D&D: The Hollow Warden Ranger Doubles Down On Hunter’s Mark – But At Least Makes It Kind Of Interesting

The Hollow Warden Ranger evokes Soulslike aesthetics while still relying on Hunter’s Mark for all the cool stuff it does.

Rangers got a brand new subclass in the latest Unearthed Arcana. The Hollow Warden Ranger promises a darker, more gruesome vibe for players. Though, lurking within is a contentious argument about the very identity of the Ranger in 5.5E.

Hollow Warden Rangers – Hope You Like Casting Hunter’s Mark

Like it or not, it seems that the Ranger and the 1st-level Concentration spell, Hunter’s Mark, are going to be forever intertwined in 5.5E. This is a point of contention that bubbled up with the first round of playtesting for the new Ranger design way back at the beginning of 5.5E’s Unearthed Arcana cycle. Players bemoaned the fact that the Ranger’s identity seemed to be wrapped up in the Hunter’s Mark spell.

If you’re wondering why that might be a problem for some, it’s because Hunter’s Mark takes up Concentration, meaning that Rangers may often want to drop the spell. But they get to cast it many times for free. This takes the sting out of dropping the spell to Concentrate on a more powerful one.

The general thinking is that you’ll always be able to cast the spell when it’s needed, and won’t feel too bad about dropping the spell to Concentrate on something more powerful. But for some players, this feels limiting. The Ranger’s “core identity” is “you cast this one particular spell.” Which is kind of true—the capstone Ranger feature is a joke, in my opinion. You spend your whole adventuring career to be able to cast a 1st level spell slightly better for an extra 2 average points of damage from it.

It’s atrocious mouthfeel. So I get it. But, the new Hollow Warden Ranger subclass goes all in on you get your benefits from casting Hunter’s Mark. This is one hundred percent, “Hey let’s make it feel cool to cast Hunter’s Mark.” Which is fine—as a subclass idea. The worry, I think, is that the Hollow Warden Ranger is a signifier of how the WotC design team views the Ranger. And that future subclasses may follow in its mechanical footsteps.

We’ll have to see. But, for all that, I do think the new subclass kind of nails what it’s going for. Even if you don’t like the core mechanic of casting Hunter’s Mark, what it brings to the table is still pretty cool.

Hollow Warden Ranger: Become a Monster To Scare Other Monsters

As previously mentioned, the Hollow Warden Ranger is a grim, dark take on the Ranger. These are Rangers that evoke “the most ancient and fearsome terrors that lurk deep within the old places of the earth.” And to venerate these creatures, they draw upon their terrible primal power to become some semblance of one of these ancient beasts themselves. It’s very soulslike, I love the flavor.

And the flavor is backed up mechanically. To start with, they get a list of bonus spells that feels pretty primal, you only get five, but they’re good ones to always have prepared: Wrathful Smite, Spike Growth, Phantom Steed, Hallucinatory Terrain, and Awaken. No complaints, no duds. But their core feature is Wrath of the Wild.

Wrath of the Wild is the “cast Hunter’s Mark and do stuff” feature. Here’s how it works: a Hollow Warden casts Hunter’s Mark and when they do so, they gain two benefits. Ancient Armor which adds a Hollow Warden’s Wisdom modifier to AC while Hunter’s Mark is active. To reflect this, gnarled bark or thick, ancient scales or whatever else grows on the Ranger. That is potentially a huge boost to AC for Rangers, who can still be wearing Medium or Heavy Armor and even using a Shield while benefitting from this.

The other benefit, Unnerving Aura, is the real kicker though. While Hunter’s Mark is active, the Ranger emits a 10 foot aura of ancient power. Whenever an enemy starts its turn within 10 feet of the Hollow Warden, the enemy must make a Wisdom save or it is only able to take an Action or a Bonus Action on its turn. This is accompanied by a darkening shadow and primal growths like “putrid fangs” or “bloody antlers.”

Improved Wrath At Higher Levels Means More Hunter’s Mark

At higher levels, the Hollow Warden Ranger’s Wrath of the Wild improves. Which means they’ll want to keep a Hunter’s Mark handy. Starting at level 7, when they get Hungering Might. This feature adds their Wisdom modifier to Constitution saves at all times. And while Wrath of the Wilds is active, the Ranger regains 1d10 + Wisdom modifier hit points once per turn, whenever they are both bloodied and hit a creature with an attack roll. It works on all attacks, ranged or melee, weapon or spell. There does not seem to be a limit to how far away the target is, either. So they could potentially regain hit points at extreme longbow range.

At level 11, Rot and Violence improves Wrath of the Wild with two more benefits. The first, Eerie Aura, improves the Unnerving Aura feature. Whenever an enemy fails its saving throw against the 10-foot aura, it also takes the Hollow Warden’s Ranger level in either Necrotic, Poison, or Psychic damage. And the damage ignores resistance. So it’s not bad.

And Strangling Roots further impedes enemies. When the Hollow Warden hits a creature with an attack roll using a weapon, the Ranger can use Sap or Slow in addition to whatever other weapon mastery property they are making with their weapon.

Finally at level 15 Ancient Endurance grants a further two benefits. Starting with Persistent Hunt, which lets a Ranger in Wrath of the Wild spend a level 4+ spell to not drop to 0 hit points. Instead they have 5 times the spell level spent hit points. And they can do this until they run out of spells. So it’s potentially powerful. And Timeless grants immunity to exhaustion, transformed or not.

All in all, it’s not too bad. I think the focus on Wrath of the Wild is maybe a little too narrow. Especially for the capstone ability. It feels like the Arcane Archer problem. If they’re not casting Hunter’s Mark, they’re not gaining much of anything from the subclass, aside from a few “ribbon-y” type features. But, that’s just my opinion. WotC wants yours! The UA survey opens this week, so be sure and fill it out to let them know!

The UA survey opens May 13th!

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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