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D&D (2024) Modest Ranger Fix
- Thread starter Lord Twig
- Start date
Corinnguard
Hero
True. How does one play their Ranger character during an adventure? With my Bugbear Ranger character, for instance, he's always the one scouting ahead of his party for any potential trouble. He uses his nature and survival skills to rustle up additional supplies for his party while they are out in the wilderness or to track down perps (he was a Bounty Hunter before he became an adventurer). And he's very stealthy, more so than the average Bugbear.
A ranger should be played as a ranger. They aren't rogues, fighters or druids even though they share some similar class features.
J-H
Hero
I play 5e, not 5.24, but my houserule is that Rangers get +Wismod to damage against Favored Enemies, starting at level 1. It's fine, it's not OP, and it's certainly not worth being a capstone feature. It's only certain enemy types, and Wisdom is a secondary stat so for most of the game it's +2 to +4 damage per hit times 2-3 hits per round.
The 20th level capstone becomes +Wismod to hit favored enemies on top of the damage.
Hunter's Mark is a very boring spell that adds no fun to the game compared to Faerie Fire, Spike Growth, Conjure Volley, Swift Quiver, or a few other spells. When I make a ranger I just flat out don't take it. It's too limited to be the best choice in most circumstances.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Yeah I think tbh concentration interferes with the Ranger’s gameplay way too much. They also IMO weakened the Ranger conceptually in the ‘24 PBH.True. How does one play their Ranger character during an adventure? With my Bugbear Ranger character, for instance, he's always the one scouting ahead of his party for any potential trouble. He uses his nature and survival skills to rustle up additional supplies for his party while they are out in the wilderness or to track down perps (he was a Bounty Hunter before he became an adventurer). And he's very stealthy, more so than the average Bugbear.
A ranger should be played as a ranger. They aren't rogues, fighters or druids even though they share some similar class features.
They could have given the Ranger some sort of scouting/tracking benefits rather than just combat and movement, like an easier time finding hidden enemies, or the ability to know vulnerabilities, immunities, and resistences, of enemies, and then later on the ability to bypass resistances and then eventually impose vulnerabilities.
HM has tracking benefit, but it’s small, and overshadowed by spells. The Ranger shouldn’t have to turn it off in order to cast pass without trace, as well. Just like the Paladin can stack damage buffs, let the Ranger stack movement/stealth/hunting buffs.
And in combat, letting the Ranger use tactical weapon attack spells while using hunters mark is a no brainer.
Corinnguard
Hero
Ditto for the 2014 Ranger. Too many of the spells for the 2014 Ranger require concentration. If they weren't required to concentrate on a particular Ranger spell, would they become a bit OP? I am sort of glad that the 2024 Ranger lifted concentration for some of the Ranger spells. But I don't understand why the concentration requirement for spellcasting for either the 2014 or the 2024 feels like a nerf to me.
Ranger | Level Up
a5e.tools
Level Up's spell-less Ranger (with the exception of its' Wildborn archetype) IMO covers most of what you mentioned here. It's been described in Level Up as a wilderness and exploration expert who has honed their skills of survival and combat.
Alternate Ranger by laserllama
Alternate Ranger by laserllama - Created with GM Binder.
www.gmbinder.com
Ranger's Quarry from Laser Llama's take on the Ranger is much better than HM. It doesn't require concentration and the size of the Quarry die ramps up from a d4 to a d12 as your character levels up. As for buffs, see the Knacks. They allow this version of the Ranger to be fairly customizable.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Agreed. And having so much of its spell list use concentration feels like a nerf because it means you effectively cannot actually use many of your tools.
I dislike making Spellcasting a subclass for the Ranger. Every type of Ranger should be able to cast spells without having to give up having a beast or whatever, IMO. I respect LU, but it’s not my bag.Ranger | Level Up
Level Up's spell-less Ranger (with the exception of its' Wildborn archetype) IMO covers most of what you mentioned here. It's been described in Level Up as a wilderness and exploration expert who has honed their skills of survival and combat.
