Ranger Subclasses - Tasha's

 Closing out the series on Ranger subclasses, we have two entries from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Notably, Tasha's also brought several alternate rules options for the class in an attempt to shore up its weaknesses. The big ones are replacing Favored Terrain and Favored Enemy to make options that are less reliant on the adventure and the DM using terrain and enemies that you're built to deal with. I think the Deft Explorer is a very nice replacement for Natural Explorer, but Favored Foe is a pretty underwhelming replacement for Favored Enemy, basically just a worse Hunter's Mark.

But, let's look at the subclasses featured in Tasha's!

The first is Fey Wanderer - a nicely Feywild-themed subclass.

First, continuing the tradition started in Xanathar's, you get the following subclass spells: charm person, misty step, dispel magic, dimension door, and mislead. These are pretty solid - especially misty step, dispel magic, and dimension door.

There's also a nice little flavor thing showing how you are touched by fey magic.

You also get Otherworldly Glamour. When you make a Charisma check, you get a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you get proficiency in either Deception, Performance, or Persuasion. Basically, if you made Charisma a dump stat, you get to replace it with Wisdom, which is likely to be a lot higher as a Ranger, so you can actually be a "face" character.

At level 7, you get Beguiling Twist. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened, and if a creature you can see within 120 feet of you succeeds on a saving throw against those effects (which includes you) you can use your reaction to force a different creature you can see within 120 feet to make a Wisdom save versus your spell save DC, and on a failure, it's charmed or frightened (your choice) for 1 minute. You can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. While it could be a bit situational, being able to turn a charm or fear effect around could be A: really funny and B: could really turn a fight around.

At level 11, you get Fey Reinforcements. You learn the Summon Fey spell, which doesn't count against the spells you know, and you can cast it without the (costly) material component. You can also cast it fro free once per day. When you start casting the spell, you can modify it to not require concentration, though this reduces the spell's duration to 1 minute. This is, frankly, really good. The Summon spells from Tasha's are all great, and getting to cast this for free, and potentially without concentration, is great. Admittedly, the Fey spirit suffers slightly from having most of its damage be nonmagical piercing (though it also does a bit of force damage,) but against foes that that still works on, it does a pretty sizable amount of damage, and not having to concentrate on it leaves you open for other spells, including, I think... another Summoned Fey?

Finally, at level 15, you get Misty Wanderer. You can cast Misty Step for free a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier every long rest (minimum of 1). Also, you can take a willing creature with you when you cast Misty Step if they're within 5 feet of you, and they arrive next to you after the spell. Misty Step is a fantastic spell, and being able to drag a friendly character out of danger (or get a slow character into the fray) is fantastic.

I think the lower-level Fey Wanderer features are a little less powerful than other modern Rangers, but the later features are really great, if you're playing into tier 3, of course.

Finally, we come to the Swarmkeeper. For some reason, the movie Willard, a remake that came out when I was in college of a 1970s movie about a dude who has a weird connection to a swarm of rats is always what this makes me think of. As a Swarmkeeper, you're constantly surrounded by a swarm of nature spirits that could be something benign or something super creepy - all up to you.

Your subclass spells are faerie fire, web, gaseous form, arcane eye, and insect plague. Of these, I think faerie fire is the clear winner, and I'm sort of shocked that's not already a ranger spell. You also get the mage hand cantrip, which takes the form of your swarm.

You also get, at 3rd level, Gathered Swarm. There are some suggestions for what the swarm looks like, like insects, twig blights, or birds or pixies. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack, you can choose one of the following effects: it deals an extra 1d6 of damage, the target has to make a Strength save against your spell save DC or be moved up to 15 feet horizontally in a direction of your choice, or you are moved 5 feet horizontally in a direction of your choice. An extra d6 of damage with no action required is pretty good, and the other effects could be really great depending on the situation (for instance, the 5 feet of movement might let you avoid opportunity attacks.)

At level 7, you get Writhing Tide. You can condense the swarm to give yourself a flying speed of 10 feet as a bonus action. This lasts 1 minute (or until you're incapacitated) and you can hover (meaning being knocked prone doesn't make you fall.) You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. While slow, getting flight can always be useful, though you'll go at most 60 feet given the slow speed and short duration (though I guess you could cast it multiple times if you need to go farther.

At level 11, you get Mighty Swarm. This basically enhances the effects of your Gathered Swarm options. The damage goes to 1d8. If the creature fails the saving throw against being moved by the Gathered Swarm, you can also knock it prone. And then, if you're moved by the swarm, you get half cover until the start of your next turn. These are all nice bonuses, enhancing an already pretty cool feature.

Finally, at level 15, you get Swarming Dispersal. As a reaction, when you take damage, you can give yourself resistance to the damage, and then you vanish into your swarm and teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet, where you reappear with the swarm. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. A reaction you can use to reduce incoming damage and then also get you away from whatever just hurt you is very, very good. And the fact that you can use it 5-6 times per day (by that level) makes it all the better. This thing will keep you alive (and at range, which is good for a ranged-weapon-based ranger!)

I think the Swarmkeeper is super cool, and very flavorful. I generally think that these subclasses are on par with the Xanathar's ones, which are all actually quite good.

So, how are we feeling about the Ranger, after this review?

There are some very flashy and fun abilities that some of the post-PHB subclasses get. I think the highlights for me are the Gloomstalker's Umbral Sight and the Monster Slayer's Slayer's Counter. I'm not sure any of this is quite fantastic enough for me to play another one (I'm currently playing a strength-based Gloomstalker in Tomb of Annihilation - and realized very quickly I should have stuck to shortswords and just gone dex,) which is fine, but I find myself feel a strong grass-is-greener feeling toward other potential characters. I think I would still potentially want to play a Monster Slayer in a Ravenloft-style campaign, though preferably at a higher level.

I'll also confess that I tend to gravitate the least toward nature-y based classes like Druids and Rangers (maybe my intense allergies that go crazy when I'm in the woods are part of it.) Still, if you long ago dismissed the Ranger, I'd recommend giving it another look if that fantasy appeals to you.