The new Winter Walker Ranger out of Heroes of Faerun gives Rangers a cool new subclass to play with. Pun intended.
Of the eight subclasses introduced in Heroes of Faerun, the Winter Walker Ranger might be one of the more surprising options. Rangers are in a much better place than they were after 5th Edition. And their subclasses, by and large, do a good job of improving on their capabilities while still adding new abilities. However, what they’ve lacked – till now – is a solid theme that’s as out there as some of the older 5E subclasses used to be. Like “covered in bees.”
Thankfully, in Heroes of Faerun, Rangers get that aspect back at least a little with the addition of “guy who is cold” into the mix. But the Winter Walker Ranger isn’t just “cold”, she’s “cool.” If you ever wanted to play a class that canonically knows how to shred some serious powder, look no further than the new Ranger out of HoF.
The Winter Walker Ranger – Cold As Ice, Literally and Figuratively.
The Winter Walker Ranger touches on a classic D&D theme – an element-focused character. Usually, you get to pick, or are given “the elements” just sort of in general, as is the case with the Oath of the Noble Genies Paladin or the Draconic Sorcery origin for Sorcerers. But with the Winter Walker, it’s cold and cold pain accessories, especially with your level 3 features, which tee up the subclass’s core identity.
It all starts with Frigid Explorer. This ability leans into the idea that Winter Walkers are more at home in the bleak and frozen wilds, where they might be exposed to malignant entities or given icy blessings by the supernatural creatures that dwell within the coldest, darkest places of the world. Whatever the origin, Frigid Explorer gives you three benefits: you have Resistance to Cold damage; damage from your weapon attacks, Ranger spells, and Ranger features ignores Cold damage, and whenever you hit a creature with a weapon (ranged or melee), you deal 1d4 Cold damage (once per turn per target, but you can still hit multiple creatures).
And if you think that’s nice, consider also Hunter’s Rime. This ability lets you rime yourself and your prey with frost whenever you cast Hunter’s Mark. What does that mean exactly? Well, you gain 1d10 + Ranger Level Temporary Hit Points, making you all the more resilient. But your target is unable to take the Disengage action while marked by your Hunter’s Mark. I like the way this plays, because while Rangers are still doing a lot with Hunter’s Mark, this makes yours feel unique.
Finally, Winter Walker Spells gives you four bonus Icy spells and Remove Curse: Ice Knife, Hold Person, Ice Storm, Cone of Cold, and as mentioned moments ago, Remove Curse for some reason. All of these spells are handy for a Ranger to have in their back pocket. But especially so once you keep in mind that you ignore Resistance to cold damage with all of these.
Frigid Power At Higher Levels
At higher levels, the Winter Walker Ranger has more to play with. There’s really only one feature that leaves you out in the cold, so to speak, and that’s the level 7 feature, Fortifying Soul. This one is a little weird, because it’s you channeling your “experience surviving harrowing environments” to bolster your allies. But what it actually means is you can pick up to your Wisdom modifier in creatures and heal them for 1d10 + Ranger Level hit points. And they get Advantage on saving throws against the Frightened condition for an hour.
It’s not bad, but it feels a little clunky. The healing is nice, but by 7th level, not necessarily the most relevant. Especially since you can only do this once per Long Rest and you can’t even recharge it with a Spell slot or anything.
Contrast that with the level 11 feature, Chilling Retribution, which lets you use your Reaction whenever you’re hit with an attack roll to Force the creature to save or be Stunned and have their movement speed reduced to 0. And this is per attack, and not limited by ranged. You just reach out with wintry power and punish them with a Stun that won’t even let them move. You get to do this up to your Wisdom modifier times per day.
Finally, at level 15, Frozen Haunt lets you become an icy spirit of winter’s wrath or however you want to interpret it. Once per Long Rest, whenever you cast Hunter’s Mark, you have the option to adopt a “ghostly, snowy form” that gives you Immunity to Cold Damage, deals 2d4 Cold damage to creatures of your choice within 15 feet of you, and makes you Partially Incorporeal so you can move through creatures and objects, as well as become immune to being Grappled, knocked Prone, or Restrained.
All in all, this is an excellent addition to Rangers as a whole, but it also adds some fun tools for people looking to make a “cold build”. Which is a concept I hope we see more of – creative multiclassing that gives people more bricks to build with.
Check out the Winter Walker Ranger and seven other subclasses in Heroes of Faerun!
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