A Comprehensive Guide for Every Ranger Spell in DnD 5e

Unleash Your Inner Hunter

Rangers in Dungeons & Dragons 5e draw their magical abilities from their deep connection to the natural world. Unlike Druids, their divine counterparts, Rangers are considered half-casters, so their spellcasting capabilities are somewhat limited. While they gain a wide array of spells, they don’t have access to high-level slots or cantrips. However, their spells are often versatile, providing utility both in and out of combat.

Ranger Spell Tips

Here are some tips to help you pick the best spells for your ranger:

What are the must-have spells on the ranger spell list?

A few key ranger spells are essential for making the most of the class. Hunter’s Mark is a classic, helping you increase your damage output, but requires Concentration. Additionally, spells like Pass without Trace, which provides stealth bonuses to your entire party, and Goodberry, which offers reliable healing, are invaluable in both combat and exploration. As you level up, you can add spells like Conjure Animals and Steel Wind Strike to summon allies and deal significant damage.

Consider Your Ranger Combat Preferences

One of the unique features of the Ranger class is their ability to specialize in melee or ranged combat styles, which influences their spellcasting. For instance, they have access to a plethora of ranged spells, like Lightning Arrow, Conjure Barrage, and Hail of Thorns, which are better for ranged builds. On the other hand, melee-focused rangers will definitely want to pick up Absorb Elements, Ensnaring Strike, and Zephyr Strike.

How Do You Want to Balance Magic and Combat?

Rangers don’t get a lot of spell slots, so they like to go for value spells that can either produce effects turn-after-turn or deal a large amount of damage to a group of enemies. Hunter’s Mark is great for this because it allows you to boost the damage of each strike for a long period of time for only a single spell slot.

You also have to be careful of spending all your spell slots in combat because Rangers are relied upon to hunt, navigate the wilderness, and help the party move stealthily outside of combat and their spell slots don’t recharge until the end of a Long Rest.

What is this guide?

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the best spells for the 5e ranger. For the full overview of the ranger class, check out our ranger class guide.

To allow you to scan through the options quickly, we use the following color rating scheme:

• Red : Isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
• Orange : Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
• Green : A good option
• Blue : A great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
• Sky Blue: An amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

Ranger Spells in D&D 5e

1st level

• Absorb Elements: One of the best defensive spells at this level, especially for protecting against elemental AoE effects.
• Alarm: This spell is relatively useful whenever you're resting. What's better is it can be cast as a ritual. If you have Ritual Casting, this is never a bad pick.
• Animal Friendship: This will likely get you out of at least one low-level beast encounter.
• Cure Wounds: Healing is important so pick it up if you think you’ll need it.
• Detect Magic: Every party should roll with at least one character who has access to detect magic.
• Detect Poison and Disease: Being able to detect poison or disease within 30ft of yourself is definitely a situational effect. Only stock when you think you'll need it.
• Ensnaring Strike: Great 1st level spell to do some damage and restrain a creature. The caveat that you have to hit with a weapon attack AND they get to make a saving throw makes this spell a bit clunky, especially because it requires concentration. This means you could cast the spell, miss your attacks, get hit, fail the CON save, and lose the spell before it even has the chance to affect the target. Also, keep in mind that Large or larger targets get advantage on the save. The spell has a solid effect but it should be used with caution.
• Fog Cloud: Obscuring an area can be better than it sounds. While inside the fog cloud, creatures are effectively blinded so make sure you use the spell in a way that makes it advantageous.
• Goodberry: Not particularly useful in combat but if you make goodberries at the end of each day you will have a solid pool of healing to pull from. This spell also have the con—or pro, depending on how you look at it—of completely trivializing the need to find food while navigating the wilderness as long as you an in an environment with berries, or remember to prepare ahead.
• Hail of Thorns: A 1st-level spell slot for a 1d10 AoE can be worth it if you can catch another creature or two within the 5ft radius. As an added bonus, you're still able to inflict the damage from your ranged attack. The worst-case scenario for this spell would be to cast it on your turn, miss your attacks, then get hit and lose concentration before you can get activate the effect. Make sure you don't have any enemies barrelling toward you when casting this spell.
• Hunter’s Mark: THE Ranger spell. It gives you extra damage and some nice tracking abilities.
• Jump: Tripling a creature's jump distance isn't usually worth a 1st level spell slot.
• Longstrider: An extra 10 feet of movement is noticeable, especially since this spell lasts for an hour so you can use the buff before you find yourself in a battle or travel long distances in a short time.
• Snare: Way too many hoops to jump through and downsides to be worthwhile. If you manage to pull it off despite the long casting time and the terrible AoE, a trapped creature can easily find themselves in a bad situation. Having to make the escape saving throw at disadvantage will not be pretty.
• Speak with Animals: Its effectiveness is limited but do you really want to be a ranger that can’t talk with animals?
• Zephyr Strike: For a 1st-level spell slot you get advantage on one weapon attack, an extra 1d8 if the attack lands, and the ability to move without provoking opportunity attacks, and 30ft of additional movement. None of these effects on their own is worth a 1st-level spell slot, but all together offers a potent ability to strategically navigate the battlefield for both ranged and melee rangers. Unfortunately, if your advantaged attack misses, you don't get the extra 1d8, even if you hit while still concentrating on the spell. That said, you don't provoke opportunity attacks for the entire duration, which can help with disengaging from a particularly motivated enemy, if needed.

