Rangers in Dungeons and Dragons 5e are a semi-caster class, limited to spell slots up to 5th level and no Cantrips. Their spell list primarily focuses on passive, utility/survival abilities, except for hunter’s. Rangers have a smorgasbord of talents, skills, and spells, which can be learned through a guide to the basics of Dungeons and Dragons.
Rangers are stuck with the spells they choose and can only add another spell at certain levels and replace spells every level up if they wish. This is similar to Wizards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Arcane Tricksters, and Eldritch Knights. Paladins, on the other hand, are holy knights crusading in the name of good and order and divine spellcasters. They can only change their spells until they gain 3rd level, at which time one of the two spells can be replaced.
Rangers are limited in 5e by having to select specific spells, unlike Paladins who get to swap spells after every long rest. Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers all use Divine magic. As the Fifth Edition ranger is often seen as the weakest class, allowing them a greater spell list might help them catch up.
You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. For example, if you know the 1st-level spell animal friendship and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot, your ranger can change up their entire spell loadout every time they take a long rest. This allows them to prepare suitable spells for their opponents and potentially improve their chances of success in the game.
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BEST Fix for the D&D 5e Ranger! The Ranger has always been one of my Favorite Classes in Dungeons and Dragons! But the …
Do Rangers have a spell focus?
It is not necessary for Rangers to possess a focus or component pouch in order to cast spells. In lieu of this, a component pouch is a requisite item. It should be noted that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by an extension, and that not all browsers support cookies.
Do Rangers get healing spells?
Rangers can use healing spells, such as Cure Wounds, which can heal a small amount of damage and bring unconscious characters back to consciousness. Rangers also excel in stealth, with Expertise and high Dexterity, which can be incorporated into their stealth abilities. Pass Without Trace, a useful spell, allows rangers to give a +10 bonus to Stealth checks made by any creature within 30 feet, making it difficult for even the least subtle party member to fail.
This makes it difficult for even the least subtle party member to fail in the game. Rangers can also excel in stealth, with optional rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything granting them Expertise and high Dexterity.
Do Rangers need to learn spells?
Rangers are not fully prepared casters, yet they do occasionally learn new spells as they level, as detailed in their Spellcasting feature and class table.
Do Rangers start with spells?
Second-level rangers begin with two first-level spells, and as they progress in level, their total number of spells increases. The Extra Attack feature, acquired at the fifth level, enables rangers to launch two attacks within a single round, thus allowing them to attack more than once. This talent may be utilized on a single occasion during the course of a combat round and may be combined with other spells or abilities that permit rangers to attack on more than one occasion.
Can Rangers change spells in BG3?
Classes and subclasses that can learn spells can only replace a spell during leveling up, such as Bards, Eldritch Knight Fighters, Rangers, Arcane Trickster Rogues, Sorcerers, and Warlocks. However, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, or Wizards can prepare and change spells at each level up or when not in combat. To prepare spells, select ‘Prepare Spells’ on the left sidebar of the level-up screen. To remove a prepared spell, hover over it and click on the red ‘x’, or highlight it and select ‘A’ or the corresponding button.
How many spells can a ranger have?
The spell has four first-level slots and two second-level slots, allowing for multiclassing into a first-level bard with two second-level slots. The JavaScript is either disabled or blocked by an extension, and your browser does not support cookies.
Do Rangers know all their spells?
In Dungeons and Dragons 5E, rangers use magic by accessing a list of spells at second level, which are derived from their wisdom ability score, rather than a spellcasting ability score like wizards and sorcerers. Their spellcasting ability is based on their wisdom score, which is hashed out in the character creation explained guide. Starting second level with two first-level ranger spells, the total increases as you level up. This allows rangers to cast spells from this list, limiting their spellcasting abilities.
Do rangers know cantrips?
The Druidic Warrior class enables players to master two cantrips from the Druid spell list, which are considered to be ranger spells. Wisdom represents their capacity for spellcasting. As the character’s level increases, they may replace one of their cantrips with another spell from the Druid spell list. Dueling bestows a bonus of +2 to damage rolls with melee weapons and ranged attacks utilizing thrown weapons.
Do Rangers have healing words?
The list of classes with easy access to healing spells includes Clerics, Paladins, Druids, Bards, Rangers, and Artificers. These classes offer a range of healing abilities, from Healing Word to Mass Cure Wounds. Some subclasses may have better or varied healers, but the base of these classes are all capable healers. Barbarians, known for their “kill first, ask questions later” approach, may not have much healing touch.
