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I totally agree with your analysis. As for the "studied enemy" design, it's certainly possible and what I was going for in my proposed alt ranger (post #296).

As far as I'm concerned, the art can cover Dejah's bosoms. But they had better not retcon her laying an egg!

The bonus damage doesn't need to be part of the base class, I agree. If we want subclasses that encourage different combat roles, it can go in the subclasses. The beastmaster actually does encourage a very unique play style and combat role, which makes it more interesting to me personally than...

Ideally, you have both in the same encounter. The best challenge for any party of PCs is another party of PCs; if you're using monsters then feel free to have a few bags o' hit points supporting a glass cannon or two.

If we're looking for consistency across most editions, the only class ability absolutely unique to the ranger is Favored Enemy, but its potency varies widely. Averaging over all editions, FE has been the main source of extra damage, with fighting styles (e.g. 2 weapons or weapon specialization)...

I run both. My current campaign is homebrew because I wanted to run an argonauts/sinbad/lost in space style campaign with Arabian themes, and nothing I own really fits the bill. But I've happily run campaigns in Eberron and Greyhawk, and would love to try other settings if WotC would just...

One reason the higher-level spells are objectively better is that monsters who resist the damage type are less common. Fire resistance is relatively common, and fireballs can catch your allies in the blast (unless you're an evoker). Flame strike does a mix of fire and radiant damage, so...

Hm, I wasn't suggesting that they get TK equivalent to a 5th-level spell earlier than a Wizard; I was suggesting that they get TK starting from an earlier level, and implying (sorry for the confusion) that it would be weaker when first acquired, but that at equivalent levels the psi version...

I guess "Unique" was too strong a word in the thread title. Maybe you have ideas along the lines of "What psionic powers should be objectively better than similar spells at an equivalent level?" :-) For example, if wizards have Detect Thoughts at 3rd level then should mystics have a power that...

Offhand, I'd say spending 2 attacks is worth a whole-party buff, if you don't attack yourself. I think "Crack the Shell" is a decent example: one attack's worth of damage and a rider that benefits only allies who are free to take advantage of it. One could also imagine a warlord-style...

I love Barsoom but the books are a bit sparse on detail. This is actually a good thing, since it leaves plenty of room for you and individual DMs to add their own bizarre ideas. Frankly, I'm unlikely to buy such a book for play, but if it has lots of great art and high production values then I...

OK, my turn to take a whack at it. Some of the key changes to PH abilities are underlined. I think the stalker and Ranger Lore features are roughly equivalent in utility to the spells, and give the player incentive to do rangery things in the game. I don't have any class features in mind for the...

Riffing on this, the ranger could be improved by giving them picks from a menu of nature-themed defensive and utility perks. Surviving is something they don't do too well in the current version, apart from the hunter's high-level trick. I'd like it if Surviving were part of the base class. For...

Re. Background being sufficient to define a ranger--bunk. Not all musicians are bards. Not all priests are clerics. Not all soldiers are fighters. Not all scouts/hunters/explorers are rangers. Ok, maybe in the Forgotten Realms they are. But the default setting assumptions laid out in every class...

This is exactly why the story behind Favored Enemy falls flat in the context of the campaign. Sure, at 1st level you can pretend it is part of the character's backstory (gnolls killed my mommy), but for the professional adventurer it is too restrictive. FE implies the ranger stays in one place...

True enough! That makes it all the more important to stake out psionic territory now, before a few hundred new spells are added to the game.

So, here's a new topic for the conversation on psionics. I think we all agree that psionics should not be able to do things like summon elementals, turn someone into a toad, and reproduce many other classic spells. What abilities should be unique to psionics, and difficult or impossible to...

I don't mind the ranger having a little magic, but I'd rather see it in a subclass. I don't mind the ranger having bonus "quarry" damage, but I'd rather if it were skinned as a mundane ability (e.g. Something that kicks in after observing the quarry for 1 round, and can be switched to other...

I tried it, and came up with a level that I was satisfied with, but when the geometry started to give me ideas for what the dungeon was like, I started editing the rooms and corridors like crazy. So I use that sort of thing as an idea generator--the large-scale framework of the dungeon might be...

Well, that problem is exactly why I suggested that the ranger be able to use their FE bonus on whatever monsters happened to be in the area. In that implementation the FE problem goes away. It also gives them an incentive to scout and to try to ambush a small group of monsters before getting...