Ranger

The ranger is one of the player roles in NetHack. Rangers can be either neutral or chaotic, and can be humans, elves, gnomes, or orcs.

Rangers can get expert in dagger, sling, dart, boomerang, javelin, bow and crossbow, and also in divination spells. Rangers cannot use two-weapon combat.

The guidebook entry for the ranger has this to say about them:

              Rangers are most at home in the woods, and some say slightly
         out of place in a dungeon.  They are, however, experts in archery
         as well as tracking and stealthy movement.

Strategy

• Rangers get an extra bonus shot when using any at range weapon. So their best weapons are daggers, darts and bows.
• Rangers can throw 4 daggers at once giving them on an average 2.5 times the damage as attacking with a single weapon in melee. They should use this faculty as much as possible.
• At the very beginning, rangers should fire +2 arrows against most enemies, using their dagger against weak enemies to build dagger skill.
• In the midgame, a stack of daggers should probably be your primary weapon. A +7 stack of daggers is extemely powerful. Elven daggers are somewhat rarer and can not be collected as easily, but deal slightly more damage. Once you build up a stack of daggers and are at expert level, stash your bow and arrow and stick to daggers for the time being.
• For the endgame, +7 arrows are even better than daggers, especially for elves and orcs who will get a bonus shot from using their racial bows and arrows. Silver arrows are also very useful when fighting demons. The best strategy is probably to build up a large stack of +0 arrows, then enchant them all to +7 and bless them once your luck is maxed out. Once you have done this, you can stop using daggers and switch to arrows--they are much lighter, and will do more damage.
• Rangers should try to maintain a distance from their opponents and should not let them come near, as they are more effective from a distance. Their starting cloak of displacement helps them with this strategy. Elven rangers are handicapped as they start with an elven cloak. A good idea is to levitate while firing your arrows or daggers, so you will float in the opposite direction, keeping you away from monsters; nevertheless, you will fire only one arrow, dagger or whatever is in your quiver, so it would work better with daggers or spears than it would do with arrows.
• Try to get a +2 Magicbane (even if you're chaotic, but, since Magicbane's aligment is neutral, it might blast you; it wouldn't evade your grasp since it is not intelligent). This way you will be able to use Elbereth a lot and attack with good magical effects (cancel, probe, stun, scare).
• If you can't get Magicbane (and you are chaotic), try sacrificing for the Stormbringer. Its level-draining attacks are very effective during the mid-game and even late-game. Try to have another, backup weapon--silver saber for example in case you have to fight level-drain resistant monsters like Vampires.

Starting equipment

• +1 dagger
• +1 bow or +1 crossbow
• 50-59 +2 arrows or crossbow bolts
• 30-39 +0 arrows or crossbow bolts
• +2 cloak of displacement
• 4-8 cram rations

Elven and orcish rangers start with racial equipment (elven dagger or orcish dagger instead of dagger, etc.). Elves get an elven cloak instead of a cloak of displacement and lembas wafers in the place of cram rations. Orcish rangers get orcish bow and orcish arrows but still get a cloak of displacement. Chaotic rangers also have a 1% chance of their starting arrow stacks being generated poisoned. Gnomish rangers start with a crossbow and crossbow bolts instead of a bow and arrows.

Because elf rangers begin with an elven dagger, they are able to create Sting immediately, with all the advantages and disadvantages that entails.

Intrinsics

• Exp Level 1: searching
• Exp Level 7: stealth
• Exp Level 15: see invisible

Spellcasting

Rangers can become powerful spellcasters later in the game when they learn some of the divination spells. Although other types won't be as easy to cast, divination has a lot to offer. Some of the best spells in the game are magic mapping, identify and detect unseen. A good spell to practice with is light as it's easy to cast and does not take up a lot of Pw.

Quest

The quest sees you fighting for The Longbow of Diana, the artifact bow that creates arrows when invoked and grants ESP when carried. It also provides reflection when wielded. The Ranger quest is arguably one of the harder ones since centaurs are very fast and use projectiles. In addition to that, all of the quest levels are full of traps. It is advised to have speed boots when going on the quest so that the centaurs don't hit you as much per turn. Be sure to also have reflection (centaurs are intelligent enough to use wands), having magic resistance also helps a whole lot. The quest is full of items, however. You are guaranteed to find lots of scrolls and a decent amount of potions.

The easiest way to fight centaurs is using ranged attacks. Poisoned arrows work extremely well, even unenchanted ones. Keep your distance away from enemies, only switching to your melee weapon when fighting wimpy monsters (such as scorpions or bats).

Once in Scorpius' cavern, you might want to burn "Elbereth" on the stairs, then wake him up. Race back to the staircase as fast as you can and fight from there.

Skills

Ranger skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: pick-axe, short sword, morning star, hammer, quarterstaff, trident, whip Combat: bare hands, riding Spells: healing, escape
Skilled	Weapons: knife, axe, flail, polearms, shuriken
Expert	Weapons: dagger, spear, bow, sling, crossbow, dart, boomerang Spells: divination

Encyclopedia entry

"Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters -- but hunters
ever of the servants of the Enemy; for they are found in many
places, not in Mordor only.
If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have played
another part.  Many evil things there are that your strong walls
and bright swords do not stay.  You know little of the lands
beyond your bounds.  Peace and freedom, do you say?  The North
would have known them little but for us.  Fear would have
destroyed them.  But when dark things come from the houseless
hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us.  What
roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in
quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the
Dunedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?"
        [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]

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