Early dissatisfaction with the ranger led to many attempts at revision. A widespread belief that the class was underpowered often met with the counterclaim that of the original two subclasses, one (Hunter) was viable or even quite good, while the other (Beast Master) was awful. My question is how well some kind of "base" build competes with other martial classes.
In order to keep the comparison manageable, we'll stick with Player's Handbook subclasses. For the ranger, use the Hunter subclass with your choice of best option for each Ranger Archetype feature. For other martial classes, use your choice of best subclass. Assume everyone is a non-variant human. Characters should be assumed to have maxed out their attack stat at the earliest opportunity: 16 at 1st level, 18 at first ASI, 20 at second ASI.
Crucially, do not use feats. I realize that this probably hurts the fighter (?) more than other martials, but I'm trying to avoid things that have been covered elsewhere like how Great Weapon Fighting + Great Weapon Master + Polearm Master is better than every other build. If you wish, you can comment on differential benefits of access to feats.
I realize this is complicated by limited resources (e.g. fighters get one Action Surge per short rest, barbarians get 2 rages per long rest at start, more as they level up). Answers could address pedal-to-the-metal fully resourced boss fights, or average over the standard adventuring day of 6-8 encounters broken up by two short rests, or both. The ranger should be assumed to use Hunter's Mark whenever they can, whether that means having retained one 1st level slot for the boss fight, or doling it out throughout the adventuring day.
I also realize this is complicated by conditional effects, such as Colossus Slayer or Horde Breaker. Make your assumptions clear regarding how often this is used.
Best Answer
Hunter Ranger DPR is pretty good, though it plateaus in Tiers 3 and 4 where other classes grow. Multiattack at 11th level is good though situational, and it has synergy issues with other features.
I took a look at 12 different builds: a Berserker Barbarian, 4 variations of Fighter, a Monk, 2 variations of a Vengeance Paladin, a Rogue, and 3 variations of the Hunter. (Not all will be in the final answer unless requested to try and keep things manageable)
I worked with the following assumptions:
A Note On the Math:
I am not a stats person, so the math here is layman’s math and is therefore rough. Luckily, with the restrictions given around levelling, everyone’s chance to hit the same target will be equal at the levels we're looking at, with those able to take the Archery fighting style having a minor edge over others: assuming simultaneous ASIs, everyone (else)'s attack bonus is +7 / +9 / +11 at 5th, 11th, and 20th levels.
Against a rough mode AC found in single creatures of equivalent CR to the level (15 for level 5, 17 for level 11), everyone's chance to hit is about 65% (75% for Archers), and generally speaking better for lower-CR creatures. At level 20, that gets very swingy due to the varied nature of high-CR monsters. Encounters will vary, so your experience will as well.
Because I am not a stats person, I calculated minimum, average, and maximum damage for each build’s turn, rounding down for odd numbers of dice, BUT in doing so also assumed each hit lands for the example round to make things easier on me.
Build Notes
Everyone has +4 from their main combat stat by level 5, and +5 by level 11.
Berserker Barbarian:
Battlemaster Fighter:
Monk:
Oath of Vengeance Paladin:
Rogue:
Hunter Ranger:
OK, but can there be actual numbers please?
I highlighted Hunter Ranger and also the highest average damage each time.
If you really need non-bursty, non-magic DPR, Berserker is your best bet until level 20, and Paladin will never not be a precision nuke with the Smites. But Hunter Ranger manages to keep up pretty darn well. One weakness of my layman's math: 2WF and Hunter's Mark have awkward synergy and can clash. If you're fighting something big and you can use your bonus action to offhand attack frequently, you get more milage out of the 2WF fighting style; if your combat needs you to move the spell around a lot, you're missing out on between 7-17 damage per turn.
Poor Archery here has the lowest damage ratings by the end, but is also showing another weakness in my layman's math, as their increased accuracy means that, in actual play, more hits will actually land. Ranger Capstone also lets you increase accuracy so long as it's a Favored Enemy, so you can sacrifice your last possible damage boost in return for an increased chance to hit that Ancient Red Dragon--maximum +18(!) if you optimized an archer.
Multiattack
Multiattack can be extremely useful: using a single action with no limit-per-day, and rolling each hit separately, you can make a [ranged/melee] attack against any number of creatures...
That's more attacks than anyone else can get off, ever 1. Tactically speaking, the melee version is great for running in to get yourself mobbed, and the ranged version is great for when a friend gets mobbed. It loses tactical efficacy against small numbers of tough creatures, or enemies that keep themselves spread out; it's unlikely to kill enemies that aren't already quite weakened. This is because any individual hit is a plain weapon hit, d8+5 or d6+5 in this example, and does not benefit from any further increase in damage aside from one or possibly two individual creatures in the mob.
(Compare against Steel Wind Strike or Hail of Thorns for some interesting pros and cons about using the spell vs. the feature.)
Notably, Multiattack lacks good synergy with Hunter's Mark, the capstone Favored Enemy WIS bonus, and Colossus Slayer: the latter two are explicitly once-per-turn, and Hunter's Mark is applied to the target, not the attacker--and Multiattack is one attack per creature. It does have better synergy with Horde Breaker, which you can use once during a turn when you make a weapon attack; a 2WF Ranger with Horde Breaker and Whirlwind can try to hit everyone around her, and has 2 extra general attacks for that one guy she really wants dead. So like most things Ranger, it depends on what you're fighting.
Ultimately, it looks like a Hunter Ranger has reasonably good DPR, though not record-setting, and Multiattack is situationally useful where there are a lot of enemies on the field, especially if they're hordes of lower-threat creatures. You want to be careful about how you build it though, since there's a greater chance to build a style geared toward specific types of combat encounters through the various feature choices.
[1]: A hasted max-level Fighter using Action Surge and 2WF can make 10 attacks, and also gets to double up on targets. Before level 20, his limit is also 8 attacks.