For whatever reason, I'm not really into the "harmonious nature" type fantasy class archetypes. I like the primal, elemental power of WoW's Shamans over their Druids, for example. This extends to D&D, where I tend not to be all that into Rangers or Druids.
However, in a couple post-Player's Handbook publications, we got some new options that give me a vibe I'm more into - adding a little horror to nature. Druids get their Golgari-themed Circle of Spores in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, which I have been mulling over for a while to have a druid character who was raised by a coven of hags (and who wears a big stag-skull headdress like in this one educational movie I saw in 6th grade) and really has to learn what being a good guy is.
But, similarly taking "the woods" to mean the dark, scary version of said forests, I've often thought that a wandering monster hunter would be a really cool character type. I guess a bit like a Witcher.
Now, I came up with a backstory for a Vengeance Paladin who would fit this archetype (trying to go a little outside the box with a Chaotic Neutral paladin) though given that I wound up playing my Eldritch Knight Fighter as a Dragonborn, I now think that the story I had for a Warforged one would fit for a (more traditionally heroic) Paladin, which has kind of shifted my backstories down the line, meaning that this monster-hunting paladin could be a Ranger instead - which certainly fits, especially with the Monster Slayer class archetype.
Now, Monster Slayers come with a number of features, of course, but early on you get "Slayer's Prey," which is essentially an infinitely-refreshable Hunter's Mark. It's not a spell, and while it'll wear off of your current target, you can always put it on someone else if you have a spare bonus action - no rest required.
Unfortunately I'm on vacation and left Xanathar's with my roommate, as he runs a game (there's a lot of D&D at our place) so I don't have access to the exact rules in front of me (and I'm not going to re-buy the books I have on D&D Beyond, sorry) but I had the following thought:
Because Slayer's Prey and Hunter's Mark are not mutually exclusive, if you got both up you could have a 2d6 bonus to damage with each attack. So, how could you maximize that damage?
One option would simply be to dual-wield shortswords and be a melee ranger. Another option is to go Crossbow Expert and use a Hand Crossbow. The trade-offs:
Melee means being in melee, which is more dangerous. Now, a Ranger is certainly tougher than most classes, being a d10 class. Also, if the DM is a stickler, you might have to drop your off-hand sword in order to cast Hunter's Mark for the somatic components. You'll also need to go with two weapon fighting, which is fine, but something you won't need to worry about if you go the other way.
With a hand crossbow, you'll really need the feat for it to work, but a lot of the disadvantages disappear: without loading, you can fully use the crossbow without interruption. You can also use it in melee without any disadvantage. And you'll also be able to shoot twice - action and then bonus action (and then 3 once you hit level 5.) You will need to stock up on bolts, but that's not terribly hard to do. Now, I believe that the bonus attack you get with Crossbow expert does use your Dex modifier, unlike typical off-hand attacks (though I might need a rules clarification there.) If it doesn't that means the shortswords with two-weapon-fighting give you a little more damage, but either way, you'll be freed up to take Archery, which will mean you hit more frequently and get all those bonus dice.
And the idea here is to try to hit as frequently as possible to take advantage of the bonus dice. For that reason you might even consider multiclassing into Fighter to get Action Surge, even potentially making the character primarily a Fighter (though I'd stick with Ranger for flavor reasons.)
The downside to this build is that it takes a long time to ramp up.
Given that hand crossbows and shortswords both deal 1d6 damage, I'll kind of merge them, but let's look at the possibilities as compared to using, say, a heavy crossbow (we'll still have crossbow expert so that we ignore loading.) We'll look at this at level 3.
Turn One:
Hand Crossbow: Bonus Action: Slayer's Prey. Action: Attack for 2d6+Dex (average dice damage: 7)
Heavy Crossbow: Bonus Action: Slayer's Prey. Action: Attack for 1d10+1d6+Dex (average dice damage: 9)
Turn Two:
Hand Crossbow: Bonus Action: Hunter's Mark. Action: Attack for 3d6+Dex (average dice damage: 10.5)
Heavy Crossbow: Bonus Action: Hunter's Mark: Action: Attack for 1d10+2d6+Dex (average dice damage: 12.5)
Turn Three:
Hand Crossbow: Action: Attack: 3d6+Dex. Bonus Action 3d6+Dex (again, can't remember if you get this bonus twice.) (average dice damage: 21)
Heavy Crossbow: Action: Attack: 1d10+2d6+Dex (average dice damage: 12.5.)
