D&D 5E Ranger: The Pack Leader (+)

[doctorbadwolf]

Has me thinking that giving something akin to Bardic Inspiration might be the way to go with this, as a sort of ranger-as-commando John Wayne sort of leadership ability.

OH for sure. If I decide to just fully rewrite the ranger, they'd always certainly steal the Bard's main mechanical niches by jacking the die mechanic and jack of all trades.

Bards should be masters of story, song, insult, curse, blessing, and boast. They should be the class that knows things, and the class that can, to quote Stephen King, "Talk the devil into setting his pants on fire". The Bard should have a curse and a blessing mechanic that it can use liberally, should have something like the playtest paladin's abjure enemies ability, and have songs/rites/performances/whatever that are minute+ aura effects they can activate by speaking or singing as a bonus action.

Rangers should be helping their allies succeed in a variety of tasks and be broadly competent in just about everything.

I have a new draft of the pack leader ranger that I'll post today, btw. I think the pets are a little overtuned, but tuning damage math up and down is one of the easiest things to adjust so I'm not too worried about it yet.

I think that I may need to take some of the special actions and special traits you can choose from, and put them into pack leader specific or "have a pet" specific wanderer's knacks, so that building your pet doesn't involve two lists of over a dozen options you choose two from.

other than those two adjustments, and obviously editing, i think it's pretty good.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Something else ranger related I'm wondering about is with banes, they're basically tactics against types of enemies, more like the hunter's tactics than favored enemy.

Ghoul's Bane makes all incoming damage radiant, all effects that deal damage and emit light emit daylight, and if you spend a spell slot, creatures under the bane have disadvantage on saves against being turned. So, useful against most undead that have special features, because most of them lose something when they hit daylight or radiant damage.

There are also level 6 banes, and level 11 banes. Level 6 banes are just like level 1s, but more powerful, while level 11 banes are meant to be much bigger and broader, effecting categories like "any monster bigger than huge" or "any monster with immunity or resistence to nonmagical damage" or "anything with regeneration".

But, other than shutting down resistneces and immunities, and shutting down regen, what do you actually want as a thing that makes the whole team more effective against all giants and other behemoth monsters?

 

[bedir than]

Something else ranger related I'm wondering about is with banes, they're basically tactics against types of enemies, more like the hunter's tactics than favored enemy.

Ghoul's Bane makes all incoming damage radiant, all effects that deal damage and emit light emit daylight, and if you spend a spell slot, creatures under the bane have disadvantage on saves against being turned. So, useful against most undead that have special features, because most of them lose something when they hit daylight or radiant damage.

There are also level 6 banes, and level 11 banes. Level 6 banes are just like level 1s, but more powerful, while level 11 banes are meant to be much bigger and broader, effecting categories like "any monster bigger than huge" or "any monster with immunity or resistence to nonmagical damage" or "anything with regeneration".

But, other than shutting down resistneces and immunities, and shutting down regen, what do you actually want as a thing that makes the whole team more effective against all giants and other behemoth monsters?

A way to topple them?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Something else ranger related I'm wondering about is with banes, they're basically tactics against types of enemies, more like the hunter's tactics than favored enemy.

Ghoul's Bane makes all incoming damage radiant, all effects that deal damage and emit light emit daylight, and if you spend a spell slot, creatures under the bane have disadvantage on saves against being turned. So, useful against most undead that have special features, because most of them lose something when they hit daylight or radiant damage.

There are also level 6 banes, and level 11 banes. Level 6 banes are just like level 1s, but more powerful, while level 11 banes are meant to be much bigger and broader, effecting categories like "any monster bigger than huge" or "any monster with immunity or resistence to nonmagical damage" or "anything with regeneration".

But, other than shutting down resistneces and immunities, and shutting down regen, what do you actually want as a thing that makes the whole team more effective against all giants and other behemoth monsters?

I prefer nullifying damage resistances over flat bonuses.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A way to topple them?

I was tinkering with abilities to make giants easy to knock down, and make them save vs prone when they attack at the end of their reach or move more than half speed.

The only issue is that grounding targets is also how you fight flyers, so idk if multiple “make them prone” abilities is really the way to go. Idk.

I prefer nullifying damage resistances over flat bonuses.

Me too. Flat bonuses are boring.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A way to topple them?

My current build for the Bane Of The Ordning is that it induces vertigo, and gains disadvantage on checks or saves to avoid being knocked prone, and when an ally of the ranger hits the creature while it is prone and under the effect of the bane, one attack per turn is simply a crit.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Later level stuff:

Hide In Plain Sight

I’ve got two ideas for this. One is giving hide in plane sight with a boost, or getting a similar effect without a spell, while the other is to make any encampment the ranger sets up be undetectable except by magical means, and the ranger can spend a spell slot to make it undetectable unless the magic used is higher level than the spell slot.

The ability to hide as a bonus action comes in vastly too late, but that can just be a Knack or part of the basic features. Land’s Stride is great, definitely a Knack option.

Foe Slayer is bad as a capstone, but is a cool option at a lower level.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Later level stuff:

Hide In Plain Sight

I’ve got two ideas for this. One is giving hide in plane sight with a boost, or getting a similar effect without a spell, while the other is to make any encampment the ranger sets up be undetectable except by magical means, and the ranger can spend a spell slot to make it undetectable unless the magic used is higher level than the spell slot.

The ability to hide as a bonus action comes in vastly too late, but that can just be a Knack or part of the basic features. Land’s Stride is great, definitely a Knack option.

Foe Slayer is bad as a capstone, but is a cool option at a lower level. Maybe 6th level ensuing

 

[Stormonu]

I like the idea of making the encampment undetectable, sort of mimics Leomund's Tiny Hut + Nondetection, so that seems around the right level for 14th.

Considering Invisibility is only a 2nd level spell, I don't think the original ability should be any higher than 3rd level, or 5th for a half-caster.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I like the idea of making the encampment undetectable, sort of mimics Leomund's Tiny Hut + Nondetection, so that seems around the right level for 14th.

That’s what I was thinking

Considering Invisibility is only a 2nd level spell, I don't think the original ability should be any higher than 3rd level, or 5th for a half-caster.

Ageeed.