Ranger

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Rangers are usually nature-loving fellas, wielding either a bow or two swords. They are patterned after a certain copyrighted hero from a certain copyrighted fantasy book. They are warriors that are generally useful for tracking down enemies. They also are shitty divine magic users.

It is worth noting that one of the defining features of rangers is that they specialize in hunting down and killing members of specific races. From a pragmatic standpoint, this means they boil down to little more than racist serial killers who target by species (unless one of those species is their own, in which case they're probably some sort of bounty hunter). Being that race wars are one of the cornerstones of D&D, this is unsurprising. They are rendered irrelevant by druidzillas, because rangers just can't compete with a guy who can turn into a giant bear that shoots giant bears out of his eyes while farting lightning and mauling things with its own overpowered pet grizzly bear. Rangers can get a half-assed pet grizzly bear, but because their animal companions are only as good as a druid that has half as many levels as he does, it's half-assed. Pathfinder gave them more fighting style options, made archery actually worth a damn, an animal companion that is only 3 levels behind the druids (which can be fixed with a feat), gave them better survivability and a couple of nifty spells, but the concept remained the same.

In the 1st and 2nd editions of Dungeons and Dragons, rangers were not able to sneak or fight properly in chainmail or better, or shields either. Armor was so key in melee under these versions that this led to the popular mocking party cry of "Ranger down!", heard during just about every battle. Rangers were thought to be the inspiration for the "At Death's Door" survival rule, since they would never survive a single session otherwise. They had some unique tricks, but they suffered from being essentially half-assed fighter-theives without really outshining either all that well unless you were out in the wilderness.

Third edition made them a bit less useless, but it also ensured that their previously-somewhat-unique tricks, like dual-wielding weapons, tracking down enemies, or having cool animal companions, became things other classes could do too, and often, humiliatingly, do much better than the ranger. Druids in particular got a better bear than the ranger, and they could turn it into an unstoppable killing machine with buff magic. Even Pathfinder barely helped the sad-sacks out, with a few buffs that other fighting classes generally got too anyway.

In 4e they get to mark their enemies, making them useful when you're fighting one tough thing and a bit crap against swarms. They can either slaughter one enemy, or irritate several, depending on what the situation calls for. Or they can completely miss with their most powerful once-per-milestone attack, and that's some fun. This edition removed the spellcasting abilities of earlier editions, since they had always been pretty shitty casters anyway and it was mostly a poor attempt to justify some of the more esoteric abilities of the class. The "spellcasting archer" archetype was eventually spun off into its own class, the Seeker.

5e made the "favored enemy" bit less serial-killer-ish, simply because they now gain more roleplaying and social benefits, like speaking their language to better understand them. Otherwise, though, they remain a powerful-if-not-optimal class, and get some combat styles like the fighter. They regained their spellcasting knack in this edition, although an Unearthed Arcana on the WoTC includes a non-caster Ranger variant/Ranger class option as part of its example on custom-brewing new class stuff for 5e. This version of the Ranger instead gets the ability to cook up herbal healing poultices, resistance to poison (and ability to use a poultice to cure poisoning in a friend), a non-magical ability to persuade local critters to fight for them temporarily, and automatically getting a superiority dice under the right circumstances. Non-spellcasting rangers with animal companions get the ability to halve damage enemies deal to their pets instead of the ability to share spells.

A recent Unearthed Arcana based around the ranger addressed player feedback that the ranger felt a bit weak, with many unsatisfying elements. In particular, it mentions that companions in general are a bitch and a half to manage: too strong, and the player effectively gets two characters at worst and an unmanagable long-term advantage at worst, but too weak and who gives a shit about that critter you have to burn actions to get moving and attacking? (Potential parallels to long-term summoning abuse were, naturally ignored with an almost religious fervor.)

But then, after all this griping, it remade the first five levels of the class from the ground up, with the potential for more to follow. Rangers using these rules trade in medium armor for the best hit dice in the game (2d6, holy shit), an automatic first-strike before initiative is rolled to open fire or hide for an ambush, the ability to pick a target to hit-and-run the shit out of all fight long, with free automatic hide actions after attacking it (which is a good way of building a skirmisher without stepping too hard on the rogue's toes), and a spirit animal that has special powers and gets combat boosts from their wisdom and can be summoned as a bonus action once per day for one minute (using what's effectively a unique spell) replacing their old archetype. They can either get a spirit bear and the ability to give themselves and allies temporary hit points, an eagle with a markerlight (and they actually just called it the seeker too!), or a dire wolf that buffs damage on the next weapon attack that connects.

Cool, and much more thematic than before, it must be said... but it also loses out on spellcasting, which sucks, so watch yourself.

The Classes of Pathfinder 1st Edition
Core Classes:	Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Druid - Fighter - Monk Paladin - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard
Advanced Player's Guide:	Alchemist - Antipaladin - Cavalier Inquisitor - Oracle - Summoner - Witch
Advanced Class Guide:	Arcanist - Bloodrager - Brawler - Hunter - Investigator Shaman - Skald - Slayer - Swashbuckler - Warpriest
Occult Adventures:	Kineticist - Medium - Mesmerist Occultist - Psychic - Spiritualist
Ultimate X:	Gunslinger - Magus - Ninja - Samurai - Shifter - Vigilante