D&D 3E/3.5 3E Ranger Spell list

[drdevoid]

I played a 3E Ranger as my first character. It was fun, but something bothered me about it. Most gamers have their own peeve regarding the ranger, but I don't know if I've ever seen this one before.

Now I know it's on the way out, but I've always wanted to know why 3E Rangers don't get Cure Light Wounds (henceforth abbreviated to CLW) at their first spell level.

THE FACTS:

Druids and Paladins get CLW at 1st spell level and CMW at 3rd.

Clerics get CLW at 1st and CMW at 2nd.

Rangers get CLW at 2nd and CMW at 3rd.

MY ASSERTION:

As a character that has heal as a class skill I would think they should mirror the paladin in this regard. After all, in terms of healing ability, the ranger won't overshadow the paladin; the paladin (possible exception being an extremely high charisma + high wisdom paladin) shouldn't overshadow the Druid; the druid can't overshadow the Cleric. Am I wrong here?

Is it asking too much to mirror the Druid and Paladin in this respect?

Is the whole idea here that since the paladin doesn't mirror the cleric progression, so should the ranger not mirror the druid progression? Is this a valid point as the relative value of 1 CLW at 8th (earliest) or 10th (latest) is somewhat small?

Just curious thanks in advance for your feedback.

-Joe

 

[Technik4]

Personally always wondered why they didn't get it as well. I don't think it would hurt anything to give it to them.

Technik

 

[fba827]

We house ruled it as such for our games. The effects?

Fairly minimal.

Entangle is demoted to second most prepared spell.

It's still mostly used on the animal friends (rather than on people who tend to need much stronger healing).

Nothing earth shattering by any means. Not like the Ranger has that many spell slots to do mega healing anyway...

just my two cents. of course, this is all house rule.

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, by the time a 3.0 ranger gets CLW it's just about worthless.

Even if he got it at 4th level it is far from overpowering.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Paladins use magic similar to clerics, but weaker (but they get some special stuff), and rangers use magic similar to druids, but weaker (but they get some special stuff). Still, it won't hurt if they all get the cure spells as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th level spells. Let's see what 3.5e does about that.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Actually, it doesn`t matter what level the Cure Light is - casting it with your limited spells of day isn`t really that useful.

A Wand of Cure Light is much better. You can use the cheap (750 gp) one, since all that is required to use it is to have it on a characters spell list. This can really help your group (even if not during combat, but afterwards).

Mustrum Ridcully