max out with every advancement, or you can up a bunch of them to +4 if you wish. The most important thing, though, is that even at the minimum of +2, a favored enemy still activates your ranger feats.

7th – Woodland Stride (D): This is a very mediocre class feature. Undergrowth, natural undergrowth specifically, that isn’t magically-created or manipulated, being relevant is very campaign specific, so it’s unlikely for this to come up much. If it does, though, you can charge through that undergrowth, which is nice.

8th – Swift Tracker (F): This one is particularly bad even for a tracking class feature, because very few DMs are going to do exact round-by-round scheduling for their villains even if it’s a moment where tracking is relevant.

9th – Evasion (B): It’s a really good class feature; dodging area effects completely can save your life. However, it’s very late. Most rangers will have PrC’d out by now. If you haven’t though, it’s nice.

13th – Camouflage (C): This lets you hide without cover in natural environments. Natural environments aren’t as common as the ranger class seems to think they are, and this effect is way too late for a dedicated stealth specialist, but it’s at least functional when it’s active. If you combine this with a greater collar of umbral metamorphosis (ToM) then you get near-unconditional stealth in natural environments. This can be replaced with a piwafwi of shadows (19k item, Dr318).

17th – Hide in Plain Sight (B): Rangers get the worst version of hide in plain sight; it only allows you to hide in natural terrain, which many adventure scenarios don’t count as. Honestly, you shouldn’t be taking ranger to this level. If you really want the benefit of hide in plain sight, you can get a greater collar of umbral metamorphosis or piwafwi of shadows well before this point to do the same thing. But if you do take ranger all the way to 17th, at least you won’t need the magic item for this kind of stealth.

Dead Levels

The Character Class: Dead Levels article WotC put out back in 2006 adds several Survival-related abilities to the ranger’s progression, but they're all F-rated and pretty much irrelevant. You can check the article for them, but they aren’t going to make any difference for how you play the ranger.

By the rules-as-written, favored enemy doesn’t ‘stack’ properly. If you get a favored enemy from another class it will tend to come in at +2, and unless that class advances favored enemies the same way ranger does, you’ll still need to take ranger 5/10/15/20 to up your bonuses.

There are a few types of ways of getting more favored enemies outside of ranger levels:

Specific favored enemy, specific advancements

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 1st level, your hatred of aberrations grants you a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against aberrations. Likewise, you gain a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures. At 4th level, and then again at 8th level, this bonus increases by 2. If you possess the favored enemy (aberrations) feature from another source, these bonuses stack.

—Abolisher, LoM p. 182

Favored Enemy (Giant) (Ex): A gnome giant-slayer gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against giants. He gets the same bonus on weapon damage rolls against giants. This benefit stacks with the ranger favored enemy class feature if giant is the ranger's favored enemy. This bonus increases by an extra +2 for every three gnome giant-slayer levels beyond 1st.

—Gnome Giant-Slayer, CWar p. 36

Favored Enemy (Giant) (Ex): A goliath liberator has giants as a favored enemy. Due to her extensive study of giants and training in the proper techniques for combating such creatures, the liberator gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against giants. Likewise, she gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures. These bonuses stack with those gained from the favored enemy (giants) class feature of other classes (such as ranger), but this ability does not increase those classes' other favored enemy bonuses. For instance, if a 5th-level ranger/1st-level goliath liberator has already selected giants as one of her ranger favored enemies, this +2 bonus would stack with the favored enemy (giants) bonus she already had. It would not increase the character's favored enemy bonuses against other types of creatures. This bonus increases to +4 when the liberator reaches 5th level.

—Goliath Liberator, RoS p. 112

These classes and others like them give you a new favored enemy with its own scaling progression. This does not advance existing favored enemies, but unlike normal favored enemy, this does stack with your existing bonus if you already had that type as a favored enemy. If you take a level in one of these classes, then later go back to ranger, you can advance the bonus favored enemy as normal.

Specific favored enemy, no advancements

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 4th level, a Knight gains lycanthropes as a favored enemy, just as if he were a 1st-level ranger. Unlike standard ranger favored enemies, which are organized by monster type, the Knight's favored enemy bonuses apply to all lycanthropes regardless of type (for example, the bonuses apply against a human werewolf and a hill giant dire wereboar).

—Crescent Moon Knight paladin substitution level, CoV p.37

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 4th level, a Darksong Knight gains yochlols as a favored enemy, just as if she were a 1st-level ranger. Unlike standard ranger favored enemies, which are classified by monster type, the Knight's favored enemy bonuses apply only to yochlols, not all kinds of demons.

—Darksong Knight fighter substitution level, CoV p. 38

Favored Enemy (Ex): As a member of this class, you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against humans or elves. Likewise, you gain a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against these races. See the ranger class feature, page 47 of the Player's Handbook.

—Scar Enforcer, RoD p. 130]

These give you a new favored enemy and directs you to look at how it works in the core ranger class, but doesn’t advance it or otherwise have information about stacking. Does it stack with your existing ranger levels if you’re already one, because it says “as if [you] were a 1st-level ranger?” Unclear.

Generic favored enemy, no advancement

Benefit: You add an extra favored enemy to your list (see Table 3-14 in the Player's Handbook) beyond your normal allotment. Initially, you gain the standard +2 bonus on damage and the usual skill checks against this new favored enemy. When you advance beyond the level at which you gained Extra Favored Enemy, this bonus increases in the same way other favored enemy bonuses do. For example, suppose you select goblinoids as your first favored enemy when you are a 1st level ranger and magical beasts as your second when you reach 5th level. You choose to allocate your extra +2 bonus against goblinoids, giving you a +4 bonus against goblinoids and a +2 bonus against magical beasts. Then you take Extra Favored Enemy as your feat at 6th level and select aberrations. At this point, you have a +4 bonus against goblinoids and a +2 bonus against both magical beasts and aberrations. When you reach 10th level, you choose monstrous humanoids as your new favored enemy and allocate your extra +2 to goblinoids. Now your bonuses are +6 against goblinoids and +2 against magical beasts, aberrations, and monstrous humanoids.

—Extra Favored Enemy feat, Gh 3.5 update p. 2

This one gives you a new favored enemy at +2, and explicitly calls out that it doesn’t advance existing favored enemies, going so far as to have a full example progression with it.

Generic favored enemy, full advancements

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 4th level, you can select a type of creature as a favored enemy. (See the ranger class feature, PH 47.) If you already have a favored enemy from another class, you instead select an additional favored enemy. In addition, you can increase by 2 the bonus against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired). At 9th level, you can select an additional favored enemy and once more increase a favored enemy bonus.

—Duraak'ash, Dra p. 107

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 4th level, an Eldeen ranger gains a favored enemy. This ability works just like the ranger's favored enemy ability, and it allows the Eldeen ranger to increase the bonus against one of his favored enemies as if he had just gained another favored enemy from his ranger class.

—Eldeen Ranger, ECS p. 74

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 2nd level, a swanmay gains a favored enemy. This works just like the ranger's favored enemy ability, and if the swanmay has one or more favored enemies already, the bonus against one of her favored enemies increases as if she had just gained another favored enemy from her ranger class. The swanmay does not choose this favored enemy herself; rather, each order of swanmays has its own favored enemy, typically related to a group that frequently threatens their home region.

—Swanmay, BoED p. 76

And finally, these ones from Eberron and the Book of Exalted Deeds treat gaining the ability as if you’d hit ranger 5/10/15/20 and advanced favored enemy normally.

So, with that in mind, favored enemy advancement is kinda weird. On some level, it feels like favored enemy should stack between classes the usual way (i.e. on a 1-20 progression), but the prestige classes that grant it tend to either have an early advancement as a perk of taking them, or have a specifically-targeted, sped-up progression.

In addition, when some ACFs come into play it gets weirder (and slightly nonfunctional) by RAW. If a druid has favored enemy “as ranger” and multiclasses into ranger, you get two separate progressions by RAW (both giving +2 baseline enemies that can be advanced at class level 5 for either), rather than stacking together. For some characters this is a big benefit! Being able to dip a class to get an extra favored enemy is good for characters looking to “go wide” with Favored Power Attack and similar abilities. But for others, it’s a weird, arbitrary drawback.

In some ways, the simplest way of handling all these disparate favored enemies is to use them exactly as-written. That’s how I tend to think about them when building, since I can’t guarantee houserules exist. At the same time, sometimes “simplest” isn’t “best,” and for a lot of players the as-written way of doing things can feel bad to take.

So where does that leave us?

Houserules, of course.

The Simple Options

There are two options I’ve seen people use before, and I honestly don’t particularly like either of them:

Simple Option A (all favored enemies are also advancements)

We treat all classes that grant a new favored enemy as if they were also granting an advancement to favored enemy, like ranger 5/10/15/20.

This one is a common misinterpretation of the RAW and also a common houserule. Basically, the idea is that since ranger 5 gives you an extra favored enemy, and various PrCs give extra favored enemies, shouldn’t you also get the rest of what ranger 5 says at that point? Personally, I think that this, while an understandable interpretation, is extremely dangerous balance-wise.

Take for example a 5th level ranger with favored enemy (arcanists) +4. At 6th level, he takes gnome giant-slayer 1, gaining favored enemy (giants) and boosting his favored enemy (arcanists) to +6. At 7th, he takes abolisher 1, gaining favored enemy (aberrations) and boosting his favored enemy (arcanists) to +8. At 8th, he takes another PrC that grants it, and so on and so forth. Similarly to hypothetical sneak attack dip builds, this can escalate to very high numbers very quickly.

The problem I personally have with it is that when you account for things like solitary hunting or the Tactical Advantage feat (both of which let you add your favored enemy bonus on attack rolls too), or the Wise to Your Ways feat (adds it on saves), you can trivially reach numbers that far outstrip anything comparably-leveled PCs can do. It’s common wisdom in 3.5 circles that you can’t make a martial “too strong,” but speaking as someone who’s been on both the player and DM side of “numbers too strong,” you can get something similar. When you have one party member throwing around attack rolls way, way higher than the rest of the party, enemies that can challenge the former will absolutely destroy the latter, and enemies that challenge the latter will be too easy for the former. It’s okay to reward high attack bonuses by letting them hit more, but you eventually reach a point where the game just kinda starts to break down.

If used in moderation, this method can be a reasonable way to handle favored enemy advancements, and gives rangers a nice buff to their scaling, while also making things “make sense” in a very clean, smooth way. A reasonable compromise that makes it a little less easy to break would be to treat things like gnome-giant slayer as stand-alone classes that don’t progress existing favored enemies. Nonetheless, as a blanket houserule, I worry about it. If you use this, just be careful of what numbers you’re ending up with.

Simple Option B (all favored enemy classes are one progression)

We treat all favored enemy-advancing classes as if they just counted as ranger levels, without worrying about parity with their original versions.

If you want to apply a scorched-earth simplification, you can just take all these classes and prestige classes and have them be treated as if they had “+1 to effective ranger level for favored enemy” instead of their existing favored enemy gains and adjustments. It will make things a lot simpler, but it’ll also make the prestige classes worse, so I don’t recommend this one. Still, I thought it was worth mentioning as an option, if only for the sake of completeness.

The Less Simple Option

Still, there’re a lot of ways to handle things with houserules. My personal suggestion would be to allow a player to choose to use the RAW version or a houseruled version for each of these possible interactions between multiclass/prestige favored enemies (pending a DM veto as usual). This would mean a player who wants to “go wide” at the cost of their progression via dips still can do that, but also would allow players who multiclass to continue progressing in a way that makes a little more sense.

Scenario 1 (Level Stacking)

Two multiclassed base classes that both grant favored enemy and specify advancing it.

Example: Ranger 3/favored enemy druid 1/favored enemy barbarian 1
As-Written Option: The character has three separate, individual +2 favored enemies, and if they want an advancement, they would need to take ranger, druid, or barbarian to 5th level.
Houserule Option: Stack the levels together into one 1-20 progression, using ranger as a baseline.
Result: The character has effective ranger level 5 for the purposes of favored enemy. This means they’ve gotten one favored enemy at 1st level, and at 5th level got a second one, and advanced one of those two enemy types to +4.

Scenario 2 (Specific-Enemy PrC with accelerated advancement)

A prestige class that grants a specific favored enemy, and advances it (and only it) at an accelerated rate.

Example: Ranger 5/Gnome Giant-Slayer 10
As-Written Option: From their ranger levels, the character has one favored enemy at +4 and a different favored enemy at +2. In addition, from their gnome giant-slayer levels they have favored enemy (giant) at +8. If their initial +4 ranger favored enemy was also giant, these combine for a total of +12, much higher than a ranger could normally get by 15th level.
Houserule Option: Stack the levels together into one 1-20 progression, using ranger as a baseline. In addition, at 1st level in the prestige class (or the level they would normally get the favored enemy), the character gets an additional +2 favored enemy of the named type, or of a type of their choosing if they already had it.
Result: Our gnome giant-slayer now has effective ranger level 15, and five favored enemies (four from the normal progression, plus giants). An example of this progression would look like this:

Level	Favored Enemies
Ranger 1	+2 type A
Ranger 5	+2 type A, +2 type B; +2 worth of increases
Ranger 5/Gnome Giant-Slayer 1	+2 type A, +2 type B, +2 giants; +2 worth of increases
Ranger 5/Gnome Giant-Slayer 5	+2 type A, +2 type B, +2 type C, +2 giants; +4 worth of increases
Ranger 5/Gnome Giant-Slayer 10	+2 type A, +2 type B, +2 type C, +2 type D, +2 giants; +6 worth of increases

The end result is a ranger with more favored enemies, but the same absolute ceiling (capping at +8 at 15th level and +10 at 20th level as usual).

Scenario 3 (Bonus favored enemy with no advancement)

A class gives you a bonus favored enemy without advancing it at all.

Example: Ranger 5/Darksong Knight fighter 4, Ranger 5/Scar Enforcer 1
As-Written Option: You get an extra favored enemy at +2, similar to if you’d taken the Extra Favored Enemy feat.
Houserule Option & Result: Unlike the other houserules listed where I recommend sidegrade, this one is a strict upgrade. My recommendation here is to treat it just as if it were Scenario 2, except starting with the effective level listed. So for Darksong Knight, which specifies it gets its specific favored enemy as a level 1 ranger, add the bonus favored enemy as mentioned in Scenario 2, then stack fighter levels (using fighter level minus 3) with ranger levels to determine progression for advancements. As for Scar Enforcer, just treat it as if they were an advancing-the-favored-enemy class. Scar Enforcer needs the help anyway.

Scenario 4 (Class offers an early advancement of favored enemy)

A class specifies a properly-templated advancement of favored enemy.

Example: Ranger 5/Duraak'ash 4, Ranger 5/Eldeen Ranger 4, Ranger 5/Swanmay 2
As-Written Option: You get an extra favored enemy advancement at the listed levels.
Houserule Option & Result: Treat this as Scenario 1 (stacking levels together), except the class counts as having extra an effective ranger levels equal to five minus the level they would normally get the advancement at. So, duraak’ash (favored enemy advancements at 4th and 9th level) would stack with ranger levels, but count as +1 effective ranger level.

This way, a ranger 5/duraak’ash 4 still gets their favored enemy advancement at character level 9. Basically, the only change in function here is that if they leave the prestige class between favored enemy advancements, they ‘take the extra levels with them’. A ranger 5/duraak’ash 7/favored enemy druid 2 would have an effective ranger level of 5 (ranger) + 8 (duraak’ash) + 2 (druid) = 15, and they’d hit their next advancement at character level 14.

Solitary Hunting (S): Dr347 p. 91. Taken at 1st level, this trades your animal companion (and any other ones from existing classes) for “your favored enemy bonus also applies to your attack rolls.” If you’re playing a normal ranger and only take one single ACF, this is the one to take. With the exception of the mystic ranger variant progression, this is perhaps the best ACF in the class, because it turns your favored enemy boosts from ‘solid damage and skill boost’ to ‘incredibly big attack boost’. Even a single-class ranger with solitary hunting will get +4 to attack rolls at level 5, +6 at level 10, and so on… this applies to increased favored enemy bonuses via enemy spirit pouches or a girdle of hate, it applies to favored enemy bonuses from other classes, it’s just an absolutely fantastic ACF. If you aren’t using your animal companion, and aren’t swapping it for something else, take this one without question.

Arcane Hunter (S): CMag p. 32. Taken at 1st level and requiring 1 rank of Knowledge (arcana), this gives you a special favored enemy choice that applies against all arcane spellcasters and characters that use invocations (warlocks and dragonfire adepts). Arcane spellcasters are some of the most dangerous enemies you can face, as well as an incredibly broad list of foes both class-leveled and otherwise. For example, this applies against nearly every true dragon except the very young ones. In addition, most of the time, your campaign’s BBEG is going to be or be allied with arcane casters, so it’s a near-guarantee of applicability.

Dwarf Ranger AC Bonus (B): Dr341 p.92. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you to be a dwarf who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. You trade your bonus on Appraise and Craft checks, your dodge bonus to AC against giants, and stonecunning, and in exchange add half your favored enemy bonus to AC against your favored enemies. This is much more applicable than the numerical bonuses, but stonecunning is a common prerequisite for dwarf-specific options and good in some dungeon crawls.

Elf Ranger Substitution Level 1 (A): RotW p. 156. Elf ranger 1 has a d6 hit die, an extra +2 skill points, Balance as a class skill, modifies the skills your favored enemy boosts to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival, and finally gives you special options for favored enemies in addition to the normal list. You can choose “servants of Lolth” as a favored enemy (which includes drow, driders, and all monstrous spiders), and if you pick that, undead, or humanoids (orc) as a favored enemy, the bonus is +3 instead of +2. This even applies for your advancements (so you could take elf ranger to 5 and have favored enemy (undead) at +6, via a base of +3 and an advancement of +3). The reason this is rated more highly than the gnome and kobold versions below is because undead are such a common enemy type at every CR that it’ll basically always be relevant to grab +3 vs undead at some point.

Elf Ranger Favored Terrain (B): Dr341 p.93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be an elf who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. It gives you a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls in a chosen terrain (aquatic, desert, forest, hills, marsh, mountain, or plains), and a –1 penalty on Wisdom- and Int-based skill checks outside that terrain. In spite of being limited to a single terrain, this is still a very strong ACF if you’re already playing an elf and have a reasonable expectation it’ll matter. (I am aware this isn’t a favored enemy ACF, but I’m putting it here because there’s not really a better place for it than right next to the first elf ranger substitution level.)

Elf Ranger Substitution Level 10 (F): RotW p. 157. Like elf ranger 1, it has a d6 hit die and an extra +2 skill points. However, this is much worse. Instead of a favored enemy advancement at 10th level, if you take this substitution level you get a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against drow and driders and a +4 morale bonus on Fort saves against spider venom. Just take Wise to Your Ways with a “servants of Lolth” favored enemy instead.

Fangshields Ranger Substitution Level 5 (F): CoV p.41. This requires you to be a nonhumanoid type, has Diplomacy as a class skill, and trades your favored enemy advancement at 5th level for your choice of +1 to AC during the day or +1 to AC at night. Please don’t take this. Even if you’re taking fangshields ranger already (levels 2 and 4 are great), skip this one.

Favored Enemy (scalykind) (D): SK p. 5. Hidden away in Serpent Kingdoms is a callout that rangers in Faerûn can take favored enemy (scalykind), which includes most humanoids with the reptilian subtype, but also kobolds who took Dragonwrought. It's pretty much a direct upgrade to favored enemy (reptilian humanoids) in most cases, but not actually good unless your campaign is about those creatures.

Favored Enemy (serpentfolk) (D): SK p. 5. Likewise away in Serpent Kingdoms is a callout that rangers in Faerûn can take favored enemy (serpentfolk), which includes most yuan-ti and a bunch of different snakelike enemies. Notable, but not actually good unless your campaign is about those creatures.

Favored Environment (F): SRD. Trades your entire favored enemy progression for the ability to choose a natural environment and gain your scaling favored enemy progression on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival checks in that environment, as well as Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks about it. This is a very bad trade, since it doesn’t give you any sort of combat boost.

Gnome Ranger Substitution Level 1 (B): RoS p. 149. This is identical to 1st-level ranger, except that, similarly to elf ranger 1 above, its favored enemy skill bonuses change (to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival) and it gets +3 instead of +2 whenever you pick one of three specific enemy types. Unlike elf ranger, though, the types listed are fairly specific: humanoid (goblinoid), humanoid (reptilian), and giant. This is quite good (A) if you’re in a campaign focusing primarily on fighting one of these from start to finish, but otherwise the main benefit is just getting to apply your favored enemy bonuses to stealth skills instead of social skills.

Gnome Ranger Spell-Like Abilities (C): Dr341 p. 93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be a gnome who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. You lose all your racial spell-like abilities except speak with animals, and instead gain the ability to use create water, detect poison, and purify food and drink each 1/day as SLAs. It’s a sidegrade, except for whisper gnomes, where it’s really bad (F). (I am aware this isn’t a favored enemy ACF, but I’m putting it here because there’s not really a better place for it than right next to the first gnome ranger substitution level.)

Half-Orc Ranger (A): Dr341 p.93. This one doesn’t modify your racial traits, but like the other Dragon #341 ACFs, you must be a half-orc taking ranger 1 as your very first level to take it. You get a bonus favored enemy in either humanoid (human) or humanoid (orc), which works just as normal, except as per usual you can’t double up at 1st level. In exchange, you also take a penalty on all Charisma-based skills and checks against humanoids with that subtype equal to your favored enemy bonus (canceling out the Bluff bonus that FE normally grants, and penalizing the rest). Human is one of the most common NPC types, especially for mooks, so even in campaigns without a specific humanity focus, this is a very good ACF.

Halfling Ranger (S): Dr341 p.93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be a halfling who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. You lose your racial luck bonus on all saves, and instead get an untyped bonus on all saves and opposed skill checks against all of your favored enemies equal to half the relevant bonus. This can stack very high, and is especially useful with broad FE choices like arcanist and evil creatures. It also stacks with the feat Wise to Your Ways, letting you ratchet your saving throw bonuses sky-high.

Kobold Ranger Substitution Level 1 (B): RotD p. 109. This is identical to 1st-level ranger, except that, similarly to elf ranger 1 above, its favored enemy skill bonuses change (to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival) and it gets +3 instead of +2 whenever you pick one of three specific enemy types. Unlike elf ranger, though, the types listed are fairly specific: humanoid (dwarf), humanoid (gnome), and fey. This is quite good (A) if you’re in a campaign focusing primarily on fighting one of these from start to finish, but otherwise the main benefit is just getting to apply your favored enemy bonuses to stealth skills instead of social skills.

Rival Organization (F): Cityscape web enhancement. This ACF trades favored enemy (the whole feature) for a similar effect that chooses a specific organization in your setting to target. It scales like favored enemy (+2 at 1st level, and advancements that increase a bonus and add an extra +2 for a different organization), but applies on Bluff, Intimidate, Gather Information, Knowledge (local), and Sense Motive, and to your AC against members of the chosen organizations. It does not grant you a damage bonus, it doesn’t work with favored enemy-boosting feats, and in general it’s a huge trap option as a result, especially compared to urban ranger below. If your DM lets you use favored enemy-boosting abilities with it, it’s a bit better (D) (for example, you could use solitary hunting with it in that case), but you’re really better off just taking one of the three urban ranger variants listed below, since they just… let you pick an organization as a normal favored enemy, without deleting the rest of your options.

Urban Ranger (B): Dr310 p. 59, MotW p. 15. So, these two alternative features are basically identical in their main function, which is allowing you to have “an organization or culture” as a favored enemy, functioning as usual in addition to that (you can still pick creature types as well). If your campaign is about facing a specific organization, this is S-rated.

In addition, they get Gather Information and Knowledge (local) as class skills, and they adjust your spell list in a “ask your DM” way, suggesting the following to start with:

• Swapping detect snares and pits for detect secret doors.
• Swapping speak with animals with message.
• Swapping plant growth with phantom steed.
• Swapping tree stride with dimension door.

The differences between the two versions of Urban Ranger (I’ve adjusted the 3.0 one from Masters of the Wild as per the 3.0 update booklet) are as follows:

• Urban Ranger (MW) swaps Track for Shadow (+2 to Hide and Move Silently when following someone) and loses Wild Empathy and Knowledge (nature).
• Urban Ranger (Dr310) swaps Track for Stealthy (the core feat), and loses Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (nature).

In most cases you’ll want the Dr310 one, but in the case where you really need Knowledge (geography) for prerequisites, dropping Wild Empathy is a better call.

Urban Ranger (UA) (B): SRD. The urban ranger from Unearthed Arcana (distinct from the Masters of the Wild/Dragon #310 versions, but similar in scope) is a pretty good ACF, and depending on your needs may be better than the other two versions! You lose Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (dungeoneering), and Survival, but gain Gather Information, Knowledge (local), and Sense Motive. In addition, it penalizes Wild Empathy, makes your animal companion have to be Medium or smaller, and has a different, much larger spell swap list than the other urban rangers. It also lets you do favored enemy against organizations, and swaps Track for Urban Tracking. Urban ranger (UA) is mutually-exclusive with planar ranger (UA).

Uthgardt Barbarian Ritual Enemies: FRCS p.168. Tucked away in the middle of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is a hidden gem that a friend of mine pointed out to me last year. In fact, it revived my ranger fascination and is actually what prompted my writing this guide in the first place. There’s a regional option for the Uthgardt barbarians from FR, stating that each of the ten tribes has an ancient ritual enemy that all rangers from the tribe pick as their “special enemy” (a term sometimes used in 3.0 to refer to favored enemies, and so something I’m treating as a FE choice). This is similar to how elf ranger gets “servants of Lolth” as a grouping within one favored enemy choice.

In true FR fashion, these range from outright terrible (some of them literally have been wiped off the face of Faerûn) to broad enough to be interesting. The most important one is the Great Worm tribe, a good-aligned group that used to be run by the ‘great worm’ Elrem the Wise in AD&D (now deceased, rip). Their ritual enemy choice is “evil creatures.” Not outsider (evil), but just evil creatures in general, which results in a similar but different version of the Stalker of Kharash PrC’s favored enemy (evil).

Note that unlike Stalker of Kharash, which explicitly stacks with other favored enemy bonuses, Great Worm favored enemy (evil creatures) does not do so. If you pick that, you still only take your highest applicable bonus against creatures that tick multiple boxes.

The ten Uthgardt tribe options are as follows:

• Black Lion Tribe (D): Tundra barbarians
• Black Raven Tribe (C): Foreign merchants and clerics, as well as the Griffon tribe
• Elk Tribe (F): “A dead northern civilization”
• Grey Wolf Tribe (C): Orcs
• Great Worm Tribe (S): Evil creatures
• Griffon Tribe (D): Northern cities
• Red Tiger Tribe (F): “Blue Bear tribe (now deceased)”
• Sky Pony Tribe (C): Orcs
• Thunderbeast Tribe (F): Wolves
• Tree Ghost Tribe (F): Evil undead creatures

If your DM allows you to use this (and personally I don’t think it breaks the game, but you should as always speak with your group about your builds to make sure), then favored enemy (evil) off the Great Worm tribe is going to be one of the broadest and most useful favored enemies you can pick, except perhaps favored enemy (arcanists). It also allows you to do some genuinely interesting “fake paladin” builds.

Also, the Black Raven tribe’s favored enemy (merchants and clerics) is kinda wild and I would love to play a character with that at some point, it seems really quite strong (A) in the right kind of campaign (criminal underground-based city games could be super good for that, as well as ones where you fight a lot of churches and clerics).

Wasteland Ranger (D): Sand p.48. This is a package deal ACF that modifies your list of available animal companions, replaces Endurance with the Heat Endurance feat, woodland stride with the Sandskimmer feat, and your 10th level bonus favored enemy (not the advancement; you still up one of your existing enemies by +2 as normal) with the ability to choose get extra bonuses against one specific kind creature (a) for whom you already have their type as a favored enemy and (b) who lives in the desert. This ups your normal favored enemy bonuses by +2 against them, and gives you +2 on saves and DR 2/– against them. Losing an entire type or other broad choice of favored enemy for a bonus against one specific kind of creature is pretty mediocre, but in the right campaign, being able to specialize even further in, say, “blue dragons” or “dry liches” could be good... I guess...

Favored Enemy	Rating (Gen)	Rating (Opt)	Source	Special notes
A specific organization	B	B	Urban Ranger ACF	Rated even higher if your campaign is about facing this organization primarily
Aberration	A	A	Base Class	Common enemy type at every level
Animal	B	A	Base Class	Common enemy type at low and mid levels; exclusively neutral alignment
Arcanists	S	S	Arcane Hunter ACF	Includes nearly every true dragon
Construct	A	A	Base Class	Common enemy type at mid and high levels
Dragon	A	F	Base Class	Arcanists covers nearly every true dragon (the main threats of this type)
Elemental	C	B	Base Class
Evil creatures	S	S	Great Worm Tribe ACF	Regional variant; includes most undead
Evil undead creatures	F	–	Tree Ghost Tribe ACF	Just take FE (undead)
Fey	C	C	Base Class
Foreign merchants & clerics	C	–	Black Raven Tribe ACF	Regional variant; foreign relative to home tribe; can be very good in some campaigns
Giant	C	C	Base Class
Humanoid (elf)	C	C	Base Class	Includes drow, a common mook enemy type
Humanoid (goblinoid)	C	C	Base Class	Common mook enemy type
Humanoid (human)	B	B	Base Class	Common NPC enemy type
Humanoid (orc)	C	C	Base Class	Common mook enemy type
Humanoid (other)	D	D	Base Class	Overly specific unless the campaign is focused on them
Humanoid (reptilian)	D	D	Base Class	Includes kobolds, a common mook enemy type, but not Dragonwrought kobolds, the most dangerous and likely-to-be-a-boss-fight ones
Magical Beast	B	A	Base Class	Common enemy type at all levels
Monstrous Humanoid	D	C	Base Class
Northern cities (FR)	D	–	Griffon Tribe ACF	Regional variant; rated higher if relevant to campaign
Ooze	D	D	Base Class	Probably don't need the boosts to hit and damage ooze enemies
Outsider (air)	D	D	Base Class
Outsider (chaotic)	B	C	Base Class	Includes demons, a common high-level enemy, as well as the "usual" chaotic outsiders
Outsider (earth)	D	D	Base Class
Outsider (evil)	A	F	Base Class	Very common high-level enemy subtype
Outsider (fire)	D	D	Base Class
Outsider (good)	D	C	Base Class	Rated much more highly (A) if playing an evil campaign
Outsider (lawful)	B	C	Base Class	Includes devils, a common high-level enemy, as well as the "usual" lawful outsiders
Outsider (native)	D	D	Base Class
Outsider (water)	D	D	Base Class
Plant	C	C	Base Class
Scalykind	D	D	Serpent Kingdoms	Includes most humanoids with the reptilian subtype, but also Dragonwrought kobolds
Serpentfolk	D	D	Serpent Kingdoms	Includes yuan-ti and various snake monsters
Servants of Lolth	C	C	Elf Ranger Substitution Levels	Includes drow (a common mook type), spiders, and driders
Tundra barbarians (FR)	D	–	Black Lion Tribe ACF	Regional variant; rated higher if relevant to campaign
Undead	S	F	Base Class	One of the most common enemy types in the game
Vermin	C	B	Base Class	Most dangerous vermin are swarms; you won't be using weapons against them
Wolves	F	–	Thunderbeast Tribe ACF	Just take FE (animal)

Alternate Combat Styles: Dr326, p. 97. These combat styles change your base, improved, and mastery combat style options, and as usual for ranger combat styles, you ignore prerequisites for them. This can be quite good when playing, say, a Weapon Finesse range who wants Power Attack, just as the base ranger’s two-weapon combat style is great for Strength-based melees who want Two-Weapon Fighting. The options are as follows:

• Beast-Wrestling Style (D): Improved Unarmed Strike (2nd), Improved Grapple (6th), Stunning Fist (11th)
• Mounted-Combat Style (B): Ride-By Attack (2nd), Spirited Charge (6th), Trample (11th)
• Piscator Style (D): Exotic Weapon Proficiency (net) (2nd), Improved Trip (6th), Improved Critical (11th)
• Strong-Arm Style (A): Power Attack (2nd), Improved Sunder (6th), Great Cleave (11th)
• Throwing Style (C): Quick Draw (2nd), Point Blank Shot (6th), Far Shot (11th)

None of these styles are universally full of amazing feats, but if your build uses one or more of them, it’s definitely worth considering swapping. You’re primarily going to care about the 2nd level bonus feat on most builds, unless you’re taking ranger single class.

Of course, if you need a combat style’s specific feats for prestige class prerequisites, then this is rated much, much higher (A), since feats tend to be in short supply.

Fangshields Ranger Substitution Level 2 (A): CoV p. 41. This requires you to be a nonhumanoid type, has Diplomacy as a class skill, and gives you a unique combat style that scales based on if you have one or more natural weapons.

• 2nd level (A): Multiattack (if you have multiple) or Improved Natural Attack (if you have one)
• 6th level (F): Weapon Focus (for any one of your natural weapons)
• 11th level (F): Weapon Focus (for a second natural weapon, if you have multiple) or Greater Weapon Focus (for your natural weapon, if you have only one).

Moon-Warded Ranger Substitution Level 2 (A): Dr340 p. 55. Instead of your base combat style feat, you get an ability called “armor of the senses” that gives you your Wisdom bonus to your AC when wearing light or no armor. This stacks with monk or swordsage AC bonuses, letting you crank your AC up very high on Wisdom-focused builds.

Moon-Warded Ranger Substitution Level 6 (D): Dr340 p. 55. Instead of your improved combat style feat, this gives you DR 2/– at night, which increases to DR 3/– under the light of the moon. Unlike other DR, this explicitly stacks with existing DR/–, which can be nice if you somehow have it from another class, item, or spell. This is a bit better (C) if your 6th level combat feat isn’t particularly good, since you can take the substitution level at 6 to swap it out specifically.

Moon-Warded Ranger Substitution Level 11 (S): Dr340 p. 55. Instead of your combat style mastery feat, this gives you complete immunity to harmful mind-affecting effects. Unlike most immunity, it allows harmless stuff to come through freely, meaning you’ll still be able to be buffed by your and your party’s buffs that wouldn’t normally work if you were immune, such as inspire courage. If you’re taking ranger to 11th level and your final combat style feat isn’t amazing, this is a strong, strong swap to take.

Shadow Sword Substitution Level 6 (C): CoV p. 49-50. This substitution level has Knowledge (history) as a class skill, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Shaundakul. Instead of your improved combat style feat, you get the ability to make one of your weapons into a bane weapon against a favored enemy of your choice 1 + Wis mod times per day. It’s a full-round action and only lasts half your ranger level in rounds, but if you can prebuff with it it’s a sizeable boost to attack and damage for a single combat. This is a bit better (B) if your 6th level combat feat isn’t particularly good, since you can take the substitution level at 6 to swap it out specifically. However, unlike moon-warded ranger, this one states that if you would later get combat style master at 11th level, you get the 6th level feat instead. For someone going to ranger 11 and taking a combat style that only has a feat you want at 2nd level, taking this one at 6th level and moon-warded at 11th level will give you an excellent lineup of abilities, though.

Wild Shape Ranger (A): SRD. This is a generally good default ranger ACF for combat styles if you don't need the feats. You lose all three combat style feats, but get a full wild shape progression as a druid starting from 5th level (small or medium animals only, however), and fast movement as a barbarian at 1st level. It’s really quite strong but not nearly as strong in combat as the druid's version due to the lack of good forms at later levels. If you're taking this, you should be building primarily to fight in humanoid form and use wild shape for various utility needs unless you're taking a wild shape-centric prestige class like master of many forms or primeval. Note though that ranger has easy access into the Abolisher prestige class as well, which also gives wild shape (just a level later in this case).

If your group allows ACF chaining (mentioned later in the guide), this class feature is a extremely central to opening up other options, but you probably won't be keeping wild shape in that case due to the chains being way, way better.

Half-Elf Ranger Skill Bonuses (C): Dr341 p.93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be a half-elf who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. It changes your racial bonuses on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks to Handle Animal and Ride.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 13 (A): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades camouflage for skill mastery, letting you take 10 on a number of skills equal to 3 + your Int modifier, even in combat. Very good for consistency on a half-elf skillmonkey type, but it does require you to be playing a half-elf.

