Mike Mearls Discusses Possible Alternate Class Features for the Ranger on Happy Fun Hour 11/20

Parmandur · Nov 21, 2018

So, in the latest Happy Fun Hour, Mike Mearls discusses how the recent round of feedback suggests that people are more dissatisfied with the Ranger than they were early in the edition, so he brainstorms some alternate features to help people's experience of the Class without replacing the Class or invalidating the PHB:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/338523993

and a transcript of the features can be found here:

https://thinkdm.wordpress.com/hfh/revised-ranger-2018/

5ekyu · Nov 21, 2018

To me the most substantial change comes from turning the enemy and explorer away from the past "in the past i learned about one type" to the present "right now, right here, i can study this and gain advantages about this specific stuff here."

So let them be "after abc study of xyz you can now..."

So by spending time studying local orcs you get to figure out exploits you can use against these orcs in this area to gain advantages.

Etc

Saves the frustration of wondering how often your terrain or your enemy types will show up.

MechaTarrasque · Nov 21, 2018

Interesting. From the language, it looks like martial exploits was originally supposed to be a fighter gimmick.

"Building beast using spells" sounds interesting, as long as it doesn't involve haggling over evolution points like the PF1 Summoner. Big features, like big feats, seems good. Sounds like it would be worth it to watch it this weekend.

Of course, with anything involving rangers or psychics, better not to get my hopes up.

MechaTarrasque · Nov 21, 2018

5ekyu said:
To me the most substantial change comes from turning the enemy and explorer away from the past "in the past i learned about one type" to the present "right now, right here, i can study this and gain advantages about this specific stuff here."

So let them be "after abc study of xyz you can now..."

So by spending time studying local orcs you get to figure out exploits you can use against these orcs in this area to gain advantages.

Etc

Saves the frustration of wondering how often your terrain or your enemy types will show up.

All that studying, maybe the ranger should be an int class instead of a wisdom class.....

Parmandur · Nov 21, 2018

MechaTarrasque said:
Interesting. From the language, it looks like martial exploits was originally supposed to be a fighter gimmick.

"Building beast using spells" sounds interesting, as long as it doesn't involve haggling over evolution points like the PF1 Summoner. Big features, like big feats, seems good. Sounds like it would be worth it to watch it this weekend.

Of course, with anything involving rangers or psychics, better not to get my hopes up.

Yeah, he copy-pasted something he had worked on in a previous episode for a Book of Nine Swords style Fighter subclass.

Basically, making spell-casting Rangers, Beast-friend Rangers and Martial Rangers work off of the same math of spell slots, just different uses.

5ekyu · Nov 21, 2018

MechaTarrasque said:
All that studying, maybe the ranger should be an int class instead of a wisdom class.....

If they hadn't put wisdom as the survival and hunting attitude, perhaps.

Stalker0 · Nov 21, 2018

So my thoughts.

Favored Enemy: I like the idea of "I am focusing all of my skill on this one target" as opposed to "I have studied a group of creatures I may or may not encounter in any adventures in the future". I will say just the fact that I will effectively have advantage on all of my insight rolls against most people is a pretty solid bonus.

I think the extra attacks are a little clunky. I would be fine with just a simple "gain +1 or +2 damage to your attacks against your favored enemy...or even "half your proficiency bonus". Make it quick and clean.

Natural Explorer: I will say that people underestimate this ability in core, but that said I'm fine with buffing it a bit. All of the bonuses here are great, I would struggle to pick any single one over the others. It also gives the ranger a really wide range of options to customize the class.

Mighty Slayer: This needs work. First, bell-ringer is OP at 2nd level. Its stronger than a monk's stunning attack, and you can do it 3 times a times at 2nd level. But overall, I think there is a lot of wasted words here. I think its far smoother to give them some battlemaster love.

Give them 1 or 2 superiority dice, and give them 2 or 3 specific maneuvers that are the most "rangery". Done and done. No need to reinvent all of these other crazy abilities.

MechaTarrasque · Nov 21, 2018

5ekyu said:
If they hadn't put wisdom as the survival and hunting attitude, perhaps.

Wisdom is more the subconsciously noticing patterns. Some of those patterns are based on "nature" (which might involve fey or elementals in D&D), so it tends to be used for the outdoor types. Not all clerics are masters of the woods, though, so there are other patterns (signs from the gods, etc.).

I think the ranger would benefit from a more proactive stance. Int seems a better stat for that than wisdom. No chance of that kind of change in 5e, though. {Of course, if we were changing casting stats, sorcerer really should be the arcane wisdom class--what makes someone a better "natural" than instinctively being able to follow the patterns of magic in the Weave?}

Eltab · Nov 21, 2018

My dissatisfaction stems from the fact that my Ranger can declare a Favored Enemy and a Favored Terrain, but doesn't seem to be noticeably better at fighting those enemies or evading the difficulties of that terrain than any other fellow.
This is a combination of inadequate rules and mechanically ineffective play on my part. I can only work on one end of that equation.
Monster Hunter addresses the Favored Enemy part. Progress.

Guest 6801328 · Nov 21, 2018

Eltab said:
My dissatisfaction stems from the fact that my Ranger can declare a Favored Enemy and a Favored Terrain, but doesn't seem to be noticeably better at fighting those enemies or evading the difficulties of that terrain than any other fellow.
This is a combination of inadequate rules and mechanically ineffective play on my part. I can only work on one end of that equation.
Monster Hunter addresses the Favored Enemy part. Progress.

I use Favored Enemy all the time. I ask my DM specific questions about monsters and he lets me make an appropriate check with Advantage. E.g., "How far away do I have to be so that the Purple Worm cannot attack me without moving for a round?"

Of course, players who memorize the Monster Manual don't get much benefit from this.

Mike Mearls Discusses Possible Alternate Class Features for the Ranger on Happy Fun Hour 11/20

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