By choosing Storm Herald as your Primal Path, you gain an ability called Storm Aura, which includes the Tundra effect, which allows each creature within the 10-foot aura to gain two temporary hit points.
Do Rangers get to change spells?
Gaining a level in this class allows you to choose and replace a ranger spell with another spell from the list, provided it has spell slots. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability, based on your attunement to nature. It is used when a spell refers to your spellcasting ability and when setting the saving throw DC for a ranger spell. The spell save DC and attack roll are calculated using your proficiency bonus, Wisdom modifier, and spell attack modifier.
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One thing I did was give Ranger’s the ability to change their Favored Terrain or Favored Enemy through studying the area. I based some of the mechanics on the Cleric’s Divine Intervention actually: “Student of the Wild: A Ranger may study their surroundings to adapt and survive. Roll a d%, if the result is equal or less than your Wisdom Score plus your Ranger Level, you may change you Favored Terrain to the terrain you are currently in, or your Favorite Enemy to any type you’ve seen since your last Long Rest. If this roll fails, you may not use this feature until you take a Long Rest. If this roll succeeds, you may not use this feature for 7 days.” This really works for the FLAVOR of the Ranger as someone who observes their surroundings, but solves one of (though not the only) problems with the class, which is that if you pick a terrain and the campaign doesn’t spend time there, it’s useless.
I was wrong what I said before. The variant bit I like is that favoured enemy can be changed by observing a species or its tracks for 1 min. Keeps them relevant in any campaign. I think he also had one for a favoured terrain with a 1 day or something learning period. Theres nothing worse than making a desert ranger to have your entire campaign in woods. I do like your extra perks though, they solve a similar problem and have more of a fish out of water feel.
This is a fantastic homebrew. I see it has either taken some inspiration from the Unearthed Arcana: Class Variant abilities, or they both came to the same conclusions, but either way, these fixes totally work. I just started a new campaign, and have a player playing a level 1 ranger, so we’re going to playtest this and let you know how it goes!
Okay, so wow. Great fixes!! What I really appreciate with a lot of your homebrew articles/ideas is that you are not just “fixing for fixing sake” because you don’t like a certain thing/rule. You look at the overall picture and try to fit in your homebrew rules into that overall picture. Take this updated ranger class: I think the best part of this article is how you break down the other classes with their core and flavour features. That is awesome, and really sets the groundwork for why and how you upgraded the ranger. Absolutely loved it, and it really strengthens the arguments for the new updated ranger abilities! I have a player in my Tomb of Annihilation campaign who is playing the updated ranger from the 5e online Unearthed Arcana, with the Horizon Walker option from Xanathar’s Guide and it is pretty good. But yeah, those situational flavour abilities do kinda suck still. Thanks for another great article! (even though I’m late to the viewing party, lol)
I think the bonus language for an urban terrain focused ranger (which is a detective, right?) should be thieves’ cant. Also, for flavor features for the other classes, how about setting up a rock-paper-scissors chart for all the monk martial arts styles, so that each school gets a bonus against one school, but a weakness against another – and at higher levels you overcome your martial arts style weakness. I think that would be fun.
Found a typo in the homebrew’s text: At 15th level, you and creatures always gain the benefits of half cover whenever one or more creatures are within 5 feet of you. As a bonus action, you can grant half cover to adjacent creatures of you of your choice until the start of your next turn. I think it should read: At 15th level, you gain the benefits of half cover whenever one or more creatures are within 5 feet of you. As a bonus action, you can grant half cover to adjacent creatures of your choice within 5 feet of you until the start of your next turn.
Great analysis with Ranger’s weaknesses, but I still have some remarks about the fix: – Hunter’s mark feature means removing the spell itself, this can cause problems with other classes, like Oath of vengeance Paladin. I would rename the feature and instead of damage bonus maybe ability to grant you advantage for that attack. Not really sold about Natural explorer, some features quickly overlap with archetypes and races. Some are better because are cumulative (like speed), some worse because either you have it or not (like resistance). But in the end, I think it should be allowed to change the favored enemy or terrain, after you spend like day (could go with week too) or fighting that category of the monster at least once. And yes, casting Invisibility spell on yourself makes sense for what the level 10 feature is titled.
