Hunter's Mark: How Powerful Is It In D&D 2024?

Analysing power levels for the ranger’s signature spell.

Hunter’s mark is a ranger’s smite. Like their half-casting cousin, the paladin, rangers are also martials that dabble in the non-arcane magics. While paladins are like a martial version of clerics, rangers are a martial version of druids, seeking to protect the natural world.

Each has a signature spell that enhances their strikes. For paladins, smites are undisputably a powerful option and one of the best ways to use their bonus action in combat.

However, there is dispute over how good hunter’s mark is, especially compared to smites.

In this article, I’m going to dissect how useful hunter’s mark is, and also compare it with smites, other ranger spells and how much it’s improved in the 2024 revision.

How does hunter’s mark work?

Hunter’s mark is a 1st level spell, almost exclusive to rangers (vengeance paladins and those with the fey-touched feat can also grab hunter’s mark). It can be cast as a bonus action to mark an enemy, primarily allowing your attacks against that enemy to be enhanced.

Here’s the full spell from the 2024 Player’s Handbook:

“You magically mark one creature you can see within range as your quarry. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 force damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack roll. You also have advantage on any wisdom (perception or survival) check you make to find it.

If the target drops to 0 hit points before the spell ends, you can take a bonus action to move the mark to a new creature you can see within range.

Using a higher-level spells slot. Your concentration can last longer with a spell slot of level 3-4 (up to 8 hours) or 5+ (up to 24 hours).“

Player’s Handbook 2024 p287

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Features that enhance Hunter’s mark

You can enhance your Hunter’s mark as you gain ranger levels, including from some subclasses, this includes:

Extra attack LV 5 – ranger – Hunter’s mark damage is added to each attack made against the target, so additional attacks increase damage.
Relentless hunter Lv13 – Ranger – Can’t lose concentration on hunter’s mark.
Precise hunter Lv17 – Ranger – Advantage against target of hunter’s mark.
Foe slayer Lv20 – Ranger – Hunter’s mark now deals 1d10 damage.
Bestial fury Lv11 – Beast master – Primal companion also benefits from Hunter’s mark
Hunter’s lore Lv3 – Hunter – Know information about the target of your hunter’s mark.
Superior hunter’s prey Lv11 – Hunter – Deal hunter’s mark damage to another creature as well as the target once per turn.

Hunter’s mark advantages

I’ve summarised all the advantages of hunter’s mark below:

Damage each time you hit across subsequent turns and attacks means damage from a single, level 1 spell, can really stack up over time.
It only requires a bonus action to cast or move.
A single use can last an entire combat and more.
Force damage is rarely resisted.
Class and subclass features enhance it’s effectiveness.

Hunter’s mark disadvantages

However, it’s not all good for hunter’s mark:

Requires subsequent bonus actions to apply to new targets.
Ties you to attacking a single target or reduce damage output.
Lacks the explosive nature of paladin smites.
Concentration can be broken, which may mean recasting or weakening your attacks.
Subclass features can compete for your bonus action.

How powerful is Hunter’s mark?

Let’s imagine a 5 round combat. You apply a level 1 hunter’s mark to an enemy in round 1 and kill them in round 3. You then switch the target of hunter’s mark in round 4 and kill them in round 5, ending the combat. We’ll assume you maintain concentration on the spell for its duration.

While many combats will look different, this forms a reasonably typical encounter to get a sense of power.

I’ve included a version where a single weapon is used, and a version in brackets where you’re dual wielding using the nick weapon mastery property. I’ve also assumed that every attack hits (unfortunately, calculating chances of hitting is too variable to give an accurate calculation).

For the beast master, I’ve baked into the calculation the idea that using your bonus action on hunter’s mark will stop your primal companion from attacking that turn (so have minused the damage your primal companion would have caused).

If you take the fey-touched feat at level 4, any class can grab Hunter’s mark (you can technically also do this by taking a 1 level dip in ranger or by being an oath of vengeance paladin too). Because of this, I’ve added in the vengeance paladin and a fighter using Hunter’s mark which is probably your best non-ranger class due to the many extra attacks they can accumulate (no action surge uses including).

Subclass	Lv1 – Gain hunter’s mark	Lv3 – Subclass	Lv5 – Extra attack	Lv11 – Subclass feature	Lv20 – Foe slayer
Beast master	17.5 (35)	4.5 (22)	22 (39.5)	24.5 (42)	45.5 (63)
Fey wanderer	17.5 (35)	17.5 (35)	35 (52.5)	35 (52.5)	55 (82.5)
Gloom stalker	17.5 (35)	17.5 (35)	35 (52.5)	35 (52.5)	55 (82.5)
Hunter	17.5 (35)	17.5 (35)	35 (52.5)	52.5 (70)	82.5 (110)
Fighter	0	0	35 (52.5)	52.5 (70)	70 (87.5)
Oath of vengeance paladin	0	17.5 (35)	35 (52.5)	35 (52.5)	35 (52.5)

As can be seen, most rangers do quite well over a full combat with hunter’s mark applied, especially once they hit level 5 and get their extra attack, doubling their damage output. As a comparison, magic missile averages 10.5 damage per casting at level 1 (though it does always hit).

