Hollow Warden Ranger

 Ok, so we touched on this in a recent "vs. Death Knight" post, so some of this will be familiar, but I'm going to really be focusing on analyzing the power and design of the subclass.

Rangers didn't really get the love that they ought to have gotten in the 2024 PHB, with a weird emphasis (actually not present in the 2014 Ranger) on Hunter's Mark, a spell that's great in early levels but doesn't scale in a fun and exciting way and also prevents you from using more interesting, higher-level spells (seriously, so many Ranger spells are concentration).

All that being said, the Ranger still has limited spellcasting capabilities, and that does give it a bit of an edge, even if that spellcasting feature feels hamstrung in a way that it isn't for Paladins or Artificers.

But lo and behold, I think the Hollow Warden is almost surely the new best Ranger subclass - though it will only really get that distinction if you're willing to mix it up in melee (hey, why else would they have a D10 hit die?)

Flavor-wise, the Hollow Warden is meant to be the extra dirty stalker of the wilderness, with something of a cryptid vibe to it. (We don't have any Domains of Dread that have that Pacific Northwest feel, sadly, but it feels like something you could do).

Hollow Warden Spells:

1st: Wrathful Smite

2nd: Alter Self

3rd: Phantom Steed

4th: Dominate Beast

5th: Steel Wind Strike

    Some solids options and some less exciting ones. Phantom Steed will help with traversal, but it's not terribly reliable in combat because the mount has effectively 1 HP (though you don't fall off it if it's destroyed). Wrathful Smite and Steel Wind Strike are good (though as a half-caster, Steel Wind Strike might not be as exciting at level 17). Alter Self is situational. Dominate Beast I think is probably going to be far better for out-of-combat situations, as you're almost certainly not fighting Beasts mid tier 3.

Level 3:

Wrath of the Wild:

As a bonus action, you can expend a use of Favored Enemy (which normally gives you free casts of Hunter's Mark, starting with 2 uses and eventually getting up to 6, basically scaling with your PB if you don't multiclass) to take on a monstrous form, like growing bloody antlers, twisted shadows, etc. The transformation lasts 1 minute or until you're incapacitated or die, or end it voluntarily. While transformed:

Ancient Armor: You gain a +1 bonus to your AC (and then +2 at level 11 or higher).

Prowling Retribution: When a creature within 5 feet of you deals damage to you or one of your allies, you can make an Opportunity Attack against them.

Unnerving Aura: When you transform and at the start of each of your turns, creatures of your choice within 10 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the start of your next turn.

    These are all great, but I think Prowling Retribution is the really amazing thing here. Indeed, it might incentivize you to go with a heavier weapon, even going Strength for something like a Glaive or Greatsword, though I believe the math still probably favors dual-wielding (and thus you might as well go Dex with finesse weapons). This also actually winds up improving the value of Hunter's Mark, though you'll need to cast that on a subsequent turn. The only downside here is that you might have more fights in a day than you can use this feature (and a fight with lots of stunning enemies could waste that use as well). Let's also not forget the Fear effect, which is very good.

Level 7:

Hungering Might:

You gain a bonus to Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of +1)

Also, once per turn when you a creature with an attack while transformed, you can regain HP equal to 1d10+Wis if you are bloodied when you hit.

    Both solid - the first part lets you focus more on boosting your Wisdom. Naturally, due to the requirement that you be bloodied to get the healing here, you're going to try to ensure you can't use this very often.

Level 11:

Rot and Violence:

This gives you the following while you're transformed with Wrath of the Wild:

Menacing Aura makes it so that creatures that have failed their save against your Unnerving Aura can't regain HP or take reactions until the start of your next turn.

    Fewer monsters these days regain HP, but the no reactions thing is nice.

Strangling Roots lets you activate the Sap or Slow mastery in addition to the normal mastery of the weapon you're using.

    Sap is going to make this melee-focused Ranger a bit more resilient, which is great, and doesn't sacrifice the normal necessities like Nick.

Level 15:

Ancient Might gives you two features:

Ominous Strikes lets you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage of attacks you hit with against Frightened creatures.

    Notably, this is not limited to once per turn, and even if we didn't get them with Unnerving Aura, we can do a Wrathful Smite for another chance at getting this bonus damage. If we're dual-wielding with the dual-wielder feat, we could potentially be making as many as 5 attacks per round (including the frequent opportunity attacks). Sucks if our foes are immune to fear, but this could add up quite a bit. Also, note that unlike earlier features, this doesn't require that we be transformed, nor does the target need to be frightened of us (if an ally has imposed the condition on them, that also works).

Persistent Wrath does require Wrath of the Wild, but if you're reduced to 0 HP while it's active, you can instead change your HP to twice your Ranger level. Once you use this, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest or expend a 4th or higher level spell slot.

    So, at this level it's a 4th level spell slot for an emergency 30 HP heal. A 4th level Cure Wounds with +5 to Wisdom would be 41. I think that's well worth it - I mean, you'd for sure rather expend a 4th level spell slot than go down (and, notably, lose Wrath of the Wild).

Timeless gives you full immunity to the Exhaustion condition.

    No qualifiers here - no matter what happens to you, you cannot get Exhaustion. And that's becoming a more common thing with monsters in 5.5. Pretty good.

Overall Thoughts:

This is probably the best subclass for Rangers now. But despite that, I have one little tweak I wish they'd make: I wish we could expend a spell slot to get more uses of Wrath of the Wild. Until level 5, we only have two uses a day, and while you also often don't have more than two combat encounters a day in tier 1, you're also far more likely to get knocked out at those levels, which means losing it mid combat.

Turning Favored Enemy into a resource that can go to other things, much as Druids do with Wild Shape, is actually a great new design space to work in for the class. I only wish, then, that you got one use back on a short rest, the way that comparable features like Wild Shape, Channel Divinity, and even Rage work now.

But yeah, while I think this subclass does have to pull more than its fair share of weight because of the flaws with the Ranger, there are some really amazing elements to the subclass that could make for a very cool and capable character.