User:High King Ithilion/ Of the Rangers of Arnor

Rangers of the North are quite weak. Sure, if you keep them hidden they can do really well. Sure, they have massacred Deadly Forest's many armies. But in melee, they are trash. The Rangers of the North are, in Tolkien lore, the most OP, deadly, and dour warriors availible to Men. They were so uncommon, but they were also supremely powerful. I think we need real Rangers, by which I mean all Northedain should be armored and weaponed like the Grey Company were supposed to be.

Why: This is in the lore. Lore beats balance. Lore beats all.

How to Balance: Directly contradicting the above thought, some tweaking is necesary to make this fair. The Rangers should

A) Be really rare.

B) Their invasions are very rare.

C) They are incredibly alignment-costly.

But on to the suggestion.

1. All rangers would now wear Ranger of the North armor. This would be crafted with grey wool and iron in the old Rohirric style. It would look like dull chainmail and helm beneath a grey cloak, with a silver star on the breast. It would do Rohirric defense.

2. All rangers would now use Arnorian weaponry. The swords look like Gondor swords with a grey hilt. The bows look like dark Gondor bows. The pikes look like black-hilted, leaf-shaped iron spears. All of these weapons were used by the Grey Company in the book.

3. Some Rangers should ride horses. Again, this is lore-friendly.

Just for asthetics, can the Ranger of the North banner be changed to something more awesome and canon, instead of a combo between Mirkwood and Gondor? I think a white tree, 7 four-pointed silver stars, and the Star of the Dunedain above, on a black field, would look good. The Sceptre of Annuminas and the Ring of Barahir could also feature.