I, for fun, made a new Ranger Class. Taking things back to the fantasy the class promises. What IS a ranger and why is it different than a fighter or rogue with Survival? etc. that kind of stuff. I came to the root of the concept being rangers are experts at and develope their skills while covering a range with a narrow set of dedicated weapons. but also came to the same conclusions that FE and FT were too situational, and wound up in the same place that, what you hunted and where reflect how you approach the world and should convey a bonus outside of their specific contexts. but i elaborated more on Training Grounds, as i called them, so that they got improvements as they leveled, starting with movement speed, gaining resistances, and further exploration/mobility options, but capstoned with a Oneness with their terrain that allows some druidic shenanigans, because at level 20, who doesn’t have magic. I also too away spell casting and made it a few subclasses, because most examples people referenced of who they thought would be a ranger didn’t have magic, (aragorn, Legolas, Batman, Indiana Jones, to name a few). but i gave them movement speed boost, that aren’t as good as monk because training ground gives them wider application (swim, climb, etc.) and a Weapon Specialization, that also scales with level adding new ways to use the weapon in combat rather than raw number boosts (some are silly like lumberjack). Where fighters are generalists, Rangers are specialists. This allows a wider flexibilty in general, but including terrain like Urban/city + thrown weapon specialist + Caster subclass(gadgets) can get you Batman, while Forest + 2 handed swords + Hunter subclass can get you Aragorn (who doesn’t cast spells).
Really cool tweaks! The Hunter’s Mark change is really great. Also decoupling Foe Slayer from Favored Enemy makes it a significantly better capstone. Honestly without these adjustments I would never play a Ranger without Multiclassing 2 or 3 levels of Rogue for some better mobility and hiding. I also checked out the PDF for the suggested changes to the Beast Master subclass. Adding subclass spells, especially Warding Bond, is exactly what I was hoping for. Just discovered your website! Can’t wait to catch up on what I’ve missed. 😁
Definitely some decent and interesting tweaks to the abilities in there; I will say, the Class Feature Variants UA basically handles all of this. Making Hunters Mark not concentration AND not limited by any resource cost AND a scaling die is a little much though. Even just the not–concentration part is a lot. Rangers have tons of good spells that can enhance their fighting, and damage output isn’t really the problem, as you hinted at in the beginning of the article.
I really love this look at the Ranger! Especially the adjustment to Natural Explorer and the extra Fighting Style, those gave me real Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger vibes, and I like it a lot. I will admit changing Hunter’s Mark from a spell to a feature is nice, though I would question how that impacts subclasses like the one for Paladin that get Hunter’s Mark added to their Spells Known. Other than that, this seems like a really cool way to fix Rangers in 5e! Excellent work as always Coach!
I agree with making hunter’s mark a core class feature, but my idea was that rangers could cast it at will at level 1. Eventually paladins’ improved divine smite will do about the same without concentration, but by that point rangers will have gotten their aoe abilites and spells. It always seemed to me that while paladins are focused on melee and single targets, rangers are meant to focus on ranged attacks and aoe damage.
Barbarian flavour feature: Primal Sense – you can use this feature a number of times equal to your constitution modifier before a long rest. Within 1000 feet of terrain you have walked before, you know of any dangerous plants or wildlife you may encounter and how many of each is likely to come across your path. A survival check with a dc of 5 + the creature’s challenge rating (minimum 10) can tell you where one of these creatures are by tracking the creature by imitating its behaviours and interactions. Monk flavour: Secluded Haven (one per long rest): As a monk you know that there are many places throughout the lands that can provide haven where there might not be so. You can instantly follow the trail to any safe haven within 1000 feet. A safe haven is a place where the party can take a short rest, has enough food for 10 people for at least 1 day and has no immediate dangers. This might be a clearing in a forest, a mountain cave etc. Fighter feature: The sense of battle – Knowing the battlefield is half the war. You have advantage on any skill checks when locating and investigating battle sites to gain knowledge on the following: number of participants size of the participants (medium, huge, giant, tiny) weapons of the participants additionally you can spend 7 days to research a specific race or creature to gain the following: Damage Vulnerabilities, Damage Resistances, Damage Immunities, Condition Immunities and specific damaging traits. (DM note: fighter could do this for Dark Elves but not for drizzt for example or vampires but not specifically strahd von zarovich)
Heyy, hope you and your family are safe and sound! This article touches slightly on a question I’ve been pondering for a while: is combat a necessity for every D&D campaign? I’m a big fan of combats being rare and DANGEROUS – fights don’t happen a lot in real life, even for mercenaries, assassins, bounty hunters – it’s about gathering intelligence; clever planning; and practiced execution. In stories like that the PHB ranger will run away with it with advantage on pretty much everything, whereas some classes (Barbarian, Fighter, even Monk) fall behind. Just a thought… 💁♀️ 5e probably isn’t the right system for a low-combat/investigation style TTRPG game, but would be interested to hear The Dungeon Coach’s two cents on the matter? ALSO verrrrrry glad I stuck around until the end 😈
How I decided to fix ranger (I was inspired by baldurs gate 3): At first level you get to choose your hunter profile and your explorer profile. Hunter profile gives you proficiency on a skill and advantage on survival ane investigate checke to sesrch for an specific creature type. For example, a bounty hunter can get proficiency with either intimidation or persuasion a d advantage on tracking humanoids. Exploret profile gives you an ability that works everywhere, but it’s inspired by your terrain. I.E. a forest explorer is not affected by non-magical difficult terrain, while a swamp explorer has advantage on saving throws against poisons and diseases. At level 2 you get fighting style and spell casting, as usual, but you also get hunters mark. As a feature, not a spell. As a bonus action you mark an opponent you can see up to 90 ft of distance, and attacks you make against it deal a extra d6 damage, as well as you knowing their location as long as they are no more than 120 ft away and not behind full cover. You can do that a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier and the mark lasts for 1 minute. Subclass features that have similar effects (like the horizon walker ability to mark an enemy and deal 1d8 force damage to it) instead only modify your hunter’s mark. Levels 3 4 and 5 are unchanged At level 6 you gain a spell based on your hunter profile. For example, a bounty hunter gains hold person. That spell is always prepared and doesn’t count for the number of known spells you can have.
