The druid class first appeared in Supplement III to OD&D, Eldritch Wizardry (1976). Though the supplement gives Gary Gygax and Brian Blume the byline, the class was actually the creation of Dennis Sustare, who's credited with a special thanks (and dubbed "The Great Druid"). Here's the original list of druid level titles:

The ranger class originates in volume 1, number 2 of The Strategic Review (Spring 1975) in an article written by Joe Fischer. Presented as a sub-class of fighting men akin to the paladin (which appeared in the Greyhawk supplement earlier the same year), this OD&D version of the ranger has the following level titles:

The ranger reappears in the AD&D Players Handbook. Its level titles are almost identical to those from The Strategic Review. However, a few of the titles have been transferred to different levels and the original 9th-level title (ranger-knight) has been pushed back to level 10, in order to make room for the title of "ranger." 

The level titles of the AD&D version of the bard differ from the OD&D version in only one small way. The OD&D title of "lore master" is changed – bizarrely, in my opinion – to "lorist," a coinage for which I can find very little evidence in any of the dictionaries to which I have access. Regardless, I find it notable that Gary Gygax, in translating Schwegman's bard to AD&D, retained nearly all the level titles while changing the overall nature of it. 

The "Sage Advice" column in issue #33 of Dragon (January 1980) contains the following question and answer:

Here's my first stab at a ranger class for use in my Dwimmermount campaign. It's based both on the original class by Joe Fischer from The Strategic Review, as well as the ideas I outlined in my recent post about the ranger. As you will notice, I eliminated the ranger's spellcasting ability, which I felt was both out of place and too paltry to contribute much flavor to the class anyway. The result is something that's a bit more like a "wilderness paladin" and whose abilities are very solidly grounded in the outdoors. I don't think the class would hold much appeal in a dungeon-centric campaign, but I do think it'd be very useful in one with lots of wilderness adventuring.

The material in the quote box below is hereby designated Open Game Content via the Open Game License.

The Ranger

The ranger is a uniquely human vocation, one that attracts hardy individuals who venture into the wilderness in order to learn its ways so as to better defend civilization against its depredations. Rangers are thus paragons of Law who exist outside the human society they have sworn themselves to guard. Rangers belong to a loose fellowship of like-minded individuals, although they generally operate alone or in the company of woodland beings who share their desire to rid the wild places of the earth of evil. Although puissant fighters in their own right, rangers are most effective outdoors and many of their abilities do not function within urban or dungeon environments.

Prime Attribute: Strength 13+ (5% experience)

Hit Dice: 1d6+2/level (Gains 3 hp/level after 9th).

Armor/Shield Permitted: Any

Weapons Permitted: Any

Ranger Advancement

Level	XP	HD	BHB	ST
1	0	2	+0	16
2	2,500	3	+1	15
3	5,000	4	+2	14
4	10,000	5	+2	13
5	20,000	6	+3	12
6	35,000	7	+4	11
7	70,000	8	+4	10
8	140,000	9	+5	9
9	275,000	10	+6	8
10	500,000	10+3	+6	7

Ranger Class Abilities

Associates: No more than two rangers may ever operate together at any given time.

Code of Conduct: A ranger must be of Lawful (Good) alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits a Chaotic (Evil) act, becoming an ordinary fighter forever after.

Favored Enemies: When fighting evil humanoids, rangers gain a damage bonus equal to their level. What creatures qualify as “evil humanoids” is up to each referee to determine in his campaign.

Natural Remedies: Each day a ranger with access to beneficial plants can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to his ranger level x2.

Special Followers: Rangers may not hire henchmen nor do they establish strongholds as do other fighting men. Instead, at 9th level, a ranger gains 2D6 special followers who loyally serve him until either they or the ranger dies. These followers are typically individuals of any intelligent race that shares the ranger's vocation to protect civilization, but may also include extraordinary woodland being of Lawful (Good) alignment. The nature of these special followers is left to the referee's discretion.

Toughness: Because of their experience in braving the hardships of the wilderness, rangers begin with two Hit Dice at 1st level. That is, they roll 2D6+4 to determine their starting hit points.

Tracking: Outdoors, a ranger can attempt to track the path of any creature on a roll of 1-18 on 1D20. This basic chance decreases by 2 for each day that passes after the tracks are made. Indoors, a ranger can attempt to track the path of any creature he has observed no more than 6 turns previously. The chance of successfully doing so varies with the actions of the creature being tracked, as follows:

• Creature went down normal passage: 1-13

• Creature went through a normal door: 1-11

• Creature went through a trap door: 1-10

• Creature went up/down a chimney: 1-6

• Creature went through a secret door: 1-6

Wary: A ranger can only be surprised on a roll of 1 on 1D6.

Wealth: Rangers may own no more than they can carry. Any additional goods or wealth they acquire must be given away to a worthy cause.