Planar Ranger (B): SRD. The planar ranger variant loses Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (dungeoneering), both good skills for identifying monsters, but adds Knowledge (the planes), which is just as good if not better than nature if you’re hitting later levels. It also gives you Speak Language as a class skill for the various planar languages, penalizes your wild empathy (already fairly useless for most rangers) against normal animals, and lets your animal companion celestial or fiendish for free, which is quite good as it gives the animal full Int 3, letting it do more complex tasks. Planar ranger (UA) is mutually-exclusive with urban ranger (UA).

Shadow Sword Substitution Level 3 (D): CoV p. 49-50. This substitution level has Knowledge (history) as a class skill, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Shaundakul. You lose Endurance as a bonus feat and can 1/day per two ranger levels get +5 on Move Silently checks for 1 round as a swift action. It’s okay if you’re being sneaky and want more skill boosts, since Move Silently matters a little less than Hide. Endurance is kinda worthless unless you need it for a prerequisite, so it’s not a great loss.

Skilled City-Dweller: Cityscape web enhancement. As mentioned in the class skills section earlier, this ACF lets you make some one-for-one swaps, some of which are quite strong.

• Gather Information (B): Gives up Handle Animal. This is a solid skill for getting necessary adventure information in some campaigns. Ask your DM if it will be relevant before taking it, though.
• Knowledge (local) (C): Gives up Knowledge (nature). This one will often net you very useful information about local people of power, and can also be used to ID the weaknesses of humanoid creatures. However, it’s much worse than Knowledge (nature) for monster identification, so I don’t recommend this swap in most cases.
• Sense Motive (A): Gives up Survival. Unless you need Survival for prerequisites or are using tracking actively, this is a good trade. Sense Motive lets you avoid being lied to by NPCs, which can save your life.
• Tumble (S): Gives up Ride. One of the best skills in the game, as it lets you move through enemies and avoid attacks of opportunity in combat. Unless you’re using mounted combat, take this and don’t look back.

Urban Ranger (B): Dr310 p. 59, MotW p. 15. So, these two alternative features are basically identical in their main function, which is allowing you to have “an organization or culture” as a favored enemy, functioning as usual in addition to that (you can still pick creature types as well). If your campaign is about facing a specific organization, this is S-rated.

In addition, they get Gather Information and Knowledge (local) as class skills, and they adjust your spell list in a “ask your DM” way, suggesting the following to start with:

• Swapping detect snares and pits for detect secret doors.
• Swapping speak with animals with message.
• Swapping plant growth with phantom steed.
• Swapping tree stride with dimension door.

The differences between the two versions of Urban Ranger (I’ve adjusted the 3.0 one from Masters of the Wild as per the 3.0 update booklet) are as follows:

• Urban Ranger (MW) swaps Track for Shadow (+2 to Hide and Move Silently when following someone) and loses Wild Empathy and Knowledge (nature).
• Urban Ranger (Dr310) swaps Track for Stealthy (the core feat), and loses Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (nature).

In most cases you’ll want the Dr310 one, but in the case where you really need Knowledge (geography) for prerequisites, dropping Wild Empathy is a better call.

Urban Ranger (UA) (B): SRD. The urban ranger from Unearthed Arcana (distinct from the Masters of the Wild/Dragon #310 versions, but similar in scope) is a pretty good ACF, and depending on your needs may be better than the other two versions! You lose Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (dungeoneering), and Survival, but gain Gather Information, Knowledge (local), and Sense Motive. In addition, it penalizes Wild Empathy, makes your animal companion have to be Medium or smaller, and has a different, much larger spell swap list than the other urban rangers. It also lets you do favored enemy against organizations, and swaps Track for Urban Tracking. Urban ranger (UA) is mutually-exclusive with planar ranger (UA).

Aquatic Ranger (C): Storm p. 51. This section is unclear on how exactly it works for tracking. There’s rules for using Track in water, but they aren’t phrased as an ACF so I’m not sure if it’s a generic rule, or a specific swap of Track to “track in water.” There’s also the option to, if you have a racial swim speed, apply your woodland stride class feature to underwater terrain instead of woodland terrain, which is an ACF.

Celestial Slayer (F): EoE p. 20. This requires you to be evil, and trades wild empathy, woodland stride, and your animal companion for SR 10 + class level against spells/SLAs with the good descriptor, and +4 on critical confirmation rolls against creatures with the good subtype. This is really, genuinely terrible. Even just taking solitary hunting and favored enemy towards outsiders with the good subtype will naturally get you a similar bonus on all attack rolls against celestials, and the SR is basically irrelevant unless your DM really likes spamming holy word at you.

Champion of the Wild (B): CC p. 50. I was genuinely not sure how to rate this for a while. The thing is, ranger spellcasting is quite good even with its limitations, but many rangers PrC out early, don’t plan on using wands or scrolls actively, and/or find themselves feat-starved. Champion of the wild gives you a bonus feat at 4th, 8th, 11th, and 14th levels, from a fairly alright list of common useful combat feats, including things like Improved Trip, a bunch of ranged and two-weapon combat feats, and so on. Unlike combat style feats, you do need to meet the requirements, but you could do much worse than getting a free feat at 4 before PrCing out later.

Crowd-Walker (B): Cityscape web enhancement. This ACF trades out woodland stride and has two parts. The first one, the ability to move through crowds at normal speed, is going to matter rarely unless your DM really likes throwing crowds of noncombatants into your combats. The second part is the ability to ignore difficult terrain caused by light debris, which is a fairly common type even outside city environments (for example, stuff in dungeons), and letting you charge through that kind of terrain is quite good.

Distracting Attack (D): PHB2 p. 55. This ACF trades your animal companion for the ability to cause enemies to be flanked against the next attack against them. It’s… honestly a weird ability. On any hit (melee or ranged) the enemy is flanked against “for the purpose of adjudicating your allies’ attacks.” This is clearly intended to be an ally support ability, but RAW you are your own ally, so it’s arguable that a ranger/rogue can chain this to sneak attack enemies solo after hitting the first hit, in which case it’s alright, but still not great (C). This has incredibly stiff competition due to animal companion ACFs being very strong. Heck, you could always just have your animal companion go into melee and flank for you, after all.

Elf Ranger Substitution Level 4 (C): RotW p. 156. Elf ranger 4 has a d6 hit die, an extra +2 skill points, Balance as a class skill, and gives you an elven hound (basically a wolf that trades trip for magical beast typing) as your animal companion. It has full BAB from the magical beast type, letting it scale better than most animal companions. It’s still not all that great. The better benefit of the level is that you can get your 5th Balance rank cheaply.

Fangshields Ranger Substitution Level 4 (B): CoV p.42. This requires you to be a nonhumanoid type, has Diplomacy as a class skill, and adds +2 to your effective druid level for animal companion progression. If you’re going for an animal companion build and are of the right race, there’s no reason not to take this level.

Feign Death (S): EoE p. 21. Trades away evasion at 9th level to let you feign your death. This ability is way, way better than it sounds like it would be. As an immediate action, you can go limp and pretend to be dead, giving you immunity to mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, ability drain, negative levels, and death effects. You can’t see while feigning death, but are otherwise able to hear/smell/etc your surroundings. Returning to normal is a standard action. This is really quite strong as a reactive ability; trading a future standard action to completely no-sell most save-or-dies, save-or-loses, and a number of other debilitating effects is a pretty efficient option! Notably, monks and rogues can also take this ACF (at 2nd level, since they get evasion way earlier).

Gnome Ranger Substitution Level 4 (B): RoS p. 150. This substitution level trades the share spells ability on your animal companion for a +3 to your effective druid level for animal companion progression, provided your animal companion is a badger, dire badger, wolverine, or other mammal with a burrow speed. Sadly, this isn’t takeable at the same time as Fangshields Ranger level 4, but it’s just as good if you’re a gnome looking for an animal companion build.

Gnome Ranger Substitution Level 8 (A): RoS p. 150. This substitution level trades out some 2nd-level and 4th-level spells on your class list. The new spells are more broadly applicable to most rangers, especially sneaky kinds.

• 2nd-level spells: Gains blur, invisibility, and misdirection. Loses barkskin, snare, and wind wall.
• 4th-level spells: Gains greater invisibility and phantasmal killer. Loses commune with nature and tree stride.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 1 (C): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades Track for Urban Tracking. At 8th level, it also lets you apply swift tracker to it, without actually replacing the ACF in question.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 4 (D): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades out some 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spells on your class list. Unlike gnome ranger, you lose more spells than you gain, so this isn’t quite as good in spite of having solid picks.

• 1st-level spells: Gains comprehend languages, detect secret doors, and message. Loses detect animals or plants, detect snares and pits, entangle, and summon nature’s ally I.
• 2nd-level spells: Gains detect thoughts and tongues. Loses snare, speak with plants, and summon nature’s ally II.
• 3rd-level spells: Gains phantom steed. Loses command plants, diminish plants, plant growth, and summon nature’s ally III.
• 4th-level spells: Gains dimension door. Loses commune with nature, summon nature’s ally IV, and tree stride.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 13 (A): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades camouflage for skill mastery, letting you take 10 on a number of skills equal to 3 + your Int modifier, even in combat. Very good for consistency on a half-elf skillmonkey type.

Hidden Stalker (A): Cityscape web enhancement. This ACF trades away camouflage for a much better ability boosting your Hide skill. You can now Hide while moving at full speed, don’t take the –10 penalty while trying to Hide during a distraction, and most importantly, being within 5 feet of another creature counts as sufficient cover to hide! You can conceivably Hide using an adjacent enemy as cover once you have hide in plain sight later on (or if you use a distraction), which is hilarious. In addition, when you get hide in plain sight, it lets that work in any environment, not just natural ones.

Kobold Ranger Substitution Level 4 (C): RotD p. 109. This substitution level trades your normal animal companion for a dire weasel (and only a dire weasel, you cannot later change it), progressing at druid level = half ranger level and ignoring the normal –3 penalty to effective druid level for picking a stronger companion. It also trades some of your spell list for alternate spells, as follows:

• 1st-level spells: Gains steal size. Loses entangle.
• 2nd-level spells: Gains local tremor and soften earth and stone. Loses speak with plants and spike growth.
• 3rd-level spells: Gains meld into stone, spike stones, stone shape, and stoneskin. Loses command plants, diminish plants, plant growth, and tree shape.
• 4th-level spells: Gains stone tell. Loses tree stride.

Kobold Ranger Substitution Level 7 (A): RotD p. 109. This substitution level trades woodland stride for the ability to ignore all effects related to natural stone floors and dense rubble terrain. In most campaigns you’re much more likely to encounter messed-up dungeon floors than natural undergrowth; this is quite good as a result.

Phynxkin Companion (C): DM. 13. Trades your animal companion for a phynxkin, and at effective druid level 6, both you and the phynxkin get immunity to fear when within 30 feet of each other.

Planar Ranger (B): SRD. The planar ranger variant loses Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (dungeoneering), both good skills for identifying monsters, but adds Knowledge (the planes), which is just as good if not better than nature if you’re hitting later levels. It also gives you Speak Language as a class skill for the various planar languages, penalizes your wild empathy (already fairly useless for most rangers) against normal animals, and lets your animal companion celestial or fiendish for free, which is quite good as it gives the animal full Int 3, letting it do more complex tasks. Planar ranger (UA) is mutually-exclusive with urban ranger (UA).

Planar Ranger Substitution Level 4 (D): PlH p. 34. This substitution level has Knowledge (the planes) as a class skill, and lets you take a celestial or fiendish animal as your animal companion by penalizing your effective druid level by 1. It’s objectively a worse pick than the variant class version above, unless you’re taking urban ranger or need Knowledge (nature) and (dungeoneering) for prerequisites.

Planar Ranger Substitution Level 8 (C): PlH p. 34. This substitution level has Knowledge (the planes) as a class skill and lets you identify where a planar portal or planar breach leads, losing swift tracker to do so. It also lets you figure out if someone had left or entered your current plane in an area. A solid pick in a planar campaign.

Planar Ranger Substitution Level 13 (B): PlH p. 34. This substitution level has Knowledge (the planes) as a class skill and trades camouflage for the ability to, 1/day when tracking a favored enemy and having come to a point where they left the plane, use a plane shift spell-like ability to unerringly follow quarry’s planar travel. This one really wants you to still have Track and to have taken Planar Ranger 8 above to function, and is a heck of a cool ability if you’re taking ranger to 13th level in a planar campaign.

Shadow Sword Substitution Level 3 (C): CoV p. 49-50. This substitution level has Knowledge (history) as a class skill, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Shaundakul. You lose Endurance as a bonus feat and can 1/day per two ranger levels get +5 on Move Silently checks for 1 round as a swift action. It’s okay if you’re being sneaky and want more skill boosts, since Move Silently matters a little less than Hide. Endurance is kinda worthless unless you need it for a prerequisite, so it’s not a great loss.

Shadow Sword Substitution Level 8 (C): CoV p. 49-50. This substitution level has Knowledge (history) as a class skill, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Shaundakul. It loses swift tracker and in exchange gives you the ability to analyze and enter portals (a specific mechanic for FR, and sometimes relevant in planar campaigns). This is… hard to rate. It may occasionally come up in your average campaign outside of FR, since “analyze a magic portal and get its activation methods and destination” is a setting-agnostic ability at least, but unless you can reasonably expect this to matter a lot it’s trading one mediocre, niche ability for another one. It’s genuinely fantastic (A) if you do expect it to matter a lot, though!

Shifter Ranger Substitution Level 1 (B): RoE p. 128. This substitution level requires you to be a shifter, has Balance as a class skill, and is identical to 1st level ranger except that your wild empathy checks use Wisdom instead of Charisma. This is basically the only way to get a solidly-scaling wild empathy on ranger, so if you really want it, you’re going to need to be a shifter for it.

Shifter Ranger Substitution Level 4 (B): RoE p. 128. This substitution level requires you to be a shifter, has Balance as a class skill, and trades share spells on your animal companion for the ability to share your racial shifting ability with your animal companion.

Shifter Ranger Substitution Level 9: RoE p. 128. This substitution level requires you to be a shifter, has Balance as a class skill, and trades evasion for a variable benefit based on what ability score your shifting primarily boosts, gained during the duration of your shifting.

• Strength (D): Your natural weapons count as adamantine for overcoming DR. Applies to gorebrute, longtooth, and razorclaw shifters.
• Dexterity (A): You get improved evasion. Applies to cliffwalk, longstride, and swiftwing shifters.
• Constitution (C): You gain fast healing 1 + the number of shifter feats you have. Applies to beasthide, truedive, and wildhunt shifters.
• Wisdom (B): You become completely immune to enchantment spells and effects. Applies to dreamsight shifters.

Solitary Hunting (S): Dr347 p. 91. Taken at 1st level, this trades your animal companion (and any other ones from existing classes) for “your favored enemy bonus also applies to your attack rolls.” If you take one single ACF for your ranger, this is the one to take. It is, perhaps, the best ACF in the class (note: mystic ranger is a variant class, not an ACF), because it turns your favored enemy boosts from ‘solid damage and skill boost’ to ‘incredibly big attack boost’. Even a single-class ranger with solitary hunting will get +4 to attack rolls at level 5, +6 at level 10, and so on… this applies to increased favored enemy bonuses via enemy spirit pouches or a girdle of hate, it applies to favored enemy bonuses from other classes, it’s just an absolutely fantastic ACF. You can get a similar effect from the Tactical Advantage feat (which lets your favored enemy bonus apply on attack rolls against one favored enemy type you have), but solitary hunting doing so against all of your enemies is incredibly strong, especially when you can boost your off-spec favored enemies with magic items.If you aren’t using your animal companion for another ACF or otherwise using it, this is almost certainly the pick.

Shooting Star Substitution Level 3 (D): CoV p. 50. This substitution level has Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Mystra. You lose Endurance as a bonus feat and can 1/day use a sending spell-like ability to send a message to the nearest Mystra-worshiping cleric, paladin, or ranger. It’s an alright enough pick as long as you don’t need Endurance otherwise, but very niche even if playing in FR.

Shooting Star Substitution Level 4 (B): CoV p. 50. This substitution level has Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Mystra. You trade your animal companion for a bonus spell slot of each ranger spell level you can cast (scaling as you gain more levels, as well). In addition, it adds +2 to your ranger caster level, and if you have levels in an arcane casting class, lets you also add your CL in that class to your ranger caster level. This can get quite high with feat investment, though its incompatibility with mystic ranger makes it fairly limited as a benefit.

Shooting Star Substitution Level 8 (B): CoV p. 50. This substitution level has Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Mystra. You lose swift tracker and add invisibility and word of recall to your spell list as 2nd- and 4th-level spells, respectively.

Shooting Star Substitution Level 14 (C): CoV p. 50. This substitution level has Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills, and in Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Mystra. That’s it. They extended the table to account for the scaling of the earlier abilities, but didn’t give it a unique ability. If you need the cheaper ranks for level 14, there’s no reason not to take this.

Spell Reflection (D): CMag p. 35. This requires 1 rank in Knowledge (arcana) and trades evasion for the ability to, as an immediate action, reflect a spell or spell-like ability that both requires an attack roll and missed your AC/touch AC (as relevant). While in theory this can be quite strong, the fact that the most dangerous such abilities target touch AC makes it come up less often than you’d hope. If you have the “armor of the senses” ability from Moon-Warded Ranger substitution level 2 or the dwarf ranger AC that boosts AC this is C-rated, because your touch AC will be a fair bit higher.

Spell-less Ranger (F): CWar p. 13. This ACF trades away your spellcasting for fast movement at 6th level, a 1/day short-duration ability score boost at 11th level, a 1/day neutralize poison/remove disease SLA at 13th level, and a 1/day freedom of movement (self-only) SLA at 16th level. It’s really, genuinely terrible for what it gives up. Even just taking the bonus feats option from Complete Champion is better for most rangers.

Spiritual Connection (B): CC p. 50. You lose wild empathy and get speak with animals and speak with plants three times per day (uses combined across them). Wild empathy is terrible for most rangers unless you need it for a prerequisite, and this can get you useful information at all levels.

Spiritual Guide (D): CC p. 50. You trade your animal companion for 1/4 your ranger level (rounded down) added as a “divine bonus” on Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Search, Spot, and Survival checks as long as you’re outside of towns bigger than a hamlet. You can also use commune with nature 1/day as a spell-like ability. In a vacuum this could be alright for people who don’t want to deal with animal companions or familiars, but I struggle to recommend it because of how stiff the competition is among ranger ACFs that trade out animal companions. At the very least, solitary hunting also frees you from managing a pet and gives you significant attack bonuses.

Trap Expert (A): Du p. 12-13. Trades Track (at 1st) and swift tracker (at 8th) for the trapfinding ability and Disable Device as a class skill. This allows you to fill the role of a trapfinder for parties without any need for a rogue dip, something that will come up much more than Tracking in most campaigns.

Urban Ranger (B): Dr310 p. 59, MotW p. 15. So, these two alternative features are basically identical in their main function, which is allowing you to have “an organization or culture” as a favored enemy, functioning as usual in addition to that (you can still pick creature types as well). If your campaign is about facing a specific organization, this is S-rated.

In addition, they get Gather Information and Knowledge (local) as class skills, and they adjust your spell list in a “ask your DM” way, suggesting the following to start with:

• Swapping detect snares and pits for detect secret doors.
• Swapping speak with animals with message.
• Swapping plant growth with phantom steed.
• Swapping tree stride with dimension door.

The differences between the two versions of Urban Ranger (I’ve adjusted the 3.0 one from Masters of the Wild as per the 3.0 update booklet) are as follows:

• Urban Ranger (MW) swaps Track for Shadow (+2 to Hide and Move Silently when following someone) and loses Wild Empathy and Knowledge (nature).
• Urban Ranger (Dr310) swaps Track for Stealthy (the core feat), and loses Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (nature).

In most cases you’ll want the Dr310 one, but in the case where you really need Knowledge (geography) for prerequisites, dropping Wild Empathy is a better call.

Urban Ranger (UA) (B): SRD. The urban ranger from Unearthed Arcana (distinct from the Masters of the Wild/Dragon #310 versions, but similar in scope) is a pretty good ACF, and depending on your needs may be better than the other two versions! You lose Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (dungeoneering), and Survival, but gain Gather Information, Knowledge (local), and Sense Motive. In addition, it penalizes Wild Empathy, makes your animal companion have to be Medium or smaller, and has a different, much larger spell swap list than the other urban rangers. It also lets you do favored enemy against organizations, and swaps Track for Urban Tracking. Urban ranger (UA) is mutually-exclusive with planar ranger (UA).

Urban Companion (A): Cityscape web enhancement. This is probably the best option for an animal companion swap other than solitary hunting. You lose your animal companion, but instead get a better-than-usual familiar. I’ll go into this in more detail in the Animal Companions & Familiars section below, but the most notable unique benefit is that unlike a normal familiar, its death doesn’t lose you any XP, and you can replace it in a single day instead of a year and a day.

Urban Tracker (C): Cityscape web enhancement. Trades Track for Urban Tracking.

Voice of the City (B): Cityscape web enhancement. Trades wild empathy for the ability to roll a class level-based Wisdom check to understand people you don’t speak the language of, and a Charisma-based one to be understood. Also adds Speak Language as a class skill. If you don’t need wild empathy for a prerequisite there’s little reason not to take this on most characters.

Wasteland Ranger (D): Sand p.48. This is a package deal ACF that modifies your list of available animal companions, replaces Endurance with the Heat Endurance feat, woodland stride with the Sandskimmer feat, and your 10th level bonus favored enemy (not the advancement; you still up one of your existing enemies by +2 as normal) with the ability to choose get extra bonuses against one specific kind creature (a) for whom you already have their type as a favored enemy and (b) who lives in the desert. This ups your normal favored enemy bonuses by +2 against them, and gives you +2 on saves and DR 2/– against them. Losing an entire type or other broad choice of favored enemy for a bonus against one specific kind of creature is pretty mediocre, but in the right campaign, being able to specialize even further in, say, “blue dragons” or “dry liches” could be good... I guess...

Dwarf Ranger AC Bonus (B): Dr341 p.92. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you to be a dwarf who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. You trade your bonus on Appraise and Craft checks, your dodge bonus to AC against giants, and stonecunning, and in exchange add half your favored enemy bonus to AC against your favored enemies. This is much more applicable than the numerical bonuses, but stonecunning is a common prerequisite for dwarf-specific options and good in some dungeon crawls.

Elf Ranger Favored Terrain (B): Dr341 p.93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be an elf who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. It gives you a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls in a chosen terrain (aquatic, desert, forest, hills, marsh, mountain, or plains), and a –1 penalty on Wisdom- and Int-based skill checks outside that terrain. In spite of being limited to a single terrain, this is still a very strong ACF if you’re already playing an elf and have a reasonable expectation it’ll matter. (I am aware this isn’t a favored enemy ACF, but I’m putting it here because there’s not really a better place for it than right next to the first elf ranger substitution level.)

Elf Ranger Substitution Level 1 (A): RotW p. 156. Elf ranger 1 has a d6 hit die, an extra +2 skill points, Balance as a class skill, modifies the skills your favored enemy boosts to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival, and finally gives you special options for favored enemies in addition to the normal list. You can choose “servants of Lolth” as a favored enemy (which includes drow, driders, and all monstrous spiders), and if you pick that, undead, or humanoids (orc) as a favored enemy, the bonus is +3 instead of +2. This even applies for your advancements (so you could take elf ranger to 5 and have favored enemy (undead) at +6, via a base of +3 and an advancement of +3). The reason this is rated more highly than the gnome and kobold versions below is because undead are such a common enemy type at every CR that it’ll basically always be relevant to grab +3 vs undead at some point.

Elf Ranger Substitution Level 4 (C): RotW p. 156. Elf ranger 4 has a d6 hit die, an extra +2 skill points, Balance as a class skill, and gives you an elven hound (basically a wolf that trades trip for magical beast typing) as your animal companion. It has full BAB from the magical beast type, letting it scale better than most animal companions. It’s still not all that great. The better benefit of the level is that you can get your 5th Balance rank cheaply.

Elf Ranger Substitution Level 10 (F): RotW p. 157. Like elf ranger 1, it has a d6 hit die and an extra +2 skill points. However, this is much worse. Instead of a favored enemy advancement at 10th level, if you take this substitution level you get a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against drow and driders and a +4 morale bonus on Fort saves against spider venom. Just take Wise to Your Ways with a “servants of Lolth” favored enemy instead.

Gnome Ranger Spell-Like Abilities (C): Dr341 p. 93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be a gnome who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. You lose all your racial spell-like abilities except speak with animals, and instead gain the ability to use create water, detect poison, and purify food and drink each 1/day as SLAs. It’s a sidegrade, except for whisper gnomes, where it’s really bad (F). (I am aware this isn’t a favored enemy ACF, but I’m putting it here because there’s not really a better place for it than right next to the first gnome ranger substitution level.)

Gnome Ranger Substitution Level 1 (B): RoS p. 149. This is identical to 1st-level ranger, except that, similarly to elf ranger 1 above, its favored enemy skill bonuses change (to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival) and it gets +3 instead of +2 whenever you pick one of three specific enemy types. Unlike elf ranger, though, the types listed are fairly specific: humanoid (goblinoid), humanoid (reptilian), and giant. This is quite good (A) if you’re in a campaign focusing primarily on fighting one of these from start to finish, but otherwise the main benefit is just getting to apply your favored enemy bonuses to stealth skills instead of social skills.

Gnome Ranger Substitution Level 4 (B): RoS p. 150. This substitution level trades the share spells ability on your animal companion for a +3 to your effective druid level for animal companion progression, provided your animal companion is a badger, dire badger, wolverine, or other mammal with a burrow speed. Sadly, this isn’t takeable at the same time as Fangshields Ranger level 4, but it’s just as good if you’re a gnome looking for an animal companion build.

Gnome Ranger Substitution Level 8 (A): RoS p. 150. This substitution level trades out some 2nd-level and 4th-level spells on your class list. The new spells are more broadly applicable to most rangers, especially sneaky kinds.

• 2nd-level spells: Gains blur, invisibility, and misdirection. Loses barkskin, snare, and wind wall.
• 4th-level spells: Gains greater invisibility and phantasmal killer. Loses commune with nature and tree stride.

Half-Elf Ranger Skill Bonuses (C): Dr341 p.93. This one is a modification to your racial traits, and requires you be a half-elf who’s taking ranger 1 as your very first level. It changes your racial bonuses on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks to Handle Animal and Ride.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 1 (C): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades Track for Urban Tracking. At 8th level, it also lets you apply swift tracker to it, without actually replacing the ACF in question.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 4 (D): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades out some 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spells on your class list. Unlike gnome ranger, you lose more spells than you gain, so this isn’t quite as good in spite of having solid picks.

• 1st-level spells: Gains comprehend languages, detect secret doors, and message. Loses detect animals or plants, detect snares and pits, entangle, and summon nature’s ally I.
• 2nd-level spells: Gains detect thoughts and tongues. Loses snare, speak with plants, and summon nature’s ally II.
• 3rd-level spells: Gains phantom steed. Loses command plants, diminish plants, plant growth, and summon nature’s ally III.
• 4th-level spells: Gains dimension door. Loses commune with nature, summon nature’s ally IV, and tree stride.

Half-Elf Ranger Substitution Level 13 (A): RoD p. 158. This substitution level has Gather Information and Speak Language as class skills, and trades camouflage for skill mastery, letting you take 10 on a number of skills equal to 3 + your Int modifier, even in combat. Very good for consistency on a half-elf skillmonkey type, but it does require you to be playing a half-elf.

Half-Orc Ranger (A): Dr341 p.93. This one doesn’t modify your racial traits, but like the other Dragon #341 ACFs, you must be a half-orc taking ranger 1 as your very first level to take it. You get a bonus favored enemy in either humanoid (human) or humanoid (orc), which works just as normal, except as per usual you can’t double up at 1st level. In exchange, you also take a penalty on all Charisma-based skills and checks against humanoids with that subtype equal to your favored enemy bonus (canceling out the Bluff bonus that FE normally grants, and penalizing the rest). Human is one of the most common NPC types, especially for mooks, so even in campaigns without a specific humanity focus, this is a very good ACF.

Kobold Ranger Substitution Level 1 (B): RotD p. 109. This is identical to 1st-level ranger, except that, similarly to elf ranger 1 above, its favored enemy skill bonuses change (to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival) and it gets +3 instead of +2 whenever you pick one of three specific enemy types. Unlike elf ranger, though, the types listed are fairly specific: humanoid (dwarf), humanoid (gnome), and fey. This is quite good (A) if you’re in a campaign focusing primarily on fighting one of these from start to finish, but otherwise the main benefit is just getting to apply your favored enemy bonuses to stealth skills instead of social skills.

Kobold Ranger Substitution Level 4 (C): RotD p. 109. This substitution level trades your normal animal companion for a dire weasel (and only a dire weasel, you cannot later change it), progressing at druid level = half ranger level and ignoring the normal –3 penalty to effective druid level for picking a stronger companion. It also trades some of your spell list for alternate spells, as follows:

• 1st-level spells: Gains steal size. Loses entangle.
• 2nd-level spells: Gains local tremor and soften earth and stone. Loses speak with plants and spike growth.
• 3rd-level spells: Gains meld into stone, spike stones, stone shape, and stoneskin. Loses command plants, diminish plants, plant growth, and tree shape.
• 4th-level spells: Gains stone tell. Loses tree stride.

Kobold Ranger Substitution Level 7 (A): RotD p. 109. This substitution level trades woodland stride for the ability to ignore all effects related to natural stone floors and dense rubble terrain. In most campaigns you’re much more likely to encounter messed-up dungeon floors than natural undergrowth; this is quite good as a result.

Shifter Ranger Substitution Level 1 (B): RoE p. 128. This substitution level requires you to be a shifter, has Balance as a class skill, and is identical to 1st level ranger except that your wild empathy checks use Wisdom instead of Charisma. This is basically the only way to get a solidly-scaling wild empathy on ranger, so if you really want it, you’re going to need to be a shifter for it.

Shifter Ranger Substitution Level 4 (B): RoE p. 128. This substitution level requires you to be a shifter, has Balance as a class skill, and trades share spells on your animal companion for the ability to share your racial shifting ability with your animal companion.

Shifter Ranger Substitution Level 9: RoE p. 128. This substitution level requires you to be a shifter, has Balance as a class skill, and trades evasion for a variable benefit based on what ability score your shifting primarily boosts, gained during the duration of your shifting.

• Strength (D): Your natural weapons count as adamantine for overcoming DR. Applies to gorebrute, longtooth, and razorclaw shifters.
• Dexterity (A): You get improved evasion. Applies to cliffwalk, longstride, and swiftwing shifters.
• Constitution (C): You gain fast healing 1 + the number of shifter feats you have. Applies to beasthide, truedive, and wildhunt shifters.
• Wisdom (B): You become completely immune to enchantment spells and effects. Applies to dreamsight shifters.

Dragon Magazine #336 p. 105

S-rated if you want a spellcasting martial warrior who keeps up with full casters for at least half the game, even if they have to jump through hoops to expand their spell list to match. Frankly, call this an SS rating. It’s the most powerful thing ranger has, to an excruciating and bannable degree.

A-rated if your plan is to leave ranger as soon as possible to enter a non-casting prestige class; it’s still good but depending on your plans it may not be as good as just taking standard ranger (primarily due to delaying the 5th level favored enemy advancement and losing access to solitary hunting).

F-rated if your DM bans it (which is perfectly valid and they really probably should do so).

Mystic ranger is probably the main thing old hands at 3.5 will think of when they consider “is ranger any good?” And, well, for good reason. It’s absurdly good, bringing you a combination of features far beyond what similar amounts of levels can give you.

You lose your animal companion and delay most of your class features by one or more levels, but your spellcasting is significantly buffed, starting your progression at 1st level, and adding 5th-level spells later on. You’re still a full-BAB, 6+Int skills martial, too! This is genuinely a class that is strong even single-classed to level 20. It doesn't get the higher-level spells that really shatter campaign worlds into pieces like a wizard does, but it can fill nearly any role in a party and excel at it. The problem here is that its spellcasting progression is way too fast for 10 levels for what it gets, and then just stops abruptly. By level 20 it’s “strong but maybe not too strong,” but before 11th level, it’s a full-caster with full BAB and 6+int skills. Being limited by the ranger spell list means that isn't quite as good as it sounds, but at the same time, the ranger spell list isn't that bad. Plus, you can take Sword of the Arcane Order to just cast wizard spells too.

There are a few major considerations to discuss with your DM when playing a mystic ranger:

• Is this class too strong for the game? In most campaigns, especially ones that don’t go past 11th level, this class is outright better than most full casting classes, once you have your build going. That can and probably will be a problem, and if your DM or group agrees on that, definitely don’t pick this class variant.
• Most ACFs for the ranger work as written, such as combat style swaps, things that trade out Endurance or Evasion, and adjustments to favored enemy. They just come at the listed levels instead of the usual ones. Likewise, the UA/MotW/Dr310 variants work fine here, since they don’t reference levels and just modify how your skills and abilities work. So, by RAW, these abilities can be taken just fine, but you should double-check with your DM to make sure they’re cool with that, especially given how strong mystic ranger is already.
• Substitution levels are arguably takeable by RAW (you’re a ranger at the right level), but due to the progression not lining up with the base ranger here, you result in weird rules holes. My recommendation is to houserule either (a) you can’t take substitution levels on mystic ranger, or (b) you can take substitution levels on a case-by-case basis (only at the levels that the things they originally traded out are gained), and they progress casting based on mystic ranger’s table.

One of the most powerful options for mystic ranger is the Sword of the Arcane Order feat from Champions of Valor, which gets a full unpacking in Chapter VI: Spellcasting. Sword of the Arcane Order also requires ranger 4, which means normally the earliest you can take it is character level 6th. If you want to bypass this, I recommend being a frostblood half-orc (DM p. 10), who get Endurance as a bonus feat and, near-uniquely among bonus feats, states that if you later get Endurance as a bonus feat, you can swap it for any other feat you qualify for. This means that, since mystic ranger delays Endurance to 4th level, your half-orc wizardranger will be able to swap it for Sword of the Arcane Order immediately and start casting out of your ranger slots.

Dragon Magazine #324 p. 95

F-rated in general; wild defender is certainly unique but it gives up way, way more than it gets.

Wild defender loses favored enemy, Track, Endurance, your combat style, swift tracker, camouflage, and hide in plain sight. It also delays animal companion to 5th and evasion to 9th. In exchange, it gets a smite evil progression as a paladin, some of the druid’s flavor abilities like trackless step and resist nature’s lure, and a faster spellcasting progression (starting 1st-level spells at 1st, 2nd-level spells at 4th, 3rds at 7th, and 4ths at 10th). It’s also the only ranger to have native access to divine feats, as it gets to “rebuke nature” as a cleric rebukes undead, starting at 6th level. Notably, your smiting is based on Cha like the paladin’s, but your casting is still based on Wis. Also, RAW it’s unclear if they can take divine/domain feats with their rebuke nature, but if you’re playing with six levels of this I feel like your DM should probably let you do that. This class is so bad otherwise.

There’s not really much to say here, honestly. Even if you want smite evil for a prestige class entry, you lose so much for it that you’re probably better off just multiclassing paladin. There’s few actual use cases for this variant, most of them being an unglamorous but crucial stepping stone to a specific build plan. For example, if you dip one for wild empathy, smite evil, and access to ranger wands, then wild defender works here. You could conceivably use it as an entry into Prestige Paladin. There are some PrCs that require 1st-level divine spells and full BAB, and this might allow you earlier entry than a cleric (assuming mystic ranger is banned). In any case, if you’re doing something weird and specific, I trust you know what you’re doing when you take a level of this.

… and if you don’t know what exactly you’re doing, I highly recommend avoiding this subclass.

So really, what is an alternate class feature? People use the term colloquially, but there’s actually a few different types, scattered around the books. Unearthed Arcana is often credited as the book that introduced them, but this isn’t actually true; I’ve found some as early as the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, though I imagine there’s some earlier hidden away in appendices or sidebars. But I digress. An alternate class feature is, uh, an alternate version of a class feature, or the ability to swap a class feature of one class for another one.

The types that I’ve found are the following:

1. Variant Character Classes

Examples of this include totem barbarian, divine bard, planar ranger, mystic ranger, and wild defender ranger. Rather than being something that swaps a feature for another one, these are framed as alternate versions of the class itself, which happens to have a different set of features as listed. Unearthed Arcana proposes an even-further variant rule that allows multiclassing between different versions of a class (i.e. playing a normal barbarian and then multiclassing into totem barbarian), but I have never seen anyone use that, because it’s kinda wonky to implement. Often, the abilities lost and gained by variant classes are not one-to-one swaps, as well. There isn’t a specific boilerplate text description for variant classes, but generally they expect you to be taking the class itself, and modify it directly.

