cool because the character gets all sorts of bonuses, but if the Ranger is good, say, in the Underdark fighting aberrations, but the DM has set the adventure in a desert ruin somewhere, well, those bonuses won't do much good. That being said, the Revised Ranger stats help balance this out a little bit. Players don't have to be as specific, but still". In 2018, Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook, wrote that "many current D&D fans believe that the ranger class is the weakest in the game, due to a combination of poor class-specific abilities and weak damage output. The 'Beast Master' ranger subclass is the most criticized version of the ranger [...]. While not official, many fans preferred the Revised Ranger to the original Ranger class found in the Player's Handbook". Hoffer also highlighted Crawford's reiteration that the ranger class would not change and wrote "surprisingly, Crawford's comment became the flashpoint for tons of D&D debate over the weekend on various boards and forums, with players debating the merits of the core Ranger class and the revisions seemingly discarded by the D&D team. [...] Unless you're playing in an Adventurer's League game, it's ultimately up to the DM whether or not you can use the Revised Ranger rules. Homebrewing is extremely common in Dungeons & Dragons, and there's nothing stopping home games from using a Revised Ranger to their heart's content". In 2019, Jeremy Thomas, for 411Mania, wrote that "the Ranger has long been a source of criticism for D&D players in Fifth Edition, who have argued that the Beast Master subclass in particular is underpowered. Wizards even released a Revised Ranger class, which would potentially be an optional take on the class and not replace the core version". The Gamer rated the 5th edition ranger subclass Horizon Walker as the 8th most awesome subclass out of the 32 new character options in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Gus Wezerek, for FiveThirtyEight, reported that of the 5th edition "class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from" August 15 to September 15, 2017, rangers were the 6th most created at 8,887 total. Elf (3,076) was the most common racial combination followed by human (1,715) and then half-elf (891). Elf ranger was the second most created character out of all the class and race combinations. References Further reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition Player's Handbook Advanced