2nd level

• Animal Messenger: This has a lot of caveats. If you have someone in your party with sending you will never need this.
• Barkskin: Not worth a ranger’s spell slot because they have medium armor proficiencies and are usually stacked into DEX.
• Beast Sense: This does not have a ton of uses, especially because you can't control what the beast does or where it goes.
• Cordon of Arrows: 4d6 damage is just not that impressive for a 2nd-level spell. A much more effective battlefield control spell is spike growth.
• Darkvision: Essential if you or party members don’t have natural Darkvision and want to navigate without a torch. At a 2nd-level spell slot, the cost for this effect is quite steep.
• Find Traps: Reveals the presence of traps but not their exact location. Definitely not the best use of a spell slot.
• Healing Spirit: Decent value for in combat healing if you're able to maintain concentration. Outside of combat, this can equate to 6d6 of healing–as long as you have a +5 WIS modifier–in just under a minute which is amazing value for a 2nd-level spell.
• Lesser Restoration: Diseases and conditions do come up from time to time, so you’ll be happy to have this when they do.
• Locate Animals or Plants: Extremely situational spell. So much so that it will likely not see use in an entire campaign.
• Locate Object: 1,000 feet isn't a particularly wide radius but this spell will be extremely useful when it's needed. Great for city campaigns where everything is packed in tighter together.
• Pass without Trace: If you are infiltrating an area with your party that you are unwelcome, the +10 bonus to Stealth is massive.
• Protection from Poison: Has some use if you have a poisoned party member but don't have access to lesser restoration. The resistance to poison and advantage on saving throws against poison is a nice buff in specific circumstances, especially because it doesn't require concentration.
• Silence: Silence is a niche spell with a high ceiling. It can be used in stealth scenarios but it’s most powerful usage is if you can target a caster who won’t be able to cast spells requiring a verbal component. Of course, it’s only a 20ft radius so you will either need to be fighting in close quarters or will need to find a way to prevent the caster from moving.
• Spike Growth: Moderately good crowd control or can be used to stage an ambush because it is camouflaged.
• Summon Beast: Great for summoning an ally that can improve your party’s action economy and fly. Not much worth upcasting past 2nd-level.