2. Substitution Levels

These are specific levels, generally presented in a group of three themed ones, are specific level ‘packages’ that wholesale replace a level of the class in question. Like variant character classes, substitution levels tend to not be a one-to-one swap of abilities, often losing more abilities for a single strong one, or trading a strong ability for multiple ones. In addition, the substitution level rules specifically specify that you have to be taking a level of the class, rather than merely having the appropriate class feature.

For example, in Champions of Valor, it specifies “to qualify for a substitution level, you must be of the proper class. For instance, a fighter can’t take a substitution level for the rogue or monk class.” Similarly, Races of Destiny specifies that “for each class with racial substitution levels, you can select each substitution level only at a specific class level.” The full rules for substitution levels tend to be at least half a page, so I’m not going to quote all of them, but if you want to look them up yourself, CV has them on page 34, and RD has them on page 156.

Anyway, substition levels, like variant character classes above, are useless for the concept of ACF chaining. What we actually care about are the following, the true “alternative class features,” rather than ones that are just colloquially lumped in with them.

3. Alternative Class Features

Unearthed Arcana calls these “other class variants” and “class feature variants.” Later books tend to call them “alternative class features.” Their rules are much more simple than those of the variant classes and substitution levels, as you can see here:

OTHER CLASS VARIANTS
These variants simply swap one or more of that class's features for one or more class features of another class. A class feature gained works just as it did for its original class, including the level at which it is gained and any other effects, except as noted below.

Barbarian
A barbarian who prefers crafty hunting over pure ferocity might choose to exchange his rage ability for certain ranger class features.
Gain: Favored enemy (as ranger); archery combat style, improved archery combat style, and archery combat style mastery (as ranger).
Lose: Rage, greater rage, indomitable will, tireless rage, mighty rage.
—UA p. 58

CLASS FEATURE VARIANTS

Even if you’re satisfied playing one of the character classes from the Player’s Handbook, other options allow you to customize your character. Variant versions of several of the iconic class features common to the character classes are presented below. If you prefer the variant to the standard class feature, ask your DM if he approves of your swapping out your class feature for the variant version.

As with the variant character classes, these variant class features can exist side by side with the standard class features—some rangers might hunt goblinoids while their comrades favor woodland missions—or can completely replace the standard features. The balance between the standard class and the variant is up to the DM.

—UA p. 65

Alternative class features replace class features found in the original class description. If you have already reached or passed the level at which you can take the feature, you can use the retraining option described on page 192 to gain an alternative class feature in place of the normal feature gained at that level.

The format for alternative class features is summarized below.

ALTERNATIVE CLASS FEATURE NAME
A general description of the ability and why you might want to consider it.
Level: You can select the alternative class feature only at this level (unless you are using the retraining option described in Chapter 8).
Replaces: This line identifies the ability that you must sacrifice to gain the alternative class feature.
Benefit: This section describes the mechanical effects of the new ability.

—PHB2 p. 31

ALTERNATIVE CLASS FEATURES

Each character class has defining mechanical and roleplaying characteristics, while feats, skills, spells, and other choices provide ways to customize a character within that basic framework. Alternative class features replace class features of the original class description, changing its very nature. Each alternative class feature presented here provides a new divine theme for that particular class. If a character has already passed the level at which the alternative feature is available, you can use the retraining option described on page 192 of Player’s Handbook II to acquire it retroactively. You can find more alternative class features in Player’s Handbook II, Unearthed Arcana, Complete Mage, and other D&D supplements.

The format for alternative class features is as follows.

Alternative Class Feature Name
This section provides a general description of the alternative class feature, including some roleplaying suggestions for each variant of the standard class.
Level: You can select the alternative class feature only at the indicated level.
Replaces: This line identifies the ability you must sacrifice to gain the alternative class feature.
Benefit: This section describes the mechanical effects of the alternative class feature.

—CC p. 45

Fairly straightforward. They specify a class, a feature to replace, sometimes a level, and a benefit gained in its place. There’s no one-to-one substitution of levels and no modifications to the base class’s chassis; it’s purely in the realm of adjusting class features. This is why I believe that, as-written, there’s a very sound argument for ACF chaining within this area specifically.

To illustrate what I mean, here is an example using wild shape ranger from the SRD, and the spiritual totem barbarian ACF from Complete Champion.

Wild shape ranger specifies that, in exchange for giving up combat style, improved combat style, and combat style mastery, you get “wild shape (as druid, small and medium animals only)” and “fast movement (as barbarian).”

A question arises: how far does that parenthetical, “(as barbarian),” go? There’s multiple ways to interpret it. It could mean “(see the barbarian class feature; you get that text on your ranger progression).” It could mean “(you get a ranger-specific variant of the class feature).” Personally, I like to think that it means exactly what it says it does. That is to say, when it says you get “fast movement (as barbarian),” it’s exactly what it says on the tin, for all purposes. For the purposes of fast movement, you are a barbarian, with all that entails.

So... with that in mind, in Complete Champion there’s an ACF called spiritual totem, which is most commonly used to gain pounce as a 1-level dip:

Spiritual Totem
Choose a spiritual totem: bear, eagle, fox, lion, or wolf. Once you do so, you are forever bound to that animal spirit. Your connection grants you special abilities based on the totem you have chosen (or that has chosen you, as some see it).
The DM can add more totems to the above list as desired, using those presented here as guidelines.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the fast movement class feature.
Benefit: You gain one of the abilities described below, depending on the chosen totem. Each of these effects is a supernatural ability.
Bear Totem: The mighty bear is known for her crushing embrace. If you adopt her as your spiritual totem, you gain the improved grab ability (MM 310).
Eagle Totem: The eagle can see clearly over great distances and often notices details that are not obvious. If you embrace him as your spiritual totem, you gain a +4 bonus on Search and Spot checks.
Fox Totem: The cunning fox uses stealth to gain the upper hand. Should you choose her as your spiritual totem, you gain a +4 bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.
Lion Totem: Regal and intimidating, the powerful lion is a symbol of nobility among the races of the wild. By selecting him as your spiritual totem, you gain the pounce ability (MM 313).
Wolf Totem: The wolf is a loyal ally who uses pack tactics to subdue her foes. If you choose her as your spiritual totem, you gain an additional +2 bonus on attack rolls when flanking an opponent.

—CC p. 46

Per Complete Champion, there are two qualifications for taking an ACF. First, have to be at the indicated level, and second, you have to sacrifice the listed ability. If you’re a wild shape ranger, at 1st level you get fast movement “as barbarian.”

Is this not, if you take it at face value, enough? After all, you’re the indicated level (1st), and you have the appropriate class feature (specifically called out as functioning as the barbarian one does). Thus it stands to reason that you should be able to swap it out for spiritual totem, just as barbarian can.

And that’s pretty much it.

There are a set of class feature swaps in Unearthed Arcana that specifically call out their function in the swap as working “as classname.” Under this interpretation of the rules as written (which is not the only possible interpretation, mind, but is one that I personally favor), those class features work entirely as if they came from the class in question, up to and including being able to be swapped for ACFs.

There’s some incredibly interesting chains you can do for this, most of them fairly balanced. I quite enjoy that the ranger’s options for what you can do with combat style swapping widens (giving wild shape ranger some actual competition, as far as opportunity cost), as well as the massive variety of other unique mixes you can get by chaining ACFs on other classes.

As a note before we get into this, I think it’s important to talk about duplicate class features. What happens when you chain ACFs in such a way that you result in multiple instances of the class feature? There’s a couple possibilities, and you and your DM should talk together and figure out how you want them to work.

The most relevant example for this is the combat style 🠞 wild shape ranger 🠞 favored enemy druid chain, which results in you having two instances of the favored enemy progression.

1. Play the rule as it lays: “I have favored enemy (as ranger) twice, once from ranger and once from ACF chaining. These work independently, entirely as written. At 1st level I get two separate +2 favored enemies. At 5th level I get two more +2 favored enemies, and two advancements. I assign the advancements to my primary target, resulting in my favored enemy list being [+6, +2, +2, +2].”
2. Never the twain shall meet: “I have favored enemy (as ranger) twice, once from ranger and once from ACF chaining. These work independently, and cannot overlap or affect each other. At 1st level, I get two separate +2 favored enemies. At 5th level I get, separately, ‘one new favored enemy and an advancement’ twice. Thus, my resulting favored enemy list is [+4, +2, +4, +2].”
3. Don’t stack the same thing: “I have favored enemy (as ranger) twice, once from ranger and once from ACF chaining. We don’t want to deal with the weirdness of having two of the same feature, so I must continue the ACF chain, swapping one of the favored enemy instances for another ACF, such as favored environment or rival organization.”

Any of these is fine, honestly. If something turns out to be too strong (I could see a possibility of the elf ranger substitution levels in an Age of Worms campaign giving you multiple stacks of +3 advancements onto favored enemy (undead) being too much, for example), then it’s reasonable to disallow it. For the sake of my own building, I tend to assume the first option unless my DM says otherwise, but like most places where 3.5 rules get weird it’s important to have an open dialogue with your group about what you’re doing and what it results in.

Now that the preamble is all finally said, let’s actually talk about what we can chain.

The Ingredients

Unearthed Arcana presents only one option for getting the base features of other classes on the ranger in a way that specifies, explicitly, that it works just as that class’s version. However, it’s a big one: wild shape ranger, which trades away your combat style for core features of two different classes.

Ranger
A ranger might forgo training in weapon combat in exchange for the ability to take animal form and move swiftly through the woodlands.
Gain: Wild shape (as druid; Small or Medium animals only), fast movement (as barbarian).
Lose: Combat style, improved combat style, combat style mastery.

—US p. 58

So our core ingredients are wild shape “as druid” and fast movement “as barbarian.” What can that get us? A surprising amount, actually! Due to the branching nature of ACF chaining, the following subsections are organized in the order you can acquire them, rather than alphabetical order.

Barbarian Fast Movement ACFs

Honestly, in practice the only worthwhile fast movement ACF here is spiritual totem from Complete Champion, quoted in full in the rules weirdness spoiler above. Still, there are a few options and for the sake of comprehensiveness, I’m listing them.

Aquatic Barbarian (D): Storm p. 48. If you have a racial swim speed, you can apply fast movement to that swim speed instead of your land speed.

Spiritual Totem (S): CC p. 46. Even setting aside the fact that this gives you pounce, letting you full attack on a charge (the most important thing a melee martial can get access to), some of the other benefits are actually really good? If you’re making a grappler build, bear spirit totem gets you access to improved grab. If you’re building around flanking or aren’t looking to pouncecharge, wolf spirit totem gives you an extra +2 on attack rolls while flanking. In theory it’s even possible that the +4 bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks from fox spirit totem could be useful. It’s just a really strong feature, and well worth the swap.

Roof-Walker (D): Cityscape web enhancement. This swaps your fast movement for the Roofwalker feat, and at 6th level you automatically qualify for the Roof-Jumper feat (but have to take it normally in a feat slot). This isn’t really any good, but in some niche builds you can do some silly things with Roof-Jumper’s ability to charge downwards by dropping on someone and get bonus damage for doing so. Still, taking this precludes taking pounce, so even that is fairly underwhelming.

Unholy Fury (F): EoE p. 22. This one is actually kinda funny, because while it replaces fast movement, you need to have a rage ability to actually use it. Once per rage, you can do a smite attack against anything that isn’t chaotic evil, adding your Cha bonus on the attack roll and +1 damage per [s]barbarian[/s] ranger level. Unless you’re getting rage somehow, this is useless for a ranger. If you do have rage, such as from the badger form of a badger hengeyokai, it’s theoretically useful (C). See if your DM lets it work as a smite [alignment] ability for prerequisites! Maybe you can find something neat to do with it.

Druid Wild Shape ACFs

While accessing pounce in-class is nice, this is where the cooler stuff happens. We have wild shape as a druid, which lets us access a few things. Most notable is doubling back onto ranger via the favored enemy druid ACF, which also happens to give us a few monk abilities that can then be chained as well.

Some ACFs, such as City Shape from the Cityscape web enhancement, advance in a way that expects you to have the ability to become Large and other types later (which ranger doesn’t get), rather than replacing wild shape wholesale, so I haven’t summarized them here. It’s arguable that they could be accessed, but in a strict-RAW sense they result in weird rules holes. I won’t be rating them, but if you’re curious, they’re City Shape (Cityscape web enhancement), Shapeshifter (PHB2 p. 39), and Spider Shape (DotU p. 58). Shapeshifter also loses your animal companion. If your DM lets you use them, City Shape is B rank, Spider Shape is F rank, and Shapeshifter is B rank.

There is an argument that the limitation on sizes taken for wild shape ranger would mean that ACFs that give up wild shape entirely wouldn’t be chainable, but personally I feel like unless the ACF is specifically swapping around or relying on the extra sizes normal druids get, wild shape is wild shape. Your DM may think differently, though. Regardless, there’s only two ACFs that outright trade wild shape in its entirety for something else:

Aspect of the Dragon (A): DM p. 11. You know, I had honestly never given this one a second look until writing this entry. You trade wild shape for the ability to, 1/day (and increasing at the same rate you would normally get wild shape; ask your DM if you can take Extra Wild Shape for bonus uses) as a swift action, enter a draconic aspect for one hour. At 8th level, you get two options at once, at 11th, three at once, and 15th, four. They’re actually not bad at all? The four options are (1) a fire cone breath weapon, (2), two claw attacks at 1d6 for medium, as well as +4 untyped to Strength, (3) an untyped +4 to Constitution and immunity to paralysis, (4) +4 to Wisdom, darkvision, low-light vision, and immunity to sleep, and (5) a fly speed with good maneuverability! Getting access to in-class flight is incredibly strong on its own, even without the rest of the options.

Favored Enemy Druid (A): SRD. If you don’t want to muck around with the wild shape rules, looping back and getting an extra instance each of favored enemy, Track, and swift hunter can open up a variety of options within the ranger’s own ACFs. Even if your DM doesn’t let you double up on favored enemy, you can actually use the otherwise-terrible favored environment and rival organization options to great effect (B). In addition, this gives you a monk’s AC bonus (Wis to AC while unarmored and scaling bonus) and monk fast movement. You do lose your armor and shield proficiency, but there’s no penalty for just wearing leather armor, masterwork studded leather, mithral chain, and so on, so it’s no great loss.

Monk Fast Movement ACFs

If you take favored enemy druid as a chain link, you get the monk’s AC bonus (including its scaling) and fast movement. This opens up a few more options, though we’re starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here.

Damage Reduction (B): SRD. This trades your monk speed bonus and the scaling bonus to AC while unarmored (but not your Wisdom bonus to AC, you keep that) for damage reduction (as barbarian). If you’re taking ranger to 7th level or higher, and chained this far, then there’s no reason not to take this.

Standing Jump (D): Du 10. This one comes online at 3rd level when your first +10ft speed boost comes online. Instead, you now always count as having a running start for long jumps while unarmored (and for high jumps starting at 6th level), which… well, it exists. It’s actually pretty solid (B) if you’re taking Leap Attack, but otherwise it will rarely come up.

Barbarian Damage Reduction ACFs

If you've taken favored enemy druid as a chain link and followed it up with the damage reduction monk, you now have a barbarian’s damage reduction and can trade that for something else!

Devil’s Luck (A): Dr349 p. 92. Technically taken at 6th level in spite of DR coming online at 7th (I imagine it’s a typo), this one replaces your DR/– scaling with an equal luck bonus on all saving throws. At 7th level, you get +1 on all saves, at 10th, +2, and so on. Even at its minimum bonus this is way, way better than the small amount of DR.

Streetfighter (A): Cityscape web enhancement. This swaps your damage reduction for a scaling list of benefits while: a flat +1 increase to critical threat range while charging or flanking at 7th that (extremely rare for a 3.5 ability) stacks with keen and Improved Critical, the ability to turn during charges at 10th, the ability to charge through allies at 13th, the ability to charge at four times your speed at 16th, and a “cleaving charge” at 19th level that lets you charge again if your first hit in a charge attack drops the enemy. For full-on ubercharger builds, this is probably S-rated, because when you combine the usual Leap Attack/Shock Trooper/etc tools with Favored Power Attack even your very first hit has the potential to destroy a target.

Ability Score	Melee (Str-based)	Melee (Finesse)	Ranged (Str-scaling)*	Ranged (Other)	Wis-Based†	Wild Shape	Notes
Strength	S	C	C	F	C	F	If playing with encumbrance, putting an 11-12 in Str is cheap even on non-Str builds.
Dexterity	C	S	S	S	C	F
Constitution	B	B	B	B	B	S
Intelligence‡	C	C	C	C	C	C
Wisdom	B	B	B	B	S	B	Normal ranger maxes at 14
Charisma	D	D	D	D	D	D

* Bows and thrown weapons that add Strength to their damage will, naturally, want some investment into Str, but it’s not nearly as important as your to-hit.

† There are different degrees of Wis-based rangers; one using Zen Archery or Intuitive Attack still wants some Str for damage, and Dex still determines how early you’ll go in combat. A true, maxed-out Wis-SAD build can dump every other stat, but most builds don’t go that far.

‡ If you’re taking Sword of the Arcane Order, your Int needs are higher because wizard spells care more about save DCs than ranger spells. At the very least, you need 10 + spell level to cast, so don’t fully dump it at that point.

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Race Name	Rating	Size	Ability Score Adjustments	Notable Features	Source
Aasimar (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Wis, +2 Cha	Daylight SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/Core
Aasimar (Savage Progression)	C	Med	+2 Cha	Outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	Web
Aelfborn	D	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Wis, further –1/2 level in Wis	Variant half-elves; bonus feat + bonus Skill Focus every 5 levels.	Dr307
Anthropomorphic Bat	S	Small	–4 Str, +6 Wis, –2 Cha	Fly speed, access to Fangshields Ranger; little else at LA +0 gives this much Wisdom.	SS
Anthropomorphic Lizard	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Monkey	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –2 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Rat	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Raven	S	Small	–6 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Fly speed, natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Toad	X	Small	–4 Str, –2 Dex, +6 Wis, –2 Cha	5ft movement speed, access to Fangshields Ranger; little else at LA +0 gives this much Wisdom.	SS
Anthropomorphic Weasel	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Asherati	C	Med	–	Heat Endurance bonus feat, can swim in sand.	Sand
Aventi	C	Med	–	Human but amphibious, no bonus feat, no bonus skills.	Storm
Axani (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Int, +2 Wis	Calm emotions SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/Dr297
Azerblood (Lesser)	A	Med	+2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Heat metal SLA, access to dwarf ranger ACF.	PGtF/Dr350
Azurin	A	Med	–	Human but with 1 bonus essentia for incarnum instead of bonus skill points.	MoI
Bakemono	X	Small	+2 Str, +2 Con, –8 Int, –4 Cha	–8 Int makes them very awkward to allow; +6 natural armor can be too strong at lowest levels.	OA
Beguiler	S	Small	–4 Str, +6 Dex, +2 Int	LA +0 (cohort), 2 claws + bite, constant true seeing, access to Fangshields Ranger.	ShS
Bhuka	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Heat Endurance bonus feat.	Sand
Buomman	D	Med	+2 Wis, –2 Cha	Cannot talk without taking Wis damage.	PlH
Cansin (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Int, +2 Cha	Entropic shield SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/Dr297
Celadrin (Lesser)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Cha	Scorching ray SLA, access to elf ranger ACFs, fire resistance 10.	PGtF/Dr350
Changeling (Eberron)	C	Med	–	Access to Warshaper PrC.	ECS
Changeling (Fey)	F	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Cha	Counts as both fey and humanoid for effects.	Dr304
Chaond (Lesser)	S	Med	+4 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Shatter SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/MM2
Cyclopean (Feral-Kind)	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Int	Penalty on ranged attack rolls, +1 on init checks and Ref saves.	Dr323
Cyclopean (Menta)	D	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con	Penalty on ranged attack rolls, augury ability.	Dr323
D'hin'ni (Lesser)	A	Small	+2 Dex, –2 Wis, +2 Cha	Wind wall SLA, access to the incredible halfling ranger ACF.	PGtF/Dr350
Daelkyr Half-Blood	B	Med	–	Symbiont for free and benefits to it, access to Fangshields Ranger.	MoE
Darfellan	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex	Swim speed, natural weapon.	Storm
Deep Imaskari	F	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Int	1/day recall a 1st-level prepared spell you cast.	Und
Drow (Lesser)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to elf ACFs (ironically), hand crossbow proficiency, light blindness.	PGtF
Drow (Savage Progression)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int	Access to elf ACFs (ironically), dancing lights SLA, hand crossbow proficiency, light blindness.	Web
Duergar (Lesser)	C	Med	+2 Con, –4 Cha	Enlarge person SLA, access to dwarf ranger ACF.	PGtF
Duergar (Savage Progression)	C	Med	+2 Con, –4 Cha	Enlarge person SLA, access to dwarf ranger ACF.	Web
Duskling	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	1 bonus essentia, access to Fangshields Ranger.	MoI
Dwarf	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Solid racial traits (stonecunning, bonus on saves vs spells!), access to alright ACF, but nothing else to write home about.	Core
Dwarf (Aleithian)	X	Med	+2 Con, +2 Int, –4 Cha	As dwarf but relates to psionics; 3.0 psionics material that is incompatible with 3.5 without a full rehaul.	Web
Dwarf (Aquatic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –4 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf but with a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Dwarf (Arctic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –4 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Loses stonecunning for an ice-based equivalent. RAW cannot access dwarf ranger ACF, but imo houseruling the swap for their ice version seems fair.	SRD
Dwarf (Badlands)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Heat Endurance as a bonus feat, loses stonecunning, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	Sand
Dwarf (Dark)	C	Med	+2 Con, –4 Cha	As dwarf, except double darkvision range and light sensitivity.	DCS
Dwarf (Deep)	B	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf, except +3 on saves vs spells/SLAs/poison, larger darkvision, and light sensitivity.	Core
Dwarf (Desert)	C	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con	Racial combat bonuses apply against dragons instead, loses stonecunning, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	SRD
Dwarf (Dream)	C	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con	Can see ethereal creatures, +1 CL on divinations when standing on the ground, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	RoS
Dwarf (Earth)	A	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Access to alright ACF, loses bonus on saves vs spells.	SRD
Dwarf (Exiled)	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Trades stonecunning, darkvision, and stability for any bonus feat, and higher bonuses against goblins and giants. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	Dr320
Dwarf (Fireblood)	B	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf, but gains dragonblood subtype, fire resistance 5, and bonus AC vs dragons instead of vs giants. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	DM
Dwarf (Glacier)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Trades stonecunning, darkvision, and stability for any bonus feat, and higher bonuses against goblins and giants. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	Frost
Dwarf (Gold)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Dex	Cold Endurance effective bonus feat, loses stonecunning for an ice-based equivalent. RAW cannot access dwarf ranger ACF, but imo houseruling the swap for their ice version seems fair.	Core
Dwarf (Gully)	C	Small	+2 Dex, +2 Con, –4 Int, –4 Cha	Loses the good dwarf racial traits, takes a large penalty against fear effects, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	DCS
Dwarf (Jungle)	D	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf but no darkvision and no stonecunning. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	SRD
Dwarf (Mountain)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Completely identical to base dwarf.	Core
Dwarf (Seacliff)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf but no bonus against orcs/goblins. Access to alright ACF.	Storm
Dwarf (Shield)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Completely identical to base dwarf.	FRCS
Dwarf (Stonefire)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Completely identical to base dwarf except favored class is wilder.	XPH
Dwarf (Wild)	C	Small	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Poison use, +3 on saves vs poison, fire resistance 5, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	RoF
Elan	C	Med	–2 Cha	Psionic subtype, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SRD
Elf	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to strong ACFs, solid racial traits.	Core
Elf (Aquatic)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int	As elf but has a swim speed and can't breathe air for long.	Core
Elf (Arctic)	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As elf but loses secret door detection.	SRD
Elf (Declining)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf, but gains Weapon Focus (two elf weapons), loses immunity to sleep, long lifespan, and trance.	Dr320
Elf (Desert)	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As elf.	SRD
Elf (Fire)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	As elf but has fire resistance 5.	SRD
Elf (Forestlord)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf but loses proficencies for dragonblood subtype and a short distance teleport-through-trees.	DM
Elf (Gray)	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int	As elf.	Core
Elf (Illaeli)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf; implied to have a different favored class but none stated.	XPH
Elf (Jungle)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf but loses secret door detection.	SRD
Elf (Kagonesti)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As elf, but with 30ft darkvision and different proficiencies.	DCS
Elf (Moon)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf.	FRCS
Elf (Painted)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int	As elf.	Sand
Elf (Qualinesti)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf, but with 30ft darkvision.	DCS
Elf (Silvanesti)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	As elf, but with 30ft darkvision.	DCS
Elf (Snow)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	As elf.	Frost
Elf (Star)	C	Med	–2 Con, +2 Cha	As elf, but gets ghost touch on all gear at night instead of weapon proficiencies.	Una
Elf (Sun)	C	Med	–2 Con, +2 Int	As elf.	FRCS
Elf (Valley)	C	Med	–2 Con, +2 Int	As elf, but with a +4 on Disguise checks to appear human.	LGJ2
Elf (Wild)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int,	As elf.	Core
Elf (Wood)	A	Med	+2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Int	As elf.	Core
Extaminar	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Can talk to and charm snakes.	CoR
Faun	D	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Access to Fangshields Ranger.	DD
Fey'ri (Lesser)	S	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int	40ft fly speed, variety of SLAs, change shape, access to elf ACFs.	PGtF/MonF
Genasi (Lesser Air)	B	Med	+2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Levitate SLA, doesn't breathe.	PGtF/FRCS
Genasi (Lesser Earth)	B	Med	+2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Pass without trace SLA.	PGtF/FRCS
Genasi (Lesser Fire)	D	Med	+2 Int, –2 Cha	Special control flames SLA.	PGtF/FRCS
Genasi (Lesser Water)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Create water SLA.	PGtF/FRCS
Glimmerfolk	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Some low-level light/illusion SLAs, outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	Dr321
Gnome	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	Access to solid ACFs.	Core
Gnome (Air)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As gnome but does not breathe.	SRD
Gnome (Aquatic)	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome but has a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Gnome (Arcane)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Wis	As gnome but trades the ability to talk to animals with Use Magic Device as a class skill.	Dr291
Gnome (Arctic)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	SRD
Gnome (Desert)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	SRD
Gnome (Forest)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome, with a constant pass without trace effect.	Core
Gnome (Ice)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome but slightly different SLAs.	Frost
Gnome (Jungle)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	SRD
Gnome (Mad)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As tinker gnome, but with +2 on Open Lock/Disable Device checks and no Will bonus.	DCS
Gnome (River)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome, but with a swim speed, +1 init, and can talk to river animals (includes fish and birds in the area) instead of burrowing ones.	Dr291
Gnome (Stonehunter)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome but trades illusion benefits for dragonblood subtype.	DM
Gnome (Techno)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome, but trades illusion benefits and racial SLAs for Alertness bonus feat.	Dr320
Gnome (Tinker)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Wis	Gets +2 on Will saves.	DCS
Gnome (Wavecrest)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	Storm
Gnome (Whisper)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	As gnome but with a silence SLA, amazing stealth skills, 30ft land speed.	RoS
Goblin	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, racial stealth bonuses.	Core
Goblin (Air)	S	Small	–2 Str, +4 Dex, –2 Con	30ft land speed, amazing stats for Dex builds, does not breathe.	SRD
Goblin (Aquatic)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Swim speed, can't breathe air.	SRD
Goblin (Arctic)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha	30ft land speed.	SRD
Goblin (Desert)	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Goblin (Jungle)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, 20ft climb speed, trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Grippli	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	20ft climb speed, +4 to AC vs animals/vermin, Wild Talent bonus feat, net proficiency.	Dr324
Gruwaar	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis, +2 Cha	Disguise self SLA, access to Fangshields Ranger.	Dr317
Hadozee	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	Glide speed.	Storm
Hairy Spider	X	Fine	–10 Str, +4 Dex, no Int, –8 Cha	Technically LA 0. A rules tangle to try to play one.	PGtF/MonF
Half-Drow	D	Med	–	Access to strong ACFs (both half-elf and elf ones), darkvision, otherwise mediocre.	DrU/RoF
Half-Drow (Deepwyrm)	C	Med	–	As half-drow, but gains dragonblood subtype and detect magic/disguise self SLAs.	DM
Half-Elf	D	Med	–	Access to strong ACFs (both half-elf and elf ones), otherwise mediocre.	Core
Half-Elf (Aquatic)	D	Med	–	Swim speed, penalized slightly away from the coast. Cannot take half-elf skill bonuses ACF, still gets substitution levels.	Storm
Half-Elf (Arctic)	D	Med	–	As half-elf but cannot take half-elf skill bonuses ACF.	SRD
Half-Elf (Desert)	D	Med	–	As half-elf.	SRD
Half-Elf (Fire)	D	Med	–	As half-elf.	SRD
Half-Elf (Forestlord)	C	Med	–	As half-elf except gains dragonblood subtype and short distance teleport-through-trees. Cannot take half-elf skill bonus ACF.	DM
Half-Elf (Jungle)	D	Med	–	Cannot take half-elf skill bonuses ACF, still gets substitution levels.	SRD
Half-Elf (Krynn)	D	Med	–	As half-elf, but with 30ft darkvision.	SRD
Half-Orc	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Access to a strong ACF (bonus favored enemy).	Core
Half-Orc (Aquatic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but has a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Half-Orc (Arctic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Half-Orc (Desert)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	As half-orc but trades darkvision for low-light vision, Run bonus feat.	SRD
Half-Orc (Frostblood)	A	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but turns ranger’s bonus Endurance into a bonus feat of choice, vulnerable to fire damage, dragonblood subtype.	Dm
Half-Orc (Jungle)	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Half-Orc (Scablands)	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc.	Sand
Half-Orc (Water)	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc.	SRD
Halfling	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Access to an incredible ACF.	Core
Halfling (Aquatic)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but has a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Halfling (Arctic)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling.	SRD
Halfling (Deep)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As hafling, but stonecunning and darkvision instead of bonuses on athletics skills.	Core
Halfling (Desert)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling.	SRD
Halfling (Ghostwise)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Trades save bonuses for 20ft telepathy that doesn't qualify for Mindsight. Cannot take halfling ranger's save-boosting favored enemy ACF. B-rated if your DM throws you a bone and lets you take mindsight.	FRCS
Halfling (Glimmerskin)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but trades Move Silently bonus for dragonblood subtype and 1/day +2 bonus on a save.	DM
Halfling (Jungle)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Poison use, but cannot take halfling ranger's save-boosting favored enemy ACF.	SRD
Halfling (Shoal)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but has a swim speed and no bonus on thrown/sling attacks.	Storm
Halfling (Strongheart)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Bonus feat, but cannot take halfling ranger’s save-boosting favored enemy ACF.	FRCS
Halfling (Tallfellow)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but bonuses on perception skills instead of athletics skills.	Core
Halfling (Tundra)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but bonus on Survival instead of Climb.	Frost
Halfling (Unsheltered)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Dodge + one of Iron Will/Great Fortitude/Lightning Reflexes bonus feats, cannot take halfling ranger's save-boosting favored enemy ACF.	Dr320
Halfling (Water)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con	Even better than normal halflings. Access to an incredible ACF.	SRD
Hellbred (Body)	B	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	Can use evil effects and items; bonus devil-touched feat at 4th and 14th levels.	FCII
Hellbred (Spirit)	D	Med	–2 Con, +2 Cha	Can use evil effects and items; darkvision; telepathy at 15th level.	FCII
Hengeyokai (Badger)	A	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Con in hybrid form	Alternate form (badger, hybrid); hybrid form has 10ft burrow speed, badger form is Tiny but has 2 claws+bite and may have the normal badger's rage ability (ask your DM). Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Carp)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (carp, hybrid); hybrid form has 30ft swim speed, carp form is a fish. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Cat)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (cat, hybrid); cat form has 2 claws+bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Crab)	D	Med	–2 Wis	Alternate form (crab, hybrid); hybrid form has +1 natural armor, crab form is a has 2 claws. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Crane)	S	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (crane, hybrid); hybrid form has 20ft fly speed, crane form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Dog)	C	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Con in hybrid form	Alternate form (dog, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Survival, dog form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Fox)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (fox, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Escape Artist, fox form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Hare)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (hare, hybrid); hybrid form has 40ft land speed, hare form is Tiny and has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Monkey)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (monkey, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Climb, monkey form is Tiny and has 30ft climb speed, bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Raccoon Dog)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Str in hybrid form	Alternate form (raccoon dog, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Survival, raccoon dog form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Rat)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (rat, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Hide, rat form is Tiny and has 15ft climb speed, bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Sparrow)	S	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (sparrow, hybrid); hybrid form has 20ft fly speed, sparrow form has 50ft fly speed. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Weasel)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Con in hybrid form	Alternate form (weasel, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Move Silently, weasel form has 20ft climb speed, bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Human	A	Med	–	Bonus feat! Bonus skills!	Core
Human (Complacent)	D	Med	+2 any	No bonus feat or bonus skill points.	Dr320
Human (Silverbrow)	A	Med	–	Human, but with dragonblood subtype and feather fall SLA instead of bonus skill points.	DM
Illumian	B	Med	–	A variety of useful options, though most aren't as good without multiclassing.	RoD
Jermlaine	S	Tiny	–8 Str, +6 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Int, +6 Wis, –6 Cha	Tiny, 40ft movespeed, incredible stats, access to Fangshields Ranger.	MMII
Jerren	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling, but RAW cannot take halfling ranger’s save-boosting favored enemy ACF. Good triumphs over evil! (More seriously, they're just halflings if you change their racial bonus on saves to a luck bonus, since halfling got that change in the 3e to 3.5 update.)	BoVD
Kalashtar	C	Med	–	Mindlink PLA, access to unique magic items for psionics-boosting.	ECS
Kender	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis	Immunity to fear.	DCS
Kenku	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Gets +4 when flanking instead of +2; can mimic voices.	MMIII
Khepri	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Female only, bonuses against enchantments and gazes, cannot speak (uses sign language).	Dr352
Killoren	B	Med	–	Changeable skill bonus, significant Knowledge (nature) boost, access to Fangshields Ranger.	RotW
Kobold	B	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to solid ACFs and strong racial feats, 3 natural weapons.	Core/Web
Kobold (Aquatic)	C	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	As kobold but with swim speed; can't breathe air.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Arctic)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Wis	As kobold but with more split stat penalties.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Desert)	C	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis	As kobold but with no light sensitivity and trades Con penalty for Wis penalty.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Earth)	B	Small	–2 Str, –2 Con	As kobold but trades Dex bonus for a lesser Str penalty.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Jungle)	B	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Int	As kobold but trades Con penalty for Int penalty.	SRD/Web
Korobokuru	C	Small	+2 Con, –2 Int	Similar to dwarves, but worse (no stonecunning, no dwarf ranger ACF, no boosted speed in armor).	OA
Krinth	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Bonuses against fear, access to a strong combat familiar feat.	CoR
Laika	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	Track bonus feat, 1/day speak with canine animals.	Web
Lupin	C	Med	–	Worse version of scent ability, access to Fangshields Ranger.	DrC
Maeluth (Lesser)	A	Med	–2 Dex, +4 Con	As dwarf, but can 1/day make a weapon unholy for 1 minute.	PGtF/FF
Maenad	D	Med	–	Psionic subtype, energy ray PLA (poor scaling).	SRD
Mechanatrix (Lesser)	A	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Shocking grasp SLA, heals from electricity damage.	PGtF/FF
Minotaur (Krynn)	B	Med	+4 Str, –2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Scent, gore attack, +2 natural armor.	DCS
Mongrelfolk	A	Med	+4 Con, –2 Int, –4 Cha	Counts as any race they want to for magic items.	RoD
Muckdweller	S	Tiny	–6 Str, +6 Dex, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	20ft swim speed, Ref-or-blind attack.	SK
Neanderthal	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Int	Cold Endurance effective bonus feat, illiterate, counts as human.	Frost
Neraphim	C	Med	–	Outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	PlH
Nezumi	D	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	40ft base land speed; unarmed strike deals 1d4 damage, can take Scent as a feat.	OA
Orc	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Strong physical baseline but poor mental stats, light sensitivity.	Core
Orc (Aquatic)	D	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Swim speed, can't breathe air.	SRD
Orc (Arctic)	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	No darkvision, but no light sensitivity.	SRD
Orc (Desert)	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Endurance bonus feat, no darkvision.	SRD
Orc (Frostblood)	B	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Turns ranger’s bonus Endurance into a bonus feat of choice, vulnerable to fire damage, dragonblood subtype.	DM
Orc (Jungle)	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Orc (Losel)	S	Med	+4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, –4 Int, –4 Cha	Climb speed, darkvision, two natural weapons, no light sensitivity.	LGJ3
Orc (Water)	A	Med	+4 Str, +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Incredibly strong physical stats. S-rated if you apply dragonborn.	SRD
Para-Genasi (Lesser Dust)	S	Med	+4 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Does not need to breathe.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Ice)	A	Med	–2 Dex, +4 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Chill metal SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Magma)	B	Med	+2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Wis	Heat metal SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Ooze)	A	Med	+4 Con, –2 Cha	Grease SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Smoke)	B	Med	+2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Pyrotechnics SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Steam)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	Obscuring mist SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Phanaton	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	Glide ability. Described and drawn with prehensile tails, but with no ability in their stat block. Ask your DM how you want to handle it. A-rated if counted as a true third hand that gives you access to Multiweapon Fighting, B-rated otherwise.	Dr351/Dr339
Raptoran	B	Med	–	Level-scaling fly speed frees up later build resources.	RotW
Rilkan	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	All Knowledges are counted as trained.	MoI
Sea Kin	D	Med	–	30ft swim speed, water dependency.	RoD
Shadowswyft (Lesser)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	40ft land speed, light blindness, +2 on init checks.	PGtF/PlH
Shalarin	X	Med	+4 Str, +4 Dex	Swim speed, 5ft land speed, can't breathe air.	PGtF/MonF
Shifter	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Variety of racial traits, access to solid ACFs and feat support.	ECS/RoE
Shifter (Saurian)	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Similar to shifters, but with dinosaur theming. Explicitly can use shifter feats with their shifting; if not allowed to take shifter ACFs and so on, these are B-rated.	Dr328
Shyft (Lesser)	S	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Ethereal jaunt SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/FF
Skarns	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex	Natural weapon.	MoI
Spellscale	D	Med	–2 Con, +2 Cha	Changeable bonuses for spells and irrelevant-to-ranger skills each day.	RotD
Spiker	D	Med	–	Natural armor spikes, DR 2/bludgeoning, bad at wearing armor.	PlH
Spirit Folk (Bamboo)	C	Med	–	Trackless step ability.	OA
Spirit Folk (Mountain)	B	Med	–	30ft climb speed.	Una
Spirit Folk (River)	B	Med	–	30ft swim speed, water breathing.	Una/OA
Spirit Folk (Sea)	B	Med	–	30ft swim speed, water breathing, +2 on saves vs fire spells/SLAs.	OA
Svirfneblin (Lesser)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Stonecunning, access to gnome ACFs.	PGtF
Synad	B	Med	–	Psionic subtype, 1/day +2 bonus on any roll (can use after finding out if you failed, if it'd matter), 1/day take a mental action as a swift.	CPsi
T'kel	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int	Swim speed, 2 claws, access to Fangshields Ranger.	Dr317
Tasloi	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, 20ft climb speed, light sensitivity.	ShS
Tibbit	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Cat turn into a cat, access to Fangshields Ranger.	DrCom
Tiefling (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Darkless SLA; energy resistances.	PGtF/Core
Tiefling (Savage Progression)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	Outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	Web
Tortle	B	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Endurance bonus feat, +3 natural armor.	Dr315
Underfolk	D	Med	–	+10 on Hide checks in rocky terrain.	RoD
Vanara	B	Med	–	20ft climb speed.	OA/Dr318
Vasharan	D	Med	–	As human, but must take a vile feat as their bonus feat.	BoVD
Vril	B	Small	+2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Can get a variable DR, interesting racial feat options (1/day aoe save-or-daze on a feat).	DotU/Web
Warforged	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Amazing racial traits and defenses, easily makes up for the -2 Wis, natural weapon.	RoE
Warforged Scout	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Amazing racial traits and defenses, natural weapon; worse than base warforged in most ways.	MMIII
Wispling (Lesser)	S	Small	–2 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Int	As halfling, but with a disguise self SLA.	PGtF/FF
Worghest (Lesser)	A	Med	+2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	Track bonus feat, can turn into a wolf.	PGtF/Dr350
Xeph	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Psionic subtype.	SRD
Xvart	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	Speak with bats SLA.	Dr339
Zenythri (Lesser)	S	Med	+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	True strike SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/MM2

