Hollow Warden Ranger: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Optimisation Guide

Stalk and terrify enemies with this wielder of ancient powers.

At a glance

Hollow warden features

Hollow warden spells (Lv3) – 4/5

Level	Spells
3	Wrathful smite
5	Alter self
9	Phantom steed
13	Dominate beast
17	Steel wind strike

Wrathful smite is a great option for a bit more of a damage boost and frightened that won’t consume your precious concentration. Alter self and phantom steed are solid utility spells. Dominate beast can be good, but it’s definitely quite situational (you have to come across a beast of adequate power to be worth dominating). At the level you acquire this, that’s going to be a challenge. However, steel wind strike is a strong damage dealer. This is a solid spell list as rangers go.

Wrath of the wild (Lv3) – 5/5

This genuinely feels thematically terrifying as you semi-transform into some kind of terrifying, folk horror hunter.

The AC boost is solid and scales decently. You’ve also got the retribution attacks which are really easy to activate as they just require a hit on yourself or an ally from within 5ft. This means this subclass will favour melee combat as a result as you’ll really want to be activating this often and getting that extra attack per round. Two-handed weapons may be preferable too for the higher damage and the fact you’ve already got a resilience boost means a shield is less important).

In fact, this is better than both sentinel and Zhentarim tactics (which have similar effects) as this trigger on damage to you or an ally within 5ft (rather than one or the other). In addition, this isn’t limited to just attack rolls either as it specifies taking damage, not just being hit by an attack. That makes this feature perhaps one of the easiest for accessing opportunity attacks.

The frightening aura is just always on too and means getting close to enemies is advantageous and makes it harder for them to hurt you in melee.

It’s nice that this also gives you an alternative use for your favoured enemy. Handily, it doesn’t prevent you from also using hunter’s mark if you choose to, you can just use spell slots for that.

Hungering might (Lv7) – 4/5

Improved constitution saving throws is not only important for some extra resilience, it means you can maintain concentration better too. Considering that you’re probably going for a melee build and are likely weaving concentration spells like hunter’s mark into your combat, this could be fairly important.

The once per turn healing is really useful too for that extra resilience. It definitely necessitates higher wisdom for these benefits, but you’re going to need to balance this out with constitution for resilience and concentration with strength and/or dexterity for attacks and AC.

Rot and violence (Lv11) – 3/5

This works to further whittle away at nearby enemies. You can prevent them regaining hit points or making opportunity attacks and can sap or slow them on a hit. In many ways, this makes the hollow warden one of the best options for helping allies flee as they’ll be too slow to chase and unable to make an opportunity attack.

Ancient might (Lv15) – 5/5

You should have little problem frightening a lot of creatures so that damage boost should be available fairly often. However, it probably pushes you towards a bully approach as the most powerful creatures (especially at this tier of play) will often be difficult or impossible to frighten.

Preventing dropping to 0HP occassionally is a fair bit of resilience, especially when you’ll be getting 30-40HP as a result. You should be bloodied at this point to so can heal a bit with your attacks too.

Immunity to exhaustion is decent if you’re in a campaign that deals with exhaustion. Many tables don’t use it or use it very rarely though.

What’s changed from the Unearthed Arcana?

The hollow warden reviewed really well in the 2025 horror subclasses Unearthed Arcana. I gave it top marks back then, but pointed out that it was overpowered and I expected the final release to be toned down in power. It both dealt too much damage and had too much resilience.

I was correct on that front and we have seen it balance a lot better. Some may be disappointed that it’s weaker, but it needed it and this is a much more balanced ranger subclass now while remaining a top tier option.

I’ve summarised the changes below:

• Hollow warden spells: You now get alter self, dominate beast and steel wind strike instead of spike growth, hallucinatory terrain and awaken.
• Wrath of the wild: No longer activated when casting hunter’s mark. Instead, it consumes a use of favoured enemy. The AC boost has been reduced to +1/+2 instead of + wisdom modifier. Gained prowling retribution letting you make easier opportunity attacks.
• Hungering might: Unchanged
• Rot and violence: Eerie aura replaced by menacing aura which prevents reactions and regaining hit points rather than dealing quite a large amount of damage.
• Ancient might/endurance: Gained ominous strikes which boost damage against frightened creatures. Persistant wrath/hunt gets a free use now and the regained hit points are twice ranger level rather than 5 times the spell slot used (which is always going to be better).

Is the hollow warden any good?

The hollow warden is perhaps the most exciting ranger so far. Not only is it genuinely thematically terrifying, but its features are genuinely great and feel like they go for a very different vibe of ranger. This feels like the kind of ranger that throws themself into the heat of combat to terrifying effect, deals plenty of damage and debuffs enemies at the same time.

It’s a heavy hitting debuffer, but one made vulnerable by their propensity towards melee combat. I think it’s excellent and dare I say it… maybe my favourite new subclass of D&D 2024!

