Ranger (Hunter) is a Martial and Primal Controller

[scylis]

Like all of the Essentials stuff so far: I'm really digging it.

This wilderness warrior seems like a character I'd like to pretend to be. All raining destruction down with arrows and "ha! Hit your leg!" and swiftly scurrying through the underbrush strafing down all the punks in her way, using magic tricks learned from wild beasts. Sweeeet!



<3 this. People using two weapons want to make two attacks and deal twice as much damage. This is the Reason For Dual Wielding. It's about friggin' time that D&D enables this. As a striker, the Scout's got an excuse, and as long as your weapons wouldn't deal any more damage than a Rogue's sneak attack, it should be well-balanced.

I haven't bothered with the math, but if the Scout player is anything like a typical melee Ranger player with feat choices, there might not need to be much more than that done for damage. There's a metric crap-ton of ways to get more damage to damage rolls from attacks to take advantage of there.

Though I prefer the "full on Twin Strike" idea, conceptually, I think something like the above might be a little better fit for a build which will most likely use modified MBAs and would probably prove the better fit for people still stuck on the way TWF worked prior to 4E.

 

[Pickles JG]

It's my favourite essentialised class so far (Slayer too dull, Knight too weak, thief OK but not a rogue - the cleric/mage are not really that changed & look fun).

It has versatile at will control & I can ignore the primal bits (nothing so far seems too magical). Assuming Disruptive shot is similar to the level 3 ranger power it will be irritating to DM against too & will have decent damage output with out of turn attacks.

 

[Klaus]

I think moving the purely martial striker role to the Slayer Fighter opened up a lot of cool options for the Essential Ranger. I'm really curious to see the TWF Essential Ranger.

 

[Zaran]

The ranger does use arrows with every attack. Ranged basic attack uses one piece of ammunition, Rapid Fire requires one piece for each target.

Do those ranger attack powers trigger mark punishments twice? When you use the attack and when you make the associated melee basic attack by raw?[/quote

No, because the initial power is not an attack that targets an anemy other than the one marking you. It doesn't target any enemies at all.



They're primal powers tho... spirits are involved here. That means magic.

I'm quite aware of spending an arrow for each target. It doesn't make sense for the Ranger to expend an arrow attacking their friends. But my comment was about how rapid shot can bleed a ranger's arrow supply quite easily. Which isn't new to the Ranger class. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the Wilderness Quirks they have is the ability to generate arrows.

I don't think they designers really pay attention to arrow expendature when they design these powers though. I remember a Dragon power that lets the Ranger make a staircase of arrows. How many arrows does that use?

I can see how this class would be for someone who just want to roll the die and see if they hit. Just seems like it would get boring after awhile doing the same thing over and over. They don't even get the encounter powers that Rogue's or fighters get.

 

[Aspeon]

I can see how this class would be for someone who just want to roll the die and see if they hit. Just seems like it would get boring after awhile doing the same thing over and over. They don't even get the encounter powers that Rogue's or fighters get.

I assume Disruptive Shot from the table is the Backstab/Power Strike of the Ranger- it just wasn't spelled out in the article. Has the same scaling at 3 as those powers do.

 

[AngryMojo]

The dual power source makes me wonder about the other three classes in the book. Cavaliers and hexblades both use weaponry, so will they be both martial and divine/arcane? Druids are leaders now, will they be primal and divine?

I know it doesn't really affect much, but it's an interesting concept.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

The primal power is a nod to the spell-caster that the ranger was for most of its existance as a class. It is also consistent with the essentialism that if something seems like magic, it probably is.

A nod, perhaps to the old sub-class system. Warriors had Fighters, Rangers, and Paladins. Rangers got some magic, thus the primal nature of Hunter and Scout.

This might mean....

• Paladin becomes Martial and Divine.
• Druid might be Primal and Divine (the old Priest sub-class)
• Bard might be Martial, Arcane, and Divine (since they dapple in everything). You know, if we see a bard.

I doubt we'll see Hexblade as Martial and Arcane if Warpriest is anything to go on.

Also, if someone could gift an XP to TerraDave, I'd be might obliged...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Doesn't look too bad. VERY narrow concept utility though. That was one of the main strong points of the PHB ranger, you could reskin it in a huge number of ways.

 

[jbear]

Far more interesting than the current bow ranger. It's great how 1 power has like three different options.

So far i like the thief, the mage, the assassin and this.

None of my players would want to change from their present characters but i can see how someone starting from level 1 would have fun with these classes.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Far more interesting than the current bow ranger.

AND more interesting than any flavor of Seeker.

In fact, I could easily see respecing every Seeker power as a generic "ranger" power after this.

Not that it would happen -- the mandate of course means people playing their Seekers get to still play their Seekers without a change.

This also strikes me as a good solve for the Battlemind problem: it's not a "Psionic Defender," it's a Fighter with the Martial and Psionic power sources!