Race Name	Rating	Size	Ability Score Adjustments	Notable Features	Source
Anthropomorphic Bat	S	Small	–4 Str, +6 Wis, –2 Cha	Fly speed, access to Fangshields Ranger; little else at LA +0 gives this much Wisdom.	SS
Anthropomorphic Lizard	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Monkey	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –2 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Rat	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Raven	S	Small	–6 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Fly speed, natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Anthropomorphic Weasel	S	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Wis, –4 Cha	Natural weapon, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SS
Beguiler	S	Small	–4 Str, +6 Dex, +2 Int	LA +0 (cohort), 2 claws + bite, constant true seeing, access to Fangshields Ranger.	ShS
Chaond (Lesser)	S	Med	+4 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Shatter SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/MM2
Fey'ri (Lesser)	S	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int	40ft fly speed, variety of SLAs, change shape, access to elf ACFs.	PGtF/MonF
Goblin (Air)	S	Small	–2 Str, +4 Dex, –2 Con	30ft land speed, amazing stats for Dex builds, does not breathe.	SRD
Hengeyokai (Crane)	S	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (crane, hybrid); hybrid form has 20ft fly speed, crane form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Sparrow)	S	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (sparrow, hybrid); hybrid form has 20ft fly speed, sparrow form has 50ft fly speed. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Jermlaine	S	Tiny	–8 Str, +6 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Int, +6 Wis, –6 Cha	Tiny, 40ft movespeed, incredible stats, access to Fangshields Ranger.	MMII
Muckdweller	S	Tiny	–6 Str, +6 Dex, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	20ft swim speed, Ref-or-blind attack.	SK
Orc (Losel)	S	Med	+4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, –4 Int, –4 Cha	Climb speed, darkvision, two natural weapons, no light sensitivity.	LGJ3
Para-Genasi (Lesser Dust)	S	Med	+4 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Does not need to breathe.	PGtF/Dr297
Shyft (Lesser)	S	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Ethereal jaunt SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/FF
Wispling (Lesser)	S	Small	–2 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Int	As halfling, but with a disguise self SLA.	PGtF/FF
Zenythri (Lesser)	S	Med	+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	True strike SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/MM2
Azerblood (Lesser)	A	Med	+2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Heat metal SLA, access to dwarf ranger ACF.	PGtF/Dr350
Azurin	A	Med	–	Human but with 1 bonus essentia for incarnum instead of bonus skill points.	MoI
Celadrin (Lesser)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Cha	Scorching ray SLA, access to elf ranger ACFs, fire resistance 10.	PGtF/Dr350
D'hin'ni (Lesser)	A	Small	+2 Dex, –2 Wis, +2 Cha	Wind wall SLA, access to the incredible halfling ranger ACF.	PGtF/Dr350
Dwarf (Earth)	A	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Access to alright ACF, loses bonus on saves vs spells.	SRD
Dwarf (Exiled)	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Trades stonecunning, darkvision, and stability for any bonus feat, and higher bonuses against goblins and giants. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	Dr320
Elf (Declining)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf, but gains Weapon Focus (two elf weapons), loses immunity to sleep, long lifespan, and trance.	Dr320
Elf (Painted)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int	As elf.	Sand
Elf (Snow)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	As elf.	Frost
Elf (Wild)	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int,	As elf.	Core
Elf (Wood)	A	Med	+2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Int	As elf.	Core
Gnome (Whisper)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	As gnome but with a silence SLA, amazing stealth skills, 30ft land speed.	RoS
Half-Orc (Frostblood)	A	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but turns ranger’s bonus Endurance into a bonus feat of choice, vulnerable to fire damage, dragonblood subtype.	Dm
Halfling	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Access to an incredible ACF.	Core
Halfling (Arctic)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling.	SRD
Halfling (Deep)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As hafling, but stonecunning and darkvision instead of bonuses on athletics skills.	Core
Halfling (Desert)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling.	SRD
Halfling (Glimmerskin)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but trades Move Silently bonus for dragonblood subtype and 1/day +2 bonus on a save.	DM
Halfling (Shoal)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but has a swim speed and no bonus on thrown/sling attacks.	Storm
Halfling (Strongheart)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Bonus feat, but cannot take halfling ranger’s save-boosting favored enemy ACF.	FRCS
Halfling (Tallfellow)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but bonuses on perception skills instead of athletics skills.	Core
Halfling (Tundra)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but bonus on Survival instead of Climb.	Frost
Halfling (Water)	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con	Even better than normal halflings. Access to an incredible ACF.	SRD
Hengeyokai (Badger)	A	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Con in hybrid form	Alternate form (badger, hybrid); hybrid form has 10ft burrow speed, badger form is Tiny but has 2 claws+bite and may have the normal badger's rage ability (ask your DM). Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Human	A	Med	–	Bonus feat! Bonus skills!	Core
Human (Silverbrow)	A	Med	–	Human, but with dragonblood subtype and feather fall SLA instead of bonus skill points.	DM
Jerren	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling, but RAW cannot take halfling ranger’s save-boosting favored enemy ACF. Good triumphs over evil! (More seriously, they're just halflings if you change their racial bonus on saves to a luck bonus, since halfling got that change in the 3e to 3.5 update.)	BoVD
Maeluth (Lesser)	A	Med	–2 Dex, +4 Con	As dwarf, but can 1/day make a weapon unholy for 1 minute.	PGtF/FF
Mechanatrix (Lesser)	A	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Shocking grasp SLA, heals from electricity damage.	PGtF/FF
Mongrelfolk	A	Med	+4 Con, –2 Int, –4 Cha	Counts as any race they want to for magic items.	RoD
Orc (Water)	A	Med	+4 Str, +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Incredibly strong physical stats. S-rated if you apply dragonborn.	SRD
Para-Genasi (Lesser Ice)	A	Med	–2 Dex, +4 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Chill metal SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Ooze)	A	Med	+4 Con, –2 Cha	Grease SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Shifter	A	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Variety of racial traits, access to solid ACFs and feat support.	ECS/RoE
Shifter (Saurian)	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Similar to shifters, but with dinosaur theming. Explicitly can use shifter feats with their shifting; if not allowed to take shifter ACFs and so on, these are B-rated.	Dr328
Tibbit	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Cat turn into a cat, access to Fangshields Ranger.	DrCom
Warforged	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Amazing racial traits and defenses, easily makes up for the -2 Wis, natural weapon.	RoE
Worghest (Lesser)	A	Med	+2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	Track bonus feat, can turn into a wolf.	PGtF/Dr350
Aasimar (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Wis, +2 Cha	Daylight SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/Core
Axani (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Int, +2 Wis	Calm emotions SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/Dr297
Cansin (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Int, +2 Cha	Entropic shield SLA, energy resistances.	PGtF/Dr297
Cyclopean (Feral-Kind)	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Int	Penalty on ranged attack rolls, +1 on init checks and Ref saves.	Dr323
Daelkyr Half-Blood	B	Med	–	Symbiont for free and benefits to it, access to Fangshields Ranger.	MoE
Darfellan	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex	Swim speed, natural weapon.	Storm
Drow (Savage Progression)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int	Access to elf ACFs (ironically), dancing lights SLA, hand crossbow proficiency, light blindness.	Web
Dwarf (Deep)	B	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf, except +3 on saves vs spells/SLAs/poison, larger darkvision, and light sensitivity.	Core
Dwarf (Fireblood)	B	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf, but gains dragonblood subtype, fire resistance 5, and bonus AC vs dragons instead of vs giants. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	DM
Elf	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to strong ACFs, solid racial traits.	Core
Elf (Desert)	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As elf.	SRD
Elf (Fire)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	As elf but has fire resistance 5.	SRD
Elf (Forestlord)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf but loses proficencies for dragonblood subtype and a short distance teleport-through-trees.	DM
Elf (Gray)	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int	As elf.	Core
Elf (Illaeli)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf; implied to have a different favored class but none stated.	XPH
Elf (Moon)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf.	FRCS
Elf (Qualinesti)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf, but with 30ft darkvision.	DCS
Elf (Silvanesti)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Cha	As elf, but with 30ft darkvision.	DCS
Genasi (Lesser Air)	B	Med	+2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Levitate SLA, doesn't breathe.	PGtF/FRCS
Genasi (Lesser Earth)	B	Med	+2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Pass without trace SLA.	PGtF/FRCS
Glimmerfolk	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Some low-level light/illusion SLAs, outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	Dr321
Gnome (Arcane)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Wis	As gnome but trades the ability to talk to animals with Use Magic Device as a class skill.	Dr291
Gnome (River)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome, but with a swim speed, +1 init, and can talk to river animals (includes fish and birds in the area) instead of burrowing ones.	Dr291
Gnome (Techno)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome, but trades illusion benefits and racial SLAs for Alertness bonus feat.	Dr320
Goblin (Jungle)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, 20ft climb speed, trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Grippli	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	20ft climb speed, +4 to AC vs animals/vermin, Wild Talent bonus feat, net proficiency.	Dr324
Hadozee	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	Glide speed.	Storm
Half-Orc	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Access to a strong ACF (bonus favored enemy).	Core
Half-Orc (Scablands)	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc.	Sand
Half-Orc (Water)	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc.	SRD
Halfling (Aquatic)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As halfling but has a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Halfling (Unsheltered)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Dodge + one of Iron Will/Great Fortitude/Lightning Reflexes bonus feats, cannot take halfling ranger's save-boosting favored enemy ACF.	Dr320
Hellbred (Body)	B	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	Can use evil effects and items; bonus devil-touched feat at 4th and 14th levels.	FCII
Hengeyokai (Carp)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (carp, hybrid); hybrid form has 30ft swim speed, carp form is a fish. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Cat)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (cat, hybrid); cat form has 2 claws+bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Fox)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (fox, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Escape Artist, fox form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Hare)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (hare, hybrid); hybrid form has 40ft land speed, hare form is Tiny and has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Raccoon Dog)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Str in hybrid form	Alternate form (raccoon dog, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Survival, raccoon dog form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Rat)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (rat, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Hide, rat form is Tiny and has 15ft climb speed, bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Hengeyokai (Weasel)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Con in hybrid form	Alternate form (weasel, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Move Silently, weasel form has 20ft climb speed, bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Illumian	B	Med	–	A variety of useful options, though most aren't as good without multiclassing.	RoD
Kenku	B	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Gets +4 when flanking instead of +2; can mimic voices.	MMIII
Khepri	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Female only, bonuses against enchantments and gazes, cannot speak (uses sign language).	Dr352
Killoren	B	Med	–	Changeable skill bonus, significant Knowledge (nature) boost, access to Fangshields Ranger.	RotW
Kobold	B	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to solid ACFs and strong racial feats, 3 natural weapons.	Core/Web
Kobold (Arctic)	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Wis	As kobold but with more split stat penalties.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Earth)	B	Small	–2 Str, –2 Con	As kobold but trades Dex bonus for a lesser Str penalty.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Jungle)	B	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Int	As kobold but trades Con penalty for Int penalty.	SRD/Web
Minotaur (Krynn)	B	Med	+4 Str, –2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Scent, gore attack, +2 natural armor.	DCS
Neanderthal	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Int	Cold Endurance effective bonus feat, illiterate, counts as human.	Frost
Orc (Frostblood)	B	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Turns ranger’s bonus Endurance into a bonus feat of choice, vulnerable to fire damage, dragonblood subtype.	DM
Para-Genasi (Lesser Magma)	B	Med	+2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Wis	Heat metal SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Smoke)	B	Med	+2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Pyrotechnics SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Para-Genasi (Lesser Steam)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	Obscuring mist SLA.	PGtF/Dr297
Phanaton	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	Glide ability. Described and drawn with prehensile tails, but with no ability in their stat block. Ask your DM how you want to handle it. A-rated if counted as a true third hand that gives you access to Multiweapon Fighting, B-rated otherwise.	Dr351/Dr339
Raptoran	B	Med	–	Level-scaling fly speed frees up later build resources.	RotW
Spirit Folk (Mountain)	B	Med	–	30ft climb speed.	Una
Spirit Folk (River)	B	Med	–	30ft swim speed, water breathing.	Una/OA
Spirit Folk (Sea)	B	Med	–	30ft swim speed, water breathing, +2 on saves vs fire spells/SLAs.	OA
Synad	B	Med	–	Psionic subtype, 1/day +2 bonus on any roll (can use after finding out if you failed, if it'd matter), 1/day take a mental action as a swift.	CPsi
T'kel	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int	Swim speed, 2 claws, access to Fangshields Ranger.	Dr317
Tasloi	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, 20ft climb speed, light sensitivity.	ShS
Tiefling (Lesser)	B	Med	+2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha	Darkless SLA; energy resistances.	PGtF/Core
Tiefling (Savage Progression)	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Cha	Outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	Web
Tortle	B	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Cha	Endurance bonus feat, +3 natural armor.	Dr315
Vanara	B	Med	–	20ft climb speed.	OA/Dr318
Vril	B	Small	+2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Can get a variable DR, interesting racial feat options (1/day aoe save-or-daze on a feat).	DotU/Web
Warforged Scout	B	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Amazing racial traits and defenses, natural weapon; worse than base warforged in most ways.	MMIII
Aasimar (Savage Progression)	C	Med	+2 Cha	Outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	Web
Asherati	C	Med	–	Heat Endurance bonus feat, can swim in sand.	Sand
Aventi	C	Med	–	Human but amphibious, no bonus feat, no bonus skills.	Storm
Bhuka	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Heat Endurance bonus feat.	Sand
Changeling (Eberron)	C	Med	–	Access to Warshaper PrC.	ECS
Drow (Lesser)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to elf ACFs (ironically), hand crossbow proficiency, light blindness.	PGtF
Duergar (Lesser)	C	Med	+2 Con, –4 Cha	Enlarge person SLA, access to dwarf ranger ACF.	PGtF
Duergar (Savage Progression)	C	Med	+2 Con, –4 Cha	Enlarge person SLA, access to dwarf ranger ACF.	Web
Duskling	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	1 bonus essentia, access to Fangshields Ranger.	MoI
Dwarf	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Solid racial traits (stonecunning, bonus on saves vs spells!), access to alright ACF, but nothing else to write home about.	Core
Dwarf (Aquatic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –4 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf but with a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Dwarf (Arctic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –4 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Loses stonecunning for an ice-based equivalent. RAW cannot access dwarf ranger ACF, but imo houseruling the swap for their ice version seems fair.	SRD
Dwarf (Badlands)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Heat Endurance as a bonus feat, loses stonecunning, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	Sand
Dwarf (Dark)	C	Med	+2 Con, –4 Cha	As dwarf, except double darkvision range and light sensitivity.	DCS
Dwarf (Desert)	C	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con	Racial combat bonuses apply against dragons instead, loses stonecunning, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	SRD
Dwarf (Dream)	C	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con	Can see ethereal creatures, +1 CL on divinations when standing on the ground, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	RoS
Dwarf (Glacier)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Trades stonecunning, darkvision, and stability for any bonus feat, and higher bonuses against goblins and giants. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	Frost
Dwarf (Gold)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Dex	Cold Endurance effective bonus feat, loses stonecunning for an ice-based equivalent. RAW cannot access dwarf ranger ACF, but imo houseruling the swap for their ice version seems fair.	Core
Dwarf (Gully)	C	Small	+2 Dex, +2 Con, –4 Int, –4 Cha	Loses the good dwarf racial traits, takes a large penalty against fear effects, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	DCS
Dwarf (Mountain)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Completely identical to base dwarf.	Core
Dwarf (Seacliff)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf but no bonus against orcs/goblins. Access to alright ACF.	Storm
Dwarf (Shield)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Completely identical to base dwarf.	FRCS
Dwarf (Stonefire)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Completely identical to base dwarf except favored class is wilder.	XPH
Dwarf (Wild)	C	Small	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Poison use, +3 on saves vs poison, fire resistance 5, cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	RoF
Elan	C	Med	–2 Cha	Psionic subtype, access to Fangshields Ranger.	SRD
Elf (Aquatic)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int	As elf but has a swim speed and can't breathe air for long.	Core
Elf (Arctic)	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As elf but loses secret door detection.	SRD
Elf (Jungle)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	As elf but loses secret door detection.	SRD
Elf (Kagonesti)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As elf, but with 30ft darkvision and different proficiencies.	DCS
Elf (Star)	C	Med	–2 Con, +2 Cha	As elf, but gets ghost touch on all gear at night instead of weapon proficiencies.	Una
Elf (Sun)	C	Med	–2 Con, +2 Int	As elf.	FRCS
Elf (Valley)	C	Med	–2 Con, +2 Int	As elf, but with a +4 on Disguise checks to appear human.	LGJ2
Extaminar	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Can talk to and charm snakes.	CoR
Genasi (Lesser Water)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Create water SLA.	PGtF/FRCS
Gnome	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	Access to solid ACFs.	Core
Gnome (Air)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As gnome but does not breathe.	SRD
Gnome (Aquatic)	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome but has a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Gnome (Arctic)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	SRD
Gnome (Desert)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	SRD
Gnome (Forest)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome, with a constant pass without trace effect.	Core
Gnome (Ice)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome but slightly different SLAs.	Frost
Gnome (Jungle)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	SRD
Gnome (Mad)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	As tinker gnome, but with +2 on Open Lock/Disable Device checks and no Will bonus.	DCS
Gnome (Stonehunter)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome but trades illusion benefits for dragonblood subtype.	DM
Gnome (Tinker)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Wis	Gets +2 on Will saves.	DCS
Gnome (Wavecrest)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	As gnome.	Storm
Goblin	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, racial stealth bonuses.	Core
Goblin (Aquatic)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha	Swim speed, can't breathe air.	SRD
Goblin (Arctic)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha	30ft land speed.	SRD
Half-Drow (Deepwyrm)	C	Med	–	As half-drow, but gains dragonblood subtype and detect magic/disguise self SLAs.	DM
Half-Elf (Forestlord)	C	Med	–	As half-elf except gains dragonblood subtype and short distance teleport-through-trees. Cannot take half-elf skill bonus ACF.	DM
Half-Orc (Aquatic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but has a swim speed and can't breathe air.	SRD
Half-Orc (Arctic)	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Half-Orc (Desert)	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	As half-orc but trades darkvision for low-light vision, Run bonus feat.	SRD
Half-Orc (Jungle)	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	As half-orc but trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Halfling (Ghostwise)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Trades save bonuses for 20ft telepathy that doesn't qualify for Mindsight. Cannot take halfling ranger's save-boosting favored enemy ACF. B-rated if your DM throws you a bone and lets you take mindsight.	FRCS
Halfling (Jungle)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Poison use, but cannot take halfling ranger's save-boosting favored enemy ACF.	SRD
Hengeyokai (Dog)	C	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Con in hybrid form	Alternate form (dog, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Survival, dog form has bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Kalashtar	C	Med	–	Mindlink PLA, access to unique magic items for psionics-boosting.	ECS
Kobold (Aquatic)	C	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	As kobold but with swim speed; can't breathe air.	SRD/Web
Kobold (Desert)	C	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis	As kobold but with no light sensitivity and trades Con penalty for Wis penalty.	SRD/Web
Korobokuru	C	Small	+2 Con, –2 Int	Similar to dwarves, but worse (no stonecunning, no dwarf ranger ACF, no boosted speed in armor).	OA
Krinth	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Bonuses against fear, access to a strong combat familiar feat.	CoR
Laika	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Int	Track bonus feat, 1/day speak with canine animals.	Web
Lupin	C	Med	–	Worse version of scent ability, access to Fangshields Ranger.	DrC
Neraphim	C	Med	–	Outsider type (proficiency with all simple and martial weapons), access to Fangshields Ranger.	PlH
Orc	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Strong physical baseline but poor mental stats, light sensitivity.	Core
Orc (Arctic)	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	No darkvision, but no light sensitivity.	SRD
Orc (Desert)	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Endurance bonus feat, no darkvision.	SRD
Orc (Jungle)	C	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Rilkan	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	All Knowledges are counted as trained.	MoI
Shadowswyft (Lesser)	C	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	40ft land speed, light blindness, +2 on init checks.	PGtF/PlH
Skarns	C	Med	+2 Str, –2 Dex	Natural weapon.	MoI
Spirit Folk (Bamboo)	C	Med	–	Trackless step ability.	OA
Svirfneblin (Lesser)	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Stonecunning, access to gnome ACFs.	PGtF
Xeph	C	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Psionic subtype.	SRD
Aelfborn	D	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Wis, further –1/2 level in Wis	Variant half-elves; bonus feat + bonus Skill Focus every 5 levels.	Dr307
Buomman	D	Med	+2 Wis, –2 Cha	Cannot talk without taking Wis damage.	PlH
Cyclopean (Menta)	D	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Con	Penalty on ranged attack rolls, augury ability.	Dr323
Dwarf (Jungle)	D	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	As dwarf but no darkvision and no stonecunning. Cannot access dwarf ranger ACF.	SRD
Faun	D	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Access to Fangshields Ranger.	DD
Genasi (Lesser Fire)	D	Med	+2 Int, –2 Cha	Special control flames SLA.	PGtF/FRCS
Goblin (Desert)	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	30ft land speed, trades darkvision for low-light vision.	SRD
Gruwaar	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis, +2 Cha	Disguise self SLA, access to Fangshields Ranger.	Dr317
Half-Drow	D	Med	–	Access to strong ACFs (both half-elf and elf ones), darkvision, otherwise mediocre.	DrU/RoF
Half-Elf	D	Med	–	Access to strong ACFs (both half-elf and elf ones), otherwise mediocre.	Core
Half-Elf (Aquatic)	D	Med	–	Swim speed, penalized slightly away from the coast. Cannot take half-elf skill bonuses ACF, still gets substitution levels.	Storm
Half-Elf (Arctic)	D	Med	–	As half-elf but cannot take half-elf skill bonuses ACF.	SRD
Half-Elf (Desert)	D	Med	–	As half-elf.	SRD
Half-Elf (Fire)	D	Med	–	As half-elf.	SRD
Half-Elf (Jungle)	D	Med	–	Cannot take half-elf skill bonuses ACF, still gets substitution levels.	SRD
Half-Elf (Krynn)	D	Med	–	As half-elf, but with 30ft darkvision.	SRD
Hellbred (Spirit)	D	Med	–2 Con, +2 Cha	Can use evil effects and items; darkvision; telepathy at 15th level.	FCII
Hengeyokai (Crab)	D	Med	–2 Wis	Alternate form (crab, hybrid); hybrid form has +1 natural armor, crab form is a has 2 claws. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Human (Complacent)	D	Med	+2 any	No bonus feat or bonus skill points.	Dr320
Kender	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Wis	Immunity to fear.	DCS
Nezumi	D	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	40ft base land speed; unarmed strike deals 1d4 damage, can take Scent as a feat.	OA
Orc (Aquatic)	D	Med	+4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Swim speed, can't breathe air.	SRD
Sea Kin	D	Med	–	30ft swim speed, water dependency.	RoD
Spellscale	D	Med	–2 Con, +2 Cha	Changeable bonuses for spells and irrelevant-to-ranger skills each day.	RotD
Spiker	D	Med	–	Natural armor spikes, DR 2/bludgeoning, bad at wearing armor.	PlH
Underfolk	D	Med	–	+10 on Hide checks in rocky terrain.	RoD
Vasharan	D	Med	–	As human, but must take a vile feat as their bonus feat.	BoVD
Xvart	D	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Cha	Speak with bats SLA.	Dr339
Changeling (Fey)	F	Med	–2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, +2 Cha	Counts as both fey and humanoid for effects.	Dr304
Deep Imaskari	F	Med	–2 Dex, +2 Int	1/day recall a 1st-level prepared spell you cast.	Und
Anthropomorphic Toad	X	Small	–4 Str, –2 Dex, +6 Wis, –2 Cha	5ft movement speed, access to Fangshields Ranger; little else at LA +0 gives this much Wisdom.	SS
Bakemono	X	Small	+2 Str, +2 Con, –8 Int, –4 Cha	–8 Int makes them very awkward to allow; +6 natural armor can be too strong at lowest levels.	OA
Dwarf (Aleithian)	X	Med	+2 Con, +2 Int, –4 Cha	As dwarf but relates to psionics; 3.0 psionics material that is incompatible with 3.5 without a full rehaul.	Web
Hairy Spider	X	Fine	–10 Str, +4 Dex, no Int, –8 Cha	Technically LA 0. A rules tangle to try to play one.	PGtF/MonF
Shalarin	X	Med	+4 Str, +4 Dex	Swim speed, 5ft land speed, can't breathe air.	PGtF/MonF
Hengeyokai (Monkey)	B	Med	–2 Wis; +2 Dex in hybrid form	Alternate form (monkey, hybrid); hybrid form has +4 Climb, monkey form is Tiny and has 30ft climb speed, bite. Access to Warshaper PrC.	OA/Dr318
Maenad	D	Med	–	Psionic subtype, energy ray PLA (poor scaling).	SRD

On S-Rated Races: The S-rated races in the races table are for completeness’s sake, but I do not recommend using them. Their abilities and stat boosts will probably unbalance your game unless you’re extremely careful. Some of them may be allowable on a case by case basis, but most should probably just be avoided. My rating them this high is an exercise in comprehensiveness, rather than approval or recommendation.

The exception to this is the beguiler, which is just as strong and unbalancing but is also uncommonly delightful.

(Art by the late Christopher Rush.)

Look at them! They’re adorable! They’re magic possums that can hold a sword! If you convince your DM to let you play a beguiler ranger, PLEASE tell me because it will make my day. But also please be sure that you and your DM know what you’re doing with it.

On Unbalanced Stat Boosts: Some races listed have ability score bonuses and penalties that go beyond what the core races have. Some examples include the orc (+4 Str while penalizing all mental stats, rated B), the lesser maeluth (–2 Dex and +4 Con, rated A), and the lesser aasimar (+2 Wis and +2 Cha, rated B). I’ve rated these based on how good they are for ranger, and honestly, some of them are still balanced even with the higher scores?. Someone picking a lesser aasimar for a ranger build in theory is getting far above the usual stats, but since only Wisdom is applicable to ranger and they have no racial ACFs, is that really that amazing a pick? In my opinion, not really. Meanwhile, a race like the lesser zenythri (+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Cha) is rated S because it has bonuses to every single stat most rangers will care about and has no meaningful drawback for it.

Still, if a race of any rating has ability scores beyond the norm for 3.5 races, I think it’s reasonable for a group to not want to allow them for the sake of keeping stat arrays more predictable.

An Extra Rating (X): For races only, I’ve added an extra rating to the scale, orange (X). This is used exclusively for races that, while not necessarily completely unbalancing, are extremely tricky to make work. Races with a natural 5-foot land speed, for example, are in theory paying a heavy cost for their bonus ability scores, but no player should pick them without knowing exactly what they’re doing because of the sheer clunkiness of that element in actual play.

S-rated and X-rated races do not have full writeup ratings in this section.

Common Races

There are a lot of LA +0 races. Because I’m a weirdo, I’ve looked up all of the ones I can find. Still, to not overwhelm, I’m going to list the core races and some other commonly-used races first. If you want to look at the larger list there’s two other tables below in spoiler tags (one for races that are good for ranger, and the other with a list of all LA +0 races I could find and their ratings), as well as a spoiler tag with longer summaries of the options that are notably good for ranger.

Race	Rating	Size	Ability Scores	Notes	Source
Dwarf	C	Med	+2 Con, –2 Cha	Solid racial traits (stonecunning, bonus on saves vs spells!), access to alright ACF, but nothing else to write home about.	Core
Elf	B	Med	+2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to strong ACFs, solid racial traits.	Core
Gnome	C	Small	–2 Str, +2 Con	Access to solid ACFs.	Core
Half-Elf	D	Med	–	Access to strong ACFs (both half-elf and elf ones), otherwise mediocre.	Core
Half-Orc	B	Med	+2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha	Access to a strong ACF (bonus favored enemy).	Core
Halfling	A	Small	–2 Str, +2 Dex	Access to an incredible ACF.	Core
Human	A	Med	–	Bonus feat! Bonus skills!	Core
Kobold	B	Small	–4 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con	Access to solid ACFs and strong racial feats, 3 natural weapons.	Core/Web
Warforged	A	Med	+2 Con, –2 Wis, –2 Cha	Amazing racial traits and defenses, easily makes up for the -2 Wis, natural weapon.	RoE

Most of the core races are out of the box fairly underwhelming when their variants exist (humans, elves, and halflings excepted). If you’re looking to play one of the races out of the Player’s Handbook, I genuinely recommend playing one of the higher-rated variants, as follows. The exception to this is half-elf, which, while it has its own unique ACFs, doesn’t have any like… really good variant? You’re going to have to live with the best ones being the dragonblood versions and make do, for half-elf. You could also apply one of the LA +0 templates from Dragon Magazine #306.

Base Race	A-Rated Variants	B-Rated Variants
Dwarves	Azerblood (lesser), Earth, Exiled, Maeluth (lesser)	Deep, Fireblood
Elves	Celadrin (lesser), Declining, Painted, Snow, Wild, Wood	Standard PHB elf plus Desert, Fire, Forestlord, Gray, Moon, Qualinesti, Silvanesi, Drow (savage progression)
Gnomes	Whisper	Arcane, River
Half-Elves*	—	—
Half-Orcs	Frostblood	Standard PHB half-orc plus Scablands, Water
Halflings	Standard PHB halfling plus Arctic, Deep, Desert, Glimmerskin, Jerren, Shoal, Strongheart, Tallfellow, Tundra, Water	Aquatic, Unsheltered
Humans	Standard PHB human plus Azurin, Silverbrow	—

* Half-elves suck. It’s just a fact of life for 3.5. If you want to play a half-elf you can still make a solid, viable character, but you’re giving up possible mechanical power. The half-elves I recommend in that case (rated C) are forestlord half-elf and deepwyrm half-drow (both of which are from Dragon Magic) or alternatively applying a Dr306 template.

You can find the sources and descriptions of these races below.

A-Rated Races

In my opinion, this is a sort of “sweet spot” for powerful races; this includes races with multiple relevant ability score boosts, good abilities, flexible bonus feats, and the like.

Azerblood (Lesser): Dr350 p. 50, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). A Medium-sized dwarf variant with +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Cha, a 30ft land speed (but no ability to ignore speed reduction from armor), most of the usual dwarf traits, a 1/day heat metal SLA, and +1 on saves against fire effects (further +1 per 5 levels). As far as dwarves go these are one of the best options; fire effects are common, 30ft land speed is good, and you have access to the dwarf ranger AC-boosting ACF.

Azurin: MoI p. 7. They’re humans (bonus feat included) but instead of the bonus skill points they get a bonus essentia. Super good if you’re using incarnum at all.

Celadrin (Lesser): Dr350 p. 52, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). A Medium-sized elf variant with +2 Dex, +2 Cha, and –2 Con. They have most of the usual elf traits, a small scaling bonus on Diplomacy checks, a 1/day scorching ray SLA, and fire resistance 10. Ten! This means you’re immune to nearly all nonmagical fire and can resist a lot of damage out of a common energy type.

D'hin'ni (Lesser): Dr350 p. 54, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). A Small-sized halfling variant with +2 Dex, +2 Cha, and –2 Wis. They have a bunch of the halfling traits (including the all-important +1 bonus on saves needed for the halfling ranger saves ACF), a +2 bonus on attacks with thrown weapons, and really good SLAs (prestidigitation at-will and one of gust of wind, whispering wind, or wind wall each day). Every type of halfling is amazing for rangers, but D’hin’ni are some of the best.

Dwarf (Earth): SRD. They’re dwarves with a better stonecunning and +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Dex, –2 Cha. They can access the dwarf ranger AC-boosting ACF, too. If your DM doesn’t allow lesser planetouched, this or exiled dwarf are the dwarves to go for.

