Grim Hollow Ranger Subclass Guide - D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Deep diving into the the green reaper, primordial archer and vermin lord subclasses.

As with most rangers, those of Grim Hollow work to protect the natural realm. Though the nature of Etharis is a little more unpleasant than that of most regions. Poisonous plants, witchcraft and vermin abound. But these rangers embrace such things rather than shun them, using the tools nature has provided them.

The 2024 version of the Grim Hollow Player’s Handbook has 3 ranger subclasses. They are:

Green reaper – Uses poisons to assassinate their targets.
Primordial archer – Use witchcraft and bowmanship to defend nature.
Vermin lord – Summon swarms of rats to exact your will.

In this article, I’ll dive into each subclass to provide advice as well as analyse how strong they are and which is the most powerful.

Green reaper

What are they?

Green reapers are experts in the use of poisons and toxins extracted from fauna and flora. They can use these to make their attacks more deadly and to discreetly (or publicly) assassinate their foes.

Key abilities

Envenomed attack (lv3)

This is kind of like hunter’s mark with less damage, but that can be used against anyone and doesn’t require concentration. It does stack with hunters mark, so you can apply this one turn and hunters mark the next turn for even more bonus damage.

This also scales in damage at level 11. Rangers generally have harder hitting attacks early levels and this enhances that further.

Toxic tradecraft (lv3)

A poison kit and double proficiency in checks with it is really a ribbon feature. However, the main attraction here is using a spell slot to apply a poison effect to an attack. This deals 1d6 damage, the poisoned condition for a turn and a toxin effect.

There’s some really interesting effects in here and their power is dependant on the level spell slot you expend. Probably your most easily useful with level 1 slots is befuddled, which can cause some serious problems for spellcasters. Suffer at level 2 can cause some big problems too.

With envenomed attack, you can usually be causing poison damage each turn, but allies can get involved in this too. Poison spray is an easy option for spellcasters for instance. There are also ways to bypass the often resisted poison damage too, allowing green reapers to not be nullified by poison resistance/immunity in their enemies.

Green reaper spells (lv3)

Detect poison is mega situational so not great (but thematic). Greater invisibility is excellent however and cloudikill is quite good as a rare AoE spell for a ranger. The spells here are decent enough and give your ranger a few new options, and with envenomed attack, you don’t need to feel weakened by not having concentration on hunter’s mark.

Poison control (lv7)

Resistance against the most common damage type and advantage against the most common condition is a pretty decent resilience feature. You also get free castings of protection from poison. This is decent enough as an end poisoned spell, but you can also cast it ahead of combat (and since you cast it for free, it makes sense to do that) and it doesn’t require concentration so now one or a few allies can benefit from your poison resilience too.

Variegated vexations (Lv11)

Change your poison damage to necrotic or acid damage to get around poison resistances. This is handy for not hamstringing a poison-focused subclass against poison resistant enemies.

Pain tolerance (Lv15)

Use a reaction to gain temporary hit points equal to the damage from an attack against you. Basically, this nullifies the damage you receive from an attack. I’m unsure mechanically why this doesn’t just prevent damage from an attack against you, but there may be a reason I haven’t considered.

This has no limits on uses other than being once per round making this a really strong resilience feature, especially if you can use it against really strong attacks or spells.

What are they good at?

At early levels, dealing damage and causing nasty poison effects. At later levels, they become quite resilient too.

How effective are they?

Green reapers are quite high damage and become very resilient, especially from level 15. On top of this, they enable concentration more easily by having a solid alternative to hunter’s mark that doesn’t require concentration while also giving options for rangers to make use of spell slots as part of their attacks for extra effects.

Envenomed strikes is better in damage than something like a fey wanderer’s dreadful strikes as it works on every hit (so scales at level 5). It also scales better at level 11. It does need a bonus action to activate but it does make an interesting alternative or supplement to hunter’s mark.

Not all the toxins in toxic tradecraft are made equally, but there are some quite good options. Even just with a 1st level spell slot, 1d6 damage and automatic poisoned is great, especially against something with legendary resistance (as it can’t pass a saving throw it doesn’t make). Add to that things like automatic prevention of casting vocal spells or consistent extra damage from poison attacks and you’ve got something quite potent even with low level spell slots.

I think if used well, this is quite a strong subclass with a lot of flexibility and options to adapt to the needs of a combat.

Score: 5/5

Primordial archer

What are they?

Sometimes known as wood witches, primordial archers combine hexes and primal magic with bowmanship. Making them a danger in woodland areas, especially to those that would desecrate these habitats.

Key abilities

Elemental arrows (lv3)

Easy access to enhanced damage arrows and one of a few different damage types means you should easily bypass resistances and deal extra damage.

The bonus action to activate this will conflict with hunter’s mark, but you can activate these on separate turns if needed. Just be aware that this does limit you to a long or short bow when it comes to your primary weapon.

Herbal lore (lv3)

A bonus action to automatically stabilise or an action to bring back 1HP without using a spell slot is decent. I prefer healing word as this will do better than either of these with a bonus action, but it will eat into your spell slots.

