I hope rangers have the option of learning druidic if they are members of the correct faith.
Rangers have to have a deity now?
Druidic is a language of the, well, druids - it seems unlikely that that will be canon
Of course if your character is from his background (I don't mean the rule specific background) is part of a druidic circle I would as dm allow it
This is a fairly small thing for home games. If your ranger is part of a druid's circle, it would be trivial to say they can learn druidic.
I would be nice for the ranger to be more imagined as a more martial version of a druid, but honestly I think the inspiration for rangers is more Aragorn than more martial druid counterpart.
With Ultimate Wilderness, the Shifter gets druidic as a language. Since I only play PFS, it has to be an officially stated in the rules.
I'm hoping with the game being more modular over all that it will really help the druid and the ranger and tangentially the shifter.
So druids main abilities are:
Spellcasting
and
Wildshape
Animal companion
Domain of sorts
They should be able to really focus down on any one of those three.
Rangers I think should have:
Fighting style+something like the slayer's studied combat, instead of favored enemy.
Easily removable casting
A choice of the non spellcasting druid options.
This would let you make a martial shifter class on a ranger chassis as well as a more traditional ranger. Spellcasting should definitely be optional as that's one of the first things people ask for in a ranger and studied combat works is a better mechanic than favored enemy and really fits the ranger as well. This could let you possibly trade out naturey things for rogue things with multicasting and make a slayer in core as well.
With PF2, we might not get the shifter at all since all classes will be have "full BAB". It is more likely you'll just have some dedicated options to support a druid who focuses on wildshaping combat.
Classes are going to be very different since the "new math" will mean that a lot of the bonuses that we're used to getting wont be available.
My take was indeed that Ranger Spellcasting would come along with Druidic language and Neutral Alignment requirement (and Armor restriction?).
Because it's kind of weird to say you're casting Divine spells like Druids do, but nothing to do with each other.
Other Druidic magic related abilities like Woodland Stride, Wild Shape, etc, could be further options on same "Path".
But if you don't like the Druidic flavor, you don't need to take that Path or suffer it's restrictions.
I like Druidic being a druid only thing, but I understand class systems are rapidly going out of style.
Darn right my Ranger knows Druidic. Sylvan and Aklo too. Main problem is there's so many types of Humanoids that become druids, and only a few favoured enemy slots after Animal, Plant, and Fey.
I really hope that they either make favored enemy more attractive or ditch it completely for something better
wasn't there a ranger archetype that instead used the slayers studied enemy? Waaaaay better
There was an archetype that did that, but we're unlikely to see the sort of bonuses to attack and damage as class features that we got used to in PF1. Or rather, I should say that we should expect much smaller bonuses, probably capping out at 3, much like the "weapon quality" system.
For what it's worth, in my one campaign setting there is an organization known as the Druid Council. They are the rulers of large tracts of lands and in those areas as well as the organization itself is organized into three main tiers. At the very top are the druids themselves who watch over the realms and act to preserve and cultivate the various environments, no matter what your specialty. Just below them are certain arcane spellcasters most notably witches and sorcerers of various nature oriented patrons and/or bloodlines. Below them are the more martial classes with rangers at the top of this pecking order followed closely by hunters, barbarians and other nature oriented specialty warriors as well as bards who act as lawyers in all legal matters where the Druid Council holds sway. Below them is everybody else. For anyone in the top three tiers Druidic is a bonus language, a kind of secret code based on Ogham which was a real world language that was a purely written code. The idea here is that between the different tiers, writing in druidic allows for the passage of secret messages back and forth.
Where would a shaman land in that organization? I've always been a little confused by their separation from druids.