Dwarf (Exiled): Dr320 p. 85. They’re dwarves-but-human, mechanically. +2 Con, –2 Cha as usual, but they lose darkvision, stonecunning, stability, and their racial save bonuses vs poison and magic to get a bonus feat of their choice at 1st level and increased bonuses against orcs/goblins/giants. If you need dwarf for flavor or a requirement, this is a great pick for all the same reasons humans are.

Elf (Declining): Dr320 p. 86. +2 Dex, –2 Con as usual for elves. Declining elves are wild. They trade their lifespan, trancing, immunity to sleep, and bonus on saves vs enchantments for two Weapon Focus feats (one with longsword or rapier and one with longbow or shortbow). They still have the rest of the elf goodies like detecting secret doors. This is just “better human” if you happen to need Weapon Focus for prerequisites.

Elf (Painted): Sand p. 42. +2 Dex, –2 Int. Elves have a bunch of solid racial traits (detecting secret doors automatically is nice in a lot of modules and dungeons) and good ACFs. Painted elves are elves with better stats for rangers. Not much else to say.

Elf (Snow): Frost p. 34. +2 Dex, –2 Cha. As elves but with better stats for rangers.

Elf (Wild): SRD. +2 Dex, –2 Int. As elves but with better stats for rangers.

Elf (Wood): SRD. +2 Str, +2 Dex, –2 Con, –2 Int. As elves but with better stats for rangers.

Gnome (Whisper): RoS p. 96. +2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Str, –2 Cha. At Small size with a 30ft movement speed, getting most of the stuff gnomes get, having extra bonuses on stealth skills, and a useful 1/day silence SLA, whisper gnomes are far and away the best gnome for rangers.

Halfling: SRD. Halfings are one of the core races, and the only one other than human to have its base version sit at an A rating. With +2 Dex, –2 Str and a couple small bonuses, they wouldn’t normally be much to write home about (just compare whisper gnome above), but they have the ability to trade their +1 bonus on saves from their race for the an ACF that adds half their favored enemy bonus on all saves against favored enemies’ effects. This is incredible, scales well, and will bump your saves to high values. As a result, every halfling that retains its bonus on saves will be rated the same way. Unless otherwise noted, assume the listed halfling subraces do have access to that ACF.

Halfling (Arctic): SRD. They’re halflings with a bonus against cold weather.

Halfling (Deep): SRD. They’re halflings with darkvision and stonecunning instead of mediocre skill bonuses. Even better than normal halflings.

Halfling (Desert): SRD. They’re halflings with a bonus against hot weather and +2 on Hide checks.

Halfling (Glimmerskin): DM p. 9. They’re halflings with the dragonblood subtype (good feat access), no Move Silently bonus, Heal as a class skill, and a 1/day ability to give themselves or an ally +2 on a save.

Halfling (Shoal): Storm p. 45. They’re halflings but with a swim speed instead of a bonus on thrown and sling attacks. Swim speeds are good to have, and so these or water halflings are one of the best options within the subset of the already-really-good halflings.

Halfling (Strongheart): FRCS p. 18. As halfling except that they trade their bonus on saves for a human-style bonus feat. They’re basically just Small-sized humans with +2 Dex/–2 Str, and cannot access the halfling ranger saves ACF.

Halfling (Tallfellow): SRD. They’re halflings but with bonuses on Listen, Search, and Spot instead of athletics skills, and an elf-style ability to detect secret doors.

Halfling (Tundra): Frost p. 36. They’re halflings with a Survival bonus instead of a Climb bonus. Also favored class ranger if your game makes that relevant.

Halfling (Water): SRD. +2 Dex, +2 Con, –2 Str. They’re halflings with better stats and a swim speed, but a penalty on saves against fire effects. Swim speeds are good to have, and so these or shoal halflings are one of the best options within the subset of the already-really-good halflings.

Half-Orc (Frostblood): DM p. 10. +2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha. Frostblood half-orcs have a heavy downside of fire vulnerability, but they also have the dragonblood subtype (useful feat access), cold resistance 10 (a common energy type), and most importantly, Endurance as a bonus feat with the near-unique qualifier that if you later get Endurance as a bonus feat, you can swap it for any other feat you qualify for. In addition, they have access to the excellent half-orc ranger ACF that gives favored enemy (human) for free. In essence, you’re getting two good bonus feats (and potentially more of you get Endurance from other things like items or spells; you can use this to get floating feats even), one of which is “any feat.” Vulnerability to fire is a hefty downside, but frostblood half-orcs are a genuinely great pick.

Human: SRD. The standard by which all other D&D races are measured. +4 skill ranks at 1st level, +1 at each level after, and a bonus feat of their choice.

Human (Silverbrow): DM p. 6. As human, but they trade their skill ranks for a 1/day feather fall SLA, the dragonblood subtype (good feat access), and Disguise as a class skill. Great for entering the chameleon prestige class.

Jerren: BoVD p. 13. I didn’t wanna include jerren in the guide, but I had to for the sake of comprehensiveness. They’re just halflings. Halflings but eeeeeeevil. The Book of Vile Darkness was a very uninspired splatbook.

Maeluth (Lesser): FF p. 137, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). +4 Con, –2 Dex, 20ft movement speed, and Medium size. These are quite literally just more durable dwarves, getting all the dwarf traits, plus the supernatural ability to make a melee weapon unholy for 1 minute, 1/day.

Mechanatrix (Lesser): FF p. 138, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). 2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Dex, –2 Cha, Medium sized. These are one of the most unique races in the game, coming with a 1/day shocking grasp SLA and immunity to electricity. In fact, electricity heals them for 1 hp per 3 damage it would have dealt! They also have cold and fire resistance 5. If you’re melee and don’t need Dex these are a great “no specific build goal” pick.

Mongrelfolk: RoD p. 98. +4 Con, –2 Int, –4 Cha, Medium. Setting aside how uncomfortable the writing is for these guys, they’ve got a generally useful smattering of abilities, including the ability to emulate races for magic items, the ability to imitate sounds, immunity to sleep effects, and a bunch of small skill bonuses.

Orc (Water): SRD. +4 Str, +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha. Orcs are normally only just ‘okay’ due to having a drawback (light sensitivity) and only stats otherwise. Water orcs have enough stats to make it a worthwhile pick. If you apply dragonborn to this, they’re S-rated and I don’t recommend using them without group awareness of the imbalanced stats.

Para-Genasi (Lesser Ice): Dr297 p. 64, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). With +4 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Dex, and –2 Cha, lesser ice para-genasi have great stats for melee rangers. They also get a 1/day chill metal SLA and +1 on saves against cold effects (+1 per 5 levels).

Para-Genasi (Lesser Ooze): Dr297 p. 65, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). +4 Con, –2 Cha. Lesser ooze para-genasi are similar to the ice ones but with less stat adjustments and a way better racial SLA (1/day grease). They also have a similar scaling save bonus, but against acid effects.

Shifter: ECS p. 18, RoE p. 25. Shifters are a complicated race, due to their wealth of variants and options. Defaulting to +2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha, they also get one more stat boost based on their choice of shifting, access to various natural weapons and movement modes, good ranger ACFs, and a ton of racial feat options. I recommend giving NeoSeraphi’s Shifter Handbook a read if you want to play a shifter.

Shifter (Saurian): Dr328 p. 60. They’re shifters but dinosaur themed! They can take shifter feats and honestly should be able to take normal shifter traits and ACFs, but RAW it’s unclear. If your DM lets you just treat them as an expansion to shifters, they’re A-rated. If they’re wholly standalone, then B-rated.

Tibbit: DrCom p. 25. Dex +2, Str –2. These are Small-sized catpeople with the Monstrous Humanoid subtype. When I say catpeople I mean really catpeople. They can turn into housecats even, adjusting their ability scores and getting a cat’s scent ability and natural weapons. RAW, their cat form applies a –8 penalty on Strength, which means you could use the spell ray of resurgence from Lost Empires of Faerûn to negate it for as long as you remain in cat form. Honestly? I don’t even think that’s unbalanced; it just lets them be non-finesse natural weapon combatants at the cost of jumping through some item or spell access hoops.

Warforged: ECS p. 23. Living constructs with +2 Con, –2 Wis, and –2 Cha. In spite of antisynergistic ability scores, warforged have great racial traits that more than make up for it. Tons of immunities to debuff effects, built in armor plating, a slam attack, and some solid racial feats make warforged a strong pick for almost any character, especially rangers.

Worghest (Lesser): Dr350 p. 56, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). These are LA +2 normally, so it’s a little shaky whether or not lesser planetouched removes their LA entirely. Still, they’re fairly balanced in my opinion so I’m mentioning them here. Anyway they’re a Medium-sized goblin variant with +2 Str, +2 Dex, and –2 Cha. They get Track as a bonus feat (mediocre, but it lets you trade Track for trapfinding and still have the feat), scent, the ability to make corpses unraisable, and most centrally, they have the ability to turn into a wolf. This works like wild shape and apparently allows you to access “feats requiring the druid’s wild shape ability,” but it gives no guidance for how those work. I suspect it’s primarily for allowing Natural Spell, but probably doesn’t (and shouldn’t) work for infinite activation of wild feats.

B-Rated Races

These are the ones that bring more to the table to a ranger than just a single relevant ability score boost, but aren’t pushing the envelope on general power.

Aasimar (Lesser): SRD, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). The archetypical example of “an overpowered race,” sporting +2 Wis, +2 Cha, a 1/day daylight SLA, and acid/cold/electricity resistance 5. However, they bring nothing special to the table beyond being a generically good chassis here. For certain spellcasting classes, amazing. For ranger? Shrug.

Axani (Lesser): Dr297 p. 63, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). +2 Int, +2 Wis, cold/sonic resistance 5, and a 1/day calm emotions SLA. Similar to lesser aasimar as they have an all-upsides chassis, but very little of it matters for rangers.

Cansin (Lesser): Dr297 p. 63, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). +2 Int, +2 Cha, acid/fire resistance 5, and a 1/day entropic shield SLA. Same deal here.

Cyclopean (Feral-Kind): Dr323 p. 95. +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Dex, –2 Int. They have good stats for Strength-based melee characters, as well as a +1 bonus on Reflex checks and initiative checks. However, only having one eye makes them take a –2 penalty on ranged attacks, as well as Spot and Search checks. They’re giant type though, if that’s relevant.

Daelkyr Half-Blood: MoE p. 37. Daelkyr half-blood are… unique. With aberration type, no stat adjustments, Symbiont Mastery as a bonus feat, and a free symbiont of their choice off a whitelist that scales with level, these have a lot going for them but nothing specifically synergistic with rangers. However, their options aren’t matched by any other race (especially not the easy access to certain symbionts like the tentacle whip at 10th level), which makes them worth the look if nothing else.

Darfellan: Storm p. 37. +2 Str, –2 Dex, a 40ft swim speed, a bite attack, and underwater blindsense. For Medium-sized natural weapon users there’s not a lot more to ask for than a primary stat buff and a hands-free natural weapon from the getgo.

Drow (Savage Progression): Web. +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Con. They have light blindness and a dancing lights SLA, alright and net-positive stat boosts, proficiency in hand crossbows, and +2 on Listen/Search/Spot. If you want to play a drow, these are a little better than lesser drow. Note that unlike monster classes, the web article savage progressions don’t require you to finish the LA; you can just stop at LA +0.

Dwarf (Deep): SRD. These are dwarves and get the usual dwarfy things like +2 Con, –2 Cha, but they also have a +3 bonus on saves against magic, better darkvision, and better stonecunning. If you’re playing a non-planetouched dwarf this is probably the pick. They have light sensitivity, but you can mitigate that with sundark goggles.

Dwarf (Fireblood): DM p. 7. As dwarf (+2 Con, –2 Cha), but gains the dragonblood subtype (good feat access), fire resistance 5, and +4 dodge bonuses to AC against dragons instead of giants. RAW they cannot access dwarf ranger AC-boosting ACF, though I think it’d be fair to let them trade their bonus against dragons for it.

Elf: SRD. +2 Dex, –2 Con. Elves have a bunch of solid racial traits (detecting secret doors automatically is nice in a lot of modules and dungeons) and good ACFs. Not much else to say.

Elf (Desert): SRD. These are elves but they’re +2 Dex, –2 Str instead, and have a bonus against hot weather.

Elf (Fire): SRD. And these are elves with +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Con, –2 Cha and fire resistance 5. They’re alright but still losing out compared to the elf statlines in the A-rated races section, especially the lesser celadrin.

Elf (Forestlord): DM p. 8. As elf (+2 Dex, –2 Con) but instead of racial proficiencies and bonus vs enchantment spells, they have the dragonblood subtype (good feat access) and a neat ability to teleport through trees. They’re pretty much objectively better for rangers than base elves, but still worse than the ones with more directly-powerful ability score spreads.

Elf (Gray): SRD. +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Str, –2 Con. As elves but with different stats.

Elf (Illaeli): XPH p. 6. These are elves with an unknown psionic favored class.

Elf (Moon): FRCS p. 13. They’re just elves, core elves, the same.

Elf (Qualinesti): DCS p. 19. As elf (+2 Dex, –2 Con) but they also have 30ft darkvision and +1 on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks.

Elf (Silvanesti): DCS p. 20. As elves but with +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Con, –2 Cha, and 30ft darkvision. They’re similar to fire elves in this way; more varied stats but worse than the ones in the A-rated section.

Genasi (Lesser Air): FRCS p. 19, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). Medium size, +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha, and a 1/day levitate SLA. They’re not amazing but they’ve got good stats for ranged rangers, and levitate can be useful in a lot of dungeons.

Genasi (Lesser Earth): FRCS p. 19, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). Medium size, +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Wis, –2 Cha, and a 1/day pass without trace SLA. They’re not amazing but they’ve got good stats for Str-based melee rangers.

Glimmerfolk: Dr321 p. 71. +2 Dex, –2 Str, Medium size, and outsider type. They’re fairly middle-of-the-road as a chassis, but they’re completely immune to pattern effects (take that, color spray!), and have three charges of a spell-like ability per day. One charge can be used to cast dancing lights, daze, or flare; two charges for color spray or magic missile; three charges casts mirror image.

Gnome (Arcane): Dr291 p. 34. +2 Con, +2 Int, –2 Str, –2 Wis, Small size. Arcane gnomes have what seems at first like a poor stat block for rangers, but they trade their speaking-with-burrowing-animals ability for having Use Magic Device as a class skill. UMD is the best skill in the game, and this would let you actually invest in it.

Gnome (River): Dr291 p. 34. These ones are as the PHB gnome (+2 Con, –2 Str) , but their animal-speaking works on river animals and river birds, and they themselves have a swim speed, which makes them just a better pick than the base gnome if only for their ability to mitigate the inevitable “once a campaign or so you’ll find a water hazard you can’t go around and have to deal with the water combat rules.”

Gnome (Techno): Dr320 p. 86. +2 Con, –2 Str. These are gnomes, which don’t actually make great rangers, but they do get Alertness as a bonus feat instead of the gnome SLAs and bonuses around illusion spells, which makes them a non-terrible pick if you need the feat for a prerequisite and want to play a gnome.

Goblin (Jungle): SRD. With +2 Dex, –2 Str, –2 Cha, Small size, a 30ft land speed, and a 20ft climb speed, jungle goblins are a very solid chassis but don’t bring anything other than that.

Grippli: Dr324 p. 87. +2 Dex, –2 Str. Frog people! Small-sized frog people with a 20ft land speed and a 20ft climb speed, familiarity with bolas and nets, a +4 dodge bonus to AC against animals and vermin, some skill bonuses, and the option of either Wild Talent as a bonus feat (Hidden Talent in high-psionics campaigns) or +1 on attack rolls against vermin. A fun pick all around even if they have no ACFs or feat support.

Hadozee: Storm p. 41. +2 Dex, –2 Cha, and Medium size. The hadozee also have a glide speed, making them immune to fall damage and letting them glide at a speed of 40ft (average maneuverability). It’s not flight, but it’s not useless either, especially for lower-level games.

Half-Orc: SRD. +2 Str, –2 Int, –2 Cha, and no racial traits other than darkvision. You might be wondering why half-orcs are up in the B tier. The answer is that their racial ACF that gives them a free favored enemy (humans) is just that good. Humans are the most common NPC race in most campaigns and having them as a bonus target is just nice. Still, for rangers you should consider frostblood half-orc for the uniquely-strong swappable Endurance bonus feat.

Half-Orc (Scablands): Sand p. 43. These are half-orcs but they also get Heat Endurance as a bonus feat, and have low-light vision instead of darkvision.

Half-Orc (Water): SRD. Water half-orcs are similar; they’re the same as half-orcs but with small bonuses and penalties against fire creatures.

Halfling (Aquatic): SRD. +2 Dex, –2 Str, access to the halfling save-boosting ACF, and a 30ft swim speed. The only reason these aren’t A-rated like the other halflings is that they can’t breathe air out of the gate. Just take shoal halfling or water halfling.

Halfling (Unsheltered): Dr320 p. 86. +2 Dex, –2 Str. Unsheltered halflings are halflings but they lose their bonus on saves (so they can’t access the halfling save-boosting ACF) and bonus vs fear. In exchange they get Dodge as a bonus feat at 1st level and one of Iron Will, Great Fortitude, or Lightning Reflexes at 3rd level. Two bad feats isn’t good on its own, especially for what they lose, but if you need them for feat taxes they’re great. Note that if you take Desert Wind Dodge (ToB p. 29), you immediately swap your Dodge feat for a feat you qualify at your current level, making this one of the few ways to ‘retrain’ a feat with current qualifications.

Hellbred (Body): FC2 p. 77. Hellbred with the body aspect have +2 Con, –2 Int, +4 on saves against poison, and three bonus feats as they level. Devil’s Favor at 1st level plus any devil-touched feat at 4th and 14th levels. Plus they get to use evil abilities without affecting their alignment. If you’re looking at taking devil-touched feats or want to do something weird with alignments, this is the way to go.

Hengeyokai (Carp): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). These are a Medium-sized humanoid with –2 Wisdom and an at-will alternate form. They can turn into a hybrid form in which they get +2 Dex, reduce their speed to 10ft, and have a swim speed of 10ft. They can also turn into a carp, which is a Diminutive fish. All hengeyokai have the shapechanger subtype, netting them access to warshaper.

Hengeyokai (Cat): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Cat hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Dex and +4 on Balance checks, and their animal form is a Tiny cat with claw/claw/bite, Str 3, and Dex 15.

Hengeyokai (Fox): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Fox hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Dex and +4 on Escape Artist checks, and their animal form is a Small fox with a bite attack, Str 13, Dex 17, and a 40ft land speed.

Hengeyokai (Hare): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Hare hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Dex and a 40ft land speed, and their animal form is a Tiny hare with likewise a 40ft land speed, as well as Str 1 and Dex 19.

Hengeyokai (Monkey): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Monkey hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Dex and +4 on Climb checks, and their animal form is a Tiny monkey that has a bite attack, a 30ft land speed, a 30ft climb speed, Str 3, and Dex 15.

Hengeyokai (Raccoon Dog): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Raccoon dog hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Str and +4 on Survival checks to track by scent, and their animal form is a Small tanuki that has a bite attack, a 30ft land speed, Str 12, and Dex 13.

Hengeyokai (Rat): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Hare hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Dex and +4 on Hide checks, and their animal form is a Tiny rat with a bite attack, a 15ft land speed, a 15ft climb speed, Str 2, and Dex 15.

Hengeyokai (Weasel): OA p. 10, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). And finally, weasel hengeyokai’s hybrid form gives +2 Con and +4 on Move Silently checks, and their animal form is a Tiny weasel with a bite attack, a 20ft land speed, a 20ft climb speed, Str 3, and Dex 15.

Illumian: RoD p. 53. Illumians are a super weird, super interesting human subrace who have glowing halos of words that give them benefits. Each illumian has two sigils, each of which gives them a +2 bonus on a type of check (you can get +2 on Dexterity checks such as initiative, which is great), and based on the sigils they pick they get a whole word as well. The most notable ones for illumian rangers are the following:

• Aeshkrau: Combined effect +2 on Str checks, Str-based skills, and to caster level, and you use your Str instead of Wis to determine bonus spells.
• Naenhoon: Combined effect +2 on Int checks, Wis checks, and Con checks (and skills based on those stats), as well as the ability to burn turn undead uses to reduce a metamagic feat’s cost 2/day; this is the pick for multiclass ranger/clerics.
• Uurkrau: Combined effect +2 on Dex checks (including init), Dex-based skills, and to caster level, and you use your Dex instead of Wis to determine bonus spells.
• Uurnaen: Combined effect effect +2 on Dex checks (including init) and Int checks (and skills based on those stats), and you can give up a 1st- or 2nd-level spell slot to get a +1 or +2 insight bonus on attack rolls with unarmed strikes and sneak attacks for the whole day.

Kenku: MM3 p. 86. Crow people! Who doesn’t like crows. I love crows they’re the best. +2 Dex, –2 Str, Medium size, and two claw attacks. Kenku also get +4 instead of +2 when attacking enemies they flank, and can mimic voices and sounds. They’re a solid chassis for natural weapon rangers.

Khepri: Dr352 p. 44. Khepri are, uh, weird. A Medium-sized all-female race whose heads are beetles (entire beetles, stuck on top of their necks, with legs and everything). They get +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Con, –2 Cha, darkvision, bonuses against enchantments and gaze attacks, and can’t speak common (they use a common-based sign language). They’re really, really weird. Not bad! But weird.

Killoren: RotW p. 102. Killoren are Medium-sized fey with no native stat bonuses, immunity to sleep, +2 on Handle Animal and Survival checks, and the ability to pick one of three ‘aspects’ each day to give them bonuses. The first one gives a bonus on Knowledge (nature) checks equal to their level, which massively boosts Knowledge Devotion in the right campaign. The other two aspects aren’t much to write home about (a 1/hour smite-enemy-of-nature effect and a +2 bonus on init/Hide/Listen/Move Silently/Spot).

Kobold: SRD and RotD web enhancement. So! Kobolds! Kobolds are wild. A popular race option that was so bad they put up a web enhancement buffing them, and even after that their power is… well it’s a little complicated.

Kobolds by default have +2 Dex, –4 Str, and –2 Con. They’re Small-sized with a 30ft movement speed, have light sensitivity, +1 natural armor, and some incidental skill bonuses. The Races of the Dragon web enhancement gave them, on top of this, slight build (count as one size smaller when beneficial), 2 claws and a bite, and some weapon proficiencies.

Is this enough to make kobolds a good pick on their own? Honestly, probably not. Their stats are awful for martials. However, Races of the Dragon also gave us the excellent feat Dragonwrought, which makes kobolds dragon-type (access to dragon-requiring feats like Rapidstrike, and fangshiends ranger), but more importantly on page 39 of the book it states that Dragonwrought kobolds do not take aging penalties, instead gaining only the bonuses as they get older.

This means that by playing a venerable-aged Dragonwrought kobold (120 years or more; you’ve still got at least 100 years in you as well due to how kobolds age), your ability score adjustments become +2 Dex, +3 Int, +3 Wis, +3 Cha, –4 Str, –2 Con. This is something you would think would be S-rated, but I think it ends up settling out to “kinda reasonable” due to being, functionally, a negative bonus feat. Penalty feat. If you’re playing a kobold you’re going to be playing a Dragonwrought kobold and are thus down one feat in exchange for making the race’s stats not terrible. Venerable dragonwrought kobolds are S-rated for full casters, but as a ranger? Shrug. You’re also taking hefty penalties and you can do way better for most builds.

(As an aside, I am well aware of the ongoing debates about the rules on dragons with age categories and how Dragonwrought kobolds interact with them. I am not going to be discussing them here.)

Kobold (Arctic): SRD. Arctic kobolds have a base ability score set of +2 Dex, –2 Str, –2 Con, –2 Wis, which when adjusted for venerable Dragonwrought becomes +2 Dex, +3 Int, +1 Wis, +3 Cha, –2 Str, –2 Con. In essence you’re trading some Wis for Str.

Kobold (Earth): SRD. Earth kobolds have no bonuses by default, instead having a base ability score set of –2 Str, –2 Con. With venerable Dragonwrought it’s +3 Int, +3 Wis, +3 Cha, –2 Str, –2 Con. These have the highest absolute amounts of ability bonuses, but in exchange don’t get that Dex bonus.

Kobold (Jungle): SRD. Jungle kobolds have a base ability score set of +2 Dex, –4 Str, –2 Int, which when adjusted for venerable Dragonwrought becomes +2 Dex, +1 Int, +3 Wis, +3 Cha, –4 Str. For ranged combatants this is probably the way to go, trading out your Con penalty for less Int.

Minotaur (Krynn): DCS p. 42. These are basically better orcs. +4 Str, –2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha, Medium size, +2 natural armor, a gore attack, and the scent ability. There isn’t much to say about them other than “good pick for someone who’s using non-racial options to become a natural weapon specialist,” since gore attacks are annoying to get ahold of and they have some feat support.

Neanderthal: Frost p. 37. +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Dex, –2 Int, Medium-sized. Neanderthals are an illiterate human subrace that gets bonuses against extreme environments and +1 on attack rolls with “primitive weapons” (most notably the quarterstaff, shortbow, longspear, greatclub, and javelin). They aren’t amazing but they have good stats for physical melees and a free +1 to hit is alright.

Orc (Frostblood): DM p. 10. +4 Str, –2 Int, –2 Wis, –2 Cha. Frostblood orcs have a heavy downside of fire vulnerability, but they also have the dragonblood subtype (useful feat access), cold resistance 10 (a common energy type), and most importantly, Endurance as a bonus feat with the near-unique qualifier that if you later get Endurance as a bonus feat, you can swap it for any other feat you qualify for. Unlike frostblood half-orcs though they can’t get a bonus favored enemy for free, so they’re a worse option as a whole for rangers.

Para-Genasi (Lesser Magma): Dr297 p. 65, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). A lesser planetouched sporting +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Wis, a scaling bonus on saves against fire effects, and a 1/day heat metal SLA. Objectively worse than just taking azerblood.

Para-Genasi (Lesser Smoke): Dr297 p. 65, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). A lesser planetouched sporting +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha, a scaling bonus on saves against smoke and cloud effects (basically useless), and a 1/day smoke cloud SLA (as pyrotechnics but not the strong blinding flash version).

Para-Genasi (Lesser Steam): Dr297 p. 66, PGtF p. 191 (lesser planetouched rules). A lesser planetouched sporting +2 Dex, –2 Cha, a scaling bonus against heat-based but not fire-based effects, and a 1/day obscuring mist SLA. The only reason this is B-rated and not C-rated is that they also reduce miss chances from smoke, fog, and similar effects (even magic ones) by 10%, which is a unique and occasionally-useful option.

Phanaton: Dr351 p. 71. These are adorable Small-sized flying raccoon people with +2 Dex, –2 Str, –2 Con. They have a 20ft land speed but also have a 20ft glide speed, and some extra skill bonuses. And a bite attack. The most notable element of phanatons is that they are described and drawn with prehensile tails, but have no ability in their stat block. Ask your DM how you want to handle it. I’d bump them up to A-rated if counted as a true third hand that gives you access to Multiweapon Fighting, or keep them at B-rated otherwise (even with a ‘happy medium’ ruling giving you a third hand for holding things but not attacking).

Raptoran: RotW p. 68. The headliners of Races of the Wild and the subject of numerous balance debates back when I was a kid, raptorans are Medium-sized, have a 30ft land speed, and have no stat adjustments. Their claim to fame is that they start with a 40ft glide speed which, as they level up, becomes a proper fly speed. They also get +10 on Jump checks. They’re neat if you want something to give you flight without feats, items, or levels, but otherwise forgettable mechanically, especially when dragonborn exist (see the templates section).

Spirit Folk (Mountain): Una p. 13. A very bare-bones Medium-sized race with +2 on Balance, Jump, and Tumble checks, a 1/day speak with birds ability, and a 30ft climb speed.

Spirit Folk (River): Una p. 14. Similarly to mountain spirit folk, these are a bare-bones race that has a 30ft swim speed, a constant water breathing effect, the ability to talk with fish 1/day, and as a +2 bonus on spells with “water” in the name.

Spirit Folk (Sea): OA p. 15. And sea spirit folk get a 30ft swim speed, constant water breathing, and a +2 bonus on saves against magical fire effects.

Synad: CPsi p. 139. These are a weird Medium-sized aberration race hidden away in the back of Complete Psionics. They start with +3 power points, have a +2 bonus on Will saves, and have two 1/day abilities; the first one lets them get a +2 insight bonus on an attack, init check, or save as a free action (and unlike most abilities they can use this after it’s determined that they failed and if a +2 would have saved them, to retroactively succeed), and the second lets them 1/day take a mental action as a swift action. Neat, fairly unique, but not really doing much build-central stuff.

T'kel: Dr317 p. 29. +2 Dex, –2 Int. These are a Medium-sized monstrous humanoid that comes stock with a 20ft swim speed and two claws. If you want a Medium-sized fangshields ranger natural attack you could do far worse than these weirdos.

Tasloi: ShS p. 72. +2 Dex, –2 Str, –2 Cha. Tasloi are basically goblins with a climb speed; they’re Small, have a 30ft land speed, a 20ft climb speed, and +4 on Hide and Move Silently checks (the Hide bonus bumps up to +8 in forested areas). They also have light sensitivity.

Tiefling (Lesser): SRD. +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha, a 1/day darkness SLA, and cold/electricity/fire resistance 5. They’re the best of the batch for B-rated lesser planetouched, having some feat support in racial feats, but in the end it’s still not a perfect statline and you can generally do better. Still, tieflings are pretty popular and if you like them you’re not in a bad position to play one.

Tiefling (Savage Progression): Web. +2 Dex, –2 Cha, a lesser darkness SLA, and only energy resistances of 2. But they keep the outsider type if you want to play a tiefling and need that.

Tortle: Dr315 p. 73. Tortles are Medium and have +2 Con, +2 Wis, –2 Dex, –2 Cha, a 20ft land speed, a 10ft swim speed, and a +3 natural armor bonus. They don’t have much going for them actively, but as far as Wisdom-based rangers go they can be pretty alright.

Vanara: OA p. 15, Dr318 p. 34 (errata). Vanara are Medium-sized monkey people with no racial adjustments and a 20ft climb speed. They also have +4 on Balance and Jump checks, and +2 on Hide and Move Silently checks.

Vril: DotU web enhancement. I love the vril, it’s so funny that they got left out of their debut book (while their feats still got printed). Anyway the vril are a goblin subrace with +2 Con, –2 Int, –2 Cha. Like most goblins they’re Small with a 30ft land speed, but unlike most goblins they have the light blindness drawback. Their specific unique thing is a pair of 1/day racial traits. First, they can gain “damage reduction 5 against its choice of bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage” for a short duration (ask your DM what this means for your game; I think RAW it would be DR/the chosen type, which is the reverse of what the intent appears to be? But the wording is weird). Secondly, 1/day they can let out a sonic attack as a burst or cone as a standard action. The damage is low (even though it scales with level), but they have some very good feat support for it. It takes more investment than it’s necessarily worth, but you can get a swift action multi-round daze AoE off of three feats. Even at 1/day, you’re capable of ending a fight before it begins at that point. Worth it objectively? Probably not, but it’s an entertaining and viable option regardless.

Warforged Scout: MM3 p. 193. Living constructs with +2 Dex, –2 Str, –2 Wis, and –2 Cha. Like the warforged, warforged scouts have great racial traits to make up for their bad ability scores. Unlike the warforged, warforged scouts are Small-sized with a 20ft movement speed, and don’t even get a slam attack. They still have the various immunities, but for most rangers, they’re worse in basically every way than just taking a normal warforged.

LA+0 Templates

There aren’t a lot of LA +0 templates, and the ones that do exist vary in usefulness. Still, if you’re looking to shore up a bad race or just minmax a good one, taking one of these options might be up your alley. Firstly, I’m going to talk about the templates listed in Dragon Magazine #306 which are often mentioned in optimization discussions, then I’ll cover the rest.

Dr306 Racial Templates

On page 60 of Dragon #306, you’ll find a series of six templates that, per the article, are applicable to “any of the standard races in the Player’s Handbook.” Most people in my experience tend to ignore that line, and if your group does then there’s often no reason not to take one, but for the purposes of this handbook I’m going to be rating them assuming they’re being played as-written (i.e. applied to the default PHB version of a race). The LA +0 templates are as follows; I haven’t rated them in their entries here, instead opting to make a small table of ratings to save space. Deep-dweller, as an LA +1 template, isn’t mentioned here (it’s also not worth the LA).

Aquatic (Water-Dwellers): Dr306 p. 61.

• Loses the ability to breathe air, but gains the aquatic subtype.
• Land speed halves and you get a swim speed equal to double your original speed (so a human has a 20ft speed and a 60ft swim speed, very high for an LA +0 race).
• Replaces vision modes with low-light vision (or gains it if you had no special vision).
• +2 on Spot checks and –2 on Listen checks.

Arctic (Ice-Dwellers): Dr306 p. 62.

• Keeps original ability score adjustments, and also has an extra +2 Con and –2 Cha.
• +1 on saves against cold effects, –1 on saves against fire effects.
• +2 on Survival checks.
• If the original race had SLAs, also gets ray of frost 1/day (CL 1).

Desert (Desert-Dwellers): Dr306 p. 64.

• +1 on saves against fire effects, –1 on saves against cold effects.
• +2 on Survival checks.
• If the original race had SLAs, also gets create water 1/day (CL = HD).
• Favored class changes to ranger.

Magic-Blooded (Sparks): Dr306 p. 64.

• Keeps original ability score adjustments, and also has an extra +2 Cha and –2 Wis.
• Replaces vision modes with low-light vision (or gains it if you had no special vision).
• +2 on Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft checks, and can use them untrained.
• Gains detect magic, Nystul’s magic aura, and read magic SLAs each 1/day (CL = HD).
• Favored class changes to sorcerer.

Wild (Wilderness-Dwellers): Dr306 p. 65.

• Keeps original ability score adjustments, and also has an extra +2 Str, –2 Int, and –2 Wis.
• Adds 5ft to land speed.
• Loses any racial skill modifiers (including humans’ bonus skill points), but gets +1 skill point per level, +2 on Spot and Listen checks, +4 on Survival checks, and –2 on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive checks.
• Loses any racial SLAs.
• Favored class changes to ranger.

This table shows the ratings for each PHB race and relevant template:

Race	Aquatic*	Arctic	Desert	Magic-Blooded	Wild
Dwarf	D	A	C	D	B
Elf	B	A	B	C	A
Gnome	D	B	C	D	A
Half-Elf	F	C	D	F	B
Half-Orc	D	A	C	C	A
Halfling	B	A	A	B	A
Human	B	A	A	B	A

* Bump these up by one rating level in a game where you expect to spend most of your time underwater.

Other Templates

As for the other templates, you can apply them to a lot more creatures, depending on the template in question.

Amphibious Creature (C): Storm p. 136. Can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid, and gives you –2 Dex, the aquatic subtype, the amphibious trait (ability to breathe both air and water), and a swim speed equal to half your land speed. B-rated in a campaign that takes place in or around water, but probably not worth it for many races since most have an aquatic variant that doesn’t penalize Dexterity.

Dragonborn: RotD p. 8. Dragonborn of Bahamut are deeply weird, and their rating varies based on aspect chosen (see below). This is an acquired template you can take on any non-evil character and it either makes you a humanoid (dragonblood) or keeps you your original type and adds the dragonblood subtype, depending on if you believe page 8 or page 10 on that front. Anyway, you lose all your existing racial traits except for ability score modifiers, speeds, size, and subtypes. In exchange, you gain:

• +2 Con, –2 Dex on top of your original ability modifiers.
• A +2 dodge bonus to AC against dragons.
• Immunity to frightful presence from dragons.
• Gain the dragonblood subtype, and can immediately retrain one (1) feat into a feat that requires that subtype and can normally only be taken at 1st level.
• Favored class fighter in addition to your original favored class, and the ability to multiclass in and out of paladin freely.
• One draconic aspect, chosen from heart, mind, or wings.
  • Heart Aspect (B): You get a line breath weapon (length 5ft per level) that deals 1d8 damage + 1d8/3 levels. This is at-will (1d4-round cooldown) and you choose the elemental damage type whenever you use it.
  • Mind (B): You get immunity to paralysis and magical sleep, plus darkvision 30ft, low-light vision, and +2 on Listen/Search/Spot checks. At 6th level your darkvision becomes 60ft, at 9th level it becomes 90ft and your low-light vision is triple distance, at 12th level your darkvision becomes 120ft and your low-light vision is quadruple distance, and at 15th level you get blindsense 30ft.
  • Wings (A): You get wings you can use to glide, +10 on Jump checks, and at 6th level you get to fly with them as well for a limited time each day. At 12th level you can fly for an unlimited duration. This is probably the main reason to be a dragonborn on most characters.