It’s better than spare the dying though and I suppose is the equivalent of a cantrip so it’s a solid safety measure against death.

Primordial archer spells (lv3)

Hex is a tad pointless when you already have free castings of hunter’s mark, unless you just want the thematics and one less spell slot. Blindness/deafness is a really good option though for a concentration heavy class, allowing you to cause a debilitating effect without getting in the way of concentration.

Polymorph is an all round strong spell, wall of stone is great for battlefield control and call lightning is a decent damage dealer with AoE in case you need to deal with crowds (which are typically a problem for a ranger).

Weave the elements (lv7)

Each day, you can essentially give yourself an elemental resistance. Fire and acid are the most common damage types you’ll face so I’d generally go with those unless you expect to face something with known elemental damage that’s different.

Witching arrows (Lv11)

The conditions here are all good in their own way. You may want to consider matching saving throws against enemy weaknesses. Entangling shot is great against low strength enemies for instance. It’s also worth pointing out that restrained is more potent than poisoned making it a better option.

But lightning damage against a second target is also strong. If you are going to upcast this arrow, then I’d be really tempted to go with the arcing shot as its extra damage is doubled from the upcasting because of the 2nd target making it a better upcast option.

Primordial magic (Lv15)

No concentration loss on ranger spells is great for a concentration heavy class. Changing damage type on the fly is great too making you adaptable to the enemies in front of you. The fact that you can also deal a decent amount of damage with that is a really strong use of your bonus action and definitely rewards swapping damage types in combat.

What are they good at?

Dealing damage at range, bypassing resistances and inflicting conditions on enemies.

How effective are they?

The primordial archer is a strong ranged option. They do more damage, can cause nasty effects and have great ways to use spell slots when your actions are being used for attacks (which is normal for a ranger).

Score: 4/5

Vermin lord

What are they?

Vermin lords raise loyal hordes of plague-bearing rats to perform their bidding. These rangers consider society rather than their swarms, to be the pests requiring stamping out.

Key abilities

Verminkin (lv3)

You can summon swarms of rats with spell slots. Higher level spell slots summon more and better swarms. These rats are better than a standard swarm with your spell attack modifier and the spell level uses to summon them determining how powerful they are.

A level 2 spell slot, for example, will get you 50HP of rats and a 3rd level slot will get you 105HP. It seems you can normally only command one swarm at a time and that will require your bonus action. Generally, you’ll want to ensure that if you do have multiple swarms, that they’re positioned to give each other advantage and that you keep having them dodge when they can’t attack.

Swarming strikes (lv3)

However, swarming strikes means that if you have a decent wisdom modifier, that you should be able to command all swarms simultaneously in most rounds of combat. This means some fairly serious levels of damage.

Vermin lord spells (lv3)

Consumption and flash fever are both fine spells, but feel hard to justify when your actions/bonus action can deal similar (or better) damage. Consumption might be an option when you’re out of rat swarms but this is likely to be rare and the concentration requirements of both are a problem too.

The rest of the spells aren’t overly inspiring either, making the vermin lord’s spells fairly poor in general.

Filth and fortitude (lv7)

Poisoned is one of the more common conditions so immunity to it is strong. Proficiency in constitution saving throws is good too, especially for protecting your concentration.

Infectious spread (Lv11)

This can easily get out of control. You can have 3 swarms at this level (and up to 5 later on). These will each make 2 attacks now dealing 66 average damage (if all attacks hit) and automatically causing the poisoned condition on a hit (albeit for just 1 turn).

Considering that you should have several uses of swarming strikes each short rest, this could be happening on practically every turn. Of course, rat swarms aren’t that resilient, but they each have 35HP with a level 3 spell slot. For me, this is extremely powerful. In fact, it’s too powerful!

Strength of the swarm (lv15)

Use your reaction to redirect damage towards your rats. They’re a good source of damage though, so be careful you don’t weaken your damage output by protecting your own health. But still, this is a good resilience option.

What are they good at?

Dealing damage and creating a lot of bodies to deal with.

How effective are they?

Ridiculously effective! There are so many swarms doing so much damage and creating so many hit points that it quickly gets out of control. The vermin lord starts off strong at level 3 and just gets insanely powerful by level 11 and beyond.

There’s also just so much resource to spend on creating and buffing your rat swarms that there’s no excuse to not be summoning them and using swarming strikes most combats and most turns.

In their current state, I wouldn’t allow the vermin lord at my table without a lot of reductions in power.

Score: 6/5

Which Grim Hollow ranger subclass is best?

It’s the vermin lord, and it’s not even close. With so many bodies and attacks summoned, their rat swarms can easily just overwhelm your enemies with sheer numbers. Yes, rats can be killed, and the power levels don’t get insane until level 11 (but they’re still very high before then) but nothing else even comes close.

And that’s not to say that the green reaper and the primordial archer are bad subclasses. Far from it. Both are really quite good and managed to make archer and poison builds that are actually quite competent.

Having said that, the vermin lord is too good and I wouldn’t allow it at my table. This would leave the green reaper with the crown for best Grim Hollow ranger subclass.

What do you think of Grim Hollow’s ranger subclasses? Let me know in the comments below.