Just found your website and really liking your style. I’m starting a new campaign pretty soon for my players and one of them wants to be a Beastmaster Ranger. I’ve seen so many different versions of Ranger, but most of them are not very compatible with being either a dual wielder or a Beastmaster because of how many abilities are being used as a Bonus Action. Which version of Beastmaster would you use with the Ranger version in this article? The original, the revised, the class feature variant or something else?
The level one fix seems as similar as it can get to an adaptation from the pathfinder 2e ranger. Favored terrain too. I just recently started to get into 5e as well, and I talked about this with my DM, that basically PF2 ranger has a hunters mark as a core class mechanic. I think it just feels right. Interesting to watch a article about this just the day after.
I think its a solid functional upgrade, but I really do like the idea of having certain types of creatures that you excel at. No idea how to make it work well though. Most of my ideas have been around preparing your favored foe. Honestly if it wasn’t a whole new system of its own, I’d probably actually make a whole hunting system for ranger that works like wizard spellcasting, but for killing monsters. You have to kill and study a monster and then unlock its features in the book, and can only have oh so many prepared foes at a time.
All things considered, getting blindsense (natural explorer, underdark terrain) for a LVL1 PC who already has darkvision is pretty damn strong. that would mean that the PC is not harmed by effects that obscure vision like fog cloud, darkness, blindness, and he would completely ignore disadvantage against invisible enemies in melee range. Normally blindvision is heavily obscured outside of that radius, but he has normal vision as well… cancelling all the negatives. Don’t get me wrong, this homebrew is probably one of the best i’ve seen in a while. But i do think it could do with some minor tweaks. Has anyone got around to playtesting the class? would be curious to hear opinions on the balance compared to other classes at higher levels
Idea for flavor features for the other martials. Barbarian: I hate to step on the toes of the lizardfolk, but I really like the crafty nature that they have where they can make tools/weapons out of enemies parts. Barbarians being this big, dumb brute, but one thats able to survive on their own in the wild makes sense to me Monks, some sort of meditative thing? Perhaps some tool from a list, like glassblowing, brewing, calligraphy, etc. Fighter? Not sure, sorry. They’re too diverse imo to really nail down something
I thought about this for a long time. I think the Ranger lacks a strong identity. You point out the massive lack of any combat abilities at level 1. I thought of rolling animal companion into level 1. Use bonus action to control. Its very annoying that the base pally class is a better pet class then the ranger subclass.
I think that it would be good to think of 2 cores and a flavor for each class, so just on the ones in this article, coming up with a flavor for the fighter, monk, and Barb. & another core for the paladin might be something to look into. Like if someone plans on being a tank paladin, maybe letting them start of with a taunt for a core feat. It could be a low lvl taunt so it doesn’t effect any that they would normally get, I haven’t played a paladin in D&D so I don’t know if they do, but in wow one of the biggest moments for a tank is getting your first taunt. 😀
I’ve been enjoying these articles! One of my players in my current campaign is a ranger (just leveled to 3rd after starting from 1st a few weeks ago), and I’ve been trying to figure out how to buff the ranger class using the UE variant and some other stuff I’ve come across. I’m going to show this article to my player and see what he thinks about this variant, and we may just switch to this. Good job on your meteroric rise as a YouTube content creator. I’m looking forward to more of your articles. I would love to see an actual play campaign that you are DMing, Coach!