Rating dragonborn is complicated; there are edge cases like dragonborn water orc where you can use it to remove the downsides of your race and then stack on dragonborn’s upsides, and at that point it’s questionably balanced. Most of the time though, it’s going to be a sidegrade or even a downgrade. You still count as your original race though, and it’s an acquired template, so you could do something like… I dunno, wild half-elf into dragonborn and get the half-elf ACF options and a less-terrible ability score setup? It’s a very flexible template.

Wild dragonborn half-elf is +2 Str, +2 Con, –2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Wis btw. Honestly probably the best pick for half-elf rangers, but carrying a lot of flavor and aesthetic implications there… Make of it what you will. Or refluff it. If you’re dead-set on playing a half-elf your DM should probably allow some wiggle room thematically. Note that if you’re looking to play a half-elf for dragonmarks (the one really good reason to play a half-elf), you can’t be dragonborn without losing the mark.

Necropolitan (S): LM p. 114. Necropolitan is overpowered. It has an effective +0 LA (you lose a level and 3,000gp to get it, but you can get that back; exp is a river after all), and what it brings you far, far outstrips the cost. Plus, it creates unbalanced and wonky gameplay situations. You can completely dump Con if you’re planning on taking necropolitan, effectively boosting other ability scores. You’re immune to most debuffs and many non-debuff effects, and vulnerable to turn/rebuke undead (even with +2 turn resistance, that’s significant). In many campaigns being undead is a real logistical and roleplaying hurdle.

A template where you’re outright immune to a great deal of possible threats, but will pretty much immediately turn to dust when you run into an enemy cleric that’s higher level than you, is not balanced. It’s probably not healthy for your game either due to this feast-or-famine situation. Plus, even with that “whoops, died to a turn undead” drawback, it’s so cheap and so strong that there’s not really a reason not to play a necropolitan if you have access. In spite of its popularity and the regularity with which people suggest it on the forums, I would not recommend it as a general thing unless you have a good handle on the balance of 3.5 (and even then, well, it’s very, very strong).

Primordial Giant (S): SoX p. 79. Primordial giant is a template from Secrets of Xen’drik that can be applied to any giant without affecting its LA. This works on the LA +0 cyclopeans (Dragon Magazine #323). The template gives –4 Str, –2 Con, +4 Int, and +4 Cha, plus your choice of at-will invisibility, levitate, or invisibility purge. At-will invisibility is not always a game breaker, but it can massively warp the trajectory of your campaign if it’s allowed to be available from 1st level. Plus, while the ability scores aren’t ideal for a ranger, they’re still very unbalanced and begging for a multiclass.

Like other S-rated races, I just don’t recommend using or allowing it unless you and your group know exactly what you’re doing.

Unseelie Fey (S): DrCom p. 222 (reprint) or Dr304 p. 66. Full disclosure: I hate this template. It isn’t even close to being reasonable or balanced, and the ‘RAW’ argument for it being LA +0 basically amounts to ‘I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that.’ Unseelie fey was originally printed in Dragon Magazine #304, where it was listed as a template for monsters, with no level adjustment given, at a time where templates generally didn’t specify “LA —”. On top of that, the article in question? It did use level adjustment. There was a player race, the changeling (fey kind, not Eberron kind), listed with LA +0, so the authors were clearly aware of LA existing and capable of assigning it to the template if it was meant for players.

In Dragon Compendium, they changed the sample creature to a player race (the infamous LA +0 unseelie fey gnome) and then we got years and years of forum arguments over it. I believe that this was a mistake on Paizo’s end, and that the template is not RAW or RAI a +0 LA, player-accessible template. It has randomized racial traits, for Pete’s sake!

Still, for the sake of argument, I’ve included a mention here and given it an S rating. Unseelie fey gives +2 Dex, +2 Cha, –2 Str, and –2 Con, changes your type to fey, and gives you some unique special attacks and special qualities based on a d% table. 50% of the time it gives you a fly speed. You get scaling DR based on Hit Dice. You can even get blindsight or tremorsense, and one of four powerful options (highlights include targeted dispel magic touches, a constant magic circle against everything, or an aura of “penalize the saves of nonfey creatures within 5 feet of you by your Charisma bonus”).

It’s very strong, to the point of being an auto-pick no matter your race or class or build, but also relies on a series of d% rolls at character creation that cannot be changed after. I believe this is because it was originally intended for monsters, not players, and that the Dragon Compendium gnome has a typo. And honestly by the strictest RAW arguments, in reality, you can play that specific unseelie fey gnome at LA +0, but not any other unseelie fey creature. But I don’t think you should play any unseelie fey creature. Please… avoid this template.

Higher-ECL Races

So… level adjustment. Level adjustment sucks. Most of the time it’s far weaker than just taking levels in classes, and when it isn’t weaker it’s often just. Broken-strong and undercosted. There’s ways to get around the costs of level adjustment, such as the LA buyoff rules introduced in Unearthed Arcana or a handful of mediocre “you get a template but spread across some levels” prestige classes, but the fact of the matter is, most LA isn’t going to be worth it, some LA is going to be unusably strong, and in the middle is a weird place that often puts you behind the curve mechanically.

I personally dislike the LA buyoff rules; I feel that they’re a little clunky and give not-insignificant power boosts to players who are willing to engage with that clunkiness, which can make for imbalanced parties. Sometimes that’s fine, and 3.5 will always have some imbalance because the game is just Like That, but I tend to just prefer the approach of “if we’re using LA, have everyone get the same amount of LA for free (and it has to be LA, it can’t be proper levels)” if I’m using LA at all.

The ratings for this section do not assume LA buyoff is in play. If LA buyoff is in your game you often have no reason not to pick up an LA +1 template because the exp cost is trivial, and that’s… fine. It’s fine. But I personally dislike it.

I’m also not going to bother rating things like anthropomorphic balleen whale, savage progression ghost, dvati, half-minotaur and Dragon Magazine half-ogre, saint, Lolth-touched, and white dragonspawn. These are notoriously overpowered, to the point where the game starts to break down if they’re introduced. If your group uses them and is fine with them, cool? But I avoid them and I recommend that most groups do, for the same reason I recommend avoiding the S-rated races discussed earlier.

Anyway, with that said… if you’re looking at taking LA, the only things I feel I can recommend in good faith are a handful of LA +1 options:

Diabolus (C): DrCom p. 6. LA +1 race. These are Medium-sized native outsiders with the chaotic subtype. They’ve got +2 on saves vs spells and SLAs, darkvision, proficiency in tridents, and… well, the only real reason you’d play them is that they have a natural poisonous sting attack. This is good for grapple builds since you can access the Barbed Stinger feat early and get size-agnostic improved grab, but otherwise, shrug.

Diopsid (B): DrCom p. 10. LA +1 race. I legitimately never knew these guys existed until this guide, but they’re kinda cool. Medium-sized monstrous humanoids with +2 Con but –2 Dex and –2 Int, their claim to viability is that they have gliding wings, +4 natural armor, and two ‘secondary arms’ in addition to their standard arms. These aren’t arms that work for Multiweapon Fighting (which probably would be too strong in practice for the cost), but instead let them use Two-Weapon Fighting with two-handed weapons. This is a very unique perk, letting you double up on higher damage, higher Str bonuses, and higher Power Attack bonuses. You can even TWF bows if you’re feeling like playing with projectiles. And finally, they get to completely ignore the Dex prerequisites for Two-Weapon Fighting feats, letting you all-in on Strength when doing so. Neat!

Draconic Creature (C): RotD p. 74. LA +1 template (any living, corporeal non-dragon). It gives you the dragonblood subtype, +2 Str, Con, and Cha, +1 natural armor, +4 on saves against magical sleep and paralysis, +2 on Intimidate and Spot checks, and two claw attacks. It’s not great but if you really need the dragonblood subtype it’s not terrible. Multiple stat boosts and the natural weapons are nice.

Gheden (C): Dr313 p. 63. LA +1 template (any giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid). Half-zombies made from mad science or botched resurrections. This gives you +4 Str, –2 Dex, –2 Int, and –4 Cha, and a –8 penalty on skills that require fine motor controls. You get the ability to detect mindless undead (as detect undead) at-will, three bad feats (Endurance, Toughness, and Diehard) as bonus feats, +4 on Intimidate checks, and a bunch of immunities and resistances. A gheden is immune to fear confusion, nonlethal damage, stunning, death by massive damage, and energy drain. Against negative energy effects they take half-damage. They get +2 on saves against fear (irrelevant here), poison, disease, paralysis, and all necromancy spells. They get 50% fortification. They’re vulnerable to turn/rebuke undead, but it just applies a –4 penalty on your d20 rolls instead of making you flee (and turns off if the source attacks you). If you would be rebuked or commanded you’re instead stunned for 2d4 rounds. All told, the gheden’s a +1 LA way to play something very similar to a warforged, but it can be stuck on a bunch of races and is undead-themed instead of construct-themed. For frostblood orcs and half-orcs this template is B-rated because the Endurance bonus feat just becomes a feat of your choice.

Half-Ogre (Savage Species) (C): SS p. 218. LA +1 race. Distinct from the busted template in Dragon Magazine, these are a proper race, not a template. You get Large size, get +6 Str, +2 Con, –2 Dex, –2 Int, –2 Cha, have +4 natural armor, and are giant type. This is basically just paying a level adjustment for being an orc with permanent enlarge person, but the cost of that is prohibitive at lower levels and if you want to start Large, it’s not the worst pick you can make.

Human (Athas) (A): Dr319 p. 26. LA +1 race. What if you took humans and made them better? You’d get Athas humans. They get all the stuff the core human gets, and also +2 to two different ability scores of your choice. Then, on top of that, they get to manifest powers innately. They start with 3 power points have a manifester level equal to their HD (which gives them bonus power points; they’re Cha-based in this case). They get one 1st-level psion/wilder power known at 1st level. At 5th level they get an extra 3pp and a 2nd-level psion power known, at 10th level they get an extra 5pp and a 3rd-level power known, and at 15th level they get an extra 7pp and a 4th-level power known. This is just… really good! Really flexible. For +1 LA you get a slow psionic manifesting progression, access to psionic feats and prestige classes (though if entering a manifesting-progressing one you don’t get anything out of it unless you have a manifesting class), and so on and so forth. There are so many possibilities for this that I could write a guide on Athas humans on their own, but to save space I’ll recommend the vigor power as the go-to starting one. Temp hp are very nice to have.

Mulhorandi Divine Minion (C): Magic Books of Faerûn. LA +1 template (any humanoid-shaped outsider). This template has a bad reputation due to its use in some Pun-Pun variants, but in practice it’s about as good as a level of totem druid for entering wild shape stuff. It gives you immunity to fear and the ability to wild shape into one specific creature as an 11th-level druid (except it’s a free action). The list of shapes for the LA +1 variant includes the following: give access to one of the following: baboon, crocodile, constrictor snake, lion (the standard kind), bison, and hawk. Generally you get only one of these; check the link for the full details.

Shadow Walker (A): Una p. 70. LA +1 template (any humanoid). This is a weird little template from the back end of a Forgotten Realms book gives you +2 Dex, –2 Con, darkvision, light blindness, +4 on Hide checks, and a bunch of SLAs. Unlike most templates that give spell-like abilities, this template explicitly bases the progression on character level, not racial Hit Dice. The SLAs are as follows:

Level	Abilities
1–2	Shadow mask 3/day (SC p. 185)
3–4	Dimension door 1/day (self only)
5–6	Darkness 3/day
7–8	Dimension door 2/day
9–10	Shadow spray 3/day (SC p. 186)
11–12	Shadow walk 1/day
13–14	Displacement 2/day
15–16	Dimension door 3/day
17–18	Evard’s black tentacles 1/day
19+	Shadow walk 3/day

Favored Enemy Feats

These feats boost or modify your favored enemy in some way. Notable ones to look at if just skimming this section are Favored Power Attack, Nemesis, and Wise to Your Ways.

Azure Enmity (C): MoI p. 34. Gives +1 essentia like most incarnum feats, and you can invest essentia to get an insight bonus on the usual favored enemy skills and weapon damage rolls equal to essentia invested.

Bane of Infidels (B): PoF p. 53. Gives you a bonus favored enemy (followers of a specific deity that’s opposed to your own deity). Notably you don’t have to be a ranger to take this one, letting you access a limited-target version of favored enemy on other classes. A-rated if you’re in a campaign focusing on fighting servants of a specific deity, like Age of Worms. Still, most rangers can get by with Extra Favored Enemy and the deity’s followers as a favored enemy organization (via urban ranger).

Bane of the Unclean (F): LoM p. 44. Requires favored enemy (aberrations), and gives +2 on attacks/damage/saves/to SC against beholderkin specifically.

Edgewalker Sentinel (C): SoS p. 117. Requires favored enemy (an outsider subtype), and increases your favored enemy bonus against that outsider favored enemy by 1! This also adds Knowledge (the planes) to your ranger class skills and adds spells to your spell list, including protection from evil and its variants. Notably, this can give ranger access to Prestige Paladin at 4th level without needing to multiclass.

Disabling Strike (F): Dr339 p. 87. Requires favored enemy (a humanoid subtype), and makes it so that whenever you crit such a favored enemy, they have to make a Fort save (DC 15 + your favored enemy bonus against them) or become stunned for 1 round. Niche on its own, but also only procs on crits? Don’t take this…

Extra Favored Enemy (A): Gh p. 32. Requires BAB +5, and gives you an extra favored enemy selection at +2 (does not prompt an advancement). Updated to 3.5 in the Ghostwalk 3.5 update. This is a genuinely strong feat to take if you’re ever at a point where you’re unsure on what to take, since it reduces the number of situations where your build can brick.

Favored Critical (D): MotW p. 23. This feat is functionally Improved Critical but only against one of your favored enemy types. Its exact wording runs on the 3.0 rules that let you stack Improved Critical with keen weapons, and thus should be updated. Per the 3.5 update reference booklet though, this feat is actually explicitly removed from 3.0 in 3.5 (reworked and “renamed” Favored Power Attack, in spite of that feat being totally unrelated) rather than ‘merely’ unupdated, which is honestly deeply weird. Even so, if you use the 3.5 critical stacking rules, it’s still a bad feat to take.

Favored Dodge (B): Dr335 p. 91. Requires Dodge, and adds your favored enemy bonus to AC against one of your types of favored enemies. Unlike Dodge, this is always up, against all relevant creatures. Notably this does apply to touch AC, which can make it pretty darn strong against spell effects at later levels. The rating for this assumes you’re optimizing your favored enemy such that you have a big bonus that applies to pretty much everything you fight; otherwise this is D-rated and not worth taking.

Favored Power Attack (S): CWar p. 98. Requires Power Attack and BAB +4. When using Power Attack against your favored enemies (any of them, not just ‘pick one’), your Power Attack multiplier becomes 2× for one-handed weapons and 3× for two-handed weapons. This can push your damage to absolutely incredible levels, and is the main reason why rangers still value their +2 favored enemies (it broadens the list of foes you can apply this to). This is so good that even fighting with a one-handed off-hand weapon is worth it on TWF rangers, just to access that 2× multiplier.

Foe Hunter (C): PGtF p. 38, Faerûn regional feat. This one gives you a bonus +2 favored enemy depending on your region, even if you aren’t a ranger. The options are dragons, humanoids (goblinoids), humanoids (orcs), demons (specifically), and yuan-ti. If you’re not taking another FR regional option (such as the Uthgardt Barbarian favored enemies) and have a spare feat at 1st level, grabbing dragons isn’t a bad pick. Otherwise, this has too much competition to be worth it for many builds.

Hunter's Mark (F): Dra p. 141. Requires you to have a true dragonmark (already niche), and gives you +1 on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, and weapon damage rolls against favored enemies. Unlike Edgewalker Sentinel, this is a separate bonus, rather than increasing your existing bonus (and applying to ACFs). You can do much better than this.

Improved Favored Enemy (D): CWar p. 101. Requires BAB +5 and gives you a +3 damage bonus against favored enemies. If you want a damage-boosting feat, Favored Power Attack is going to be ‘enough’ in most cases. There’s an argument that certain builds could use this (like archery), but even then, as a feat-starved martial I don’t recommend it. The only reason to use this feat is if you get it for free, tbh.

Intimidate the Enemy (F): Dr335 p. 91. Lets you demoralize one type of favored enemy as a move action, and adds your favored enemy bonus on the Intimidate checks to do so. Mediocre unless you’re already speccing into demoralize stuff, and at that point you probably have another, better way to speed up the action.

Murderous Intent (D): EE p. 14. Vile feat, requires BAB +9 and has two parts. First, you can make a single attack as a full-round action that inflicts a save-or-stagger on a favored enemy. Secondly, you automatically confirm all critical threats against favored enemies. If you’re a full critfishing build and evil, this is okay, but you should never take this for the main benefit.

Nemesis (S): BoED p. 44. Exalted feat. This directs you to choose one of your favored enemies, and thereafter you can sense their exact positions within 60 feet (including through walls, something even blindsight can’t do) and also get +1d6 damage on all weapon attacks against evil examples of them. The usefulness of this feat should be self-evident. If you’re not evil for a specific prerequisite, this is a very strong reason to be good-aligned.

No Threat To Me (C): Dr335 p. 91. Requires Point Blank Shot and BAB +7, and lets you choose one of your favored enemy types to no longer be able to make attacks of opportunity when you make a ranged attack. An alright feat for archery builds if you’ve already got everything you need, but that is going to be somewhat unlikely. 5-foot step is enough for most cases anyway.

Repel Outsiders (D): SoS p. 118. Requires Edgewalker Sentinel and ranger level 3rd, and gives you the ability to functionally turn (but not destroy) outsiders. It’s Charisma-based though, and doesn’t count as turn undead for prerequisites, so it’s pretty niche.

Supernatural Blow (D): MotW p. 25. This feat is weird. Basically, it lets you ‘fake crit’ a chosen type of favored enemy that’s normally immune to critical hits. If you would crit, you get +1d6 damage per weapon damage die that you would normally do on a critical hit. As unupdated 3.0 content, it needs a minor adjustment (favored enemy did precision damage in 3.0, and does not in 3.5, so a sentence allowing you to apply the bonus damage on crits against the chosen enemy is irrelevant), but even setting that aside, it’s… not good? Crits are strong when they happen, but dedicated critfishing isn’t a strong strategy in 3.5 most of the time, and certainly not worth a feat for a worse-than-usual crit against crit-immune creatures.

Tactical Advantage (S): Dr335 p. 91. Requires BAB +5, and lets you apply your favored enemy bonus on attack rolls against one of your favored enemies! Also on trips, disarms, and bull rushes. Absolutely incredible as an alternative to solitary hunting, even if it only applies to one favored enemy instead of all of them. Note: since both solitary hunting and Tactical Advantage merely expand what your favored enemy bonus applies to, they don’t stack with each other.

Trophy Hunter (D): Dr332 p. 91. When you kill a favored enemy of your choice, you can cut off a body part to get one of a couple different effects for a moderate duration (ranging from several minutes to several days, depending on the body part taken; gentle repose can extend this), including +2 on Fort saves against spells/SLAs of that enemy’s type, +2 morale on attacks against that enemy, and so on. It’s somewhat limited because the parts explicitly rot, and honestly, it’s gross? But it’s a source of a morale bonus on attack rolls and Fort saves among other things, so it’s not abjectly terrible.

Unquenchable Flame of Life (B): LM p. 31. Gives you a +2 bonus on saves against undead creatures’ Ex and Su abilities, or if you have favored enemy (undead), the feat’s bonus is equal to your favored enemy bonus. RAW stacks with Wise to Your Ways, but notably, this one works on class- and feat-granted abilities undead creatures have, while Wise to Your Ways does not.

Wise to Your Ways (A): Gh p. 39. Adds your favored enemy bonus on saves against the Ex, Su, and Sp abilities of one of your favored enemies. This is amazing as a defensive boost, but notably it explicitly only works on ‘standard’ abilities they get (defining it as from being a monster, rather than stuff from classes, feats, items, and so on). It’s unclear how this works with stuff like favored enemy (arcanists) or favored enemy organizations, so ask your DM if you want to take it for stuff like that.

Multiclassing Feats

These feats allow you to stack your ranger abilities with levels in other classes. The most notable ones are Devoted Tracker (for ubermount builds), Swift Hunter (for skirmish builds), and Sword of the Arcane Order (for everyone).

Additional Favored Class (D): UA p. 100. While not strictly a ranger-based multiclassing feat, if your group uses the multiclassing penalty rules, this can, in theory, be useful on some builds. Still, you’re probably better off picking a race with the right favored classes and only multiclassing carefully at that point.

Ascetic Hunter (D): CAdv p. 105. Allows you to add half your favored enemy bonus to the save DCs of Stunning Fist attacks against favored enemies, and stack monk and ranger levels for unarmed damage.

Combined Empathy (F): Dr325 p. 61. If you multiclass druid and ranger you stack your levels for wild empathy checks.

Devoted Tracker (B): CAdv p. 108. Now we’re talking! Requires smite evil and wild empathy, rather than paladin levels, and if you have a special mount and an animal companion, you can designate the special mount to get the benefits of being an animal companion too. Particularly good with Holy Mount (below), though ideally you want to get a special mount from a non-paladin class if you can.

Holy Mount (C): Dr325 p. 62. Stacks your paladin levels with your divine spellcasting class levels (includes ranger) for determining special mount abilities. If you use this alongside Devoted Tracker you can get a full-progression special mount tacked onto your animal companion.

Swift Hunter (B): CSco p. 81. Stacks your scout and ranger levels for determining skirmish progression and favored enemy progression, as well as letting you bypass precision damage immunity when skirmishing against favored enemies.

Improved Skirmish (B): CSco p. 78. Requires skirmish +2d6/+1 AC, so this is going to only be relevant for Swift Hunter rangers. The benefit is if you moved at least 20 feet away from your starting position in a turn, it gives an extra +2d6 skirmish damage (and an extra +2 AC). Average +7 damage per attack is a lot for one feat, but depending on your plans, it may not be worth getting over more build-enabling stuff.

Undo Resistance (A): FCII p. 85. Requires skirmish, sudden strike, or sneak attack, and is probably going to only be relevant for Swift Hunter rangers. This makes it so that whenever you hit an enemy with a cold iron weapon (even enemies not specifically vulnerable to that damage type), you reduce that enemy’s spell resistance by 1 per die of precision damage for 1 hour. It’s fantastic if you have casters in your party, functionally neutralizing a major high-level defense against spells.

Sword of the Arcane Order (S): CoV p. 34. In Forgotten Realms requires you to worship Mystra. This feat is amazing, but also weird. The short summary is that it lets you prepare and cast wizard spells from a spellbook, using your divine ranger slots (but Int instead of Wis for the casting). There’s a lot of intricacies to this feat, which are gone over in-depth in the spellcasting section later in the guide, but in general it’s just a fantastic feat.

Theurgic Bond (C): Dr325 p. 62. Requires both a familiar and an animal companion, and stacks the levels of the classes granting either for determining the abilities of one companion of your choice. RAW, this sets your ranger animal companion or urban companion familiar to “full ranger level” for the purposes of progression, though it’s a reasonable ruling for a DM to say “you stack your other levels with the normal effective druid level the ranger gets.” Even in the latter case, this has some build potential as it does let you take a level of beastmaster (CAdv p. 26), get an animal companion whose effective druid level is class level +3, then take Theurgic Bond and stack that with your familiar’s progression. In this way, some of the best builds for pet owners actually get both an animal companion and an urban companion familiar, with the animal scaling more slowly at the cost of your second minion. The feat is S-rated if you’re using it this way.

Theurgic Empathy (F): Dr325 p. 62. If you multiclass bard and ranger you stack your levels for wild empathy checks.

Tracking Feats

As mentioned in the section on the base class, tracking with the Survival skill is very campaign dependent. Still, if your campaign and DM make it good, these feats may be of some use.

Astral Tracking (C): DrCom p. 92. Lets you track enemies through the Astral Plane even though there’s nothing to track with, and lets you determine where someone teleported to if you find where their trail goes cold because of teleporting (letting you follow, if you yourself have an equivalent spell).

Planar Tracker (F): Dr306 p. 55. This is a worse version of the Astral Tracking feat, printed a couple months earlier with even higher level prerequisites.

Urban Tracking (C): UA p. 56. This lets you use Gather Information to track down someone based on rumors instead of Survival to track down someone based on traces. This has the same “campaign-specific” issue that Track does, while also being Cha-based instead of Wis-based.

Initiate Feats

There are some initiate feats that allow rangers to take them. Like all initiate feats, they require you to follow a specific deity, and you can only take one of them. Personally, I don’t like deity-based mechanical restrictions, but even if your group tends to ignore them, it’s worth keeping in mind that they mechanically wrote them as mutually-exclusive. Each initiate feat gives a baseline benefit and also adds spells to your spell list at the listed levels.

Initiate of Anhur (C): CoV p. 30. Requires ranger 5th and worship of Anhur. This one lets you use Listen while asleep at no penalty, make AoOs while flat-footed, and adds bless weapon (1st), spiritual weapon (2nd), and thunderstroke (2nd) to your spell list.

Initiate of Kord (B): Dr342 p. 51. Requires 2nd-level divine spells and worship of Kord. You get a +4 bonus on bull rush, disarm, grapple, overrun, sunder, and trip attempts, and add Kord’s power surge (1st), Kord’s greeting (2nd), and champion of Kord (4th) to your spell list. All three of these spells are introduced in the same article, and are quite good for anyone looking to use combat maneuvers.

Initiate of Eilistraee (F): CoV p. 30. Requires ranger 4th, worship of Eilistraee, and being a drow or half-drow. 1/day you can use a racial spell-like ability use to cast a magic missile SLA, and adds Eilistraee’s moonfire (1st) and lesser spellsong (3rd) to your spell list.

Initiate of the Holy Realm (D): CoV p. 30. Requires ranger 3rd and worship of Chauntea, Helm, Lathandar, Nobanion, Selune, or Sune. You get +1 on saves while doing a quest for your god, and add a bunch of spells to your list: alarm (1st), handfire (1st), horrible taste (1st), rosemantle (1st), love bite (1st), lionheart (2nd), and warning (2nd). If you assume that the whole campaign is a quest for your god (fairly reasonable), this is +1 on all saves and then spells on your spell list. However, in the end, +1 on all saves for a feat isn’t that good, especially for the opportunity cost of a better initiate feat. Luck of Heroes (PGtF p. 40) gives +1 on all saves and +1 AC, for example… still, in theory this might have a place.

Initiate of Horus-Re (B): CoV p. 30. Requires ranger 4th and worship of Horus-Re. You get wild shape (as a druid) 1/day, except you can only become a hawk and only for 1 hour. This gives you access to wild shape requiring prestige classes, and is actually still a pretty useful sneaking/scouting/traversal tool. The spells it adds are command (1st), disc of solar vengeance (1st), herald’s call (1st), stormvoice (2nd), and searing light (3rd).

Initiate of Selune (D): PGtF p. 81. Requires ranger 3rd and worship of Selune. You cast augury and divination (if on your list) at +5 CL, and add handfire (1st), moon blade (3rd), and strength of the beast (4th) to your spell list.

Initiate of Tchazzar (C): DoF p. 92. Requires ranger 3rd and worship of Tchazzar. You get +2 on saves against dragon breath weapons and frightful presence, and add flare (0th), flame blade (2nd), Palarandusk’s fire breath (2nd), fireball (3rd), and magic vestment (3rd) to your spell list.

Initiate of Tymora (B): CoV p. 32. Requires ranger 4th and worship of Tymora. 1/day you can add a +5 luck bonus on your next attack roll, save, skill check, or ability check, and you add fleeting fortune (1st) and favor of Tymora (2nd) to your spell list.

Other Ranger-Specific Feats

These three feats aren’t doing a specific class feature thing, but require ranger anyway so I’m mentioning them.

Knight of the Risen Scepter (F): CoV p. 32. Requires ranger 8th and worship of Osiris. If you’re killed by a follower of Set, you get resurrected 1 hour later. In addition, if a follower of Osiris uses a spell to bring you back to life, you get a negative level instead of permanent level loss. This is hyper-specific and niche (ideally you don’t want to die in the first place), but if you’re in a campaign fighting Set’s clergy specifically I’d call it a C rating, I guess.

Mark of Vermin (D): Dra p. 143. Requires an aberrant dragonmark, and lets you use ranger spells that target animals normally on vermin. You also get to speak with vermin 1/day (including swarms), which is a weird one, not gonna lie.

Mystic Companion (C): Dr339 p. 87. Requires 9 ranks in Knowledge (nature), 1st-level divine spells, and an animal companion. This ups your ranger caster level by 4 as long as your animal companion is within line of sight, up to a maximum of your ranger level. On its own, it’s basically just worse Practiced Spellcaster, so you shouldn’t bother with this unless you’re taking both to fully make up for the significant CL loss rangers experience at high levels.

Animal Companion & Familiar Feats

There are many feats for users of animal companions and familiars, and while these are ranger class feature options, it’s such a build-definer that I’m going to instead discuss these in the second spoiler tag. Many rangers won’t have animal companions, but if you do want to build around them, rest assured you can make them solid (even if a druid still does it better because they’re, well, druids).

General Combat Feats

For any given ranger, potentially.

Blind-Fight (C): SRD. Lets you roll twice on miss chances and makes you not lose your Dex bonus against invisible creatures. It’s alright (miss chance can really mess you up) but generally not worth the feat slot unless you need it for prerequisites.

Brand of the Nine Hells & Mark of Hell (A): FC2 p. 80, 84-85. So, this set of character options is genuinely a weird one; these two feats require you to be lawful evil alignment and a devil, and so it’s normally unavailable to PCs. However, its special section notes that nondevils can take them with DM permission if they perform a notable enough service for the archdevil in question. They’re very strong and unique abilities, and can be considered a viable reason to play an evil ranger and lock out exalted options, but they strongly alter what your character can do narratively (due to serving an archdevil directly and personally), and are a rare explicit “ask your DM if this is okay, even among ask-your-DM options.”

Still, the effects are wild. They range in power (Mephistopheles’ is particularly bad), but honestly they’re worth a look. As there are nine layers of hell, there are likewise nine variants for each of the Brands and Marks.

1. Bel: The 1st layer of hell is Avernus. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you a special cold iron longsword or greatsword that deals +1d6 damage against good creatures and +2d6 damage against demons. You’re proficient in it, but it’s unclear if it’s masterwork or enhanceable magically. Mark of Avernus grants you the ability to make any one weapon attack or spell-like ability as an immediate action 1/encounter, plus giving you +4 on attack rolls during readied actions.
2. Dispater: The 2nd layer of hell is Dis. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you literal eyes in the back of your head, making you immune to flanking. Mark of Dis gives you the ability to gain +4 to AC or on a save as an immediate action, at-will. In addition, the mark makes your starting square never count as threatened when you take an action that includes movement.
3. Mammon: The 3rd layer of hell is Minauros. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you an aura that penalizes stronger enemies in attacking you (save negates) and makes weaker enemies shaken (also save negates). Mark of Minauros makes it so when you move, your starting square never counts as threatened, and when you charge, you get +2 on the attack roll for every 10 feet you move, in addition to the normal +2 bonus. It’s unclear how this works with pounce, but I myself would rule it only applying to the first attack.
4. Fierna & Belial: The 4th layer of hell is Phlegethos. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you a 1-round daze touch (save negates) as a standard action once every 1d4 rounds. Mark of Phlegethos gives you “pleasure points” (one gained when you deal or take damage) that last until the end of encounter, and can be expended one at a time as a swift action to get +4 on an attack, save, or check.
5. Levistus: The 5th layer of hell is Stygia. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you the ability to get cold resistance 20 and deal +1d6 cold damage with natural weapons for 10 minutes, as a swift action, 1/day. Mark of Stygia makes you never have to Balance on slippery surfaces, and gives +4 on attack and damage rolls when both you and your opponent stand on top of ice. In addition, as a swift action you can make your weapon deal +1d6 cold damage for 1 round.
6. Glasya: The 6th layer of hell is Malbolge. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives the ability to get fast healing 3 for 1 minute 1/day as a swift action. Mark of Malbolge gives you 3+ Con mod tumors that can be expended to speed you up, heal you 2d6+HD, up your natural reach by 5 feet, or make a sickening spray at an adjacent enemy as a swift action. Tumors regrow after 1 minute, so this is an actually solid source of combat healing and reach.
7. Baalzebul: The 7th layer of hell is Maladomini. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives +4 on grapple and Escape artist checks, and +1d6 acid damage with natural weapons (always, apparently). Mark of Maladomini makes you stinky and gross. Creatures that move adjacent to you have to make a DC-scaling Balance check or stop moving (and if they fail and keep trying to move, they fall prone), and any living creature within 10 feet has to make a Fort save or become sickened for 1 minute. Both of these are strong, but affect allies too, so be careful. The second effect can only work on a creature 1/day, even if they succeed on the save.
8. Mephistopheles: The 8th layer of hell is Cania. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you the ability to deal +1d6 fire damage with natural weapon attacks for 1 round as a swift action, 3/day. Mark of Cania gives you a cumulative, stacking +1 on attacks, damage, saves, and checks, as well as –1 to AC, when you miss an attack or a target successfully saves against one of your abilities. This can tick up once per round, and resets to 0 when you successfully hit or affect an enemy with something.
9. Asmodeus: The 9th layer of hell is Nessus. Taking Brand of the Nine Hells gives you the ability to use command as an SLA 3/day as a swift action. Mark of Nessus makes it so that whenever someone would attack or otherwise target you, they have to make a Will save or do something else (either another action or target someone else). Once they succeed, they’re immune for 24 hours. Plus, as a swift action, you can make one of your natural weapons deal +1d6 points of damage for a round.

Combat Acrobat (A): PHB2 p. 76. Requires 9 ranks each in Balance and Tumble, and gives you two abilities, both of which activate without an action cost. First, whenever you would be knocked prone you can make a DC 20 Balance check to just… not do that. Second, whenever you would move in difficult terrain you can make a DC 15 Balance check to treat up to 4 squares of it as normal terrain. The latter is especially good because it lets you charge through and even 5-foot step in difficult terrain.

Combat Expertise (F): SRD. This feat is terrible. Losing attack bonus for a small AC boost is nearly never worth it. Sadly, though, it’s an important prerequisite for actually good feats. Don’t take it for its own sake though.

Craven (A): CoR p. 17. If you have sneak attack, this adds your level to damage on sneak attacks. For rangers who’ve dipped rogue, entered a PrC with sneak attack, taken Martial Stance (assassin’s stance), or used the hunter’s eye spell, this is an amazing feat that significantly boosts your damage. Note that it turns off if you become immune to fear.

Dodge (F): SRD. Requires Dex 13. Good old Dodge. Poor sweet Dodge. It did everything wrong. This feat is bad. Really bad. So bad that WotC actually made variants of it that are just better than it, and count as it for prerequisites. Even if you need Dodge for something else, you should probably take one of those:

Exotic Weapon Proficiency (B): SRD. There are some genuinely good exotic weapons out there, and if you’re looking to use them, you’ll want proficiency. Not much else to say about this (though we’ll discuss exotic weapons later in the gearing section).

Flyby Attack (B): SRD. If you can fly, this lets you move and take a standard action of your choice during the movement. This is a far better pickup than any of the Spring Attack/Shot on the Run/etc variants, especially since flight is something most characters get by higher levels.

Improved Critical (F): SRD. Requires BAB +8, and doubles a chosen weapon’s threat range. Critfishing isn’t generally a good strategy, and Improved Critical is even worse for it. If you’re focusing on crits, just get a keen weapon.

Improved Initiative (B): SRD. Gives +4 on init checks. Going first is good! If you have nothing else to do with a feat, you can do far worse than this.

Knowledge Devotion (B): CC p. 60. Requires 5 ranks in any Knowledge, and gives you a scaling bonus (+1 to +5) on all attack and damage rolls against creatures you’ve rolled a trained Knowledge check to identify. Notably, this even works if you rolled poorly, since the minimum bonus is +1 at a roll of 15 or less. If you dip cleric (or cloistered cleric) you can even get this for free by trading away the knowledge domain! A solid feat all around, though not necessarily mandatory for all rangers.