5/5

Building a hollow warden

Largely, the hollow warden works like most other rangers. They’re martial half-casters that make great scouts and explorers. The main exception is that they rely on close combat for some of their best features meaning a melee build is your best bet. Below is a load of advice on the different character options you can choose for your build.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Dexterity: You’ll need this for ranged attacks, a decent AC and to have strong stealth skills. You can also opt for finesse weapons in melee if you want to avoid investing in strength altogether.
• Wisdom: The effectiveness of your spells rely on this so needs some investment. Not all spells need a high wisdom to be effective (like hunter’s mark), but hollow wardens are reliant on a strong wisdom to enhance unnerving aura, hungering might and other features.
• Constitution: You’ll need the resilience from this as a likely frontline warrior. It’ll also help you maintain concentration on the likes of hunter’s mark. And you’re likely to be making a lot of concentration saving throws if you’re jumping headlong into melee combat.
• Strength: You can opt for a strength build if you want. It does mean spreading ability scores quite a lot though, and you’ll likely be worse as a scout and ranged warrior as a result. However, if you want to go for two handed weapons for the increased damage, especially on your opportunity attacks, then you’ll need to invest in strength.

Options to avoid

• Intelligence: Of little worth to a ranger.
• Charisma: Unfortunately, you don’t have enough space to invest in charisma and face skills, so should leave this to others.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8/14	12/15
Dexterity	15/14	15/14
Constitution	15/14	14/13
Intelligence	8/8	8/8
Wisdom	15/13	13/12
Charisma	8/8	10/10

Skills

Recommended options

• Athletics: Acrobatics will often be better for a ranger with their bigger focus on dexterity, but isn’t an option as standard. Athletics is a decent choice though, especially if you’re playing a strength build.
• Perception: Crucial skill for a scout and highly used, plus you have the wisdom to be really good at this.
• Stealth: Strong option for a scout and a class relied on for skills.
• Insight: A good skill for social situations. You may pick up on things your companions don’t.
• Investigation: Great option for an exploration class.

Species/race

There are a few things to consider when choosing a species for a hollow warden:

• Resilience: You’ll likely be needed on the front lines at least sometimes. Improving your resilience will help narrow that gap between yourself and the tankier martials like barbarians.
• Innate spellcasting: As a spellcaster, you can repeat cast spells and have the wisdom to back this up. Rangers tend to have a limited repertoire of spells, so enhancing this tends to be a good option.
• Damage dealing: Rangers are primarily about dealing weapon damage. The more your species helps with this the better.
• Utility class: Rangers are something of a utility class. Species that can aid this are usually a good option.

Recommended options

• Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your hardiness. For celestial revelation, I’d lean on inner radiance for the extra damage. Necrotic shroud requires decent charisma which you’ll struggle for. However, temporary flight is always useful. Expect to use this for accessing hard to reach places and enemies or for scouting. A bit of healing is a decent emergency option too.
• Dhampir (2024): Faster movement, an earlier climb speed (and one that can get you upside down), resilience through necrotic resistance and some self healing or extra damage through a bite attack are all pretty good for a ranger.
• Dragonborn (2024): You don’t get much in the way of AoE damage as a ranger, especially with the option of being a frontline martial. This makes a Dragonborn’s breath weapon a useful tool. You can use it in place of just one of your attacks too. Temporary flight again lets you get to hard to reach enemies. Plus there’s a resistance for better durability.
• Dwarf (2024): An extra hit point per level is great for a frontline warrior. And for even more resilience, you have resistance against poison and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.
• Goliath (2024): Faster movement makes you even better at traversing the battlefield. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. For a hollow warden, the durability of the stone giants, knocking enemies prone with hill giant and extra damage from fire giants are all great options.
• Human (2024): A great option if you want to lean more into the utility aspects of a ranger. An extra skill and a feat will help here, while a regular supply of heroic inspiration is always useful.
• Shifter (2024): A scouting skill and darkvision are decent but shifting is the main thing you want. I’d favour beasthide for the extra resilience.
• Warforged (2024): +1AC, resistance to poison damage and advantage against poisoned are all great resilience features that will help you last longer on the frontlines.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For a hollow warden, I’d focus on strength or dexterity and wisdom with constitution a possible option. Below are the best backgrounds for a hollow warden:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Chondathan freebooter (HoF)	Strength, dexterity, wisdom	Skilled	Athletics, sleight of hand	Weaver’s tools
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves tools
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Guide	Dexterity, constitution, wisdom	Magic initiate (druid)	Stealth, survival	Cartographer’s tools
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
Sailor	Strength, dexterity, wisdom	Tavern brawler	Acrobatics, perception	Navigator’s tools
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	One kind of gaming set
Vampire devotee (ABoH)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Vampire’s plaything	Persuasion, stealth	Cook’s utensils
Zhentarim mercenary (HoF)	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Zhentarim ruffian	Intimidation, perception	Forgery kit

I’d probably lean towards the chondathan freebooter or criminal, but much will depend on what ability scores you want to improve and which origin feats you need.

