NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kannik" data-source="post: 9392818" data-attributes="member: 984">I concur heartily.  To make this work you need to lean away from weapon use as the Ranger's main schtick, since that's already covered (in 5e) by the fighter (expert weaponsmith), the rogue (cunning weaponsmith), or the barbarian (overbearing weaponsmith).  A properly designed beastmaster can fulfill this role (companion+weaponsmith), and it's why I found something like Tasha's drakewarden interesting -- it offered something clearly different than could be built by the other classes, they felt different in play, and they were flavorful from an RP/worldbuilding perspective.As an aside, part of why I think the Ranger has always struggled with its identity/design is that it's one of the few classes (Bards used to be another, but even they have been generified in 5e) where it's out of encounter/combat role is supposed to play a big part of its role/identity.  But that is not only awkward since most other classes are more flexible in that regard, but often those out of encounter/combat abilities count towards the 'power level' of the class, leaving the Ranger with less capabilities in encounters/combat, and if the DM or adventure doesn't incorporate them, then the out of encounter/combat abilities feel useless.  I think that striping out all of the "wilderness explorer" bits from the ranger (and making it available in another form to all characters, say as a separate profession or theme pick) would help, allowing the Ranger as a class to focus on what could be interesting to play, both mechanically and from a flavor perspective, such as a "druidic paladin" spellcaster (or a druidic eldritch knight, if you prefer), a beastmaster, drakewarden, swarmkeeper, etc.</blockquote>

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