My own rewrite of the Ranger relies of knacks. And rather than HM, has “Banes” which are poisons specialised for a type of creature, like flying creatures or regenerating creatures.Alternate Ranger by laserllama
Alternate Ranger by laserllama - Created with GM Binder.
Ranger's Quarry from Laser Llama's take on the Ranger is much better than HM. It doesn't require concentration and the size of the Quarry die ramps up from a d4 to a d12 as your character levels up. As for buffs, see the Knacks. They allow this version of the Ranger to be fairly customizable.
Thank you for all the replies. I have thought it over and have increased the power even more. I realize it is still very modest (hence the title of this thread) and may not be enough for some people, but here it is:
Level 1: Favored Enemy
You always have the Hunter’s Mark spell prepared. You can cast it twice without expending a spell slot, and you regain all expended uses of this ability when you finish a Long Rest.
The number of times you can cast the spell without a spell slot increases when you reach certain Ranger levels. At 9th level, when you cast Hunter’s Mark using this feature, it is cast as a 3rd level spell and at 17th level it is cast as a 5th level spell.
Level 13: Relentless Hunter
Taking damage can’t break your Concentration on Hunter’s Mark. In addition, once per turn, when you take the Attack action, you may change the target of your Hunter’s Mark (no action required).
Level 20: Foe Slayer
The damage of your Hunter’s Mark increases to 2d6. In addition, your Hunter’s Mark spell no longer requires Concentration.
Now, at 20th level, the Ranger can have a 2d6 Hunter's Mark up for 24 hours with no concentration and no Bonus Action needed. Basically a permanent, double-power, free-action Hunter's Mark that gives you Advantage on all attacks against the target. And you can stack it with Conjure Minor Elementals. Still on the weaker side for a capstone feature, but much improved I think.
Level 1: Favored Enemy
You always have the Hunter’s Mark spell prepared. You can cast it twice without expending a spell slot, and you regain all expended uses of this ability when you finish a Long Rest.
The number of times you can cast the spell without a spell slot increases when you reach certain Ranger levels. At 9th level, when you cast Hunter’s Mark using this feature, it is cast as a 3rd level spell and at 17th level it is cast as a 5th level spell.
Level 13: Relentless Hunter
Taking damage can’t break your Concentration on Hunter’s Mark. In addition, once per turn, when you take the Attack action, you may change the target of your Hunter’s Mark (no action required).
Level 20: Foe Slayer
The damage of your Hunter’s Mark increases to 2d6. In addition, your Hunter’s Mark spell no longer requires Concentration.
Now, at 20th level, the Ranger can have a 2d6 Hunter's Mark up for 24 hours with no concentration and no Bonus Action needed. Basically a permanent, double-power, free-action Hunter's Mark that gives you Advantage on all attacks against the target. And you can stack it with Conjure Minor Elementals. Still on the weaker side for a capstone feature, but much improved I think.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
I like those fixes. One last fix I'd like is removing verbal component from the spell. And maybe allow it to also be cast during an attack action for free at level 13.
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At 9th level it lasts for 8 hours, at 17th it lasts for 24 hours. So you wake up and cast Hunter's Mark on one of your friends. When combat starts you can take the Attack Action and place it on someone, no action required. If you drop it to cast a different Concentration spell you will have to use a Bonus Action to get it back up again, but I'm fine with that. I can't think of a spell that you can just cast for no action at all, so I wouldn't want to open that Pandora's box.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Yeah. That is some kind of a workaround. Probably you can cast it on yourself just fine.
Maybe both spells, hunter's mark and hex should work that way as default:
Target: self
When you cast it or on a later round, you can use a bonus action to mark or hex a target.
On a later turn you can use a bonus action again to transfer it to a different target within range.
(if that is too much, add a clause, that you can swap the target if the preivous target is still alive and around you).
No need to have it as convuluted as it is:
You can switch marks only if the initial target is dead, or that you can have the spell linger around somewhere until you find a new target, but before someone is killed it does not work that way.
