Editing Ranger (section)

===Basic Dungeons & Dragons===
Rangers did not exist until [[Gygax]] invented [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]. The closest thing to them in [[Basic Dungeons & Dragons|the mainline]] was the ''[[Halfling]]'', a stealthier [[Fighter]] (in contrast to the [[Dwarf]] being a tankier [[Fighter]]). Christopher Tolkien hadn't told anybody about "Trotter" the woodsy [[Hobbits|hobbit]] yet, which his father morphed into Strider in time for Those Books - so the coincidence was accidental. If you wanted to get your Robin Hood on, you pretty much had to do it as a "[[Rogue|Thief]]" and beg your DM to house-rule the shit out of it (d6 hitpoints, maybe in return for losing pickpocketing).

There were plenty of "bandit" and "brigand" humans in the manuals, but these were all NPCs - just more [[humanoid|human''oid'']]s but without the "-oid", so slightly weaker than a [[hobgoblin]] or [[orc]].

For (post-)[[BECMI]], the [[Known World Gazetteers|Dawn of the Emperors box]] introduced the Forester class. Despite its name this was the [[human]] way to play [[gish]] rather than having to do so as an [[elf]].