Homebrew Ranger Fighting Style - Favoured Foe

[S'mon]

5e Rangers are often seen as weak. They do get Fighting Styles at level 2, which gives some potential design space for a boost. I came up with the following:

Ranger Fighting Style - Favoured Foe: Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one Favoured Enemy you hit with a melee weapon or ranged weapon attack, if you do not have disadvantage on the attack roll. Damage increases +1d6 per 4 Ranger levels.
Ranger Level Favoured Foe Damage
2 +1d6
6 +2d6
10 +3d6
14 +4d6
18 +5d6

So it's basically a half-strength sneak attack, which I think fits with the Ranger's placement between Fighter and Rogue in design.

BTW I let Beastmaster Rangers order their beasts as a bonus action, so this is useable by them.

 

[Krachek]

Fighting style are generic to all classes, what you design is a class feature.
And ranger don’t need more damage output.

 

[Horwath]

Fighting style are generic to all classes, what you design is a class feature.
And ranger don’t need more damage output.

This is true. And the last thing a ranger needs is more features that depends on DM's charity.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Nothing wrong with it I guess, and it is slightly more usable without the Sneak Attack conditions. It also allows greater damage potential against the larger HP favored enemies like giants and such.

My question would be how do you play the Favored Enemy feature? Is it as the PHB, a UA variant, or something else?

 

[Blue]

Fighting style are generic to all classes, what you design is a class feature.
And ranger don’t need more damage output.

My two-weapon fighting Paladin concept begs to differ.

Restricting fighting styles from classes already exists.

This one is at an interesting intersection of class feature and fighting style though because it only boosts with ranger levels. Good to get it from being cherry picked with multiclassing, but still.

 

[Blue]

I like where your mind is going, but with the opportunity cost of not getting Archery or Two-Weapon fighting styles, I think that even if all you fight are your favored enemy this would be an output drop in tier 1 at least, possibly tier 2. When you factor in what fraction of your opponents are your favored enemy it makes it fall even further behind and may leave it behind in higher tiers as well. Those are staples of some of the classic ranger archetypes.

With feats it falls even further for Archers. The +2 to hit with Archery is a nice offset for the -5/+10 of Sharpshooter, and +2 to hit with all attacks when you get even more of them with Crossbow Expert (plus Hunter's Mark for additional damage on each) will give more than +Xd6 once per round against some fraction of opponents.

 

[S'mon]

Thanks for feedback - player wants an old school Ranger, however she says she wants more damage on top of existing class abilities!

 

[DND_Reborn]

Thanks for feedback - player wants an old school Ranger, however she says she wants more damage on top of existing class abilities!

Then your idea works pretty well. Old school as +1 hp/level of damage against giant-class opponents. Averaging you d6s works close enough IMO.

 

[Krachek]

Thanks for feedback - player wants an old school Ranger, however she says she wants more damage on top of existing class abilities!

Make hunters mark scale like a cantrip! hum that will be too much!
Finally your idea is not so bad for an increase damage.
Link it to a magic item. It is the more safe way to make gift to players.

 

[Ark the Pie King]

I personally wouldn't allow it in my game. I hate how much of the ranger's stuff is dependant on the campaign. Like, half their class features stop working without the right terrain and enemy to fight and they don't need more of that.