D&D General A Homebrewed Ranger Class

I created a homebrew Ranger class using basically every version of the Ranger (plus some other folk's home brew) as a guide. I was hoping for some feedback on it but the document is 68 pages (22492 words, 173 or 176 [on disk] KB) long and it seems a bit much to ask anyone to read through all that. If anyone might be interested, what would be the best way to share it?
 

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I created a homebrew Ranger class using basically every version of the Ranger (plus some other folk's home brew) as a guide. I was hoping for some feedback on it but the document is 68 pages (22492 words, 173 or 176 [on disk] KB) long and it seems a bit much to ask anyone to read through all that. If anyone might be interested, what would be the best way to share it?
just put PDF here.

68 pages?
wow, even my homebrew ranger didn't pass 10 pages...
 



... and I thought the Sentinel was huge at 14 pages...

With artwork -and- powers the Esper caps out at 16 pages with a full page splash and 6 1/5th page headers.

How did you get to 68?
What's the breakdown of those 68 pages and does it include spells? Or do you have a lot of subclasses?
The first 7 pages are the Table of Contents with hyperlinks to the other pages in the document. They ought to work in the PDF. I'm not quite sure where to best place the "back to top" option, so it's not there (yet).

The next 15 pages are base features about half of which are Knacks which confer various advantages. The Lodges (subclasses) start at the bottom of page 21. There are 19 of them, so they go on until page 64. Starting on page 65 there is the list of spells and this goes on until page 67. Most of them are from 5e, but I made heavy use of laserllama's materials as well as my own spell (based on another) which takes up the last page.

Anyway, I attached it here, so feedback would be appreciated.
 

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Ohhhhhh... it's also the layout choices! Your headers and subheaders and stuff.

Featherweight fighter is OP AF. 10ft speed and +2 to +6 on damage? Oofta! That turns a d6 weapon into a d10 weapon at level 1 -and- they get Quarry and Spellcasting?

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh! Very OP class at level 1.
 

To Qualify the d10 statement:

1d6+2 is a range of 3-8 with an average of 5.5. A d10 is 1 to 10 with an average of... you guessed it! 5.5.

Granted it can't deal 10... but it also can't deal 1 or 2 damage. So, y'know. Much better weapon, overall.

And then it gets even BETTER as you level up to eventually being 1d6+6. Minimum 7 maximum 12. WAY better than any Greataxe or Greatsword!
 

Ohhhhhh... it's also the layout choices! Your headers and subheaders and stuff.

Featherweight fighter is OP AF. 10ft speed and +2 to +6 on damage? Oofta! That turns a d6 weapon into a d10 weapon at level 1 -and- they get Quarry and Spellcasting?

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh! Very OP class at level 1.
If you have any advice on the layout, I'd appreciate it. I wanted to make it as easy to read as possible (in Word the headers and subheaders collapse), but may have gone a wee bit overboard!

This is why I need other people to read it and give me advise. Things don't always seem OP when I write them down, so it really helps!
To Qualify the d10 statement:

1d6+2 is a range of 3-8 with an average of 5.5. A d10 is 1 to 10 with an average of... you guessed it! 5.5.

Granted it can't deal 10... but it also can't deal 1 or 2 damage. So, y'know. Much better weapon, overall.

And then it gets even BETTER as you level up to eventually being 1d6+6. Minimum 7 maximum 12. WAY better than any Greataxe or Greatsword!
Ah! Thanks. What might you recommend for changes?
 


Well... first thing I'd do is lighten the level 1 load.

Kill Fighting Style entirely, bounce Spellcasting and Expertise to 2, and have Quarry, Knacks, and Guide at 1.

For Quarry itself I'd set it to 1d6 at level 1, Wisdom mod per long rest is fine. Though at level 6 I'd suggest letting them recover at the end of a short rest. Sort of like Bardic Inspiration. In fact, why not have it progress at the same levels as Bardic Inspiration as well to map out to the "Damage Breakpoints" where fighters get up to 4 attacks?

Duration on Quarry, though, is a bit tricky. I'd probably set it higher since you can't bounce it between targets. Say, 8 hours and allow the Ranger to select a Quarry off Footprints/Ectoplasm and Wanted Posters/Bounty Slips? Would definitely allow them to track their quarry long term that way, since you could burn multiple Quarry uses to track someone over long distances and through cities.

As far as the knacks I think they're pretty great, honestly. Love that you put favored foe in there rather than having it be a core class ability. Definitely allows players to opt into a historically iconic but also historically problem-riddled class ability! Great choice, there.

I will say having purely explorational options right next to combat options (Fell Handed, for example) is probably not a great idea. It's why A5e split out the "Secrets of Arcana" from the Eldritch Invocation list. I do like that you've got specific levels for them, so I might suggest setting up a secondary 'Grant' at specific levels for combat-oriented knacks like Fell Handed at 6th and 9th. Maybe drop the current 6th level requisite (advantage after landing a crit isn't -super- powerful) down to 4th, then do 4th, 9th, 13th, and 17th? It'd mean making a few more options and some tracks but it could be worthwhile.

Might also be good to sprinkle some Social options into the Knacks pool so players can choose to make a more socially skilled Robin Hood as opposed to only an exploration-focused Aragorn. (and even he gave a show-stopping speech at the Black Gates of Cirith Gorgor to Mordor)

Most of the rest of the class is perfectly fine. Though I'd absolutely make a note under Foe Slayer that any character that succeeds the save can't be forced to make the same save, again, the same day. Otherwise you could have you player throwing out 5 fingers of death on the same target and it should probably just be a punch.

nudge nudge wink wink Okay, that joke might be too dumb even for me.
 

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