3rd level

• Conjure Animals: Conjure animals can greatly improve your action economy in a fight by giving you more allies to attack with in a turn. It is also extremely useful as a way to divert damage from party members. If your DM is friendly they may even let you summon an animal that could help you achieve your goal (like a flying creature to get something from up high), although they won’t be obligated to give you the creature you want.
• Conjure Barrage: Does roughly half the damage of fireball for the same level spell slot. Can be good if you can catch twice as many enemies in the larger radius, but it won’t happen often. A slightly disappointing spell that can still make the cut if you don't have other ways of doing big AoE damage.
• Daylight: The light cantrip on steroids. The biggest downside of this spell is the misleading name which causes people to think that this spell actually produces daylight, which can be helpful when fighting creatures with Sunlight Sensitivity. Dispelling darkness could be situationally useful.
• Flame Arrows: You will never be using this spell as a ranger because you have hunter's mark.
• Lightning Arrow: 4d8 single target damage plus 2d8 AoE damage is alright but is vastly outshone by either the summons available at this spell slot level. This spell is quite equatable to conjure barrage and can be interchanged based on the battlefield's layout.
• Nondetection: Your campaign will really cater to this spell for it to have any kind of application. This is much more of a DM-focused spell, players often won’t find a use for this once in an entire campaign.
• Plant Growth: Slows down pesky enemies moving around a lot or trying to escape, but not particularly good at either. Also cool for story beats to restore nature that has been devastated by war.
• Protection from Energy: This is typically outshined by absorb elements except in the specific circumstances when you are constantly being subjected to a type of damage.
• Speak with Plants: The flavor is spot on with this spell, it just doesn’t have that many uses.
• Summon Fey: Easily one of the best Summon options from TCoE. Teleportation every round accompanied with advantage on at least one attack per round and decent damage. This one is actually worth upcasting in certain circumstances.
• Water Breathing: This is almost required for enabling underwater traversal, which may or may not happen a lot in a campaign.
• Water Walk: This is likely not to see use in an entire campaign.
• Wind Wall: Useful against lots of archers, swarms of flying enemies, or against deadly fog. Other than that the damage is pretty bad.

4th level

• Conjure Woodland Beings: Pretty much the same as conjure minor elementals, but fey have some distinguishing effects from elementals.
• Freedom of Movement: It’s nice to give extra movement options to allies, but there are better buff spells and this one is pretty situational.
• Grasping Vine: Only really works if you can pull the creature into something that is actually going to hurt it.
• Guardian of Nature: Can be beneficial for STR builds, like a melee ranger or Circle of the Moon druid, because it essentially acts as a hunter's mark with the added upside of advantage on all attacks, extra movement, and darkvision. For ranged builds, getting advantage to your attacks will enable more potential for crits and the advantage on CON saving throws can help with concentration. The difficult terrain aura will help with enemies who are looking to approach. Either way you swing it, this is a decent value for a 4th-level spell slot and concentration but probably has more value for STR builds.
• Locate Creature: More thorough than locate animals or plants, and can be used to find people. It’s still pretty situational.
• Stoneskin: Effectively double your or your favorite melee fighter’s hit points. Better at lower levels or when fighting enemies without magical attacks. If you'll be casting this on yourself, make sure you have a decent CON modifier and consider taking the Resilient (CON) feat if you don't have proficiency in CON saving throws or the War Caster feat for advantage on concentration checks.
• Summon Elemental: Tankier than the fey summon because of the damage resistances but does less damage. Still a great option, just depends on what you're looking for.

5th level

• Commune with Nature: Can be useful for roleplay and story progression.
• Conjure Volley: About as good as your AoE will get as a ranger. The versatility of being able to hit flying creatures as well as creatures on the ground is a nice added bonus.
• Swift Quiver: Being able to make two extra attacks a bonus action is quite strong for ranged rangers, especially if you have picked up the Sharpshooter feat. Unfortunately, this spell can be used in conjuncation with hunter's mark but the huge bonus to your action economy makes it worth it.
• Tree Stride: A fun spell with a multitude of uses if you can get a bit creative. Without trees nearby you won’t be striding anywhere though.
• Wrath of Nature: If you find yourself in an environment that has rocks, trees, and grass, this spell provides a huge amount of action economy. A passive that makes it harder for enemies to navigate around, a free AoE at the start of your turn, a free Restrained effect at the end of your turn, and a bonus action ranged attack. In common cases, you will be able to use the Restrained effect and the ranged attack (seeing as rocks are everywhere in high fantasy settings).