D&D 5E Am I missing something with Favored Foe?

[doctorbadwolf]

Divine Sense isn’t that situational. It covers some of the most common foes in the game. It will come up vastly more often that traveling through a single terrain.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Divine Sense isn’t that situational. It covers some of the most common foes in the game. It will come up vastly more often that traveling through a single terrain.

Which is why I intended to call Natural Explorer very situational (but missed the words "Natural Explorer" out and have now edited). I agree it won't come up much - and even when it does it's not terribly useful.

Good job Tasha's offers an alternative class feature that:

• At level 1 gives you expertise in one skill of your choice and two extra languages known
• At level 6 makes you faster and gives you both a climb and a swim speed (in place of a second terrain)
• At level 10 gives you a source of temp hit points (in place of a third terrain) and helps you recover from exhaustion

Divine Sense is more situational than any of those although that third ability is at best a speed bump by the time you get it.

For the record Tasha's also offers you more spells in place of the utterly pathetic Primeval Awareness that has to be the most pointless ability in the game. The PHB Ranger is pathetic, the Tasha's ranger is pretty strong.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

That's...interesting. Yeah, I think letting it increase like that (probably needs some sort of cap) might actually give ranger something useful.

Yeah, upon consideration, I actually quite like that read. I might cap the d4's at proficiency bonus, but its worth testing. Fights rarely go 4+ rounds anyways, and certainly few individual foes last that long.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Which is why I intended to call Natural Explorer very situational (but missed the words "Natural Explorer" out and have now edited). I agree it won't come up much - and even when it does it's not terribly useful.

Good job Tasha's offers an alternative class feature that:

• At level 1 gives you expertise in one skill of your choice and two extra languages known
• At level 6 makes you faster and gives you both a climb and a swim speed (in place of a second terrain)
• At level 10 gives you a source of temp hit points (in place of a third terrain) and helps you recover from exhaustion

Divine Sense is more situational than any of those although that third ability is at best a speed bump by the time you get it.

For the record Tasha's also offers you more spells in place of the utterly pathetic Primeval Awareness that has to be the most pointless ability in the game. The PHB Ranger is pathetic, the Tasha's ranger is pretty strong.

Sure, Tasha's is great. I'd personally rather fix NE and FE than replace them, but even then one way to do so is simply to add Deft Explorer and Favored Foe.

Regardless, increasing the FF damage over the course of a battle won't make the Ranger as powerful as a paladin.

Yeah, upon consideration, I actually quite like that read. I might cap the d4's at proficiency bonus, but its worth testing. Fights rarely go 4+ rounds anyways, and certainly few individual foes last that long.

Proficiency bonus probably works, but even 1+proficiency bonus wouldn't be overpowered.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Sure, Tasha's is great. I'd personally rather fix NE and FE than replace them, but even then one way to do so is simply to add Deft Explorer and Favored Foe.

Regardless, increasing the FF damage over the course of a battle won't make the Ranger as powerful as a paladin.

On its own no. But I'm not convinced that the ranger with all the Xanathar's substitutions isn't already more powerful than a paladin.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

On its own no. But I'm not convinced that the ranger with all the Xanathar's substitutions isn't already more powerful than a paladin.

I've played with a ranger using the Tasha's substitutions as additions, and it wasn't quite as powerful as a paladin. In the same league, but certainly not more powerful.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I've played with a ranger using the Tasha's substitutions as additions, and it wasn't quite as powerful as a paladin. In the same league, but certainly not more powerful.

I've a feeling I'd find it more powerful - it fits my playstyle better.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I've a feeling I'd find it more powerful - it fits my playstyle better.

Well that's going to throw things about regardless. I was playing a ranger, which fits my playstyle, and my friend a paladin, which fits his. Neither of us felt overshadowed by the other at all.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Well that's going to throw things about regardless. I was playing a ranger, which fits my playstyle, and my friend a paladin, which fits his. Neither of us felt overshadowed by the other at all.

It's not ranger vs paladin situations where I'm worried about strict overshadowing - what they do is different enough that they can be tweaked into specialties easily enough. It's ranger vs rogue where you've two sneaky dex guys with high mobility and expertise on their skills.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I will say this, the Ranger Multi-classes better with Tashas. A lot better.

Assassin Rogue/Gloomstalker Ranger was already good, now it's very good. Especially with the Poisoner feat.

When you get Assassinate, a level 10 (which is admittedly high level for most games, but within the range of most games at least) Assassin5/Gloom5 can stack 3d6 Sneak Attack, 3 attacks (4 if dual wielding), 2d8 poison, 1d4 FF.

Let's say this is a non-powergamer type, who uses a shortsword and shield, so it's just 3 attacks with a non optimal weapon. That's 3d6 (10.5) + [1d6+6]x3 (28.5) + 1d4 (2.5) + 2d8 (9) = 50.5 average damage, not counting any additional setup like casting Hunter's Mark instead of using FF, which would bring it up to 58.5 by replacing the 2.5 with 10.5.

Actually writing it out, only poisoner is from Tasha's in that in terms of actually improving damage. I'm pretty sure even if we assume a dual weilder hunter's mark will still come out ahead. *

But Tasha's let's level 1 be useful in all campaigns, and gives a way to just not even choose Hunter's Mark and still be effective in terms of damage. So, I'm cool with that.

*Let's do a dual weilder, then Fighting Style changes to TWF. That's 3d6 (10.5) + [1d6+4]x4 (30) + 1d4 (2.5) + 2d8 (9) = 52 (10.5+30+2.5+9), using Favored Foe.

Using Hunter's Mark, cast ahead of time, it's; 3d6 (10.5) + [1d6+4]x4 (30) + 3d6 (10.5) + 2d8 (9) = 60 (10.5+30+10.5+9)

Hunter's Mark, cast in the first round while maintaining stealth, which for this build should be easy; 3d6 (10.5) + [1d6+4]x4 (30) + 2d6 (7) + 2d8 (9) = 56.5 (10.5+30+7+9)

Yeah, Hunter's Mark is more damage in any scenario other than a long fight using the most generous possible reading. Honestly, if you use the most strict reading, I'm not sure FF is even worth dropping more languages and knowing more about certain types of creatures. It's really just the low number of spells known that would make me tempted to take it, and since we use feats I'd probably just take Fey Touched and leave my ranger spells for more interesting things.

But with the generous reading, I really might take FF.