First off, your presentation is excellent. However, in regards to the homebrew, the fact Hunters Mark only applies once per attack, despite scaling, makes this overall on par with normal ranger, since my rangers with multiattack are usually getting 2+ 1d6 hunters marks procs. Most spells that can be used as a substitute or to deal damage instead are saves (ensnaring strikes, etc) that deal 1d6-1d10 damage… the favored terrain changes are nice… not game changing though, and many of those things can be accomplished with uncommon magical items, tattoos, etc. With that said, the concept behind Hunters Mark just being a class feature is genius.
I like the changes you made so far. Of course now that we have “Tashas” the class made less situational. But i didn’t like the Concentration for the “Favoured Foe Feature” just because many of the Spells in the ranger’s Spell-List require Concentration as well. So Concentration on such an essential Combat-feature would be very restricting in terms of Spellcasting. So i like the Hunter’s Mark feature a lot. But i have to ask, if i cast the Spell “Hunter’s Mark” on top of your “Hunter’s Mark Feature” would that be overpowered? Also i sort of liked the Original “Favoured Enemy Feature” flavourwise. So i added this: You choose a type of favored enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs) as favored enemies. •\tYou have advantage on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. •\tYou can also speak one language associated with this creature if it has any. •\tIf the marked creature is your favoured enemy, you can add half your proficience bonus (rounded up, min of 2) to one Attack Roll. You can add this bonus after you rolled, but before the DM says whether you hit or missed. You choose one additional favored enemy, at 6th and 14th level. As you gain levels, your choices should reflect the types of monsters you have encountered on your adventures. I also liked your Take on “Natural Explorer” and “Wilderness Guide” so i will definetly use those instead of the new “Deft Explorer Feature” I am not sure if i want to keep the “Tireless”-Part of the Deft Explorer thou (10th Level: As an action, you can give yourself a number of temporary hit points equal to 1 d8 + your Wisdom modifier(minimum of 1 temporary hit point).
My version of Favored Enemy (and the associated 6th and 14th level abilities) I created for my homebrew setting: *Favored Enemy:* You have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy. Choose two favored enemy types from the following creature types: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, at your DM’s discretion, you can select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs), or members of a single organization or faction, (such as members of a specific nation’s army or a specific Dwarven clan,) as your favored enemies. Additionally, as long as you have had at least two encounters with a particular creature or faction and have spent an hour or more observing and documenting its tactics and activities, you can add that creature or faction to your list of favored enemies. Your favored enemies always count as being marked by your Ranger’s Quarry (Hunter’s Mark) class feature. Additionally, when you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all. You know a number of favored enemy types equal to your proficiency bonus (minimum of 1). If the number of Favored Enemies you have encountered exceeds this limit, you must remove another from the list. You can exchange one of your favored enemy types for another type of enemy (or faction) you have encountered during your adventures whenever you finish a short or long rest.
This is a pretty good fix, which is why alot of this has been absorbed by Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Canon revamp, but it’s still got some issues. It still has issues scaling, especially when putting the Ranger in comparison to the Rogue and the Paladin. The paladin can wade into melee combat, holding his spell slots until he connects, and then nuking the high value opponents when he connects. Rogues have sneak attack, which is a glorious scaling handful of d6’s that only require a rogue to have someone next to them in melee to unleash. With regards to Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which highly resembles this fix, changes to Foe Hunter / Hunter’s Mark needs to grant better damage as the Ranger levels up. TCE explicitly limits the additional damage dice to the first time a ranger deals damage and it’s not even as good as the monk’s martial arts dice. This requires the Rangers concentration, it should scale up better since it blocks spells that would enhance dps.
Something I am toying with is taking that list of favored terrains and turning them into natural passives and favored passives. I view rangers as experts in all things tracking, survival, and knowledge. Not just one category. So, I have decided to give them a lesser passive bonus when they are in a corresponding terrain, like Coast, Desert, or Mountain, and a total bonus much/active passive for their favored. As a Mountain Ranger, in my opinion, should still be an all arounder for a Urban setting. This also limits a DM from having to make content specifically for their ranger just to let them feel mechanically important.
