D&D General Ranger Identity Patch (+)

[Horwath]

Tangent: using different abilty scores for skills only works if you do it for all skills.

Shifting Athletics off Str off Con futher imbalances the game by nerfing Str.

It would not nerf STR if it would be used where Athletic normally would not be used at all.
It's more about buffing Athletic skill, give it more utility.

and yes, all skills should be used with multiple abilities.

 

[Minigiant]

Irrelevant. It is also used for other tuings quite frequently. between my experience and actual plays, i have seen it used at least as much to determine someone's emotional state, to suss out motivations, and to figure out the best approach to a social interaction. I have seen it used quite a lot for determining social dynamics in a group, and other subtle social stuff. Its just social perception.

Further, it doesnt matter, we are talking about what skills could be used for

In your post, you were talking about social interaction.

Overall, the ranger identity in social interaction.

Overall rangers are "poor" at social. They don't prioritize CHA and often dump it. Their only social skill on their list is Insight. They need to take Fey Wanderer for mechanical strength.

The ranger role in social interaction is usually the Linguist.

If the target doesn't or can't speak Common, the ranger is more likely to speak their language because.

1. Rangers get bonus languages.
2. Rangers get Speak with Animals and Speak with Plants.

Outside of that the iconic ranger thing is to stay silent and use Insight to discover the speakers' moods, tells, bluffs, and truthfulness.

 

[Minigiant]

Or treat knacks (pet, fighting styles, expertise, faster movement, special senses, special movement, enhancements to any of those, etc) like spells, and let the ranger change them with a long rest.

So like a hybrid of invocations and infusions.

Hell, even spells could at least be partially put here, with little groups of bonus spells per knack

The biggest issue is page space.

If you aren't doubling up and reusing the text of spells via the references the ranger section balloons in size. WOTC would never. Even more 3pp don't give the ranger the room.

Look at 2014's Natural Explorer.

1. Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
2. Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
3. Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
4. If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
5. When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
6. While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

That's 6 bullet points. 6 sentences. And Natural Explorer is a Tier 1 Feature. So you'd have to do it 3 more times.

Favored Enemy is 4 long sentences. So 4 tiers of that is 7-16 sentences.
Nonmagical healing is at least 4 sentences. 10 more sentences.
Beast Companion. HA. 3 stat blocks and at least 2 pargraphs.
Favored Foe, Tireless, Deft Exploror, Nature's Veil, Feral Sense, Vanish.
You are hitting 3 pages easy. And 5 if you do it right and add art.
This is my biggest gripe with most ranger knack homebrews. It's usually a page and a half of "weak" Tier 1 stuff that becomes irrelevant at level 6 if your party has a full spellcaster.

Warlocks manage because a lot of Invocations are "You can cast SPELL at will" or "You can cast SPELL once pr long rest".

 

[Horwath]

The biggest issue is page space.

if they delete half the awful 2024 PHB art, you could find 5-6 pages for decent ranger class.

 

[Minigiant]

if they delete half the awful 2024 PHB art, you could find 5-6 pages for decent ranger class.

ART is one of WOTC's 3 main advantages.

 

[Minigiant]

Well let's just list aspects of Ranger identity which would be on the knack list. Using @jmartkdr2 's list as the base

1. Archery
2. Two-weapon fighting
3. Druid magic
4. Favored enemies
5. Wilderness exploration mastery (too vague?)
6. Animal companions
7. Animal tricks (charms, messages, mounting, communication, domination)
8. Favored Terrains
9. Wilderness movement
10. Healing

What else?

 

[CreamCloud0]

Well let's just list aspects of Ranger identity which would be on the knack list. Using @jmartkdr2 's list as the base

1. Archery
2. Two-weapon fighting
3. Druid magic
4. Favored enemies
5. Wilderness exploration mastery (too vague?)
6. Animal companions
7. Animal tricks (charms, messages, mounting, communication, domination)
8. Favored Terrains
9. Wilderness movement
10. Healing

What else?

hmmm, stealth abilities and skill/tool use/mastery seem like two appropriate ones, and i assume tracking is in there somewhere but there's not a clear category for it.

however, while 2WF is somewhat iconic to the ranger i wouldn't limit their melee knacks to just that ('14 hunter ranger has a good range of non-2WF melee tricks.)

 

[Minigiant]

hmmm, stealth abilities and skill/tool use/mastery seem like two appropriate ones, and i assume tracking is in there somewhere but there's not a clear category for it.

however, while 2WF is somewhat iconic to the ranger i wouldn't limit their melee knacks to just that ('14 hunter ranger has a good range of non-2WF melee tricks.)

Well does Jon Snow push GWF ranger?

 

[Horwath]

Well does Jon Snow push GWF ranger?

Jon Snow only pushes plot armor.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Well does Jon Snow push GWF ranger?

who?