Hunter’s begin to outperform considerably when they hit level 11 as they can cause damage to additional enemies too.

Beast masters on the other hand, struggle as they must sacrifice their primal companions attacks whenever they use their bonus action on hunter’s mark. Even when the companion can use the damage from hunter’s mark itself, those missed turns of attacks really harm its damage output. Longer combats against single, high hit point individuals might see this improve, but this often isn’t the case in combat.

The more attacks you can make with hunter’s mark applied, the better. This is why dual wielding and playing a fighter are 2 of the best ways to up your damage output with hunter’s mark. Especially if you take an eldritch knight who can repeat cast the spell.

How does hunter’s mark compare to other spells and features?

Much like paladins and smites, hunter’s mark is something of a signature spell for rangers. So much so that their capstone feature actually enhances hunter’s mark. As do other features.

But is it better than other spells they might use or that other classes might have.

For calculating this, I’m going to assume the same combat scenario as above using a fey wanderer ranger (whose subclass doesn’t affect the spell). Because hunter’s mark works for an entire combat encounter with one casting, I’m going to see how this looks using only a single spell slot on divine smite as well as expending all possible spell slots on it (in case you’re running a single combat encounter in a day for instance). Both of these calculations include the free casting of divine smite at level 2:

Subclass	Lv1 – Gain hunter’s mark	Lv3 – Subclass	Lv5 – Extra attack	Lv11 – Subclass feature	Lv20 – Foe slayer
Hunter’s mark	17.5	17.5	35	35	55
Divine smite	9	18	18	18	18
Divine smite using all spell slots	18	36	45	45	45

In terms of the economics of preserving spell slots, hunter’s mark is far more effective than divine smite. Over the course of a roughly average combat encounter, it’s far superior in damage output over time. Even if it is weaker over a single turn.

However, when spell slot preservation isn’t needed (say when adventurers have a single combat encounter per day), divine smite used each round will usually outperform hunter’s mark.

With shorter encounters, the numbers would benefit divine smite more while longer encounters would benefit hunter’s mark more.

However, one other factor to consider is the burden on concentration. Divine smite doesn’t require concentration while hunter’s mark does. This means, no ensnaring strike, entangle or summon fey while concentrating on hunter’s mark which can be quite limiting.

Comparing hunter’s mark in D&D 2014 Vs D&D 2024

The spell itself has changed very little between the 2 revisions. However, there is one functional change to the spell. In 2014, the damage type was the same as the weapon used. Now the damage type is force, a rarely resisted type of damage compared to the usual bludgeoning, piercing or slashing this would have caused.

On top of this, the 2024 ranger has certain features that enhance their hunter’s mark attacks that the 2014 ranger doesn’t have. This includes; not losing concentration on the spell at level 13, having advantage on hunter’s mark attacks at level 17 and hunter’s mark damage becoming 1d10 at level 20.

In fact, the features affecting hunter’s mark for beast masters and hunters are new for D&D 2024 too. Now beast masters can share some of the hunter’s mark damage with their primal companion while hunters can know more about their target as well as being able to damage another enemy when dealing hunter’s mark damage.

What this means is that while other classes that take hunter’s mark may see little difference in it’s power levels, 2024 rangers will making it a more enticing option.

Is Hunter’s mark a good option?

Yes, it is. And while that answer may depend somewhat on the circumstances (how long the encounter is and whether there are tough opponents to target), those circumstances are common enough that this is going to be a highly used spell for most rangers (and potentially other classes too).

There are a handful of reasons why you might choose alternative spells and tactics though:

When fighting low hit points enemies.
During short encounters.
When playing a beast master (the spell diminishes in value but the numbers can stack up depending on the circumstances).
When crowd control is more important than damage (like choosing to use your concentration on entangle instead of hunter’s mark).
You intend to use your action for spells more than attacks like a fey wanderer might choose to do.

Hunter’s mark is even better than it used to be, and even in 2014, it was a strong option for rangers. In many instances, it is also more powerful and economical than the likes of divine smite, even if over single encounter days, multiple uses can outperform hunter’s mark.

What do you think of hunter’s mark? Let me know in the comments below.