Feats

I’d suggest the following feats for a hollow warden:

Origin feats

• Alert – Going early in combat is always handy to get some damage in before your enemies do.
• Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial.
• Magic initiate – Grab some more spells, including a couple of cantrips. Things like minor illusion and guidance are good for a stealthy, utility class while something like thunderclap and thunderwave are great for melee combat. You should have the wisdom to back these spells up too.
• Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration. Great for altruistic rangers. Plus you can ensure you have some heroic inspiration available too.
• Savage attacker – Decent enough damage dealing feat to make your attacks a little more powerful.
• Skilled – You may find you need a lot of skill proficiencies as subterfuge tends to require a lot of skill proficiencies. You could grab acrobatics over athletics this way too. And maybe even grab sleight of hand so you can work as a backup rogue.
• Spellfire spark (HoF) – Minor damage reduction from spells. But sacred flame as a bonus action could be quite a good bit of extra damage. Rangers have high demand for their bonus action, but it’s not likely to be every turn and this has limited uses anyway.
• Tough – You’re not as tough as some other martials. This will help here by giving you more HP.
• Vampire’s plaything (ABoH)- A free healing potion each long rest is really nice and dash and disengage as bonus actions will go a long way to making you more maneuverable. This means getting to foes quicker and moving to the right parts of the battlefield easily too. The main issue though, is the fairly high demands on your bonus action already (from things like hunter’s mark and other spells).
• Zhentarim ruffian (HoF) – Advantage on initiative rolls is pretty good. Make sure someone in the group has musician or a similar feat to make sure you have a regular supply of heroic inspiration. Hollow wardens get a lot of opportunity attacks so boosting the damage of these is nice too.

General feats

• Bloodlust (ABoH) – Some decent mid-combat healing that doesn’t eat into your action economy plus better healing through your hit point dice. Your constitution should be high anyway so the healing should be good and healing from an attack will be better than healing during a short rest.
• Fey-touched – Misty step is great for escaping danger as well as getting into it and even for exploration too; all things you’re likely to get involved in as a ranger. You get another spell too, just make sure you go for the wisdom increase.
• Genie magic (HoF) – Access to all sorcerer spells of level 1 is great and really versatile for a caster class. At level 1, an AoE damage dealer like thunderwave is great, or sleep to nullify some enemies. And it’s a free spell to cast.
• Great weapon master – Excellent option for a strength build if you just want to deal more damage. This combines nicely with your regular opportunity attacks for bigger extra hits.
• Inspiring leader – Great for granting temporary hit points to the party. Go for the wisdom increase to make this work best.
• Mage slayer – Best against mages, but having what is practically legendary resistance is also great.
• Purple dragon commandant (HoF) – Better while bloodied and temporary hit points for allies is all pretty good, especially on a frontline melee build. Hollow wardens already do well when bloodied and this makes you fight even harder when in danger.
• Shadow-touched – Invisibility is great for a stealthy class plus you get an extra spell. Make sure you increase your wisdom for this.
• Skill expert – Great for becoming more of a skill expert. Plus you can get proficiency (and even expertise) in a skill you don’t normally have access to, like sleight of hand.
• War caster – You’re mainly here for improved concentration (important for maintaining hunter’s mark and some of your other spells). Hollow wardens are already pretty good with concentration but this will make this even better.

Weapons

The weapons you choose will depend largely on how you want to fight and what weapon mastery properties you want to be using:

• Pure damage: Go for two-handed weapons like a greatsword, greataxe, glaive, halberd or maul. Just be aware you’ll need to go for a strength build if you want to do this which can be more challenging to acommodate.
• Sword and shield: If you want to go heavier on defense, you’ll need a one handed weapon like a longsword, battleaxe, morningstar or warhammer. If you’re going with a finesse build, rapiers, scimitars and shortswords can all work instead (a rapier will get you the best damage).
• Two weapon fighting: If you want to fight with two weapons for the extra offhand attack, you’ll need to use light weapons. Handaxes, shortswords and scimitars are best for this. To make this work best, you’ll want to invest in things like two weapon fighting, dual wielder and/or the nick weapon mastery property. With so many demands on your bonus action, I’d suggest ignoring dual wielder and take nick so your bonus action is free. Take two weapon fighting to increase your damage output a bit too.
• Ranged: A longbow is likely your best option here. Crossbows need reloading which is no good once you get an extra attack (unless you take crossbow expert). If you’re strength based, you could go with thrown weapons like a trident or handaxes. Hollow wardens are at their best in melee so I’d use this as an option for when you can’t get into melee range or are feeling too battered to stay in melee.

If you want some help choosing a weapon mastery property, you can check out my weapon mastery guide to work out how best to utilise these properties.

Armor

If you’re a strength build, go for 14 dexterity and take medium armor. Half plate is tempting as it gives the best AC, but disadvantage on stealth checks is poor for a subclass so reliant on stealth. That means a breast plate is your best option for medium armor. Having said that, if you want to be stealthy, you should probably just go for a dex build and take light armor (studded leather is best).

If you want some extra protection, a shield is a good option but it will diminish your damage output.

Other class guides

Not sure a hollow warden is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other D&D 2024 class and subclass guides.