Wilderness Warrior: When operating in the wilderness, rangers surprise their opponents on a roll of 1-3 on 1D6.

I think it's fair to say that new character classes (or new takes on existing ones) are one of the oldest "traditions" of the hobby. The introduction of the Thief and the Paladin in Supplement I opened the door to this practice and I don't think D&D players have ever tired of it. If you read The Strategic Review or early issues of The Dragon, you'll soon see that new character classes were a regular and much-loved feature of those periodicals. By the time I started reading Dragon, though, new character classes were often presented as "NPC classes," often with dire warnings against allowing the use of these classes for player characters. The implication was clear: the AD&D Players Handbook was the final word on this subject and until TSR saw fit to add new classes through its official publications, there would be no more.

Gygax partisan though I am, on this particular subject I never accepted Gary as the last word. I gleefully allowed these supposed NPC classes to be used as player characters. We had our fair share of ninjas (years before Oriental Adventures), samurai (ditto), archers, berserkers, beastmasters, and countless others. Very few of them ever lasted for long (Jeff Goelz's variant bard being the main one I recall), but I rarely prevented a player from giving these new classes a whirl. That was part of the fun of old school D&D: the willingness to experiment with potentially dangerous "ingredients." Worries about "balance" were still far in the future. So long as a class was fun to play and added something unique to the campaign, it was usually good enough for me.

That's why, to this day, I take a lot of pleasure in seeing new character classes and new takes on old ones. One of the many pleasures of old school games is their simplicity. Creating new classes for these games isn't a complex math problem; it's more about finding an archetype unserved by the other classes and creating game mechanics that allow that archetype to be used meaningfully in a campaign, with "meaningfully" being a very broad adverb indeed. So, it's with great happiness that I came across Brave Halfling Publishing's Delving Deeper series, which presents new character classes for use with Labyrinth Lord, although they could be used without much modification for other games, such as Swords & Wizardry.

I'd previously reviewed Brave Halfling's version of the monk. This time I'm going to talk about three others: the bard, the paladin, and the ranger.

Delving Deeper - Bard is, for me, the weakest of the three products. That's mostly because the whole concept behind the class has been muddled since Doug Schwegman's article in The Strategic Review in 1976. That article described the bard as a "jack of all trades," a description echoed in this 4-page PDF, which sells for 75 cents. Part fighter, magic-user, and sage, the bard is roughly comparable to the cleric in terms of combat effectiveness and toughness (though with weaker saving throws). In addition, the class possesses a legend lore ability, can charm persons and monsters (as per the appropriate spells), and can read languages (including the magical tongues used to inscribe arcane scrolls). The result is very well done, but it does little to bring much-needed coherence to the class. After reading this product, I am still unclear exactly what archetype the bard fills.

Delving Deeper - Paladin is, by contrast, a very coherent presentation of a much-loved -- and hated -- archetype: the fighter dedicated to upholding law and goodness. I'll admit to multiple levels of prejudice in liking this 6-page PDF a great deal. Firstly, I'm simply very fond of paladins and almost always play them on those rare occasions when I play rather than referee. Secondly, the class presented here is, by default, not a spellcasting one, just like its Supplement I inspiration. I very much approve of that, since spellcasting paladins further muddy the distinction between this class and clerics. The result is a class that's umabiguously a fighting man, albeit one imbued with divine power and grace. This 75-cent PDF also includes rules including holy swords in your Labyrinth Lord campaign.

Delving Deeper - Ranger is 5-page PDF retailing for 75 cents and, in my estimation, the best of the three reviewed here. That's because this product embraces the multiple ways that the ranger class has been interpreted over the years by offering two different versions of the class. The first is what might be called the "traditional" ranger, in that it includes a damage bonus when fighting evil humanoids and giants, in addition to such abilities as tracking, moving silently, direction sense, and wilderness survival. The second version could be called a "scout," since it swaps the damage bonus for the ability to hide and listen in a natural environment. I really appreciate the inclusion of two versions of the class, since it highlights what new character classes are really all about in the first place: options.

And options are what these inexpensive PDFs provide. At 75 cents apiece, each one is well worth picking up, if only to mine them for ideas when creating one's own character classes. I've been lately pondering ways to make a more coherent bard class and Delving Deeper - Bard gave me some food for thought, even though my own interpretation of the class will likely be quite different. All of these products include art by Andy "Atom" Taylor, whose exuberant style is a perfect esthetic representation of Brave Halfling's approach to publishing. They're definitely worth a look by anyone who hasn't forgotten the joyful enthusiasm this hobby engendered in all of us at the beginning.

Final Scores:
Delving Deeper - Bard: 3½ out of 5 polearms
Delving Deeper - Paladin: 4 out of 5 polearms
Delving Deeper - Ranger: 4½ out of 5 polearms