Zaroua Agreed. When I read the ranger class introduction, I assumed that would be the class with traps. Thematically, having traps as an archer does not seem to fit, but the devs can give the class rainbow attacks and rename the class to Unicorn Blaster if they wanted to. Obviously, classes do not have to be thematic.
In modern fiction and gaming, the "archer" or "ranger" is often portrayed as a stealthy trap-making specialist. Historically, this was not the case for military archers. While ancient hunters (rangers) absolutely built snares, funnel-enclosures, and pitfall traps to herd and capture game like reindeer or pronghorn before shooting them, a battlefield archer was a dedicated ranged combatant, not a guerrilla trapper. Military archers did, however, rely on stationary defensive obstacles. Because archers were highly vulnerable to heavy infantry and cavalry charges in melee combat, they used basic terrain engineering to protect their formations. For example, English longbowmen famously hammered sharpened wooden stakes into the ground at an angle to impale charging horses, a tactic used to devastating effect at the Battle of Agincourt. While effective for area-denial, these were crude static barriers rather than the complex, hidden mechanical traps of fiction.
I agree with you though. A specialized arrow class is a great idea, and interests me more than traps. It would also give the devs the ability to further expand on traps with rangers.
