3.5 Urban Ranger Variant from Masters of the Wild?

[dreaded_beast]

Now that the flavor text for the 3.5 Ranger has changed, being more focused on the wilderness and nature, has anyone thought about doing a 3.5 variant that was presented Masters of the Wild - the Urban Ranger?

From a technical standpoint, I love the new 3.5 Ranger abilities, but I really dislike the new philosophy, one where he is a wilderness warrior. I really preferred the "bounty hunter, specialist warrior" from 3.0.

 

[am181d]

Now that the flavor text for the 3.5 Ranger has changed, being more focused on the wilderness and nature, has anyone thought about doing a 3.5 variant that was presented Masters of the Wild - the Urban Ranger?

From a technical standpoint, I love the new 3.5 Ranger abilities, but I really dislike the new philosophy, one where he is a wilderness warrior. I really preferred the "bounty hunter, specialist warrior" from 3.0.

I believe that a 3.5 urban ranger variant has appeared in DRAGON in the last few months. I can't remember how different it is than the 3.0 version from MOTW...

 

[Piratecat]

Really? I'd love an issue number of anyone has one; I need one of these!

 

[CCamfield]

I took a look at the 3.0 and 3.5 PHBs, and it looks to me like pretty much all the flavour text has remained the same. There are just more nature-oriented abilities.

I never figured on bounty hunters being able to cause plants to entangle their opponents, anyhow.

FWIW there's a bounty hunter base class in Crime & Punishment, and the book also has stuff like using Gather Information for urban tracking.

 

[omedon]

Dragon 310

Piratecat

The 3.5 Urban Ranger variant is in Dragon #310 on page 59.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Could someone post the main differences between the urban and the rural one please? (It's nigh impossible to get Dragon where I live and I don't want the whole article or anything I just want some food for thought).

 

[omedon]

Could someone post the main differences between the urban and the rural one please? (It's nigh impossible to get Dragon where I live and I don't want the whole article or anything I just want some food for thought).

Here is the gist of it:

-Swap Knowledge (geography) for Knowledge (local)
-Swap Knowledge (nature) for Gather Information
-Exchange the Track feat for the Stealthy feat
-Choose an organization or culture rather than a creature type for your favoured enemy.
-Swap a few ranger spells for bard spells of equal level, for example dectect thoughts instead of speak with plants.

The rest of the article is flavour.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Thanks - That was pretty quick!

The proposed changes is nothing to get up in arms over. Still, it can make for an interesting character, I guess.

Speaking of which; How does the new 3.5 ranger work out in play? Anybody tried this? (With or without spells).

 

[dreaded_beast]

Here is the gist of it:

-Swap Knowledge (geography) for Knowledge (local)
-Swap Knowledge (nature) for Gather Information
-Exchange the Track feat for the Stealthy feat
-Choose an organization or culture rather than a creature type for your favoured enemy.
-Swap a few ranger spells for bard spells of equal level, for example dectect thoughts instead of speak with plants.

The rest of the article is flavour.

Thanks for the info.

The 3.5 Urban Ranger variant seems pretty much the same as the 3.0 Masters of the Wild version.

In my opinion, the Urban Ranger variant is lacking class-ability-wise when compared to the standard Ranger. I find the Track feat to be much more useful than the Stealthy feat. In addition, the campaign I play in, Gather Information is next to useless.

The bard spell swaps seem interesting, but I would prefer an actual clear-cut list of what spells to swap instead of general guidelines, like it does in Master of the Wild. Does the Dragon Magazine article have an actual spell-swap list for the Urban ranger or is it guidelines as well?

I think I would just play a standard 3.5 Ranger, but just change the class description to fit the more urban variety.

 

[AnthonyJ]

In my opinion, the Urban Ranger variant is lacking class-ability-wise when compared to the standard Ranger. I find the Track feat to be much more useful than the Stealthy feat. In addition, the campaign I play in, Gather Information is next to useless.

Tend to agree about the Stealthy feat, plus I don't really see why urban rangers can't track anyway, it's a useful skill for various urban archetypes as well. Gather Information, however, is a very strong skill in many urban campaigns, as it's the skill you use to do things such as collecting rumors and gather random information about who's doing what.