Are rangers ever good in melee? Try monks or Valkyries. I've gotten farthest with those.
As a starting non-combat-wombat character you are fragile... rangers are not supposed to go toe-to-toe with things. Use your speed and bow. Grab some daggers for throwing.
You're both talking like I care a lot.
I don't like D&D and Nethack and all of it's clones, because of it's constant repetitive hackyness, and your obsession with D&D worries me that DF will eventually be engulfed in your silly suggestions and become another fairly useless corner of the internet.
You care enough to reply that your ranger died, and then this illogical, hateful reply.
And I don't see this thread has anything to do with suggesting new features for DF, or anything to do with DF other than being in the Other Games subforum in Bay12Games.
Don't you know the motto of DF? "Losing is Fun". There is no point to winning or losing in DF. You can make the most successful, biggest and productive fortress ever. Or make the most horrible failure even worse than Boatmurdered. As long as it's fun.
Nethack shares that spirit.
Many people never managed to ascend, but are still playing it. It's not all about winning or losing. It's the experience of the struggle in the Dungeons of Doom. It's the funny or silly situations, how you survive them or how to die.
For me, I killed 100 characters on the first day I started playing Nethack. I almost gave up on this "stupid" game, but I talked to another Nethack player. He gave me a few tips, and told me how careless and blind I was when playing the game. Nethack actually provide a lot of information to the player, but you have to be attentive and smart to get them.
I derive the most fun from Nethack currently by learning to deal with all kinds of situations, how to handle my mistakes and seeing my characters able to go deeper and deeper.
You could gave up and blame your failures on the game, sure. Or you could open your mind and start learning. It's your choice.