something i couldn’t find is exactly what recalled information is limited to for the favored foe ability. really, DO NOT FOE any monsters at first level. think about the two humanoid races. humans and either dwarves or elves. if you consider that intelligence checks are recalling information (‘Intelligence measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason’ ‘Recall lore about a craft or trade’ pulled from beyond), you basically become the biggest nerd at level one, getting advantage on most history, arcana, and religion checks and certain nature, medicine, BECAUSE these three races are likely the biggest shapers of such. on that note, i think you could change it to races/factions who primarily speak the language you learn, with druidic including animals, slimes, and aberrations and thieves cant being criminal organizations. also, considering that your first ability deals heavily with intelligence, why is the ranger a wisdom caster? the fact that you are only a half caster can be played with a mechanical understanding of nature magic, rather than a spiritual one druids have. makes a good class for a noble
So, I have a fighter homebrew which makes second wind much more powerful changing the scaling so that second wind heals 1d10 hit points per fighter level, and changed it to a once per long rest ability. What this means is at 20th level you can heal a massive 20d10 hit points once per long rest making the ability much more impactful in combat as a massive burst heal potentially turning the tides of combat.
I’ve homebrewed a change to the 1st level Ranger abilities too. They get some additional buffs, but the main change is that you choose your Favored Enemy and Terrain at the end of a Long Rest, rather than being locked into one choice forever. This has some pretty cool flavor implications. You could see them preparing special poisons and weapons to take down Monstrosities to give them that bonus. Or donning a few extra layers when headed into the Tundra to get those bonuses.
I like some of the attempts at fixing Rangers that try to take make them a bit of pro hunters. I feel ike Ranger don’t really have a strong and unique approach to fighting e.g. Barbarian rage, Paladin and sorcerer’s burst damage, etc. I think it might be cool that Rangers are expert in hunting monsters in the wild. So their ability to fight them improves the more they study them. So they are attrition fighters that gets deadlier and deadlier the longer they last in battle. Every time they kill an enemy, land a crit shot, or use up an action to study and enemy, they gain 1 point of expertise against enemies of that type until the next long rest. Level 1 boosts your attack bonus by 5 to make damage consistent. Level 2 gives you advantage on saving throws. Level 3 lets you crit on 19.
Still not balanced enough needs more damage remove the use limit and apply it on every attack on the marked target. As it is the extra damage tops out at 1d12 once a turn Wisdom bonus times every short rest A three level dip in Rogue will give you sneak attack of 2d6 with no limits on use can easily be procced and has higher damage on average than 1d12 as well as giving you whatever archetype of Rogue you picks cool stuff, there’s still no reason to go twenty levels of Ranger when only three levels of Rogue will give you better numbers.
Easy fix: make favored enemy and fabored foe as a one feature affecting a creature you mark, and only require concentration to track down when run away, not for the damage if in combat, and scale a little more the damage, see sneak attack or martial arts Favored terrain? Easy: you get the benefits of the feature when stay on a terrain for at least 1 day or after a long rest, meaning the ranger learns from the land and adapts to survive. 1 day on a different enviroment and your ranger now know things about the place. His instincs work like that, he know how to survive. Alternatively, spend 1 spell slot and 1 minute and the land speak to you to learn all those features, permanently, so the more lands you visit, the more you learn Natural explorer can work as you said, depending of the terrain, not requiring a favored terrain, it just adapts to the terrain, granting the ramger a little more variety according with the place and the campain Vanish was fixed on TCE Foe slayer: grant that if you hit a creature marked with favored foe, is an intant critical hit once per turn a number of times of your proficiency bonus with refresh on longrest, which means you can SLAY your favored foe if you want
It would be cool if favoured enemy allows you to temporarily add enemies to the list if you do enough info gathering. Like maybe a wisdom check on tracks. Or maybe you gain a permanent new favored enemy if you land the killing blow on a legendary. Anything to make favored enemy list feel like it can be expanded provided you make the effort
funny that the hunters mark fix is similar to the one I was trying scaling on the damage dice “keeping it on every hit though” and letting them “cast” hunters mark as they are tracking the creature was my feedback when WTOC released the Class variant UA. that they can cast it for free if they watched them or tracked them for a while. “Hex for the warlock should also gain similar effect” Also I found it really odd why they getting vanish at 14th level and I thought that 5th would be a great time to get it. instead similar to the rouge cunning action but just few levels behind. infact thats what they get cunning action because dashing as a bonus action is also a ranger thing to do.
Back in older editions one of the big things about rangers were their animal companions. I love these fixes BTW. One of my fixes for the ranger class is I merge the Beastmaster into the main class. So all rangers have the Beastmaster archetype and it doesn’t exist as an archetype on it’s own. Instead, I changed the Beastmaster to Monster Master, and it makes it where you can effectively have a monster instead of a beast.
I don’t think the favored enemy and favored terrain being situational is a problems with them are two fold. the first problem is they’re kind of useless even when they’re applicable. the second problem is You chose them before the campaign starts and are then stuck with them. If you could switch them out when you level or spend downtime to switch them out then they would be a lot less situational. Also they really need to scale with leveling.
