D&D 5E A new Hunter class

[The Mirrorball Man]

The ongoing debate about the D&D 5e Ranger class has inspired me to take matters into my own hands and come up with a new, more fun and more satisfying class.

My design goals are:

• Building a class that is meant to replace the Ranger class, which is why it borrows from the regular 5e Ranger class, as well as the UA Revised Ranger, Mike Mearl's Ranger, D&D 4e Ranger and the Adventures in Middle Earth' Wanderer Class.
• Making a nonmagical class, without spells or supernatural abilities of any kind.
• Calling it "Hunter" instead of "Ranger" and focusing on hunting tactics and lore, because, in my opinion, it's a stronger concept and no one seems to agree on what a Ranger is supposed to be.
• Making the exploration pillar more interesting by introducing a resources management system (as it is, the Ranger class makes the exploration pillar less interesting by completely bypassing it).

This is only a relatively barebones first draft, and I need a lot of help. Any opinion and piece of advice is welcome:

• Does the classe make sense? Is it easy to understand? Does it break the rules? Are there mistakes and/or inconsistencies?
• Is it balanced? Too powerful? Too complicated? What would you remove? What would you add? What would you change?
• English is not my first language. I'd appreciate any help in removing weird turns of phrases and expressions. Once the flavor text gets added, I'll need even more help

Please, this thread is not another opportunity to talk about the 5e Ranger. There are other threads for that. I'd love it if we could focus on the material I'm submitting to your attention. Thank you in advance

 

[Quickleaf]

It looks like in your effort to make "not a ranger", you've increased the complexity and word count of the class. That's pretty common for first drafts of fan-made classes, but just something to keep in mind as you iterate your design – you want to move towards more simplicity, not more wordiness.

I see you've done some things that are very common in homebrew not-rangers: incorporating hunter's quarry as a feature rather than a spell, removing problematic language from Natural Explore (Wilderness Traveler), and adding some kind of wildcraft/wilderness knacks.

One of the big issues – particularly where trap creation & Natural Resources & "useful information" a la Echoes of the Land are concerned – is that you're relying a lot on DM fiat. What is a "Natural Resource" and what can you do with it? I dunno, up to the DM! There's nothing wrong with that in general. And nothing wrong with designing a homebrew class for your own use which incorporates DM fiat. However, this diverges from the official class design, so if your intent is to share this with the community, self-publish, or otherwise match the sort of language found in the PHB, then you'll need to tighten that stuff up.

Also, you have several fixed DCs listed, for example Echoes of the Land is a fixed DC 15 check as are the Hunting Tactics. For Hunting Tactics, there should be a scaling DC so it remains relevant at higher levels. Echoes of the Land probably merits a pretty serious redesign without any check required – it's more or less a 1/day augury (with narrative limits / specific flavor / possibly a bit more info) accessible at 5th level, so not overpowered. Again, language needs tightening on that feature.

Wilderness Knacks are all over the place. For example, you have Arctic Survivor (cold resistance) & Mountain Guide (gain climbing speed) competing for one of your 3 knacks along with Desert Dweller (you need half as much water as a regular person...when the cleric/druid could cast create water since 1st level) & Wealth of Nature (gain 1d10+ level gp...sooo tempting when we're raking in 100's to 1000's of gp). Sorry, no one is taking Desert Dweller or Wealth of Nature with those other far more tempting options.

Call of the Horn raises the question of: Why can't everyone blow a horn to be heard within 5 miles and let others know their position? Also, granting Inspiration via a class feature is bad design. Inspiration is intended as a reward outside of the normal rules system. Turning it into something like bless or Bardic Inspiration cheapens its value. Again, for your campaign YMMV, but that's how it looks with the rules as written / the spirit of the rules.

Also, you have a couple abilities that grant advantage. Generally, you want to minimize the presence of "you gain advantage" language in class features because that then limits the potential for gaining advantage through circumstance & clever use of terrain/situation/positioning. Which is one of the whole points of the advantage system – to inspire creative player strategies. I think you're OK keeping it with the not-hunter's quarry, but I would hard edit Wilderness Traveler to remove all references to advantage – no advantage on initiative rolls (that's what a weapon of warning or the Alert feat is for), no advantage on first turn in combat against creatures that haven't acted (potential subclass feature?), no advantage on Stealth checks (that's what a cloak of elvenkind, or clever use of cover, or distracting the guards is for).

Same with Hunting Tactics: Ambush. Personally, I'd consider having it extend some of your "self-only" Wilderness Traveler features to your companions.

EDIT: Oh, I may have overlooked, but you should totally have a Wilderness Knack which grants more air / time when holding your breath or when out of breath. Free-diving training, underwater cave spelunking, etc.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and to give me extensive feedback, @Quickleaf, I really appreciate it. I'll do my best to take your suggestions to heart for the next version of the class.

There's just one point that's not entirely clear to me:

One of the big issues – particularly where trap creation & Natural Resources & "useful information" a la Echoes of the Land are concerned – is that you're relying a lot on DM fiat. What is a "Natural Resource" and what can you do with it? I dunno, up to the DM! There's nothing wrong with that in general. And nothing wrong with designing a homebrew class for your own use which incorporates DM fiat. However, this diverges from the official class design, so if your intent is to share this with the community, self-publish, or otherwise match the sort of language found in the PHB, then you'll need to tighten that stuff up.

I understand your point and I guess it's fairly easy to change - although, IIRC, "Echoes of the Land" is just a modified version of "Rumours of the Earth" from Adventures in Middle Earth. Well, I'll modify it further.
But "Natural Resources" doesn't rely on the DM at all. If you search for it in the wild, you will find it. What is probably not entirely clear from the text is that "Natural Resources" is a Schrödinger ability: you gather generic, nondescript, versatile resources, and it's only when you use them that you know what they're for. I confess that it's not a conventional way to handle things, but I did it that way to make the class easier to play, to keep the bookkeeping to a minimum, and to minimize DM fiat.

 

[Quickleaf]

@The Mirrorball Man You're welcome!

I see. I hadn't read through the subclasses. Now I realize that "Natural Resources" is used for more than Hunting Tactics and a few wilderness knacks, but also subclass features. Wasn't clear on the design intent, but your explanation makes sense. There's no problem with the intentional vagueness – I think the way you've designed it, "Natural Resources" works fine.

Good first draft.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Here's the new version of my Hunter class. It's shorter, and takes into account @Quickleaf's excellent suggestions.

I'd love it if any of you took the time to read it and give me more feedback.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Nothing? No one wants to chime in? Well, it's a little disheartening. I guess I'll still post the final version here in a couple of days, to thunderous applause

 

[Ancalagon]

Nothing? No one wants to chime in? Well, it's a little disheartening. I guess I'll still post the final version here in a couple of days, to thunderous applause

Your timing is waaaay off. Most people - me included - are digesting the new book. try again in a few months :/

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Alright. Here is my Hunter Class. Feel free to read it in a few months

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

And here's an updated class with one additional subclass, the Primal Poacher.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

As I was advised to do, I'm trying again, a few months later (that's four months, if I'm not mistaken).

Any comment or feedback on the latest version of my Hunter class, the one featured in the post right above this one, would be greatly appreciated!