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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 6763966" data-attributes="member: 6683613">DMG pp. 23-24.&nbsp; D&amp;D can be as low- or high-magic a universe as the DM wishes.Anyone can use magic items, if they can find them.&nbsp; That's not really relevant to class design, is it?&nbsp; Spellcasting ability is what we're talking about here.The subclass system is a simple way to balance variant characters against each other in terms of abilities -- saying, &quot;You don't get that ability because you get this ability instead.&quot;&nbsp; It is not a way to balance variant characters against each other in terms of population numbers.&nbsp; It's not like all the subclasses have to be equally popular.&nbsp; 5E put the &quot;monk classic&quot;, &quot;paladin classic&quot;, and &quot;rogue classic&quot; into subclasses, after all, and while I don't have data on this, I suspect those subclasses are much more popular than the others.&nbsp; If there's a &quot;ranger classic&quot; subclass with magic that the majority of players take, then so be it; system working as intended.But I'm not married to a particular approach.&nbsp; Spells-vs-other could be a separate decision point, too, like how warlocks get two decision points for pact and patron.&nbsp; You could even do something clever like have the ranger pick two archetypes instead of one, letting players mix and match whether they want spells and/or a pet and/or other abilities.&nbsp; I'm open to ideas.&nbsp; The important thing is just that there's a real option.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 6763966, member: 6683613"] DMG pp. 23-24. D&D can be as low- or high-magic a universe as the DM wishes. Anyone can use magic items, if they can find them. That's not really relevant to class design, is it? Spellcasting ability is what we're talking about here. The subclass system is a simple way to balance variant characters against each other in terms of abilities -- saying, "You don't get [I]that[/I] ability because you get [I]this[/I] ability instead." It is [I]not[/I] a way to balance variant characters against each other in terms of population numbers. It's not like all the subclasses have to be equally popular. 5E put the "monk classic", "paladin classic", and "rogue classic" into subclasses, after all, and while I don't have data on this, I suspect those subclasses are much more popular than the others. If there's a "ranger classic" subclass with magic that the majority of players take, then so be it; system working as intended. But I'm not married to a particular approach. Spells-vs-other could be a separate decision point, too, like how warlocks get two decision points for pact and patron. You could even do something clever like have the ranger pick [I]two[/I] archetypes instead of one, letting players mix and match whether they want spells and/or a pet and/or other abilities. I'm open to ideas. The important thing is just that there's a real option. [/QUOTE]

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