I added an ability which rather than adding damage per hit it functions similar to the paladins smite except unlike the paladin it works with both melee and ranged attacks. The ability also does d6’s instead of d8’s along with doing the weapons damage type making it slightly weaker in terms of damage along with being more heavily resisted by enemies. This feature takes the range to new heights allowing them to fulfill the role of a ranged burst damage dealer where the fighter is consistent damage, and the ranger is differentiated from the rogue by having access to ranged spell casting to give it additional versatility.
Tashas addition of favored foe was very nice but a little lackluster as it takes concentration to maintain and only lasts a minute. So to balance this and beef it a bit I gace players the option to take concentration out, OR leave the need for concentration and gain advantage on the first attack of every round almost assuring the player will hit his prey and deal a little extra damage. Mind you if ur dual wielding you do not get advantage on your second attack. As your level increase so does the damage die at the levels listed in tashas
Overall, very good. Kudos to you and Pagnabros. My only quibble is the resistances granted by some Flavored Terrains. The smart play is to start off with Swamp to get that poison resistance, as poison is the most common at low levels of the three offered. Then go Desert to pick up fire resistance, and finally Tundra to get cold resistance. I would instead use Deft Explorer from the Class Features Unearthed Arcana article.
Martial Flavors off the top of my head. Barbarian Favored Enemy. It makes more sense for their primal nature to be rooted in hatred for a particular kind of enemy. Monk Ki Sense. Determine if an enemy’s challenge rating is above or below your class level. Fighters Institutional Training. Knowledge about factions you were trained to fight with or against.
Great article and congrats not only to you Pagnabros for working out a solid alternative to the current state of the Class. Also GREAT FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC job getting to 3k on Subscribers :D!!!! As outlined by someone else, I would change the naming on Hunter’s Mark as there are other Classes that can grab the spell and if things are kept the same name then there is an expectation by players of those other Classes to have the spell changed to fit what the Class Feature gives. The new feature is very much a combination of 3, 3.5, and Pathfinder 1’s Favored Enemy with gradually scaling damage but keeping it in more line of being flavoured with the scaling dice and damage expectations of 5e. One thing I have fiddled on the idea of for the Ranger is borrowing a design aspect from 3.5’s Archivist (Divine Wizard basically) that had a Class Feature to where against against certain types of enemies that basically match up with the options for Favored Enemy, you make what would make what is now an Intelligence (insert the area appropriate that aligns with that creature) Check and if you passed the DC you could give all your allies bonuses to hit or damage (not both at the same time I believe) to all creatures of that type for a period of time. The higher the DC you hit the bigger the bonus. This has always felt more of a Ranger ability to me that could 1) make Int knowledge checks something of instant benefit instead of a static pass or fail meta with reoccurring benefits in combat and 2) could either be added easily as a true Class Feature to the overall Base Class or would a fantastic ability to build off of for the basis of a Subclass.
I could see barbarian’s flavor feature being something that let’s them use their strength modifier when making Intimidation checks. Its pretty niche, but kind of makes sense that large terrifying muscles might do more talking than one would imagine. Monk…I got nothing coming to mind for them. Fighter…eh, also nothing coming immediately to mind for them either.
The hunter’s mark feature seems weaker than the spell as it only triggers on one attack per round. With the damage die so low I don’t see why it cant do it on every attack like the blood hunter or brute fighter. Especially since this is limited on its activation equal to your wisdom modifier. And I actually don’t like the new vanish or hide in plain sight powers. Stealth/invisibility is usually a player choice thing that only works with certain play styles. I think these would be a great addition to a conclave path but it should not be core to the ranger.
I don’t like changing their whole style of Spellcasting from Known Spells to Preparing Spells, I think a better approach is what WotC tried to do with the bonus spells but forgot to go back and give the original archetypes. Also, this Ranger is missing the iconic Favored Enemy in any form, I don’t like that.
I love this change except Hunter’s Mark only applying once per turn removes the main feature that made two weapon fighting viable. I’d like to see Hunter’s Mark apply once per hit. It’s still only an extra 2,3,4, or 5 damage per hit depending on your level. An extra 15 damage per round at level 13 isn’t going to upset balance by destroying monsters too quickly. And an offhand attack from a fighting style that you build your character around only dealing 1d6 damage, (1d6 + str or dex mod if you select two weapon fighting style) no matter your level feels so disappointing.