Mage Slayer (C): CArc p. 81. Requires BAB +3 and 2 ranks in Spellcraft. This gives you a +1 bonus on Will saves and makes it so spellcasters you threaten in melee can’t cast defensively. They can still 5-foot step though, so unless you’re using reach weapons it’s not as useful as it seems. In addition, taking the feat reduces your caster level for every spell and SLA you can use by 4. The best ranger spells tend not to care about CL… but it’s up in the air whether or not reducing your CL below 0 makes it impossible to cast them. That’s been a hot debate for as long as Complete Arcane has been published, and without a good answer to give, I’m just gonna say to ask your DM how it applies to your ranger spells and then go from there (if it doesn’t turn off your spells, it’s B-rated). If you’re playing a lockdown reach-based character this is instead S-rated because shutting down spellcasters is part of your job.

Martial Study/Martial Stance (A): ToB p. 31. These feats, respectively, give you a Tome of Battle maneuver known (usable 1/encounter if you’re not an initiator) and the discipline skill as a class skill, and a stance known (usable at-will). Martial Stance requires a maneuver known already, so for non-initiators you will generally either be taking both feats, or taking Martial Stance after getting a 3,000gp minor crown of the white raven variant from the magic items section of Tome of Battle. Your initiator level for learning maneuvers is equal to half HD.

These feats were hard to rate. I’ve given them a tentative A, because they’re genuinely extremely good feats. When your build wants a maneuver or stance it tends to really want it, but otherwise they’re winmore. Still, take a look at the list in ToB, there’re some gems.

Maneuver	Discipline	Level	HD Needed	Effect	Notes
Vanguard Strike	Devo	1st	2*	Strike; allies get +4 to hit against target for 1 round.	Best 1st-level choice for access to Devoted Spirit stances.
Moment of Perfect Mind	Diam	1st	2*	Counter; use Concentration in place of Will save.
Action Before Thought	Diam	2nd	6	Counter; use Concentration in place of Ref save.
Mind Over Body	Diam	3rd	10	Counter; use Concentration in place of Fort save.
Wall of Blades	Iron	2nd	6	Counter; use melee attack roll as AC	Good for shutting down touch spells.
Iron Heart Surge	Iron	3rd	10	Cleanse debuffs.	Requires 1 Iron Heart maneuver. Mechanically broken; ask your DM what it works on.
Counter Charge	Set	1st	2*	Counter; opposed Str/Dex check to stop a charge.	Can shut down pounce chargers attacking you.
Baffling Defense	Set	2nd	6*	Counter; use Sense Motive check as AC	Requires 1 Setting Sun maneuver. Good for shutting down touch spells.
Shadow Blade Technique	Shadow	1st	2*	Strike; rolls 2d20 and picks which to use; +1d6 cold if you use lower.	Functionally, 5e-style advantage.
Cloak of Deception	Shadow	2nd	6	Boost; turn invisible for rest of turn (even if attacking).
Shadow Jaunt	Shadow	2nd	6	50ft teleport.
Mountain Hammer	Stone	2nd	6	Strike; +2d6 damage and ignores DR/hardness.	The martial lockpick.
Sudden Leap	Tiger	1st	2*	Boost; Jump as a swift action.	Quick movement for setting up full attacks.
Leading the Attack	White	1st	2*	Strike; allies get +4 to hit against target for 1 round.	Best 1st-level choice for access to white raven tactics.
White Raven Tactics	White	3rd	10	Boost; adjacent ally who already went this round gets an extra turn.	Requires 1 white raven maneuver. Possibly too strong; check with your DM first.

Stance	Discipline	Level	HD Needed	Effect	Notes
Iron Guard’s Glare	Devo	1st	2*	Threatened enemies take –4 to hit your allies.	Strong debuff for ‘tank’ characters.
Martial Spirit	Devo	1st	2*	Each hit heals you or an ally 2 hp.	Depending on the DM, can mean infinite noncombat healing (save on wand costs).
Thicket of Blades	Devo	3rd	10	Stance; 5-foot steps provoke from you.	Core to many lockdown builds.
Island of Blades	Shadow	1st	2*	Adjacent foes get flanked trivially.	Enables the Shadow Blade feat.
Assassin’s Stance	Shadow	3rd	10	Get 2d6 sneak attack.	Enables the Shadow Blade feat.
Leading the Charge	White	1st	2*	You and allies deal IL (half HD) as bonus damage on charge attacks.	Great with multiple pounce users.

* Technically, you need to be 2nd level to have enough IL to take 1st-level maneuvers and stances. I have literally never seen it ruled like this (most people in my experience just let you take Martial Study/Stance at 1st level just fine), but it’s worth checking with your DM if you’re worried about it.

Parrying Shield (C): LoM p. 181. This lets you add your shield bonus to your touch AC. It’s not amazing, not build-defining, and not a priority, but at high levels if you’ve got a feat slot to spare, nabbing a +1 animated heavy shield, having your party casters buff it with magic vestment, and boosting your touch AC against dangerous spells isn’t bad. Note that you can take Favored Dodge for a similar benefit which may be fewer hoops to jump through for spending a feat on AC.

Stormguard Warrior (S or A): ToB p. 36. Requires Ironheart Aura (ToB p. 36), BAB +6, proficiency with an Iron Heart weapon (bastard sword, dwarven waraxe, longsword, or two-bladed sword), and two Iron Heart maneuvers known. This tactical feat gives three options, the main useful one for most builds being “channel the storm,” which states:

Channel the Storm: To use this option, you must choose to refrain from making one or more available attacks of opportunity against a single opponent. On your next turn, you gain a +4 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls for each attack that you refrained from making against the same opponent. You gain this bonus only against an opponent that you refrained from making an attack of opportunity against in the previous round.

There’s a couple of ways to interpret this, mostly around what it means to refrain from making an AoO. If you refrain from an AoO, does it still “cost” that AoO? Or have you just chosen to keep it in reserve? My read for years was that it’s, effectively, choosing to use the attack of opportunity on something else, i.e. you’ve spent the AoO and now you get the benefit next turn. An alternate interpretation, where if you choose not to take the AoO you keep it in reserve and can now keep stacking up the bonus every time that enemy provokes you in some way, is much much stronger. Can you stack up the bonus for each square an opponent moves within your reach? Do you need Combat Reflexes to do that? How does this interact with stuff like Backstab and Ranged Threat, which give a very easily-proccable attack of opportunity but are normally limited to 1/round? Ranged Threat gives you 15-foot reach with your ranged weapon, but taking the AoO explicitly counts as taking all your AoOs for the round. Does refraining from it also eat them?

Anyway there’s various arguments for and against and I found some flamewars on various forums when digging for info. Generally my thoughts on this feat are if you have the liberal interpretation, and it’s basically “you now get tons of bonuses every time they do something that provoke repeatedly, even if you don’t have a lot of AoOs per round,” then the feat is S-rated and just. Really good. Two feats for “whoops the enemy charged through my reach and now instead of making my one attack of opportunity I will get +12, +16 on attacks and damage against them next round” is a lot, even if it won’t come up all the time. If it counts towards your AoOs, then it’s actually still solid (A-rated); in a lot of cases you can get far more out of the attack and damage bonus with Favored Power Attack in play than you’d do with just the AoO itself, as paradoxical as that is, especially at higher levels when you have a bunch of attacks to add it to. With the less conservative reading it’s pretty funny as a tank build with Backstab, too.

Travel Devotion (A): CC p. 62. 1/day as a swift action, lets you move your speed as a swift action for one minute. RAW, you need to activate it as its own action, then you get to start moving with it the round after, but a lot of people play it as letting you move the turn you activate it. Check with your DM how it works in your game. It’s still incredible for enabling mobile full attacks regardless. You can take the feat multiple times to get extra uses, or if you have turn undead you can permanently give up 3 uses to get a bonus Travel Devotion use (any number of times, if you have enough turning attempts to eat). If you dip cleric, you can get this feat for free by trading a domain for it, too.

Weapon Focus (F): SRD. Gives +1 on attack rolls with a single chosen weapon. Weapon Focus is genuinely one of the worst feats in the game; a whole feat for +1 to one weapon is just not worth it on any character. Even if you want an attack boost, compare Knowledge Devotion above, which gives +1 on attacks and damage, minimum, for every weapon. Unless you need this for a prerequisite or requirement, don’t take this feat. If you do need it, you sadly just have to eat the tax, but otherwise please just avoid it.

Willing Deformity (D): HoH p. 125. This is a vile feat (requires evil alignment) that gives +3 on Intimidate checks. It’s pretty bad on its own, and in many cases not worth it (due to removing access to the good-aligned options), but it does give you access to some feats that give natural weapons.

Melee-Focused Feats

If you’re melee, regardless of what approach you’re using, these are worth looking at (or not looking at, as the case may be). If you’re using a weapon in two hands (be it a proper two-hander, or a one-handed weapon in two hands), there are fewer feats that directly benefit your combat abilities than you’d think, centering on these general melee ones. This isn’t as bad as you’d think! You don’t have a lot to go deep into feat trees for ever-increasing power, but this also means you’re free to spend feats on utility and ranger-specific feats. Power Attacking (and Favored Power Attacking) with a two-handed weapon generally gives you enough damage anyway, so the question of “what else do I take if I want to specialize in two-handed weapons” is mostly irrelevant. You’re the gold standard by which everyone else is measured. Revel in it.

Aberration Blood (C): LoM p. 178. Aberration Blood is a mediocre skill-boosting feat (or +2 on grapple checks if you’re a grappler) that requires you be the humanoid type, and gives access to a bunch of secondary feats, many of which give natural weapons. Note: taking “Flexible Limbs” arguably qualifies you for the extended reach feat (listed below). I’ve only mentioned a few aberrant feats here; the rest aren’t all that good but can be found in Lords of Madness

Abyss-Bound Soul (Baphomet) (A or C): FC1 p. 83. This feat requires two bad feats (Evil Brand and Thrall to Demon), and makes it so you can’t be brought back to life except by true resurrection. Plus, it’s a vile feat, so it precludes the good-aligned options. Normally, such a feat would probably not be worth mentioning, except that if you’re bound for Baphmet, you have access to a uniquely powerful line of rules text: “you deal double damage with weapons when you charge.”

What this actually means will probably depend on your DM; there’s multiple ways to read it. Does it double the whole weapon attack including modifiers? Is it just weapon damage itself? Does it work with pounce? Assuming your DM rules it works on all the attacks gotten via pounce, then it’s A-rated if it doubles the whole attack, including your Str bonus and so on, and C-rated if it’s just the weapon’s base damage (since you can still do some good stuff with size increases at that point). Otherwise, it’s not worth the three feats to get.

Adventurous Explorer (B): Dr315 p. 64. Ancestor feat, though this one is for Kara-Tur instead of Rokugan. It lets you, when you ready an action, choose to take the action at any time rather than when the specified condition occurs. In most cases this is just “delay a standard action,” but it has a particular synergy…

Cobalt Charge (C): MoI p. 35. Requires Con 13, gives 1 essentia, and gives you an insight bonus on attack and damage rolls while charging equal to essentia invested. At low and mid levels this isn’t particularly good, but if you’re an incarnum user, this can scale to a fairly high +4 bonus by 18th level, which even stacks with the likes of Knowledge Devotion. Like with Knowledge Devotion, it’s rare for a feat to give that much for a single slot, hence mentioning it here. However, it requires more non-feat resources to max, and scales more slowly, which is why it’s rated as worse.

Great Teamwork (B): Dr318 p. 38, Rokugan ancestor feat. When adjacent to an enemy you can count your position as if you were in another square next to both of you for determining flanking. This is a pretty good option for enabling allied sneak attackers, or your own in the right builds. It’s also incredible for familiars and animal companions to take, for the same reasons. Martial Stance (island of blades) is a superior option for supporting via flanking, but costs an extra feat if you aren’t getting Shadow Hand maneuvers for other reasons.

Intuitive Attack (B): BoED p. 44. This is an exalted feat (for some reason), and lets you use your Wis instead of your Str on attack rolls with simple weapons and natural weapons. It’s really good for enabling Wis-SAD builds or hybrid melee–ranged builds with Zen Archery.

Monkey Grip (F): CWar p. 103. This feat is both heavily memed about and absolutely terrible. Letting you wield a weapon of one size bigger is on average +1-2 increase to your expected damage per hit (not worth a feat), and it even penalizes your attack bonus for good measure. If you want to use big weapons, there’s better ways to do it (for example, heavy metal weapons from the Magic of Faerun, which are also not necessarily good, but are at least better than Monkey Grip).

Power Attack (S): SRD. The bread and butter of most melee builds in 3.5. Requires Str 13, and allows you to trade attack bonus for damage (moreso with two-handed weapons, but doesn’t work with light weapons). Not only is this already a very strong feat, it’s a prerequisite for Favored Power Attack, which you should aim to take on any melee ranger regardless of subspecialty.

Shadow Blade (B): ToB p. 32. This one requires you have a Shadow Hand stance, and while in a shadow hand stance you add your Dex bonus on damage rolls with Shadow Hand weapons (on top of your Str modifier). If you’re playing a Weapon Finesse build, this will help your damage keep up with Strength builds, at the cost of limiting what weapons you can pick. The Shadow Hand weapons are dagger, short sword, sai, siangham, unarmed strike, and spiked chain. The most relevant ones for you are the spiked chain (two-handed) and unarmed strike (light, but works with Power Attack). You can even TWF these two for a strong, but very feat-intensive Dex-based melee build.

Three Mountains (B): CWar p. 114. This feat has a lot of requirements (Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus in a relevant weapon, on top of Str 13), but if you’re already taking most of those feats, it’s a strong pick and well worth using a somewhat suboptimal weapon. The effect only works with heavy maces, morningstars, and greatclubs, but in any round where you hit a creature twice or more with the weapon, they need to make a Fort save (Str-scaling) or become nauseated for a round. This lets you basically remove a target’s next turn with no action cost, with a well-scaling DC. It’s not for every build, and many enemies that’d survive a full attack also have good Fort saves, but it’s definitely worth a look.

Vexing Flanker (F): PHB2 p. 85. Requires Combat Reflexes and ups your flanking bonus to +4 (only for you, not for others). This is not a good feat (a circumstantial +2 attack bonus isn’t bad but it’s definitely not worth the slot), and it’s only relevant for Adaptive Flanker (below).

Weapon Finesse (B): SRD. Lets you use Dex instead of Str on attack rolls with light weapons and a whitelist of other weapons, including the rapier, spiked chain, and rope dart. Finesse builds are pretty solid (higher Reflex, init, and AC, as well as better Tumble checks, is nothing to sneeze at), but they take significantly more feats to get rolling compared to Str builds, so take note of that. This is especially true for rangers, who due to Favored Power Attack are also dipping into the usual Strength suite for martials even on Dexterity builds.

Two-Weapon Fighting Feats

In contrast to the above, if you’re fighting with two weapons you’re probably going to be spending most of your feats on enabling and buffing that approach. This is both because TWF has more feats needed to make it work, and because there’s just a larger number of feats published that care about the playstyle. Plus, unlike with most TWFers, the question of whether to use a one-handed or light weapon in your off-hand is relevant too, because Favored Power Attack’s 2× gets massive when you have all those extra attacks. Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting is thus far better than usual, albeit not necessarily good. It’s also worth considering using a two-handed weapon as your primary and unarmed strikes as your off-hand, as Power Attack applies to unarmed strikes even though they’re light.

A note on double weapons: The idea behind double weapons is that you (usually) pay a feat (Exotic Weapon Proficiency) for the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons, while taking the TWF attack penalties of a one-handed/light weapon pair. In effect, they’re a different style of Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting. In most cases, neither feat is worth it. However, because melee rangers care so much about Power Attack, and you cannot apply Power Attack damage to light weapons, in this specific case, Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting is better than usual—and by comparison, double weapons are so much worse. But since dealing the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons is basically the point of them, you might ask your DM to allow the “light weapon” head of the double weapon to deal damage as a one-handed weapon, at least for Power Attack. This is actually a nerf from RAW, strictly speaking: the rules that are written only make them count as a one-handed/light weapon pair for attack penalties, so otherwise they would be two-handed and deal damage accordingly, with 1.5× your Strength mod and 2× your Power Attack penalty. But, of course, for all the problems that “RAI” has in general (people often use it to mean “my personal preference”), this could not be more blatantly unintended: they printed rules for two-handing one end of a double weapon and the revenant blade prestige class’s legendary force capstone, both of which would be pointless if this was the rule, and Skip Williams’s Rules of the Game article on double weapons explicitly stated they should count as a one-handed/light weapon pair for all purposes, not just attack penalties. Still, a middle ground as a houserule would make double weapons serve a little bit more purpose, and with such a houserule the feats that require double weapons would go up a grade or two.

Two-Weapon Fighting (A): SRD. The rules for fighting with two weapons are fiddly, so I recommend reading through the excellent TWF OffHandbook by Darrin if you want a deep dive on how they work. What’s important to the guide, though, is that rangers are really, really good at fighting with two weapons. This isn’t because of the usual reasons many people, especially the WotC writers themselves, put ranger on a TWF pedestal (bonus feats or favored enemy’s damage bonus), but because of the following:

1. The solitary hunting ACF or Tactical Advantage feat affords them higher attack bonuses than most martials, making up for the TWF penalties.
2. Favored Power Attack lets them do equivalent Power Attack bonuses to two-handed weapons with both weapons.

Rangers doing TWF will build much the same as rangers doing THF—they want to charge, they want Power Attack, and so on—and as a result your stat dependencies and plans are going to be a little off-kilter from what most TWFers aim for. It’s also going to be very, very feat-hungry.

If you’re going for a Strength-based TWFer, you’ll want to have either Dex 15 or the combat style option that gives you TWF as a bonus feat without needing its prerequisites. If you’re going for a Dex-based TWFer, you’ll want to have either Str 13 or the combat style option that gives you Power Attack as a bonus feat without needing its prerequisites.

Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved (C): SRD. Requires Dex 17, TWF, and BAB +6, and lets you make a second attack with your off-hand weapon at a –5 penalty (functionally, an off-hand iterative). This is a strong feat, but most TWFers shouldn’t take it. Instead, get the gloves of the balanced hand magic item (MIC p. 105), which costs 8,000gp and gives you the effect of Improved Two-Weapon Fighting for free if you already have TWF. This also means that Strength-based TWFers won’t need to take their Dex higher than 15 even if they’re not using the two weapon combat style.

Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater (D): SRD. Requires Dex 19, ITWF, TWF, and BAB +11, and lets you make a third attack with your off-hand weapon at a –10 penalty (functionally another off-hand iterative). This is in theory a good feat, but by the time you’re at 11th level as a TWFer, you’re making five attacks total (six with haste) and that’s probably enough. You can almost certainly get more actual benefit than the heavily-penalized third attack out of a different feat, either by boosting your damage/attack bonus somehow or taking something for utility.

Anvil of Thunder (B): CWar p. 112. An incredibly expensive feat, requiring Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (a warhammer or light hammer), Weapon Focus (battleaxe, handaxe, or dwarven waraxe), Improved Sunder, and to top it off, Str 13. However, the effect—if you’re TWFing an axe and hammer and hit someone with both weapons, you prompt a Fort save or daze—is great as a consistent debuff. The DC scales by level and Strength, and daze is very rarely resisted.

Companion Guard Style (C): Dr315 p. 52. Requires proficiency in longswords, longspears, and bows plus BAB +4 (so, no real prerequisites beyond level), and lets you use your Dexterity instead of Strength when using longswords and longspears. This is a weird one, make no mistake, but if you’re looking to do a Weapon Finesse build, you could take this feat to get finesseable longswords to Power Attack with rather than, perhaps, using unarmed strike as your off-hand weapon.

Dire Flail Smash (B): CoR p. 17. Requires Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (dire flail), and Str 13, as well as (implicitly) Exotic Weapon Proficiency (dire flail). This feat is basically a cheaper Anvil of Thunder, prompting a Fort save or daze if you hit with both ends of the dire flail. However, double weapons can’t Power Attack with the off-hand, so whether it’s the right pick is up in the air.

Double Hit (B): MH p. 25. Requires Combat Reflexes as well as TWF and ITWF. This one lets you make an attack with both your weapons any time you get to make an attack of opportunity. This is a nice pickup for most TWFers if you can afford it and are already taking Combat Reflexes for something, especially if you’ve got one of the “hit with both weapons = a debuff” feat. Whacking an enemy that moved or casted a spell with a daze via Dire Flail Smash is very satisfying if nothing else. Unlike Two-Weapon Attack of Opportunity (below), this doesn’t cost two ‘effective’ AoOs, which means it’s better than the alternative for most characters.

Eilservs School (C): DotU p. 56. Requires BAB +6, 2 ranks in Spellcraft, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff), and TWF. When using a magic staff, you get +1 on damage per 10 charges left in the staff, and when you hit someone with both ends of the staff in a round, you can cast a spell from the staff as a swift action, targeted or centered on them. This is a very weird, very unique feat that gives access to some entertaining tricks, but is honestly better on non-ranger TWFers because of the inability to Power Attack with double weapon off-hands.

Hammer's Edge (C): CWar p. 113. Requires Str 15, TWF, Improved Bull Rush, Weapon Focus (bastard sword, longsword, or scimitar), and Weapon Focus (warhammer or light hammer). This is basically a worse version of Anvil of Thunder, applying prone instead of the 1-round daze. But it works with swords, if you want to use them instead of axes.

High Sword Low Axe (C): CWar p. 113. Requires Improved Trip, TWF, Weapon Focus (bastard sword, longsword, scimitar or shortsword), and Weapon Focus (battleaxe, handaxe, or dwarven waraxe). Unlike the other style feats from Complete Warrior, this one’s only bad feats are the Weapon Focuses! Plus, instead of prompting a save-or-debuff when you hit a target with both weapons, you instead get a free trip attempt (which can chain into another attack thanks to Improved Trip). Solid if you want to go for a non-lockdown tripper and need the Weapon Focuses anyway for prerequisites elsewhere.

Improved Shield Bash (D): SRD. This feat allows you to shield bash while keeping your AC bonus. It’s honestly not worth it in nearly every case, since it gives minimal returns on the feat investment. However, it opens up access to some genuinely interesting TWF options.

Improved Unarmed Strike (C): SRD. Most players would never consider taking a feat just to let you punch properly with a 1d3 weapon. Most of the time, the advice is to take a monk’s belt or even just dip monk itself to gain access to unarmed strikes, but I think it’s worth mentioning here because the unarmed strike is, uniquely, the only core light weapon that you can Power Attack and Favored Power Attack with. It also lets you use a two-handed weapon in your primary hand, for even more Power Attack goodness. If you can get this feat from an item though, take that instead if possible.

Karmic Strike (C): CWar p. 102. Requires Combat Expertise, Dodge, and Dex 13. This isn’t something that you’d normally associate with two-weapon fighting, but there’s a particularly entertaining synergy that I really enjoy and wanted to mention. Karmic Strike lets you penalize your AC for a round to allow yourself to make an attack of opportunity back whenever an enemy hits you in melee. As mentioned, unarmed strikes can be Power Attacked with, and work great as off-hand weapons alongside a two-handed weapon as a result. If you decide to use unarmed strikes without the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, you provoke an attack of opportunity when you attack… and with Double Hit or Two-Weapon Attack of Opportunity, you can then make two attacks back (including an unarmed strike, which provokes again if they have Combat Reflexes and want to tempt fate). As options go, it’s a weird and silly one, but it’s absolutely hilarious to me both mechanically and thematically. Some real ‘drunken master’ vibes going on here.

Lightning Mace (F): CWar p. 113. Requires Combat Reflexes, TWF, and Weapon Focus (light mace). In spite of all the aptitude weapon memes, this feat genuinely sucks. Getting a bonus attack when you threaten a crit with a 20/x2 weapon is already bad, but on top of that, light maces can’t be used with Power Attack. If you’re using this feat, you’re either using at most a 19-20 weapon (and thus it’s not a meaningful enough chance to make a difference), or you’re using some kind of theoretical optimization cheese to modify crit chance to the point where you can chain arbitrary numbers of attacks. In either case, you shouldn’t take this feat. It’s either useless or it’ll break your game, with no in-between.

Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting (D): CAdv p. 111. Requires TWF and Str 13. This lets you treat one-handed off-hand weapons as light for determining your TWF penalties. Fundamentally, this feat is “get +2 on your attack rolls when full attacking.” Is that worth it in most cases? Not really, especially on ranger who can get better attack roll bonuses elsewhere (even just taking Knowledge Devotion gives you a better-scaling bonus that applies on damage rolls too). In addition, for the same cost of one feat you could grab Improved Unarmed Strike instead and off-hand unarmed strikes as light weapons that can still be used with Power Attack.

Power Lunge (B): Gh p. 37. This requires BAB +3 and Power Attack, and, when charging, lets you add double your Strength bonus on damage instead of whatever you usually applied (1× for one-handed, 0.5× for off-hand, 1.5× for two-handed). In exchange, you provoke an attack of opportunity from whoever you charged. This is a lot of damage for TWF builds, as it doubles your Str bonus on the primary hand (1× to 2×) and quadruples it for your off-hand (0.5× to 2×). That will add up on pounce charges! Also funny if you’re using Karmic Strike/Robilar’s Gambit/Double Hit.

Prehensile Tail (C): SK p. 147. Requires Str 13, TWF, and a tail attack, and lets you use your tail as a third hand (including for accessing Multiweapon Fighting). If you’re a dragonblood race, you can take the Dragon Tail feat (RotD p. 98) to access this, though the cost of multiple feats on top of the rest of the two-weapon fighting suite is probably not worth it in most cases. Having one more attack is good, but you can get extra attacks in other ways and at a certain point, two feats for +1 attack on your routine isn’t worth delaying more important stuff for your build.

Two-Weapon Attack of Opportunity (B): Dr340 p. 87. This is similar to Double Hit above, except that it requires Combat Reflexes, TWF, and Dex 17 (no ITWF prerequisite), and your extra attack with the off-hand weapon counts towards your attacks of opportunity in the round. It’s cheaper to get, but worse for spamming AoOs.

Two-Weapon Defense (F): SRD. Requires Dex 15 and TWF, and gives you a +1 shield bonus while fighting with two weapons. Don’t take this, it’s really bad. If you want a shield bonus while TWFing, just use Agile Shield Fighter.

Two-Weapon Pounce (D): PHB2 p. 84. Requires TWF, Dex 15, and BAB +6. This lets you attack with both weapons when you charge; it’s not quite pounce (you won’t be getting iteratives), but if you’re unable or unwilling to grab Travel Devotion, spirit lion totem, or the lion’s charge spell, this will at least let you do more than one attack while moving.

Two-Weapon Rend (D): PHB2 p. 84. Requires TWF, Dex 15, and BAB +11. When you hit with both of your weapons (but only 1/round per target), you deal an extra ‘hit’ of 1d6 + 1.5 your Str mod.

Ranged Weapon Feats

Ranged weapons are in a worse-off boat than melee for rangers. You lack an equivalent to Favored Power Attack, and run into issues when facing high DR. However, your high attack bonuses can counteract the penalties ranged martials often take to gain more attacks, and you don’t need to worry about getting your hands on pounce. Notably though, unlike with melee weapons where your choice of weapon matters very little in practice beyond the handedness, ranged weapon feats are often very specific. Your combat specialization—and, indeed, the exact weapon picked—matter quite a bit when going for ranged weapons, as follows:

• Archery: Bows have access to a small number of prestige classes and feats specific to them, including the Manyshot line (which itself sucks, but that's okay you don't need it). In addition to the shortbow, longbow, and their composite variants from core, there’s also the greatbow, yuan-ti serpent bow, elvencraft bow variants, and a few others. Luckily, bow options tend to just call out bows and arrows, rather than specific types of bows, making them the easiest ranged option to get into.
• Crossbows: In contrast, crossbows do not. There’s a couple crossbows outside of core like the great crossbow and the spring-loaded gauntlet, but the likes of Rapid Reload and Crossbow Sniper, immensely central feats to the use of crossbows, specify a whitelist of hand, light, and heavy. Unlike with bows where they talk about them in the generic, crossbow options were not future-proofed. I recommend talking to your DM about if they’re willing to houserule the crossbow feats to work with non-core crossbows, if building around them.
• Other Projectile Weapons: Things like slings, gnomish calculuses, and the like don’t have specific feat support. At the same time, there are feats that probably should work with them (for example, there’s no reasonable reason to deny someone who really wants to use a sling the ability to take Rapid Reload for it and make it able to full attack. Or just houserule free reloads… it’s a sling, it’s weak as hell). If building around a nonstandard ranged weapon you may find yourself lacking in options.
• Thrown Weapons: Thrown weapons are pretty open-ended in feats, at least. There’s even a (very bad) feat that lets you throw any weapon. Still, you have to contend with the fact that you’re cleverly disarming yourself when using a thrown weapon, and expect to have worse magical weapons or specific hoops to jump through to make them work well.

Point-Blank Shot (S): SRD. This feat gives you +1 on attacks and damage with ranged weapons against targets within 30 feet. It’s not a good feat on its own (it’s worse than Knowledge Devotion), but nearly every good ranged combat feat requires it, so you’re going to be taking it if you’re fighting at ranged. If you dip cleric, you can get this as a bonus feat from the Elf domain.

Boomerang Daze (S): RoE p. 108. Requires BAB +4 and proficiency with one of Eberron’s exotic boomerangs (Talenta or Xen’drik), and lets you impose a Fort save-or-daze on every hit you make (DC = 10 + the damage dealt). Absolutely incredible for throwers.

Boomerang Ricochet (A): RoE p. 108 Requires BAB +4, Dex 13, and proficiency with one of Eberron’s exotic boomerangs (Talenta or Xen’drik). This one makes it so that when you hit a primary target with a boomerang, you get a second attack at a –2 penalty against an adjacent target as well. It only applies sneak attack to the primary target, but nonetheless it spreads your attacks well.

Brutal Throw (A): CAdv p. 106. This lets you use your Str instead of Dex on attack rolls with thrown weapons. If you’re a thrower, this is a very good pick (you’re already using Str for damage anyway), and it has a good followup feat.

Charming the Arrow (D): Web. This is an entertaining but antisynergistic feat for rangers. It requires being fey type, and lets you substitute Charisma for Dexterity when making attacks with bows and crossbows. In most cases, it’s a worse Zen Archery (as far as ‘mental stat-based weapon attacks’ go), but in some multiclass builds it might have a place.

Crossbow Sniper (C): PHB2 p. 77. Requires Weapon Focus in a chosen crossbow, and adds half your Dex bonus on damage with it. It also increases the range you can deal precision damage to 60 feet. As mentioned above, RAW this only works for the core crossbows (hand, heavy, and light), so check with your DM about houserules if you’re looking to use a different one.

Dead Eye (S): DrCom p. 95. Requires Point-Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (a ranged weapon), BAB +1, and Dex 17. Note that in the text of the book it has a higher BAB prerequisite, but this was errata’d to BAB +1. Anyway, it adds your Dex bonus on damage rolls against targets within 30 feet (doesn’t work on creatures immune to crits).

Hand Crossbow Focus (B): DotU p. 50. Requires you to be proficient in the hand crossbow and BAB +1. This combines Weapon Focus and Rapid Reload for hand crossbows; you get to reload as a free action, and get +1 on attack rolls. It even counts as Weapon Focus for prerequisites! If you’re using hand crossbows you should take this, but hand crossbows aren’t that good, all told. One thing of note is that with an aptitude weapon, you can apply the effects to another crossbow type. A lot of the time aptitude leads to cheese, but honestly this is one of the uses that seems entirely fair, given how janky crossbows are already.

Manyshot (D): SRD. Requires Dex 17, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, and BAB +6. This lets you fire off two attacks with a bow as a standard action, using the same attack roll, but with a –4 penalty. When you have BAB +11 and +16, respectively, you get a third and fourth shot (and a total –6 and –8 penalty on the attack roll). The idea behind this is that it averages your iterative attacks together, but in practice, what you’re doing is shooting off a very feast-or-famine single action, and doing fewer attacks as you do so. Plus, critical hits and precision damage only apply to one of the arrows. I recommend just full attacking.

Precise Shot (S): SRD. Requires Point Blank Shot. Lets you avoid the –4 penalty for shooting enemies that are adjacent to allies. This is functionally a +4 bonus on your ranged attack rolls, since you’re almost always going to be targeting stuff in melee (just due to the nature of 3.5’s combat). Extremely good, possibly necessary. You can get this from a weapon special ability as well, but since you won’t have that at low levels (where the penalty hurts even harder), I recommend taking this.

Quick Draw (B): SRD. Lets you draw weapons as a free action. This is mandatory for throwers who aren’t using ammunition-type weapons like shuriken.

Ranged Disarm (B): CWar p. 103. Requires Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Dex 15, and BAB +5. This feat lets you pick a ranged weapon and make disarm attempts with it against targets within 30 feet. There’s no special action, so you can just make one of your attacks in a full attack this… and since most projectile weapons are two-handed, you even get a +4 bonus. Disarming is a weird combat maneuver, but when it’s good it’s really good. Martial enemies that lose their weapon also lose their next turn retrieving it in most cases, and you don’t have to deal with AoOs back (or taking feats to negate them) when making these attempts with Ranged Disarm.

Ranged Threat (C): Dr350 p. 90. Requires Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Combat Reflexes, and BAB +6. This gives your ranged weapons a 15-foot threatened area and lets you make AoOs with them. However, making a ranged AoO with the feat counts as all your AoOs for the round, so it’s of limited use in most cases, and not viable to build around for lockdown builds. Still, it’s certainly neat.

Rapid Reload (C): SRD. This feat reduces the reload time of a crossbow (hand, light, or heavy specifically) by a step, and is required if you want to fight with crossbows in 90% of cases. I wasn’t sure how to rate this, but I settled on a ‘C’ because, well, crossbows aren’t necessarily that good. The most interesting thing you can do with crossbows is fight with two of them, and the best crossbow to do that with, the spring-loaded gauntlet, is not in Rapid Reload’s whitelist (since it calls out the core ones). If your DM allows this to apply to other crossbows too, it’s actually worth taking. Otherwise you’re probably best off using Hand Crossbow Focus instead to cut down on feat taxes.

Rapid Shot (S): SRD. Requires Point Blank Shot and Dex 13, and gives you an extra attack whenever you full attack, at the cost of a –2 penalty on all your attacks that round. This is really good! An unconditional bonus attack at your highest BAB is just… good.

Shot on the Run (F): SRD. Requires Point Blank Shot, Dodge, Mobility, BAB +4, and Dex 13. It lets you move up to your speed and make a single ranged attack during the movement. As a ranged combatant, you’re not going to need to use this often (and if you do, you’re better off just moving then attacking), and it can’t be used with full attacks. Travel Devotion is much better for the concept.

Windup (A): Dr304 p. 85. Requires Str 13. This is like Power Throw; it gives you a version of Power Attack for thrown weapons, letting you subtract from attack rolls and add on damage rolls at a 1:1 rate. Ask your DM if they’ll let you use Favored Power Attack with this (RAW it doesn’t work). If you can, this is S-rated for throwers. If your DM lets this count as Power Attack for meeting Favored Power Attack’s prerequisite, all the better.

Woodland Archer (S): RotW p. 154. Requires BAB +6 and Point Blank Shot, and in spite of the name doesn’t actually require you use a bow, just ranged projectile weapons. This tactical feat gives you an irrelevant benefit for sniping, as well as two incredible benefits for making your full attacks consistent. First, if you miss an attack, you get +4 on further attacks in the round against the target, and second, if you hit an attack against someone with a concealment-based miss chance (even magical concealment), you ignore the miss chance for the next round. Just very good for counteracting defensive effects at later levels.

Zen Archery (B): CWar p. 106. This lets you use your Wis instead of your Dex on attack rolls with ranged weapons. It’s really good for enabling Wis-SAD builds or hybrid melee–ranged builds with Intuitive Attack, though you’ll still want some Dex for meeting feat requirements.

Natural Weapon Feats

When fighting with natural weapons, you’ve got a bunch of weird rules considerations to worry about, as well as the relative dearth of options compared to “the whole weapons list.” However, natural weapons have unique strengths, not the least of which is their ability to just get extra attacks via feats, templates, race, spells, magic items, you name it. If you’re interested in learning the nitty-gritty of how natural weapons work in general, I recommend giving Solo’s “Natural Weapons and You” guide on BGE a read.

