yet another Ranger class

[Kyramus]

The attached file is the ranger core class.
I took into account that aragorn and robin hood never casted spells, so why should the core ranger have to?

I thought some more and ended up that the ranger SHOULD act like the US army Rangers.

Here's the result. Tell me what you think.



edit: updated file to show Iron will instead of better will saves. Removed Determined soul from the chart as it wasn't supposed to be there.
edit:file removed.

 

[Kyramus]

no comments?????
anyone?

 

[Crothian]

A lot on the powerful side. great hp, great saves, great BAB, unarmed combat equal to the monk, great skill points and skills.....

 

[Steverooo]

no comments?????
anyone?

Sheesh, dude, give us some time to look it over, eh?

 

[Kyramus]

Crothian,

while it may look to be more powerful. consider this. no spells. no two weapon fighting, no ambidexterity. they have to get those all on their own.

I think it's balanced and fits the idea of the US army Rangers, aragorn and robin hood.

 

[Crothian]

Ranger spells aren't that big of a deal. You give them Flurry of blows that is better then 2wf.

 

[mmu1]

I think it needs very heavy revision.

The unarmed combat isn't as good as a Monk's, it's better. It's a fighter BAB combined with the fast additional attack progression. That alone is unbalancing, no other class should even be equal to monks in unarmed combat, never mind better. And they can do all this while wearing armor, making them much less stat-depednent than a monk is.

All that (and 6 skill points, and a good Will save, which is a huge deal for a warrior-type) in exchange for loosing Ambidex and TWF, two of the most under-powered and over-priced combat feats, and some dinky spells, which many characters wouldn't even have the Wisdom score to cast anyway?

The unarmed ability needs to be massively cut down if this is to be a viable class...

 

[shivamuffin]

It would be cool for a modern/Sci Fi campaign, and you're on the same wavelength as me as far as dumping the spellcasting.

Have you checked out the ranger is lame thread? Consider yourself lucky that not that many people have replied!

 

[Kyramus]

mmu, their ac is limited to light armor. eventually they will have to take bracers and such just to have higher ac.

unarmed fighting for the monk was set so that monks use it in conjunction with other mental abilities, ie slow fall etc.

unarmed fighting with this ranger is to show that they are primarily self reliant. US army rangers martial arts training so to speak.

does tarzan take a few levels in monk? I don't think so.

 

[Kyramus]

another thing to consider, while you say spells are not that much, you haven't exactly read what those spells can do.

entangle is an area effect spell. it pretty much neutralizes a group of creatures.
animal friendship can essentially make the ranger trully beastmaster like.

without those spells, they are self reliant. no support necessary.
hence it might look overpowered, but when you come down to it each has it's own strengths. it all depends on what you view a ranger should be.

I trully think that a ranger along the classic lines of rangers would be without spells. and since there is a military force out there called the US Army Rangers, and they fit the bill. I think the rangers i made give the US army Rangers some justice.

other than that, if people think it is over powered, remember that Monks have special abilities. fighters have bonus feats.

what's to say that this ranger is over powered when you compare it to the rest of the classes.

if anything, this class is more of a fighter/monk mix. weaker actually since he doesn't have bonus feats and he doesn't have the monk special abilities.

overall i still think it's pretty balanced with the core classes and makes the player think hard of what the ranger is since the feats come few and far between.

rangers have always been skill heavy but never given the chance for the skills to be used fully. that explains the higher skill points.