So as we can see, if you get to turn three and the thing's still alive, the hand crossbow build starts seriously delivering. Admittedly, once you get Extra Attack at level 5, the Heavy Crossbow build is going to catch up a bit, but that'll mean essentially 2d10+4d6 versus 9d6, meaning 25 versus 31.5. And if you get to add Dex an extra time with hand crossbows, that bonus expands significantly.
The problem, of course, is the ramp time. Even if the average dice damage for turn 3 is much higher than that for the heavy crossbow, the first couple rounds you're doing more with the heavy crossbow - and you need to refresh all these effects for every enemy you fight. So while ramping up might be a good call against a giant monster with a boatload of hit points, if you're going after just a few skeletons or something, you'll never get enough time to build up to that point.
In which case, it's probably up to the Ranger to decide whether it's worth marking up the target or simply just unloading on them. The only benefit of that hand crossbow is the bonus attack. Now, if you can work out with your DM that you've maybe got your Heavy Crossbow on a strap so you can drop it as a free action (without potentially losing it on the battlefield) and then use your item action to draw the Hand Crossbow, you could use the Heavy while marking things up. But if the marks aren't going to last very long anyway, you could also consider dropping one (say, Hunter's Mark, given that it's a spell slot) and double-tapping earlier.
Assuming your DM does not want you swapping willy-nilly, and you have to take the time to draw and stow, it'll be a judgment call for the Ranger to decide how long things are likely to live. Against a group of low-CR monsters like skeletons, goblins, or blights, you might simply double-tap with the hand-crossbow. That being said: if the bonus attack with Crossbow expert does not add your Dex modifier, you might be better off using at least Slayer's Prey - given that a d6 is all you'd be getting anyway with that other attack - and then future attacks would be buffed as well (giving you 2d6 on the next turn, if the thing survives.) But if you have a guaranteed 3 or 4 Dex modifier damage, you'll want that instead.
Now, I haven't even gotten into other class features and such, but the point here is that at fairly low levels, you can dish out a rather massive amount of damage to something if it lives long enough.
And a Monster Slayer of this sort I think works very well for a tier 1 range. The character is the sort of person who goes from town to town, is likely feared by the locals but they put up with them because this is the sort of person who gets rid of the really scary monsters that terrorize their village.
Variant Human is probably a good choice for both flavor reasons (Humans work well, I think, for gothic horror) and because you'll get your free Feat, so you get Crossbow Expert at level 1. The backstory I've got written is for an Aasimar, which I think could work flavorfully (the backstory merges his "haunted" background with the corruption of his angelic guide by a demon, making him a fallen aasimar, though the Strength bonus was more useful for a Paladin.)
To fit in with the theme, I recommend taking Undead or Monstrosity as your first Favored Enemy, and then eventually picking up Fiend (though Fey works pretty well if you've got Hags to fight.) Favored Terrain will probably be Forests, though Swamps are pretty appropriate as well.
I like the Haunted One background from Curse of Strahd (naturally, this character would fit very well in a gothic adventure like that - if my roommate ever runs that, I'll probably want to play this.)
While obviously you'll want high Dex, high Con, and high Wis, I'd recommend going with a high Intelligence to reinforce that you know a lot about monsters and such, and then probably take Charisma as a dump stat - though that's a bit more my character's concept than what you need to take - maybe your Ranger is a charmer who smoothes over concerns with the townsfolk in order to get paid better and a good bed to sleep in.
EDIT: Doing a bit of google research, it appears that, given that the bonus action attack with Crossbow Expert is not really using the two-weapon fighting rules at all, it appears you'd get your Dex modifier anyway. At a Dex of +3 or +4, it's pretty similar to an extra d6, so with enemies that are unlikely to survive more than a round, you'll probably just want to shoot twice instead of going for Slayer's Prey, especially because this will allow you to fish for crits. But if you're confident you'll get another round to attack, it'll be worth it. Basically, I think it's a judgment call you'll constantly need to be making to decide how much you want to mark up a target - which should actually make for some compelling gameplay!
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