A note on prerequisites: Per page 143 of Oriental Adventures, having any natural attack counts as having Improved Unarmed Strike for prerequisites (but not its benefit, you’ll still provoke with unarmed strikes), and having the improved grab ability counts as having Improved Grapple for prerequisites. As this is a weird rule introduced in the back of a splatbook, your group may not use it (or want to use it), but if you’re playing a natural attacker it’s worth bringing up with them.

Aberration Blood (C): LoM p. 178. Aberration Blood is a mediocre skill-boosting feat (or +2 on grapple checks if you’re a grappler) that requires you be the humanoid type, and gives access to a bunch of secondary feats, many of which give natural weapons. Note: taking “Flexible Limbs” arguably qualifies you for the extended reach feat (listed below). I’ve only mentioned a few aberrant feats here; the rest aren’t all that good but can be found in Lords of Madness

Barbed Stinger (B): SK p. 144. Requires a sting attack, which is tricky to get. The most efficient way I can find is the tongueworm symbiont (ECS p. 300), which was given an effective WBL value of 25,000gp in Magic of Eberron. Anyway, it gives you a version of Improved Grab that works on creatures of any size, which is fantastic for grapplers.

Beast Strike (B): Dr355 p. 76. Requires Improved Unarmed Strike, a claw or slam attack, and BAB +5. This feat adds your claw or slam’s damage to all your unarmed strikes. It can add up very fast with size increases by ‘double dipping’ on those benefits, and is S-rated if you’re using all three of natural weapons, unarmed strikes, and size increases. Note: slams deal bludgeoning damage, so you can use greater mighty wallop on both that and your unarmed strike.

Dragontouched (C): DM p. 18. This requires Cha 11, and gives you the dragonblood subtype as well as +1 hp, +1 on Listen/Search/Spot, +1 on saves against paralysis and sleep, and the ability to take draconic feats as if you were a sorcerer.

Gore Toss (B): Dr313 p. 30. Requires BAB +4 and a gore attack. When you hit with your gore, you get a trip attempt as a free action (and can’t be tripped in retaliation if you fail).

Hamstring Attack (B): Dr313 p. 30. Requires BAB +4, Str 13, and Dex 15. This one is weird. Basically, it lets you substitute damage for Dex damage with any natural attack made while flanking, against stunned/prone targets, or with attacks of opportunity. Each hit deals 1d4 Dex damage, resisted with a Fort save (DC equals to the damage the hit would have dealt). Since the save DC scales with damage dealt, you can use Favored Power Attack to crank it sky-high and nonlethally neutralize even high-Fort enemies at most levels.

Improved Natural Attack (F): SRD. Requires BAB +4. This feat is often recommended for natural attackers, but on ranger, upping one natural weapon’s damage by one effective size increase is just not a lot. Honestly it’s not a lot for most characters. On average you’re gaining 1-2 expected damage, and you could use your feats much better elsewhere.

Multiattack (A): SRD. Requires you to have three or more natural weapons, and reduces the penalty on secondary natural weapons from –5 to –2. An effective +3 on attack rolls is worth the feat (comparing well to things like Knowledge Devotion)…

Rapidstrike (A): Drac p. 73. Requires Dex 9, BAB +10, a pair of natural weapons (claws, tentacles, etc), and being one of aberration, dragon, elemental, magical beast, or plant type. Anyway, it lets you pick one of your pairs of natural weapons and get an extra attack while full attacking, with a –5 penalty. Basically, you get an iterative with your claw attack. You can take this multiple times if you have multiple pairs of weapons.

Scorpion's Grasp (B): Sand p. 52. Requires Str 13, Improved Unarmed Strike, and Improved Grapple, and gives you improved grab with your unarmed strikes and light/one-handed melee weapons (including natural weapons). This is fantastic for grapple-focused builds. Technically speaking though, it doesn’t give you the improved grab ability, instead reproducing all its text. But your DM rules that you do count as having improved grab for prerequisites, you can take the Multigrab and Greater Multigrab.

Shape Soulmeld (A): MoI p. 40. Requires Con 13 and gives you a single soulmeld plus the ability to shape it. This is a broad feat, much broader than the scope of this section; for a full-on guide to just the feat itself, I recommend Bakkan’s “The World in One Feat: A Shape Soulmeld Handbook”. For natural weapon ranger, the relevant options are as follows:

• Chaos Roc Span: Dr 350 p. 87. Gives you two wing buffet attacks that deal 1d4 nonlethal damage each, and have 10-foot, non-inclusive reach (like a polearm, can’t attack adjacent). They’re deeply weird, but this is two uncommon natural attacks for one feat.
• Claws of the Wyrm: DM p. 83. Requires the dragonblood subtype, and gives you two claw attacks that deal 1d6 damage each. There is some extra text in the soulmeld stating how you can attack with them that could be reminder text, or it could be a hard rule making them unusable in full attacks, so talk to your DM about their interpretation I guess. If they rule they can’t be used alongside other weapons, it’s not worth taking.

Touch of Golden Ice (C): BoED p. 47. This exalted feat requires Con 13, and makes it so that any time you touch an evil creature (be it by spells, unarmed strikes, or natural weapons), you hit them with a dose of golden ice poison. Golden ice deals 1d6/2d6 Dex damage with a Fort DC of 14, which… well, it’s not a high DC. Still, if you’re making enough attacks you can fish for low rolls or natural 1st since this rider effect costs nothing but the feat. If your DM rules that the golden ice you generate counts as a normally-generated poison (i.e. it scales to 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Con mod like any other creature with a poison ability), then this is S-rated because it will be much more reliably applicable.

Willing Deformity (D): HoH p. 125. This is a vile feat (requires evil alignment) that gives +3 on Intimidate checks. It’s pretty bad on its own, and in many cases not worth it (due to removing access to the good-aligned options), but it does give you access to some feats that give natural weapons.

Lockdown/AoO-Centric Feats

“Lockdown” for a martial tends to mean some combination of reach weapons, attacks of opportunity, and things that debuff or control enemies on hit with those attacks of opportunity. It’s one of the few viable ways to properly ‘tank’ in 3.5, and rangers can of course do that too. Even if not going all-in on lockdown, some of these feats may be useful. Some feats have been reproduced in this section with different ratings; this is because of the different needs for a reach lockdown character compared to other melees. When building for these feats, keep in mind that most lockdown builds have to play a hybrid Str/Dex setup in order to sustain the ability to make a bunch of AoOs per round, though it’s possible to go full Dex with Weapon Finesse + Unbalancing Blow.

Aberration Blood (C): LoM p. 178. Aberration Blood is a mediocre skill-boosting feat (or +2 on grapple checks if you’re a grappler) that requires you be the humanoid type, and gives access to a bunch of secondary feats, many of which give natural weapons. Note: taking “Flexible Limbs” arguably qualifies you for the extended reach feat (listed below). I’ve only mentioned a few aberrant feats here; the rest aren’t all that good but can be found in Lords of Madness

Skill-Related Feats

Ranger’s skill list makes them good at a few things. They’ve got good perception skills (Listen, Search, Spot), they’ve got access to stealth skills (Hide and Move Silently), and some good Knowledge skills. They can also do trapfinding, getting access to Disable Device via an ACF. Still, Some notable feats for boosting or modifying your skills are as follows.

Able Learner (B): RoD p. 150. This lets you take cross-class skills at 1:1 ranks per skill point, though it doesn’t up the cap. Still, it makes your skill points go a lot further when dipping into Knowledges off your list and other such skills. It does require you be a human or doppelganger, but Races of Destiny recommends a variant on page 150 that expands human-based prerequisites to be accessible by part-human races like half-elves, half-orcs, and planetouched.

Academy Graduate (B): Savage Tide Player’s Guide p. 10. Can only be taken at 1st level, and gives you three Cha- or Int-based skills as class skills, along with +2 on Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (nobility and royalty) checks. Functionally this is a Savage Tide regional feat.

Aereni Focus (C): PGtE p. 20. Requires you be an elf, and can only be taken at 1st level. This is Skill Focus (including for prerequisites), except it also makes the chosen skill a class skill as well. If you’re looking to enter a prestige class with an out-of-class skill requirement, this can be better than Flexible Mind for elves.

Darkstalker (B): LoM p. 179. This feat lets you use Hide to hide from creatures using blindsense, blindsight, scent, and tremorsense, which otherwise pierce your stealth abilities without needing to roll. This is S-rated for stealth specialists, but not a bad pickup even if you’re not going all-in on Hide and have a feat you’re not using on anything else.

Education (B): ECS p. 52. This can only be taken at 1st level, makes all Knowledge skills class skills, and gives you a +1 bonus on two Knowledges of your choosing. It’s A-rated if you’re taking Knowledge Devotion, for obvious reasons.

Flexible Mind (C): Dr326 p. 80. This feat requires you be chaotic alignment (it’s a chaotic equivalent to an exalted or vile feat), and makes two skills in which you already have cross-class ranks into class skills. It also gives you a +1 bonus on those skills, but mostly, it’s for meeting prestige class requirements. Note that the Ordered Chaos feat will let you take this without being chaotic.

Hardened Criminal (A): CoStorm p. 95. This feat requires Iron Will (bad normally, but gettable for 3,000gp from the Otyugh Hole magical location), and makes it so you can take 10 on any skill of your choosing even when threatened or distracted. It also makes you immune to the Intimidate skill. Really good feat for anyone specializing in a single skill.

Nymph's Kiss (B): BoED p. 44. With no prerequisites other than being exalted and having a fey with whom you have ‘an intimate relationship’ with, this is the go-to for getting more skill points. It gives you +1 skill point per level, +2 on Cha-based checks, and +1 on saves against spells and SLAs. As a package deal it’s a steal.

Skill Focus (D): SRD. Gives you +3 on a chosen skill. I’m mentioning this feat to tell you not to take it. Even for skill specialists, unless you’re pushing for a specific skill DC break point (such as hitting +19 on Use Magic Device to never nat-1 fail to activate a wand), most of the time, your ranks, ability scores, and items (masterwork tools, magic items that grant bonuses, etc) will be enough. Spending a feat on +3 with one skill isn’t as objectively terrible as something like Weapon Focus is, but it’s still not good. Unless you need this for a prerequisite, it’s generally not worth taking.

Swift and Silent (C): PGtF p. 45, Faerûn regional feat. This feat eliminates the penalty for moving while using Hide or Move Silently. Effectively, it’s a +5 bonus in those situations. Still not necessary by any means, but a better pickup than Skill Focus.

Defensive Feats

Debuffs can just ruin your day. Fear conditions, stunning, daze, fatigue… whether you impose them on yourself somehow or want to deal with those inflicted by your enemies, feats have answers for some such debuffs.

Blooded (D): PGtF p. 35, Faerûn regional feat. You get +2 on init checks, +2 on Spot checks, and ignore the shaken condition. This is not actually that good on its own (you can take Fearless, below, to just become immune to fear effects), but if you’re taking Craven to boost sneak attacks, you can combine this with the World Weary feat mentioned below to become very resistant to fear, instead of immune, and retain the benefit of Craven.

Bullheaded (D): PGtF p. 37, Faerûn regional feat. You get +2 on Will saves and ignore the shaken condition. Like Blooded, you can combine this with World Weary to become a very fear-resistant Craven character.

Cool Head (D): Dr318 p. 37, Rokugan ancestor feat. This lets you ignore the shaken condition (not frightened or panicked), and roll an extra save if a mind control effect would make you do something violent. Like Blooded, you can combine this with World Weary to become a very fear-resistant Craven character. Why are there so many of these?

Danger Sense (B): Dr301 p. 36. Requires Wis 15 and the Alertness feat. This lets you make a DC 15 Wisdom check whenever a surprise round would happen against you. If you succeed, you get to act in the surprise round too.

Fearless (A): PGtF p. 38, Faerûn regional feat. Can only be taken at 1st level, and makes you immune to fear. Simple, to-the-point, strong against a very common archetype of debuff.

Great Fervor (B): Dr315 p. 53. Greyhawk regional feat. This lets you 1/day reroll a failed save and add your Wis mod on top of the reroll.

Mark of the Dauntless (A): Dra p. 142. Requires a true dragonmark (which limits race and maybe subrace choices; see the racial feats section below for more on that), but not only makes you immune to both stun and daze, it lets you cleanse these debuffs from others with a touch as a standard action. One of the rare ways to get blanket immunity to dazing effects.

Parry (B): Dr301 p. 36. Requires Dex 13, Int 13, and Combat Expertise. This feat is a fairly unique option that gives you a similar ability to the wall of blades maneuver from Tome of Battle. This lets you, 1/round when you’re hit with a melee attack (but before damage is rolled), spend an attack of opportunity to try to parry it. You roll an attack roll against their attack roll (with a +4 bonus if you’re using a light weapon to parry), and if you succeed, the attack is negated. This doesn’t take an action on your part.

There are some fiddly restrictions on how this works, as follows:

• You can’t parry an attack while unarmed (though natural weapons would count you as armed). There’s a specific feat for parrying with unarmed strikes. It’s pretty bad. Just use a spiked gauntlet or something if you’re parrying as a puncher.
• You can’t parry an attack while wearing medium or heavy armor, or while encumbered.
• You can’t parry an attack where you were denied your Dex bonus to AC.
• Your opponent can make a disarm attempt as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity; make sure that you’re using a locked gauntlet if you’re using this feat.

In addition, there are size restrictions. You can’t parry a weapon more than two size categories bigger than your weapon. This uses the 3.0 rules, so to translate this to 3.5… you'd get the following. Note that this is distinct from the actual item sizes; 3.0 used weapon size to determine handedness (for example, in 3.5, a Medium short sword is a Tiny-sized object and a light weapon; in 3.0 a short sword was always Small size, regardless of who's using it). Consider these guidelines to override whatever you'd think about item and weapon sizes, it's just for determining what can parry what.

• Most light weapons are –1 size compared to you (i.e. if you’re Medium, the weapon is Small). One-handed weapons are your size, and two-handed weapons are +1 size compared to you.
• Natural weapons, unarmed strikes, and light weapons that are really little, or fit over your hand like a gauntlet, punching dagger, and the like, are –2 sizes compared to the you (i.e. a dagger or claw attack is considered Tiny if you’re Medium-sized).
• The same calculation applies to the enemy. This means that if you’re using a one-handed or light weapon, you’ll generally be able to parry up to two-handed weapons wielded by creatures of the same size, and natural weapons of creatures up to two sizes bigger than you.

Even with all of these restrictions, the feat is pretty good, especially if you already have Combat Expertise for some reason or other. There are also some feats that expand the feat’s usage, listed below.

Steadfast Determination (C): PHB2 p. 83. Requires Endurance (you have it already) and lets you use Con instead of Wis on Will saves. Also makes it so you don’t autofail Fort saves on a natural 1.

Tireless (C): PGtF p. 46, Faerûn regional feat. This downgrades exhaustion to fatigue, and fatigue to nothing. This feat’s strength depends entirely on how often you have these things come up.. This also has a Rokugan ancestor feat variant (Dr318 p. 40) if you’ve already taken your one allotted Faerûn regional feat.

Troll Blooded (C): Dr319 p. 61, Greyhawk regional feat. Requires Toughness. This gives you regeneration 1 (overcome by fire and acid), but also makes you fatigued when exposed to sunlight. This is not, honestly, that good of a feat in a vacuum, but it’s an interesting way to get immunity to ‘normal’ death (you can’t be killed even if taken to high amounts of nonlethal damage, outside of fire and acid), and saves some costs on healing wands at low levels. Also, I mean, having a healing factor is cool, yanno? Still, I don’t recommend it due to the feat tax; two feats for regeneration 1 and a debuff in the sun isn’t that good on its own. If you combine this with a way to get immunity to nonlethal damage, it’s functionally a total immunity to damage, and thus S-rated but also strong to the point of “you shouldn’t take this.”

World Weary (D): Dr319 p. 61, Greyhawk regional feat. This gives you a +4 competence bonus on saves against fear, and downgrades panicked and frightened by one step each (panicked to frightened, frightened to shaken). It does not downgrade from shaken to nothing, though. This is not actually that good on its own (you can take Fearless, below, to just become immune to fear effects), but if you’re taking Craven to boost sneak attacks, you can combine this with the Blooded, Bullheaded, or Cool Head feats mentioned above to become very resistant to fear, but not outright immune, and retain the benefit of Craven.

Spellcasting-Related Feats

Most of the time you’re not gonna be putting feats towards buffing your spellcasting. Still, there’s a handful of options that are useful, and so I’ve mentioned them here.

Black Lore of Moil (F): CArc p. 75. Requires caster level 7th and Spell Focus (necromancy). This lets you make “runebones” at the cost of gp to add small amounts of negative energy damage to targeted necromancy spells. Rangers have very few necromancy spells, and certainly aren’t using them for damage dealing. Don’t take this.

Greenbound Summoning (S): LEoF p. 8. This makes your animals summoned with summon nature’s ally become greenbound creatures. Rangers do not make good summoners, but Greenbound Summoner lets you turn summon nature’s ally I, a bad 1st-level spell, into wall of thorns, a 5th-level spell that’s good for battlefield control. Honestly, too good when placed on anyone with a normal spell progression. Rangers can safely take it but anyone else (including mystic rangers)? Absolutely shouldn’t.

Extend Spell (C): SRD. A +1 level metamagic that doubles the duration of a spell. Since the best ranger spells are often self-buffs, this can give you more bang for your buck on a given option. This is basically the only metamagic I’d ever consider taking on a ranger, though even then it shouldn’t be prioritized unless you really need it, because lesser metamagic rods of Extend Spell are cheap and apply to nearly all of ranger’s spells.

Practiced Spellcaster (B): CArc p. 82. Requires 4 ranks in Spellcraft and ups a chosen class’s caster level by +4, capped at your total Hit Dice. Your caster level for ranger spells is 1/2 your ranger level, so this will let you scale a little better for self-buff durations. You can also counteract the penalty from Mage Slayer with this feat, if you so choose.

Sanctum Spell (A): CArd p. 82. Requires another metamagic feat. This lets you declare a place to be your sanctum, and modified spells have +1 true level higher within and –1 true level lower outside (works like Heighten Spell). This is good not because of the boost, but the penalty. Preparing a Sanctum 4th-level spell makes it count as a 3rd-level spell in all ways when outside your sanctum, and thus available for use with lesser metamagic rods.

Surrogate Spellcasting (B): SS p. 39. Requires Wis 13 and lets you cast spells in a nonhumanoid form where you can’t otherwise talk or gesture. Most relevant for characters like tibbits or hengeyokai.

Wild Shape-Related Feats

The wild shape ranger is one of the more famous types of ranger, primarily due to the general strength of wild shape. It’s really good, and there’s plenty of feats to make it even more good. You’ll probably also want stuff from the natural weapons section earlier, too.

Aberration Wild Shape (S): LoM p. 178. Requires Aberration Blood and wild shape, and lets you take aberration forms with your wild shape. Aberrations are often much better combat forms than animals, sometimes possessing a bunch of natural weapons, sometimes unique special attacks, just good in general. If you’re playing a wild shape ranger this is one of the best options you can take.

Assume Supernatural Ability (S): SS p. 30. Requires Wis 13 and the ability to assume a new form magically. You pick a form, and pick one of its supernatural abilities, and you can now use it while shapeshifted. Using it in combat requires you to make a DC 19 Will save, and you take a –2 penalty on attacks, saves, skills, and ability checks (feat text implies it’s with the ability, but it may apply as long as you’re in the form), but supernatural abilities are really good and if you have a primary form with one you should take this. You can take the feat multiple times for multiple supernatural abilities.

Bestial Charge (A): CC p. 56. Requires BAB +4, and gives you pounce in the first round after you wild shape, the ability to turn during charges if you have a four legged form, and +5 feet of reach if you have a snakelike form. Good stuff. F-rated if your DM allows you to chain ACFs, because you can just swap fast movement as a barbarian for spirit lion totem (or if you just dip barbarian).

Corrupted Wild Shape (F): LM p. 25. This feat lets you use wild shape if you’re undead, which used to be relevant ruleswise, but since wild shape was errata’d to work like alternate form instead of polymorph, it’s now defunct and redundant.

Dragon Wild Shape (A): Drac p. 105. Requires Wis 19 and 15 ranks of Knowledge (nature). This lets you turn into a Small or Medium dragon with wild shape, and gives you all the Ex and Su abilities of the form you take. Absolutely amazing in theory, but there are fewer good options than you’d think, because most of the good dragons aren’t Small or Medium. Worth taking regardless though. If you’re not allowed to take Aberration Wild Shape this is a good alternative.

Exalted Wild Shape (B): BoED p. 42 Requires 8th level in your class that grants wild shape, and lets you turn into some specific magical beasts (blink dog, giant eagle, giant owl, pegasus, and unicorn). It also applies the celestial template to animal forms. The main benefit of this feat is that you get all the Ex and Su abilities of the forms taken; if you become a blink dog you get at-will dimension door, which is nice. Note that in a technical RAW sense, the line “you gain the extraordinary and supernatural abilities of the creature” would also apply to celestial animals you take the form of, overriding the normal alternate form rules that only give you Ex special attacks (and no qualities). If your DM rules it that way, this is S-rated, as it now grants you all the special qualities of your animal forms as well.

Extra Wild Shape (B): CDiv p. 81. Gives you +2 daily uses of wild shape.

Fast Wild Shape (A): CDiv p. 81. Requires Dex 13, and lets you wild shape as a move action. Getting a standard action in combat for casting a buff spell or even just making an attack is nice if form-shifting at the start of a fight. If you can combine this with Quick Change or Swift Wild Shape (see below), all the better.

Frozen Wild Shape (F): Frost p. 48. Requires base Fort save +6. This lets you turn into magical beasts with the cold subtype, and is a good feat for druids because it nets them things like cryohydras. For rangers though, your form size doesn’t scale so it’s basically useless unless you got bigger forms from another class.

Metamorphic Transfer (S): SRD. Requires manifester level 5th, which means you’d want to either multiclass a psionic class and take Practiced Manifester (CPsi p. 57), or get your hands on a psi-like ability at ML 5, but once you take it, you get one of the supernatural abilities of every form you take. You can only use each ability three times per form per day, but this is much more versatile than Assume Supernatural Ability, and you can even take it multiple times to get extra ‘slots’ to fit a form’s abilities into.

Natural Spell (A): SRD. Requires Wis 13, and lets you cast spells while wild shaped. Less mandatory than for druids, but rangers do have good self-buffs you might want to use while wild shaped, so I’d consider it.

Quick Change (A): SS p. 38. Requires Dex 15 and alternate form. Reduces the action taken by your alternate form ability down a step (standard to move, move to free). Wild shape was errata’d to “functions like the alternate form special ability, except as noted here.” If your DM agrees with the interpretation that that would qualify you for this feat, then it’s as good as Fast Wild Shape on its own, but more importantly, you can combine the two for a free action wild shape, which is cool and strong.

Speaking Wild Shape (C): MotW p. 25. Requires Int 13, and lets you talk to the creatures you’ve turned into like a speak with animals spell. More a neat little utility option than anything else.

Swift Wild Shape (A): CC p. 62. Requires Dex 13 and Fast Wild Shape, and reduces your wild shape action down to a swift action. If your DM doesn’t let you take Quick Change with wild shape, this is your next-best option. You lose a swift, but you’ll still be able to wild shape then full attack or charge, so the difference is negligible.

Tainted Druid (B): Random Encounters. Requires you "forsake all that is good and peaceful in the natural world," which is elaborated on to mean generally being an evil outsider, a fiendish creature, or an undead. Presumably there's other ways; talk to your DM. Obviously, this is mutually-exclusive with exalted options. Anyway, it, among other things that matter less, expands your wild shape list to include fiendish vermin, fiendish animals, and fiendish beasts (dinosaurs and dire animals in 3.0; this distinction is irrelevant). Unlike Exalted Wild Shape, you explicitly don't gain the new forms' supernatural abilities, but it's nonetheless the most viable way to get vermin forms on a ranger.

Companion-Related Feats

For the full rundown on animal companions, familiars, and the use of both, you’ll want to go to Chapter V: Companions, but for the purposes of actually picking up feats, there’s this section. Ranger animal companions kinda suck without heavy investment, and so I tend to recommend that unless you want to deal with them you ACF them away for solitary hunting. Still, they’re a genuinely strong pickup, as are familiars gained from the urban companion ACF. This section includes feats for both. All of the feats in this section except Wild Cohort also have the ability to get an animal companion/familiar (as relevant) as a prerequisite.

Aerenal Beastmaster (F): RoE p. 105. This requires you be an elf from the Aerenal region of Eberron, and lets you take a baboon as your animal companion, with enhanced scaling (1/2 ranger level + 3, rather than 1/2 ranger level). Unlike Natural Bond, this can outscale your own level in theory, but baboons are absolutely terrible.

Blessed of Vulkoor (F): SoX p. 134. Requires being a drow from the Xen’drik region of Eberron, and gives you some cantrip SLAs, Tiny scorpions as a familiar option, and scaling monstrous scorpions as an animal companion option. It’s really bad, since these are just worse than animals.

Bonded Familiar (B): PHB2 p. 75. Requires a familiar, and lets you each 1/day take a fatal attack for the other one. For most familiars the benefit is to protect the familiar (and keep you from eating an exp penalty), but since urban companions can die and be resummoned a day later, without penalizing or harming you, this becomes instead a get-out-of-death-free card for emergencies.

Celestial Familiar (B): BoED p. 41. Requires a familiar and gives you new celestial options, including coure eladrin and lantern archon.

Companion Spellbond (B): PHB2 p. 77. This lets you share spells at a range of 30 feet instead of 5 feet, and cast touch spells on your animal companion at a range of close. When sharing buffs with your companion this will give you much more wiggle room.

Construct Familiar (A): Dr280 p. 62. Lets you call a construct version of any familiar you could get, just changing its type to construct. A good pile of immunities for your buddy! According to the section it’s printed in, at the DM’s option they can also let you take this for animal companions.

Darkness Familiar (C): Dr322 p. 67. This is a variant of Improved Familiar with a different, mostly high-level set of options themed after incorporeal undead and the plane of shadow. You can get a spawn-creating undead as a familiar with this, as well as several other genuinely useful creatures. However, these are nearly all gained at levels where the ranger’s halved progression won’t access them before they’re outclassed, so unless you’re taking a build that boosts effective master level, probably avoid this. It’s A-rated if you’re taking it for that purpose, though.

Dragon Familiar (F): Drac p. 104. Requires Cha 13, the ability to speak draconic, and arcane spellcaster level 7th. Unlike the other Improved Familiar variants, this specifically calls out arcane spellcaster levels as a requirement, so you may not even be able to take it without the DM allowing your familiar to count for that. This lets you get a wyrmling dragon as a familiar. However, the ranger’s effective master spellcaster level for urban companion familiars is not high enough to get a wyrmling at anything but very high levels, so it’s not that useful as a feat for most rangers. Wyrmling dragons can be good but the Improved Familiar list is just better on its own, plus there’s a load of other issues (mentioned in the companions chapter).

Enspell Familiar (A): Dr280 p. 62. This lets you count as always in contact with your familiar for sharing spells as long as it’s within 1 mile, much like Companion Spellbond but way, way better. According to the section it’s printed in, at the DM’s option they can also let you take this for animal companions.

Exalted Companion (B): BoED p. 42. Gives you an expanded list of animal companions that includes some intelligent magical beasts with good movement modes like pegasi and blink dogs.

Extra Familiar (S): Dr280 p. 62. This gives you the ability to call a bonus familiar (including any variants or buffed-by-feats versions, such as via Construct Familiar or Improved Familiar). It’s really darn good, and in my experience playing a pretty optimized familiar-summoner wizard, more balanced than you’d think. You can even take it multiple times, getting an extra familiar each time you take it. According to the section it’s printed in, at the DM’s option they can also let you take this for animal companions, but I do not recommend doing or allowing that. This is 3.0 content, and in 3.0, animal companions were much weaker (about on par with familiars).

Familiar Concentration (B): LEoF p. 8. Requires caster level 9th and Improved Familiar, and lets you hand off your concentration on a spell to your familiar when you cast it. This is especially useful for Sword of the Arcane Order rangers looking to do things with wizard spells.

Feral Animal Companion (D): CoR p. 20. Requires an evil alignment and the animal companion class feature, and lets you call a feral animal companion that has +2 Str and Con, and inflicts red ache on bite attacks. It explicitly doesn’t convert your existing companion into a feral one, though. This feat is terrible and can’t even be taken early on because it needs you to already have the class feature. I’m mentioning it in part because in theory you might have use for a +2 Str and Con bonus if you have absolutely nothing else to take at higher levels, but mostly to caution you away from the feat. One funny thing about the feat is that due to what “feral” actually means (it doesn’t mean “rabid” no matter how hard the D&D writers misinterpret it), this feat implies that there are domesticated populations of every animal on the animal companion list.

Improved Familiar (S): SRD. One of the main reasons to take an urban companion familiar. This gets you a wide, wide range of possible options, discussed at length in Chapter V: Companions.

Monstrous Animal Companion (B): Dr326 p. 32. Requires Savage Empathy (Dr326 p. 33, a bad feat with a specific wild empathy buff), and expands your list of possible animal companions to include a bunch of other creatures. Unlike normal animal companions you need to actually find one of these and befriend it (talk to your DM about arranging that), but the list is pretty varied, including pseudodragons at effective druid level 4, and some good options for mounts.

Natural Bond (S): CAdv p. 111. Ups your effective druid level for animal companions by +3, capped by your Hit Dice. Really good, and makes rangers at up to 6th level have an equivalent companion to a druid. Ask your DM if they’ll let you apply this to urban companion familiar level as well; RAW you can’t but it seems fair to do so, in my opinion.

Planar Familiar (A): PlH p. 41. Requires 5 ranks in Knowledge (the planes). A more limited version of Improved Familiar, but has some good options including lantern archons, imps, and quasits.

Shadowform Familiar (A): CoR p. 22. Requires you to be a krinth (obscure race from Champions of Ruin), and gives your familiar the incorporeal subtype. This is amazing, letting it move through walls when scouting, ignore armor in combat, and so on and so forth.

Share Soulmeld (C): MoI p. 41. Requires soulmelds. This is a nice option for buffing your pet, but it only works within 5 feet (like share spells) and many soulmelds aren’t that useful for animal companions and familiars. There’s definitely builds to be had via stuff like a totemist dip and Extra Familiar, then sharing manticore belt or the like, though.

Spider Companion (D): DotU p. 42. Requires Vermin Trainer (a feat that lets you use Handle Animal on vermin, DotU p. 43) and being a drow (or half-drow). This lets you get some monstrous spider variants as animal companions, though druids can already get the baseline ones regardless so this is just… terrible, unless you’re going for one of the specific unique types in Drow of the Underdark.

Token Familiar (B): Dr280 p. 62. Lets your familiar turn into and back from a small object (like a figurine of wondrous power) on command. Useful logistically or for stealth characters. According to the section it’s printed in, at the DM’s option they can also let you take this for animal companions.

Totem Companion (D): ECS p. 61. Requires wild empathy and Beast Totem (ECS p. 51, a bad feat with a specific wild empathy buff), but lets you get one of a specific magical beasts as your animal companion. Sadly, the list is pretty mediocre, especially compared to Monstrous Animal Companion above.

Undead Familiar (A): Dr280 p. 62. Lets you call an undead version of any familiar you could get, just changing its type to undead. A good pile of immunities for your buddy! According to the section it’s printed in, at the DM’s option they can also let you take this for animal companions. Note that you can get this effect for your familiar via some WBL and hoop-jumping though; see the familiars chapter for more details.

Wedded to the Light (B): Dr358 p. 87. This feat requires a good alignment and a familiar, and is really funny if nothing else. It gives you scaling benefits based on character level, themed after the positive energy plane. At 1st level you can make your familiar glow as a torch; at 5th level you can heal your familiar 1d6+level 1/day; at 9th level you can turn your familiar into a blob of positive energy that gives everyone within 20 feet fast healing 1 for 1 minute before it vanishes for 24 hours, and most importantly, at 13th level, if you die your familiar can go to your corpse within 1 round of your death and bring you back to life with no level loss, leaving you at –1 HP. Normally this kills the familiar (and thus penalizes your experience), but since urban companions don’t have a drawback for their death, and can be resummoned again a day later, you can use this as a 1/day free true resurrection for yourself.

Wild Cohort (C): Random Encounters. Gives you a pseudo animal companion, scaling at a worse rate than most animal companions (but honestly about on par with the vanilla ranger’s one). This doesn’t interact with abilities that buff your animal companion, but it does at least give you an extra pet if you already had one. For rangers looking to get a pet but traded away the class feature, this is a solid pickup.

Uncategorized Feats

I felt these feats were worth mentioning but didn’t have a specific category for them.

Ancestral Relic (A): BoED p. 39. Requires good alignment and being 3rd level, and lets you make a single masterwork item that’s narratively important to your character into a magic item. You can from then on enhance it without item creation feats by sacrificing items and wealth to it, combining its value and the value of the items (full value, not 50% as if selling to a vendor) for a new magic item. This is a great garbage disposal for unused loot, and also lets you custom-build an item as you level up. It’s especially nice for having the feel of a character with a single, signature item that stays with you and grows with you as you level up. Note that the bonded item rules from the Dungeon Master's Guide II can give you something similar (but different in notable logistical ways) without a feat.

Blessing of the Godless (B): EoE p. 23. This ceremony feat requires you be evil and have 6 ranks in Knowledge (religion). Its main benefit is that you can spend a vial of unholy water to give you and up to five other allies a pool of ‘combat healing’ of your level times the number of participants, which anyone can draw healing from as an immediate action (up to their own level per action). As party support feats go it’s pretty solid, especially since it can be refreshed at any time given another vial and six minutes of downtime.

Extra Divine Power (B): Dr343 p. 91. This requires a class feature with daily uses that is granted by a class with divine spells, and gives that class feature +2 daily uses. Works with wild shape, aspect of the dragon, and other daily-limited ACFs.

Great Diplomat (S): Dr318 p. 38, Rokugan ancestor feat. This gives you +2 on Diplomacy checks and, more importantly, starting at 6th level gives you a cohort as if you’d taken Leadership (with +2 to your Leadership score). I think of this feat as “Leadership lite” and in many games, you should probably avoid it due to the sheer power of getting a class leveled cohort for the cost of a feat. However, it’s also a way you can get access to different types of useful special cohorts for use as mounts, assistants, and the like. I’ve used it in the past to give my character a wyrmling dragon she was raising. Talk to your DM about if cohort-giving feats are right for your campaign. Great Diplomat lets you access one without the logistical nightmare and potential power of managing followers.

Leadership (S): SRD. The strongest feat in the game. As with Great Diplomat above, it lets you get, functionally, a second character, but it also gives you an army of low to mid-level followers to manage. This is a legitimately broken-strong feat and not something that should be taken in 99% of campaigns, and I’m only including it in here to rate it S but also to say “do not use this, for the health of your game.”

Mercantile Background (C): PGtF p. 41, Faerûn regional feat. This lets you sell items at 75% of their base price instead of 50%, and start with +300gp. In some games this can make a real difference; in others it won’t. If you really have a specific need for an item to enjoy the game at 1st level it’s solid for that, and in games with a lot of loot you sell it can up your WBL a bit.

Hidden Talent (B): XPH p. 67. This gives you a 1st-level psionic power off any list and 2 power points to manifest it. It opens up access to psionic feats and some prestige classes, and can be an interesting utility option at low levels. Note that it’s called out as a variant version of the Wild Talent feat for “high-psionics campaigns,” but there’s no imbalance caused by using it in normal ones in my experience.

Shape Soulmeld (B): MoI p. 40. Requires Con 13 and gives you a single soulmeld plus the ability to shape it. This is a broad feat, much broader than the scope of this section; for a full-on guide to just the feat itself, I recommend Bakkan’s “The World in One Feat: A Shape Soulmeld Handbook”.

Spelltouched Feats: SRD. There’s a bunch of these, and they give you a unique magical effect or spell-like ability. None of them are particularly build-defining, but most of them are at the very least interesting. I recommend taking a look at them if you ever have a spare slot and no idea what to spend it on. You just might find something you want!

True Believer (B): CDiv p. 86. Requires a patron deity and an alignment within one step of that deity’s. This lets you use relics of your patron deity. Not all relics are worthwhile, but some of them are very strong for certain builds. I talk more about relics in Chapter VII: Gearing Your Ranger. It also lets you add a +2 insight bonus on a save 1/day, but the real benefit is accessing a relic.