Your Hunter’s mark is utterly OP. Ranger now get the benefit of Rage damage but better (1d4 is better than a fixed 2, and as you level up you demolish Rage damage). plus, wisdom modifier AND recharge on a short rest? that’s crazy…imagine a barbarian that could use rage CON mod time for short rest. how OP is that? now this feature is not so far. i feel like the UA variant class features was already a bit strong but at least it was cool and not so much abusable. this one is just a Multiclass Dip magnet
Divine Sense 5e description is vague and lacks game mechanics. My brother is planning to play a paladin in a one-on-one campaign that we are starting soon. I intend to require a Divine Sense DC check based on the level of the evil. Inverse relationship, low level evil is harder to detect so give a bit higher DC while higher level evil monsters make the DC much easier or do not require any check roll. Also, close range reduces the DC. If the paladin can touch the evil person, they can get a DC10. For example, a first level evil cultist (HD1) within 60 foot range would have a DC15 to detect and locate. Their evil is just too weak which makes them harder to detect. While a Gnoll within 60 foot range would have a DC12 or less. In either case, a round of focused concentration (1 action) is required. Also, paladin level adjusts how obvious the PC is while performing this action: Lvl 1 to 5 the PC holds his hand out “scanning around” while above Lvl 10 the paladin can simply look around. (1d20 roll with Proficiency Bonus + WIS?). I do not want Divine Sense to be an easy thing to find evil NPC’s at low level. PC scans a crowd of onlookers and gets to go ping, “there’s one, get’m”. Thoughts? Suggestions?
I did a breakdown of the class. Overall it’s still too weak. The ranger should be able to dog the heels of the fighter and the paladin as a melee combatant. But without features like action surge or a paladin converting spell slots to damage with smite. This ranger has no consistent damage even with the hunter’s mark feature, especially since this feature is limted to targeting only a number of creatures equal to your wis mod per short rest. I say to start let this trigger on every attack. it also pushes the ranger a bit towards two-weapon fighter doing this… like they used to be. But not required. Next, tie in the hunter’s mark feature into every Ranger Conclave, let the hunter have favored enemy hunter mark damage, gloom stalker dim light hunter mark damage, and beast master can have an effective beast. For spells I would go back to ranger spells known instead of preparing like a paladin. this is a flavor issue for me. A Ranger should not rest and then have a new collection of spells. Their skills are learned and practiced they should keep their spell choices. But to give them more spells add 2 spells per level up to 5th on ranger conclaves. it also lets you expand the rangers magic into more specific areas. They are casters by the way and they have few fun spells. I don’t see why land stride and wilderness guide are not tide to favored terrain. It’s kinda cool that the ranger gets these bonuses on everything. but it is a better flavor issue to give these “flavor” powers more flavor.
I love what you did! I really like the new natural explorer ability. However i think the hunters mark ability is a little underwhelming. The UA class feature varients for the ranger give a very similar ability, however just cast the hunters mark spell. And while I love the addition of being able to cast it while tracking them, the loss of being able to switch the targets after their death is a huge nerf. As the ranger will now only gets extra damage against a max of 5 targets. (Probably 2 or 3 at low levels) still highly situational. Other than that, i love it all!
That’s a great option for the ranger. Small but effective changes. I’d like to share some thoughts also in this ranger matter. These two first level class abilities are certainly a main reason to this ranger issue. They are just bad. It’s frustrating to players that want to feel that ranger “vibe” see how this abilities works. So I agree they need some changes to make them better. But, in my opinion, being able to cast spells is the main ranger feature in DnD5ed, and is what makes it different from other martial classes (besides paladin and some subclasses). And it’s a really powerful ability. But, when you check the ranger spell list, you see some problems in the offensive side. Hunters Mark is the main spell maybe all the way until lvl9. But it’s concentration cost conflicts with other spells. Some other offensive spells are just not good. Hail of thorns I don’t think is a good spell. Ensnaring Strike maybe sometimes, but again, uses concentration. I think Zephyr Strike is a good spell, but is also concentration. So, I think that ranger class needs a complete reformulation in its offensive spell list and mechanics. Note that Im saying only offensive spells, because there are other good spells on the ranger list. On later lvls there are some good offensive spells, like Guardian of Nature, Swift Quiver, etc. But most players won’t get that far.
I still feel like Hunter’s Mark as a bonus action clogs up the Ranger’s action economy too much. Particularly if the Ranger is dual-wielding or has its subclass damage feature reliant on bonus actions (Horizon Walker, Beast Master, Monster Slayer). This is also an issue with the UA Class Features Variant feature Favored Foe. I really think Hunter’s Mark should allow for the Ranger to use any other available bonus action in conjunction with it on the same turn.